There are post-it notes all over my desk with reminders to get people different British things, which feels kind of final and silly. Though my departure is four days away, I started packing tonight because packing to go home feels good. Prepare yourself for an introspective post!
The apartment I thought would work out did not, as the woman failed to mention the 10-year old child also living there. When she said “one other person will be sharing the apartment with you,” I suppose she wasn’t counting the child as a person. No worries, because I get to live with Becky and Andrew in the 140s & St. Nicholas starting June 1st! It’s a bit far from the job I’m hoping to get, but ultimately it will be a better situation in a million ways. I can bike to Columbia whenever I get the sundial blues. (Anyone who’s sat on the sundial in the middle of the night when the campus is dead has probably experienced the sundial blues, followed by the feeling that maybe you do belong at Columbia after all. Or maybe that’s just me?) All I know is that I’m going to Columbia as soon as possible so I can sit on the steps and breathe my air again. Yes, I love and miss Columbia that much, despite my frequent complaining about its various inadequacies.
I guess since my last few days in London will revolve around packing, shopping, and preparing for summer, there won’t really be any more updates. It feels like a brief and strange chapter of my life is ending. Summer is starting to solidify, but I’m still afraid to go back and see people I haven’t seen in months. I’ve kept in touch with mostly high school people and a few people from Columbia, but most people fell out of the picture somewhat for the last several months. It’s terrifying to think that we’re going into our senior year, and a lot of my friends are actually about to graduate this month. College has gone by insanely fast and I think the regret of not being there to experience one of very few remaining semesters was a large part of what made me really depressed early on in this semester
My first two months abroad there was rarely a day I wasn’t hysterically crying for any number of reasons or sometimes for no reason at all. It was probably the most depressed I’ve ever felt. London’s weather was not conducive to happiness, either. I was lucky to have a few epically amazing friends handy on Skype to keep me from shutting down completely, though I kind of regret not really trying to make friends here. I was half-assed about it. My heart wasn’t really in anything until March.
I’ve spent several years working hard to convince myself that I don’t need anyone but me to get by, and I guess this semester made me realize that needing other people around isn’t a weakness. Having spent so much of this semester sleeping and being lazy, I’m also incredibly motivated. I want to take a million classes at once and work five jobs just to feel like I am a productive member of society again. I want to do everything this summer. (Learning guitar is top on my list.) The UK learning style completely blew my mind, and I’m ready to get back to doing real work at America’s #2 Most Stressful College. Overall, I would repeat this semester again, so I guess it was not all in vain. When else will I get the chance to travel all over Europe so easily? Probably never. I’m happy to say I took advantage of most of the opportunities presented to me this semester. I saw, experienced, and grew enough to make it all worthwhile. I’d like to think I’m coming home as an ‘adult’, but I think since I still say that word in a droning British accent (ahh-dolt) I may no be quite there yet. That’s okay. Growing up sucks, anyway!
I’ve also realized in being away that I have yet to encounter a place I feel more like myself in than New York City. Call it dirty, crowded, loud, rude, and dangerous all you want, but that damn crazy city is the only place I want to be. I’ve also gotten really defensive and appreciative of America.
My favorite part of the flight back from London to JFK is when Manhattan appears in the windows as we land. I’m fairly certain it will be a sobfest when I see that skyline for the first time in five months, but for once it’ll be a sobfest of the positive kind. I’m pretty tired of crying for negative reasons. Time tends to erase all those negative feelings about the past, though, so I’m sure I’ll eventually look back on this semester and remember only the good points. I might even miss London, despite calling it a city full of assholes for so long, among other horrible things. Hm.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed my adventures and non-adventures this semester. Kind of in the languages of the various countries I visited: Adiós! Tschüß! Ciao! Au revoir/Salukes! Geia! Cheerio!
— Lauren
Monday, May 10th 2010 1:24am
Yesterday was spent doing what I thought was tanning after I discovered the bike shop was closed. It was more like burning, really. Burning in splotches. It’s sexy, lemme tell ya. I look like I’ve acquired some strange skin disease. Luckily, almost all of the awfulness can be covered with jeans and a tshirt. My arms and face look lovely! Except for the top of my right hand, and my left elbow. I’m apparently the worst sunscreen applicator in the world.
