A few final words...

This past weekend was our farewell meal, the last time all 40 of us were brought together as a group before we depart back to the states in 3 weeks.  We spend Saturday afternoon at a bar down town enjoy a buffet of Italian foods and a free drink.  We all chatted and said hello to the people we hadn't seen in a while since everyone has been so busy working on finals.  I looked around the room as everyone gathered in the friend groups that have been formed during our time abroad, people who were once strangers now laughed together as if they had known each other for years.  It is strange how quickly this time has gone by, but at the same time it feels like i have been away from home for quite a while.
Big Bob, a worker there in charge of the karaoke machine played us songs and started off the karaoke singing some song i had never heard before.  People slowly started signing up one by one to put on a little performance of their own as they grew more comfortable.  Everyone cheered and sang along with tons of laughs accompanying them.  I always wonder what other study abroad groups were like, if they were close like ours had been in its own unique way sharing experiences that only we would ever truly know, with tons of jokes and laughs as a whole through long bus rides together and group tours.  My roommate Katie who has been studying abroad in Copenhagen this past semester said she barely talked to any of the Loyola students on her trip and spent more time with her roommates who are from different colleges all over the U.S.. I felt fortunate to have been apart of this group though.  We always reflect on how majority of us didn't know each other when coming abroad, many of these people i had never met before in my life.  After just a few short days of abroad though we realized this to be true with majority of people on this trip.  However i think that only added to benefit, it left more room for new friendships and clean slates.  These once unfamiliar faces were now people i shared experiences with, had inside jokes with, traveled across Europe with, they knew a part of me, and i them, that no one else from home would truly know.We spent a few hours there singing together, cheering one another on like we were giving concerts at Madison Square Garden.  It was a great last memory together.
We still have 3 weeks remaining here in Newcastle and i keep avoiding the thought of leaving.  It will be great to go home, see my family and my friends, be in my room and reunited with my full wardrobe, but leaving here will be anything but easy.  As i see many of the study abroad programs count their last days abroad, some already over and returned safely to the home land, i am thankful that this program runs until June, something i wasn't totally crazy about at first.  I am thankful for every last minute i get to spend here in Newcastle since my return from Spring break.  Of all the countries i have visited while here and the cities i have explored, i am so certain that no other place would have suited me better than Newcastle has.  When i was first accepted into the Newcastle study abroad program i remember being so excited that i was really going to get the opportunity to travel again, something that i have learned fills my core in a way nothing else can.  However i remember also thinking, ...England...hm.... unsure if my decision to study in an English speaking country that i had already visited twice, was too safe and too similar to what i was familiar with at home compared to my friends accepted to go to Thailand, Copenhagen, China, or South America.  However looking back on the way the pieces of my life have fallen together, i could never imagine having this experience in any other place, with any other people, all i feel is an unreal amount of gratitude that life can come together in such wonderful and unexpected ways, even when we let ourselves doubt the outcome.

So, to my fellow travelers, i will leave you with a few pieces of advice that a highly recommend you take if you want to make the most of your travels or of your study abroad experience...

For starters, always go in with an open mind.  Don't let your fears or anxieties ruin any experience for you.  Don't assume things and try not to have expectations.  Studying abroad or traveling can be scary for a million different reasons, diving into the unknown can be terrifying.  However that is the beauty of it all as well, not knowing, leaving your world open to more possibility than you ever could have imagined.
Don't only keep an open mind with your destination and your travels, but the people you are traveling with.  As college students, especially coming from a small school where many people know someone who knows someone, we make connections very fast.  Realizing that your new friend is best friends with that girl that your best friend hates because she stole the cab from her that one night 2 years ago.  Try your hardest not to let what other people tell you dictate what you think about these new people or shape the way you look at them.  Especially in an experience like this, it is best to come in with an open mind and an open heart.  College is for learning and we have all done things we aren't proud of.  However you are in a new country and everyone deserves a chance, get to know someone before you are so quick to judge or decide you don't want to get to know them.  Try not to hold their past over their head as i'm sure you wouldn't want them to do with you.
Be friendly, be kind, take an interest and make an effort when getting to know others.  The best thing you can do in an experience like this is to push aside your sometimes shy persona and walk over to someone with a smile on your face and introduce yourself.  If you have never met, there is a long list of questions that can be asked, so why not start now?  Don't be the girl in the corner waiting to be approached.  Be outgoing and be yourself, what do you really have to lose?

