15 Things I’ve learned from living in Uppsala, Sweden since August 15th, 2015:

1. Kayaking in the Baltic Sea with Sweden’s former Minister of the Environment (who is also your professor for three of your classes) is a pretty stellar experience.

2. Cars WILL stop for pedestrians no matter where or when. This is a huge culture shock coming from Chicago…

3. It’s always a great time for FIKA! (Fika is not the actual coffee or biscuit you eat on a fika break, but rather refers the concept of taking a break, relaxing, and socializing with those around you. Swedes typically take 1-3 per day.)

4. That being said, the Swedish lifestyle is SO much more relaxed than what Americans experience.

5. The majority of shops close around 8pm (or earlier) Every. Single. Night. No late night Target runs here…

6. Not having classes on Fridays (to ensure the possibility of traveling to other European countries while here) is pretty sweet.

7. You can make 15 jars of jam, a strawberry shortcake, strawberry vodka, two trays of chocolate covered strawberries, a meal of strawberry pancakes, strawberry syrup, and still have plenty leftover to eat after picking 51 lbs of strawberries from a local berry patch! ( and I’m still not sick of them)

8. Don’t be surprised if you’re enjoying lunch on a canoe in a public park’s lake and happen to come across a group of grandparents sunbathing and swimming nude.

9. Everyone spends their free time outside from lounging on blankets in the park, to eating picnics in the shade of trees or running along the river—You can tell that everyone is trying to soak up as much sunshine as possible before there’s only a couple hours of sunlight each day. (In the fall and winter, the sun will only be up for 6-8 hours each day! In northern Sweden, there can be as little as 2 hours of sunlight during the middle of winter.)

10. Grocery shopping can be quite difficult when the only Swedish you know is how to count from one through ten and the days of the week.

11. Thank goodness Swedes are very friendly and can speak English extremely well! I haven’t had any trouble with asking for directions and I now can tell the difference between the cartons of milk and cartons of yogurt when I’m at the grocery store all by myself.

12. Uppsala has a ton of university students, but you don’t have a social life unless you get a “nations” card and join one of the nations. (Nations are somewhat comprable to Greek life in the US, as you have to be a member to participate. But once you’re a part of one nation, you can go to events at whatever nation you’d like. They’re somewhat like student run nightclubs and restaurants that are open for meals as well as partying late into the night. Nations are known to host fancy formals and other dinner events throughout the semester as well!)

13. Everything is gosh-darn expensive here. Eating out costs an arm and a leg- a meal of fish and chips from a local pub cost me about $25… It was delicious, mind you, but I’ve begun to discover the joys (and horrors) of cooking for oneself.

14. Studying environmental policy in one of the most environmentally conscious and progressive countries in the world is already proving to be a phenomenal opportunity. Learning about environmental practices and actually experiencing them rather than simply reading about them in the textbook is absolutely incredible.

15. I could spend an entire week exploring and enjoying the beautiful Swedish archipelagos. They are so unique and truly highlight the special (and threatened) ecological systems of the Baltic Sea.

This list is just a taste of the many wonderful things I’ve already had the opportunity to experience during my stay in Sweden so far! I’m sure I’ll be having many more adventures (including a visit to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency with my professor on Tuesday! I’m honestly beyond excited for that…which shows you how much of an environmental policy fanatic I really am J ) in the upcoming months and I’ll do my best to keep you updated with everything that’s going on here in good ol’ Sverige.

If you are a dreamer like me, you’ll know that you spend too much time imagining the life you have preserved for so long. When you finally begin to see it in front of you rather in your head you develop a strange feeling. From when I was about six years old I always tried to write out a plan for my life, but as I see a different part of the world I can happily tell myself that I do not want to have my life planned out. I do not want to know what is going to happen in a year, instead I want it to unfold as I follow what I love. I won’t lie, the first time being abroad I wake up feeling homesick. I miss the people I have shared laughter with and the familiarity of their mannerisms. I won’t lie, the first time being abroad is thrilling. I love venturing out, losing my way and  finding a hidden gem in a place I get to call home for a little while.

As the first few days flew by in London, I made new friends who surprisingly feel the exact way as I do. I traveled alone to the classic tourist places all people must visit the first time they visit London. I ran into friends while exploring a new world. I kept trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, but my stomach refused to try anything but pizza, a salad and of course my favorite American meal a hamburger. I promise though to have my taste buds taste a while new side of the world as my eyes see it. I visited the Camden Lock Market which is a hipster town and the complete opposite of all shopping sites you have ever been too. With street art on every corner and store fronts 3d art, you will be sure to be amazed by what you thought would be just some ordinary market.