Due to the appearance of sunburn in only the most inconvenient and uncomfortable places (Have you ever burned your armpits? Yeah, I didn’t think so.), today will be spent in my hotel room. Just watching a few joggers go by from my balcony made me feel nauseous. I’ve got a good view, 24 hours of internet, two books, lots of snacks, and a nice breeze, so here is where I’ll stay. Tomorrow morning, I head back to London. Overall, island vacation gets a B+. A few points were lost for horrible sunburn and non-free internet. It’s still in the low 50s in London, so that’s going to be a fun shock tomorrow. Stupid awful city.
— Lauren
Saturday, May 8th 2010 1:48pm
Spent the entire day doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the sun and wandering the beach and enjoying the hotel pool. It was great. I got minimal sunburn. I made the decision to not leave this island (until Sunday, that is). Tomorrow, I bike south. The next day, I bike north. The day after that, I leave. Several days after that, I go home. By that time, I should have an apartment to move into immediately. I may even have a job option, if my phone interview goes well on Monday. Unpaid again, but part time and in the Columbia area, so it will be walking distance from my apartment and I can make money the other half of the week. If nothing else works out, it would still be a good internship, and I can reapply for the fall internships at the bigger companies. No biggie. I’m convinced that given the bad luck and misery of the majority of this semester, things have to improve in time for summer. Summer will be an endless stream of awesome. At the grocery store today, the woman commented on my license and said, “New York? You’ve come a long way!” I agree. It’s weird to be seeing the Atlantic Ocean from the other side. I’m so very ready to go home, but in the meantime I’ll just get nice and tan.
— Lauren
(See Flickr for more photos!)
Thursday, May 6th 2010 9:18pm
This morning I left Kevin’s place while everyone was sleeping, and only 1.5 hours after I had gotten to sleep. I walked to the train station as the sun rose over Berlin around 5:45am. Morning is not exactly my favorite time, but with a Belle & Sebastian soundtrack it was alright.
Flying from Berlin to London was uneventful, painful as per usual. I spent so much time in airports today and not enough time sleeping at any point. On the four hour flight to Fuerteventura, I was lucky enough to be sitting next to the most obnoxious British guido ever and in front of the world’s most unhappy child. So much noise so constantly! I spent the last 20 minutes of the flight in frightened anticipation of an earache that never occurred, because I bought earplugs in the London airport. The days of painful flying are gone! Yay!
Fuerteventura is very eerily beautiful. It’s kind of Mars-like. I am literally on a desert island (but not stranded, I hope). My hotel room is completely kick-ass, minus the lack of free internet (they lied in their description). It’s actually a small apartment, including a king-sized bed, kitchen, full bathroom, living room, TV, and balcony overlooking the water and the mountains. The one downside is that there are tiny ants absolutely everywhere in the kitchen. Ergh. But they even provided cookware, so I bought groceries and made dinner tonight. This is apparently a German hotel, and almost everything is in German around here…so I think Fuerteventura happens to be a big German ex-pat settlement? Random. I thought I was done speaking German this week!
Tomorrow I’m planning on renting a bike (only 8 euros a day!) and seeing how far I can get around the island. I bought Murakami’s Norwegian Wood and started it on the plane, so I’m looking forward to finishing it on the beach. (Not exactly a beach read, but oh well.) The sun is down now, and I’m just waiting for the stars to come out, since this may be the most remote place I’ve ever been…then off to sleep. Finally.
— Lauren
Wednesday, May 5th 2010 9:19pm
Berlin is fab, but very cold and rainy. Happened to be here when the weather is awful. Oh well. Yesterday and today consisted of a lot of walking around and seeing Berlin and not going inside anywhere and eating a lot. Elise and Sarina arrived this morning and we got super lost on our way to a free tour so we just kind of walked around. Eventually we made it back to Kevin’s and watched a movie until he came back from class. Last night and tonight we went to a vegetarian restaurant called Yellow Sunshine. Super delicious soy chicken! We’re sitting around now with some of Kevin’s NYU friends watching The Breakfast Club. I’m leaving in the morning for Fuerteventura. I’m still not sure how to get to my hotel from the airport, but I’ll figure it out. It’s cool. I got another interview for an internship, so I think summer things are going to kind of fall into place soon! There’s so little time until I get to come home, and I’m really excited. That is all.
