First Week in England :)

I arrived in England last Tuesday and I have been adjusting to life there. I spent about three and a half days in London.  I did make one mistake before coming here which was not unlocking my phone so I bought another phone.  There are a bunch of different phone bundles and carriers which was overwhelming. I am the worst with technology so it took me forever to figure out this new phone which was not working at first. There are a lot of these companies and people who sell phones which can be confusing and try to rip you off. However, I did learn a lesson maybe the hard way because I did get ripped off buying a mobile phone. Life is about learning from your mistakes so the next time I deal with something similar hopefully I will be better equipped. Though it is crazy to believe that when my parents came to Europe mobile phones weren’t even a thing.

Besides the mistake I made with my phone everything else in England has been going quite well. When I was in London I walked through different areas of the city, saw the guard change ceremony at Buckingham Palace, went to the British museum, saw the Big Ben, and Parliament Buildings in Westminster. Also I went to the tower of London Museum, visited the Borough Market, and walked over different bridges that go over the river.  I stayed at a bed and breakfast type place for the first two days and then went to stay with family that just moved to London. It was nice seeing my family because I hadn’t seen them in a while and they taught me new things about life in England.  I cannot forget to say that I did have fish and chips which were very good and filling.

This past Saturday I moved into my accommodations at the University of Huddersfield. I took the train from the Kings Cross Station in London to the train station in Huddersfield. I only had to change trains once in Leeds, which is a city about a twenty minute train ride away from Huddersfield. I arrived at my flat in the afternoon and settled in. My flatmates are all very nice and I have enjoyed getting to know them these past couple of days. There are two other girls from New Paltz that live in my flat, one boy from Wisconsin, another boy from Tennessee, a boy from Germany and someone else from Leeds is supposed to move in soon.

The academic calendar at the University of Huddersfield is different than SUNY New Paltz’s academic calendar. Before I came, I knew that classes would start later but I didn’t realize that there would be two weeks of orientation. This week is international welcome week and so far I have received a tour of campus, registered as a student and talked to advisers about enrolling for classes which will be done this week. Also I have spent a lot of time around town with my flat mates. This afternoon I went on a walk to this tower, on the top of the hill I live on, with my flat mate from Germany. I enjoyed the walk and the weather was beautiful. Tomorrow I’m going on the international students’ trip to Ikea and there are some other events going on the rest of the week including a tour of Yorkshire. Our living accommodations do not come with cooking supplies or bedding so my flat mates and I need to invest in those items.

Over the next couple of days I will be completing more registration steps at the university and going to different events. Next week is Freshers’ Week which is catered towards first years specifically, but International students are encouraged to go. There are fairs that encourage involvement on campus where free stuff is given and events to meet new people are held. I am looking forward to getting to know the area better, meeting new people and traveling to different areas in the coming weeks.

Can’t wait for Wellington!

Soon I will be leaving the country to study/ live in a place I have never been to. I have planned for this for so long, It doesn’t even seem like I’m about to leave. I can’t wait to see what this mysterious place called Wellington is like. I have such high expectations for this place from all of these pictures and information I have been receiving. I really hoped I packed all of the right clothes and general “college stuff” for a whole semester! Am I the only one who rethinks what they are packing a billion times until they’re literally walking out the door to catch that flight?1468732_10201569212190956_7824797696574242274_n

Conartists Tours in China

This is a super late entry but….
I arrived in Asia on 17th of Aug. to Hong Kong first at a family’s place

Then left for HK and China early to vacation with my parents, two uncles, and one auntie. We stayed at our family’s house in Hong Kong to get over our jetlag because we were to go one two tours, a 7-day-6-night tour of Shanghai and cities around it and a 6-day-5-night tour of Guilin, before my semester started…you know to at least get a taste of where I’m going before I start classes. Unfortunately these tours were not a good experience because of our “shopping stops.”