Being in a place that has bars that have been open longer than America has been established is beautiful alone, to imagine being here while the history we read about in books took place. The most fun I have had all weekend was going to London’s biggest street festival, Notting Hill Carnival. I am unsure if you have been to Lollapalooza, but this was Lollapalooza’s big brother in the world of festivals. My roommate and I finally unwound to enjoy our new home, we stopped being anxious! The music was different than anything I have heard, people came from all over to enjoy the food and music. As people danced, others indulged into delicious foods or even cheered on the parade. The whole town felt to be shaking with excitement for a festival, everyone was happy. The biggest difference I have notice between Chicago and London is that people seem to not worry about making eye contact and starting a conversation. Although in another English speaking country, communicating can be challenging. I have been told my Chicago accent is too thick!!

Notting Hill Carnival

Well, we made it. Over 200 students from Loyola and across the country now reside at the John Felice Rome Center and call the Eternal City our home. (#blessed)

Living in a foreign country is something I’d only dreamed of, and frankly, it still feels like a bit of a dream. Each morning I wake up in Rome and experience something new: cappuccino at the bar, conversing with an Italian or having class at the Colosseum. Casual, right?

The first few days flew by, and to be honest, it wasn’t easy. Orientation was long, informative and at times a little boring. Homesickness is a very real feeling, and many students will experience it — that’s OK. Studying abroad will bring about many emotions. Living abroad will teach you so much, not only about the country you’re studying in, but also about yourself and life in general.

Here’s what I’ve learned thus far:

1. I know a lot more Spanish than I thought I did. Unfortunately, this I realized this because I am constantly confusing Spanish and Italian words.

2. “Bar” does NOT mean a place to go and binge drink. In Italy, a bar is a place to go and get your morning cappuccino or afternoon espresso.

3. Cute shoes are not the same as comfortable shoes. You’ll all hear someone tell you to bring comfortable shoes because you’ll be doing a lot of walking, and they’re telling the truth. I thought I could get by in the sandals I wear around at home and I have blisters the size of quarters. If you pack nothing else, bring comfortable shoes!

4. Life slows down. As a PR major, I’m constantly on my phone checking the latest news and staying up to date on what’s happening around the world. My phone only works when I’m on Wi-Fi now (which isn’t often), and it’s really not such a bad thing. Enjoy your time abroad away from typical distractions. Instagram can wait.

5. Punctuality doesn’t exist in Rome. Like I said, life slows down. No one is in a hurry to get things done. When dining out, meals typically take 2-3 hours, and they’ll never bring you the check without you asking for it. Also, the buses are rarely on time and come as they please. (We’ve waited hours and it never showed up.)

I still have a lot more to learn, and am excited to spend more time in Rome.

Stay tuned for more updates throughout my semester. Ciao! 🙂

                                                  “All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.”

– Shakespeare, As You Like It

Wow! It has been a ~wild~ first week of classes, and sitting here on a Sunday evening thinking back on it, I am so excited to see what the rest of the semester brings!

First off, they’re going to be keeping us quite busy! Mondays we have Period Dance, Movement for Theatre, Voice and Diction, and Stage Combat (I think the goal here is to get us as sore as possible for the rest of the week). Tuesdays I just have Acting and Acting for Shakespeare in the mornings, so I think I’m going to set the afternoons aside as my grocery day. Wednesdays we’ll do Speech and Dialects, Physical Theatre, and Space, Place, and Text. Thursdays are usually some type of workshop or extra class, and then I have individual sessions for Audition and Alexander Technique before we all join back up for Dramatic Criticism. Fridays we have more Acting and Acting for Shakespeare, and sometimes a walking lecture somewhere in London. And of course, weekend day trips, evening theatre visits, and endless hours memorizing once we really get into the swing of things.

The highlight of this week for me was absolutely our visit to the Globe Theatre on Wednesday night. We got to see As You Like It in (a reproduction of) the space it would have been performed in during Shakespeare’s time. The theatre is open-air, and it rained pretty heavily on-and-off the whole time, which was annoying but also in a way only made the experience more powerful. The actors acknowledged the rain, incorporating the space into their performance and connecting the world of the characters to the world of the audience. I was honestly awed by the fact that hundreds of people made the choice to gather and stand getting rained on for three hours all to see a piece of theatre. I will definitely be returning to the Globe before the semester is over.

Friday was another interesting experience. We had our first walking lecture to the site of the Rose, another theatre of Shakespeare’s time. Today the Rose serves as a small, functioning theatre space, set on a balcony that overlooks the excavation site. It was found in the 1980’s, photographed and catalogued, but they had to basically rebury it to keep it preserved. When they have the funding, they plan to re-excavate. Currently it sits under a layer of basically dirt, with water on top to keep the environment moist, and LED lights outline the footprint of the walls and the stage, to give visitors an idea of the space it used to be. After that, we visited the site of the original Globe (down the street from the reconstructed Globe of today), Southwark Cathedral (the church that Shakespeare and lots of other famous English writers went to), and the ruins of Winchester Palace. We also stopped by St. Paul’s Cathedral, for more tourist photo ops.

