CHEERS! It has been a bloody whirlwind of a few days, so here’s a recap of my first few crazy days in London!!!
So DAY 1:
Day 1 was full of not fun orientation events BUT we took a splendid stroll through the Kensington Gardens. I am staying in Olympia which is right next to the posh royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea. My campus is in Kensington Square, one of the oldest and most affluent areas of London. Kensington is home to Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace where Queen Victoria grew up. It’s so cool to be living in an area so rich with history.
Here’s what I learned/observed right away:
Everyone is speaking English, but I am still having a hard time picking up the slang/understanding people.
Americans are loud. British people seem very reserved. We drew a lot of attention while walking through Kensington Gardens in the afternoon because theatre people are louder than your group of average Americans.
Walking. There is a lot of that. My feet hurt.
PUBS DONT HAVE HOSTESS STATIONS! A group of 4 people from my program went to a pub to grab some dinner, and we walked in the door and literally stood there for 20 minutes like what???? THEN we figured out that you just sit down and go up to the bar and order your food. I was so confused. But we had some great burgers and chips.
And DAY 2:
So we got an e-mail saying that we are doing an orientation event that is full of sight-seeing in London. I was expecting to just do a lot of casual walking through London and seeing the fun sights while being jet lagged still. I WAS VERY WRONG. The “orientation event” was a scavenger hunt to visit London’s most famous pubs! It was incredibly fun, but I wish I had been more prepared for this, as I was not ready to be downing pints at 1 pm in the afternoon while my body was still thinking it was 7 am. But it was an absolute blast, and helped me to get a little more comfortable with my surroundings. Today David and I are going to do some more walking around Kensington and we’re going to have dinner at the legendary Harrods department store food court. Anywho enjoy these pictures from the first few days, and look for more updates soon! Over and out, y’all.
Part of Will and Kate’s home, just a quick jog away from my flat
“To study in Paris is to be born in Paris!” -Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Finally in Paris! After 3 flights, 3 different countries and one train ride, I finally arrived to the most beautiful city in the world: Paris, France. It seemed like I was never going to make it but now Iv’e been here for 2 weeks and I am loving every second of it. I’ll start off by telling you that I lucked out. I live in the 1st arrondissement and I’m doing a homestay with a French family who feed me amazing meals and they also have a monkey named Lola. If this doesn’t already seem amazing, wait until you see the view from my window!
(Something I didn’t know: The Eiffel Tower twinkles 5 minutes every hour from 9-12!)
Anyway, I feel like I’m living the dream. I also eat baguette three times a day and basically stuff my face with all the french patisseries that I can find. I feel like it’s my duty to eat at every single boulangerie that exists in Paris.
When I arrived I had to take one week of intensive French classes and now my regular actual academic classes have started. I’m taking business courses like International and Intercultural Management and Global Marketing which are really shaping the view I have on globalization. I am also taking 19th century art: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. I will brag a bit more about this class since we don’t use power point presentations in class to view the content. My class is in the museum. How fantastic is that?! We meet every week at a different museum and learn about the history behind each painting. Last week we met at the Louvre (Yes, The Louvre!!!) and we basically had Louis XIII’s private collection all to ourselves. No big deal.
So I will keep you posted on all the adventures I’m having and I’ll try and keep up with all the food I’m eating and let you guys know how everything is going! Until next time!
Well, I have just started blogging for the Office of International Programs at Loyola! So I apologize, but I will try to catch you all up on almost a month of activities in Rome!
I really can’t believe that it has been almost a month since I got to Rome! It really seems like I have not been here for that long. Rome is absolutely beautiful, and so is Loyola’s campus! We are situated on top of Monte Mario, the highest hill in Rome, in the Balduina neighborhood, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Rome. At first I thought I would never be able to navigate the streets or bus stops of Rome, but after getting lost almost a million times I am starting to learn my way around.There are many differences between here and the U.S., but I haven’t had too hard of a time getting used to them. The climate change may be the hardest adjustment. I was told to expect only about two weeks of summer weather, that is SOOO wrong! It is really really hot here! Also, everything is done so much later here. Just walking in the center of Rome you will see people with children sitting down to dinner at 10p.m. It’s not hard to adjust though when your earliest class starts at 11:30 am!
