#study abroad 2015

[illuminatedinthecityoflights]

Jardin du Luxembourg

March 2015

[ifyoucanreadmymindthenimsorry]

LEAVING FOR LONDON IN TWO HOURS

LETS DO THIS BITCHES

[ifyoucanreadmymindthenimsorry]

The man in charge of the money for my trip sent me an email today andasked where my final payment was. I told him I paid the school, like I did the last time. I will happily reproduce my reciepts- BITCH I PAID THE SCHOOL, DO NOT. JUST DO NOT.

[ariannasadventuresabroad]

food, again!

Yes, I know, the last text post I put up was about my food. But, I swear this one is different. How so, you may ask. This time I going to tell you why I love the United Kingdom’s system. 

I am a vegetarian, as many may know. I have been for three years and if I haven’t told you, you don’t hang out with me enough. I struggle all the time in America trying to decipher if something is meat free. And don’t even mention eating at a restaurant. If something doesn’t mention meat in the title, I still have to ask the waitress if it’s meat free and 90% of the time, it’s not. It’ll have bacon bits or ham pieces. I know compared with other things, this may not seem super important, but to me it is!

Now you’re saying, ‘okay Arianna, get on with it.’ I know. Why do I love the United Kingdom’s system? Because they put if something is ‘suitable for vegetarians’, vegan, and gluten free! They put that on EVERYTHING!! Right next to the nutrition facts will be a large ‘V’ or the words ‘suitable for vegetarians.’ It’s a beautiful system. For someone who takes being a vegetarian very seriously, its amazing that the government decided to include this on the products. 

Oh and what about at restaurants? They put it on the menu whether or not something is vegetarian, vegan, or gluten free. Every restaurant I’ve gone to has this on the menu. It’s mind-blowing, honestly. I don’t have to ask the waitress, I can decided without needing to have back ups, and I don’t have to be difficult for asking for something without the meat in it. And for someone like me who would rather not eat then make something difficult, this is heaven.

Not only do they put this on the packages and in restaurants, but when they list the ingredients, they put the ones that could have a possible allergy, in bold. Yes, bold. They highlight things like gluten, milk and cheese (for those who are lactose intolerant), peanuts, chocolate, and others. They make sure you don’t have to read through all the ingredients to make sure you won’t get sick if you eat the food. 

It’s glorious and if I were more elegant I would want to start a petition or project to get American companies to start doing this! But, alas, we still have to struggle to keep up with something. 

Cheers, Arianna

[ifyoucanreadmymindthenimsorry]

I told my mom I was going to get to see stonehenge on my study abroad trip and she just looked at me and said “what is that, like a mall?”

my mother

[endlesssearchforit]

Friday 9.10- Exciting Edinburgh

I surprisingly woke up at the desired time and packed my bag with haste to get out the door and on with the day. I decided I would start the day by going for a short hike on a hill that I had seen in the view at the museum. I found it on my map and went forward to tackle the day.

When I made it to the hill all was peaceful and the view was amazing. With only staying in the cities of Europe it really is nice to get some time to be with nature. Lots of other people were enjoying the early morning and some even brought their dogs along to enjoy some time off the leash and in actual grass. I even had one puppy approach me to say hello and get some pets. The older dog behind it then had to get some loving too so he stopped by for some before following his owner down the path. It was a more than pleasant exchange.

After my hike around the loop of this hill I walked across the town to another hill that had some greek style piece and a light house? It was a very interesting view too. I then found my way into town and into a nice pub. I got myself some lunch and hot chocolate. After the previous day of complaining about no one having sweet potatoes, I learned the restaurants specialty was sweet potato fries. I ordered myself some of those and an order of macaroni and cheese. It was so good and I dream about it to this day.

I left the pub and finished my personal walking tour by sitting around the scot monument that was surrounded by shops. I stayed there for a couple of minutes just allowing my legs to relax. The pain soon subsided in my legs and I traveled back to my bed in the hostel. While unpacking my day bag I met a guy from London who just moved to Edinburgh for University. 

After conversation I roped him into going out to a bar to get and drink and then the pub crawl. After our drink at the bar we walked to where the pub crawl meets. It just so happened that they mentioned needing an I.D. I never bring my I.D. with me. To them I am some dinosaur in terms of being able to drink. We both had to head back to the hostel to try and catch the pub crawl after grabbing our passports. 

We made it back to the meeting area in less than record time. We decided because we had no idea where they went that we would go back to hostel and grab a drink from the bar and try and get others to go out with us. Upon arriving home I went to the restroom and met some kids in our room from the US who were studying in Manchester. I told them to meet us upstairs and we would all go out. They happily agreed and we all went upstairs for drinks. I found two girls from Innsbruck who also wanted to go out so I grabbed them and after we finished our beers from the bar we started the night. 

I used my app and the information the front desk had told me and I managed to tour our group through 7-8 pubs and or clubs. I don’t really remember it might have been more than that but it was an eventful night that is for sure. The clubs were all very cool and had amazing set ups but none of them were really full for a Friday. After collecting everyone we all walked back to the hostel and drifted off into slumber.

