FINALLY blogging again. Everything up until Spring Break!

Soo I haven’t blogged in ages. I am already mad at myself for that! I’ve been up to so much these last couple of weeks and I wish I could remember every instant of it. Actually, there are a few things from Amsterdam that I wouldn’t mind forgetting, but that’s besides the point. Just a quick review: I took a weekend trip to Amsterdam and Brugge at the beginning of February (with Shannon and Jen) and a weekend trip to Paris on Valentine’s weekend (with Shannon and Lily).

Didn’t really care for Amsterdam, I mean it’s something that I think every experience once, but I don’t think I’ll ever go back there again. I should have known it was a bad sign on our way there when our tour guide was talking about where the good “coffee shops” were (for those of you who don’t know, DON’T sell coffee) and I told her that I don’t smoke weed, and she told me, “Oh you can just eat a space cake.” Umm, hello? That means I don’t do drugs? What a spaghett. Amsterdam just really made me appreciate the society that I grew up in. I think it is really sad that little kids grow up in the Red Light District and think that prostitution is normal. They actually pay taxes and have their own union. I am very thankful that I did not grow up in a place like that! We stopped in Belgium on our way home which made my weekend. Brugge was amazing. I had a real Belgian waffle and I also had my first beer!! It was a Timmerman’s strawberry beer and it was delicious. Probably the only beer I will have in my entire life so I’m glad I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed Paris with the girls on Valentine’s Day weekend. The Eiffel Tower was way more enormous than I had ever imagined it! I wish it would have been warmer so that we could have had a picnic in the park below it. Hopefully my mom and I will get back there in May! I also visited Notre Dame, shopped around and ate lunch in the latin quarter, walked along la seine, visited Sorbonne’s campus, and LOVED going to Sacré-Cœur on Valentine’s Day. And the cherry on top of the perfect weekend was when I got to see Camille for a little bit! It was so nice seeing a familiar face!

And now on to spring break. Wow. I had the most incredible spring break possible. Lily and I visited Switzerland and Italy for a total of ten days. We spent the first half of the break in Zurich and the Alps, and the second half in Rome. Visited some of the most beautiful places I have probably ever been in my entire life. I know that I am over using the word beautiful, but I don’t know how else to describe the things that I saw. Everything was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

When we arrived in Switzerland, Pascal was waiting for us right after customs. We had flown into Zurich which is where he is from. Pascal was an exchange student in St. Louis in high school and I met him when he was in St. Louis visiting a few summers ago. Pascal- I don’t know if you are reading this or not, but you were the best host we could have ever asked for!!!!! He picked us up from the airport and took us back to his family’s house that was absolutely incredible. Lily and I had our own studio that was separate from the house. We had McDonald’s for dinner since we got there so late. To give you an idea of how wealthy Swiss economy is, McDonalds was about 12 dollars per meal. Instead of having a dollar menu, they had a 2.50 menu! What the heck. Anyways, the next day we did a bunch of exploring with Pascal before he had to go to an interview. His brother, Silvan (named after Sylvan Learning Center... he can’t even spell his own name…) met up with us and we went to Sprüngli to have hot chocolate in the café upstairs that my friend Chris had recommended. It was so yummy because it was made with their delectable Swiss chocolate. That night, the brothers all cooked dinner for us before we went out. The next day we went up to the top of Uetliberg to get a panoramic view of Zurich. I also got a Swiss Army Knife and picked up a bunch of chocolate bars to send to my family. That night we had a traditional Swiss dinner dish. We had noodles with applesauce and shredded cheese (which was SO GOOD!!!), and some sort of meat. They eat salad after dinner, which we accidently messed up on. But we learned from our mistake and ate our salad after dinner for the rest of the nights! His mom had the best homemade salad dressings. And the cheese was also unlike any cheese I had had before. There was cheese involved in every meal, which I really enjoyed. I accidently called one of the cheeses “Swiss cheese”, since that is what we call it at home, and I got a very confused look in response to that. Oh how I will miss that food now that I am back in London! One of Pascal’s friends, Alex, was able to get us a VIP table at one of the most exclusive bars in Zurich for Saturday night. Saying it was very fun would definitely be an understatement!

