Travel Changes You

My passport stamps from Germany.

I am four months into this wonderful and life changing adventure, and I can say with all honesty, that I've loved every minute of it.  Everyone says travel changes you, but I wasn't sure how this experience would impact me personally.  Today, I am way more independent and self reliant.  I've always been independent, but I wasn't very confident in my ability exert such brazen independence without the comforting safety net of family nearby.  Moving to a new country and even just traveling by myself has taught me that I am every bit as capable as my family believed I was.

I have also gained a lot of clarity about what I want in life.  When I arrived in the UK, I was convinced that I wanted to work for a big international company and come work and live abroad full time.  I also thought that a career that had me traveling 70-90% of the time would be completely doable and even fun.  Thankfully, now with a bit more life experience and time under my belt, I have realized that even though I love to travel, traveling all of the time isn't nearly as glamorous as it looks in the magazines; it's actually kind of exhausting.  As to living abroad, three months is about as long as I can go before I start feeling the pull to return home.  Luckily, I haven't suffered through any major homesickness, but like everyone, I have my moments where I'd give anything to see my friends and family or a familiar brand in the grocery store.

By spending this time abroad I have learned some incredibly important things about myself.  Now I know that the ex-pat life isn't for me, and that whatever career I eventually end up in, I would like to be home at least 50% of the time.  Knowing that I can tackle the Paris Metro system (entirely in French), the Frankfurt airport (weirdest security checkpoint ever), Heathrow airport (busiest airport in the world), visiting countries and not knowing the language (I don't speak a lick of German), and meeting new friends all over again (now I have friends from all of the corners of the world), gives me a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities to succeed at home.

To anyone who is on the fence about going abroad, I urge you to consider it.  It's more affordable than you think, and the experience is truly life changing.  There is nothing like it.  It changes you.  You won't be the same person who got on that plane to that new destination, but you'll be better for it.  As for WSU students, our Education Abroad department has a great staff who will open a world of opportunity for you if you just make an appointment.

I'm Alive, I Promise!

Luise and I representing our favorite Washington universities.  Go Cougs!

I owe everyone a big apology, I most definitely fell off the map after St. Patricks day.  So please allow me to offer my sincerest apology and a brief explanation on what I've been up to for the past seven weeks.

As soon as I got back from Dublin I had three major class projects come due.  Now, typically, this wouldn't be a big deal, but I lucked out and got three professors this semester that calculate my final semester grade off of only two things:  my mid-term project and my final exam.  Yeah, no pressure or anything.

So, the minute I got home I hit the books.  In the course of two weeks I put together a 22 page group project for my Marketing class, a 12 page essay on 'Criminal Transportation to Australia' for my Victorian Cities class, and 13 page in depth political comparison project on Switzerland for my Political Science class.  Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.  Apparently, this isn't the norm for professors at Swansea--I just got really lucky.  Good news is, thanks to all of these projects, now I have plenty of material to choose from for my Junior Writing Portfolio (WSU's mid-education writing assessment).  I got them all turned in on time, and was able to leave for Spring Break with no remaining work hanging over my head, except to study for exams when I returned home.

I'll go into more detail later, but I spent my first week of break in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Talk about an amazing country (within a country--although, if they have their way, they may be independent of Britain come September) with a wild, natural beauty.  Now I understand why it's been the background of so many movies.  It was breathtaking.  I took a day trip into the highlands and Loch Lomond.  Only the pictures really do it justice, so check back soon, there will be lots!

I ventured onward from Edinburgh, back to London, to catch my flight to Frankfurt.  I was greeted by my favorite German person on the planet, one of my best friends, Luise, and her dad, Marc.  I spent two and a half weeks with Luise, her mom and dad, and her siblings Paul and Mathilde.  We spent the first week sightseeing, then the second week I attended German high school with Luise.  Quite the adventure!  I finished my trip off by spraining my ankle-I may or may not have tripped coming down a particularly vicarious set of stairs while visiting some friends-but luckily, Luise's mom is a doctor, so she patched me up quite nicely.  It wasn't too bad, and I was good to return to Swansea a couple days later, no brace necessary.

So now I'm back in Swansea studying for my final exams.  Lectures ended the week before Spring Break, so now we have a month to take exams (I will never understand why they feel three weeks is an appropriate length of time to drag out exams), then I'm off for some more traveling.  I'll finish exams on May 29.  One weekend in June, my flat and I are taking a weekend trip to London to do some sightseeing.  The following week I'll move out of my dorm in Swansea, and take off to Athens, Greece to spend a week with my next door neighbor whose family lives there.  I'll visit her for a week, then it's back to Germany to go celebrate my 19th birthday and Luise's high school graduation. On July 2, I will officially be safely back on American soil, and back to my family who are all beginning to voice their wishes for me to return home very loudly--Dad, that's 49 more days!

Just under two months left.  I fully intend to make the most of them.  I'll do my best to keep the posts a little bit more regular, promise.  Lots more to come!  Check back soon.