[endlesssearchforit]

Saturday 3.10- Badass Barcelona

I woke up early and decided to eat the provided breakfast. It was edible but nothing special. I guess I should add it was free so the fact that I was able to have anything was a pleasure. I left after eating and made my way to the free walking tour of the old town of Barcelona. I waited five minutes and it started at 11. The weather was slightly overcast with a slight breeze but otherwise it was pretty warm. The tour guide was a crazy guy from London who married a Spanish girl, but he was easy to understand and did a great job.

After the tour was complete I walked over to a sandwich place that Megan Settle told me to go to. It was the most amazing sandwich known to man and I ate that while I walked the city of Barcelona. I walked to the church Familia and couldn’t get into it. I took some pictures and admired the architecture.

I moved on from that and went to a park that hosted some mosaic pieces, but also didn’t want to pay for the art half so I just did the free portion. The park is at the highest point in Barcelona so the views were amazing. After fawning over the city from above it started to sprinkle a bit so I started the decent home. I took the long journey home and relaxed for a bit talking to my friends in the room. I asked if anyone wanted to eat and was shot down. I then walked around outside looking for a place to eat. I ended up wandering into the gay district. That was short and provided no food establishments so I went back to the hostel to eat at the bar.

I ordered the giant nachos at the bar and sat down to eat. I was shortly joined by some german girl on a trip with her school. She spoke very broken English so we had fun trying to talk between the two broken languages we shared.

I went back upstairs after eating to relax and chat some more with the friends. I found the lone traveling Australian and talked with her about traveling alone and its hardships. After a while we went downstairs to the bar to have a beer and she got some fries. After our drink we went back upstairs and relaxed for a bit. After about an hour I went for a night walk and wondered into a bar that I had a drink alone in. After a beer and some conversation with some locals I wondered back home and fell into bed.

[lexinyork]

NOPE.

Alright, so this week has been pretty chill and comfortable. I've done a lot of wandering around on my own, which was incredibly cathartic. There's nothing quite like putting on your headphones, listening to music, and walking around the city. It's so easy to be anonymous and blend in with the crowds. I love it, really. It's arguably my favorite part about living in the city. I can be alone and nobody questions it. I finished applying to all of the graduate schools I'm considering attending in the U.S., so that's a huge weight off my shoulders. I've also been pretty productive on gathering sources for my upcoming essays. Tomorrow I'll get to go on a roadtrip to Alnwick Castle and Hadrian's Wall with some dear friends, so that's going to be a high point of my term as well. All in all, it's been a delightful week. However, something happened today that made me angry. Like, Dr. Bruce Banner turning green and losing his clothes angry. I was sitting in one of my favorite spots, Kings Court, just minding my own business and listening to the various street performers, when this guy comes up to me and leans in relatively close so he's kind of hovering over me and he says, "Excuse me, I'm sorry, but..." And he pauses. And I'm assuming he's about to ask for directions or something. NOPE. "...would you like to grab lunch with me?" He asks, all sweet. And I'm flattered. Really. But of course 1) I'm not interested, 2) I have a boyfriend who happens to be pretty swell, and 3) I really am waiting to meet up with my friends. And so I say, "Oh, no. I'm sorry. I'm actually waiting for my friends." Which is totally true and I don't want to be rude so I figured that'd be enough. But then he says, "Okay, well can we grab dinner later?" And internally I'm kicking myself for not just being straightforward, so I say, "I'm sorry. I'm busy with my friends tonight as well, and I'm flattered, but I'm not really interested." So I'm patting myself on the back because I was straightforward but not mean and then (this is the part where I started getting angry) he's like "Are you sure? We can do something this weekend." And I'm like "No, sorry." Like I'm losing my patience and the old couple sitting next to me on the bench are totally listening in and I can feel them shifting in discomfort and he's still standing over me and he asks AGAIN, "Are you sure?" And it's like YEAH, BUDDY, I'M PRETTY SURE I'VE SAID NO ALREADY. And finally he backs up and laughs a bit and is like "Ohhh, I see. Do you have a boyfriend?" And I'm so taken aback because it's like, yeah, I do. But that's not even relevant to the situation. Like, me saying "No," to his previous offers should be enough. But I answer him and say, "Yes, I do," and try not to seem too pissed off because we're in public and I just want him to leave. And he did, eventually. But here's what bothers me the most about the whole thing: this guy felt so entitled to a date with me that he didn't back off until he realized that another man was involved. This happens to so many women. A lot of guys will not take a woman's disinterest or her outright refusal seriously. Until, that is, they think somebody already has "claim" or "ownership" over said woman. This is a subtle, awful, and completely aggravating form of objectification. And for those of you who think British men are different from U.S. men, as a whole, I hate to tell you but the same ratio of absolute gems to complete douchebags is about the same. They just happen to have pretty accents. Anyways, I'm still upset and overall grossed out by the whole thing. So I've spent my afternoon listening to The Oh Hellos new album, and this is a shameless plug for you all to go listen to it because it's delightful. Right. Cheers, everybody. October 16, 2015