— Lauren
Tuesday, May 4th 2010 10:35pm
I haven’t slept yet since waking up yesterday afternoon, sooo kind of delusional. I decided to stay up all night since I had to leave at 3:45am to get to Berlin. I kind of slept on the plane briefly, but 20 minutes before landing we hit that awful altitude that makes my ears explode so I woke up unpleasantly. Upon arrival, Kevin and I went out for brunch and reminisced and talked and it was lovely. We met up with his friend Steph and walked along the Berlin Wall and looked at the art and tried to get into an abandoned building but there were these weird kids there with a megaphone yelling at us in German and we didn’t know what they wanted and we left. There was lots of chillin with other NYU kids and some doner kebab and lots of talking about German words. I’m surprised how much German I’m remembering. And it’s fun to reminisce on all the ridiculous shit we did in German class in high school. I’m really tired and going to sleep after a long late evening of liking everything on Facebook. So far, Berlin is ace. Tomorrow, wandering around museums and I don’t know what else? I’m really not planning anything because I’ve lost the will to plan out my travels. It’s supposed to rain the whole time I’m here anyway. Wherever I end up is fine by me.
— Lauren
Monday, May 3rd 2010 1:20am
Meet Herbert. Up until about twenty minutes ago, Herbert was apparently living in my room. I noticed Herbert’s friends in the kitchen earlier and freaked out a bit because, like Herbert, they are huge fucking spiders the size of Jupiter obviously out to kill me in my sleep. I left Herbert’s friends alone. But then I went to draw my curtains to take a nap, and Herbert made an appearance at the top of the curtains and scared the shit out of me. After some moments of panicking and talking to Herbert and convincing myself that I was a strong woman who could DO THIS, I grabbed some crappy tupperware from the kitchen, cautiously scraped Herbert into the container, and sealed it shut. After more panic and, obviously, photos, I decided to march Herbert to the housing office and demand something be done.
The man there stared at me like I was crazy. I was semi-drenched from the rain and holding tupperware containing one giant spider, demanding he bring in exterminators immediately lest I return from the Canary Islands to find a room full of giant spiders. He was luckily sympathetic, and took Herbert from me and contacted the office that deals with exterminators. As he ominously said, “He’ll probably be dead by the time they get here.” And I said, “Yes, but at least they’ll know what they’re dealing with.” And I stepped back into the rainy night, never to be heard from again. (Not really.)
I would take a nap, but honestly sitting wide awake and terrified that giant spiders are lurking everywhere is so much better.
— Lauren
Saturday, May 1st 2010 11:20pm
Long time no update! Not much exciting stuff has been going on, thus the lack of entries. My mom and Larry are back in the States. I saw Iron Man 2 last night. My sleep schedule has been almost entirely reversed. This morning I was on Skype until past sunrise. Since there isn’t any sun or light or joy in London, past sunrise looks a lot like before sunrise. I spent most of this disgustingly rainy day packing, unpacking, and repacking to try and fit everything for my week away into one of my carry-on-sized bags to no avail.
At around 4am, I’ll catch a bus to another bus to the airport and head for Berlin to visit Kevin! Elise and Sarina will also be there for one night. I’m there until Wednesday morning, at which point I will fly back to London, chill in the airport for a couple of hours, then head to Fuerteventura, Spain. A lot of people have asked where exactly this is, and it’s here. Will I go to Morocco just to say I’ve been? Maybe. But it’s more likely that I will spend Wednesday to Sunday on the beaches of Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria being lazy, getting sunburned, and generally not giving a crap about anything. I have my own room, which is divine. It’ll be a lot like the majority of this semester - minus the sunburn.
I’ll be back the afternoon of the 9th, then I have a few days before heading back home, where I have neither an apartment nor a finalized job. I had a semi-nightmare last night that I got an internship at the company I wanted, but they said I was too stupid to work in a real division so they put me in the cake-making division, where it would be my job to look for ingredients. My coworkers were all pretentious and mean. I took the job because I had no other options. I don’t think I’m the only person having trouble getting something this summer. I just happen to be friends with all of the people who have had fabulously glamorous paid internships at extremely prestigious companies in their respective fields secured for months now. Oh well. To Berlin!
