Been here a little while…and public transit is out to get me

1 Week After Arrival: So the buses hate me (the adjusting period)

 

London is absolutely gorgeous–at least the center of the city is, but as you begin to get further and further from central, this can get a bit dicey.  like Peckham, where my boyfriend and I were staying for our first six weeks. During our first week, we became very close with the loveliest of hosts, a 30 year-old woman who works for a local college. She took us out to pubs and to dinner. It was wonderful. She became a close friend. Her flat, equally as lovely. Her neighborhood…well…it was rundown and sketchy. Although Peckham is what people like to say is “up and coming” it still has a ways to go. But I took it in stride as our host, Rachel, showed us all the cool spots. Needless to say adjusting to the location was pretty easy and fun.

 

Adjusting to some other stuff…not so easy.

 

Take public transportation for example. The trains are easier to understand than back  in the states–when they aren’t delayed or skipping your stop. The buses? They’re operated by people I can only assume are in league with the Dark Lord. They either don’t how up to our stop, pass our stop once we’re on it (and that’s if we’re lucky), or they “change destinations” mid-journey and drop us off in the middle of nowhere. Mind you this only happens to my boyfriend and I, not to any of our friend with whom we’ve compared notes.

 

The other thing that took some getting used to was the food. Whereas in America you can shop for the week, hell, even for the next two weeks, here you can only shop for a few days. We learned this the hard way. We were carrying home seven bags of groceries, grinning with a ridiculous amount of self-pleasure because we had saved so much money and were being so responsible and prepared. One of the local electrical workers kindly offered to eat some of our food, and as we passed him by, he grinned in way that–looking back–must have been one that said “You’ll learn, stupid Americans” because three days later it was all moldy, smelly, and all kinds of things that would indicate inadequacy for consumption. There was almost something supernatural about the way the food seemed to change colors by the hour.

Since that initial week, we’ve learned to avoid buses when we can (but occasionally we still end up with a green loaf of bread).

Coffs Harbour

 

We arrived in Coffs Harbour that night around 6 PM, oddly the office was closed, so we just rang the bell to check in. After we out our bags in the cabin, we found a good place to eat called the Greenhouse Tavern. Even though it was late, there was nobody in the restaurant part, Dad and I were the only two. As we ate, we watched cricket on the TV. We tried to figure out how to play, but it didn’t really go so well. It was interesting watching a sport that we had no clue at all how to play.

The next morning, we woke up and got ready to head to Sydney. The weather was gloomy but we stuck with some of our plans for the day. We went to the beach and enjoyed the view as we Skyped home. Dad and I then went for a walk on a path near the beach for a little bit. Since it started to rain, we found an indoor attraction called “The Big Banana.” Apparently Australia is known for their big things. All over Australia there are tourist attractions with the name, “The Big _______.” We went to thr famous Big Banana and saw a show that explained how bananas evolved, how it was brought to Coffs Harbour, and how they are grown and packaged. It was very interesting and made me hungry. So we got a chocolate covered banana to share. Of course i was wearing my white jeans and some chocolate got on them, like during a chocolate Seder a few months prior at New Paltz.

We took pictures with the big banana, like the good tourists we were. Then we went shopping for food for breakfast and dad had to buy nuts because he was very far away from Alec, so he went crazy with nuts! We then ate KFC for lunch and were on our way to Sydney. We stopped in Buladelah (or however you spell it) for dinner and to sleep. We ate dinner at the hotel’s certifies restaurant. The worker was so sweet, he greeted ma as a “lovely lady” and pulled my chair out for me as I sat down at the table. Then the owners gave us some tips for Sydney the next day. We ended off the night just relaxing in the hotel room resting up for the next days activities.

Next stop: Sydney

Stay Awesome! <3

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School in Japan

All I can say that it’s so different from the states.

Firstly, getting to school from the dorm is much more of a hassle than it is at New Paltz, but it’ll be good for me. To get to class that starts at 9, I have to wake up at 7:30 at the latest and be on a train before 8:20. Back home, all I have to do is walk 10 minutes.

The trains in the morning here are NUTS. Since everyone goes to school at the same time and people commute to and from work at the same time, it’s impossible to not be squished in there. I did try and take pictures, but I thought it would be rude, and it was also impossible for me to move to get my phone out. I’m sure if anyone looks up “Trains in Tokyo” on google, they’d get the idea.

But after the disaster that is Japanese trains, the campuses I’m commuting to are really nice.