Allow yourself the time to truly get to know these people and this place.  Try not to let yourself get lost in feelings of home sickness or missing your friends and family because sooner than you think you will be right back with them and your abroad experience will be over.  It is a once in a life time opportunity that not everyone is fortunate enough to have.  Take advantage of your time and savor every moment.

Yesterday i had an experience that i was not quite expecting, but ended up being quite interesting. About a week and a half ago i was running up the stairs to my room and fell, hard, hitting my knee and my placing a lot of my fall into the left side of my torso.  The hit to my knee was so hard that most of my attention was focused on the shock of the pain.  However a few hours later i started to feel it in my left side.  The next morning i woke up in tons of pain to my left ribs and really realized how hard i hit the stairs when i fell.  I spent the week complaining about it and taking Advil to try to ease my pain.
Then, last night as i was laying down i coughed and felt paralyzed with pain in my left side.  Whatever i just did felt like a muscle tore or something to that painful extent.  I laid for a minute in shock of what i just did and slowly tried to get up.  For the next half an hour i experienced spasms in the left side of my ribs that were so painful i could barely speak when they happened.  I called my mom as i always do when i am in pain or sick, and of course giving me the motherly advice i should have expected, she told me to get to the hospital.  I had been dodging going to the doctor over my rib only because i was unfamiliar with the process being a foreigner here.  However after experiencing this pain i knew it was time to go get it checked out.
Lucky for me, 2 of my very worried and kind friends decided to accompany me to the hospital thinking we would make an adventure out of it.  We walked to the hospital and after walking through several empty hospital hallways and many comments about Grey's Anatomy, we made our way to the emergency area,  I filled out some paper work and waited to be seen,  I didn't think it would take too long because there were only a few people in front of me, but this proved to be false.  We waited as every name was called, including the names of people who weren't even in the room.  The 3 of us sat growing impatient and tired as it was 2 in the morning.  Finally they called my name and i sprung with excitement,
We walked back and in a small room we went.  I figured they would do a physical exam on my ribs, and especially after seeing how much pain i was in and the sensitivity level of my ribs they would x-ray me.  This proved to be false as well.  Instead, i told the doctor what had happened between the falling and the spasms and she nodded at me and asked me to lift my shirt and point to where my pain was.  I showed her the wide region of where my pain extended and told her how when it hurt it sometimes made me feel short of breath.  She nodded her head and she looked at me and stated, "rib injuries take about 6 weeks to heal,"  This wasn't anything new to me,  She said she would be back with some pain medicine and would send me on my way as she walked out of the room.  I saw with my confusion for a second and looked toward my friend, "Is that...it?" i said to her,  We were both confused by her lack of serious attention she provided me,  There were no x-rays, not even a physical exam.  How did she know there wasn't a rib popping out? Or that my spleen didn't burst?  These were all things i learned were my options given the symptoms of my pain thanks to google and of course WebMD.  She came back in the room and handed me some pain medicine and rushed me out of the room. That was one of the moments in my whole abroad experience i missed the U.S. the most.

Now that I have had a few days to get back into the swing of things here in Newcastle, I have realized how much I have truly missed this place.  I wasn’t sure if on my return I would feel sad during my first week back knowing our duffle bagging around Europe days are over for the time being, however it has proved to be just the opposite.  It is so nice to be in a familiar place again and see the same faces.  Even the waiters at restaurants we are frequently at have recognized us once again and have asked how our spring break travels went.  I have loved traveling so much and it is certainly one thing in life I am truly passionate about, but now that I am back with only 2 months left, I want to stay put for a while and take in as much of Newcastle as I possibly can.  I love this city so much and have missed being surrounded by British accents.  Newcastle offers so much and there is still a ton left in this city that I have yet to do, see, or experience.  Being away has made me appreciate even more the city I have been living in for the past 3 months; I cannot imagine what leaving will be like.

"There's a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we've left it...”

After my month long journey of travels and now the time to decompress from my trips, I wrote down a few travel tips that I think are important to remember when traveling anywhere for an extended period of time, and to remind yourself of these daily.

• Pack light
• Layering is everything
• You may not feel 100%; Bring vitamins
• Don’t stress the little things
• Things don’t always go the way you plan; Go with the flow
• Remember you will get where you need to be
• Be aware
• Be open minded
• You’re out of your comfort zone; Embrace the culture
• Give yourself down time
• Take a LOT of pictures
• It’s okay if every place isn’t your favorite, enjoy it anyways
• It’s not always easy or fun, but it will be worth it
• Enjoy every second, don’t take it for granted
• Don’t forget to be thankful and respectful
• Put your stuff in a safe place even when you leave the room (trust me)

"I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there..."

