Jayhawks Abroad
There are numerous opportunities for engineering and computer science students to study abroad. This ongoing blog highlights the travels of some of these students as they learn away from Mount Oread.
Stone Dodson is a native of Tulsa, Okla., studying mechanical engineering. He plans to graduate in 2012.
April 20, 2011
Chinese Holiday
The routine falls in and things start to become easier. All the small things – getting a haircut, ordering food, finding good toothpaste – that once were near impossible have worked their kinks out. So much trial and error, so many instances where the cultures clash, most of these now have now smoothed themselves.
It’s nice finally considering this new place home. Where once I considered myself nothing more than a long time tourist, I now see myself as some part of the society, even as a foreigner. Over time this place has become less foreign. America seems more foreign at this point in time. I am accustomed to the pace of life and the way things in this organized chaos fall into place.
So here I am, welcome me home China, you only got me for four more months. A couple weekends back was the Tomb Sweeping Holiday. All the family goes to their ancestor’s tomb and cleans the tomb to pay respect. This is a traditional Chinese holiday, but has only been largely celebrated in the past couple years. The government decided to call off school and encourage this holiday because so many Chinese youth are abandoning their traditional holidays for western holidays. Yeah, Valentines Day and Halloween are big here.
So thanks to the Chinese government, I was granted two days off of class. To celebrate I decided to make a trip to Mongolia. The weather is starting to get hot here in Beijing, so I thought north would have some good weather at this time.
A Mission to Mongolia
Not really knowing what to expect, I started on the 10-hour train ride and booked a hotel. I thought I got some looks in Beijing, but I must be considered very foreign in Mongolia. My guide told me that out of the 2 million people in the city I was staying in, there were maybe only 100 foreigners.
We spent a day in the city going to the temples. The Five Pagoda Temple and the Da Zhao Temple were the largest ones in the city. Both very well done, but they were in the middle of the city. Surrounding these temples were large buildings that provided little, if only ruining the moment.
That night, we felt that we needed to get out of the city and see real Mongolia. We booked a double trip to the grasslands and the desert. That next morning we woke up at 6 a.m. to meet our guide and drive a couple hours out of the city to the grasslands.
We were greeted with silk scarves and a shot of Mongolian milk liquor in a horn. As they sung traditional Mongolian songs, we dipped our ring finger in the liquor, flicking up once to the heaven once down to earth, and a dab on our forehead, before taking the drink. This is a traditional Mongolia greeting. In the grasslands, people were few and far between, so when visitors came they were offered home made liquor to warm them from the trip and show their welcome.
We were then given horses to ride across the grassland. We used obelisks created as landmarks and holy places to guide us around the grasslands. After several hours on horseback, we returned to camp for dinner. We were invited to stay the night in a yurt. Dirt ground, leather walls, small blankets, -5° C, all sounded great but that five star hotel waiting for you in the city a couple hours away after spending the day on horseback was a little more appealing.
The next morning we started our trek to the desert. It wasn’t really a trek, more a five-hour car ride, but nonetheless after a day on horseback, any traveling seems like a trek. Our guide took us to the desert. All of a sudden everything just turns to sand; fine yellow sand.
We parked and took a gondola over a valley to get into the desert. Once there, we strapped on some sand socks and got our camels. I was a little reluctant to ride the camels after my first experience with riding animals in Mongolia, but I found myself enjoying this camel. The two of us got along much better than I did with the horse. There was a lot less bucking.
We rode to some sand sculptures and relaxed in the sand. The desert is calming. It has a tendency to put things into perspective with its size. You can look out for miles and see nothing. We were taken to the train station that night to catch the overnight back to Beijing. It was good to get out of the big city and breathe some fresh air, see the sun, slow down.
Back in the U.S.
Last week I had to travel back to America. After landing in Chicago, I was so used to life in China I accidentally spoke Chinese to the customs officer before looking around the airport realizing I was actually in America.
In China, I always thought about what my first meal was going to be in America. First meal was a massive burger with blue cheese, French fries, and a Bloody Mary. It was pretty great.
The re-entry shock was much more noticeable than the culture shock entering China; seeing houses, traffic laws, trees. I have begun to appreciate the little things.
After only four days in America, it was time to travel back to China. I didn’t even have time to catch up the first jet lag. Two Wednesdays in a row and no Monday really have an impact on your sleeping patterns. The flight back was miserable, as to be expected, but life was quickly back to usual. When you have a home to come back to, the process of settling is much easier.
March 21, 2011
Overbooked and On the Move
After the university overbooked the dorms, Colin and I had to find an apartment in Beijing. This may have been one of the most challenging and frustrating things I have ever attempted in my life.
In Beijing, you have to go through a booking agency in order to book a flat. This does not seem like a hard task, but in a booking agency nobody speaks English. To overcome this, we brought a local friend from Beijing, named Xiao, with us. After going to about three different booking agencies, we finally found one that would rent to foreigners.
We took bikes from the leasing office to a flat right around our University. After arriving at the apartment, we realized there was no way we could live there. It was terrible. It was in a basement and it had water dripping off the cement walls, no windows, no floors, and no furniture. To say the least we could not live there. So we were defeated, Beijing had beaten us, so we thought.
About a week earlier Colin met a girl named Kelly in Starbucks. Her boyfriend just moved back to Philadelphia that week and she needed someone to take over his lease for the remainder of the lease duration. This seemed perfect. We called her and the flat was right across the street from the Hostel we had been staying at the past month. (FYI: A month at a hostel is too long.)
Anyway, we checked out the place, got a good price, put down a deposit, and signed the lease that night. Well, you could say we rushed into this a little fast. That next Monday, we had a meeting with our international coordinator. He said he felt so bad about the university overbooking the dorms that he would give us his old apartment. His place was closer to campus, cheaper, bigger, and much nicer. This caused somewhat of a problem, seeing as we had already paid a deposit and signed a lease for the other flat. After about an hour argument and ¥1000 later, the old lease was torn up. We moved in that next week into our new place. It’s about a 15-20 minute bus ride to campus, but it is good enough to call home for the next couple months. Thanks to Jeff Guo for hooking us up with the new place.
A Learning Experience
School has started. In our program, there are only three Americans and we are two of them. Again, why aren’t more American students traveling here? It’s kind of nice being the only Americans, it gives you a chance to get outside the bubble and meet people from all around the world, from all cultures.
I thought the hostel was worldly, but it was nothing compared to class here. The majority of students are from Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia. The rest are from South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Everyone you meet here is interesting. There is never a lack of conversation because everyone wants to learn about each other’s cultures. We have some Thai friends organizing our trip to Thailand right now – booking hotels, flights, transportation, everything. They want us to experience their culture and want us to learn what their lives are all about.
Classes here in China are very different. The teaching style is much different than in the states. Because of the lack of intellectual property laws, the university is able to copy and sell books at a tremendous discount. Unfortunately, this also means that the textbooks are a little outdated, like 2003 outdated. That’s okay though, because what you learn just from living in China is more valuable than anything you can learn in a class. Learning to cope with the adversity of a culture and language barrier, becoming accustomed to the way and pace of life. Learning is experience, and this is one hell of an experience.
Hitting the Heights in Shanghai
Last weekend, Colin and I made a trip to Shanghai to check out the city and meet up with some friends we have in the city. We left Wednesday night around 10:30 on a hard sleeper overnight train. The train station here is massive. I have never seen so many people so rushed to get onto trains. There must be at least one hundred trains leaving this station with tens of thousands of people each day.
On the train, we were stacked three high in hard beds. As first time hard sleeper travelers, and being the only ones that spoke English, Colin and I had somewhat of a hard time figuring out what to do. We thought we chose our beds, but this was not the case. It took us about 10 minutes to climb to the top bunk, hitting our heads on the ceiling and luggage racks. Sweating at the top of the three-person bunk from the climb, we were quickly corrected that you cannot choose your own bed, but are assigned one. This made sense after the fact. So we moved down and tried to sleep.
