I must say, I’m not exactly sure why this is. Part of it might be that all of my things, such as clothes and books and the like, were in Germany the whole time and I only had a carry-on bag with me when I was home. It might also be that I had almost no responsibilities when I was home, such as grocery shopping or cooking, so it felt more like a one-week vacation than a homecoming.

Whatever the reasons, there is one very important piece of knowledge for me to take from this–I’ve hit that point where I’m finally totally comfortable here in Freiburg. It was strange that I didn’t hear a single word of German for a week. When I stopped by my old high school to talk to German classes there, they asked me what was different about Germany, and it was difficult for me to answer; when they asked what I didn’t like, it was even more so.

With the semester rapidly approaching its end, I have to say I definitely made the right choice to stay here for a full year; now I’ve got a whole new semester to practice my skills. I will be very busy until then, but I’ve got a few more journals ready so that I’ll be able to post interesting things over the next month.

Next week: My visit to the seat of the E.U. Parliament in Strasbourg and a chat with one of the V.P.’s.

2 hours later…

So the flight lands and I lug those same 20 pound (a piece!) carry-ons through another airport (A bigger one!) along with Randy.  To reach the other end (Of course!) of the airport for my flight to Ireland. I trust that my baggage is making it to this new plane as well because I was told it would (FORESHADOW). I jump on the plane and try not to scream from excitement…in about  6 hours I will be in Ireland.

5 hours and 33 minutes  later…..

“We are starting our descend for Dublin, Ladies and Gentleman we should be landing in about 27 minutes……”

This is the point where the fear starts. You know the feeling. The one where your stomach starts to hurt and your heart feels heavy. You can’t place a feeling on it but you know that something is…different.

I am about to land in Ireland in Ireland. The place where I will spend the next 4.5 months. My heart begins to scream….What am I doing? I can’t stay here for 4.5 months, I don’t know a soul! But just like that My God reminds me that he’s here. That wherever he sends me, he is already there waiting on me.

27 minutes later…..

I lug those same 20 pound a piece carry-ons. (Hey I couldn’t decide which pair of jeans and how many books to leave at home. ) I smile during immigration (I don’t want to seem like a terrorist.) and practically scream with joy to Jesus ( I found a cart to put my carry-ons on. ) and now I wait….and wait….and wait….until everyone’s gone and the baggage claim motor has stopped.

Where’s my luggage? And the nagging thought that was bothering me the whole 6 hours from PHL or DUB consumes me. Was I supposed to personally bring my luggage to the new airplane?

The answer is no. But don’t sigh with relief just yet because the people who were supposed to forgot, lost it or stole it.

I am in my dream country….with no luggage other than the 40 pounds I have been lugging around for the last 12 hours (4 pairs of jeans, a pair of underwear, travel size toiletries, a pair of rain boots, 2 packs of loose leaf paper, a notebook, a pencil-case with pencils and pens, 9 books to read (Hey I like books), Angela (My camera), 1 journal, one prayer journal, a bible, and a laptop. Um…..I have three other brothers- I don’t cry. But there is something about being in a new country, with 90 percent of your entire wardrobe gone, and there is something about hearing the words- we don’t know where your luggage is, and there is something about not understanding the claim report you have to fill out but understanding enough to know that they aren’t really offering to replace anything that makes even the toughest girls’ eyes fill up a little bit.  And once again Jesus has to remind me that he is here.

Tyffanie, the girl with 9 books and no socks.

Ok, I’m too excited to leave it at that, so elaboration is inevitable. A couple Wednesdays ago, I went with a group of other students to walk around the outskirts of the University. We ended up going into StanmerVillage, which is not so much a village as it is one house, one church and some farmland. However the fantastic thing about it is that Stanmer House is a beautifully preserved mansion that also acts as a café and restaurant! You can walk around the house and look at the preserved furniture and library, and then you can sit down in the dining hall, or by any of the couches, chairs and coffee tables throughout the house, and order as you lounge near a 17^th Century (I think?) fireplace. And indeed, we ordered while lounging by the fireplace.

The next day we went into Falmer village. This seemed a bit more befitting of the name “village” since it consisted of more than two buildings. None of the buildings were quite as delightful as Stanmer House, but there were certain spots that had an uncanny ability to transport you back to the 17^th Century (I’m PRETTY sure I’ve got the century right. No one really said.)

