Full Circle

I wrote the first post of this blog from the exact couch I am sitting on now. Despite what I may have thought four months ago, I guess things have come full circle.

I think everyone of us who went on study abroad programs expected some experience that would noticeably change our lives. The thing is that didn’t quite happen. It was a fantastic four months and I certainly feel like I can live anywhere after conquering London. But any change that this semester has had on my character is beyond me at the moment. I am sure it had an impact. It was just subtle. Subtly different like the difference between Brits and Americans.

The truth is, the more I traveled in Westernized countries the more I realized that things aren’t so different throughout the world. Big cities are all generally the same. They all have Starbucks and McDonalds. The only difference is that they have unique tourist destinations. (Paris has the Eiffel Tower, London has Big Ben, etc.)

Sure there are some cultural differences and, for example, people in Britain have habits that Americans would find strange. But ultimately those cultural differences aren’t what define us. Does the size of a standard beer really tell much about the individuals of a culture?

We are all people. As a kid that I met in a hostel in Madrid said: “You realize people are all generally friendly and generally nice.” (It’s true: In Vienna a random man helped Joe and I locate our hostel just because he knew we were lost).

Funnily enough, this sameness struck me while listening to conversations in foreign tongues. I used to tune out conversations in other languages thinking the people were speaking about something that had no relation to me. But then I heard a group of girls talking on the metro in Paris. I repeatedly heard the word Facebook. I guess there is no separate French translation for such new terminology. They were having a conversation about nothing all-too different from something I could hear in the States.

Language was supposed to be our biggest divide. But if even words can be broken down then maybe we are closer to a global community than ever before. I am probably just ignorant, but that idea never really struck me until this semester.

I started this whole thing by saying that I wanted to discover just how big the world is. Well I did discover that: in so many ways it is a small world.

Still, maybe that isn’t fair. After all, I only saw one separate continent. On top of that, I only explored the western side of it. I am sure if I went to Africa or somewhere else I would have discovered huge differences. Then again, maybe I wouldn’t have.

It will take some time before I really know how I grew as a person while living abroad. But in the meantime, as I sit in the house that I have spent my whole life growing up in, I realize how this whole experience has reaffirmed my faith in my country, my state, my city and my home. (I don’t mean that in any political or economic manner).

It’s just America has so much to offer. Our cities are just as magical, our countryside is just as beautiful. From a night train I watched the sun set over the French hills and realized I could witness a sight as equally amazing from the New York State Thruway. The more museums I visited, the more I realized how impressive the New York State museum really is.

I am not saying I didn’t appreciate these four months and the experiences they brought, because I did. But I am saying I never realized how much I was taking for granted the places I have already been.

As always:

Comments Welcome,

Andrew

Tough Travels

This post is coming from Florence and please dont mind any spelling or grammatical errors because these keyboards are a little bit funky.
The trip is about halfway through at this point and my favorite location so far I think is Madrid. We still have Venice, Vienna and Berlin to go.
Traveling has not been as seemless as it could have been. Joe and I have had at least one small difficulty in each location. In Lisbon it was the trains. We went to the train station at around 10 am looking to catch an overnight train 12 hours later that would put us in Madrid. The guy at the station told us the train was booked. We were stuck in a sense and spent an extra night at the Lisbon hostel, which fortunately was very nice. It meant less time in Madrid, however.
Madrid was fairly smoothe and we met some cool American guys in our hostel. We also met up with a kid named Carlos (who reminded me of Zafir for those who know him) that we had met in our Lisbon hostel. Such is the nature of travel. People generally have similar routes. The train from Madrid to Paris was ungodly expensive (70 euros).We were hoping everything would be around 25 considering our rail pass. The biggest problem with Madrid was that we wanted to go out on a pub crawl (a guided thing that shows you the good night life). But when we got to the meeting point it was just me, Joe and this little Australian woman who was the guide. She awkwardly showed us around but bailed after about 15 minutes.
Paris was a great city as to be expected. We walked to the Eifel Tower at night. That was our problem. We got a little off track. We could see the tower up above but could not see a path to get there. We eneded up in a back alley. Not a good idea. It was well guarded by a local gangish group -- who were quite ammusd when we hurridely walked away.
In Florence Joe lost his camera. Oh yea and in Paris I almost lost my wallet. I left it in this Chinese restaraunt that we stopped in for 15 minutes to grab a quick bite. It was a frantic 5 minutes when I thought it was gone.
Traveling sure aint easy. We will be lucky to get home alive at this point.
Photos to come obviously.
Comments Welcome,
Andrew

The Plan

I have been traveling with my dad around England and Ireland the past few days and have not had time to post. And, crazy as it sounds, I leave London on Saturday. So here’s the plan:

I am not going back to the States right away. I will be traveling across Europe with one of my friends until May 19^th and will arrive back in Boston sometime around 5 pm on that day. From there I will take a bus to Albany.

My travel itinerary for this two-week expedition is as follows:

Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Venice, Florence, Vienna, Berlin, London, Boston, Albany. It is going to be hectic I am sure, but I am looking forward to it because it is one of the reasons why I decided to study abroad.

My hope is to be able to post during this trip, but as you may remember from my Spring Break travels, it might not be possible to reach the Internet sufficiently. Only time will tell. Regardless, I am just writing this to tell you that this will not be the final post. I plan on doing an extensive wrap-up that reflects on the entire semester. If you have been following my trip, you won’t want to miss the final post – I promise you. In the meantime, keep checking the blog to see if I have written. If I haven’t, please don’t be mad. It just means the logistics haven’t worked out.

The wrap-up will be posted by June 1 so make sure to check back sometime around then.

