The End is Nigh

In only a little more than a week, I will be back in the States and my adventures abroad will have come to an end. This seems utterly impossible. All the preparation,  applications, anxiety, visas, packing, meeting new people, I was so worried about what was yet to come and now it's all over. I have been so many incredible places.
Last weekend I was in Dublin, where I saw sights like Trinity College, the Ha Penny Bridge, Bono's hotel, St. Stephen's Green, and (of course) the Guinness Storehouse Factory. (Sidenote: At the Guinness Factory, we met a girl from Colorado visiting Ireland whose mother was from Grand Rapids. What is this?!?!) My favorite part though was being in the city that inspired so many writer like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, W.B. Yeats, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde. This was even more significant for me because I studied those first three writers during my Modernism course this past term in Aberdeen. While I may have complained now and again about these guys, I was still excited to walk in their footsteps and add to my knowledge about them. I think Dublin gave me a better sense of appreciation for these writers, and I thank the city for that.
With the exception of my concluding trip to London next week, Dublin was my final journey. It provided the final time I would be taking the Megabus to Edinburgh (I think I could drive there in one of those things with my eyes closed), the last time I would go through UK border control (oh how I will miss the adrenaline rush as you stress over the minute possibility that they won't let you into the country), and the last time I would be traveling with my fellow Kzoo to Aberdeen friends.
I don't want to be one of those annoyingly pretentious people who talk about how they are now a completely different person after being abroad and come back with a fake accent or dreadlocks, but I won't say that this experience has not changed me. I was talking with some of my friends about this, and we all agreed that we didn't feel like different people, but changed people. We don't feel the need to broadcast this to the world (although I suppose blogging about this is doing just that) but we are conscious of this inner shift, if you will. For me, personally, study abroad has made me more confident, more adventurous. I tried things I never thought I would (haggis and escargot), I met amazing people (I am going to miss my flatmates like crazy. I made lifelong friends with them), got to know people from Kzoo better and made new and lasting friendships that I'll be able to continue in the States, and just feel more comfortable with myself. Ugh, I really don't want to get overly introspective, I just want people to know that study abroad is an AMAZING experience. If you have the chance to study abroad, or your kids do, DO IT, LET THEM. It's a chance unlike any other. Going abroad at this point in life is a humbling and liberating opportunity. I can honestly say this has been one of the best times of my life and I will miss this little Scottish home and family I have made for myself. But I am also excited to return to my home and family in the states and share my stories with them. So if I don't write again before I return home (and who knows, maybe I'll write a re-acclimation entry once I'm back) I just want to say thanks for reading and being a part of my adventure.

Playing a little catch-up...

So I haven’t updated in quite a while. Okay, that is a bit of an understatement, but so much has happened that I got a little backlogged with all the adventures I had to write about. So I will give you the lowdown to catch y’all up. Brittany’s blog: backissue edition if you will.   

Photo Credit: Mara Livezey

Jacobite Express aka The Hogwarts Express. Hannah, Mara, and I took this red steam engine train ride through the Highlands in October. The journey started in Fort William and ended in Mallaig. The tagline for the journey was “Follow in the footsteps of Harry Potter.” The reason for this, besides the fact that some of the cars of the train were actually used in the movies (!) was that it crossed the Glenfinnen Viaduct. For those of you who don’t know what that it, consult the film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and see the scene where the Hogwarts Express crosses that giant stone bridge. Yep, we actually were on the route to Hogwarts. Besides the Harry Potter connection, which was enough in itself, the train ride was absolutely gorgeous. The highlands are truly amazing. There were little waterfalls hidden amongst giant hills. Lakes, forests, and other flora provided us with the most amazing landscape to look out our windows at. The highlands themselves were magical enough. It was also on this train ride that I realized it is a small world after all. On the way back, I was sitting with a family consisting of a mother, father, and their ten-year old daughter whom they took this train ride because of her love of Harry Potter (She and I ended up playing quite a few rounds of Harry Potter Go-Fish). The mother was Italian, and the father Scottish. We began talking and they asked me where in Scotland I was studying and when I told them Aberdeen, they said that was the same university they both attended. Not only that, but they also stayed at Hillhead Halls of Residence. This was all coincidental enough as it was, but it was about to get even weirder when I told them I was from Michigan. The father’s first question for me after this fact was whether or not I had heard of a place called Kalamazoo. What?!?!? Whenever I tell people I go to Kalamazoo College, they look at me like I made up the craziest name I could think of, a name that shouldn’t belong to an actual college or city, but rather in the world of Dr. Seuss.  And yet here in the highlands of Scotland, on the Harry Potter train, are people who are bringing up the name Kalamazoo to me. Turns out, an old school mate of theirs fell in love with a girl from Kalamazoo. They lived together for a while but she missed the States and her family and so they broke up. A tragic romance, but an excellent story. And on that train, I realized that all those annoying animatronic dolls at Disney World have it right: “it’s a small world, after all.”