— Lauren
Saturday, May 1st 2010 6:38pm
Many apologies for the lack of photos this week - I’ve been tourist-ing it up at locations I’ve previously been to, so carrying around my extremely heavy camera feels unnecessary. It’s been fun introducing my mom and Larry to London. Kind of makes me appreciate the city like I did before I came to live here…but I still absolutely can’t wait to get back to NYC in two weeks. London can’t do a damn thing to entice me to stay longer.
Today we went to the Tower of London and spent a good three hours visiting all the museums and taking the tour (the Yeoman this time was not as funny as the one I saw last year, but still good). The Tower of London is the one pricey tourist thing I recommend to anyone visiting London. We ate more pub food, chilled at their hotel for a while watching TV that may or may not have been Glee and which Larry may or may not have complained about watching and then totally loved. Behold the power of Glee!
I’m back in my dorm now. It’s been my birthday for about 52 minutes in the UK. Not sure how I feel about being 21. It feels like it’s not actually my birthday, since in my mind I’m postponing my birthday until I return to the States, where I can celebrate it with Columbia and home friends. This summer still feels so uncertain, but I guess I’ll figure it out day by day. No more word on the internship front, so I got myself some hours at Columbia’s Visitors Center. At least I’m guaranteed a really fun paid job with friends if all else fails.
As for birthday plans, I’m packing a bit for home in the afternoon and seeing Billy Elliott at night. Since I don’t have a favorite restaurant in London, I don’t really know where I want to eat. Meh. It’ll be good. And celebrating with friends back home will just have to wait. :)
— Lauren
Tuesday, April 27th 2010 1:01am
Drunken man on the bus to first girl, second girl, then me:
“Gorgeous…rather gorgeous…extremely gorgeous!”
Alright, London. You can be alright. You have your good moments. Drunken moments, yes, but good moments nonetheless.
I started out this evening feeling a huge amount of anxiety and having absolutely no desire to attend my own co-birthday party. The anxiety wasn’t really the result of anything. It just happened. I just wanted to lament my existence, though I knew once I got out I would have a good time. I had a case of the Mean Reds, that kind of crippling depression that led me to spend so much of my time indoors when I first got here. But a good group of people and four shots of tequila later, the Mean Reds were gone. Lots of dancing, lots of stupidity, one haphazard and hysterical kiss with a very cute Irish guy who was also celebrating his birthday, one dance with a kung fu master (what?!), a billion unflattering photos, and a long bus ride later, I’m back, sober, and ready to get some sleep. Successful 21st birthday celebration? I think yes.
These are the only times I really enjoy London. I’m looking forward to visiting this scene in NYC. I’m also looking forward to throwing myself a 21st party when I’m back in the States, where being 21 actually matters.
— Lauren
Sunday, April 25th 2010 2:29am
Heeey, London. Long time no see. Prior to being back in London, I was in Brussels, chatting up a boy from New Zealand who was also stranded. I did some walking before my train left, saw some famous things, including the super famous Mannekin Pis statue. (Yes, it was as disappointing as they say. I mean, really anti-climactic.) I bought some chocolate. It was the exact same chocolate I found in my London supermarket a few months ago. The map I found told me real Belgians don’t bother with the fancy chocolate because their supermarket chocolate is frickin amazing, so I listened to my map. My map also led me to Fritland, where I ate cheap and delicious lunch. Belgian food is kind of the realization of my food dreams: french fries, waffles, chocolate, and Haagen Dazs. The train ride was brief and the woman next to me was super cranky because, poor her, she’d been on trains since 6am yesterday. (So had I, but I decided to just nod my sympathy instead of telling her to STFU.) So I guess the whole train experience turned out pretty awesome: I got to see the Alps, French countryside, and Brussels!