15 cities and 9 countries later and I have finally made it back home to Newcastle.  I felt sad coming home from Greece today but as soon as we landed I was so happy to be back. Being away from Newcastle made all of us realize how much this place has become home to us and how much we have adapted to the culture and lifestyle here.  Traveling to all of these different places made me realize how lucky I am to be studying in a place like Newcastle which is now a second home to me.   It was an amazing month and I am so grateful to have been able to travel to so many different places with people that I love and to have seen and experience so much that I will never forget.  However, during my last few days of spring break I also learned some of the challenges that can come with traveling as well.

During our final stop of spring break we were out celebrating in our last Greek island, Mykonos, Greece.  We met with some of our other study abroad friends that were also staying on the Island and spent the day soaking up our last day in Mykonos.  After a big group dinner and a night out we returned to our hostel to find that someone had broken into our small studio apartment.  A man climbed up a side balcony and jumped to our balcony breaking in through our balcony doors, taking with him my MacBook Pro, and a friend’s iPad and wallet, which unfortunately also contained her Passport.  The man came back a second time not knowing my friend had come back early for the night and was in our studio apartment.  She saw him attempt to come back in through our balcony doors but once he realized that the apartment was no longer empty, he ran.  My friend immediately called all of us in terror of what had just happened to return to our hostel.  We all came back and realized what had happened, threw all of our belongings into our bags and crammed into our other friends hostel rooms for the night in fear that the man would come back.  We were all in tears shocked and terribly unsettled from the situation and what had just happened in our last few hours in Mykonos.  It was only that morning that my friends and I were talking about how smoothly our month of travels had gone.  We slept it off and left Mykonos the next morning one laptop less, one iPad less, and one passport less. 

We arrived back in Athens where we waited for our flight back to Newcastle the next morning.  Exhausted from spring break and the robbery we ordered food to our hotel room and were ready to go home.  Despite the unfortunate events that took place in Greece, it was by far my favorite destination of our spring break and I was so glad that we went.  Other than the fact that the islands were breath taking, the people we met along our travels there were some of the nicest people we had met. Many of them were excited to know our story and almost every day we were there someone treated us to free traditional Greek drinks or food wanting to share their culture with us.  We all felt fortunate despite the incident.  It is important to realize that bad things happen everywhere in the world and we weren’t going to let what happened to us shape our opinions on the country or the people.  Greece was an amazing place, and I look forward to one day returning.  However for now, It is good to be home.

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure..."

Next on our list was the beautiful Greek island, Santorini.  We stayed in Athens for a night near the port where we would catch our 7am ferry to the island the following morning.  When we landed in Athens it looked absolutely beautiful with blue skies and tall mountains surrounding the airport.  However, once our cab driver took us to our hotel near the port we realized we were not in the best area and it was probably a better idea to stay near our hotel and not to wonder too far.  We were up by 5am the next day and excited to get our 5 and a half hour ferry ride over with and arrive at the island.  With a little help from some Dramamine I was sound asleep for almost the entire ride there and before I knew it we were grabbing our bags and rushing off the ferry filled with excitement.  It was absolutely beautiful as soon as we arrived and we knew we made the right decision dedicating the final week of our very long spring break to the Greek islands.

            We hopped in a cab and headed to our hostel. We stayed in an adorable hostel with a loft and very typical Greek cut out windows, which opened right up letting the breeze from the ocean in which was only a few steps away from our hostel.  I was falling in love very quickly.  The past 3 weeks of traveling have been absolutely amazing and I am so fortunate to have been able to see as much as I have but Santorini was exactly what I wanted and was much more up my alley.  As much as I love all of the European countries I have visited I was ready to step away from the Euro city scene, and soak up the beach, mountains, and sun.  We settled in, washed up, and headed down the street where restaurants and bars lined the beach.  We were staying on Perissa beach with black sand beaches and a great big mountain lining the side. We walked on the beach and ended up a traditional Greek restaurant, Aquarius. 

            One of the great things about traveling are all of the small friendships you make with the people you encounter, whether that be waiters, cab drivers, bartenders, or the people working the front desk.  Many people were curious about us wondering what we were doing in their city and took interest in our travels.  We made one of these fast friendships with our waiter at Aquarius who was cracking jokes and bringing us free traditional Greek wine.  It was a great start to our 3-day stay in Santorini.  After dinner we headed back to our hostel and laid by the pool as the sun went down sipping margaritas and chatting about how amazing Greece was already.