Arriving in Shanghai around 11 a.m. the next day, we started our trip. We got off to a somewhat of a bad start. It took about two hours to find the hostel we were staying at because I wrote down the wrong address. I take the blame for this. That night we met up with our friends for dinner: Michelle and Kelsey, who go to Fudan University in Shanghai, and Louise, a friend from England who also attends university in Shanghai.
We got a great dinner, had a couple beers at the bund, and then the girls had to retire early because of early classes the next day. We then met a student from Denmark, named Andreas, who is here on vacation staying at his parent’s place in Shanghai. He joined the crew and we went to explore Shanghai in all of its glory until about 5 a.m. It was a good time to say the least.
The next day we did the tourist thing. First stop, the Financial Center. This is the tallest building in Shanghai (and third highest in the world). At 492 meters (1,614 feet) in the air, the view is outstanding. It was an image I will never forget, and I’ll have to remember it, ‘cause I forgot my camera. After having a martini above Shanghai, we descended and made our way back to the bund. So you know that image you have of Shanghai with the tall buildings? The one that looks like the future? That’s the view from the bund.
Shanghai’s development is impressive, much more so than Beijing, but Shanghai has very little tradition left in it. Shanghai is New York. It is busy, crowded, and very western. There is little history left in Shanghai other than the history of its fast money and growth. This is Shanghai. This is a city about growth, development, and the future. It focuses on the wellbeing of China’s economic and financial future. They seem to be doing well with this.
Feb. 15, 2011
On the eve of departure, it’s hard to feel anything but surreal. Fourteen hour flights are much more manageable in business class. Surprisingly, the flight was empty. Shouldn’t more people be flying to China?
Arriving in Beijing at around 2 a.m., I was met at the airport by Colin, my new homey from Minneapolis for the next six months. We promptly were taken advantage of by the local cab drivers. 300 ¥ from the airport, it should’ve been less than 100 ¥, but we didn’t know any better. At our hotel, we had a single room, not much bigger than a closet. It initially seemed like a nice place. Unfortunately, there were few amenities, like electricity. This made the Starbucks down the street the go-to spot for keeping in touch with the rest of the world.
After a couple nights at the hotel, we met a Canadian in the Forbidden City that told us about his hostel. Free Wi-Fi, restaurant, western toilets, and a bar. The next day we moved into the hostel. Living at a hostel was easily the best choice we have made all trip.
Culture Under Pressure
With all of the development in China, Beijing has begun to lose its traditions --traditional dress, traditional living, traditional culture. The Houhai district holds some of the most classic tradition in Beijing. Small shops, restaurants, and bars are situated in single story buildings that have stood for more than 200 years. Holding as a beautiful cultural landmark, it is impossible to express in words how deep the tradition runs in Houhai.
Unfortunately, this area is unable to keep up with the current development speed. China’s government is planning a new subway line through the area and wants to build over Houhai. Sun Feiyang grew up in Beijing. She is a university student at UIBE. For the past 22 years, she has watched her hometown crumble under its own success. Grateful for the money and opportunity the rapid development brings to the city, she said it’s hard to see the tradition leave. The government will pay 150,000 ¥ per sq. meter to relocate the citizens in this area.
You cannot put a price on Houhai. You cannot pay out culture. There will be generations that will not experience true Beijing, people that will only see the city as business and money. Beijing’s wealth of culture and tradition far overshadow the wealth of new business in China.
Hostel living has its perks. Last night Colin and I met a Parisian named Gael who was stopping over in Beijing for his world tour, two Irish, Séamus and Sinéad, here for vacation, and a Swiss, Tommy, here for travel. Unexpectedly, we are the only Americans. This is not too bad. I think Colin and I have repped America pretty well.
Last night, we were fortunate enough to be taken around by Feiyang. The best way to learn a culture is to eat and drink with the people who grew up here, hear some stories of life in China from the people who have lived here their whole lives. She took us for some hot pot. Easily the best meal we have had in Beijing. A boiling pot of water heated by an open flame with coals in the center cooks the raw food given to you by the restaurant. Along with the lamb, beef, and assorted vegetables, Feiyang insisted we order some baijiu, a type of rice wine. She is planning on taking us to a real Beijing restaurant next week that serves classic Beijing food. We are bound to run into something new there.
Currently, it is snowing in Beijing. After over a month of drought, this is the first precipitation in Beijing. The snow calms the city down, makes things look less industrial. It is hard for me to write about this place because of the amount of information and change I’ve been taking in the past couple days. Words do not do this justice.
Today there are blue skies. The first blue skies I have seen here in Beijing. This is because the factories shut down during the Chinese New Year last week. With the factories shut down it gives Beijing a chance to breath. Now, the factories are back on, and in a couple days they’ll fill the city with pollution and smog blocking the view of the sun and sky.
Making Friends
Yesterday, we met Kerry and Surge. An American from St. Paul, Minn., and a Canadian from Vancouver. Both have lived here four years and have a good grip on life in Beijing. Kerry is an English teacher living in our area with his brother and a girl from Beijing. Surge was here planning to travel in China for six months. That was four years ago and he is still here. We met up with them later that night at Sanlitun. Sanlitun is an area famous for its small bars and shops.
After a night on the town, we played some xaizi, a dice game that is like yahtzee and poker, almost. Everyone plays it so its a must learn. Around 2 am is when Kerry, Colin, and I decided to plan our May Festival vacation. Looks like Thailand is going to be hosting us for a couple days in May. Kerry invited us back to his place to meet his roommates and listen to his music. Did I mention Kerry is a rapper? A white guy, from St. Paul, rapping, in Beijing, in Chinese. You meet some interesting people here.
There is no downtown in Beijing. It is all downtown. Everywhere you look, tall buildings and complexes are going up. Around the university alone, there are seven, 30-plus story buildings going up. The rate of development here is much more rapid than in the states. I have never seen so much construction. But within all this development are some of the greatest sites I have ever seen.
So I am a little late on writing about the touristy sites we have visited. Tiananmen Square. Forbidden City. Temple of Heaven. There are too many to count here in Beijing. This is the true historical capital of China. Some of the largest most beautiful sites I have ever witnessed are here in Beijing. We are going to wait ‘til the summer to see some of the others. Summer Palace, Great Wall, etc. I really think it’s going to take me the entire six months to even scratch the surface of Beijing. I will have to devote some serious time to trying to write about these sites. So that is to be continued.
Financial Stress
So I have lost my debit card in Beijing. After only five days. My only access to money here in the city. This has made things a little more difficult. I brought a credit card for this very emergency situation, but for some reason very few places here in Beijing take cards. And when you do, the fees are terrible.
My strategy before I lost my card was to withdraw ridiculous amounts of money from the ATM’s and use that for the duration until I run out. Now I understand this may not be the most reasonable way to conduct myself financially in Beijing but it was working out pretty well -- until I lost my card. After three hours on the phone with Commerce Bank and Visa, they agreed to overnight a new card to Beijing. I just received this card today. I am relieved, but now I have to pay back the loans my roommate has been giving me. So words from the wise; take some back up travelers checks or additional cards because what can go wrong very well may go wrong. And when your stuck in China for six months, those things become much harder to deal with.
Mary Adams is a native of Lawrence, Kan., studying architectural engineering. She plans to graduate in 2013.
Nov. 18, 2010
The past couple of weeks have been a plethora of traveling, school, and yummy food. I have now been in Europe for nine weeks as of Wednesday. Colin will be arriving Saturday morning (yay!!) and will be here for nine days during his Thanksgiving Break. We have a wonderful tripped plan throughout England. My last blog ended with me leaving for the Peak District, so I think it is only appropriate to pick up where I left off.
