Epilogue

A little over one month since getting back to the United States, I’m still asked the same question over and over:

“How’s the culture shock?”

Strangely enough, this is the longest time I have been away from home and yet the least culture shock I have ever experienced. I’m sure seeing friends and family from home in Europe helped ease me back into American culture. But it’s been funny noticing the small subtle ways my culture shock manifests itself:

My English sentence structures.  I thought I was pretty good at catching myself making those grammar mistakes, but when my sister was editing one of my cover letters, I got many a “maybe this is a French thing, but we just don’t say that in English” comments. Even when she pointed it out, I couldn’t see what was wrong with it.

While dropping a friend off at a train station, I parked the car and got out to accompany her inside. My immediate and natural thought process was “She only speaks English, so she’ll need my help to get her train ticket and departure information.”

I’ve forgotten how to sign my name. In Reunion/Europe in general, credit cards always require pin numbers instead of signatures. So I basically have not signed my name for nine months. The first time I swiped a credit card here in the States and had a pen handed to me… I just stared at the cashier blankly, trying to figure out what she wanted from me.

When the weekend rolls around, I still get a sense of urgency to get my grocery shopping done early because I think everything will be closed on Sunday.

Texting a friend, I was dictating my message (in English, of course) in my head and typing it out with my fingers (what else?). When I looked down at the screen, I saw that I had written parts of the message in French 100% subconsciously…I honestly would not have noticed if I hadn’t looked down to check what I’d typed.

It’s actually nice having this kind of culture shock… it’s not bitter or difficult to deal with day-to-day—they’re just little bits that come as sweet reminders of my island life.

Since being back, I’ve had a Skype date with German Anne, many a facebook chats with British Becky and Irish Lucy, and long-winded email exchanges with some of the teachers from my lycée. Every one of these encounters is absolute pure joy for me—I just have this huge, silly grin on my face the entire time. The same goes for anytime I hear a Bob Marley or Beach Boys song.

Lots of people have also asked if I miss traveling—is it hard to stay in one place now? Having been in that travel mentality for so long, I think it’s just carried over… I still do feel like I’m traveling, that every day is a new experience.

Part of that may indeed be because I have not really stopped traveling since I’ve been back home. After four days back in Minnesota, I flew to Eugene, Oregon for 2 weeks to see the fam and the US Track and Field Olympic Trials. That was a great time to spend with family and also perfect for getting back into that “Proud to be American” spirit. Cheering on all these athletes and seeing their joy, their triumphs, their hopes for bigger achievements…such a thrilling, powerful, and inspiring experience.

Men’s Steeple Chase

Celebrating for High Jump

After setting a new World Record

Still get chills when I see this

Team USA

I just got back from a weekend visiting about 15 college friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan, then seeing more friends (from Witt, Minnesota, and Senegal!) and celebrating my sister’s 27^th birthday in Chicago.

Millennium Park in Chicago

My sis and her man on her birthday!

The whole long weekend was SO much fun and I loved getting to go on one of my long-awaited-and-beloved road trips…. the only bummer being that the last day in Chicago I had my wallet stolen :/

Driver’s License, credit card, debit card, gift cards, AAA card, insurance cards, $60 in cash…somehow just snatched out of my purse. I was really upset for a good 20 minutes, but then I thought about it and decided not to let it ruin my day. And let’s be honest… I just spent 8 months living on a tropical island, I traveled around Europe for 6 weeks with some of my best friends, and I came home and got to go to the Olympic Trials… I can take a hit.

On top of that, I just got the exciting news last Friday that I’ve been offered a job(!) that begins the end of August. It’s an Americorps position at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon (just outside of Salem). I’ll be coordinating a mentor program between college and high school students in the area to encourage first-generation college students to finish high school and apply to college. The high schools I’ll be working with are extremely diverse (one of the schools’ homepage is offered in 6(!) different languages, and the other has 16% of its student population in ESL classes), which is very exciting coming from Reunion.

After so much travel, I came home and felt very strongly about spending time with my family, so I wanted to move out to Oregon at the end of the summer to be close to my mom, grandma and extended Oregon family. Thankfully I’ve landed this job that puts me in the perfect in-between spot: Monmouth is only a 1.5 hour drive from Eugene (where the fam lives!), but it also happens to be the same small town that American Childhood Best Friend Alex (France-Germany-Czech Republic-Norway travel buddy) just moved to with her boyfriend!!  So I’ll have family close by and my best friend even closer.

I’ve also looked into going to grad school for International Studies at the University of Oregon in Eugene beginning Fall 2013. I’m interested in working in the field of International Education/Study Abroad, so living/working in Oregon for a year to establish residency for in-state tuition is also part of the plan (or potential plan). I’ll get experience working in Higher Education through this Americorps position, so hopefully that will help give me a better idea of whether International Education (advising college students on where to go abroad, but also being responsible for the international students at a university and welcoming/orienting them to campus, etc.) is really the direction I want to go.

The plan is to ship out (the mother of all road trips!!) sometime in the second week of August and get to Oregon a few weeks early to figure out housing and spend time with the fam. For now, I’m just soaking up every minute I can with my daddy and Minnesota friends.

So there’s the life update!

Always more adventures on the horizon, but I just wanted to thank you for following this past year’s adventures. I’ve really enjoyed writing this blog, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it. It was so fun to share my experiences and read your comments and encouragement—you made me feel so much closer to home when I was about as far away as one can be.

On my final plane ride back to Minneapolis, I watched the first and second movies in the Lord of the Rings series (come on, what else are you going to do on a 7-hour plane ride? They didn’t have Star Wars.), and I want to leave you with a quote from the movie. Immediately after hearing it, I wrote it down in my journal because I thought it was a perfect summary of this last year… and hopefully more years to come 

“It’s a dangerous business going out your door.