The next day we woke up early and set out to another popular part of the island, Fira.  After a short 20-minute bus ride we hopped off and were ecstatic about the amazing views that were before us.  Fira met every expectation I had of Greece with big cliffs filled with white houses and blue domes and the ocean crashing below against the mountains.  We walked around for a while going in and out of shops and small boutiques collecting souvenirs and gifts for ourselves and our family and friends.  The clouds rolled in so we took shelter in a small Greek restaurant as the rain started to come down.  We enjoyed a long lunch hoping that the bad weather would pass and to our surprise it did.  The sun came out and we continued to walk around bouncing in and out of shops.

As we walked down the small winding sidewalks we ran into a man with 6 donkeys and we all were immediately jumping with joy.  Riding donkeys in Santorini was one of the first things on our list of things to do during our stay there and we were all thrilled that we found them.  For 10 euros the man put us on the donkeys, tied them together, and down the winding stairway we went.  I was so excited to be doing it but was also terrified that my donkey, or one of my friend’s donkeys, would trip causing a domino effect of 5 falling girls on donkeys flying down the cliffs of Santorini.  Luckily, none of my irrational fears came true. We went down the stairs and then back up we went, laughing the whole time while trying to take selfies on our cameras.  We were all so happy and in the best of moods after that.  It was official; I was madly in love with Santorini.  We spent the evening at dinner overlooking one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen along the water in euphoric states.

The next day we got up and took the bus to Fira again.  We had heard about a boat trip that took would take us to the active volcano right across the water including a visit to the natural hot springs.  We were all so excited to get into the water so we prepared the day with our bathing suits on.  We bought our tickets and took the cable cars to the bottom of the island and packed onto a boat with many other tourists.  We arrived at the volcano and immediately could see the black volcanic rock from its last eruption.  We hiked to the top where you could smell the sulfur but also could see some astonishing views of the blue water and the cliffs of Fira.  After about an hour and a half we packed back onto the boat and headed to the part we were all most excited for, the hot springs.

After a short trip an announcement came on that we had arrived at the hot springs, however in order to get to the hot springs you had to swim a little ways through the ocean which we were unaware of.  The announcer warned the group that they should only proceed into the water if they were good swimmers, which I soon understood why.  We weren’t quite sure how cold the water would be so we all looked at each other about hesitantly but made the group decision that we had come to sit in the hot springs so that is what we would do. We stripped into their bathing suits and one by one people jumped off the boat and swam for the hot springs.  My friends were in front of me and jumped in and screaming as soon as their head popped up of the water.  I figured the water was going to be a cold shock initially but we would warm up once we reached the springs.  I jumped in and as soon as I came up from under the water I was jolted by how cold the water was.  The only thing on my mind was to reach the hot springs as fast as I could to get out of that freezing water.  I swam as fast I could toward the springs but had to take a short break halfway there as my core body temperature dropped and I tried to come to terms with the shock my body was set into.  I reached the hot springs however I was terribly disappointed to discover that these hot springs were not hot at all, they were barely even warm.  My friends and I were shivering as we cursed at the situation and regretted out decisions to jump off the boat.  The worst part about it was, we had to swim back through the freezing water to get back on the boat.

After a few minutes we took some deep breaths and tried to dig for the courage to brace the water one more time.  As I swam as fast as I could back toward the boat I was glad to know that the water was not as bad as it was the first time, but only because my body went into shock and was becoming quite numb.  We finally reached the boat after doing our best Michael Phelps performances and it felt like the happiest moment of my life.  We raced to the bathrooms to get out of our wet bathing suits before we started sailing in the wind again.  Once we were back in our dry warm clothes we had the chance to breathe after our experience and laughed about what had just occurred.  It was undoubtedly the coldest water I have ever been in, but I was so happy that we did it.

We returned to Fira and had our last dinner in Santorini overlooking the beautiful sunset again.  Exhausted, we returned to our hostel with chilly bones and sunburnt skin.  We packed our things up and took one last walk along Perissa beach and returned to Aquarius for a nightcap where our waiter friend that we made the first day gave us free traditional Greek drinks.  We laughed about our day and conversed about how much we loved Santorini and would be just fine never leaving the island.  It was the perfect last night to our stay in Santorini.