Jett's Study Abroad Experience
Spring 2023
Spring 2023
I have known for a long time that one of my ambitions in life is to travel as much as possible and see the world, and until this last weekend, I had never really had any experience of what traveling really is... But boy did I learn pretty quick this weekend on my trip to Scotland. It all started a week and a half ago when I initially started to plan my trip to Scotland, as my friend and I really only had one goal of going north to see the Northern lights. We had booked our tickets to a town called Inverness which is on the upper northern region of Scotland, with a plan to then take a train to a much more remote town on the Isle of Skye called Uig. Long story short, this did not happen at all. I am going to break down this trip day by day to help explain the full extent of the chaos that was this trip. But keep in mind as you read this, that despite being someone who has a grand goal of traveling all over the world, I have very little experience to my name. Day 1: On this day, there was really very little that actually went wrong if I'm being honest. In the morning I quickly finished packing my backpack so that I could quickly go catch the train since the budget airline we were using to fly out only flies out of some of the airports that are farther away. The crazy part about this flight from London to Inverness, was that to fly across the country, the flight was only about an hour and a half, and the airport that we flew into is one of the smallest I have ever seen. This airport only had 8 flights that flew in and left each day, and the one concourse only had 3 gates. So, our initial reaction was already that we had flown out to a very cold and very small town, which in and of itself is a very daunting idea. This first night also happened to be the first time either of us had stayed in a hostel, which for those who don't know is like a hotel, but instead of having your own room, you are sharing a room that has 4 to 6 bunk beds and there are other travelers staying with you. Personally, I actually really liked meeting the other travelers since a couple were our age, but I was also really glad I had a friend with me because the next morning things were going to get crazy. Day 2: We woke up quite early so that we could quickly go grab some food at the store and then rush to take our train out to the much more remote town. When we got to the train station though, we started seeing train after train get cancelled due to 60 mph winds and very heavy rain that was happening throughout the country. This continued until finally, and inevitably, we watched our train flash red and blink to say cancelled for the next couple days. This quickly presented a problem because all of a sudden, we had no idea what we were going to do since we had no idea what to do in Inverness and we had no place to stay for the whole weekend. Following our train getting cancelled, we ran back to the grocery store so that we could call all of our reservations and let them know we were not coming and that we need a refund (most were accommodating, but not all gave us money back). After that we decided that it would be best not to stay in Inverness so we walked over to the bus station to see where we could buy tickets to. It didn't matter too much where we went since we didn't have anywhere to stay anyways, but luckily there was cheap tickets for a roundtrip to Edinburgh which is a much bigger city and is much closer to the rest of the UK. So, we hopped on the bus and started looking around for where we would stay that night and found a pretty cheap hostel that we could stay at for 2 nights. By the time we ended up arriving in Edinburgh was getting close to being dark, so we quickly checked into our hostel (which we were lucky enough to have our own room at) and then went and found dinner at a local pub. After we ate, we decided to look around the area and ended up seeing my favorite abbey since arriving in the UK, and the best dressed looking street performers I have ever seen who was playing the bagpipes and wearing a full traditional Scottish uniform. Needless to say, the moment we arrive in Edinburgh I already knew that we had found success even in the shadow of everything falling apart. What I learned was that you have to be willing to be a good sport even when things don't go right, because we could have been in a much worse situation if we got frustrated or upset. Day 3: This was actually the only full day that we had in Edinburgh, which in complete honestly was perfectly okay with me. We did so many cool things on this day, but I'm only going to list them because if I were to talk about every single one this blog would be longer than it already is going to be. 1- We went and saw the Holyroodhouse Palace which is still a functioning palace that was used by Queen Elizabeth and is going to be continued to be used by the royal family going forward. During this tour we saw the whole royal procession, and the ruins of the abbey that was destroyed over the years. 2- We walked to Greyfriars Kirkyard which is where Thomas Riddell is buried, and yes that is the person who is the inspiration for he who must not be named in Harry Potter. 3- We saw the National Gallery of Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland 4- We went and toured a scotch whiskey distillery where we tried gin and scotch whiskey 5- We had some of the best fish n chips that I have ever had 6- Scotts Monument 7- We saw Edinburgh castle which is a UNESCO world heritage site. I will make a slideshow of all of these as well, but this was one of the best days I had had since moving out here to the UK. Day 4 & 5:
Day 4 was really the least exciting of the days as it was pretty much fully devoted to just taking the bus back to Inverness and finding a place to stay when we got there since our flight home was flying out of Inverness. On the bright side of the bus right back, we got a full scenic ride through the Scottish countryside, and we got a great view of Loch Ness which was very beautiful. Note: we did not see the real Nessie :( The hostel we stayed at was one of my favorites yet though, as it was up high on a hill side next to Inverness castle and it overlooked the whole town with a great view of the Inverness Cathedral. On day 5 we did not have a ton of time to walk around unfortunately since we did have to catch our flight, but we still tried to make the most of the day. The initial plan had been to go visit Loch Ness, but the wind was still blowing at about 30 mph and it was very cold and rainy, so we ultimately decided against risking getting stranded at Lochness and missing our flight. While we may have had a chance to see Nessie by getting stranded, we decided to walk along the river Ness and visit the cathedral. Along the way we did find a big wooden Nessie that I took a wonderful picture on. This picture is the one I am adding at the end. Unfortunately, as our time walking along the river Ness came to an end, so too did our time in Scotland. While it was frustrating that our whole trip was derailed, it also helped us to go with the flow and create a trip that took us so much further than we could have ever expected. While I hope that the rest of our trips go more smoothly, I do know that it will be okay even when plans fall through. This blog doesn't even cover half the things I could have expressed about this trip, but every part of our time out there was memorable, and this is a trip that I have learned way more than I would have ever expected from.
