I imagined that this would be the picture way that I would finish my blog as I find my ‘Way Out’* of England and back to the United States.
*the British post ‘Way Out’ instead of ‘Exit’ on their signs
I imagined that this would be the picture way that I would finish my blog as I find my ‘Way Out’* of England and back to the United States.
*the British post ‘Way Out’ instead of ‘Exit’ on their signs
I wrote the following on the plane ride home from England, but I never got around to posting it. I thought that I might as well share it now, since I meant to share it all along…
It’s hard to believe that this is it. I’m going back to the United States. Time passed so quickly, but I don’t feel as if I wasted any of it.
Over the past 3 months, I’ve met so many different kinds of people from so many different kinds of places. I’ve traveled more than I ever imagined I would, and I saw things that I never imagined I would see.
This isn’t just the close of my study abroad trip; it’s also the close of one of the best years of my life. I’ve traveled to Haiti, Belize, England, Scotland, Ireland, and France.
As I am leaving, I feel sad—sad to be leaving the country that I’ve fallen in love with and the people that have shaped it. I don’t know when I’ll come back to Europe, and I don’t know if (hopefully when) I’ll ever see my friends again.
ISA anticipated these emotions, and so they put together some information on reverse culture shock: the acclimation back into one’s home culture. One of the best bits of advice was to think of yourself as horizontally rooted instead of vertically rooted. In other words, remember that you have relationships that stretch all around the globe. I’m not firmly planted in Pittsburgh; instead, I’m sprawled across the globe, feeding off of everything the world has to offer.
If I can give you any bit of advice, it’s to travel. Yes, that does seem obvious, but I’m not just talking about international travel. I’m talking about traveling anywhere you can, even if it’s only a few minutes away. Go out and see the world. Immerse yourself in the diversity of cultures that the world has to offer. Try new things. Move outside of your comfort zone. Feeling uncomfortable? Good. You learn so much from doing things that are out of the ordinary for you. It’s one of the best ways to grow and develop as a person.
How has this trip changed me? It’s definitely made me more independent. And independence goes hand and hand with confidence. I feel as if I now have the confidence to finish my degree and (this is when my computer died).
I suppose it’s fitting that my computer died then. I don’t know what I’m doing after I finish college, so I don’t have the capability to truthfully finish that sentence. Any attempt will just end in something meaningless, cliche (I say this after I just spent a few minutes thinking about how I could end it). Instead, I’ll leave it blank and just let the future decide what comes next.
‘Livin it up’ in London (for the final time…in 2011)
On the Wednesday before I left for home, I traveled to London with a few of my friends. We planned on spending the day buying Christmas gifts and simply ‘livin’ it up’ in London for the final time before departing for the United States.
We left Reading early in the morning (it was getting dark around 3:30, so we wanted to have the most daylight time possible). On the train to London, we planned our day: Camden Town, Covent Gardens, Portobello Market, Notting Hill, Trafalgar Square, Millennium Bridge, Big Ben, Westminster, and Hyde Park. It was a lot to do, but we were determined to see as much of London as we could. It ended up being a really fun day.
I know it has been a few weeks, but I remember the mix of emotions I had on that day. I wanted to stay in London, but I also wanted to see my family. But in that moment, I must admit that my desire to stay in London was the strongest.
Enjoy my pictures. They’re a bit of a mix-match, but they represent the fast paced, randomness (is that a word?) of the day. I won’t (and I don’t) remember them as my favorite pictures, but I’ll remember them as my last glimpses of London-not my final ones. I will be traveling back to London and seeing it all and enjoying it all again.
Last day in Reading. Last day in England. Last day abroad.
Now that was a hard day. A sad day. I turned in my final essays, and then I took my last double-decker bus to Reading town center. I spent a large portion of the day taking photos of the town, the campus, and my dorm. And then I spent the rest of the day saying goodbye to friends, packing my suitcase(s), saying goodbye to everyone, and feeling sad.
I should have included these photos at the beginning of the blog to help you contextualize my uni experience. But I didn’t. So here they are now.