Oct. 29-31, 2010
About 25 members of the Exeter Climbing Club left Friday evening on a six-hour drive to the Peak District, located northeast of Exeter. It was an easy, fun drive, listening to American classics and popular British jams. We arrived at the Boy Scout's cabin where we would be staying for the weekend. After a little bit of socializing, I hit the sack to rest for tomorrow's climbing.
Saturday morning we woke early to eat some breakfast, drink a cup o' tea, and get suited up for our climbing. We went to Stanage, located about 10 minutes away, which is one of the best climbing places in the Peak District. It was so windy and cold at Stanage, but the sun was shining. I wore two pairs of trousers and three coats, and I was still cold! But it was a beautiful and fun day of climbing, despite my hands being frozen the entire time...
After the day of climbing, we headed back to the town to get cleaned up and get some hot food. We ate at a delicious pub. I got the Day's Roast: turkey, potatoes, veggies, and gravy. It definitely hit the spot! After dinner, we headed back to the cabin. We all hung out for a while, playing games and chatting. The next day would be another early one! Sunday, we went to Burbage, about a 15 minute drive from the cabin. When we got to Burbage, it was extremely foggy. I could only see about 20-30 feet in front of me. It turned out to be my favorite day of climbing though. It was the first time my hands weren't completely frozen while climbing, so it was wonderful.
We headed home from Burbage around 4:30 p.m. and got back to Exeter around 11:30 p.m. I definitely did not have enough energy to go out for Halloween, so I took a much needed shower, ate some dinner, and headed to bed!
Mary (in blue jacket) climbing at Stanage.
Group picture at Burbage.
Base camp at Burbage.
Nov. 5, 2010
Friday, I went shopping around Exeter's High Street with Tara. Exeter has so many wonderful shops, so it was really fun to get out and explore them. I got some wonderful new clothes and did some Christmas shopping. I also booked my parent's Bed & Breakfast for when they come in December. The 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Day. Guy Fawkes is the man who tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder in 1605, but failed. Today, towns all over England set of fireworks and have huge bonfires in celebration of Guy Fawkes' failure. One town, The Ottery St. Mary, celebrates Guy Fawkes Day by running around the streets with flaming tar barrels. This is where I went. The Ottery St. Mary is located about a 30 minute drive from Exeter. I took a bus with my flatmates to the event. It was so crazy. I wasn't really sure what to expect, probably something much more structured than what actually was happening. But it was a wonderful time. Tens of thousands of people packed the streets as locals (men, women, and youth) ran through the streets with tar barrels on fire. They ran through the crowd, inches away from spectators. It was quite an experience, and I'm so happy I got to be there.
A person runs through the crowd with a flaming tar barrel on Guy Fawkes Day.
Mary Adams near a flaming tar barrel on Guy Fawkes Day.
Nov. 6, 2010
Saturday, I learned how to make a British apple crumble from scratch, using no measuring cups. One of my friends taught Tara and me how to make an apple crumble, and it was so delicious. We made it for the birthday of one of the climbing club members -- definitely a success and recipe that I'm bringing back to America. Yum!
Nov. 7, 2010
Sunday, I went coasteering with the Exeter Expedition Society in Infracombe, a town north of Exeter. Coasteering is basically jumping off of cliffs into the water. I put on a winter wet suit, helmet, life jacket, and Primark shoes, and headed out to the water. We started with jumping off one meter high ledges into the seawater and worked our way up to jumping off of cliffs about seven meters above the water. It was so much fun. The water was quite cold, and the waves were kind of rough, so we had to fight against them to prevent ourselves from slamming into the rocks, but I loved every moment of it.
View of Infracombe from the car.
Mary Adams preparing for coasteering.
Nov. 12-14, 2010
Friday, I headed to Bristol in the morning. I would be flying to Dublin the following day with four other girls from my flat. Three of us spent the day in Bristol sight-seeing. It was a rainy day, but luckily there was a wonderful, free City Museum.
The other two girls met us in the evening in Bristol, and we all headed to our hostel located near the Bristol airport. Our flight to Dublin was at 6:30 a.m., so we would have a very early morning. Saturday, we arrived at the Bristol Airport at 4:30 a.m.
We checked into our flight and then headed to Starbucks for a hot cup o' joe. The flight from Bristol to Dublin was only 55 minutes, so we arrived in Dublin quite early. We took the bus from the airport to the Dublin bus station. Our hostel, Isaac's Hostel, was located right next to the bus station, so it was a perfect location. We checked into our hostel, and then took a bus to Newgrange (or Bru na Boinne in Irish Gaeilge), a 5200-year-old structure. I learned about it in my architecture history class last semester, so I was really excited to be able to visit. After Newgrange, we headed back to Dublin.
When we got back it was evening, so we walked down to Colsten Street, one of the major Dublin streets, did some shopping, and then went to a traditional Irish Pub. I shared a delicious seafood platter with Tara, and drank the must-have beverage of Dublin. Sunday morning, we woke early and headed out at 7:30 a.m. to do power-sight-seeing. Our flight would be leaving at 1:00pm, so we only had a couple of hours to see the city. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. No cars were out, so it was a great way to see the city. Unfortunately, because we were out so early on a Sunday, everything was closed, so we had to just look from the outside. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful morning.
That afternoon, we flew back to Bristol and met up with friend. We all went to his parents house and met his family. His mom baked us a delicious chocolate cake, and then we went to a pub for dinner. After a long weekend, we finally climbed onto our bus back to Exeter. I slept the whole ride home.
Cathedral in Bristol.
City Museum in Bristol.
Dublin at 7:30 a.m..
Trinity College in Dublin.
A solar compactor garbage bin at Trinity College.
Nov. 15, 2010
Monday marked the start of a series of international cooking nights. This week my flatmates decided to have an international dinner for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Best. Idea. Ever. Monday night was Japanese sushi night. Ayana, the girl from Japan in my flat, made sushi for my 12 flatmates and me. It was so delicious.
Nov. 16, 2010
Tuesday: Spanish Tapas Night. Four students from Barcelona live in my flat, plus three more that live in the flat above me. The seven of them prepared delicious Spanish tapas and sangria for my flat. Wonderful, wonderful food.
Nov. 17, 2010
Wednesday, Swiss Cheese Fondue Night. One of the guys, Adrian, from my flat is from Switzerland. He made a wonderful swiss cheese fondue. We dipped bread and potatoes into the cheese. It was delicious and heavy. I was ready to go to sleep afterwards.
Nov. 18, 2010
All of the Americans in my block are planning a huge Thanksgiving dinner for the entire Lafrowda Block F. We are expecting around 50 people. We're having the dinner next Wednesday night (Thursday night didn't work for most people). It's going to be amazing. Today after class, I went to High Street to take care of some errands. I went to the farmer's market and did some Christmas shopping for my family. I am now trying to be productive and get schoolwork finished before Colin arrives in London Saturday morning, but my productivity hasn't set it yet. I think I'm too excited... !Hasta Luego!
Mary Adams is a native of Lawrence, Kan., studying architectural engineering. She plans to graduate in 2013.
Oct. 29, 2010
I left the US six and a half weeks ago, which brings my study abroad to almost halfway over. That's hard for me to believe! I am having such an amazing time in Exeter and traveling. I ended my last blog with rock climbing in Portland, so I think it's only appropriate to say that I'm getting ready to leave for a weekend-long climbing trip to the Peak District in England. It will be a six-hour drive to a beautiful national park northeast of Exeter. I am SO excited! But before I get ahead of myself, I need to backtrack to my experiences since my last blog.
Oct. 18, 2010
Monday I had my first archaeology/forensics lab. It was a magnetometry lab where my group and I laid out a 20 meter by 20 meter grid and walked around a field with a magnetometer that took magnetic readings of the ground. It is used to find walls and hearths that are buried in the ground. We had to be completely metal-free, so I decked out my my Kansas sweatshirt, sweatpants, and rainboots.