Granted our family did see some amazing sites as well as take awesome photos, but these tours are said to be sponsored by the Chinese Government because they are so cheap. But in reality they are also sponsored by private companies that own these Shopping Stops, so it is required for us to go on them.
The worst shopping stop would the last day at a jewelry store and probably be the worst experience on both tours. You would start by having your group led into a conference room and and told the person explaining the tour was “new” at explaining the product. Then the same person would talk you up to a friendly state and then lead you to a VIP room. In the VIP room he/she would show off a few extremely expensive products and then say…”Since we are friends I will give you something good for free.”
(In Shanghai, we got a jade pendant and in Guilin we recieved a small “sapphire”. I knew they weren’t real because when I bit into both of them my tooth left a white indent… )
Then they try to prove the authenticity of the jewel and then convince you to buy another thing of jewelry for a “special price.” Idiots…

Watch out for those tours guys.

Weekend Adventures

Let me start this post by explaining what I will be doing after Prague. In January I will be going to Malaysia on an ETA Fulbright grant to teach in a secondary school for ten months. As pre departure prep the Fulbright committee in Malaysia has set up a Facebook group for the grantees to virtually meet and ask the staff any questions. Through this group I met another girl who is currently teaching English in PRAGUE, small world! In addition, one of the staff members from Malaysia is currently vacationing in PRAGUE, so Saturday morning we all met up for some strudel and espresso at a local cafe. It was a really great opportunity for all us to meet, share what we all know about Prague, what to do here, things to see, but to also learn about our next adventure from the Fulbright staff member. I’m starting to learn that people who travel have their own community. Although this community expands all over the world, it really does exist. The fact that the three of us were able to meet in a country that none of us originate from and discuss our plans to be in a different country, that again none of us originate from, really amazed me. I realized through this meeting that I can have lunch in Prague with these people, I’ll meet them again in Malaysia, and who knows where else our paths might cross one day. One of my favorite things about traveling, probably my number one most favorite thing, is meeting other people who travel. It open ups so many opportunities and teaches you so much, not just about the country your visiting, but about the countries of the people you meet.

Later in the afternoon on Saturday my boyfriend and I took the train to Kutna Hora, a small village about an hour away from Prague. Here we saw the bone church – a small church made up of the bones from over 40,000 people who died from the black plague. There is a chandelier in the middle of the church that contains every bone from the human body, it really is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen, I love it there. The town of Kutna Hora is also a lovely place to spend an afternoon wandering around – a great relief from the city for a few hours.

Sunday we wandered around our area of Prague, Zizkov for awhile familiarizing ourselves with the local parks and monuments. The area is named after a general who never lost a battle, had one eye shot out and continued to fight throughout his life, and requested that when he die the skin of his back be made into a drum so he could continue to lead his men into battle – basically the man. If I had to compare Zizkov to a borough of NYC I’d say its the “Brooklyn” of Praha – a really fun area, a bit quirky, creative vibe, and tons of pubs. But for dinner we wandered into Old Town and got to meet up with Bruce Sillner, the dean of international programs at New Paltz, who happened to be in town for a conference. It was very nice seeing a familiar face, talking about New Paltz, and filling him in on our time in Prague and where our adventures are leading us!

 

the chandelier in the bone church

the chandelier in the bone church

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wandering around Kutna Hora

Kutna Hora

Kutna Hora

mural of Jan Zizka

mural of Jan Zizka

dinner with Dean Sillner

dinner with Dean Sillner

Great Barrier Reef

7/16/2014

Our first day in Australia was in Cairns. Cairns is on the North East coast of Australia, near the great barrier reef. After we got settled in where we were staying, Dad and I started off with a relaxing trip to the lagoon. If we stayed in the hotel, our sleep schedule would have been way worse from the jet lag, so we decided to go somewhere relaxing and calm to start. The lagoon is a salt water enclosed swimming pool. Since it was winter when we got there the water in the lagoon was pretty cold, also because we ended up getting to the lagoon in the evening. Since it was too cold to swim, we sat on a bench, read our books, and took a few walks around the esplanade. During our walks it was low tide, so if I jumped over the wall we were walking next to there wouldn’t be any water, just wet sand and rocks. The walk continued past 5 PM so we got to see the sunset over the mountains. It was a breathtaking view. We ate at a local restaurant for dinner and went back to our accommodation called Crystal Cascades. It was a cute cabin that had a view of the mountains and palm trees surrounding it. We ended up falling asleep really early (it was early for my family, sometimes at the time we eat dinner!) around 8 PM.