You step onto the road and if you don’t keep your feet,

There’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

All my love,

Lindsay

Euro Travels: England

You thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you? I see the skepticism in your eyes. I can sense the surprise through my computer screen. You thought I was just going to say, “Well, I’m already back in the US now…screw it!” Well, you’re wrong.

We’ve come this far with one country to go, and I am not about to leave this thing hanging! So let’s see what (hopefully humorous) memories I can conjure up…a month+ later. Props to you if you’re still following.

Probably my biggest adventure in England was actually getting into the country.

After waiting a solid half hour through a snaking line of “Non-UK Citizens or Residents” that was even marked with signs indicating the newly tightened customs procedures, I waltzed up to the next available officer—ready to have my passport stamped and march on through that door.

Not so fast.

Much to my surprise, this customs officer actually seemed to care about the answers to the questions she was asking, which unfortunately didn’t pan out too well for me. My friends later told me my number one mistake: I was honest. (Thought process in italics)

Officer: “So, what are you doing here in the UK?”

Me: “Visiting a friend.”

Officer: “Uh huh and how long will you be staying?”

Me: “One week”

Officer: “Okay, and where are you staying?”

Me: “Um… with my friend, Kate”

Officer: “Okay, well where does your friend live?”

Me: “London.”

Officer: “Which part of London?”

Me: Silence and wide eyes from my end. “I dunno…just…London!”

Officer: “You don’t have an address?”

Me: “Um.. .no.”

Officer: “Well I need an address.”

Me: “Well, I wish I could give you one. But I don’t have one.” Feeling snarky.

Officer: “What does your friend do?”

Me: Yes! Finally a question I can answer! “She’s getting her masters here.”

Officer: “Where is she studying?”

Me: Oh god. I am such a bad friend!! “Um… I know it’s not Oxford..?”

Officer: “You don’t know what university?!” Okay, you don’t have to rub it in! “Do you know what she’s studying?”

Me: “Um… Peace?” Is that real? It’s something like that. Ahem.

Officer: “That could be anywhere. You don’t know the university?”

Me: Pretty sure we’ve been over this, NO! “No.”

Officer: “Do you have your friend’s phone number?”

Me: Oh man, this was really poorly planned, wasn’t it?  “No…”

Officer: “Well what are you going to do if for some reason something happened and your friend can’t get you? Where will you go? What’s your plan then? You didn’t think of that?”

Me: Feeling a little Buttercup coming on: My Westley (Kate) will always come for me! “Um… find an internet café? Facebook…?”

Officer: “So you don’t know where you’re staying and you have no way of contacting your friend. Do you see that’s a problem?”

Me:  Getting testy now. “I do. But that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have that information.” Do you want me to make up a phone number? A fake address? Would that make you feel better??

Officer: “Well what do you do for a living?

Me: After lots of emotional reflection over my time in Reunion coming to an end… “I’m unemployed.” Geez, I’m sounding like a REAL lowlife now, aren’t I?

Officer: “You don’t have a job?” RED FLAGS!!!! RED FLAGS!!! EVERYWHERE!!!!!! “Can I see your return ticket, please.”

Me: Okay, yes, unemployed. AGAIN, you don’t have to rub it in… But don’t you worry missy, no way in hay I’d wanna stay long in your country! I’m American!! Why would I want to come here??  “Here.”

Officer: “And who paid for your ticket?”

Me: Oh, now you’re going too far! Bitch, please! I’m getting REAL fiery at this point… “I did!”

Officer: “But you have no job.”

It went on like this for another 5 minutes and I explained my whole long complicated life story… she finally let me through (she let me know) only because I had a return ticket back to the States. Poor Kate had been waiting outside for 45 minutes, but after lots of hugging and jumping in each other’s arms, we clarified that she goes to University College London and is studying Human Rights… not Peace.

Spent the hour-long tube ride catching up on each other’s lives, and after dropping my bags off in Kate’s…we’ll call it “cozy”… dorm room, we set out to further the high school reunion and meet up with our friends Bailey and Alex, also visiting from the States.

(Just for simplicity’s sake, I’ll have you know that everyone I met up with in London…Kate, Bailey, Alex… are all American High School Best Friends. So let’s all save ourselves the trouble of having to read/write AHSBF before each person’s name, and just know everyone referred to in London falls under that category)

After quite a bit of searching, I finally heard a familiar shriek and was immediately swept up in a laughing-jumping-happy-hugging reunion of some of my dearest friends who I hadn’t seen in almost a year. We briefly stopped in at a pub for a pint, but then quickly opted for a quieter spot where we could actually hear each other.

me, Kate and Bailey

that happy hugging reunion with Alex

That first night, Bailey, Kate, Alex and I stayed up in Kate’s kitchen until about 5am, just talking, drinking wine, making chocolate chip cookies and playing Catch Phrase. And that’s also how we spent just about every other subsequent night of our visit. Sure, there was talk of getting dressed up and going clubbing…but at the end of the day, we were always perfectly content just being in each other’s company. So great!

On par with the rest of my European travels, we didn’t do much (or any) sight-seeing. I saw Big Ben and the London Eye once from across the river. We walked across London Bridge, but only because it was on the way to one of Kate’s favorite pubs. I guess we rode in those big red double-decker buses, but again… only because it got us from Point A to Point B. I guess were just so excited to see each other, we couldn’t be bothered with the rest of London

the extent of our London sight-seeing

The whole long weekend we played up the “royalty and peasant” theme. The four of us squeezed into Kate’s single dorm room, and whoever didn’t claim a spot in her twin bed had to sleep on the floor—and was thus officially (but affectionately) labeled a “peasant” for the night.

Going along with our theme, Kate got us tickets to see Henry V at the Globe Theatre. We were all in standing-room-only below the stage—just like the peasants in old Shakespearean days! Between the Shakespeare-speak and the thick English accents, I really couldn’t make out a word that was said, but luckily the actors were spirited enough that I felt I could generally follow the storyline and appreciate the animated facial expressions (ironically, the only parts of the play I had no trouble understanding were the two scenes spoken in French).  But the actors often directed their speech at the “peasant gallery” and at several points throughout the show—between battle cries and some fierce swashbuckling—I think we were all rallied and ready to take up arms against the French army! A very fun experience, albeit a long 3 hours to stay standing.

