C U L T U R E S H O C K

                I’ve been for a month now! Can you believe it? I can’t! It feels like just yesterday I was arriving in my new home, and now here I am settling back in at my… “old” (?) home. I already kind of talked about the sort of culture shock that I experienced during my first few days in London. It happened even though I doubted that it could happen to me, and I was angry and terrified at the same time, to admit for those first few days my experiences weren’t necessarily meeting up to my expectations. But then I settled in and I was fine, I made friends, I found my way around, I got used to my new courses, and I finally felt “at home” but soon the abroad team at my school began to talk about this thing called reverse culture shock and I immediately though, “No! That’s silly, that won’t happen to me, not again! I’m excited to go home and have my ‘normal’ life back again.” SURPRISE. REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK IS MOST DEFINITELY A THING. You know how I know? I can feel it right now, and it is WEIRD. Let me tell you about it…

                It’s a part of this thing (above) called the cultural adaptation curve. It’s caused by EXACTLY the same reasons you felt culture shock in your new country. You’ve left your norm, and now you’re expected to do things the way that your new society does them. Things like language, food, clothing, manners, behavior, and so on cause culture shock, and just as you’re getting used to them, or just as you feel integrated into this new society, you’ve got to go home and assimilate back into your home society again.

                Luckily for me, I went to a country where the language was almost non-existent, there were a few different things that would pop up every now and again like words used in different contexts than I would normally use them, but living with people who use them like this every day made it easy for me to adjust. Maybe I’m sneaky, or maybe I was just prepared, but the food and general culture of London does not severely differ from that in the US. It was the little things that all started to add up for me, because when you first arrive, everything is enchanting and charming, but by week 2 or 3, you’re basically just pissed that they don’t have the soap you like to use, or your favorite cereal tastes different, or maybe they put a ‘u’ in words where it seems absolutely unnecessary. All these things add up and then you end up feeling like this guy…

                Then one day, one of those things will happen, you’ll pour your bowl of cereal and taste it, and it’ll taste just like it always has… because now you’re used to it. That’s just the way it tastes, and you’ve accepted that… and maybe even LIKE IT now. Who knows, I’m sure stranger things have happened. You’ve finally come to the realization THIS place is your new home, and you like it, whether or not you ACTUALLY like it, because it feels like home. You know that you really feel comfortable when you start to call you little dorm room home. When someone asks you where you’re going and you say “Oh, I think I’ll just go home now.” No, you’re going to your little cubicle of a rented bedroom, BUT you’ve probably spent a lot of time in there (like maybe when on the second day you felt so homesick that you locked yourself in there for a large number of hours), maybe you played games with friends, I don’t know, your personal time is NONE of my business. Regardless you now feel a homey feeling whenever you walk through that door, and maybe you don’t understand it, but you’ll just accept it as it is.

                BUT WAIT. Don’t get too comfortable because just as you start to think- “I would be ok with living in this little room for a little while longer.” You’ve got to pack up all of the things you’ve acquired over the past months into that one suitcase that you brought that was way too full when you’d arrived and try and make it to the airport. You’ve got to say goodbye to your newly adopted family- because that is what you end up becoming, and all of your new friends and go back to your actual home. You will most likely feel excited, because you’ll be going back to see all your friends, and family, you’ll be going back to the familiar- but if you see the pattern here then you know where I’m going with this… IT’S NOT FAMILIAR ANY MORE. You’re back home, and sure, you vaguely remember your social norms, but you probably say little things that make people say “Oh, you’ve turned so European!” No, I haven’t, or maybe I have. But I lived there, and no one Americanized anything for me- SO NO DUH, I’ve lost my American tone a little, yes. Then you’ll start to notice things- just like in your host country that will start to annoy you. That’s just where I am now. I see things happen, or have things happen to me and all I can think is “Well that would never happen in England…” or “Nobody says that in England…” or the biggie, “That really makes me wish I was back in England…” (That one makes me cringe too, so don’t worry. And not because I don’t love England, because I do, I just know I’d be annoyed if someone said that to me…). I have faith though, that soon enough I’ll have assimilated back into my own lifestyle here at home.