We headed to Pascal's family's house in the Alps on Sunday and we got to go skiing on Monday morning. Pascal basically tried to kill me when we got out there, because after I requested we start on an easy slope, he took me to the top of the mountain and made me go down a red run. This happened multiple times throughout the day. I managed to go the whole day without falling, but that was because eventually I refused to ski down one of the slopes so I walked took my skis off and walked down. I most likely would have fallen if I had attempted so ski down it. But I loved all of the views!!



Figuring out how to get to Rome from Zurich turned into a huge ordeal because the train that we had overnight tickets for no longer exists. Which we didn’t know about. So when we got there and had to rebook tickets for a train that actually exists, the prices were very steep, but Alex said he would pitch in for the tickets so we didn’t have to pay as much. We refused at first, but he insisted, so we eventually accepted his offer. It was very, very, nice of him to do that! We got to Rome the next day and went straight to our hostel. Our hostel was so much fun. The staff was friendly and the beds were really comfortable. The people staying there were very cool as well! I roomed with a boy from New Zealand, and a brother and sister from Argentina. We had a four person dorm ensuite. The ensuite wasn’t really true though, because we didn’t have a toilet. We had a beday with a shower over it. It was odd. So I just showered down the hall.

Wednesday morning we woke up early because one of my roomates said that we would be able to see the Pope because he does something on Wednesday mornings. I think we were supposed to have tickets, so we didn’t end up seeing the Pope himself, but we did go to the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Vatican Museum (which had the Sistine Chapel!). Afterwards, we went to Castle Saint Angelo, which was the Pope’s hideout back in the day. On Thursday Lily wasn’t feeling up to it, so I explored Rome by myself (which probably explains all of the awkward pictures I have in front of random sites by myself). I went to the Colosseum and saw all of the ruins around it. There were remains of villa up on a hill that I found fascinating. I took lots of pictures of it because I wouldn’t mind living in a similar house someday! I then walked to the Pantheon and had a great lunch outdoors next to it since it was so nice out. I had lasagna which was scrumptious. I ate every last bite of it! I also really enjoyed people watching while I ate my lunch. After the Pantheon, I went to Trevi Fountain which was more enchanting that I had pictured it to be. It was so detailed and magnificent that I would have stayed there for a lot longer if it hadn’t been raining. I awkwardly asked some lady to take a picture of me by myself throwing my coin into the fountain. I was happy when Lily and I returned the following day so that we could take pictures together.

Since we had decided to stay in Rome a couple of extra nights instead of traveling to Naples, we didn’t have room at our original hostel so we had to book something else. Thanks to hostelbookers.com we ended up at some weird “hostel” which was actually just some guy’s apartment. I don’t think he showered once while we were there. There was no hot water and the shower head wasn’t even connected to the wall. The “living room” was the only place that had wireless internet, so at night, Lily and I sat in the hallway, on a bench, with our little space heater turned on full blast. None of the other people staying there talked to us. It was a very strange predicament. Luckily we spent all of Friday out and about so we didn’t have to spend much time there. We woke up and had breakfast at some bar a few buildings over (which for some reason the place was called a bed and breakfast, and there was no kitchen in the apartment, we had to go to some bar to eat breakfast…weird, I know) and then we went to Villa Borghese which I can proudly say is my new favorite museum in the ENTIRE WORLD (literally!). Our family friend, Paula, had recommended it (along with everything else I did during my trip to Italy) and she was right on the spot with how incredible it was.

Afterwards we walked around looking for a Church called Santa Maria degli Angeli but we couldn’t find it. We ended up booking our ticket for the train from Rome to Napoli for this morning so that we could make our flight (which was still booked out of Napoli since we were originally planning on going there until we heard it was not safe for two young American girls to go to). It was cold and raining, so we went shopping for a little bit and then we went to Trevi so that I could show her how pretty it was. Afterwards, we went back to the “hostel” (which I refused to use without the quotation marks around it because it was NOT A REAL HOSTEL) and got cleaned up before we went to dinner. I had mozzarella sticks as an appetizer and they were so good that I even ended up ordering a second order of them. Hey, when in Rome, right? Then my pasta alla vodka came out and it was so delicious that my mouth is watering when I think about them right now. I was so stuffed after dinner I couldn’t even order dessert :( But I was able to sleep well that night!