After lab, I headed to High Street to do my grocery shopping. Self-checkout lanes are extremely popular here, but I've realized that I've never been through a self-checkout without needing some sort of assistance. Either my own bags that I'm using cause problems or my ID needs checking or I can't figure out how to buy vegetables without a barcode on them. Nonetheless, the lines move much more quickly than the regular check-outs. I've also noticed that none of the self-checkouts are in spanish. I've gotten so used to that back in US, I usually do my self-checkout in Spanish because I think it's fun. I don't even have the option here...
Oct. 19, 2010
I made a delicious stir-fry pasta with all the vegetables I bought at the store the previous day. Food spoils fast here, so I have to cook it quickly after I buy it. I made a tomato, mushroom, red/green/yellow pepper, carrot, and broccoli mix with stir-fry sauce and noodles. Soooo good. I've been doing really well with cooking with fresh vegetables here.
Oct. 21, 2010
I had my first exam in Exeter today. It was in my solid mechanics class. It went pretty well, a little tricky though. Luckily, I think that was the general consensus of the class. I am really enjoying all of my classes here. All of my professors are really great. Apparently, all of my classes are co-taught, though. I will be getting new professors in my classes in a couple of weeks.
I went on the Exeter Ghost Tour tonight. It was really fun, but similar to the "Murder and Mayhem" tour I went on a couple of weeks ago. On the ghost tour, we went to a park where the guide said it was supposedly haunted. He had these little metal bars that "detected ghosts if they spun." We got to try them out, and they spun a lot OooooO!! We also went down to a cellar below a pub on the ghost tour that is supposedly haunted. They have a real skeleton down there It was really creepy...
Skeleton on display in pub cellar.
Oct. 22, 2010
I don't have classes on Fridays, so I spent the afternoon working on homework. In the evening, I went over to one of my Italian friend's flats for tea and dinner. It was so fun to meet all of her flatmates. She lives with several international students also, so we were all practicing foreign languages. They either spoke or were learning Italian or French, and I could actually understand much of what they were saying because of knowing some Spanish. It was so amazing! I learned a very important Italian phrase which means "good luck": "In bocca al lupo" which is answered by "Crepi." The literal translation is "In the mouth of the wolf" and is answered by "Die."
Oct. 23, 2010
Today I went to Bath. It was so wonderful! Half of the time it was raining, so I had a bath in Bath. I went on a day-trip organized my the university. I started off by going to The Circus (not a real circus, a big round-a-bout on the way to the Royal Crescent) and then to the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is a line of houses built in the crescent shape. It was really neat!
In front the Royal Crescent.
Statue of author Jane Austen.
After the Royal Crescent, we headed down to the Jane Austen museum. We didn't have time for a tour, but we took pictures with her statue. After Jane Austen, we headed to the Roman Baths, the main attraction of Bath. The Roman Baths were right next to the Bath Abbey, a beautiful cathedral. The Roman Baths were amazing. The complex was so big! We started out by walking through a big museum that had history about the Romans.
Bath Abbey.
At the Great Bath.
I have so much respect for architectural models after taking architecture studios. They had a demo of how the Roman's used a double-pully system to make lifting blocks easier. Yay Physics! After walking through the museum, we finally got to the Roman Baths. There were so many different types of baths and rooms used by men and/or women. There was a lot of really great information there about how the different rooms were used. Included in our ticket to the Roman Baths was a "free glass of healing water from the Baths." Cool idea, but it tasted terrible! And my ailments didn't seemed healed after my few sips. Maybe I needed to finish the glass.
Cheers to healing waters.Following the Roman Bath, we headed next door to the Bath Abbey. A choir practice was going on while we were in the cathedral, which was pretty cool. The acoustics of the cathedral sounded really neat. After the Bath Abbey, we stopped to get sandwiches for lunch, and headed to an indoor market because the rain started up again. The market had all sorts of things: jewelry, clothes, Halloween costumes, fruits, cheeses, pastries, cafe, haircutter... It was really neat! It was located in the Bath Guildhall. Bath was such a beautiful city. I recommend it to everyone. All of the main attractions are all within a 10 minute walk of each other.
Oct. 24, 2010
A group of boys from my block are on an intramural football (soccer) team, so a big group of us went to watch them play their first match on Sunday. They lost the match, but still had a great time playing. The weather was beautiful with the sun shining and cool breeze blowing.
Watching a soccer match.
Watching the soccer match with friends.
Oct. 29, 2010
Now it's already Friday, October 29th. I can't believe how time is moving so quickly. This past week I've been working on homework and hanging out with my flatmates! I leave for climbing in 10 minutes, and will return Sunday, October 31st, Halloween!!! Yay!
Mary Adams is a native of Lawrence, Kan., studying architectural engineering. She plans to graduate in 2013.
Oct. 2, 2010: I have now been in Exeter for three weeks. I joined the Rock Climbing Club, Expedition Society, and International Society at Exeter. I am taking three classes at Exeter: solid mechanics, water resources and pollution control, as well as archaeological and forensics science practicals. So far I am really enjoying my classes and all of my professors are really great. I went today on a Jurassic Coast Cruise organized through the University of Exeter. We took a bus to Exmouth, and then did a boat tour along the Jurassic Coast all afternoon. It was a beautiful day sitting on a boat looking at the gorgeous coast. After the Jurassic Coastal Tour, I went to the Old Firehouse House to celebrate a birthday one of my friends. It is a beautiful three-story pub that is known for its excellent pizza. I must say the pizza was delicious.
Oct. 3-4, 2010: Sunday, Oct. 3, was the activities fair at Exeter where we sign up for all the clubs and societies that we want to join. The fair was all over the campus and so active. I joined three societies: The Rock Climbing Club, Expedition Society, and International Society. Monday was my first day of class; I have my archaeology and forensics class. A totally new subject that should be really interesting.
Oct. 6-7, 2010: Exeter City Council offers about 20 different free walking tours of Exeter on a variety of different topics. On Wednesday evening, some of my friends and I went on a "Murder and Mayhem" walking tour of Exeter. Our tour guide was really great. He showed us all around Exeter and told us of the Murder and Mayhem past Exeter has experienced, including this location that was the site of the trial for the last people in England executed for witchraft.
Thursday afternoon we went on another walking tour of Exeter, "Exeter New and Old." It was a great tour that showed us all around Exeter during the day, including a memorial to Exeter residents who were victims of bombings in World War II.
Memorial to Exeter residents who were victims of bombings in World War II
Location of the trial for the last people in England executed for witchraftOct. 9, 2010: Saturday I did my first outdoor rock climbing. I went with the rock climbing club to Meadfoot Quarry near Torquay. It was about a 50-minute drive from Exeter, and it was right along the coast. It was really pretty, but so cold. I learned how to belay and tie all the special knots to keep our ropes attached to our harnesses. It was a great day.
Rock climbing base camp at Meadfoot Quarry
My first outdoor climb. So fun!
Oct. 10, 2010: Sunday, Tara and I went to the Quay in Exeter to see the riverfront and eat dinner. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We ate at The Waterfront, a restaurant with delicious pizza. We shared a Hawaiian pizza and found Exeter City Wall ruins on our walk to the Quay.
Ruins of Exeter City wall
Oct. 14, 2010: Thursday night, Tara and I went on the "Carabiner Pub Crawl" with the Climbing Club. We attached ourselves to each other using carabiners, and went to some nice pubs. It was a really fun way to get to know people in the club. And interesting having to walk attached to each other.