Then cameLONDON! I went on a couch with the University’s International program and so I was fortunate to see the majority of the city from the coach. Of course, I was flabbergasted, it was absolutely incredible and already I’m trying to figure out when I can go again. After the coach tour, we were dropped off nearPiccadilly Circus and given about four and a half hours on our own to roam the city. So, some friends and I; being well aware that we couldn’t see the whole city in that time decided to narrow our journey to a couple of spots. We decided to spend a bit of time inPiccadilly Circus before moving on to Westminster Abbey and then capping the day off at the Tate-Modern. Well, a bit of time inPiccadilly Circus translated to about and hour and a half of waiting on me to take pictures of every little thing I saw.  Fortunately for my companions and unfortunately for me, that’s when my camera ran out of batteries. So we finally began to make progress, heading towardsWestminster. Then we saw Hamley’s… Hamley’s isEurope’s largest toy store, and there we spent the ENTIRE rest of our day!

Hamley’s was whimsical and wonderful to say the least. When you walk in the door there are official bubble blowers that just stand around blowing bubbles at you. Easily one of the best career choices one can make…I even thought briefly about switching majors. Also, scattered around the store were professional toy demonstrators that would show you how to use a variety of nifty and uncommon toys. This was the kind of stuff that will give you about a day of sheer unadulterated joy before ending up in your garage for the rest of your life. Seeing as I am still a child, I obviously loved every bit of it!  There was also a stuffed animal petting zoo which pretty much gave me a cuteness overload. Finally, there was the Harry Potter section! Since all of us were Harry Potter fanatics, I believe this is where we spent the single longest period of time on our first trip toLondon. There was a huge case that included replica wands of almost every character in the movie. There were also Time Turners, Marauders Maps, Chudley Cannon’s posters, House emblems and Wizard’s Chess sets!

My one complaint was that there weren’t more action figures…and that the whole place wasn’t twice as big. But all in all, despite not actually visiting any of the most significant historical sights, not going to any of the free museums and running out of camera batteries in the first hour, I’d say my first trip to London was a spectacular success!

During the course of the next week, I was for the most part limited by homework, but it did not go without its significant conversations or cultural observations… But I’ll save that for another post, since I am on a roll with the tourism theme today.

Speaking of today, I just arrived home fromOxford! Just yesterday I was wondering ifLondonwas the coolest city in the world and today I’m wondering ifOxfordis the coolest city in the world. I suppose it will only be a matter of time before both of those opinions change, but regardless, they are both amazing!

Fortunately I was able to see much more on this trip includingChristChurch, St. Mary’s, Edmond Halley’s old house, Radcliffe Camera, some of the spots where Harry Potter was filmed and most of the colleges. I was absolutely blown away by the buildings, and the beauty of the city. And although I hate the idea of being star-struck, I was still simply taken aback by the sheer amount of literary and scientific genius that inhabited the school at one point or another. Of course, the greatest among them being Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. As a Lord of the Rings fanatic who appreciates Narnia and loves C.S. Lewis’ theology and apologetics perhaps my main goal for the evening was to make it to “The Eagle and the Child”. This is the pub where Tolkien, Lewis and several friends met on a weekly basis to discuss their writings and theology. However, since it wasn’t so high on everyone else’s priority list we didn’t make it there.

Anyways, it’s been a great past week and a half and it has revealed to me a very significant truth about myself; I’m the most obvious tourist alive.

The first day was smooth sailing, but that was not to last long.  The next day was not quite the same.  Let’s just say, we saw a lot of the city this day.  It started off when we left for the university.  Because the weather was beautiful (55 and sunny), we decided to walk instead of taking the metro.  We knew it would be a pretty long walk but we had over two hours and were confident that we would most certainly get there on time.  Confident in ourselves we set out on our first adventure.  We walked by a beautiful park, saw buildings that we breath-taking, and passed by countless unique stores.  Then we saw the most gorgeous building perched perfectly on top of a hill.  Of course, we had to figure out what this was so we trekked up the huge hill.   Once we arrived, we adventured around, read some signs that were hard to understand and even walked in the building and asked questions.  We came out a little confused but came to the conclusion that it was the National Cathedral.  Satisfied that we had not only found this beautiful church but talked to other Spaniards in their native language, we continued our journey.  As we were making it down the hill, my friends said: Tenemos dieciocho minutos. Because numbers are something I struggle understanding, it took me a minute to figure out that she said we have 18 minutes .  And then I was positive that she had said the wrong thing.  Once I finally checked my watch, I yelled, “Ay We have ONLY 18 minutes!  It is going to take a lot longer to get there.”  At this point, all of our Spanish went out the door as we rushed to the street hoping to find a metro station.  With no luck, we asked a lady and she directed us.  Once we were on the metro, we got to class with no problems except we were 30 minutes late!  Oh no! The funny thing is that when we took our walking tour this morning, they took us to the Cathedral. We were right about what it was, but as it turns out, the building we found so enthralling is known as “the ugly church” because it is was designed in two differ architectural styles. If a building like this was in the states it would be a prized possession among the historical society.