This morning was a disaster at the Roma Termini, which is the main train station in Rome. Our train to Napoli was delayed for an hour and a half. We did the math and realized we were going to miss our flight if that was the situation. We waited in line, spoke Spanglish to the worker, and he told us our only option was to pay another 40 euro to get onto the next train to Naples. We told him we didn’t understand why we would have to pay another 40 euros because we were originally told that we would be getting into Naples at 10:36 and we still had to catch the bus once we got to Naples in order to get to the airport and make it through security and customs before our 12:55 flight. He then suggested that we pay another 10 euros and get into Naples at 11:45. He understood that we would miss our flight but said we would have to pay 40 euros to get there on time. We asked to speak to a manager because we thought the ticket should have been comped for the difference, and he said we couldn’t speak to the manager. We said that would NEVER happen in America. Low and behold, I guess those were the magic words, because next thing I knew we were on the express train to Napoli without paying an additional fee. We got to Naples earlier than expected, never got questioned on the train, and we made it back to the London airport in record time! What a trip!

I look forward to sharing more of my experiences. I promise I’ll start blogging regularly again :)

Broken lift

Note: pictures aren't wanting to load onto my blog right now, so I will update with photos tomorrow! Sorry! I know the photos are the best part!

Sorry I haven’t been on to blog the last couple of days, I’ve been busy having an AMAZING time over here in London! Mom, you were right, I might not ever come home :)

Well, let me fill you in on what I’ve been busy doing over here! On Friday night we went to Picadilly Circus and went to our first British club. Since the tube stops running at about midnight, we decided to take the other form of public transportation: the bus. All thirteen of us made our way up to the second level of the double-decker bus. Dun dun dun. The forbidden second level of the night bus. Of course, since we were traveling in such a big group it was fine for all of us to sit up there. I probably wouldn’t ride up their by myself, but the police officer (aka “bobby” over here) that talked to us at school said that it is always very lively and entertaining up there so we had decided to try it out. You know what else we decided to try out on Friday night? After navigating our way around Victoria Station (of course led by my flatmate Jen) we decided it would be a great idea to fit all thirteen of us in the elevator (aka “lift”). A plaque inside the lift clearly states and 8 person maximum. Needless to say, we didn’t go anywhere. Actually, it hasn’t gone anywhere since Friday night. We received a nice email from our program director that says the following: “Another maintenance update for you all: the lifts in Johnson House will be having an overhaul this week and next week. This may involve down time whilst they are serviced. Please accept our apologies in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your understanding and patience!”

On behalf of the group, I just want to apologize to flat 57 after we found this note and stroller sitting in the lobby:

Picture of sign

Our sincerest apologies go out to you and your children.

Saturday was the panoramic bus tour that I already wrote about, and then Saturday night I ended falling asleep very early. I woke up at midnight and I couldn’t get back to bed until 6 am! I think my body is FINALLY somewhat getting used to this time change. Unfortunately my immune system is pretty low right now considering it rains here all the time and I am allergic to mold. It’s not the best combo, but I’ll survive. You know what I’ve noticed? The ground is ALWAYS wet, but I’ve only actually seen it rain once. Craziness!

I went to the pharmacy today and I asked for Claritin and the guy gave me a knock off British version spelled “Clarytin.” I told him that wasn’t exactly what I was looking for and I asked for Nyquil instead. So now I am on a medicine called “Day & Night Nurse.” The box is actually really cute because it says that it treats “tickly coughs.” Hopefully I get a good night of sleep because I am going to a museum tomorrow afternoon for one of my classes.

Ah, I forgot, classes… that’s why I am here. I am taking 15 hours of classes this semester at CAPA. Each class meets once a week for 3 hours (with the exception of my Theatre class… I’ll explain later).

My first class is on Monday afternoons and it is called “British Broadcasting
Today.” It’s pretty standard, my teacher is Welsh, and he is really nice. He reminds me of a combination of my two grandfathers! Our homework for the week is to read and watch different forms of British media. Watch TV and read magazines and papers? I’ll take it!

On Tuesdays I have a very long day (I decided to take one for the team and have a long day on Tuesdays so that I don’t have to have a random class on Fridays, thus making me only have classes Monday through Wednesday). My morning class is “Advertising and Public Relations.” Our teacher is from Canada and he has taught all over the world. The first thing he said to us was that he is aware of the fact that he looks like Santa Claus. Bahahaha. What a legend!