Back in London, I’m back to a relatively normal lifestyle. I spent my first several hours back talking to a series of people back-to-back on Skype. Today I got a haircut for the first time since early December (holy crap, so happy) and did laundry and am about to go grocery shopping. Tomorrow, my mom and Larry arrive! Tomorrow night…my kind-of birthday party with friends from UCL/Skidmore? Yay! Good to be back, but still…can’t wait to get back to NYC. Annnnd the fire alarm just went off. That’s my cue to leave!
— Lauren
Friday, April 23rd 2010 3:08pm
I walked to the train station in Venice well before sunrise, and I was on a train pretty much all day since then, minus a one-hour break at Zürich. At Zürich I paid $15 for Burger King because I didn’t know the Swiss Franc was basically the equivalent of the US Dollar. Oops. Fatty fail. I also worked my way onto the train I wanted. The man at the window said, “The 2:36 train is fully booked…you would be standing.” I said, “That’s fine. I don’t care.” He said, “It’s an 8-hour train ride…” “Good.” He looked at me like I was insane. No standing occurred, for I am crafty. Passed some poor stupid fools sitting in the hall next to the bathrooms. The only time I feared losing my seat was when a large, loud, angry group of Germans boarded the train somewhere in France and promptly demanded everyone around me leave so they could take their seats. Everyone left. I pretended to be sleeping and angelic, and eventually they gave up trying to figure out who should demand “zwölf” (12, my seat). I just happened to wake up right as they all sat down. What a coincidence!
The good thing about these train rides is that I accomplished two of my travel goals effortlessly. I had wanted to see the French countryside and I had wanted to see the Alps, but never found the time. This morning, my train swerved through the Swiss Alps past little lakeside villages and mountains that lost themselves in the clouds, and this afternoon I coasted along through the relatively flat French countryside past places that reminded me a lot of French Kiss. My phone kept texting me “Welcome to GREECE!” which just wasn’t true. Stupid phone with its lies and false enthusiasm. I liked Switzerland and its Alps so much that I bought a weird t-shirt commemorating my time in Switzerland. It has a cow pulling a skier up a mountain and says something about Swiss innovation.
The Germans did not shut up for one second in their three hours on the train, but they were not as bad as the Italians on my morning train to Milan. The Italians had mini kegs with them on a 6:20am train and were drinking and yelling for three hours. I slipped in and out of sleeping in the most awkward positions, with my suitcase under my legs and my backpack basically on my face. No way anyone could steal anything. I read a story about a girl who fell asleep on a train in Italy and woke up without her money or passport, so I’m a bit paranoid.
While I was cruising through France (or as my phone believed, Greece), Dehui successfully got me room 106 in River, which is a glorious 126 sq. ft, making it the largest room I’ve ever had at Columbia. And if anyone needs me next year, they can just knock on my window! Hey-oh! Yeah, it’s on the first floor by the entrance to River, but at least it’s not unbearably small. I’m content. Well done, Dehui!
I’ve actually remained in a really good mood all day, though now that I’m at my hostel I definitely feel the cranky sleepiness setting in. I’m in a room full of stranded people. I’ll consider exploring Brussels tomorrow, but honestly I just want to get back to London. I’m going to try and cry my way onto an earlier train. I’ve found that London is only appealing when it’s unreasonably difficult to get there and I have no more clean clothing. I’m tired of living out of a suitcase and sleeping in weird-smelling rooms full of strangers.
— Lauren
Wednesday, April 21st 2010 11:49pm
I have a way back to London at last. Eurostar apparently added more trains in Brussels and I booked a train leaving at 3pm Friday. I’m looking at about 36 hours of traveling before I make it back to London, anywhere from four to ten different trains depending on how many connections I end up with between Zurich and Brussels, at least 10 hours spent in a train station with not much to do. No shower. And I’m missing my housing appointment, so I don’t get to pick my room for next year. Dehui will take care of that. But I’m going back to London. My flight was officially canceled just this afternoon, so no worries about whether or not I’m doing the right thing. The volcano appears to be spewing more ash again anyway. RyanAir has yet to offer me a refund on my flight.