The next morning we woke up early to go on a mini cruise to Green Island. Green island is one of the islands that make up the Great Barrier Reef. Fun fact: it is the only island in the Great Barrier Reef that has a rain forest (according to my Dad’s tour guide). Once we found where to park (it took us about 20 minutes of going in circles) we checked in and took an hour long catamaran ride to Green Island. The ride wasn’t as bad as Dad had anticipated it would be (he had a bad catamaran experience once) but it may have been because we slept most of the ride there so I guess the world may never know how bad it actually was, except the people that were on it too. We got my snorkel gear and waited for the boat to finish docking. I stepped off the boat and didn’t know where to look, (I felt like a dog spinning in circles) it was beautiful 360º.

We first took a walk along the path in the rain forest. We Skyped mom for part of our walk and ended up with this beautiful view, it made my mom jealous (SUCCESS! I made her jealous yayy!!). After that walk, we went back to the boat for a buffet lunch, it actually wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t too exciting either. I left Dad on the boat by himself because I was mad at him. no jk it was because that is where he had to meet in a few minutes to go on the glass bottom boat tour. I went to the beach and just relaxed lying on a towel soaking up the sun and the beautiful views.

When Dad was done with the glass bottom boat tour he found me on the beach and we moved to a less populated area. I put on my Lycra suit and snorkel gear and was ready to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. As I was going in, I saw my Dad Skype my family back home so they could see how funny I looked in all my gear. As I went into the water, which was a bit cold, it was hard for me to walk with my fins. The first few times I wend underwater it felt weird. I didn’t like feeling as if I couldn’t breathe correctly. But after a few tries and remembering my Dad’s advice, breathe in and out slowly through your mouth only, I got the hang of it. Snorkeling was pretty cool!! I saw some grass and plants at first, I couldn’t go out to far because I started choking after doing something wrong. But it was pretty shallow and I could stand up even pretty far out. On the way back to shore, after I used up all my underwater camera film (of course I used it up), I saw fish for the first time during the snorkeling session. There must have been a few hundred fish swimming together in a long line. It was so cool to just look down and see fish. I was so entertained by them that I just floated in that one spot as they kept swimming back and forth under me. After I was done snorkeling we had been on Green Island for about 5 hours, so it was time to head back to the boat. I took off my Lycra suit near this elderly couple (don’t worry I had a bathing suit on under the Lycra suit) and the man started taking pictures of the ground, (it was a bit weird he should have been taking pictures of his beautiful wife) but then we started to walk towards the boat.

We took the catamaran back to Cairns, we slept most of that ride too. (We sleep a lot, it’s a family tradition to just sleep everywhere, so why not bring that family tradition to Australia?!?) Either that night or the night before, I don’t have the best memory, we took dinner back to the cabin to relax. We ended up walking around the town at night looking in souvenir shops and places to eat. We both conked out between 8 and 9 the second night as well.

Cairns was beautiful! I definitely wouldn’t miss snorkeling in the great barrier reef if I were to come to Australia again. It was an awesome experience with amazing views. It was the place my Study Abroad Adviser back at New Paltz told me not to miss, and I would pass on the same advice. I think it still didn’t sink in that I was in a different country. There are some pictures to prove how beautiful it really was. The pictures don’t do it justice, but its the closest you can come to seeing it and not being in Australia.

Next stop: Brisbane

Thank you for reading!

Stay awesome!! <3

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Almost There…!