I am obsessed with the second half of my Tuesday class schedule. My afternoon class is called “Understanding Britain.” We went around the classroom and said our name, home university, and an interesting fact about us. I told the class about when I got sawed in half at a magic show when I was a senior in high school. Something that not many people can say. I love the class because we have so many fun things scheduled throughout the semester to help us get a better understanding of their culture over here. For instance, next week we are meeting at a tube stop and just walking around and exploring. In three weeks we are visiting the Imperial War Museum, and the following week we are visiting a football match (remember that is soccer over here!). After midterms we have a homeless couple coming into the classroom to talk to us about what it is like being homeless over here. The week after that we are visiting a Mosque and having a discussion with the Imam. I am really looking forward to all the different discussions and places we are going to visit during class! The teacher also does these trivia questions before the “coffee break” (we get 20-25 minutes for a coffee break in the middle of every class) and before class is over, where he gets students to volunteer and he presents them with very tricky trivia questions. He says he is only going to ask 3 questions, but the questions all have subquestions!

After that class I have an hour of theatre class. The class is called “Living Theatre in London” and we meet for an hour on Tuesday nights, then we attend a play that night, and then we meet for an hour on Wednesday mornings to discuss the production. The lineup for the plays we are seeing this semester are as follows: Greta Garbo came to Donegal, 11 and 12, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Off the Endz, Enron, White Guard, The Gods Wept, and The Habit of Art. Our teacher is a very sweet older lady from Northern Ireland and she uses the word “wee” every other sentence. This is another class that I am really looking forward to.

In between classes I went to Oxford Street with my roommate to a store called Primark. It’s basically like a Forever21, but a little bit cheaper (somehow seems like a little bit better quality though) and they have basically everything you could need except for food. I got seriously about 10 pairs of tights, leggings, two purses, and other accessories for only 44 quid (about 75 dollars ). It was unreal!
My last class of the week is later on Wednesdays and it is called “Ethical Issues in the Media.” We talked about the famous Page Three of a few of the newspapers over here. A couple of their daily papers have a full page spread of a topless girl on Page Three every day. Literally. I didn’t believe it until I saw it, but I don’t think that is something I will ever get used to seeing in the newspaper.

Alright well I planned on writing more but I will have to save that for another day. Unfortunately I am really tired right now because my “Nurse” medicine started to kick in.

Before I sign out I wanted to share a gorgeous picture that I took on my lunch break on Tuesday when I was walking around by school! Enjoy!

Picture of buuildings

Panoramic tour of London

I just got back from a long, but very exciting, bus tour of London. The sights were beautiful, the ride was unusually entertaining, the history was surprisingly interesting, and we had many unique photo opportunities! After we left CAPA, we hopped on a coach bus that took us on a panoramic tour of London.

The Natural History Museum was one of the first buildings that we saw, there was a line wrapped around the side of the building just waiting to get in. What really drew my attention to it was the outdoor skating rink connected to it. Definitely on my to-do list now! Sorry, but it probably beats Steinberg back in STL. I’ll let you know. We passed Hyde Park, The Lanesborough (Michael Jackson’s choice of hotel), and even the most expensive property in the world. The top four apartments are for sale. Guess what the going price is? 100 million pounds per apartment (no I didn’t accidently add an extra zero… but just a point of interest, that is equal to about 180 million dollars for one apartment). Two of them have sold already.
There are too many things to name that we passed, so I will just list the places that we stopped and looked around at.

I don’t remember what our first stop was, but it was a Cathedral that was 365 feet tall, a foot for every day of the year. I wasn’t really paying attention because I was really cold and it was raining.

Our second stop was very exciting because it was something I had been waiting to see. We got out and learned about the history of the London Bridge. Back in the day there were about 20 boats a day passing through the bridge, so the middle would have to come up. There is actually a walkway over the bridge so that the pedestrians didn’t have to wait for the gates to come back down so that they could pass. Our tour guide told us that prostitutes could often be found with their clients on that walkway. Gross! They are also in the process of repainting the bridge so that it looks nice and fresh for the 2012 Olympics that are being held in London. I am so jealous of anyone that gets to study abroad in London when the Olympics are here!! Maybe I’ll have to come back and visit? I think so. There was also a ship that was in the Thames River that was built at the same shipyard as the Titanic was (and has obviously held up a bit better, considering it has made it through many battles).

We didn’t stop for the London Eye, but when we passed it I decided that I definitely want to go on it during sunset sometime this semester. Looks like I’ll have to wait for a day that isn’t foggy…

Our third stop was Westminster Abbey which was massive and breathtaking. Honestly I had no idea that it was going to be that big and the architecture was incredible.