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One is the main campus where my Japanese Language classes are, and the other one is closer to my station where all my other classes are. I signed up for 20 credits (Japanese included) and was told by friends back in the states that I’m nuts, but classes here are only 2 credits each for the most part, and actually really easy so far. There are more things that are different though…

First, they only happen once a week, which is really weird (for me, at least). Second, they’re about an hour and a half long, which isn’t too bad unless they’re night classes, which I do have a couple of. Third, attendance is SO essential here. Most of my classes only allow 3 unexcused absences before they FAIl you, which is pretty shocking considering most kids here just sleep in the class and the teacher doesn’t do anything about it (this will be discussed further whenever I get around to writing about the culture shock I’ve experienced so far here).

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(This kid isn’t in class but it’s still relevant)

On the bright side though, none of my classes really give out too much homework and for the most part only have a couple of papers, a presentation or two, and one final exam.

So far, the only thing I think I need to ‘worry’ about are the two classes I’m taking that are taught in Japanese, but I’m also really excited to take them and don’t think I’ll have a problem paying attention. Understanding what the professor is talking about, however, is another issue, but I have a few Japanese friends in both of those classes so hopefully they’ll help me.

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My Japanese class was determined by what level I placed on a test that was pretty much impossible. I somehow managed to get into the Intermediate level, which I was a little upset about at first since I had finished Intermediate back in the states, but it’s much more difficult here. I can safely say that my worries about not learning anything new have gone out the window now.

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I’m gonna try to join a few clubs here since that’s what most kids do after classes other than getting a part-time job. I was thinking of a music/band club, but I’d have to see if they’d make me buy an instrument with my own money, because that’s not happening. Maybe a singing/drawing club… I’m not sure yet it’s only been a few weeks.

But honestly I’m loving it here so far. All the students and professors are really friendly and helpful. The only thing I think I’m gonna have a hard time with is the commute, but I do have months to get used to it.

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Byron Bay

 

That night after we left Brisbane, Dad and I drove into Byron Bay in time to get some dinner. As always, I couldn’t make a decision so I made Dad make it for me. He made a good decision because we ate at a yummy falafel place that was named “Orgasmic Food: A taste of Mediterranean.” Then on the walk back to the car, we followed our ears to a live band playing outside, with people dancing. The music was great and entertaining, But, after about 10 minutes of watching them, we were too cold, so we went back to the cabin/hotel place, but not too cold to miss Baskin Robins Ice Cream to eat back at the hotel while relaxing.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and went into the main town of Byron Bay. Dad and I walked around the town for an hour or so. We went into all the little shop, which were a bit too high end for me. As we walked all through town, we kept a log in the back of our heads of all the places we could eat lunch later. After we walked around, we walked a bit more to the beach. It started to drizzle a bit but that didn’t stop us. I took a walk on the beach with my mom on Skype and just enjoyed the view. I read a little bit of the book I bought, “The Fault in our Stars” before we were hungry enough to eat lunch. Dad and I ate ate lunch on a cute cafe with good music. Dad sang along to the songs so I left and sat at another table, just kidding!! I’m not THAT mean.

Since it was a little gloomy out, we decided to leave town right after lunch. There was a bit of traffic on our way out because of some protesters in the streets with “I stand with Gaza” signs. I thought that was interesting. It showed me that people are passionate toward their specific country or religion everywhere. It showed me that news that I heard about on the other side of the world, was here too. We passed some water on our way out of Byron bay as we drove to Coffs Harbour.

I didn’t mention this before, but the first day in Byron Bay we went to a light house. We saw some pretty views as well as took a tour of the light house. we learned all about Byron Bay light house as well as how light houses work in general. It was very interesting and beautiful.

Next Stop: Coffs Harbour

Stay awesome <3

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Life In Tokyo

We have a few more days before orientation starts and we have to get in the swing of things for school, but there’s still so much to do so I’m obviously not gonna just sit here.

I met up with some friends from school and they showed me around cities most foreigners like, places like Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, and all that good stuff. Maybe it IS because I’m a foreigner, but I loved every one of them.

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I had been to some of these cities when I was in Japan a few years ago, but I was only in each place for a few hours so I didn’t get to do much. This time I did have the opportunity to peruse and buy things, but I chose to save my money. I mean, I am here for a while so I can always come back if I really do want something.

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Speaking of money, food here is really cheap compared to New York, but the clothes are WAY too expensive for me. They’re also too small, but that’s another story.

Last Saturday, there was some festival going on in our street (I’m honestly still not sure what it was for). How often they do this, I don’t know, but basically, people take a little shrine thingy and walk with it all over town, bringing it to various shrines and ringing it’s bells, I assume to welcome in a good thing or scare something bad off.

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Our landlord told us about the event and said that we could come watch, or if we wanted to, to haul the shrine across the town with the locals. I’m not that strong and I was still too tired from my constant moving around/jetlag, so I told him that I would watch. But when we got there, the guys in charge assumed that everyone was there to help. Not that I minded, but I was surprised when he told me to put on a uniform and showed me to the back of the shrine…

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In the end, I was too short to hold it up most of the time, but I tried a few times. Eventually we wound up at a fairly large temple (I assume for the area) where a bunch of stands for food, games, and other things were surrounding it, so once we rang the bells of the shrine there, we walked around for about an hour to get food and stuff.