The same day, we once again we a little turned around, ok a lot turned around.  We were trying to meet up at a restaurant with a couple other students in a neighborhood near the university.  We were given directions, but they proved to be of no help.   Once we got off the metro, we were looking for a street on the left.  Because streets are not well labeled here, we walked down the main street for a good five blocks, with no luck. Finally we turned back and found the street, less than 100 feet from the metro.  Thinking we had this set, we walked to the given street number and found that unless this restaurant was in the basement of a bunch of apartments, this was certainly NOT the place.  We continued walking and with no luck, finally decided to ask someone for help. The first lady gave us instructions, but with the combination of her fast Spanish tongue, our mediocre understanding, and the fact that Spaniards would rather lie than admit that they do not know something, they proved to be unhelpful.  By the end, we had asked at least 5 people for directions. At least now we are experts at asking for directions!  Finally, we miraculously found the place.  We were soooo excited.  Finally, an hour after expected, we were there! Unfortunately, as we had suspected, none of our friends were there.  Discouraged, we headed back to the subway.  By some miracle, we were about to go down into the station, we see a group of people.  IT WAS THEM!  You have no idea how relieved we were to find familiar faces.  In fact, we jumped and screamed out of delight (No, this did not help break the stereotype that Americans are loud and obnoxious). Turns out everyone had problems getting to this place and somehow miraculously ran into each other while wandering the streets!

I could tell you countless other funny stories about my lack of knowledge of the lay of the land, but I need some good ones to tell when I get back right?   The great thing about getting turned around, it that you come across great sights that you never would have found if you tried. For example, after the restaurant problem, we have returned several times to this neighborhood because we all know it well and like it a lot.  In fact, it is where I am trying to find an apartment! 

If one thing this trip has taught me thus far is that things have a way of working themselves out and patience and a sense of humor is key to getting through tough situations.  And by the way, I have been doing much better about learning my way around, but I still have a lot to learn. I’m sure the apartment search will help me explore the various neighborhoods.

 As you may or may not know, all students are assigned a host family to help them dive right into the culture.  As it turns out, I could not have asked for a more gracious host mom.  She is a 50-year-old wedding dress designer!  When we rang her bell, she came running toward us waving sporting a purple cheetah sweater and tall heels.  What more could you expect?  As she poured us café(coffee), she proceeded to tell us all about her city, the history, the different neighbor hoods, and how centrally located her home is.   It is evident that she truly cares about us, as she cooked us a huge feast consisting of bread, eggs, pork chops, potatoes, soup, and flan!   Also, as we were headed out to the metro, when she saw it was raining, she practically sprinted (yes, in her heels and all) to get us umbrellas for the walk…boy was I glad.

In the short time since I have embarked on this journey, I have already conquered many challenging situations: I made my first international flight, took a taxi, spoke lots of Spanish with my Señora, and successfully navigated the metro system to arrive at school.  While the campus was beautiful, I was stunned to see graffiti all over everything. It was comparable to the chalking that clubs do at Purdue, but this “art”, as my advisor called it, was permanent.  It’s not that I was in a bad part of town or that the University was not well cared for. Graffiti simply is a part of the ambiance…it’s an art form I must learn to appreciate.

All in all my trip is off to a great start and cannot wait to see more of the city and gain more experiences, but for now I am off to get some sleep…but not before our Senora cooks another grand meal!

There were a couple of orientation events for the University on Friday (Jan. 6). It was absolutely nothing like BGR, and of course as a former BGR leader, my biased instincts will tell me that it wasn’t as good. But I’m thankful I was able to go and meet new people. If that Friday were an exclusive indicator of British life, it would seem that everyone in England is American. The vast majority of people I met were from the U.S..  One girl was from Chile, and one from Canada. So…that’s three countries represented. Of course, since then I’ve managed to meet some actual English people!

