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I've had the time of my life!

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This trip has been an amazing experience!!! It's also been a very difficult one! Haha.  Wow.  I can't believe that it's already drawing to a close... As I get ready to say goodbye to the place that I called home for 7 weeks, I'd like to focus on all the good travelling abroad has done for me.  Ready? Let's dive in! (Aliah and I at the temple in Southall) First good thing: exposure to all kinds of culture.  From our trip to Southall to being in ethnically diverse wards, I got to get in touch with different religions, food, and some really cool individuals.  Southall is home to many people whose families immigrated from countries like India and Pakistan.  We went to a Sikh Temple, and it was amazing to see the similarities between my own beliefs and theirs! We had to wear the appropriate head covering and then we were taught about their beliefs.  Sikhs are vegetarian because they believe that harming animals in this world brings you bad karma in you...
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I’ve found the location of my retirement home…

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You know, it’s funny, because even though I knew we were taking a trip to the Lake District in northern England, I was still surprised when confronted with an actual lake.   I guess I was expecting something sort of muddy, swampy, perhaps a bit underwhelming… but no.   Windermere lake was looking like a dime when we drove past.   The sun was out (a pretty rare sight overall on this trip), the lake sparkled.   Boats sailed past lazily with white sails.   The town of Ambleside is super cute and just feels cozy.   It was pretty great, and my new life goal is to retire there someday.                 A view from outside our hostel in Ambleside  (Sketch from a hike)   We did so many great things on this particular trip!   Our first stop was the home of the Brontes.   Turns out, their story is pretty tragic- all 6 kids died before reaching middle age, som...
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In the Jungles of Rome...

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This week, I got to spend three days in the lovely, crowded, historical city of...  (as you might have guessed from the title)  ... ROME! My professor, Dr. Kramer, challenged us to be more than just tourists on this trip.  Instead of being simply consumers of a packaged trip, I was to look for the little, spontaneous things that I experienced.  To be honest, I didn't do too good a job of consciously pulling this feat off.  My mind was swept away by the Colosseum, awe-inspiring Vatican Basilica, and Trevi Fountain.  After I got back to London and looked through my camera roll however, I realized that I had been paying attention to the little things.  These little things being in the form of... foliage.  More specifically, how the flowers and vines covered so many of the restaurants and homes in Rome.  As someone who grew up in the desert where I was lucky to find a couple trees in a mile radius, I've always been easily swept up by b...
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My Trip to Paris in a Nutshell (But not literally)

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I was warned about the local Parisians before I took the trip to Paris.  People told me things like, "they can speak English but hate talking to people in their non-native language," and "tourists are looked down upon in general."  I didn't really understand why people would treat visitors to their country in a cold way until I experienced the teeming, massive, overpowering throng of sightseers firsthand. (It was most intense in the Louvre and other museums- outside wasn't so bad.) Paris is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for a lot of people, so it's easy to not grasp exactly how many people get to be in Paris at one point in time.  Not only the locals, but visitors from Europe and all over the world.    We talked a lot about what it meant to be a tourist in our classes.  How can we experience this trip "authentically," and what does "authentic" even mean when so much of what we do and see is catered to a kind of packaged tourism?  Paris is...
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Trip to Southall!

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Why Wales is Hyrule in the Real World

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Miles and miles of trees and grasslands, seemingly uninhabited except for the roving animals; Wind whipping across fields of flowers and clear, fresh skies.   A picturesque, seemingly endless display of the vast countryside, grandiose ruins, and the secluded quiet gardens paint an almost fantastic portrait of the beauty offered by nature.   Suddenly, a cloud of darkness and lighting erupts from a castle in the distance, a demon broken free from years of confinement in its prison.   Its minions rush forward to overtake the peaceful land, destroying everything in their path…             What? That didn’t happen, you say?   Ok, I admit it.   This is the plotline from one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time, The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild.   But if you ask me, the game and Wales have a ton in common.   Several settings from the game were probably inspired by several di...
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