How The Time Flies – On Goodbyes, Part One

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

While I may be a writer and have a way with words, that all goes out the window when it comes to being sentimental. As I mentioned earlier, I’m crap with descriptive words, so as I’m trying to find ways to write out my sentimentality I come to a blank. I really do. Or I think, “Oh, it’ll be crap.”

Then again, I feel almost all of my writing is absolute crap. But I digress.

I was supposed to have gone to bed hours ago, but I still have a video to attend to before I go. In just a matter of hours I will be on a plane to first Frankfurt and then Rome; no, I will not eat anything in Germany, I’ve already been made to promise. In less than a week now I will be on an airplane to take me back to New Jersey. I’m not sure just how I feel about that yet – bittersweet is a word that a lot of people around here have thrown around, and it’s very fitting: I want to go home to see my family and friends, to have the food I’ve missed these past five months, yet that means I have to leave this place I’ve come to call home.

Earlier tonight I walked around to film one last bit for my video and while thinking of regrets that I didn’t go to places within my very own neighborhood I got a little somber. And even now as I write this I’m getting misty. But also at that moment, as I pulled myself together for yet another take I thought, “I can’t focus on what I didn’t get to do. I have to remember what I’ve done.” My dad said it damn well early in the day via Skype: “You’ve had a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

And I certainly have.

I still have one more week of my journey to complete, a trip to Italy to, among many other things, meet my family. And I’m certainly not done with this blog yet; I haven’t forgotten about spring break or the many adventures I’ve had this past month, which I do want to get to (without any reference to going or being home). In fact, my final day in Europe will consist of almost nothing except airplanes and airports, and I have a good chunk of time to spend at Heathrow before my flight back to New Jersey in which I’ll probably blog again.

But until then, I need to edit my video. And I’m going to have the time of my life in Italy.

So long and thanks for all the fish, London. You were fantastic, but I’ll come back one day.

The final week of class (and more on pub culture)

The sun is out but I can't go out and play.

I don’t think I’ll ever get completely used to the sun being so bright this late in the day.

May is finally here in Kingston upon Thames, which means a couple of things:

1. As of Friday afternoon I am officially done with classes at Kingston University!
2. I don’t have any finals – save BLC, which I took last Wednesday – but I do have assessments. Four papers for three classes due within three weeks. And then I’m done!
3. And unlike American universities, these one or two papers for each class is your entire grade. No finals, no attendance grade to boost you up, no homework grade. That’s it.
4. My ticket for the London Expo is booked! It’s at the end of May (after my assessments, even) and just a giant excuse for me to completely nerd out. I can’t wait!

It also means, as I would often like to forget, that in a little over a month I’ll be back home. To New Jersey.

And actually, I have even less time in England. I’m leaving London a week early to meet with my aunt and travel throughout Italy for a week. I get to go back to Italy. Gelato. Delicious food. Finally seeing Venice. Going back to Tuscany. ♥

I will also be meeting my Italian family. I’m not exactly sure whom I’m meeting, but they’re all relatives of my grandmother, who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s. And most of them don’t speak a word of English, so my aunt will be translating throughout much of the visit. Ought to be interesting.

On international affairs

Preface: This post is solely my own opinion and does not reflect the opinions of any company I am currently affiliated with or may become affiliated with in the future.

While being abroad this semester has given me a new perspective on so many things, it hasn’t really prepared me for the new persona I’ve adopted: An American citizen abroad.

Which seems rather silly looking at it, at course. I mean, I know I’m an American citizen abroad – I’m reminded by every Brit that I’m American when they point out my accent. I’ve even been keeping up with American news when possible through the NBC Nightly News Podcast and reading online whenever I can. But in no way was I prepared for dealing with something huge coming out of nowhere, like the news that Osama bin Laden died Sunday night/Monday morning (depending on your time zone).

I did not find out via President Obama’s press conference. In fact, when the press conference took place I was fast asleep in Kingston (it being well past four in the morning London-time). Being exhausted from my spring break road trip (and having just returned home that night), I didn’t find out until about 12 hours later when I woke up and logged onto Facebook.

Ireland…finally!

An open road ahead.

I’m getting really bad at this whole blogging thing, I apologize. But with two more weeks of spring break ahead of me, expect more of this.

Even though my weekend in Ireland was over two weeks ago (and I’m currently in Italy), I still want to go back. Honestly, somebody give me a few million dollars so I can buy homes in all these incredible countries (and a few more so I can fly to them whenever I want). Please, career gods?

Anyway…Ireland.

It started off early on a Thursday morning at the end of March (God, was it that long ago?!) with navigating the London public transportation system at the crack of dawn to reach Stansted Airport, which – while it offers cheaper flights than, let’s say, Heathrow – you’ll make up for it in the cost of the Stansted Express (around $44 round-trip to the airport and back, eek!). But after a mostly-uneventful morning I finally made it to Dublin. And my first thought?

I couldn’t believe just how green it was. I mean, I’ve seen Ireland in movies and other friends’ Facebook photos, but you would think it was overexposure or something. It’s such a silly thought, but it was such a breathtaking view.

The Irish countryside.

A prelude to Spring Break 2011

Nine countries in three weeks. NBD.

One of the great things about uni over here is that there is a massive break in the term: A reading week and two weeks of spring break. As of 3pm today, I don’t have class again until May (save a lecture rescheduled for Enrichment Week which I am unfortunately missing). And in a matter of hours, I will start my adventure to “Europe”, as people in England call it.

“Oh, I’m going to Europe for the holidays,” they’ll say, which further enforces the idea P. Woods brought up in British Life and Culture that the British don’t believe they’re a part of Europe but rather they’re in the middle of the Atlantic.

For anyone in doubt, it is incredibly easy to travel in Europe (at a fairly reasonable price). I wouldn’t recommend the car option my friends and I are taking (unless anyone in your group is over 25), but sites like Eurail offer a multi-country train pass to anyone not part of the European Union and flights can be cheap if you find them early enough. Same goes for hostels if you’re interested in that route; Hostel World is an excellent site to compare hostels and read reviews about said places.

But first, a couple of housekeeping items:

• I’m almost done editing the Ireland photos and I should have them up very soon, probably tomorrow night (because I need sleep tonight). I blame the two massive papers I had due this week for the delay, not just my procrastination.
• I’ll do my best to update while I’m traveling, but more than likely there will be a huge surplus of posts/photos once I return to Kingston.
• I will, however, keep a journal of my trip and transcribe bits of that for some of the cities.
• Also, I won’t be in London for the Royal Wedding. To be honest, not that many people care about it over here (save your Royalists). The whole fuss about it is more of an American thing. Plus, then I would have to deal with lots of tourists who don’t know how to use the Underground and bus system and worry about pickpockets…it’d be incredible but it’s not really worth the hassle to catch a glimpse of two people on their wedding day, one who just happens to be the future King of England. The novelty’s sort of worn off.

But right now I need to finish editing and pass out. It all starts tomorrow.