On Saturday I went into Brighton on my own for the first time to wander around, get lost and pray to God that I would manage to get back home OK. Fortunately it really wasn’t as terrible as my typically horrible sense of direction led me to imagine it would be. Actually, it was a fantastic day! So if I had to choose one highlight…. well obviously the highlight any day always involves Bob Dylan or Reggae and the highlight of this day involved both. There were a number of street performers in Brighton and my favorite were these two hippies that were playing a reggae version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” with a steel drum, ukulele and harmonica!!! I gave them some money and hung around to listen to the end of the song and when they were finished we started talking. Aside from the awesome hippie-ness of them, they were actually quite fascinating. Apparently one of them is Mark Stewart! That’s right…THE Mark Stewart! OK… I didn’t know who Mark Stewart was and I don’t expect you to either. However, after he told me a bunch of fun, hippie stuff about how we’re all family and all we need is love he told me that he used to be a stuntman and was actually Christopher Reeves’ stunt double for Superman 3 and 4. Yeah, I know that isn’t 1 or 2…but at least it wasn’t Superman Returns. I looked him up on imdb afterwords, and apparently he was also Guard #4 in Tron as well as a few other things. Needless to say,  I thought they were awesome and we talked for quite a bit before this other really awkward guy joined the conversation. It was funny, because when the other guy started talking I could see the hippies starting to get squeamish because the conversation was getting too uncomfortable. Of course, maybe they got squeamish because of me, but I like to tell myself it was the other guy.

Sunday was even more incredible. I started off going to the only church by campus. The American stereotype is that so many people in England don’t have a relationship with Christ, and that most of the churches around are more postmodern than Biblical and when I walked in that was my immediate impression. There were about ten people and the service was very multi-denominational, which IMPLIED postmodernism, but after talking with the pastor for a bit I learned quickly that he had a strong relationship with Christ and understood the Gospel clearly. I met with him again today for coffee and we had a nice, long discussion about theology! He said today that God had called him to evangelize through services that can’t be rooted to a specific denomination. But anyways…back to Sunday! So after church I went with the other international students on a coach tour of Brighton, Devils Dyke and the Royal Pavilion!

Devils Dyke was really cool. We went-in the middle of January mind you, and there were hang gliders and para sailors everywhere. Oh and the Royal Pavilion…WOW! You may see some pictures of the outside, which are definitely cool, but the outside is absolutely nothing compared to the inside! I can’t do it justice through verbal explanation, but so you get an idea; there was a chandelier that was one TON of gold and crystal in the shape of a giant dragon, with other dragons, snakes and lotus flowers surrounding it. Just to emphasize that a bit more clearly; ONE TON OF GOLD AND CRYSTAL! DRAGONS EVERYWHERE!!! And that was just one chandelier! The entire thing was extraordinarily ornate and elaborate. So if any political leader tried to do anything like it today I would be furious, but since it’s long past history I’m ok. Also, on the tour aside from learning the history of the Royal Pavilion and King George IV, we saw a bunch of caricature art of King George IV by some of the people who are considered revolutionaries in the early ages of comic strips like George Cruikshank! I think that I’m the only person that cared about that on the tour…probably.

Seeing as this has gone on long enough, I’ll close in saying I’ve been in the city a few more times now and each time has been good. Oh by the way! I started class today with Art History! I think it will be an excellent class and I’ll post again later. Bye!

 The most challenging but best semester of college is in front of me as I will grow as a person and learn more than a classroom or book could ever teach me.   I look forward to being challenged by the language and becoming fluent, enjoying a night out at several tapas(appetizer) restaurants, visiting buildings that seem ancient in comparison to modern America, creating lifelong friendships, and of course the daily siesta.  My nerves are in full swing as I think about this great opportunity I have in front of me.  Will I get lost?  Will I say something dumb in Spanish and get laughed at?  Will I struggle to get good grades in my all-Spanish classes?  Won’t natives peg me immediately as a foreigner?  The answer to all of these questions is certainly.  In fact, if I come home saying no to these questions, it is likely that I did not fully dive into the culture and life of Spain. These small bumps in the road that are inevitable when living abroad are the exact things that will help me develop as a person and make me that much stronger!