                I know that this could potentially sound like I am complaining, and I certainly am not. I’M JUST WARNING YOU, I didn’t believe it would happen to me in a million years, and it happened TWICE. So think of this as a heads up… that’s all. Culture shock and all, I would 110% recommend study abroad or moving abroad to anyone and everyone, even if it’s only for a bit, because it is an incredible experience, one you cannot find anywhere else. Its complete cultural immersion, HELLO that explains the culture shock, but regardless it is amazing, and you will make friends, and memories and have experiences that will be unparalleled to anything else you do, EVER. I promise. Let me know if you’d like to hear anything else about my study abroad experience, I’m always willing to share – Partially I think because my friends and family are already sick of me talking about it, because they don’t even ask anymore… HAHA! Ok, well that’s all- my one lesson- GET OUT THERE AND IMMERSE YOURSELF IN EVERY WONDERFUL FANTASTIC CULTURAL EXPERIENCE YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON!

                                                                                                                                                                Cheers!! xoxo

M I L L E N N I A L S

“Millennials want nice things but don’t want to work for them/”

“Want work done? Don’t Hire a Millennial.”

“Crybaby Millennials need to stop whining and work hard like the rest of us.”

                These are just a few of the titles of articles that come up when you Google ‘millennials’. I think it is really quite interesting how terribly millennials are talked about on the internet. Generation Y is constantly being shit on by business owners and bosses everywhere. GUESS WHAT? They aren’t completely alone in their thinking though. Hello! It’s me! A millennial! And I AGREE with these headlines! I think that WE as a generation have been bred to all feel equal, and upon graduation with a degree everyone feels they are entitled to a paycheck. Well YES, in an ideal situation, everyone would get a paycheck, but you know who gets a paycheck? PEOPLE WHO WORK! So don’t give me that shitty excuse about how you have no money, if you’ve got no job, and are making no attempts to look for one.

                All of these articles also made the brilliant point that millennials feel pressure to earn money, and I don’t know about any of my fellow peers, but I certainly feel that. I know that an entry level position and starting salary are imposed to promote growth for an individual, but with hefty student debt and responsibilities hanging over our heads, an entry level salary isn’t very appealing. UNFORTUNATELY some of us (ahem, not me) do not understand that we do not know everything about anything, really, yet and taking you on as anything but an entry level employee could be a potential liability for the company that has chosen to employ your sorry, ungrateful millennial ass in the first place.

                Luckily most all of my friends and myself work hard for what they have, so it isn’t awkward to write this post, but I cannot deny that I have had more given to me than previous generations, and I know I am not alone. BUT I think unlike most of the generation Y, I am able to identify that, and recognize that I am privileged to have more opportunities without (sometimes) working as hard as I should. I have heard the argument that because we have this view of ‘extreme equality’ it has ruined our sense of ownership of real work- and made it easier to allow us to be proud of mediocre work. I have seen this in play too, as often now a recreational league sport like youth soccer, the end of the season is basically a time to reward every kid for just showing up. No matter which skills you learned during the season, you get a trophy. Kick the ball into the wrong goal? Doesn’t matter… you showed up that’s all that matters. Sat on the bench all season? Who cares! At least you watched, have a trophy. NO. THAT IS NOT TEACHING ANYONE ANYTHING. You know what that teaches kids? That the world owes them something for every meager task they do, and I COMPLETELY disagree- the world owes us nothing.