I am really enjoying my time here and the time I have spent away from Rome. For our orientation trip we went to the Umbria region of Italy. It was an amazing time! We visited four different cities, learned how coins, paper, silk, and candles were made in the medieval times, went to a wine tasting, and ate some amazing food! I am looking forward to exploring more of Rome and the other regions of Italy, as well as the other countries I will be traveling to. This Thursday I head to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest! So excited! That concludes my first blog post! I will try to update it when I can!
Pope Francis converses with another Church leader right before the Audience begins.
So this past Wednesday I had the wonderful privilege and pleasure to attend my first Papal Audience in the Vatican; in fact, the professors at JFRC (the Rome Center) cancelled classes all day so that every single student would have the opportunity to go to this impressive event.
I began the day by waking up before 6am so that I could get into the event. Although the projected start time was not until 10:30am, we were told to be there at around 7am so that we could guarantee ourselves the best seats. As for myself, I completely lucked out, as I was able to get a seat just a few rows from where the Pope was speaking.
Taken a few hours before the start of the Papal Audience.The Vatican right before the Audience begins.
During the audience, it was an amazing experience for me. Although I do not consider myself religious, there was a spiritual aura with just being able to sit back, listen to what the Pope had to say, and to literally feel the history of the Vatican all at once. During this time, I really gained a sense of my purpose, not only with what my mission on this earth is, but also who I am and what I have to offer. Because the Pope offered his blessing and reaffirmed a sense of faith, I was able to reaffirm a sense of my mission here.
Pope Francis delivers his address to everyone watching in the Vatican.
Anyway, I felt that it was very important to give this unique experience its own entry. If anyone reading this has the chance to go to Rome and experience a Papal Audience, do it! You will not be disappointed, as it is an event of growth and self-discovery.
I will be posting again soon on my trip last weekend to Bari, a small coastal city on the Eastern shores of Italy.
After posting all of my photos on Facebook, to share with family and friends, the number one question I received was “Joanna, are you actually in school or was this a hoax for a long vacation?” For everyone that is very much worried about this, yes, I do actually study here!
So let me explain how classes work here. We have to be enrolled in 12-18 credit hours to be a full time student through USAC, the program here in Costa Rica. Classes run everyday aside from the weekend. We have class on Fridays, but only in the mornings. Every class runs for 3 hours! You read that correctly, 3 hours! Because of the long hours, each class usually meets only once a week. The Spanish track classes, however, meet more than once. The track classes are the average Spanish class you would take at Loyola.
On top of my track 4 classes (6 credits) I have also elected Latin American short story and essay, Latin American cultures and Latin American literature (each 3 credits). With most of my classes meeting only once a week, I had every Thursdays completely free, but decided I would like to do something instead. A lot of the professors from these classes find fun ways to teach us about the language and culture. We have had field trips, went to coffee shops for class, and even incorporated soccer into our lesson plans!
A great experience that USAC offers, that I have decided to take part in, is volunteering at local schools to help teach English. I have been helping a teacher in a nearby school with 1st and 3rd graders. These kids are amazing and it is very rewarding nonetheless. I am learning from them as much as they learn from me, not only Spanish but also the culture! One of the little girls in 3rd grade wrote me the cutest letter after just 3 Thursdays of volunteering. I recommend taking part in things like this no matter where you study abroad!
When it comes to my classwork and homework, I would definitely say it is all challenging, but not impossible! My professors are all very supportive and willing to help. The literature professor encourages us to call her at home if we need any help with homework or have any questions about our reading for class. The track 4 Spanish class professor gives us exams in partners, where we have to reason with each other (in Spanish of course!) to find the correct answer and explain it.
A lot of the homework involves reading, and a lot of it! A lot of the classes are based on participation, which needs to be in Spanish. The professors here want you to make mistakes so that they can help you correct them. As a piece of advice, prepare yourself for a lot of this and don’t take it personally. The professors are all there to help, not to criticize because they all know how hard it is to learn another language. All of my professors speak at least one other language and can easily relate to us as students.