Last night a group of us went out to see The Bakkhai at the Almeida Theatre, not through school but just for fun on our own. It was… well, it was a Greek tragedy. The production value and the performances were great, and like any show, I think it’s easy to learn about acting and theatre from watching it. But as far as entertainment value goes, I was mostly invested for two reasons: one, the Greeks are such an important part of our history as actors, so you basically have to appreciate them even if the plots and themes aren’t always easily accessible to contemporary values and sensibilities; and two, it was so gory and uncomfortable that it was hard to look away. Naturally, we all went out to the pub after.

Now onto a very full week of shows and our first weekend day trip. Cheers!

I should rename this blog: “I Am Constantly Surprised By Korea Because I Am Lazy And Did Not Learn Anything About Korean Culture Before Arriving And Thus Wrongly Assumed That All Of Asia Was The Same”. But since that title is annoyingly long and I’m not even allowed to name my own blog (only my posts) I will have to settle for the next best thing, which is dedicating sections of my posts to addressing my misconceptions about Korean culture.

Misconception #1: Koreans primarily drink tea. Wrong. If I had done even an ounce of research on Korea, I would have realized that tea is infinitely more popular in China and Japan. In Seoul there are coffee shops EVERYWHERE. I used to scoff at Chicagoans who are so obsessed with Dunkin’ Donuts that they build them into El stations (I’m looking at you Loyola stop on the Red Line) because god forbid anyone should have exit the El train without a cup of Dunkin’ coffee in hand. But here in Seoul, coffee is taken to a whole new level. My guess is that high caffeine intake is what allows Koreans to consume copious amounts of alcohol for such a long periods of time (I just can’t get used to the fact that they start drinking at like 7/8pm) but once again this is just random speculation. I hope that by the end of these four months I will have reached a definitive conclusion. Nevertheless, the point is I have never seen so many coffee shops in one place and I have no idea how they all manage to stay in business.

Misconception #2: Soy Sauce is a common condiment in Korea. Once again, I was thinking of China or possibly Japan. Soy sauce is not typically offered with Korean dishes. Korean food is not salty, or at least not nearly salty enough to be up to snuff with my American standards. For the first week everything I ate tasted incredibly bland. After a lifetime of excessive sodium, ‘natural’ (i.e. unprocessed) food initially appears to lack flavor. (Un)luckily for me, Koreans make up for reduced salt with an abundance of SPICINESS. There is so much spice in everything, especially the things you’d expect to be ‘safe’ (chili popcorn disguised as “cheddar” popcorn). To further confuse my palate, certain foods are unexpectedly sweet, such as anything ‘butter’ flavor. In a moment of weakness following a long soju-filled night out, I ordered the garlic butter fries to be delivered from McDonalds (fast food delivers here! It’s amazing!). But ‘butter’ flavor here is sweet in the most unappetizing sense possible and the fries more closely resembled one of those high-brow ‘gourmet’ flavor combinations that no normal human being outside a Michelin Star restaurant would ever be dumb enough to consume. So in the future I’ll pass on anything butter flavored.

As the weeks go by I will continue to add to this list or misconceptions as I’m positive there are many things I have yet to discover about Korea…

In other news, I have joined the YES Club, also known as the “Yonsei English Society”. Originally I was hoping to join the Mentor’s Club, which involves exchange students being paired with Korean mentors who then do stuff as a group. However, after being rejected no less than three times from the Mentor’s Club (despite my enthusiasm) due to an abundance of exchange students and a lack of available mentors (can you tell I’m not bitter about it?) I decided to try something else. I had to interview to join the YES Club, which I thought was very formal, however I am told this is a common occurrence when joining a club (at least for the clubs at Yonsei Universities, I’m not sure about all Korean universities). Anyways, we have had only one ‘meeting’ so far, which involved going out to dinner as a group to eat Korean BBQ. This is always a fun activity because it’s perfect for a group- there is a grill in the middle of the table upon which the meat is cooked and everything (the meat, side dishes, drinks) is served ‘family style’. I am not sure yet what a typical YES Club meeting will look like, but I am told that at the end of the semester the club will perform a musical (they are trying to narrow it down between Mamma Mia! and Cats) which I am sure will be interesting to say the least.

In the meantime, the most important upcoming club event will be held Friday night, called “Membership Training”. This is a fancy word for what amounts to a night of binge drinking, the purpose of which is to get to know the other members of the YES Club in a relaxed, fun atmosphere.”Membership Training” is apparently as common an event in Korea for clubs as “carbo-loads” are in America for soccer teams before big games. The current schedule has us set to depart campus at 6pm on Friday evening and return to campus at 8am the next morning. I am not rock-solid on all the details (I am more of a follower than a leader in this situation) but I was told that we will take a bus to some house in suburban Seoul and then the festivities will commence. I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone in the club as I have not yet had a chance to meet very many Yonsei students because most of my classes are with other exchange students.