                I think that millennials believe that same thing- the world owes us something. NO. Get a job, do something with your life. If it’s worth something to someone, then you’ll get rewarded for it! If you want to do it and no one else sees the value in it, then do it for yourself, but don’t make it seem like someone owes you something for doing something that has no real value to anyone else but you. HERE’S A TIP- sometimes if you work hard enough and really feel passionate about something it makes people change the way they think about it, and THEN maybe someone else will see value in it because you believe in it so strongly. I know that this sounds silly and like common sense, and maybe even like it’s a conflicting view of the topic, but I AM A MILLENNIAL, and I know that we are full of passion, we care a lot more about enriching experiences like travel, and volunteer work and doing things to make ourselves and others around us feel good. We aren’t self-absorbed, we are rarely materialistic, and we’d like to be helpful, and make a difference. It just takes time, whereas most of us would like to fly onto the scene and make an impact straight away. Here’s the thing- somethings are better with time, and I think as millennials we have trouble understanding that instant gratification isn’t an option, and most of the time, that’s a good thing.

                FOR THE RECORD- the world owes me nothing, I plan to continue working as hard as I possibly can to achieve the things I want to achieve because quite frankly, I know nobody else gives a shit about my goals, besides me. I encourage my fellow millennials to realize the same thing, you do you, be real, and work hard, and you WILL achieve the things you’re setting out for, but YOU DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING YOU DIDN’T WORK FOR, because that could be stealing, and that’s a crime, you know (humor, HA!). Also rant-y side note- don’t brag to me about your mediocracy, if you’re doing big things and achieving your goals, it will be apparent without you having to say anything at all.

Well that’s all for now! Let me know if you liked this one, because I was thinking about writing a bit more on Millennials, I think it is very relevant!

                                                                                                                                Cheers!! xoxo

M U N I C H

During the last week of my time in London, I had my parents come visit… one, because they wanted to, and two because I needed to use their suitcases to bring home four months’ worth of belongings. They had told me before I had even left for my studies in January that they wouldn’t mind going outside the UK for a short trip while they were visiting. I knew that the ‘sister’ festival to the Oktoberfest would be happening in Munich during the week that they’d be with me in Europe, and so that was it, I decided for them- we were going to Germany.

                 So I got initial approval for our trip from my parents and booked the flights and the hotel. This trip was especially exciting for me because it would be the first time that I get to really use my language skills in a real life situation. Also, who doesn’t love a beer festival?! So back to the last week of my trip, on the Thursday of my parents stay, we got up and into a taxi to Gatwick airport at 2:30 in the morning for our 6 AM flight. We took the hour flight and landed at Flughafen München around 9AM. From the moment we stepped foot in Germany there was a test of my willpower in not caving in and speaking English.

                    Our first test was to buy a train ticket to get ourselves from the airport to the hotel. Google maps suggested it was about an hour… reliable, right? We ended up on the straßebahn (over ground train) and settled in for our journey. After a good bit of time we ended up at our stop. Next challenge? Finding the correct exit and then walking in the actual direction of our hotel, which we (I) was not successful at and eventually had to go into another hotel to ask for directions. After being pointed in the right direction and a few hiccups meaning we crossed the street waaaaaay to many times, and in way to many high traffic situations, we finally found our hotel.

                  We checked in to our hotel and made our way to a sunny spot in a center square of the city. We promptly found a little pub, (Irish, funny enough) and sat outside in the sunshine. It was so warm and sunny after an hour and a half we each ended up with a sunburn, but it was well worth it because I had felt like I hadn’t seen the sun in England for months. After sitting at the pub we made our way to Thereinwise which was the fairground that the Frühlingsfest was held on. Seeing as it was the middle of the day on a Thursday, there wasn’t a huge crowd so it was easy to get food or beer fairly quickly. Our first stop was the very traditional beirgarten, and we were surrounded by people in their lederhosen and dirndls (Shit! I forgot to pack mine!). After the first beirgarten, we walked through the fest, and the only thing I can liken it to would be the Woodstock fair in Connecticut, EXCEPT that everyone was speaking German (obviously). After sampling a few German goodies, we decided to walk back to our hotel.