My last full day in London, we spent the afternoon wandering around the streets and shops of Notting Hill…only to come back to enjoy a warm take-out dinner while watching the movie Notting Hill (but no rich & famous movie stars came back to our flat at the end of the day…sigh).

Bailey laughing, as usual

cupcakes in Notting Hill

lovely Kate

After a Last Supper of Guiness Extra Cold and fish & chips, we parted ways at the train station and I began the last leg of my journey…coming full circle and ending my travels with my first roommate from Reunion, British Becky!!

parting picture

Got off the train and saw my favorite Brit clad in winter boots, jacket and a scarf—what happened to the swim suit and Daisy Dukes I’m so used to??? The first words out of her mouth were, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re here!!” … I couldn’t either As one of my very closest friends from the island, I’d been so looking forward to seeing her, and couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end my travels/a more perfect person to see me off back to my native land!

British Becky and me!!

We spent hours getting caught up on each other’s post-island lives, discussing how the whole island experience feels like a world away, paging through the photobook I made of our time in Reunion, and then discussing again how the whole experience feels like a world away. Lots of reminiscing…we even made our own Reunion playlist—the soundtrack to our last 8 months together. Talk about memories flooding back—geez!!!

British Becky took me on a tour of her darling, charming, all of the above, town of Chester. It’s the only British city that (still!) has a wall (intact!) that goes all the way around the city…and we walked the whole thing! Later, as we drove through the rolling green countryside, I found myself asking why anyone in their right mind would ever want to go to London when there was all THIS just next door!

Chester from the wall

Beckster in Chester

one of Becky’s favorite towns

Beautiful, darling, charming. My every and only words to describe all she showed me.

ESPECIALLY… Nana!!

From our early days in Reunion, I’ve been hearing British Becky rant and rave about her sweet Nana back home. I could only coo at the stories and dear picture she kept of Nana on her wall in our apartment, and I was beside myself imagining an older person speaking with a British accent. The darling factor was almost more than I could take. So I made British Becky PROMISE me if I came to visit her, that I could meet Nana. This ranked about #1 on my priority list.

So just as promised, after a morning of sight-seeing, we dropped in for “afternoon tea” (do you love it??!) at Nana’s. Nana lives on her own, is still very active (she was bent over pulling weeds in the front yard when we pulled into the driveway!), is somewhere in her late 80s, and measures well under 5 feet. And speaks with a British accent.

We had tea and biscuits (cookies) and a nice chat in her living room. Beautiful, darling, charming. I tried  to speak as loudly and clearly as possible, but British Becky later told me when I went to the bathroom Nana confided in her, “I’m having a lot of trouble understanding her American accent!”  Oops but too cute! Before we left I was able to snap a couple pics, so you can see the dear ones themselves:

!!!

British Becky and Nana

We went out with British Becky’s mum (who was also in Reunion for Christmas!) for the very last Last Supper, and we planned out their entire trip to visit me in the US sometime in the distant/near (we haven’t decided that part yet) future. Glad we got that sorted already It’s exciting to think of one day getting to welcome these friends who have been so wonderful and hospitable to me.

The next day… I flew home.

The end.

I write that because that’s literally how it felt. After 9 months of travel, I got on a plane (well, two planes, to be exact) and landed in Minneapolis. Sure, I had a little freak out when I was packing (as you may have read in Last Minute), but as soon as I got to my gate it was just like… “So, you’re going home today. Okay, then.”

As we flew in over the Twin Cities, I looked out the window and couldn’t help but smile to myself. My reaction was not at all what I expected, but it came as a pleasant , if not oversimplified, surprise…

“Hmm. Feels like I never left.”

Euro Travels: Iceland

After a quick stopover in the London airport to pay our dues to the Queen on her Jubilee (celebration of 60(!) years on the throne!), Dad and I were on our way to Iceland.

We landed around 11:30pm, but by the time we got our bags, currency, and rental car, it was well past 12:30am… and STILL LIGHT OUT! Nope, no Northern Lights sightings for us because we happened to visit the Land of Ice when there are about 22 hours of daylight. Granted, it wasn’t exactly full sun, but it felt like “sunset” for a good couple hours… and what an incredible introduction to our week stay in this foreign land to drive along a jagged mountain horizon glowing pink in the background until 2am.

the little bit of night we saw

I call this a foreign land because it truly is the most foreign of places I have ever been. I suppose when you think of foreign, the first thing that comes to mind is foreign language or simple foreigners… but Iceland is not so different because of its people or its language. It’s different because it is the most untouched nature I have ever seen.

Whenever I go somewhere of impressive natural beauty, I always wonder what it must have looked like when the first people arrived there—before humans, industry, development touched the land. Iceland is the only place I’ve ever been where when I drove through the landscape, I felt I had a pretty good picture in mind of its original state. In Reunion, it was hard to imagine away houses, buildings, storefronts, telephone wires, a complicated network of roads on the mountainside, satellites in the hills, billboards, sign posts… but in the more rural parts of Iceland, just thumb over a house or two, scratch out that one long road stretching in front of you, and you’ve got a clean slate.

Of course, the capital city of Reykjavik is the exception to all this, but hey…throw Iceland a bone!

Dad and I stayed in a hotel just outside the city and were able to meet up with American Thor who was Couch Surfing in the city! Like me, American Thor was doing some post-Reunion Europe travelling, and we completely coincidentally happened to book stays in Iceland for almost the exact same dates. So me, Dad and American Thor banded together for 4 out of our 5 days in Iceland.