Comments Welcome,

Andrew

Byline baby

I did it. I got my byline. Surprisingly they kept a lot of my own language, which I purposefully tried to make subtly funny. I am now officially a Cleveland Cavs fans.

Also, after going to the West Ham vs. Derby match yesterday, I have now seen more Premier League games than NFL games. That's strange. I have also seen three more Premier League stadiums than NFL stadiums and six more PL teams than NFL teams. Strange again.

Comments Welcome,
Andrew

Atop Lebron's Shoulders

More than just the Cleveland Cavalier’s slim title hopes, something else rests atop Lebron James’ shoulders: My byline. That’s right, crazy as it sounds, Lebron is personally responsible for whether or not I get my name in the paper. Allow me to explain.

On Wednesday one of the writers (Jamie Jackson) called Oliver Owen. Oliver seemed really excited and started blathering on over the phone about how they could change the center for this. When he got off the phone Oliver asked me a question: What position does Lebron James play?

“He’s a forward, I think. But he does a lot of ball handling, too.”

Then Oliver explained to me what was happening. Jamie Jackson had somehow landed a phone interview with Lebron. Considering this is sort of a limbo week for European sport, Oliver thought it was appropriate to run a full-length feature about King James given that the NBA playoffs start today.

The story is going to be about how Lebron James is talked about being the best ever. But enough already. Where do I come in and how is Lebron responsible for it exactly?

Oliver gave me a great assignment.

“This is how you are going to get your name in the paper,” he said. “I want you to compile a list of the 10 greatest NBA players of all time and write 100 words about each one. We don’t care about rebounds or things like that. Make it interesting. Make it funny. Didn’t Wilt Chamberlain boast about shagging tons of women? Include that.”

So I did. I wrote 100 words on my top-ten players. I was happy with it. Oliver was happy with it. On Thursday I actually saw it on the page (that means on the computer screen).

But here comes the problem. The interview with Lebron was supposed to be last night. It is not a guarantee, however. If Lebron suddenly decided he couldn't be bothered with some British journalist right before the playoffs, then the story is off. The Observer will run something about the Ryder Cup instead (which would be ridiculous because the Ryder Cup isn’t until September).

So anyway, that is how Lebron James is responsible for my byline. It’s going to be so frustrating if I don’t get it because I have already seen what it would look like!

Tomorrow I become the biggest Cavs fan in the world or become the biggest Cavs hater. It’s about time I had rooting interest in the NBA.

Comments Welcome,

Andrew

What happened?

So you are probably all wondering what happened. Am I ok? Why has it been so long since I posted? I promise I am fine. But this isn’t a perfect world. Cyber space in particular isn’t perfect. We lost Internet connection in my house, and it wasn’t fixed until yesterday. Never fear. Because you have been so long without me, I am going to post what I find to be quite an interesting story. Mom I will preface this by saying, “I’m OK so don’t worry.”

Last weekend I went out with three of my buddies to Brick Lane. Brick Lane is in East London and during the day is known as the Indian Ghetto. It has great food, traditional shops, etc. But at night it turns into quite a trendy area so we decided to head there.

We went to a bar called “The Chill Spot,” which was very pleasant. After a pint there we decided to check out a different place. It was walking there when this all happened.

We all noticed a woman who we at first mistook for a fairly attractive young lady. Boy were we mistaken. She was actually a middle aged woman who looked quite drugged out and had the leathery face to prove it. Well I guess I looked at her a little too long. I was in the back of the foursome. She looked at me a long time, too. She had an angry expression in her eyes. It looked like it wasn’t her own brain doing the controlling. But, like I said, I looked at her a second too long.

As we passed her she said, “You don’t like games, any of you.” Then she looked at me with the most frightening sunken eyes I have ever seen. She wound up her right arm and smacked me quite hard against the left side of my jaw. I looked again at her and she started mumbling jibberish. It was a little frightening, but I was OK. We continued to walk and when she was out of sight we all had a good laugh. I had been bitch slapped quite literally.

But it got better. We settled with our second pints in the second place. It was a very Spanish-type bar and had lively music. The beer was awful, but that’s another story. Just as I got comfortable, I looked up. There she was! She was standing outside the big bay windows! I won’t lie and say she had followed us. She wasn’t peering in looking for me or anything. In all likelihood she didn’t even remember our little altercation. Still, seeing those eyes again made me shiver. When we finished our pints we walked quickly by her. We were safe when we got underground.

Photos are from different things including my office.

Comments Welcome,

Andrew

Americanness

So my coworkers told me they thought I was British. I am not sure how I feel about that. First of all let me clarify what they meant: They meant that based on my demeanor and the amount that I talk and the way that I conduct myself they think I come off decidedly English.

On the one hand, it is true. I am a fairly reserved American, which means I am slightly more British than I am American. I do feel comfortable with the British affect. Like I have said before in this blog, I am happy not to have to be falsely friendly and happy not to have to talk to people I would rather not talk to and happy not to have to make small talk.

On the other hand, does that mean I am a bad American? If I would rather be British and behave like them, am I somehow betraying my country? Perhaps I don’t even care too much about betraying my country. I never really thought about my patriotism before coming here. I hate the Patriots. That much I know. But I really don’t know what I think about Americanness.

In a certain way, it doesn’t exist in the same way that Britishness exists. We are such a mish mosh of everyone that there is no way to look at someone’s demeanor and say, “Aha! American!” The very fact that I could be said to act British proves that.

I guess that’s what I like about America. It really isn’t definable.

So maybe I need to find the place in America that is most like England. Then I could be comfortable in my immediate surroundings but have easy access to the most diverse country in the world. If you find a good sized Island in the States let me know.

Comments Welcome,

Andrew