A wrote this back when ‘On Wednesday’ actually meant December 7 2011:
On Wednesday, ISA took us to the musical We Will Rock You, which is a popular British musical that’s a tribute to the band Queen (in case you didn’t figure that out from the title). The musical takes place in a futuristic world that has a growing reliance upon technology (sound familiar): everyone is known by their ‘username’ or ‘url’, people only shop on the internet, all music is electronically altered sounds (similar to Ke$ha and Lady Gaga). Obviously, the script consciously pokes fun at modern culture.
The plot follows two recent high school grads who do not fit into this electronic world. The male, Galileo Figgero (hehe), hears soundbites of previously popular music. However, in this futuristic world, he has no idea what the phrases mean. The audience, who understands the lyrical bits that Galileo hears, has a few good laughs throughout the musical.
As the musical progresses, Galileo is trapped by and escapes from the evil Queen Bee, a half human half pixalated ruler of the Iplanet. He is then discovered by the Bohemians, the underground society who is trying to find the lost music (the soundbites that Galileo hears). Galileo ends up being the key for them to rediscover this lost music. The musical culminates when Galileo and one of the Bohemians arrive at Wembley Stadium, where they conclude that music does not rely on man made products, rather music is a product of human life. So Galileo uses his own voice to sing the lyrics that are fragmented in his head. The power of acoustic song unleashes the electric guitar buried in Wembley Stadium, and the musical ends with a energized performance of We Will Rock You. I found this clip of Queen performing We Will Rock You at Wembley Stadium in 1986. Just click on the title of this entry and enjoy!
Lovely- used to describe someone or something that’s “nice” or generally pleasant.
Brilliant- amazing
Well good- used to describe something that was really fun, an event that went really well, etc…
Trainers- tennis shoes
Cob- bread/bun/roll (there are several other words for this, but I can’t remember the others right now)
Cutlery- silverware
Jumper- sweater (men and women both wear jumpers)
Queue, Queuing- line, standing in line
Maths- mathematics is shortened to maths instead of math, which if you think about it, actually makes more sense: mathematicS is plural, so mathS should be plural as well.
On Monday, I went into London for the 2nd to last time. I needed to do some Christmas shopping, and my friend and I wanted to do a tour of Westminster Abbey. We also stopped by the Millennium Bridge to see St. Paul’s and The Globe Theater. Enjoy the pictures!
I have a lot more things that I need to post. Hopefully I will be able to post most of it before I leave in 1.5 days!
Not the best pictures, but here they are!
Last Thursday night was the ISA farewell dinner. You know what that means?-less than one week left until I return to the United States.
ISA definitely treated us right. We went to the East End of London to see the construction on the Olympic stadiums. Then we took the DLR (an overground train similar to the underground) to Greenwich, where we climbed to the top of a hill to have panoramic views of London, to take our last ISA moment (a group picture), and to straddle the Prime Meridian. We had a brief walking tour of Greenwich and it’s Neoclassical style buildings. We even saw some buildings that were used in movies like Sherlock Holmes, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and The Duchess. Afterwards, we quickly walked through the famous Greenwich Market, and then we went to a Turkish restaurant for our final ISA dinner.
It’s hard to believe that it’s all coming to an end. Of course, I am finishing up on my school things. I’ve been working on 2 essays, I have 1 more book to read, and I have 1 more seminar to attend. Other than that, I plan on soaking in as much British culture as I can in this last week.
PS- If you want to learn more about the Olympic Stadium, the construction process, and the effect on London, it will be in another blog post.
At the ISA farewell dinner, we were given Christmas Poppers that each included a crown, a little trinket, and a joke. These are some of the “best” jokes:
Q: What’s ET short for?
A: Because he’s only got little legs.
Q: How do you stop a skunk from smelling?
A: Hold its nose.
Q: How do ducks like to round off a meal?
A: Cheese and quackers.
Q: What do you call an elephant who flies?
A: A jumbo jet!
Q: Why was the onion crying?
A: Because he accidentally cut himself.
Q: What’s the fastest fish in the world?
A: A motor Pike.
Q: What did the coral do on January 1st?
A: Turned over a new reef.
Q: What’s the smelliest animal on the farm?
A: The toilet duck.
Any laughs?