I just came back from a weekend up at New Paltz and… there’s only five days left for me in the states!!

It feels extremely surreal, as though I’m not actually about to get on a plane to live and study in a foreign country halfway across the world for four months. It’s a childhood dream for me to visit Japan, and for that dream to finally be coming true feels so… well, surreal!

While having to adjust to a completely new environment is frightening, I’m extremely excited for the classes in Nagasaki! Off the top of my head, I’ve got anywhere from only 1-3 classes a day, save for Wednesday where I’ve got a full 9am-6pm schedule of five 90 minute classes… Regardless, the classes sound so good that I don’t want to drop any of them! I’m taking classes in Japanese history, culture, pop culture, society… the list goes on!

Saying goodbye to my friends this weekend was what really help the fact that I’m actually leaving soon settle in. Walking them to class, saying goodbye… Even though it’s only four months, I couldn’t help but cry. These are friends who’ve really made New Paltz a second home for me. I know that in a few months, I’ll probably be saying the same things about the friends I’ll make in Japan!! I just can’t win with these things… I’m always going to be left crying and missing everyone!!

In order to help me adjust, and have a constant reminder of them, one of my best friends let me take a little Gunter figure with me! I’ll be sure to take him around in place of everyone!! He’ll be my little reminder of home Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

 

30 hour trek from USA to Australia

Driving to the airport was….driving to the airport, nothing special. We were there plenty early. On our flight from New York to San Francisco we had a few rude crew members on United Airlines, but on the next flight, San Francisco to Sydney, everyone was super kind and friendly. That flight was also United Airlines so you just never know if you will get someone who just had a bad week. On that second flight, Dad and I made a friend. The way we started talking was cliche, well it would have been cute/cliche if it was a start to a love story, but the guy who worked on the plane bumped into my dad with a food cart. (SPOILER: It was not a start to a love story.)Then we striked up a conversation with him every time he passed by us. This second flight was the longest one, 15 hours. Dad and I got up every few hours to stretch, walk, and let the blood in our legs flow. To everyone who lectured us on doing this, you would be proud. I even woke Dad up a bunch of times to walk. We listened! During one of the stretching sessions, we went behind our seats (we sat in the last row), went to the back of the plane, and met our friend again He was telling us some of the differences between The United States and Australia (One was how in Australia the police enforcement was strict on bar fights, speeding, and other things).

We got served food on the plane. It wasn’t the best quality but that is what I expected. I mean, after all it was free food so who could complain? (I guess it wasn’t free, I mean we did pay for the flight.)

After a layover in Sydney, Dad and I finally got to the destination that would start an amazing trip down the east coast of Australia. That destination was in Cairns, the northeast of Australia, and we arrived there around noon local time. The total time of our trip from New York to Cairns was about 30 hours (including the layovers). It was a long and tiring trek all the way here, but it was definitely worth it!

The better blogs of the scenery and each city is still to come! And get ready to be amazed by pictures! Lots of them!

Thank you for reading!

Stay awesomely beautiful! <3

 

One Week?!?

(I meant to post this before my first entry, but messed up… sorry!!!)

Well, I just got back from visiting friends on campus before my flight. It still doesn’t feel like I’m going, but I’m leaving for Japan on the 31st! I’m not really looking forward to the 13 hour non-stop flight, but I’m really happy I’ll have a friend at the airport to help me when I land… I’m gonna be exhausted, but probably excited enough to stay awake!

I’ll be jumping around different friends’ houses for about a week until the dorm opens and I can move in. The trains in Tokyo are apparently really easy to navigate and I’m confident enough with my Japanese speaking level that I’ll be able to get around. Lugging around my suitcases may be a little annoying, but not a big deal.