Until next time!

Hola mis amigos! After my crazy first week here in Spain, I thought it was about time to update you all on everything that has gone down so far! We arrived in Madrid a day late (long story short we had an emergency landing in Bordeaux, France and had to stay overnight in a hotel until the next flight out to Madrid) and were whisked away to see our apartment! We live in the barrio (neighborhood) Arganzuela which is a pretty residential area with a lot of families and elderly couples. There are a few restaurants and cafes nearby along with the essential grocery and convenience stores. In Madrid, public transportation is heavily used and is easy to access, similar to the CTA in Chicago! On our first night we ventured onto the metro to head into Sol, the city center of Madrid, for our first tapas experience! Tapas here in Madrid range from croquetas, fried cheese and Spanish ham balls, to tiny finger sized baguette sandwiches called montados (so delicious and so cheap)! Spaniards typically eat smaller breakfasts than back home in the US, a piece of toast, a cup of yogurt or even a piece of fruit. They have a tiny snack during mid morning and then lunch, which is their biggest meal. At 2pm most stores and businesses close for a siesta, meaning coffee break! Dinner doesn’t normally begin until 9pm (my stomach is still getting used to this new meal time…) and many people often eat later than that! I’ve quickly built up a passionate love for Spanish food that no boy could ever replace, trust me, if you had jamon (Spanish ham) you would completely feel the same way too.

A few stops away on the metro is a beautiful park called Parque de el Retiro. Here, people come to picnic, workout, row boats and even visit the Palacio de Cristal! The Palacio de Cristal is a beautiful glass building that literally sparkles in the sun. It was created in 1887 to house exotic flora and fauna as part of an exhibition. Today, the Palacio de Cristal is a popular tourist spot, perfect for shameless selfies and solo pics… 😉 From here we headed over to the monument to Alfonso XII which is really just a big ole’ pond with a huge monument (as seen in my picture below!). Here, people are able to rent row boats and sail around for as long as they want. We weren’t able to snag a boat because it was a busy Sunday afternoon and it seemed like the whole city of Madrid had plans to row boats too!

This past weekend we were able to participate on a program wide field trip to the beautiful city of Segovia. Located about 45 minutes from Madrid, Segovia embodies everything beautiful about Spain. From the tiny cafes, to the beautiful castle, Segovia truly has my heart! We began our day at the Alcazar de Segovia, a masterpiece of a castle that started out as a humble fortress. The tour of the castle was breathtaking, room after room filled with beautiful artwork and so much history. In 1862, the castle survived a terrible fire that destroyed almost the entire interior; since then (thankfully) it has been partially restored. The ceilings were so intricately detailed I could barely look away from them! My favorite part of the tour was when we had to trek (I’m not even being dramatic the stairs were a pain to climb I was #heavybreathing the whole way) to  the top of the tower which has an amazing 360 degree view of the city.  The pictures do not do the castle justice!

From there we headed down to the cathedral square where we were able to explore on our own for a bit. Full of tiny alleys that house the sweetest shops, we stumbled upon a quaint café and had café con leches (half coffee half milk) and delicious pastries. After about an hour or so of relaxing and souvenir shopping, we were on our way to lunch! For our first course I decided to try gazpacho, a cold vegetable soup that was surprisingly refreshing. Then, it was time for our main course…in Segovia, El Cochinillo (suckling pig) is a city tradition and delicacy. The pig is tender and delicious served with a tasty gravy, my mouth is water just thinking about it! They cut up the pig and serve it in rather large portions (hooves and ears included) like the picture shown below. We finished our meal with a sweet cake that tasted just like Christmas with a scoop of ice cream. 10/10 would recommend trying el Cochinillo if you are ever in Segovia!

Our last stop of the day was to the beautiful summer palace of King Felipe V and his successors called La Granja de San Ildefonso. Full of lush greenery and colorful flowers, la Granja has a calm and relaxing feel that made me want to lie out in the sun and take a snooze! Instead, we opted to try out the maze and see who could finish it fastest. After splitting up it was only a matter of minutes before my group realized there was no way out and we were doomed to stay trapped forever. Thankfully, someone had figured out how to read the map and we finally navigated our way out, 25 minutes later. Finally with one last picture, we were on the bus and on our way back home to Madrid, leaving the beautiful city of Segovia behind.

That seems to wrap up my first week in Madrid, a lot of good food, fun times with new friends, and a new desire to explore a new city (not to mention back to studying because this is STUDY abroad and not just abroad…as our teacher says!) But until next time, adios my friends!!!