I wanted to take a picture of a really unique looking tree outside of the Abbey because it was wrapped in ivy, and when I did so, there was a group of students that were about 5 years old that all shouted “CHEESE!” when I took the picture of the tree, because they thought I was taking a picture of them. It was really funny and kind of awkward because I felt like a creep if they thought I was taking a picture of them.

After we left Westminster Abbey was when the bus ride became the adventure for the day. We were driving down a narrow road and all of a sudden we heard a smash and the bus came to an immediate stop. Since I was in the second to last row, I couldn’t see what the commotion was going on up front, but we knew that we had hit something. After about ten minutes of chaos, the tour guide got on the microphone and tried to explain to us what happened without actually stating explicitly what happened. All I know is that we hit something, or even possibly someone, and that there is a strong possibility that we left the scene of an accident.

Our next stop was Buckingham Palace. I had envisioned it to be set back on so many acres of land in some sort of mystical forest, but I was definitely wrong. It was right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of everything else. But I do know that it was guarded by some of the prettiest ironwork I have ever seen!

Since our flat is only a short walk from Buckingham Palace, we walked home from there. We grabbed dinner at a yummy pub called The Anderson and then I just hopped in bed to get rested up for a night out on the town. Cheers!

First pub experience

Last night I was excited to go to my first “pub.” In my eyes, a pub is supposed to be welcoming, cozy, and laid back. We must have picked the wrong pubs to go to.

Shannon, Jen, Lily, and I invited a few people to our flat before we left on our search for a pub to hang out at. There were 13 of us (yes I counted, I wanted to make sure we all returned together) sitting in our living room in a big circle. We went around the circle, introduced ourselves, and made jokes that it was like we were at camp or something playing awkward icebreaker games. We decided to walk to some pubs that were supposed to be about fifteen minutes away. After about 30 minutes, we all walked into some pub that promptly told us that they were closed. Definitely a letdown, considering the entire pub was almost full. We ventured on towards pub #2 that displayed a very disappointing sign in the window, “We enforce a strict over 21 policy after 6 pm. If you look under 25, we will ask for your identification.” WTF? This is supposed to be the London, where the legal drinking age is 18. We kept walking, and decided to head back towards our flat to find a different pub. As we walked back, a few of us ran into the bathroom at the over 21 bar. They hadn’t carded us on the way in, so we passed the word along to the rest of our group so that they could come in. After everyone ordered drinks minus me and one other girl, the bartender came up to us and asked for our ids. We weren’t even drinking! We told her we didn’t have our passports on us and she was very adamant about us leaving immediately.

This is where the group split up. There were five of us that weren’t 21, so we took another group’s advice and went to a bar in South Kensington that had normal rules about the drinking age (it was considered a bar, not to be confused with a pub, and not to be confused with a club). It reminded me of bars from home a little bit. There was a small dance floor (probably 8 by 10 feet) which was my favorite part. They dance so different here! Everyone kind of does their own thing in a techno-y way. We tried to fit in, but failed miserably. We requested Black Eyed Peas, and the entire dance floor went crazy. Some Brits that we met tried to show us how to dance, and in return we taught them the “sprinkler” and the “lawn mower.” We also taught them how to play beer pong, which they went nuts over (“Guess how I will be spending my Saturday afternoon?” they asked us after we explained the game). Lily figured out a great strategy for us on the dance floor (“Just dance like you are making fun of them”). When she tried her strategy the Brits congratulated her on getting a hang of it!

All in all, it was an unsuccessful pub experience, but turned out to be a great night anyways.

Mind the gap

What a great first day in London! After 2 long days of traveling, I have arrived and settled into my new place. I have four "flat mates" and we have a 3 bedroom flat in Belgravia, which is one of the "most posh" parts of London. My roommate is Shannon, and she is from the University of Pittsburgh. We got 14 hours of sleep last night because we wanted to be able to wake up and explore today!

After we woke up, we ate breakfast, got ready for the day, and then decided to go check out the area that our school is in. We had orientation at 2:00, so we walked around beforehand and grabbed lunch in "The Patisserie" which was a really cute little restaurant across from our Tube stop (the Tube is the underground subway system here in London- it reminds me of the Loop in Chicago). They were playing Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface” on all the TV’s there—it made me smile. Just a sidenote, I am watching the British Today’s 4Music Top10 countdown, and they are playing Justin Beiber right now. I am REALLY smiling now. However, I disagree and think that “One Time” should be number 1, and not number 9. I’m just saying.