The realization that I am leaving is hitting me hard as I remain at home while my brother and my friends all returned to Purdue this weekend, but trust me, I am not just sitting around bored out of my mind.  In fact, it is quite the opposite. This week is going to be full of shopping for the few items that I cannot buy in Spain and then figuring how to fit everything I bought along with a semesters worth of clothes in my seemingly too small suitcases, filling my brain with last-minute vocab and grammar, checking and double checking all of my documents, and spending quality time with my family.   There is so much to do, but I have made it this far and I cannot wait to see what Madrid has to offer.  Spain here I come!

Follow me on my adventures and get an idea of how a student on a budget can make the best of her 5 months in Europe.

Eventually, when I got dropped off, I asked someone for the time. When they told me it was about 11:30 I couldn’t believe how early I’d arrived, until my distinct recollection of the woman in London telling me the time was 9:39 began to make sense. I decided to wait another hour so as not to disrupt the time that I told my host family I would be there. I found out later, after meeting her that it would have been no trouble for me to just call her from a pay phone when I arrived.

Regardless, the waiting was still pretty exciting because I was near the Pier and I could see a lot of cool shops and stuff. Then I met my host family and learned, to my delight, that they are also really awesome! There is a mom, dad, two sons that are currently living there, and another exchange student who is a PhD student from India and has already been living with the Halvatzis family since the beginning of the school year. One of the sons will be leaving Monday, since he is headed to Uni in Nottingham. That’s how they say heading to school/college-heading to Uni-so that’s some cool new lingo I’ve learned already!

Today, Jeanie  the Indian PhD student took me to campus and helped me get some of my things taken care of before she had to leave, so that was really cool! The campus is really nice, but honestly I love Purdue too much for it to compare, but it is really small and I already think I can pretty much figure my way around.

So everything I’ve mentioned previously is mostly just circumstance and my daily activities as opposed to stories. Of course my first actual story of England has to do with the bathroom. While I was exploring on my own I stopped in a small bathroom in one of the buildings to relieve myself. After I’d done my duty (or should I say “doodie” hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa…hahahahahahahahaha…Ok enough) I began searching for the handle or button to flush (buttons are common in England) I couldn’t find either, so my best guess was a red, handled string hanging down near the toilet. Upon pulling the handle, the bathroom filled with flashing lights and blaring horns…and immediately afterwords I saw a handle to flush the toilet… After doing that successfully, and washing my hands I found a “reset” button for the alarm and tried repeatedly to turn it off. Eventually I gave up and had to go find the nearest person I could to save me. It was a girl working in a cafe located in the building so I explained the situation, and she actually went to the bathroom, went in, pressed the EXACT SAME RESET BUTTON THAT I TRIED LIKE 10 TIMES, and bid me farewell. So that was awkward…

Regardless, though, I’d still say it’s been great so far, and with that I bid you all good day.

Happy holidays from all of the Boilermakers Abroad!

Purdue Study Abroad Holiday Message (YouTube video)

As part of our program, however, we managed to do an activity that, in retrospect, I fully appreciate now that my trip is over. Our leader asked us to think carefully and write down whatever image of Morocco (misconceptions now) we might have. When I came back, and looked at what I had written, I was both surprised and grateful at what I had written, both because I was completely wrong in certain assumptions, but also because my image had been replaced with a far more correct version.

Then I realized that this was one of the best things about traveling, in my book. I feel the most satisfied and happy about certain traveling experiences when I manage to use that experience to break whatever stereotype I originally had.

What I found was a truly interesting place, with different concepts about religion, fashion, women, and even food. Too much to post, here are some quick aspects that might surprise you;

-Certain places do not change or buy new clothes, but rather, dye them a different color according to the seasons and appropriate festivals. As such, dyes are sold more frequently than clothes.

-Most stop whatever they are doing at the moment and plan around praying 5 times a day at specific intervals, all at the same time.

-In certain touristy spots, you will encounter sometimes up to 8 languages from the same shopkeeper who knows that the key to good sales is to speak the native tongue.

- It is not only the norm, but a necessary tool to haggle as this is the primary way of buying many things, from food and trinkets, to clothes and even certain medicines.

- No one gets any food in bulk; in fact, it is common to buy once a day rather than once every so often. As such, most food is always fresh.

- A woman told me that she feels sorry for American women who are expected to show as much skin as possible. (This one made my eyes go wide.)

I went back to Spain, stomach full of spices, with that much more of an open mind.