Our first stop together was the famed Blue Lagoon.  An incredibly-colored clear blue thermal bath in the middle of a field of volcanic rock, the Blue Lagoon is supposed to be the ultimate spa and relaxation experience. As we submerged ourselves in the soothing hot water, we slowly took in all our surroundings:  A backdrop of black jagged rock, almost a lunar landscape. Milky blue water with steam rising off the surface. Figures slowly moving toward us through the fog. Speaking in foreign tongues. Faces and arms smeared with this white paste. Bodies emerging up out of the water left and right.

Maybe this was all supposed to be part of the zen experience, but for the three of us, there was only one thought on our minds: Zombie Apocalypse!

Dad and American Thor

Sure, it felt good to soak for a bit and we all ended up trying the mud masks for “ultimate skin healing” in the end, but more than anything we just had ourselves a good laugh about how f-ing CREEPY the whole place was! To its credit, it was beautiful and unlike any place we’d ever seen. Definitely worth the trip, but… not quite what we expected

Another day, we headed off for an excursion around the Golden Circle (which I kept mistakenly referring to as “The Gold Ring”). It’s a loop of a historical sight, a geyser, and a waterfall that rivals Niagara Falls. Of course, those sights weren’t exciting enough on their own, so we decided to spice things up by taking jumping pictures in front of all of them —the geyser jumping pictures, of course, being the most epic of feats as we had to wait 10-15 minutes between each 5-second photo-op. That’s dedication, right there!  Here are the winners:

the geyser

the incredible bubble that forms right before it blows!

success!

the falls

Dad’s got ups!

That 4-hour loop was not adventurous enough for this crew, so we ventured out on a daring 12-hour driving trip in one day… but hey, when you’ve got 22 hours of daylight, why not? It was quite the drive, but the scenery kept us busy: mountains with little patches of houses with brightly-colored roofs; lots of sheep, horses, and even a herd of galloping cows(!); the volcano that erupted a couple years ago; massive waterfalls and one we could even walk behind(!); glaciers; fields of purple flowers;  and finally, for the ultimate goal… icebergs!

love how they’re evenly paired off with a chaperone

Me and American Thor

Dad and me

behind that same waterfall!

Yes, we drove 12 hours to see icebergs. Yes, we would do it again in a heartbeat. We got to see one of the giant bergs melt and break off into the sea (or rather the body of water that fed into the sea), had a few seal spottings, looked at the most amazing formations (you can see figures in the icebergs like you can the clouds) and that bright, bright blue color that almost glows in the ice and water…absolutely breathtaking, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

that bright, bright blue

American Thor and me

So the scenery? A+++++++

The people?

To be honest, we didn’t have much interaction with many Icelanders. Ironically, probably the most we learned about people who live in Iceland was from an Ethiopian man. After a long day of exploring, we stopped at a newly-opened and highly-recommended Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. After devouring our meals with our bare hands (yes, our waiter came over not to offer us any cutlery, but just to clarify that we wouldn’t be getting any ), we were invited to the middle of the restaurant for the traditional after-dinner coffee. Although neither Dad nor American Thor are coffee drinkers, we obliged just the same and ended up sitting for about an hour just talking with the wonderful restaurant owner and his friend about their experience as immigrants in Iceland.

They said the lack of daylight in the winter can be hard, obviously the climate is different, but ultimately their reason for coming and for staying (the owner has been in Iceland 12 years): “I know that when my kids go out to play, they will come back.” Both people expressed that even though Iceland may not be their personal paradise, it is undoubtedly the safest place they could raise their children. Of Icelanders, they said they will not go out of their way to talk to you, but the minute you ask for help they are friendly and ready to go the distance for whatever it is you need. Extremely safe and extremely helpful. Both pretty great attributes, I’d say.

The last day before we left, we went out to lunch with American Thor’s Couch Surfing host, Icelandic Esther. We got on the subject of Christmas traditions, and she explained to us how they have 13 Santa Clauses in Iceland! They’re all brothers, and unlike the American Santa Claus, these Father Christmases actually steal things from your house each of the 13 days leading up to Christmas. Each Santa has its own quirk: one Santa is really big, another really small, one comes in and eats all your leftovers while another comes and licks all your spoons. The best part: Icelandic children are taught that if they misbehave, one of the santas will take them in a sack and haul them up to the North Pole where they will then be handed over to the santas’ mother…who EATS bad children! HA! What a great tradition!

While all this talk of Santa was going on, by the way, I was actually enjoying a reindeer burger for my lunch. Surprisingly delicious! And slightly ironic.

Well I think that just about concludes the tales from Iceland. Keeping with my tradition as of late of never staying in one place more than 5 days, I’m actually headed out of Minnesota again this afternoon to enjoy 2.5 weeks of family time with the Oregon crew AND the Track and Field Olympic Trials! And no, much to your surprise (I’m sure), I’m not competing. Just watching

Alright, England update still to come and then we’ll wrap this sucker up!

Thanks so much for reading!

xoxoxoxoxo Lindsay

Last Minute

Sitting on the floor in the guest room in British Becky’s house. Her mum just told me I look like “Orphan Annie”–someone with no home or who doesn’t belong anywhere–amidst the suitcase explosion of clothes and cosmetics. Well, I’d say for the past 6 weeks, she’s just about hit the nail on the head!

Trying to pack and get ready a) in and hurry and b) at the same time is never a good idea. I put so much blush on I look like I just got punched in the face and British Becky keeps laughing at my steady stream of profanity upon my discovery of yet ANOTHER thing I forgot to cram into my already overloaded suitcase.

So why am I deciding to BLOG right now??

Because these are my last moments in Europe, on my travels, on this big adventure (we’re leaving for the airport in 40 minutes!) and…. I got sentimental but my journal is already packed, so I just wanted to commemorate this.

I’m going back to the States today after 9 months of being away. My first meal will be mac and cheese at Noodles. With hot sauce. Hopefully a Frosty to follow. And after that, probably a run to Target. I’ve already got a list going.