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This week was definitely one that I will remember for a very long time. Of course, there are always two parts of study abroad which are the study part where you have to read, go to class, and do assignments, and then there is the fun part which is enjoying the abroad aspect of the experience. This week was one where I really embraced the abroad portion of being in London, as I saw some of the famous places from the Beatles, went to Bath, saw Stonehenge, and tried some of the best food I have ever eaten. This was a jam-packed week, but one of the most fun weeks yet. To start off my list, I went and saw Abbey Road Studios. This studio is not exactly one that only the Beatles recorded at, but it is where one of their most famous albums is named after, and where they recorded some of the best songs that the world as ever seen. Being one of the biggest Beatles fans that walks the Earth, this was one of those moments that was meant a ton to me. The other really cool part of this week was the excursion that all the study abroad people went on to Stonehenge and Bath. Going into this excursion, I knew Stonehenge was going to be awesome, but I had very little knowledge about Bath. Turns out Stonehenge is even bigger than I thought, and Bath is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Our tour guide taught us that Stonehenge was a huge structure used to keep track of the lunar/solar calendar and that the rocks used to build the actual henge were from 20 miles away and would take over a year to process each rock, including moving shaping, and assembling. Bath on the other hand is a gorgeous town that displays tons of roman influence. While we were there, we visited the Abbey, tons of Jane Austen sites (or places made famous by her) and had some of the most delicious and traditional English food that I have ever eaten. One of the restaurants that was recommended to us by our tour guide was a local pub called the raven which is known for the mash and pies that they make, which is essentially a pie that has meat inside (usually beef), served over mash potatoes doused in gravy. It was also served with steamed peas and carrots, which were a very nice touch as well. While all of the traveling around is super fun, I can't forget to mention the hours of studying that I put in behind the scenes though. I have made some really cool connections with not only local people, but also people from tons of countries all over the world, and even people that are from right at home in Hawaii. This continues to be one of the most positive experiences I could have ever asked for!
I also just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who supports me endlessly while I am out here! I know it's hard to talk to me while I'm out here, I know that I have not been great about getting things done in a timely manner, but this experience means a lot to me and I'm grateful for all the people in my life who helped make this possible for me and who have been supporting me! It's shocking to think that I have already been here in London for 3 weeks, as it feels like just yesterday that I arrived in the Heathrow airport feeling super nervous about living in a new country. While the excitement has set in and I'm certain that I want to live here someday, there are a couple things that I realize you must get used to throughout day-to-day life in the United Kingdom.
The first very important part of local life that takes getting used to is public transportation everywhere. While this is really convenient, and quite honestly, preferable to owning a car for me, there are also problems that arise here in the form of strikes. This week was my first time experiencing a train strike, which I didn't realize are actually very common here. It essentially means that workers who are responsible for running the National Rail Services and Underground services all take days off at the same time in order to protest for better wages and working conditions. By striking, all train services are interrupted and shutdown till the workers come back to work, which sends a message to the government. While I believe that this is an extremely important cause, there are huge repercussions when hundreds of thousands of people rely on train services to get around. I experienced my first train strike on Friday, February 3rd (which happens to be my birthday), when my group was on the way to see a show on the west end of London. This strike shutdown the whole rail system going north/east and caused the rest of the rail lines to get very crowded. This turned a trip that should have taken 45 minutes, into a trip that took close to 2 hours. I can't complain about the strikes since I agree with the reason, but I also strongly sympathize with all the people who are affected by the shutdown of public transportation. The next day-to-day life aspect that I realize is important to get used to is that London is a very multi-cultural city. I knew this coming into study abroad, but it became very apparent to me as I sit in my classes. The moment I really realized just how diverse this country was, was in my global marketing class when my tutor (essentially the same as a professor in UK universities) was showing the class different examples of advertisements coming from around the world. Some of the advertisements would be considered extremely offensive in the United States, however when we were shown these ads in class, many people found them to be quite logical and acceptable. I won't give any specific examples, but these moments were eye-opening for me, as it set in just how different cultures can be. I always knew that cultures were very different around the world, but it does not always feel entirely real until you experience it yourself, and I truly wish that everyone could have moments where they get exposed to experiences that connect them with the rest of the world on a whole new level. While these were just a few examples of day-to-day life that are different between the UK and the US, this week also consisted of my 21st birthday which was a super fun. Of course, students come out to different countries to study, but it's also important for them to go out and see the world and connect with people, so they can see the world through other lenses. This being said, aside from seeing the rail strike, a big group of students from Hawaii went out with me to celebrate my birthday. We ended up going to a small mom and pop shop to get some of the best fish n chips that we had ever had, and then we traveled all the way over to Wembley Stadium to see an amazing performance of the Broadway musical Newsies. This night in particular was really special because it took us very far out of our way due to the train strikes, and also having fish n chips at such a small little pub allowed us to be much more exposed to the British culture and just have fun with all the people that came out from Hawaii. While this week went by very fast there were so many fun moments, eye-opening moments, and moments that I will never forget. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked this week since a big part of being here has just been living in the moment, especially with all the strikes that have been happening (there were strikes every day that got frustrating and confusing). However, I did take a picture that I will leave here at the end of the post, of a gorgeous street that I came across when I was out on my own one day. |
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July 2023
While I attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I was born in Littleton Colorado and grew up in a rural area. When I moved out to Hawaii for school, I quickly found my groove in Shidler College of Business as a triple major studying Marketing, International Business, and Quantitative Economics, and I was later chosen to be one of the Shidler Global Leaders. This and several other scholarships, including the Johnson Scholarship, gave me the amazing opportunity to go spend a semester abroad in the United Kingdom.
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