And of course, if anything ever causes us problems in our studies, we have a great team of USAC people to help us resolve them.
Like mentioned before though, when studying abroad, you need to be open to learning from more than just the regular classroom. I can honestly say that I learn more outside of the regular sit at your desk, look at the board and listen to the professor, setting. I learn at home, from the host family, from ordering at a restaurant, from taking a cab, a bus, listening to music, and even from just reading every sign I encounter. Keep your eyes and ears open! That’s the full experience of study abroad, your learn from EVERYTHING.
Until next time,
Pura Vida!
The note I received from a 3rd grader 🙂An average day in class. Notes and coffee!Encouraging self SnapChats for those 4 page essays!
In France there is never an absence of things to do (or, as the slang goes, des trucs à faire).
I am in my fourth week here and I absolutely adore the culture. I love getting to know the city of Nantes during my long walks and meeting new people at the university and around my host family’s home.
There is also a lot going on in such a small city.
Nantes is located in the Pays-du-Loire region just south of Brittany, in the northwest of France. Paris is located near to the center of the country. As the 6th largest city in France, Nantes has prestige as a city of many sides. It has 2 rivers flowing through its picturesque downtown. The Loire River flows through the southern part of the city from east to west, and the Erdre River flows from north to south towards the western part of the city, near the University of Nantes.
The host mother Marine gave me a pamphlet on ideas on what to do in Nantes. The family regularly goes on weekend vacations, so I will be alone this weekend to explore the locale and do some new activities.
Wish me luck! I will keep you in the loop about what I choose to do.
The week has absolutely flown by, and instead of giving you a minute to minute update of what went down this week, I’ll stick to the highlights.
Tuesday:
Today was the first day of acting classes, which proved to be very exciting and incredibly stressful. I can already tell that my professors this term are no-nonsense people that have very high expectations. Even though they all have very high expectations, they are all still very nurturing people, and I can tell that they have a lot of great things to teach us.
Tuesday Night we went to go see The 39 Steps. This play has been running on the West End for a few years, and is based on a novel and Hitchcock film of the same name. It is a hilarious melodramatic farce where all of the characters in the story are played by the same 4 actors. It was a very fun show with a very talented cast.
Also fun fact about London theaters:
YOU DO NOT GET A PROGRAM FOR FREE. Anyone who knows me knows that I am hoarder of show programs, so obviously I was a little annoyed when they said that the programs cost £3.50, and I am a broke student.
Wednesday:
After 2 long days of classes, I felt like I was in the middle of week 7 not week 1 today. I am so out of shape that it isn’t even funny. It has been a while since I have been in class for this many consecutive hours, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Thursday:
This morning we took a walk and a tour of the remains of the Rose Theatre. The Rose Theatre pre-dates Shakespeare’s globe, and was where Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and other plays were performed in addition to where some of the early Shakespeare plays made their debuts. When I heard that we were going to The Rose, I expected to see a building resembling the reconstructed Globe that is along the Thames, but no. Unfortunately all that remains of The Rose theatre is some of the original brick from the outer walls of the theatre and the stage. Due to changing hands and politics over the years, now an office building stands on top of where it is. A group of people have dedicated a great deal of time and money to preserve what is left, and now a small studio theatre operates just above where the ruins are. Maybe I will get a chance to go and see a performance here. In addition to seeing The Rose, our tour guide took us to where the original Globe once stood and past some historic inns that Shakespeare and his contemporaries would have visited
Friday:
After my legs were sore from walking all morning on Thursday, it was time to take another walk! We took a walk from the reconstructed Globe which is just south of the Thames, across the Millennium Bridge, and then all the way to the West End theatre district. The purpose of the walking tour was to see how the theatre scene moved from central London, to being across the river, and to eventually being concentrated in what is now known as West London. The Globe was reconstructed in the late 1990s after archaeological digs at the sites of the original Rose and Globe theaters occurred. The reconstruction aimed to be as close to the original as possible (without violating fire codes). We did not go inside the Globe today, but we are seeing a production there in 2 weeks time, so stay tuned for updates on that.