                Upon arriving back to our hotel room to find that it had been broken into, we went to the desk to report that our first floor room had been broken into as out of our own stupidity left the smallest of the three windows open and someone had reached through and pushed the larger one open and climbed in. luckily they didn’t take anything, and luckily we hadn’t left anything of importance in our room. As youkan imagine, it wasn’t ideal, and definitely put a wrinkle in our plans as now we had to wait for the police to come and “inspect the crime scene”- at this point we were a few beers in and feeling a bit peckish though, and as part of our compensation for the trouble we had the hotel offered us drinks while we waited for the investigation to commence. By the time that wrapped up, we were very very hungry.

So viel Wurst! 

                We decided it would only be appropriate to have very typical German food for dinner, because as my parents were concerned this could potentially be the only time they visit Germany. So we went to a restaurant which I believe was actually called “Das Wursthaus” and as you can see from the picture below, fitting name. After our dinner we went promptly back to the hotel, and went to sleep. Being awake for almost 22 hours straight really tires you out.

                The next day we packed up our things and checked out, and had the entire day to explore the city before our 9 PM flight. We walked all around to find the English gardens which we were advised to see by the receptionist at our hotel, we also stopped at street market on our way to the gardens to see all the food and handmade goods that were being sold, and of course, to drink some more German beer. By midafternoon we had made it to the gardens and walked through them in the lovely sunshine, as it was again warmer than any of us had expected it to be. By then we were hungry for some food before our flight. We made our way to a restaurant before heading off on the train to the airport again to fly back to London.

Ich liebe München!

                Overall our trip to Germany was a success, we saw so many things, and got to experience something so similar yet very different to English culture, or American culture. I am so happy that I got the opportunity to visit Germany, and I certainly plan on going back to spend bit more time there, so I can get a real feel for the German culture that I have yet to experience, as I have only visited one city, and there is so much more to Germany that I could see!

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed!

                                                                                                                                                                Cheers!! xoxo

B A R C E L O N A

             While in Europe I tried to visit a few places outside of the UK, as inter-continental travel is fairly inexpensive in Europe, if you shop around a bit. My friend Bella, and I decided to book a short trip to Barcelona while we had some time off from our coursework, and with a little bit of perseverance found very cheap flights there and back and a nice little hotel to stay in. We booked a morning flight so that we could make the most of our short stay in Spain, and so we left our campus at 5.30 in the morning to catch the train to the airport. Before we knew it we had boarded the plane and were well on our way to the warm sunshine of the Mediterranean.

                We had both visited Barcelona before, and knew exactly what we wanted to do each day of the trip, we just wanted to explore the city, and submerse ourselves in the parts of the city we hadn’t seen the first time. Our hotel was in a perfect location to explore, it was a beautiful 5 minute walk away from the beach, where there were all sorts of little beach bars and restaurants, and just far enough outside of the city center to be hidden away from all the typical tourist traps of the city. We had our own little Rambla around the corner from our hotel, that was filled with local restaurants and shops that you could tell were very much catered to locals, not tourists. It was interesting to see this part of Barcelona because, the first time I had visited I stayed right in the city center, and got sucked into all of the usual tourist attractions. Seeing local life is the most genuine way to see a city, because it shows you what the city itself really has to offer. ANYWAY, back to our trip…

                So on the first day, we landed around 10 AM and had to take an hour train ride from the airport to our hotel. Which also involved taking the metro and then hiking it up the sidewalk to where we were staying. OH! And silly me thinking that I could use my Spanish speaking skills forgot that in Barcelona they speak Catalonian, and so it took a few for me to realize that I was having trouble understanding some of what people were saying because THEY WERE SPEAKING A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE! Luckily if you know Spanish (JUST AN OPINION HERE) then it isn’t super difficult to understand Catalonian. So after fumbling with our bags in multiple different directions, (because reading a map is not my forte, and the same goes for Bella too) down many streets that seemed to all look the same, we finally got our bearings and found our hotel. SIDENOTE- Barcelona most definitely is lacking street signs, and the ones they do have are SUPER tiny… maybe they should rethink those for everyone’s sake… HA. Once we had dropped off our bags we headed for the beach. It wasn’t quite warm enough for swimming, or sun bathing, but it was still a balmy 70 degrees or so, so it was nice to just walk around near the beach after being landlocked in London for four months.