The Climbing Club all attached to each other with carabiners
Oct. 15, 2010: I don't have class on Fridays, so today I left for Cardiff, Wales at 12:30. I would be meeting three girls from my flat in Cardiff, but we all had to leave at different times because the cost of the train tickets kept going up as each of us would buy one. The train went from Exeter to Bristol, and then to Cardiff. It would be about a two-hour trip. It was a really beautiful ride. I sat next to a man from Liverpool for part of the trip that had the strongest accent ever. It was so cool, but actually very difficult to understand. When I got to Cardiff, I got a map of Cardiff from the train station, and then I walked around the main street for a little while. I then set out to find our hotel, which was a little ways from the City Centre. I ended up not being able to find the hotel, so I headed back to the train station to meet Tara who would be arriving in Cardiff next. When Tara arrived, we set out together to find our hotel. After being sent in opposite directions by people, we finally found our hotel, Mercure The Lodge. We settled into our hotel, and then Kelsey and Kaye arrived, our other two travelers. Starving after our day of travels, we headed to Cardiff Bay, about a 15 minute walk from our hotel, to find food.Cardiff Bay was so beautiful at night. The Wales Millennium Stadium was so cool all lit up. There was also a huge water statue that had water cascading down the sides. We ate at a delicious burger restaurant at Cardiff Bay. I had a mango burger that was amazing. I love mangoes, so it made my night. We finished the evening with ice-cream at the bay, and going back to the hotel to play some cards: spoons and Egyptian Ratscrew. The next day would be an early one to go see castles.
Wales Millennium Stadium at Cardiff Bay
Cardiff Bay, water sculpture on the right
Oct. 16, 2010: Saturday morning we woke up early to get ready for our day. We checked out of our hotel, but left our bags at the hotel so we won't have to carry them all day. We walked back to Cardiff Bay so that we could see it during the day, and to grab a quick breakfast. After breakfast at Cardiff Bay, we headed in to the City Centre to catch a bus to Castle Coch and Caerphilly Castle. They were both just a couple of miles outside of Cardiff. We bought an "Explorers" bus pass for the day where we could use the bus as much as we needed, and headed off to Castle Coch. Castle Coch is known for being a "fairy tale" Castle. It is set up in the hillside, and all of the rooms are decorated really cute.
Castle Coch
The moat at Caerphilly Castle
After Castle Coch, we grabbed some lunch in the small town we were in, and then took the bus to Caerphilly Castle, the largest castle in Wales. Caerphilly Castle was amazing. It was so huge, and beautiful. The weather in Wales while we were there was perfect, sunny and a little breezy. After Caerphilly Castle we took the bus back to Cardiff. We had planned to go to Cardiff Castle, but when we got there, it was really expensive to go in. Since we had just seen the largest castle in Wales, we decided we didn't need to go to Cardiff Castle too. Instead, we did a little bit of shopping and ate dinner. We then headed over to the Millennium Stadium. The Millennium Stadium is a 72,500 occupancy stadium built for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The stadium will be used for football in the 2012 London Olympic Games. We walked along the river running alongside the Millennium stadium until it was time to catch our 7 p.m. train back to Exeter.
Caerphilly Castle
Trebuchets Caerphilly Castle
Oct. 17, 2010: I returned late Saturday night, and headed out for climbing Sunday morning at 8 a.m. The climbing club went to Portland, 2 hours away from Exeter. It was the most beautiful day of climbing. It was so sunny, and we were right along the coast again!
Coastal England town of Portland
Rock climbing in Portland
At lunch time, we walked to a new location to practice leading. I didn't do an "official" lead climb, but I practiced hooking my rope to the carabiners along the way. After climbing, the group stopped for traditional English fish and chips for dinner. It was pretty good, but I don't think my body can handle that much grease. I think I will limit my intake of fish and chips while I'm here...
Mary Adams is a native of Lawrence, Kan., studying architectural engineering. She plans to graduate in 2013.
Sept. 15-16, 2010: I started out my study abroad to Exeter, England by going on a trip in mainland Europe with my older sister, Jane, for 10 days. My classes in Exeter do not start until Oct. 4, so I figured I should do some traveling before classes start. Jane and I flew separately to Munich and my aunt Kathy, who lives in Munich, picked us up from the airport. Due to a miscommunication, I ended up not uniting with my family in the Munich airport for five hours. Finally, I heard my name over the loud speaker saying, “Mary Adams, please report to the information desk immediately,” and realized they were looking for me. We finally found each other and drove back to my aunt and uncle Andi's apartment in Munich. Jane and I would be spending one night there, and then head to Salzburg, Austria the next day. Our rough plan was to start in Munich, head to Salzburg, Vienna, and then to Budapest, Hungary. We each had hiking packs, which made traveling the trains and cities very easy.
Sept. 17, 2010: Jane and I headed to Salzburg via train from the main Munich train station. It was a very easy 1.5 hour ride. In Salzburg, we stayed at the Yoho International Youth Hostel, which was only a 10 minute walk from the train station.
When we got to the hostel, we dropped off our packs, and rented bikes for the day. Salzburg is a very beautiful city with the Salzach River running through it. We did some sight-seeing through the city; we went up to the fortress, visited churches, and walked through a graveyard with very elaborate gravestones.
We then rode our bikes along the river on a very beautiful bike trail. We stopped at a dam for a snack and fed some ducks. The ducks really liked the Ginger Snaps we gave them and started following us, so we hopped on our bikes, crossed the dam, and continued heading away from Salzburg. We ended up riding into a new town and stopped for quick refreshments. The Alps were all around us, and the scenery was breathtaking. We headed back to Salzburg and rode back to our hostel and checked in for the night. The next day we took the train to Vienna.
Sept. 18, 2010: When we arrived in Vienna mid-morning, Jane and I walked to our hostel, which was about a 10 minute walk from the train station. We met a girl from India named Medha who had been traveling around Europe for a couple of months. She had a similar plan to ours to head into the city to do some sight-seeing, so the three of us headed off to the City Centre together. We had about a 20-minute walk, so along the way we stopped at a stand for yummy pastries. Jane was always excited to get pastries while we were in Europe! The three of us walked to an outdoor market selling an array of fruits, vegetables, breads, cheeses, wines, chocolates, olives, and meats.
We all picked out different foods to share in a picnic in a park. We ate near Karlsplatz and listened to live band in the park.After our lunch, we went to Stephansdom Cathedral and walked around some beautiful parks in Vienna. Near the end of the day, we walked to the palace and gardens of Belvedere, and sat on steps that looked out at Vienna.
Jane brought a book on Hungary with her and found a cute town off of Lake Balaton called Keszthely that looked like a fun place to go. We returned to our hostel and settled into our rooms, and ate at a delicious Greek restaurant down the road. We went to bed early because we had an early train to Keszthely to catch the next morning.
Sept 19, 2010: Our train ride from Vienna to Keszthely was supposed to take a little over four hours, but ended up taking over seven hours. We accidentally missed our stopped to switch trains, so we had to take a much longer route through Budapest. But nonetheless, we made it to Keszthely—a town of about 20,000 people with a beautiful lakeside view. We walked from the itty-bitty train station to our B & B and found that nobody was home. Everything was unlocked, and we were so tired and hungry from traveling all day that we left our bags and a note at the reception and headed into town to find food. We ate at a delicious Mediterranean restaurant and then walked back to the B & B to find that our host was home. Our room was really cute with a nice view of the city and our own bathroom. The B & B was nearly empty because the high season in Keszthely was just ending. Jane and I walked down to the lake after settling in at the B & B. We walked along the pier and took in the beautiful views.
Keszthely and surrounding areas had torrential rainstorms for a week right before we arrived. While we were there, we had beautiful weather, but all of the parks were flooded. While we were walking along the lake, my camera stopped working. It had a “lens error” message that I later learned just randomly happens to Canons. So from here on until I got to Exeter, all of my pictures are on Jane's camera. Exhausted from all of our traveling, Jane and I bought some food from a store near the lake and headed back to the B & B to relax. We chatted on the balcony near our room for several hours and then headed to bed, excited that we could finally sleep in.