After we were here we crossed the river to be greeted by St. Paul’s Cathedral and walked over to historic Fleet Street, where the famed barber Sweeney Todd had his barber shop. Although we didn’t find any pie shops, I did find a barber shop there. While here we walked and saw the Royal Courts of Justice and Prince Henry’s room (one of the few buildings to survive the fire of London in 1666). We also saw the Middle Temple and Temple Church which were both build by the Knights Templar.
The walk then concluded as we reached the outer edges of the West End theatre district. We saw the Theatre Royal Drury Lane which has been in existence since 1663. Now many of Broadway-style play houses exist here where one can find productions that are essentially the same as Broadway productions.
Saturday:
We went on a little adventure through London today! We decided that we were going to get tickets to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, so we hopped on The Tube, and visited the TKTS stand in Leicester Square to get our tickets. The show was amazing! It was a great piece of contemporary theatre that had a great blend of spectacle and story. If you ever get the chance to see this show, I highly recommend seeing it. It was so great that I even paid £4 to buy a program. After this we went on an adventure to find leather gloves for our stage combat class for working with swords, and we got very lost in a very posh neighborhood, but we eventually found our way. We were not lost enough to find our way to happy hour at the local pub though.
Sunday:
This morning, David and I went on a run (more like walk-jog) through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We have some homework to attend to as we prepare for another grueling week of classes. I hope you have enjoyed this weekend update. Over and out, y’all.
St. Paul’s Cathedral as seen from the Millennium Bridge
Cheers, hello, and mind the bloody gap what a busy week it has been. Classes are really in full swing, and now that we are all comfortable with our surroundings and the jet-lag has worn off, the real work begins. Here are the major exciting things that happened this week/weekend besides the fact that David and I have achieved grown-up status and have made dinner for ourselves almost every day:
Thursday:
So on Thursday we actually got #blessed with having the afternoon off. I finished class at noon that day, so I decided to hop on a bus and go take a ballet class. It was one of the strangest experiences in my life. First of all, the class itself was good, and it was nice to be in a familiar environment (aka a dance studio) while being away from home. Despite the comforts I felt at first, I was pretty much a hot mess in the class, as it has been almost 5 weeks since I have taken class.
Here’s the weird part about class, and if you aren’t a dancer/don’t really care about dance, I suggest you keep skip this. So the class was “taught” by a very old man who could hardly walk. He had a stick and sat at the front of the room while his assistant taught the class. The man would not give corrections to students individually and would tell his assistant what the corrections were. Additionally, here you pay the teacher directly in cash for the class AND pay a fee to the dance center. I guess that’s just how they roll over here? Idk.
Saturday:
David and I went to the British Museum today. The one thing I basically learned at the British Museum is that the Brits went into a lot of places and conquered them, and now they have some lovely collections of artifacts, i.e. they have literally half of the Parthenon from Greece here. It was really neat to see the collections. The museum was super crowded, so I’ll probably try and go back on a weekday, or some other time, which will be easy because it’s free! Here are some hi lighted pics from the day:
Sunday:
Today I went with my friends Vanessa and Julia from the theatre program to go visit Buckingham Palace. We got the chance to actually go inside the palace because the royal family are now in Scotland on holiday. When the Queen is at home, the palace is not open for tours, so we wanted to take advantage of this chance. We got to see 19 of the 700 rooms in the palace, so Liz really gave us the grand tour. Unfortunately there is no photography allowed inside the palace, so I can’t give you a first hand account of what went down. I can say that the interior of the palace is absolutely breath taking, and looks like something out of a story book, because it basically is. After seeing the palace, we decided to walk to Parliament and Big Ben to take a gander at those sights. To our luck, the street in front of Big Ben was closed for a bike race, so we got prime picture taking time.
Weekend Update: September 21
Cheers to you if you’re still reading my blog. It is very hard, yet again, to realize that a whole week has passed. I keep blinking and then it’s the weekend. I guess time flies when you’re having fun! Also I got sick this week, so when I wasn’t in class I was passed out in my flat. Also fun fact/story of the week:
There is a weird trend here for adults, like grown-up people with children, to ride razor scooters through the streets of London. I AM SO PUZZLED I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS. This is not suburban America in the 2000s, London. Please get it together.
