This Week Abroad - 4/24/15
Blogs Abroad: My Blind Date with Greece
This is Arcadia's weekly roundup of highlights from student blogs abroad.
Updates from Spring Break continue rolling in this week, with a number of bloggers writing about their adventures to other places. Emma continues doing what all students in New Zealand find themselves doing: hiking the nation's gorgeous nature trails. Sammy catches us up on all the ups, downs and adventures she's been going on in the past month, while Margaret discusses her favorite trip so far, to Amsterdam. Allison was busy, writing two posts this week: one about her time horseback riding in the Irish country side and one about exploring Galway's nightlife. Meanwhile, Eien is doing so well in Australia that they can't help but brag about it.
To begin our roundup this week, we're going to join Caroline on her blind date with Greece.
My Blind Date with Greece
"Whenever I travel to a new country, I’m always afraid that it’s not going to live up to my expectations. I then immediately think, “Wow Caroline, it must be so hard for you that these beautiful European cities you get to visit might not be everything you hoped for. You’re perseverance through these hard times is an inspiration to us all.”
But it’s honestly not really an actual worry. It’s more of just a mental preparation. It’s kind of like showing up to a blind date and hoping that the person looks like all their pictures you saw while Facebook creeping. You have to be prepared to face the reality that a city is a city and not every part will be like all the romantic postcards you’ve seen. It’s one thing to have a professionally edited picture of the Eiffel Tower as your desktop background and another thing entirely to actually be there among all the tourists."
The Routeburn
"On the Arcadia-hosted Queenstown weekend, we got a quick, rainy taste of the Routeburn Great Walk. It was glorious, but definitely a tease: a few short-lived mountain vistas when curtains of clouds parted for hasty intermittent flurries of snapping camera shutters.
Unlike Kepler’s loop, The Routeburn is a one-way hike that begins a couple hours out of Queenstown and ends a couple hours out of Te Anau, at “The Divide”. With Arcadia, we had hiked from the Queenstown end, up about one-third of the trail to Routeburn Falls hut and back, mostly through soggy emerald-green forests, rushing rivers and waterfalls. After our good weather on the Kepler, I was hoping we might be on a good luck streak long enough to experience the Routeburn in the sun this time. So the weekend after the Kepler, we (a slightly rearranged but equally stellar) group of friends planned a trip to complete the Routeburn journey."
Joining the Hunt
"Desperate to ride a horse, I planned a riding excursion for my Saturday. I was desperate to ride. I needed to ride. Of all the things I have missed the most about home, it has been riding horses. I miss my equestrian team, my horses, and I miss riding. It’s funny how something buries itself so deep in your blood that no matter how hard you try to shake it, you just can’t get rid of the temptation to love it. For me, that is horses. And to cure that urge, I was going horseback riding.
A few weeks ago, I was browsing in the Galway tourism center where I caught sight of an entire row of brochures dedicated specifically to horseback riding. I gathered at least half a dozen pamphlets and emailed the ones closest to Galway. Soon, I received an email from Dartfield Riding Centre and Horse Museum that said they would be happy to pick me up from the bus stop in the town closest to the riding center. I jumped on the opportunity to have a chance to ride and set up for a half-day trek."
Ups, Downs and Adventures Galore
Sammy in Townsville, Australia
"Since my last posts, so much has happened. I’m thoroughly enjoying my time here and halfway through the semester. With mid-semester break about to start, I’ve got some crazy-exciting trips coming up SO SOON. But first, I will recap the major highlights:..."
Weekend Trip to Amsterdam
Margaret in Edinburgh, Scotland
"Amsterdam was probably one of my favorite travels so far- I would definitely recommend it if you plan on studying abroad. One of my closest friends is studying abroad in Rome, and we planned to meet in Amsterdam for a fun weekend. It was sad to say goodbye on Monday morning, but I will see her again in a month back in the United States! Crazy!
For the first day, we walked through Albert Cuyp Market- a street market just outside of Amsterdam’s concentric canals. After, we headed to the Heineken Brewery for a tour. This was my second time touring a brewery, the first one was Guinness, and I definitely preferred Heineken. It wasn’t as crowded and we still got a pint! Our last stop for the day was the Anne Frank House. It was a very interesting museum, I appreciated the tour, and it was fascinating to learn more about Anne Frank’s life and the other people involved in her story."
And We Danced All Night
"My eyes grew more and more tired by the minute. I let out a slight yawn and covered my mouth to try to hide it. I rested my head on my hand and debated my plans for the night. Arie and Sarah want to go to a “silent disco” after listening to music and Monroe’s. I was torn on what to do. On one hand, I was curious to see what a “silent disco” actually was, but on the other hand, I haven’t had much sleep in the past several nights and was on the verge of being exhausted. And when I get exhausted, I get sick… When they mentioned the disco, I told them I was still thinking if I would go or not. Sarah seems to think it is like a club and I hate clubs. They are dirty, trashy, and not my type of fun, so I definitely did not want to be a part of that. But what if it isn’t anything like that? What if I miss out on something? When Arie and Sarah agreed that we could go within the next few minutes, I inched closer to making my move to leave. But when they both said that if it was lame, we could leave to get food, I convinced myself to go. At least they also did not have such high hopes for the silent disco. I gave myself a mini-pep talk and then followed the girls around the corner from Monroe’s to the pub holding the silent disco."
I'm basically Bragging
"I can still say I honestly love my classes. Some a little more than others, but they're all great. Before I came here, everyone said the classes would be over 100 people. Since I'm an art major that doesn't seem to apply? My largest lecture is maybe 40 people, and then the tutorial is 1/3 of that. So my classes are all not very big. It makes things a lot easier. The coolest thing is my photography teacher, who lets me do basically whatever. I told him at the beginning that I already took a ton of photo classes, so if I wasn't paying attention he shouldn't be offended. This past week we all printed nice copies of our Portraiture project. I did this awesome self-portrait series about my gender identity, ranging from: the misconception of gender being a binary, practicing how you express your gender, and the frustration to be recognized. I'm not sure I'm describing this right. I find it really dramatic; its got a lot of contrast, a cool color palette, and I finished with 7 or 8 of them. The image I attached this week is one of the images that wasn't included in the final 3 to hand in. My teacher picked up on the frustration and he said “struggle” when relating to this. I wish I could come up with a title for this one or any of the others, but I can't detach myself enough to come up with that."