Anyway, today I went to the island of Murano, which is where they do all the glass-blowing and such. Walked around for a while. Bought presents for people. Came back early by boat. It’s weird that for people here the boat is the taxi/subway/bus/etc. There were kids on their way home from school in the afternoon on the boat. To bed early tonight, then the saga of returning begins bright and early at 5am. Not looking forward to it in the slightest, but trying not to think about what’s coming too much. I’ve stayed awake that long before, so if it comes to that, I’ve got Red Bull on my side. Bring it on, European train system. Looking forward to being in my room again.
— Lauren
Tuesday, April 20th 2010 5:19pm
It’s a little hard to focus on the beauty and tranquility of Venice when I’m spending so much time trying to figure out how the crap to get back to London. After waiting four hours in line at the train station, I have tickets bringing me as far as Brussels, but the connection from Zürich to Brussels is up in the air because it is reservationless. I may arrive in Zürich to find that I can’t get on a train to Brussels for another day or two since I have no reservation, I just have an unvalidated ticket to use whenever. I may get lucky in Zürich only to arrive in Brussels to find that I can’t get on a train to London for a day or more. (But at least I know someone in Brussels!) It might take me several days to return, at worst. At best, it’ll take me a day and a half. I can’t buy a Eurostar ticket from Brussels to London because I don’t know when I’ll even get to Brussels right now. All of the flexible/refundable options are sold out. The Eurostars are flooded with people trying to get places, and the train stations are flooded with people sleeping on the floor, waiting to get places. Europe is basically one big shit-show. Everyone is running around blindly just trying to be anywhere but where they are. Every European city has suddenly lost its charm. Wednesday morning at 6:20am I am boarding a train to Milan, then at 9:10am I’m boarding another train to Zürich, then at 12:51 pm the magical fun of trying to get from Zürich to Brussels and Brussels to London begins! My Dublin friends began their journey this morning, bright and early. Every goodbye is ended with an exasperated “good luck getting home.” It’s kind of exciting to be involved in something this historic and ridiculous, and Venice isn’t the worst place to be stranded, but it’s also kind of an inconvenient and expensive pain in the ass. The excitement died out pretty fast. Now it’s basically just anxiety and exasperation and confusion and a blind leap into the train systems of Europe. I think I’ll make it out alive. Gross-looking, probably surviving on primarily McDonalds and granola bars, but alive.
I think it’s time for me to take a walk around Venice and not think about the 973459702394 trains I have to take and the logistics of traveling alone and needing to use the bathroom or get food without being able to leave my bags unattended. Hrm.
— Lauren
Monday, April 19th 2010 4:09pm
The most inspirational music EVER is blasting in my hostel. It’s this kind of elevator music-esque repeat of the same note sequence with one of those beats you could probably find on an electric keyboard. The line for the two bathrooms (split between 18 million people who all want to shower at the same time) is endless, so I’m sitting in bed waiting.
Yesterday was eventful. Very Venetian. I didn’t bring my camera out because it was rainy and gross, but I do have photos from the first day on Flickr. In the evening Nick and I went on the pub crawl again. I felt like death, but I do not let death stop me from drinking. The crowd contained a lot of familiar people since they continue to be stranded here by the volcano in Iceland. It wasn’t as great as the night before because of the rain and because we were all exhausted from the night before, but it was still fun. We’re lucky that we’re trapped with a good group of really fun people at a hostel that actually attempts to create community. There are about three doppelgangers of people I know back home, including a Steph DeSimone doppelganger! Not nearly as good as original Steph, but still awesome. My favorites are hoping to be heading out on Wednesday, back to Dublin. I’m remaining somewhat hopeful that by Thursday flights will be starting to function. I’ll be really mega-pissed if my mom can’t come to London on Saturday. If I get stranded I can go to Rome and stay in Nick’s apartment, at least, and try to find a train to London from there at the worst.
We all scream “FUCK ICELAND!” in the streets a lot at night and we toast to the end of volcanoes. It is Iceland’s fault, after all. When I told the Texans that technically the volcano is better for the environment than the CO2 emissions from all the planes, they were not buying it. Haha. Being trapped in Venice…maybe not the worst thing. Nope. It’s a beautiful city, I’ve had good company, and it’s probably been my favorite stop so far. But getting back to London by airplane and not overpriced overnight crowded train would be nice. Just sayin’.
— Lauren
Sunday, April 18th 2010 10:06am