                We just kept walking and walking and walking until we finally ended up at La Rambla… you know the BIG one that Barcelona is famous for. Before we knew it, it was almost 8 PM and we were at least an hours walk (LOL if you knew how to read a map) away from our hotel. So we picked a direction on the map, and tried to take the walk back to our hotel. UNTIL we ended up on a side street, at night, in the dark. It was then time to ask for directions… We stopped into a hotel that looked friendly enough and asked whether we were heading in the right direction. Turns out we were!! BUT we were still very far away and were advised to take the metro back to our hotel as “It’s not a very nice walk”- yeah we get your hint, our hotel was kind of NEXT to an area, not quite ghetto, but maybe not somewhere you want to be walking around in, in the dark. So after that whole escapade, we ended up turning around and walking to the metro station to take the metro back to the hotel. By this time it was almost 10 PM so trying to find a restaurant to eat dinner was out, and we JUST BARELY made it to the hotel restaurant as it was about to close, and had a very awkward meal while the wait staff stood there and watched us eat, so they could hurry up and clear our table.

              









               The next day we got up and set out to explore the city even more, we decided to take the sky tram to get a real view of Barcelona, the harbor and of course, the BEAUTIFUL ocean. We trekked down the beach to the base of the sky tram, and bought our tickets, and got on board. We took the sky tram from the Olympic Port to a local park, and then decided to try and walk back towards the beach. Again- try and walk back is the key phrase, because as you can imagine, it was no easy feat. We ended up walking for quite some time, but at an easy pace, where we could window shop and look at all the shops, bakeries, and cafes that Barcelona has to offer. Before we knew it, we had gotten lost, once again. While we still had enough daylight we followed the map to the best of our (limited) ability and ended up back on the beach. We chose a small beach bar, and sat in the lovely lounges on the beach and basked in the sunshine. We also had some incredible Sangria (my FAVORITE drink EVER) and after that we walked back to our hotel to get ready to go out to dinner, at a more reasonable time than the night before.

                Before dinner (or call it us being indecisive…) we walked up and down the Rambla nearest to our hotel, La Rambla del Poblenou. Both of us found the area we were staying to have a local charm about it that central Barcelona was lacking.  It was then that we decided to come back the next day to explore more, but for that night we settled on a little restaurant that didn’t even have a sign out for people to see whether they were open. They had a jazz performer who you could tell was local, as all of the restaurant staff knew the band. It was really great to feel a sense of community, and to feel like we were part of it.

                The next day we went back to a café on in that same area, and after that ventured into the center to visit the Sagrada Familia. Both of us share the opinion that it happens to be one of the most spectacular places to visit…EVER. By the time we got to the ticket counter, around noon, the next available time slot was 4 PM so we went to a café, and decided we would have time to explore a bit, get lunch and then still make it back to be some of the first in line.

               

             So that is just what we did, we set off down a side street and didn’t look back. Eventually we found a restaurant to have some traditional Spanish Paella, because you cannot go to Spain and not have that!! After a charming lunch with a beautiful view of the church amongst the neighborhood buildings, we made our way back to the church, and walked through the church for easily an hour. After our tour of the church, we went further into the center of the city to explore, visiting churches, shops and taking in the arguably distinctive SLOOOOOOOOW European atmosphere. Later that evening we explored the area we were staying in, and returned to the hotel to pack our bags up, as we’d have to leave early the next morning to take the metro to the airport.

                So the next morning we left for the airport, but then could not figure out whether we had bought the right tickets or not for the Metro, and ended up having to turn around and take the Metro in the complete opposite direction! The weekend was full of adventures just like that, because surprise, surprise we were lost again!! Regardless, spending time in the Spanish sunshine was brilliant! It was good to be back in Spain and experience something a little different than what London has to offer!

Well Mates, that’s about it for now, but I do want to thank Bella for putting up with me during our time in Barcelona, and being such a great travel partner!

                                                                                                                                                                                Cheers!! xoxo