AhH!!

My friend asked me if I was happy or sad to be going home…

I wish I knew! Doesn’t matter though–I’m going!

AHH!!

Iceland and England updates still to come, I just had to word vomit on you for one quick second.

I’m coming home. AHHHHH!

Probably will feel embarrassed about publishing this later, don’t even know what to think, but still sending you all my love,

Lindsay

 

 

Euro Travels: Ireland

Tales from Ireland…

For my flight out of Oslo to Dublin, I chose Ryanair: an extremely cheap European airline that flies mainly out of obscure airports…and because of this, they often provide buses for each flight to transport people from the city centre to the randomly located airport.

So it was upon my journey at 7am out of the main train station in Oslo and toward the bus station that I happened upon a ragtag looking group sitting with their bags in front of a large bus. I lingered at a safe distance for a little while before asking one of the guys waiting there if this was the Rygga Express. He just stared at me in silence and gave a quick nod. Not feeling overly reassured, I was about to ask someone else when my ears pricked up at the sound of Irish accents. I waited a minute more and then a whole host of Irishmen came waltzing onto the scene, toting light bags and giving off that alternative/punk rocker vibe I know all too well from my Irish friends from Reunion. I thought to myself: Wow, I guess everyone in Ireland really must look like Irish Lucy and Irish Aoife… I wonder if any of these people know my friends? Well perfect, they seem cool, I guess we’re all flying to Dublin together! All these thoughts and more were running through my mind as I filed casually in line and got on the bus.

As we rode along through the city I was suddenly struck with panic at the terrible thought of what if I’m on the wrong bus?? But I quickly calmed down by reassuring myself: Lindsay, what are the odds you would find a large group of Irish people with baggage on a street corner in Norway waiting for a bus leaving from the same vicinity as your bus around 7 o’clock in the morning? Don’t be ridiculous.

Yup. What are the odds.

Panic really set in when we pulled up to a giant arena, stopped, and everyone herded off the bus and began unloading equipment. I raced to the bus driver and practically shook him saying, “This isn’t the Rygga Express??!!” The bus driver grabbed my arm and ran me to the bus while explaining that no, in fact I had jumped on a bus for a tech crew that was setting up an arena on the other side of town for a big punk rock concert that evening. And they all just happened to be Irish. WHAT ARE THE ODDS???!

Luckily he was able to race me back to the bus station just barely in the nick of time to catch the actual Rygga Express to the airport and I made it safe and sound to Dublin, where I arrived 2 hours early for a happy, hugging reunion with my papa after 8 long months apart! So wonderful to see his smiling face in real life as opposed to the choppy pixilated screen on Skype…one of those airport scenes right out of Love Actually.

Yes, yes, it was all butterflies and bliss until we got our rental car. On top of the already stressful job of navigating in a foreign country, we had the added bonus of driving on the other side of the road. And I say we because it was a challenge for both of us. I like to think of it as retribution for all those months of permit driving back when I was 15-years old and Dad couldn’t stop yelling at me to “Get out of the ditch!” i.e. “Don’t drive so close to the curb.”

Five minutes out of the rental lot, I took the more calm approach and gently suggested to Dad that he might want to “pick a lane” since he seemed to be centering the car as if he were driving on the left hand side… which translated into driving down the middle of the road. I should have kept my mouth shut, though, because he took my advice and next thing I knew I was fearing for my life at the sight of every bush or branch on the left hand side of the road that we appeared to be driving dangerously close to… or rather directly toward.  Ireland is known for its narrow, windy roads, and we both soon understood all too well the story my Grandma told about Grandpa Pepper “clipping the hedges as he drove along” on their trip to Ireland. Lord have mercy.

Luckily(?), Dad thought the whole thing was hilarious—watching me cringe and close my eyes almost the whole way. But I told him, “You laugh, but if you were in my seat, you’d be screaming.” No kidding. Despite the sense of imminent danger at every turn, I remained extremely calm (can you tell I’m proud of myself?) and even resorted to our old family favorite of doing hand signals to communicate driving directions (as opposed to yelling). Unfortunately, every time I tried to communicate to Dad that he needed to move over in the lane, he just thought I was pointing at something.

Somehow we made it to Galway in one piece and were even able to enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way. It’s just what you think it would be: rolling green hills, the landscape a patchwork of stone walls dotted with sheep and the occasional grey house cozily tucked away. We passed the time playing the usual car games and even plugged my iPod in for a sing-along to the full 8-minute rendition of “American Pie”… check off two of the things on my list of “Things I Miss About America”: driving long distances and hearing “American Pie” come on the radio

the Cliffs of Moher

We stayed in B&Bs just about every night and had more than our fill of “Irish Breakfasts” which consist of fried eggs, brown bread and about 3 different kinds of meat. Uff da. One of our hosts Irish Pat told us, “Yup, dis’ll keep ye going all de way ta Dublin!” No kidding!

One of our favorite days was spent taking a ferry to Inis Mor, one of the Aran Islands off the West coast of Ireland. Once we got past the initial hustle and bustle off the boat, we rented bikes and rode along the coastal road about 45 minutes to our B&B—a sunny day, riding past grey-blue sea to our right and green fields of wild flowers, stone walls, houses and horses to our left. Such a nice break from the city and what a fun way to enjoy the scenery, just beautiful!

the coastal road

After Inis Mor we stopped over for another night in Galway and were making the rounds trying to decide on a restaurant when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see a guy whose face I recognized but couldn’t place a name to for the life of me. He said, “Hi, sorry, excuse me… I’m Chris. Did you go to Wittenberg?” Um…yes! “I knew it! I don’t know your name, but Witt is such a small place and when you walked by I thought to myself, ‘I know that face!’” So yes, I went to college with this kid and after racking our brains, we finally figured out we had a class together about 3 years ago… and now we both just happened to be traveling abroad with a parent. The four of us stopped into a pub and listened to some Irish music together before calling it a night; nice people and just a great coincidence. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—it’s a small world!