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I guess it was like a little Natsu Matsuri (Summer Festival) at the end of the season, but I really still don’t know. Even after asking some Japanese friends, they don’t know what I’m talking about, but it was really interesting and in the end I’m glad I went.

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Yesterday, I also went to a few game centers with a friend and then we met up at an Izakaya (basically a place for a ton of food and drinks for really cheap) with some other people.

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I guess these past few days have been pretty hectic looking back on all this. Right now, I’m exhausted, orientation starts tomorrow, and then that’s not far off from classes, so I guess now I really DO need to sit here and relax before things get busy…

Moved in!!!

I’m finally settled in at Meiji’s International dorm here in Izumi!!! I looked at some pictures and videos of what it was like before coming, but I’m still amazed at how nice it is here.

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It’s gonna be really weird having a room to myself, but my ‘flat-mates’ (I don’t really know what to call them we share a kitchen and a laundry room and our rooms are all next to each other) are all right here, so I guess it’s pretty similar to a suite.

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(I hope they let you hang pictures up here…)

I’m also really happy I have my own little bathroom to myself

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I still have to unpack and get adjusted to how things work around here, but it shouldn’t be too hard… I hope…!

Highschoolers

I met with some highschoolers from another prefecture! They came all the way from Nagano!!! So far…

I was approached a few days earlier about it, and it seemed like they picked totally random students. I thought they picked quite a few of us but it turned out that wasn’t the case…

There were roughly 8 of us international students, and god knows how many of these high schoolers! We each sat at a table with roughly 10 students each… I was super nervous about being alone!

Some students went up and talked to us about their school and prefecture. Their english was really good!!

Next our activity was to do origami. They gave the students a sheet with the directions for 10 different origami pieces, and we weren’t allowed to look at them. Instead, they had to somehow teach us (with our limited Japanese, and their limited English). It was a really tough, but fun experience! Only about 2 groups made all 10 origami pieces. My group got to about 8 because I suck at understanding what they were telling me haha. They didn’t know the word for quarter so they would demonstrate by fold a paper in half, and half again. They sure came up with really unconventional ways to help me figure out how I was supposed to fold it…!

At the end of it all, they made these to give to me.

So cute…!!!! I drew a little chibi on the corner of a piece of origami paper and they ended up taking it and keeping it…!!

I also saw this and took it off a table…

It’s like origami witchcraft or something…!!

The students were very sweet, but really shy as well! Out of all the students I sat with, only two consistently tried their hardest to talk to me and were very open from the get-go. When I first introduced myself and told them that I was from New York City, they were super amazed! At the end of the day, we said our respective goodbyes. It was a bit sad even though I had only known them for an hour or two. I wish I could’ve spoken with them more, or even maybe gotten their contact information.

I really wish them the best of luck in the future!

Karlstejn Castle & Oktoberfest Adventures

Two weeks ago a group of girls from the program booked a bike tour to go to the Karlstejn Castle just outside of the castle. It was a 35 kilometer ride (about 21-22 miles) to the castle and the route went along two different rivers, countryside, gardens, and small towns. It was a beautiful ride and the weather was perfect. Once we got to the town we discovered there was a wine festival going on. Everyone was dressed in Medival clothing and there were different food and art vendors lining the path to the castle. After stopping for lunch, our guide took us up to the castle, where we walked around outside (it was too crowded to go in because of the festival), and then we walked to the train station to come back to Prague. It was such a fun way to see more of the Czech countryside.

Last week was my first week of real classes. I’m taking a history class, two art history classes, and a photography course. So far the professors seem to be nice, the workload is manageable, and there is a nice mix of American and foreign students. My film class has students from France, Spain, Croatia, Ireland, Iceland, and Finland just to name a few.

This past weekend I went to Oktoberfest in Munich with five other girls from the program and it was so much fun! We were camping at a site about half an hour away from downtown Munich which was actually a very cool experience, aside from how cold it got each night. We met people from Australia, Ireland, Germany, Britain, and so many other places at the campsite alone. The festival itself was a lot bigger than I was expecting and it was filled with people (the majority of whom were wearing Lederhosen). We ate pretzels and bratwursts, rode roller coasters, drank beer, and just walked around taking it all in. We also walked around downtown Munich a bit on Friday night and Saturday afternoon and it was so beautiful! It was definitely something I recommend everyone get experience at least once in their life!

