Tag Archives: While Abroad

Ireland for Christmas!

Posted on by
1

I just saw my mom and my brother for the first time since leaving the States. We decided Ireland would be a great place to come for Christmas since they had never been, and I love it here (I have been Irish dancing all my life and was just here for the World Championships in April). This is the longest and furthest I have been away from home in my life, referring to living in Sweden of course. Admittedly, I thought I would have a harder time leaving than I did, but maybe I’ll write about homesickness in another blog. Seeing my family here in Europe was a little surreal, considering I have never been here with them before, but I loved it! And Ireland is so festive at Christmas time – everything is decorated, absolutely everything. Since it is Ireland at Christmas time though, all the stores and shops have been closed and we spent all of Christmas day in the hotel. But never fear! My mom and I watched several cheesy romantic comedies, including PS I Love You which is partly set in Ireland! (We saw the hills the characters meet in on our tour the other day!) We spent the remainder of our time walking around Dublin, sight seeing. I dragged my brother and my mom into the National Archaeological Museum which I enjoy very much every time I am here (and admission is free!). It was really great getting to see my mom and brother, but I think it’s finally hitting me that I won’t see them for another 6 months as I sit here writing this.

Luckily for my sanity, I’m currently in my hostel (the Avalon House, which I recommend if any of you will be travelling in Dublin) and waiting for my friend Natalie to arrive. She will spend next semester in Cork and so I am meeting up with her while I am still here.  We spent all summer working side by side, so I am very excited to see her. We are planning to go on a couple day tours, including one to Connemara, and of course just explore Dublin city… Maybe I’ll make her explore the museum too 🙂

I can already tell I have changed since being abroad. I now feel overwhelmed by the crowds here in Dublin – the mass of people you just don’t find in my small town in Sweden. I find myself missing trying to decode the Swedish on the back of everything I buy. I now say the typical Swedish, hejhej (pronounced: hey hey) as a greeting rather then hello or what have you. I look outside and hope for snow! The first few days I was here there was even sunlight, which is something I have not seen in a long while due to the cloud covering and darkness that lingers over Sweden. I can’t lie, my eyes hurt a little bit the first time I was wandering around here, but they got used to it after a little bit. I’m glad to have a break from the snow, but I’ll be happy to return to my little winter wonderland.

xxx Maren

Last Week of Classes

Posted on by
1

The end is drawing near…. its the last week of classes and many people leave at the end of the week. I don’t leave until January 1st, but it will be sad to see so many good friends leave. I have finished my Alternative Health final, my presentations for Tropical Dance Theory are all done, and I have my last final this afternoon for Tropical Marine Biology. Tonight we are also going to go see The Hobbit since it is super cheap to go see movies here. I’m so excited to see my family who arrives here in Costa Rica on Wednesday. We will be spending the last 2 weeks traveling around to different areas of Costa Rica. It will be really wierd to have a Tropical Christmas. Koryn

The Christmas Story

Posted on by
2

Some of my friends got free tickets to a play since one of the doctors that they work with was directing it. The play was The Christmas Story which is pretty nice being away from home for the Holidays (They take Christmas very seriously here, esp when it comes to decorating). The play was really good, the acting was great and very comical, and I understood most of it despite it being in Spanish. We had been doing a detox for the 3 days  prior so 3 out of the 4 of us were very hungry, and at 8:30 (when our detox ended) we went and got a muffin and coffee since that was the same time as intermission. Best coffee and muffin EVER!!! So blessed 🙂Image

Theatre Nacional

Posted on by
2

We didn’t go anywhere, but on Friday we went to the National Theater to watch the symphony. We got to get all dressed up and the National Theater is gorgeous. It is very fancy and they were serving wine… The music was beautiful as well. Its very relaxing and there weren’t words so Spanish wasn’t a problem. Great time out with friends. Koryn