Monday:
We had the privilege of being invited to a reception for the students of the London Centre at a picturesque flat in West London. It was essentially an excuse to dress up and get free food. The owner of the flat casually had three original works by Matisse hanging in his living room, along with a Grecian horse from 8000 BC, an ancient Indian sword, and a few other casual collectables. So needless to say, this was a fun way to kick off a week full of CRAZY work and and assignments.
Tuesday:
We had a master class with an talent agent today which caused me to get a stress-induced headache as I was forced to think about the future and employment (all terrifying things). This proved to me once again, that this study abroad program and career path is not for the faint of heart, I’m at the beginning of a marathon, not a sprint, and it is always important to keep that perspective.
Wednesday:
Even having already seen most of this part of London, we had a guided walk from Covent Garden to the West End of London to see the various play houses and hear a little about their history. Our walk went all the way to the end of Shaftesbury Avenue (where Harry, Ron, and Hermione apparate to in HP and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2) to get a glimpse at the Victorian-style theatres that are here. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, we found a Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and even though we felt sicker than dogs, we got us some cheeseburgers. I almost wept as I tasted my burger, as it was a reminder of home. If only I could find a Chick-fil-a in London…
Thursday:
After class today, I went to an urgent care clinic to get my ears looked at because I was afraid that I had an ear infection. I was thinking that I would get slapped with a £50 bill at the end, but I was oddly sent away having paid nothing. Good news is that I didn’t have to pay anything because of socialized medicine in this country and only wasted about an hour of my life waiting. Bad news is that they literally don’t write prescriptions in this country, so if I did ever get an ear infection (as I do frequently) I’m probably sunk. Oh well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
Friday:
We had a short day today as we went to go see The Comedy of Errors at the Globe theatre! This is a reconstructed version of the original Globe theatre that was around in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods when Shakespeare was writing. It was constructed in this century, and is the only building in London with a thatched roof. Although it’s not the same exact size and it’s in a bit of a different location, it still provides audiences with great theatrical experiences. For the cheap price of 5 quid you can stand for 2 hours as a groundling and watch a show as a peasant would have done. It’s kind of fun because you get to lean on the stage. If you feel so inclined though, you can pay for a seat. It is an outside theatre and it rained that day, but David and I were literally the ONLY 2 PEOPLE in the theatre to not get wet because were positioned so close to the stage that we were protected by the over-hang #blessed. Seeing a show here was a great experience, and I’m sad that I probably won’t be able to go there again while I’m here, as the season is almost over. After the show, David, Declan, Katelyn, and I went to get a pint at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, one of London’s oldest pubs. It was built in 1538 and then rebuilt after the fire of London in 1666 where it has been since. This was followed by a night of watching Netlfix because we were all too sick to be out in public.
Saturday:
David and I got up to go to French’s, a huge store full of literally every play ever written to find plays for our audition class. I had to travel all the way to London to be told by my audition teacher that I need to get familiar with more American playwrights. So after getting our new plays, David and I went to go see a play adaptation of Jeeves and Wooster, two stereotypically English characters (a bumbling rich man and his clever servant) that have appeared in short stories and television throughout the past 60 years or so. We got a special deal on tickets, they were only £10 because the show was closing that day. Thank God it was because to be honest it was not great. We were however asked not once BUT TWICE for directions, so clearly we have started blending in and look more comfortable in our surroundings. After being a couple of old geezers at a Saturday matinee, we continued this trend back to the flats where we watched Mulan with our friends, because again, everyone is sick.
Sunday:
We went on a brief run today that was interrupted many times by me huffing and puffing as I am almost done being sick, but not quite. We have SHEDLOADS of work as the Brits say, so we have locked ourselves up in a coffee shop where we are obviously being distracted by blogging and Facebook. This is a busy week as we are going to see a show on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am very excited to be going to see Mats Ek’s version of Juliet and Romeo at the historic Sadler’s Wells theatre on Wednesday. It should be a fun/busy/productive/memorable week.
Until next weekend, over and out, y’all.