After a few days touring around by ourselves, we made our way up to Northern Ireland (did you know they’re separate countries, Ireland and Northern Ireland? Different currencies and all!) and into Belfast to visit my friends Irish Lucy and Irish Aoife! Irish Lucy was one of my roommates in Reunion and Irish Aoife is her friend from home who came to visit for 3 weeks while we were in still living in Reunion.

This is what I’ve thought all along, but after our visit, Dad wholeheartedly agreed: going to visit friends in a foreign country (as opposed to traveling there alone) makes a world of difference. Irish Lucy and Irish Aoife were both amazing tour guides of Belfast and beyond—taking us to pubs, tasty restaurants, Rothlin Island to see the puffins, the Giant’s Causeway… and all in good company It was so, so good to see my dear friends again and so neat to see them, as Irish Lucy put it “in our natural environment.” I got to meet and spend time with her family, see a lot of her friends, just really see her stomping grounds. You learn so much more about a person when you see where they come from… or maybe the things you already learned about the person just make more sense.

We went to the famed pub Irish Lucy has been telling me about for months, had more than a few pints together, and I met all these great characters I’d heard stories about in Reunion: Jenny who does amazing art and came to the pub with one of her latest paintings for someone; Mike who wants to be a magician and gets free drinks all the time because he does magic tricks (yes, he did some for me, too); Ruth with a half-shaved, half-dreaded head who is the unofficial ‘hair dresser’ of the group (and who also helped “haggle” for Dad’s new adventure hat Great addition!)… just so many wonderful, nice, interesting people. I felt like a kid at Disney World meeting all my favorite characters in real life for the first time.

Aoife, me and Lucy

the Giant’s Causeway

Dad and me (and the new hat!)

again!

Our last morning in Belfast, we went to the newly-opened Titanic Museum (since this year was the 100-year anniversary of the ship’s sinking and the Titanic was built in Belfast). It was so well done, incredible technology within the exhibits—just amazing to see but so sad at the same time. And then we had to say our goodbyes right then and there at the end of the museum tour! No tears, but I think I know what a “heavy heart” feels like now. Such fun friends and such a cool city… I just wanted to keep playing!

We stopped in the London – Heathrow airport just to recognize and celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee (60 years on the throne!) before catching a second flight to Reykjavik… where I am writing from now and where I will be leaving from in about 6 hours! I was hoping to do a double I_eland Update (Ireland & Iceland ha) but I guess I’m too slow! This place is unreal though, you will definitely be hearing about it sometime soon!

Much love and hugs to all, and thanks for reading!

xoxoxoxox Lindsay

Euro Travels: Norway

As the adventures continue, now it’s down to two. ACBF Kathryn has gone home and ACBF Alex and I made the cross-continental trek (on separate airplanes…it’s been three weeks, we just needed some time apart ha) to visit our dear friend from high school, Miss Maddy Buck (American High School Best Friend Maddy or just AHSBF Maddy to you).  She’s just finishing up her year-ish of Fulbright (!) research in Oslo and was kind enough to let us crash at her place during her last week in Norway.

Our visit was essentially a wonderful reintroduction into everything I love about life in Minnesota.

And then some.

To Love about Life in Minnesota:

Edina Cross Country. ACBF Alex and AHSBF Maddy and I all ran cross country together at Edina High School so being in Oslo felt like a mini-CC reunion. It’s been too long since I’ve run with a group of people (ahem…or run at all, for that matter), so getting back into the swing of things with these ladies was a real treat. A nice jog down memory lane, if you will.  One of the evenings, AHSBF Maddy brought us to run along this beautiful evergreen wooded path around the perimeter of a lake. Wait, a what? Yes!

LAKES!!!!!! At the end of the run I asked AHSBF Maddy if we could go for a swim. She and ACBF Alex said they might put their feet in, but I splashed right on out there. And let me tell you… words cannot express the joy I experienced there in my soaking wet running shorts and sports bra. No sand, no coral to cut my feet, NO SALT, no waves, no marinating-in-warm-bath-water feeling… just pure, COLD, fresh water!! It was amazing. Slightly embarrassed to admit, but I actually did say to myself while happily soaking in the chilly water, “Finally, back in my natural habitat!” You can take the girl out of Minnesota, but you can’t take the Minnesota out of the girl. At least this girl.

Lilacs. Our first full day in Oslo just happened to be the hottest day on record for the month of May since 1946, and the rule in Norway (at least Maddy’s rule) is “if it’s nice out, you have to be out, too”. Heck with Norway, that should be the rule anywhere! Anyway. While AHSBF Maddy was at work, ACBF Alex and I wandered around Oslo for the better part of the day. We made our way down streets lined with shops; through parks of tall trees, windy paths and little ponds; past white stone government buildings and down avenues bursting with lilac bushes. My late Grandpa Kensler wrote a poem about all the things he loved, one of which was “the odor of lilacs after a shower” and I have to say, it makes my list of favorites, too. Although AHSBF Maddy and all other Norway-dwellers assured me I was getting a skewed perception of the everyday life (and particularly weather), my memories of Oslo will always be sunny, violet-colored and smelling of lilacs.

[PS: On our way through downtown and in search of the famed opera house, ACBF Alex and I noticed on our map that we were approaching a large body of water. As we continued walking, I wondered out loud, “Is this a lake or the ocean?” ACBF Alex gave it a hard think before answering, “I think it’s a lake and I feel like it’s a really famous one, but I can’t think of the name…”

That would be “Lake” Atlantic.