Image

Rollerblading

Posted on by
1

We decided to go rollerblading after class on Tuesday of this week. We took a bus to the roller rink and it was only like $5 to get in and use inline skates. It was just like the roller rinks that we had in the states as kids and it was similar music as well. They played a lot of 90s music, some Latin music, disco, and some modern pop including Gangnam style. They would occasionally turn out the lights and use strobe lights instead. There were games every once in a while where you would have to make a chain and if you fell or broke the chain, you were out. They also had specific times for people who wanted to go really fast or race. There were some people that were really good and could do jumps or dance… some of them could even do partner dancing like salsa and merengue on skates. Afterwards some of us went and just hung out and told riddles at Burger King.      KorynImage

Trying to Figure Out England

Posted on by
1

One of my biggest challenges here is trying to figure out how the English do things. There are a lot of traditions and everyday English things that I am unable to authentically experience (I’m mostly thinking of food and other holiday-related customs), and I’ve decided that I can never fully understand what I am calling the ‘English psyche’ as I’ve spent the first twenty years of my life in the U.S. I’m not saying that Britons aren’t as human as Americans or anything like that; I just think that people’s experiences affect their personalities and ways of thinking. I can learn about the differences between America and England, but for now and maybe for ever, it would be hard to get far beneath the surface.

I began realizing a week or two ago that the U.S. comes up quite a lot in my classes. I didn’t notice at first because I’m used to learning about American things, and only recently I realized this is a bit odd. I certainly don’t hear as much about England in my writing or film classes at WOU. This isn’t something I can ask an English student about (‘Excuse me, why do you know more about America than I know about England?’), so I’m just going on speculation here. It might be that America is a bigger deal in the world than I thought, though that seems a bit egotistical to me, and people care about America because we’re just that interesting. Or maybe people in other countries are just better educated; maybe America is just to focused on itself to bother learning about other places. Those are the only two ideas I’ve come up, and I guess either way, America is full of itself.

The Christmas decorations around here are fantastic. And I like bokeh.

The Christmas decorations around here are fantastic. And I like bokeh.

Furthermore, today is Wednesday, and I’ve realized today that Sunday will be here very soon, and that that will be the start of my last week here. I am in England, which is incredible, and I am about to leave. Like I said in my last post, I’m very excited to go back home; Oregon seems very magical right now. But I know that Oregon will eventually become normal again, and I’ll probably re-romanticize England and want to come back. It’s what I do with summer and winter, or (my) short hair and long hair. So I guess, the moral there is to live in the moment. Carpe diem. YOLO. Etc. etc. or something.

This isn’t my ‘returning home’ post, though. I plan to get at least one more ‘while abroad’ post in before that. So in the spirit of while-abroadness, I would like to say that I plan to keep doing stuff in my next 10 days. I’ve got a bit of homework to do at least — after Monday everything will be turned in and done — and I would like to still do a bit of traveling around England. Blackpool looks to be in the works, and probably Liverpool. Oh yes, and the pictures are also in the spirit of while-abroadness. Traveling and such.

Marissa

We visited the Christmas markets in Manchester

We visited the Christmas markets in Manchester

Back to Manuel Antonio

Posted on by
1

I went back to Manuel Antonio with some friends who hadnt been there yet. We got a really good deal so we were able to stay in a suite for $14 a night. It had a Jacuzzi, pool table, and a kitchen. The first day we went to the public beach where we swam and surfed. However, there were really bad rip tides all along the beach and the waves were terrible so we had to be really careful. Later that night we went out dancing which was a lot of fun. The next day we went to the National Park where our lunch was stolen by raccoons. We swam and hiked a little and went to the other side of the beach. The beach was shut down by the end of the day because there was a crocodile in the water. We were able to see a bunch of different monkeys this time and the weather was fantastic. By the time we got back to town we were starving so we grabbed an early dinner. We stayed in that evening and got some much needed sleep. The next day we took the bus home. I had a great time with awesome people!     Koryn