I’m excited to go to Shibuya and Shinjuku to meet up with some friends that I haven’t seen in years and walk around the cities with them. They said they have a lot of places they want to show me, so I can’t wait! I think I may have to wait to shop until I’m settled in, but I think it may be hard not to…

Orientation starts about a week after I get to Japan, and two days after I move in, so it looks like I’ll be pretty busy figuring out how the commute works, getting everything I need before classes start, and all that. It’s going to be such a different experience from New Paltz in that sense for me too, and I think it’s a good one to have and compare so I’m looking forward to it a lot.

And now that I think about it I’m gonna miss things I take for granted, like my mom’s cooking…

… I should learn how to cook while I’m abroad…

Alright, I should probably pack some more, so I’ll write more when I’m half way across the world!

Home Away from Home

Two and a half years later and I am back in the most magical city in the world. I arrived back in Prague about four days ago and just one step off the plane and I remembered why I love this place so much.

As we stepped off the plane the first billboard I saw was one featuring the Old Town of Praha with a warning label, “When your flight takes off from Prague, your heart will remain.” All I thought was how incredibly accurate that was and in that moment I was walking proof of that.

After spending a few days settling into my new apartment in Zizkov (my favorite district of Praha) I took my boyfriend on the free walking tour of the city so he could learn a little more about what it means to be Czech. Listening to our tour guide share the stories of the Czechs and what lies behind the beautiful architecture and cobblestone streets of this city reminded me that there is much more to my love of this city than the beauty. Hearing these stories for the third, sometimes fifth time, didn’t bore me at all, it just solidified that the Czech people are one of a kind.

Over the past 80 years they have been a part of 6 different states, resulting in their national anthem “Where is my home.” When they first became an independent nation in 1918, after WWI, they have about 20 years to enjoy it before Hitler moved in, they were then under Nazi control for the remainder of WWII. When the war was over the Czechs were waiting for their cue, “when do we liberate ourselves?” A German announcement came over the city’s intercom one evening, followed by a Czech song, this meant it was time. The Nazis stormed the building where the announcements were made, but the Czechs had removed all of the German signs in this very large building, so naturally the Nazis got lost and had to send over 30 more troops. Now they have all the Nazis and the Czech Police battling in this building. Then Czech citizens storm the building and slowly, over about 3 days, the citizens are able to take hold of their city. They celebrate in the Old Town Square for one day, when the Soviets show up and say, “We are here to liberate you,” the Czechs reply “Thank you, but we did that a day ago.” But the Soviets had something more in mind and they would remain to enforce a communist state for the next 21 years.

In 1989 the Velvet Revolution occurred, which was when the communists left and Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Since then the Czechs have reinstated their beautiful culture, art, literature, and have become the people and nation they are most proud of. And it is these stories and their nationalism, their quirky art and literature, their intriguing sense of humor, all bundled into this magical city that has forced me to return.

Franz Kafka, a very renowned Czech author, once referred to Prague and as “A mother with Claws.” Every time he tried to move away from this glorious city he would be sucked right back in. I think I’m starting to understand how that can happen. 😉

 

the garden in my apartment building

the garden in my apartment building

stop putin save democracy

stop putin save democracy

old town praha

old town praha

One Day More

In less than 24 hours I will be on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Prague, and it still feels like I’m in a dream and that I’ll actually wake up tomorrow and be back at New Paltz. I can’t believe how lucky I am to get to experience a semester in the Czech Republic and I’m hoping to make the most of it. Most of my last day in the US was spent packing because I’m such a procrastinator but once I got started it wasn’t too difficult. However, I must say, the fact that my checked bag is under 50 lbs is probably a Christmas miracle. Along with that bag I’m bringing 1 carry on and 1 backpack with me to last 4 months. I tried to pack as logically as possible but there were some things I just couldn’t not bring. As excited as I am, I’m definitely nervous too. This is the farthest I’ve gone & the longest I’ve ever been gone for but I know it will be okay. I had a job in Colorado this summer on a ranch and when I boarded that plane I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just went with the flow of things and it turned out to be the most amazing summer of my life so if I can keep the same attitude in Prague I know it’s going to be as great as I’ve always dreamed it would be. Wish me luck!

-Paige