Anyways, we had orientation and we got a bunch of really helpful information. We have an Oyster Card that will give us complete access to the public transportation here. It’s worth almost $1,000 and will make our semester so much easier. I also found out that we can also go to the Imperial College Union and join clubs and societies there. Shannon and I were talking about signing up for the Dance Club, the Wine Tasting Club, the Yoga Club, or even the Photography Club. The Wine Tasting Club sounds really cool because that isn’t something that we have back at home.

After orientation all my roommates had to stay for another orientation that was for their internships. I still had some errands to run and I didn’t want to go by myself, so I went with another student named Corey that isn’t do an internship either. We went to the oddest store I’ve ever been to. I had been asking people where I could get mattress toppers because my bed was uncomfortable, and everyone kept telling me to go to this one grocery store. Finally I found some helpful cops that sent us to Argos. We got there, and it was so different because it was just catalogs everywhere. You had to search through the catalog, get the number for what you wanted, and search it to see if it was available. After you found all the items you wanted, you had to take it over to a machine that kind of looks like an ATM machine, and you had to order it. My card wouldn’t work in the machine, so I had to get into another line and pay a cashier. Once you pay, you take your receipt over to a different counter where there is a big warehouse in the back, and they bring your items out for you. What an experience!

I learned quite a few things today.

1.The first thing that I learned was that you can’t take pictures of the Tube. It was actually really embarrassing because I snapped a picture, and then once we loaded the Tube there was an announcement over the intercom that you aren’t allowed to take pictures with a flash. Good thing I was able to laugh it off. Won’t make that mistake again. At least I got a cool picture out of it.

2. I never knew that crossing the street could be so difficult. Oh, but it proved to be one of the most difficult things so far. Since they drive on the other side of the street their turning lanes are so confusing (for Americans, at least). The lanes are really narrow and they don’t yield to pedestrians. It’s not like walking on campus at Ole Miss where everyone stops for everyone.

3. The chairs at lunch were really small and asked Shannon “What is someone is fat?” And then we both talked about how we haven’t seen any fat people since we’ve been in London.

4. Signs always say “Mind your/the __.” On the Underground (aka the Tube) the signs all say “Mind the gap” which means watch out and don’t get too close to the tracks. On the shuttle from the airport, the signs said “Mind your head” because you had to duck down to get out. Just a cute little saying that they have here!

5. (Ironically they are on number 5 on the countdown—Fireflies. Really? I was hoping that song wasn’t popular over here). Today as Shannon and I were exploring, I asked a store worker where the nearest pub was, and his response was “We are in England, they are everywhere.” Touche

Alright, well I’ve got to rest up for another big day tomorrow! “Kind regards”…

Let's do this

It's currently 1:15 am, I am leaving the country in approximately 13 hours, and instead of packing I have decided to create a blog. I am overwhelmed with emotions right now. I am nervous, excited, overwhelmed, scared, but more than anything I am ready to begin the best adventure of my life! Well, not exactly READY...

I find it extremely hard to believe that at this time tomorrow I will be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Things are beginning to sink in that this is real. This is really happening. I always dreamed of studying abroad when I was a little girl, but everything just seems so surreal now that it is actually here. My friends told me that I seemed quite today, but I think that is because I am starting to realize all the little things that I have taken for granted. However, as my mom always tells me, I should focus on the positives. I will be having the time of my life, immersed in a completely new culture, creating memories I will forever cherish.

The program that I am studying at recommends that we create a list of our goals for the semester. Here we go:

Goals
1. Make tons of new friends all across Europe.
2. Keep in touch with them. Find the pen pal that I have always wanted.
3. Do a good job of keeping in touch with my friends and family from home.
4. Always be aware of my surroundings. Essentially, not be a dumb American tourist.
5. Practice sociological mindfulness. I want to be able to acknowledge, and hopefully grasp, the roots of the social issues and trends of a different society.
6. Try a new food I would normally be disgusted by every week. Maybe I will finally develop a taste for seafood.
7. Remain open minded.
8. I think that my brother's girlfriend put it perfectly... "I want to spend every penny in my pocket and not regret it..."

I once read the statistic that only 5% of undergraduates study abroad. I have wanted study abroad since I was a little girl because it’s hard for me to understand the world without having experienced it.

Let's do this :)