Sept. 20, 2010: The next day, Jane and I rented bikes from a tourist shop and rode to a palace in Keszthely. We walked around the gardens and then took a tour of the inside of the palace. The rooms were so beautiful and provided a wonderful view of the city. After the palace, Jane and I rode to Héviz, a town 3 kilometers away that had a big thermal lake in it. We rode down a beautiful bike bath from Keszthely to Héviz that led us directly to the lake. A wellness center was built all around and across the lake. It was so neat. Little fish about 1.5 inches long, ducks, and lotus flowers were in the lake too. Jane and I swam around and relaxed for a while, and then rode back to Keszthely. We grabbed dinner at the same Mediterranean restaurant, and went back to our B & B to clean up and get ready to go to Budapest the next day.
Sept. 21, 2010: Jane and I arrived in Budapest in the afternoon. She has a friend in Budapest that she met while studying abroad, so we stayed with her for two nights. Jane and I explored Castle Hill—a 1 kilometer hill that has tourist sites all over it. We saw the cathedral, Fisherman's Bastion (it provides a beautiful view of the Danube River) and palace. The palace has been converted into a four-story Hungarian National History Museum. Jane's friend Anna then picked us up from the train station and we met her boyfriend and older sister at a traditional Hungarian restaurant. They insisted on ordering all of our food for us. I received beef goulash soup for a starter, and beef goulash (main meal) with potato dumplings. They insisted that any goulash I ate elsewhere (such as when I had it in Salzburg) was not the same, and the goulash is a Hungarian dish. And I must say, it tasted very different and was very delicious, but was a lot of food. Jane and the others all had desserts for the main meals, which seemed to be a common thing for them. I don't know how I ended up with lots of beef goulash and no dessert for my meal. It was so fun being with locals who knew the area and could point out all the best places to see. Anna and her sister drew a route we should take the next day to see sites.
Sept. 25, 2010: Jane and I left Germany today. Jane went back to Wisconsin and I went to London. When I arrived in London in the late afternoon, I checked into my Yotel in the London-Heathrow airport. I would be staying there overnight to catch the University of Exeter Meet and Greet service the next morning from Heathrow. The Yotel was a little 7' x 9' room that had a bed and TV and little bathroom for one person. It was perfect for me to relax and get sleep before I arrived in Exeter.
Sept. 26-30, 2010: I rode the Exeter Meet and Greet bus from Heathrow to Exeter, which took about three and a half hours. Along the way we passed Stonehenge, which was really exciting. I arrived in Exeter and unloaded everything. I am living in on-campus dorms. My block has all international students, which has been really fun. My flat (floor) has about 12 students and we all share a kitchen, bathroom, and showers. We each have our own rooms with a sink. The set up is really nice, and my location is about a 15 minute walk to the City Centre and a 10 minute walk to middle of campus. After going to various meetings and figuring out what I needed to do, I am finally registered and signed up for all of my classes. So far everything is going great. I have met really nice people from all over the world. Last night I went to traditional English folk dancing. It was kind of like square dancing, and it was so much fun. I bought a camera in Exeter, so I am now able to take pictures again, thank goodness. That's all for now. Check for my next blog in next month. Cheerio!
Chloe Wooldridge is a native of Dallas studying civil engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
May 9, 2010
I've been back in Swansea for a couple of weeks now, and a few exciting things have happened since my return. Varsity, bonfires, Charlotte and Bethany coming to visit, and classes ending.
Cardiff University and Swansea University are pretty much equivalent to KU and K State in rivalry, and every spring they have this massive sporting event called Varsity. Varsity is a day long sports extravaganza where all of the sporting teams from the two Universities compete all day long and lead up to the main event at night, the rugby match. They sell t-shirts that the students can buy for the event, and have buses that run all day from Cardiff to Swansea to shift the students around. Sports in general aren't as big of a deal here as they are back at KU, but during Varsity it gets pretty close. It was the first time I had seen school spirit here equvalent to that of KU, and it kind of made me feel at home to see everyone on campus wearing the same T-shirt and getting excited about the big game.
The weather for Varsity was also pretty gorgeous, and has been fairly nice in general, making it more
enjoyable to go down to the beach! It actually got hot enough one day to get into the water which was really nice. But the main thing that students have been doing since the weather has been good is having bonfires on the beach. It is so much fun. We'll go down at about 6 or 7 when it's still light outside and just bring food, soccer balls, a frisbee, other random stuff to play with, and just chill until it get's dark then make a bonfire and just keep hanging out. It is one of the best/most relaxing ways to spend a day.So, I got to do that a few times, and then this past weekend my friends Charlotte and Bethany, who I traveled with, flew up to Britain from Vienna and I got to show them around Swansea a bit. It was a little cramped in my room with the three of us sleeping there, but it was kind of like a girly sleep over which I had not had in way too long, and it was also really neat to get to show them around the city. It made me realize that I had actually been living here long enough to be able to properly give someone a tour. I never thought I would get to a point where I was comfortable showing someone around a different country.
But they were only here for a couple of days until they went to London to check it out. The day they left was also my last ever class at Swansea University. I can't believe that I'm going to be taking my finals in a week. My first one is the next Saturday. I'm feeling a lot more confident about being prepared, however, than I was a few weeks ago, which is good. I managed to gather some past exams, and talk to a bunch of students to figure out what to expect, and it looks like if I just study a bit everyday until my exams, I should be good to go.
One last thing I'm a little nervous about is that the paper I wrote for my history class is finally graded and ready to be picked up. I'm a bit anxious to see what my grade is on it because I literally have no idea how I did. So I hope that turns out ok!
Chloe Wooldridge is a native of Dallas studying civil engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
April 21, 2010
We made it into Nice without much problem, but getting into our hostel was a little strange. For our entire trip, Charlotte made all of the hostel arrangements for us, which was awesome. She would figure out how much we all owed, how to get there and everything. So, we were walking away from the train station in Nice, and Charlotte says, "Alright, we just need to get here on the map, go in, and ask for the pink lady". Those were the instructions the hostel site gave her.
So after laughing at that for a while, we found where we were supposed to go. It looked like a really old diner type of restaurant, we went in, and asked for the 'pink lady'. She was literally, a little old lady dressed head to toe in pink who didn't speak a word of English. So after hand motioning our way through our reservations, she took us up to our room which was above the restaurant.The rooms were actually surprisingly nice, and luckily our hostel mates spoke English and French, so they were able to fill us in on the details about the hostel that we could not understand from the pink lady.
The next morning we got up and walked around the town for a bit. We did not really have much planned for sightseeing while we were there, so we pretty much just spent the whole day near the beach. We found a little hiking trail, however, that took us up to the top of a cliff that gave us some really nice views of the coastline.
Also, that night, when we were walking back to our hostel, I saw someone walking toward me from the opposite direction who looked pretty familiar. After a closer look I realized it was my friend Sarah Elizabeth from KU! It was so neat to run into her! We both got really excited about it, took a few pictures, talked for a bit, realized she was actually staying in our same hostel as well, and then parted ways.
We woke up early the next morning, figuring we should get to the train station pretty soon after it opened in case the rail strike was going on and traveling was going to be tricky. Turned out the strike was still going on and we were not going to be able to get a train from Nice to Geneva like we were planning. Instead, we had to get the only train that was leaving France from Nice that day back to Italy, spend the night in Milan, and take a train in the morning from Milan to Geneva. So, one day down, taking a few more trains than we were planning on, and rearranging some hostel situations, we made it to Geneva!
For our first day in Geneva, we went to the grocery store and loaded up on delicious chocolate, and a little bit of actual food, went down to the boardwalk by the lake, and had a little picnic. That night we walked around the lake, went up to a few lighthouses and walked around to this massive water fountain that was pretty neat.