Dumb. Somehow, between seeing the giant cruise ships and massive boats sailing into the harbor, we still didn’t put two and two together. Another proud American geography moment. ]

opera house, right on the water

Sculpture Gardens. No cherry-and-spoon this side of the Atlantic, but still some beautiful art to enjoy! About a 5-minute walk from AHSBF Maddy’s apartment was a combination park and sculpture garden that we frequented several times throughout our long-weekend stay… and I wish I could tell you the name of it, but it’s already slipped my mind. Boo hiss. Regardless, the park is full of sculptures portraying humans—no chiseled Roman bods here, just Plain Jane people—just being humans. A lot of funny, sweet, strange moments captured in these figures and it was just a pleasure to stroll through, look at, and relate to. The entire city of Olso just has a beautiful, well-planned, warm feel to it and this park embodies that ambiance.

[Tourist plug: Olso is also currently undergoing major construction to relocate all the major museums and tourist attractions onto one big strip overlooking the harbor, so if you’re planning a family vay-cay in say about 5 years… the city will probably be in prime visiting form! Keep it on the back burner!]

People from St. Olaf. Not only did we stay with a St. Olaf grad, but just about everyone we met was somehow connected to that quirky Scandinavian school in Northfield, Minnesota. AHSBF Maddy’s Norwegian roommate actually went to St. Olaf to do research on Norwegian-American culture; a young Norwegian-American couple we met fell in love at St. Olaf and are now married and living in Oslo (and her dad was a pastor at a church in St. Paul, MN with a Norwegian-speaking congregation! Who knew that existed??!) ; the other Fulbrighters we met/heard about in Norway also were Oles; but the best—the last day of our visit we actually sat around in the living and (I kid you not) watched the live stream of the St. Olaf graduation for two hours. WHAT NERDS! But admittedly, still fun(ny).

And then some:

One of the standout highlights of the trip was unveiling the unknown (to me!) world of Euro Vision.  All you American Idol fans (are there any of you left?) probably thought the US was the first to come up with that kind of singing star search. If that’s the case…well I’m sorry, I’m about to shatter your worlds. Turns out Europe has had a show like this since the 1950s! Wow, do you feel out of it! Each European country has their own competition and then they send their national winners to represent their country in the big international competition… and ACBF Alex and I were lucky enough to be in Europe for the Grand Finale of it all!

Twenty-six countries performed in a show that went by amazing quickly, and we watched with a small group of AHSBF Maddy’s friends…eating lefse and waving Norwegian flags when appropriate. You might liken the energy at the gathering to that of a Super Bowl party: everyone glued to the TV, discussing the latest big play, cheering for the team we wanted to win, and making great commentary along the way… and then of course reenacting the highlights ourselves afterwards. In the end, Sweden came out on top with Russia as a not-so-close second (but winners of all of our hearts!!!). The clips are worth a watch if you want to keep up-to-date on the hottest new thing in Europe, or if you really want to see some 80-something-year old ladies dancing to pop music.

Hot new thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Si0uqPEe6Y

Old ladies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgUstrmJzyc

(okay I just watched the old ladies again and I may actually NOT forgive you if you read this blog and don’t watch this clip–gosh they’re just the cutest!!!)

Other than that we just had such a fun 4 days together enjoying the beautiful weather, using up the last of what we could in Maddy’s cupboards, going to a great micro-brewery, day-tripping to a nearby island to soak up the sun and gorgeous scenery, running together, and just catching up on our life adventures over the past few months and where we’re headed next.

Maddy, Alex, Me

It’s a little strange seeing all my friends from home before I even get home…but what fun it’s been! Said goodbye to ACBF Alex who is moving out to Oregon (tomorrow?) and said see you in a few weeks to AHSBF Maddy who will be back in the States in a few weeks after some more travel around Europe.

And I’ll be home in about 10 DAYS! WHAT?? I want to keep traveling! This is too much fun! That’s all the updates I can do for now, though… hopefully will have a post on Ireland in the next couple days. But I’m writing to you now from our hotel room in Reykjavik, Iceland. Dad is snoring in the bed next to me and we’re getting up in 6 hours to go see some icebergs!!! So I better hit the hay.  (sentences I never thought I’d say…)

Love to all, can you believe it’s June??!

xoxoxox Lindsay

Euro Travels: Czech Republic

As you may or may not have read in the last post, we had a near-tearful goodbye with German Anne when we left Cologne. But after we had our sighs and sadfaces out on the train, we immediately turned to each other and started talking strategy for how to get our overweight bags past the check-in and weigh-in point. We (miraculously) got most of our checked baggage just barely under the weight limit, but with computers, books and any other odds and ends left for our carry-on bags (because yes, they do weigh your carry-on baggage), we had to resort to extreme measures. This involved checking in “in shifts”: ACBF Alex stayed safely out of sight with her baggage and everyone else’s “heavy loads” while ACBF Kathryn and I checked in with our deceivingly lightened bags; then we switched and took ACBF Alex’s heavy loads while she checked in, and repacked our own now-validated carry-on bags. Quite the tricksters, I know, but it worked!  And on to the next adventure in the next country…

Let’s recap: So far we’ve stayed with an older friend from Reunion, a younger friend from Reunion, and in our own hotel. What other ways can we mix up the living situation? How about staying in a total stranger’s house? Sounds great!

You think I’m kidding, don’t you?

Well, I’m not. To be fair, it wasn’t a complete stranger. ACBF Alex headed up the group’s maiden Couch Surfing adventure and created a profile for us to view and message potential hosts.

(For those of you unhip folks (who, thanks to this blog post, can remain safely anonymous) that don’t know what Couch Surfing is: it’s kind of an online network where people can post both requests and offers of places to stay in their homes. Both hosts and “surfers” get ratings and reviews from previous Couch Surfers, and you can exchange messages with other people to see how many people they can host, share what you’re both looking for from the experience (just a place to crash vs. a place to crash + hanging out with the host), get a feel for the person, figure out logistics, etc., etc.)

After a few interesting exchanges with potential hosts with let’s say… different expectations about what kinds of activities we three charming, beautiful girls would be partaking in with our hosts… we finally landed with a great-looking apartment of two young American women who are teaching at international schools in Prague.