Inside Hofbräu

Inside Hofbräu

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View of the City Hall from St. Peter’s Tower

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Bird’s eye view of Oktoberfest from the ferris wheel

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Karlstejn Castle

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Ready for our ride!

Overnight Trains, Fire Breathing Dragons, and Perogies

This past weekend my boyfriend and I took an overnight train from Prague to Krakow, Poland. Personally, I love overnight trains. The first overnight train I ever booked was when I had plans to meet my friend in Internlaken, Switzerland. I went to the Prague train station and booked my ticket a few days before I was supposed to leave. This would be my first overnight train and I was taking it on alone. But I wasn’t worried, I had been traveling all semester and how difficult could it be to fall asleep on a train alone. Well, turns out falling asleep wasn’t the hard part, booking the ticket was. It was the final departure day from the ECES program in Prague, so needless to say it was a day filled with tearful goodbyes. I was a mess crying the entire way to the train station, I actually almost missed the train completely. When I boarded the train I was walking up and down the cars trying to find my bed, I learned the hard way this is something you need to state when purchasing an overnight train ticket. I ended up booking the storage car, it was me, luggage, and bikes for a 14 hour overnight train to Interlaken, after the last night of the semester and a day of sorrowful goodbyes you can only imagine what this must have looked like. I can proudly say I have never again made this mistake and you may wonder why I love overnight trains after this nightmare. First of all this fiasco taught me a very, very valuable lesson and I am always grateful for these travel lessons, it truly is the only way you become an expert traveler. Second, once you are able to successfully book your sleeper car overnight trains remind me of home, they remind me of nights sleeping on my boat in the Great South Bay on Long Island. The movement and rocking of the train puts me right to sleep. And finally, you wake up to a new adventure, a new city, and most of the time a new country – how awesome is that?!

 

Back to the weekend in Krakow – when I studied abroad in Prague I attended the ECES school trip to Auschwitz and Krakow. My boyfriend felt a certain obligation to experience Auschwitz, which I felt and satisfied two years ago, so I decided to spend Saturday exploring Krakow rather than accompanying him.

 

Last time I was in this Eastern European city it was February and absolutely freezing, so it was nice to spend a beautiful autumn weekend in Krakow. I had a lot more time to really wander the streets which was really nice. Last time I was here we didn´t have too much time to explore on our own because we had different tours to attend and time constraints to abide by. When I travel I enjoy just wandering and sitting in parks or city squares. Tours are nice, and I did the free walking tour, but I find that I learn the most about a culture when I simply just walk around or curl up in a cafe, so this is exactly what I did on Saturday while my boyfriend was on his tour of Auschwitz.
While I was wandering around I ran into one of the boys we woke up with in our sleeper car on the train. I went over to say hello and it turned out we were staying at the same hostel, and he was already exploring Krakow with two Germans he met that were also at our hostel, so I got to spend the day with them. We went on the free walking tour of the city and met a Peruvian boy who had already been in the city for a few days. After the tour the Peruvian told us we had to follow him to this restaurant he found out about two days ago. We followed him past the main square and through the windy, cobblestone streets, into this strange building with no sign that lead to a courtyard. Then through the courtyard, down these steps, into the restaurant. It was such a cool place and had excellent fried perogies, one of the reasons I went back to Poland. Krakow is a great city with great people and I’ve learned this mostly by observing and wandering. When you travel try to sit back some days and just watch, just take it all in. Take in the people, the tourists, the architecture, think about the people that have walked, or marched, over those cobblestones and think about the stories the people you see must have.

Oh – Title explanation – Krakow’s most famous symbol of the city is a fire breathing dragon statue that sits on the river bank. This dragon breathes ACTUAL fire, it is one of my favorite statues for just this reason. There is a corny medieval legend that goes along with it that doesn’t interest me too much, but did I mention, ACTUAL fire.

Strange Head sculpture in the main square

Strange Head sculpture in the main square

Fire Breathing Dragon

Fire Breathing Dragon

Great Perogies, Great Restaurant

Great Perogies, Great Restaurant

People Watching at Cafes

People Watching at Cafes

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

 

Exploring local streets, First day

Sunset from my appartment in Stafford Unilodge

Sunset from my appartment in Stafford Unilodge

I Live near Parliament!

I Live near Parliament!

Yesterday we landed in Wellington around 11 am. I have never met so many friendly people in a CITY before! Luke and I wandered around (with a map of course) and found a local supermarket similar to a Price Chopper back home. As the day went on we found out that the street parallel to us, Lambton Quay, had many shops and places to eat! Clothing here is very expensive ($120 for a simple sweater!) so I am hoping we will find a less expensive shopping area for when we need to buy things. My apartment has two windows that look partly out at the ocean and partly at other buildings but I am thankful I am on the Coast side of the building. I can’t wait to discover more of what this city has to offer! Kiaora!