The next morning we went to the UN and got to go on a tour. We had the coolest tour guide ever who had no problem making fun of us for being
from Texas. We spent pretty much the entire tour making fun of each other and left with a new facebook friend. We learned some cool stuff as well. He told us about the formation of the UN, all of the countries who participate, the official languages, and all sorts of stuff. But what I thought was the best fact was that the UN lets peacocks walk around on their grounds! A couple different times when we were walking through the buildings we were able to look outside and see peacocks roaming about!While we were in Geneva we also went to Cern to check out the Hadron Collider. We couldn't actually tour the facilities there because to do so you have to make a reservation months in advance, but we did walk through the museum they had attached to the visitors center. I just thought the whole place was fascinating. It was definitely my favorite thing we did in Geneva.
From Geneva we went back into France to go to Paris. Getting there was ridiculous though because the strike was STILL going on. We called/went and talked to everyone who had anything to do with the train services from Switzerland to France to figure out how to get there, and after a long day of running around trying to get answers we were told that the only way we could get on a train to Paris with our Eurail passes was to physically go up to the train as it was about to leave and ask the conductor if we could get on it. We were fairly certain that this was not going to work out for us, but luckily we got to the train station, found the conductor, and they said it was ok if we got on.
It was kind of late when we got to Paris, but the first thing we did was go and look at the Eiffel tower. We walked along the river until we saw it all lit up, and just as we were getting close to it it started sparkling too! We got pretty excited about it.We went on a free tour the next day that covered most of the major sites. We saw the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre Dame, the Moulin Rouge, walked down the Champs-Elysees, and walked around the Grand Palace. On our own we actually walked inside the Notre Dame, and we walked up the stairs to the second tier of the Eiffel tower.
The whole trip was probably one of the most fun experiences I'm ever going to have and I'm so greatful that I got to do it!
Chloe Wooldridge is a native of Dallas studying civil engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
April 8, 2010
On March 25th, I left Swansea to start my Easter vacation travels, and I'm halfway through now in Nice, France. I figured that if I waited until the end of my vacation to write an entry it might be a little ridiculously long.
I started off by flying from Wales to Bratislava, Slovakia and getting a train into Vienna to meet up with one of my best friend's from back home who is studying there, Charlotte. From there, Charlotte and I took a bus to Prague and stayed for three days.
Prague was amazing. All of the buildings were so old, and there were churches everywhere. We walked around the main square quite a bit, and there happened to be an Easter festival going. There were stands set up everywhere with crepes, sausages, candy, and tons of other delicious foods for pretty cheap.
We also went and saw the castle there. It was massive. We mainly just walked around the outside of it because we didn't want to have to pay for a tour, but when we were walking back out of the entrance, there was an all boy's choir that had set up outside and were singing for tips. There were about 30 of them ranging in age from about 10 to 18. They sounded amazing. I tried to record it on my camera but the quality wasn't good enough at all. It was just the neatest thing to be standing in the sun outside of this massive castle listening to these boys sing. And anytime someone would walk up and give them a tip, they would get so excited and start applauding the person. It was adorable.
From Prague we went back to Vienna to meet up with Charlotte's friend Bethany. The next morning the three of us headed down to Venice, Italy. We only stayed there for two days, but it was one of my favorite places. It was just so relaxing. The only tourist site we went to was St. Mark's Basilica. Other than that, we spent our time getting lost walking around the narrow streets and over the canals and stopping to eat whenever we saw something interesting. It was cool to be in a place where there were literally no cars. All of the transportation there was by boat. We didn't go on a gondola ride because they were ridiculously expensive, but I don't feel like we really missed out on much.
From Venice we headed to Rome. But what was super weird is that I managed to run into a KU student on the train there. We thought we overheard someone talking about KU, then I heard the words 'national championship' and I knew I had to go check it out. Turns out he was a junior in Education named Andy. So we spent the rest of the train ride talking about mutual friends and how random it was to run into each other on a train in Italy.
In Rome, we did more walking than I ever have in my life. We went to the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Roman ruins, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. The Roman ruins were probably the coolest thing I've eve seen. They made me feel so small. Some of the remains were just so huge, it was incredible thinking about how they built these things such a long time ago.
From Rome we went to Florence via Pisa. We literally just stopped off in Pisa for about an hour. Long enough to run to the other side of the city, take a few super touristy pictures at the leaning tower, and then peace out. When we got to Florence we had a hostel scare when our reservation wasn't showing up. Luckily, the lady working at the hostel was super nice and called just about every other hostel in town to see if they had room for us. Unluckily, it was Easter Sunday and everyone was booked. So, she told us we could stay in a two bed room for three nights for a discounted price if we wanted to. We pushed the two beds together and got cozy.
In Florence, we went to the Dome, climbed 400 and some steps to the balcony and got one of the most gorgeous views ever. We could see all of Florence, and it only helped that it was a beautiful sunny day. We also went and saw the statue of David. I was expecting it to be a little anticlimactic, being just a statue, but I was completely taken away when I saw it. The size of David is so ridiculous. We just stared at it for about 30 minutes.
After Florence we got on a train to Nice, and that's where I'm at now! Theres a transportation workers strike going on right now in France, however, so we're a little nervous about whether we'll be able to leave when we're planning on it, but hopefully it will work out!
Chloe Wooldridge is a native of Dallas studying civil engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
March 14, 2010
of Bath until I got over here, but the university was sponsoring a day trip there for only 22 pounds, so I thought I should take advantage of it. A couple of other Americans I've met since being here and I decided to go on a free walking tour of the area. It was going pretty well until it started pouring down rain and none of us had umbrellas, so we ended up ditching the walking tour and going into the fashion museum.After we left the museum it had luckily quit raining, so we just grabbed a map and finished looking at everything else we missed on the walking tour. Then we went to the Roman Baths museum and got to see some actual baths.
After that, we went into the Abbey. It was this huge gorgeous church, and a choir happened to be rehearsing there at the time we went in. It was a really cool experience to listen to a choir in the middle of this beautiful building of carved stone and stained glass windows. That's probably what I'm going to remember most about Bath. Then we got back on the buses and headed home. It was a really fun trip.Other than that, I had my 20th Birthday last Wednesday! It was a little weird celebrating it away from home, but it was still a lot of fun. My roommates and I got some people together and went out to dinner at this restaurant called Nandos and it was delicious. Then we went to watch a football match between Sweden and Wales. It was fun to actually go watch a sport in a stadium here instead of just on TV in a pub. Then we just hung out around our house that night. It was a nice chill birthday.
The only other thing I can think of that I'm really excited about right now is that my parents and brother are getting in tonight! My parents have never been to Europe, and since I'm over here they finally have an excuse to come travel a bit, and it's my brother's spring break this week too, so he got to tag along. I can't wait to show them around Swansea, especailly my brother. And I'm really excited to see them!
Chloe Wooldridge is a native of Dallas studying civil engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
March 4, 2010
So I’ve been in Swansea for about three and a half weeks now and I feel like I’m really starting to get comfortable here. I get along with my roommates extremely well, and I’m finally starting to figure out how to incorporate a more well rounded diet than just sandwiches, cereal, and candy bars.
In Britain, the students decide what major they want to pursue before they get to university, and they start taking specialized classes a lot earlier than we do in the U.S. Once they get to university, they strictly take classes that pertain to that major and they really don’t have any flexibility of classes like we do back home. So most all of the students in my history of Europe class are majoring in some form of history and already know quite a bit about the subject. It’s a little intimidating, but hopefully I’ll make it.
I haven’t done much traveling yet since I’ve been here, but my roommates did take me to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, last weekend to show me around. They were going to take me to the rugby stadium, a castle, and a couple of other neat places, but I ended up just spending about four hours in H&M. I still had a great time though! Later on that day, however, we all watched the Wales vs. England rugby match in a local pub, so that made me feel a little better about spending most of the day looking at clothes.
