Surprise! The end of my adventures

Surprise, I'm home early!! After much back and forth about deciding whether or not to change my ticket to an earlier date, due to being kicked out of my apartment earlier than expected, my parents and I decided to go for it! I was so pleased about going home the 19th instead of my original date of the 26th--after all, it had been an amazing time but I also felt, since my travels were ended, papers turned in, and many friends already left, it was time for me to leave Sunderland and Clanny House.

Unfortunately, the 19th was just not in the cards!! The day before England was hit with some SERIOUS winter storms and crazy weather, and it looked doubtful that I would fly...and, lo and behold, I didn't! Instead, I spent the 19th doing some serious retail therapy with my dear friend Eike :)
Well, with the 19th knocked out of the equation I tried again for the 20th. All systems go! I was greeted at 4 am by my lovely, caring flat mates who all stayed up and said goodbye :) I was really touched by all the good byes I got that morning and the night before...you never know how much your connections with people matter until you're ready to leave! I took the 4am taxi and then smoothly made my Newcastle to London flight.
 Little did I know how much of a MESS Heathrow would be!! I was greeted by the announcement of the cancellation of my connecting flight. Ah well, I got in line and waited my 3.5 hour wait to rebook my flight...only to be told that Baltimore flights were being cancelled right and left, and the only flights to the East Coast were going to Dulles. Whatever, I decided I'd take it. After a few pricey calls home and some serious back-patting (the girl behind me in line was sobbing about the cancellation of her flight to Paris), I had a one-hour wait to see if my Dulles flight would actually fly out and a bunch of free food provided by British Airways. One thing I can say, they were the kindest, calmest people amidst chaos. I give them five stars. :)

After meeting some really interesting people in the airport, I finally boarded the plane....only to have them close up the plane, start the motor...and then turn it back off and tell us that there was an indeterminable wait ahead to de-ice the plane.
Okay, cool.
By now I knew better than to think that I was going anywhere, anyway.

At this point, in all honesty, I didn't even care. I was just so relieved that we were (eventually) really going, that I sat back and watched the entirety of Anna Karenina before takeoff.

So, after about a 30 hour day...I ARRIVED HOME! Thrilled and exhausted, and at the end of my European adventures. About which I have a few things to say.

Studying abroad teaches you a lot....about life, about other people, about the world and other cultures, and about yourself. I've got a little list of just a few things I learned:
1) Always, always, ALWAYS, be generous and kind. With anything.
2) There are many, many ways to have a successful life--and success is determined by the happiness of the person who lives it, not by your standards or anyone else's
3) There are many ways to God, and those from whom you expect the least may teach you the most.
4) Be humble. You don't know everything. And don't judge everyone by your standards: they're YOURS for a reason.
5) Be open-minded and always be critical of what you think you know.
6) Be glad of what you've been blessed with, but don't keep it to yourself: share it.
7) Living smaller/simpler often feels better. Do you really need that? Perspective is key.
8) Resilience, and inner happiness and contentment with yourself is something that no one else can give you--and which make you a strong, happy person anywhere and in any situation.
9) BE FLEXIBLE-if something goes wrong....should it really upset you?
10) Above all, live life to the fullest, try (almost) everything and anything, and soak it all in. Life is too short to not completely live it-and it's beautiful, terrible and crazy!

Thanks to everyone who made my trip possible, who encouraged me, kept in touch with me, or thought of me from afar :) And thanks above all to the people who made my experience amazing--even some people who I only met for a moment. You made these experiences worthwhile: some of you I know I will see again one day, and some I know I will be friends with for the rest of my life. :)

Sunderland Shenanigans!

So just because I've only posted about weekend adventures in ANOTHER town doesn't mean that Sunderland is no longer exciting....au contraire! :) So here is a little update on my new-found hometown!

Okay, so one thing that you should know to start off with is that about 80% of the international students here are either German or American. Of course, this was inevitably going to lead to some friendly (and extremely competitive) competition at SOME POINT. We all knew it. :P So after a large amount of friendly heckling..The German vs USA Official Football Match!

Gettin serious. Germany to the left, USA to the right. We were a little uncertain about taking on Europeans in what is, let's face it, a seriously European sport.

We ended up tying the game (only suitable, I guess), but despite freezing temperatures a big crowd turned out to cheer on the teams! I don't know about everyone else, but I think I just cheered whenever any goals were made....

It was SO COLD...Solution?

HUG.

Gaby, Syedah, and I also made a trip to the Winter Gardens (one of the sites Sunderland is known for)...It was beautiful at sunset but also....very much locked. We found an opening and slipped in!

Really it just a little park of outdoor gardens to walk through and a pond. It also features a large walrus statue (no, I'm not sure why).

They have a war memorial here for the soldiers from Sunderland who gave their lives.

I have NO CLUE about this funky little landmark...but it was kinda cute :)

The most green you will ever seen in one spot in Sunderland! I had to take a picture!

One of Sunderland's beautiful moments :)

<3 Sunderland.

Alnwick Castle!

OH MY GOSH, IT'S HARRY POTTER!
I had the most exciting experience on Saturday....we went on a trip to Alnwick Castle, home of the Percy family and also the making of the Harry Potter films. It was really cool, partially because of Harry Potter, partially because I learned about Henry Percy last year from reading Shakespeare in Brit Lit last year, and partially because the Percy family still lives in a castle that is literally thousands of years old.
Hilarious part: seeing their liquor cabinet and foosball table among their antique collectable (and creepy) stuffed animals and ancient paintings. I cannot possibly imagine living in somewhere that incredibly (to use a British word) POSH. The whole place was huge and beautiful. Only disappointment: Hagrid's hut and the Forbidden Forest were smaller and less epic than expected (CGI imaging does a lot to make things about 50x their actual size).

This was on the way to the treehouse!

Fancy treehouse

The castle!

It was so picturesque

They had a lot of kids' games, also

It was so much fun....A definitely awesome first castle and great place to hit in the UK.

My First Week in the UK!

I'm here, I'm here, I'm here!!! I started my semester at the University of Sunderland in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, U.K.

Somehow, the trip ended up being way more simple than I thought it was going to be. A lot of people are intimidate by international travel, and 14 hours in the air is NO JOKE, but  people are very helpful and really are not as hard to understand as you might think.
The coolest part of travelling internationally, though, is DEFINITELY the people! Everywhere I went people from all over the world were super friendly and I was lucky enough to hear all their stories :)

Other than that, some funny and quirky things thus far about England: QUEUES ARE SO SERIOUS. In order to get in line, everyone stands exactly in line with a serious face. They are silent. You do not leave the queue and come back....people get really angry! Also, people are competitive and very thoughtful about WHICH queue they get into-they are debating the entire time about which line to stand in in order to get through quickly. Haha...I have never seen people so serious about something that I normally don't even think about.
 Also, everyone says cheers, and in a lot of stores you can pull your cute little plastic basket of stuff behind you on wheels! So handy dandy.

I have met so many amazing people in the past few days and I have loved every minute of it! Everyone has been so incredibly friendly and lovely :D All of us students are from all over the world, and we've all gone out together every night and had a great time. Sunderland has a great night scene, and it's ADORABLE during the day!! Very quaint :) The picture directly below is the Winter Gardens (free and pretty)

the beach is cold but absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun! So it's worth checking out. (see below).

ps- it rains and it's sunny at the same time. WHAT IS THIS? Bring an umbrella and sunglasses everywhere you go if you come here!