Being as we were, all three of us, Couch Surfing virgins, we walked up to the apartment a little on the shy and slightly skeptical side, not sure what to expect. But from the minute American Couch Surfing Host Christina and American Couch Surfing Host’s Czech Boyfriend Jirka helped us up the stairs with our bags, sat us down and served us fresh glasses of cold water with heaping servings of warm homemade lasagna…we were sold.

They let us get settled for about an hour, then we headed out on the town. We walked down to the river and had a bread-cheese-and-red-wine picnic on a tiny island accessible by bridge, and watched the hundreds of paddle boats weave their way across the water—quite the zoo of interesting specimens: some camera-and-balloon-toting families; some kissy, canoodling lovers; some giggly, splashy groups of adolescent friends; some lots of rowdy men who could be mistaken for Vikings ready to raid the next brewery.

Of course, one can only people watch for so long…so what next? As it turns out, we picked the right weekend to come to Prague. Happening items on the agenda: the Czech Republic vs. Slovakia Ice Hockey World Championships semi-finals game AND Prague’s Beer Fest…what luck!

The hockey game was projected on a big screen and people decked out in red, white and blue face paint were crowding all four corners of the Old Town Square. The energy was incredible and it was so fun to be part of such a movement… until Slovakia started scoring goals and Czech Republic stopped. I think the final score was 3-1, but we headed out earlier to avoid any violence—Czech Jirka’s idea. But quite on the contrary, we were only followed by a peaceful parade of national enthusiasts chanting “Czechie!” and waving flags. A nice alternative. Props for good sportsmanship, CR.

Then came Beer Fest. What is there to say about Beer Fest? Beer. Terrible, terrible music by a terrible, terrible singer. But lots of dancing anyway. And more beer. That’s about it.

We spent two days with our Couch Surfing hosts, the first day infinitely more epic than the second, which was perfectly fine by us We spent Sunday afternoon eating Czech food, laying out in the sun at two different parks with beautiful views of the city, and taking our own paddle boat ride along the river to break things up. All three of us travelers said what a wonderful thing it was to be with Couch Surfers because they took us to do things we would have never known to do or go to ourselves. I’m a little embarrassed to say our entire 5 days in Prague we didn’t go into a single museum… our first 2 days just got us in the “let’s hang out!” mindset.

We weren’t able to stay with American Couch Surfing Host Christina for the remainder of our time in Prague, by the way, because—get this—she was leaving town to spend a week with her entire first grade class on an overnight outdoor adventure! Apparently every Czech school has this from the age of kindergarten all the way up through high school—students have a week every year where they go out and just spend time in nature. How great! Even in science, there’s a lot more focus on botany, identifying plants, learning their medicinal uses, surviving from nature, etc., etc. I was so surprised to hear that, but what a neat special characteristic of the Czech Republic! American Christina said this familiarity with nature makes her job slightly more stressful because her first graders are a lot more prone to just picking up plants and eating them at random, but apparently they know which ones are okay to eat… let’s hope

So switching up the living situation again (at 7am ugh) we headed to our first youth hostel experience (oh boy) arranged by ACBF Kathryn. After taking a tram and wandering in the wrong direction for too long, we finally caved and got a taxi to Sir Toby’s. Besides the throwback to freshman year of college with the crew of 19-year old boys trying to act cool and chat up the three new girls on the 2nd floor, it was the perfect place to stay (but even that part had its charm to it ha).

Cheap all-you-can-eat breakfasts (until NOON!), incredibly friendly staff with great recommendations of things to do, and even bike rentals (which, of course, we took advantage of)… the only thing that could have made this stay any better would be the absence of the Brazilian lumberjack who slept in one of the bottom bunks in our co-ed dorm and would NOT stop sawing logs like nobody’s business. All night, every night. Of course, I-Sleep-Like-a-Rock Lindsay was only awaken by the groans and verbal threats of the other “upper deck” girls in the dorm… but everyone assured me it was unbearable and even found themselves scouring their bedding for something to throw at the pour compulsive snorer to get him to shut up. At least it was something to bond over for everyone else in the room.

But the all-around highlight from our time in the Czech Republic, for me, was day tripping to the nearby town of Karlstejn and finding a darling little craft shop (I know, not surprised) run by this sweet older lady who didn’t speak a word of English. I loved this little escapade in particular for the simple fact that we just had the dearest time trying to communicate with her. Through lots of hand motioning and miming through laughter, we finally figured out she was the one who made most of the crafts in the store… and she even took out her calculator and typed in 7-1 and pointed to herself with a big, proud smile to indicate she’s 71 years old So cute!!  She kept smiling and chuckling to herself, probably tickled we were such fans of her work and also probably more than a little entertained at our communication attempts. Just a very sweet human exchange… a face I will remember for a long while

Final observations of the Czech Republic:

LOVE the language, it sounds so beautiful!

LOVE that the words in Czech for “hello” and “yes” are “ahoy!” and “yo!” Gangsta sailors… “Ahoy! Yo yo yo!”

LOVE all the TALL people!! So wonderful to see so many fellow bigguns!

LOVE the city of Prague itself. It feels like a fairy tale.

LOVE that every young person in the train gets up out of their seat the minute an older adult walks on.

LOVE Czech food. Heavy, but I could eat bread and potato dumplings for many a more moons!

Parting from Prague marked the parting of the travelers three! ACBF Kathryn made her 16-hour trek back to the States, while ACBF Alex and I made our way (on separate flights…silly) to Oslo, Norway where we’ve been for the past 4 days (updates on that later)!

Tomorrow ACBF Alex flies back to the states after 4 months of being away, and I get to see my daddy in Ireland after 8 months of being apart! More exciting reunions and adventures to come, but one country at a time now…

Much love and hugs to all! Thanks for reading!

Lindsay