Other than that, I had my first attempt at baking something over here, and it ended up turning out a lot better than I thought it would! Baking is one of my favorite things to do, and I've been anxious to give it a go while I'm over here. I got a massive craving for cinnamon rolls the other night, and the next day I went to the store and got all of the ingredients together. But when I started making them back at my house, I realized that all of their measuring cups are in milliliters instead of cups, and that we didn’t have any teaspoons or tablespoons. A lot of guesstimating was involved, but they turned out all right and I’m pretty sure my roommates enjoyed them. I think muffins are going to be my next baking mission.
Sarah Elizabeth McCandless is a native of Fairway, KS studying aerospace engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
February 22, 2010
Hello engineering world! I hope EXPO went well!
Because you all are not already busy enough, I have a quiz for you:
A) He/she is wearing khakis.
B) He/she is wearing a fleece jacket.
C) He is not wearing a scarf/She is not wearing boots.
D) All of the above.
Take a second to think about it...did you guess D? Then you are correct! Everyone over here--EVERYONE--wears boots! Little kids, men, even “elderly” women...I’ve seen a couple “cowboy boots”, but I’m not quite sure where the inspiration for those came from...definitely not Texas!
I love to people watch, and it’s even better over here because I try to guess where people are from based on their clothes. See someone in Uggs? Definitely American. Well, except in Monaco--people in Monaco love Uggs. I saw them there for the first time since leaving the U.S.! See a man in white patent leather loafers? Definitely French. It’s also funny to hear where people think I’m from. I’ve met several Frenchmen who think I’m from Germany, and England always seems to be a favorite guess. Who knew?
Food continues to be delicious and I’m learning how to cook wonderful things. I’m living with two other girls from the U.S. and we take turns cooking dinner every night. With one minor exception, dinner has always been fabulous. The one exception was panga fish. The actual meal was very good--a fish cooked in white wine, olive oil, onions, and garlic with rice and a salad. The ingredients were the only problem. Because we are college students, and it is a universal truth that college students are poor souls in want of a way to stretch every dollar, we bought cheap fish for dinner. Seeing panga at €2 EUR for a huge filet one day, we bought several big pieces. We had never heard of this fish, so we just made up the recipe as we went, enjoyed the meal, cleaned the dishes, and afterwards looked up how to cook it online.
If you Google “panga fish”, however, the search does not return recipes. Instead, we saw news articles about panga. News articles with titles like, “Why you shouldn’t eat Pangas in France or anywhere else for that matter”, “Opinion: A dirty fish called Panga”, “Don’t Eat this fish: Pangas”, and my personal favorite, “Panga: Poisson ou Poison?” (Panga: Fish or Poison?). It turns out this fish is from Vietnamese rivers, and it is not raised, stored, or transported in clean, healthy ways. In one article, after telling us we should avoid it like the plague, the author said that if we didn’t immediately become ill we must have an iron stomach. Thankfully, I am still with you today no worse for the wear, so I guess panga can’t be that bad...but I can guarantee you it will not be on our dinner table again!
Sarah Elizabeth McCandless is a native of Fairway, KS studying aerospace engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
February 5, 2010
Bonjour mes amis! J'espère que tout va bien à KU! As I write this, I’m enjoying a traditional French breakfast: a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant), une baguette avec confiutre abricot (baguette with apricot jam), et une banane (a banana). The French always drink coffee or tea with breakfast, but since I’m not a fan of either (I know, I know, how do you go through college without coffee?), I’m just drinking water from my coffee mug. This breakfast came from Paul, which in my expert estimation, is the French version of Panera, with Starbucks ubiquity. They are literally everywhere (there are two in the mall by our apartment downtown) and they have delicious breads, pastries, and sandwiches.
I have already been in Montpellier three weeks and time is going by so fast! The trip started with our arrival in Paris early in the morning to rainy skies and a cloudy, overcast day. After taking a bus to our airplane, which was sitting by itself in the middle of a tarmac--making this aerospace engineer VERY concerned--we took off an hour late to arrive at our destination. Montpellier is in southern France and welcomed us with blue skies and 50 degree weather. Since then, it hasn’t been quite that warm, but everyone tells us that in a couple of weeks, the weather will warm up to the 70s and stay there. We’ll see...
One of the first things I noticed about France is how much smaller everything is over here. Overhead bins are smaller (which only caused a few problems on the flight to Montpellier), coffee does not exist in a size bigger than a Dixie-sized cup, and the beds are smaller. The first was only a bother for one flight, the second doesn’t affect me, but the third is a problem. Now I wouldn’t claim to be a giant, nor would I say the French are munchkin-sized. But since my feet hang over the end of my mattress when my head is right at the top, I feel somewhat like Dorothy in the Land of Oz--I am so not in Kansas anymore!
A big change for me this semester is being a liberal arts student. I am not in any engineering classes and am taking all my classes in French: grammar, phonetics, southern civilization, psychology, and an art history class that is taught in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier's biggest art museum. I’m also learning Italian: io parlo italiano. I didn’t even bring my calculator with me. It is so weird not to have my TI-83 Plus Silver with me everywhere I go! I’m slowly adjusting to having a real life and not spending all my weeknights in the library. I don’t think the library is even open past 7 p.m. anyway.
Life moves at a much slower pace here. Though the French are stereotyped as being arrogant, rude, and condescending toward Americans, they are not like that in the south. People are much more relaxed--no one really power-walks, and if you are 15 minutes late to something, you’re really on time. Nothing is open on Sunday--literally nothing. We tried to go the grocery store on our first weekend here to buy food for our apartment, and it was as though the entire town shut down for a day of rest.
That is all the fun news I have for now. We’ve been traveling some on the weekends (it’s amazing how connected everything is over here!) and this weekend a group of us is going skiing in the French Alps. Hopefully I’ll come back in one piece! Au revoir!
Chloe Wooldridge is a native of Dallas studying civil engineering.
She plans to graduate in 2012.
January 26, 2010
I got to Swansea, Wales, Jan. 20 after the longest travel period of my life, but it wasn't nearly as draining as I was expecting. I flew from Dallas to Chicago to Detroit to Amsterdam to Cardiff, Wales, then took the public transportation system to a bed and breakfast (where I stayed for my first night) in Swansea, Wales, called The White House, I thought the name was kind of funny. When I got there, I crashed for about 12 hours and woke up amazed that I was virtually jet lag free and ready to go.
After I woke up from my brief hibernation, I took a cab to the Hendrefoelan Student Village, which is where I'm living for the semester. The student village is made up of hundreds of eight-to-10 person houses and flats, mostly full of students in their first year at the university.
I was a little nervous walking into my house because I had no idea what to expect. The first thing I saw was a guy in a towel on the way to the bathroom to take a shower. I didn't know if I should say hi or not, because I figured he was dating one of my roommates or something, so I kind of just smiled at him and walked by.
I later realized that he was one of my roommates -- along with a few other guys. It was kind of weird getting used to the fact that I'm living with boys, but now I kind of like it. They're all really nice, and it actually makes me feel safer than if I were living in a house full of girls.
One of my roommates has been nice enough to show me around the city, which has been super-helpful, because anyone who knows me knows that I am severely directionally challenged. It would have been a disaster if I had to find my way around a foreign country on my own.
He took me to the university, the beach (the University of Swansea is the closest university to a beach in the world!), and a place called Mumbles -- a small strip of restaurants and shops along the beach. He also took full advantage of how gullible I am -- telling me that there are lots of pirates that like to just hang out in the area and that ‘gullible’ isn't actually a word over here. Luckily, I found out that those were both lies pretty quickly.
The main culture difference that I've had to get used to so far is how often people go out and drink over here. There's a bar in the student village, as well as in the student union on campus. It completely blew me away to find out that people just go to the bar on campus and have a drink in between classes.
That's about all I have for now, so far I'm having a blast!
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