Tip about Pictures

These are three pictures that I took in Paris (the first night) that I didn't really realize I had taken until a couple of days ago.  Well, I knew I took them, but I overlooked them and didn't know they had actually come out well and looked good. 

So I posted this as a friendly traveler's tip:  Unless you absolutely have to, don't delete pictures while you're out on a trip until you're able to go home and make sure they're not good.  I almost deleted these pictures right after I took them because I thought it was took dark for anything to come out, and I really couldn't tell what they looked like on my screen. 

Just my thought for today!  :)

Guide to the University of Glasgow

I stumbled upon this video while searching random videos about Glasgow, and thought it would be worth sharing.  I think its a pretty good guide/introduction to the University of Glasgow, and a bit of the surrounding area.  Yes, I am kind of cheating by using this.  Enjoy!

Sidenote:  While you're preparing to go abroad, it can be a good (or at least, just fun) idea to search on youtube for the country or city that you'll be visiting.  It can help you get an idea about where you're going and what you can expect, and it's also just exciting to know that you're going to be seeing those places soon.  Also, one cool thing is to go on imdb.com and find out what movies have been filmed in the place that you're going, and then watch them, if you can.  However, just be aware that even though a movie may be filmed in a certain place, doesn't mean that the film is depicting that place.  For example, the movie 'Dear Frankie' had parts of it filmed in Glasgow (great movie, by the way).  But the movie itself doesn't take place in the actual city of Glasgow, but in a smaller town kind of nearby-ish.

   That's all for now!

Study Abroad Do Over

My school's study abroad program's Facebook posted a link to an article the other day, and I thought it would be worth sharing.  In it, someone who went to Paris for study abroad talks about what they would do over if they had the chance to do it over.

I don't really think there is anything specific that I regret, but I thought it would be an interesting thing to think about and put out here - who knows, maybe it'll help someone

1.  Theoretically, I would like to have waited, just to be more financially stable before studying abroad.  I had some difficulties with financial aid and didn't realize until about a month or so before I was supposed to be leaving that my study abroad program would not in fact be covered by my regular student loans (which they had basically told me repeatedly that it would), and so I had to rush around and find the money.  So my parents took out a parent plus loan, which I wish hadn't been necessary.  Also along the same line, I made the stupid mistake of not saving my tax return money that I received in the beginning of 2011, thinking, once again, that my regular student loans were supposed to cover my expenses.  (Although even still, I should have saved that money anyway).  And so now, I'm in a lot of debt, and probably will be for awhile.

      I wish that I had realized that studying abroad costs a lot more than I thought it did.

2.  I would have taken more videos.  I took tons and tons of pictures, and I'm really glad that I did - I don't regret the pictures that I have.  But I have a couple of videos from the various places I went (one from the top of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, one by Big Ben in London, etc), but I just wish I had more.  Watching those videos brings me right back to being in those places, and it would have been nice to have more.  Even just for normal stuff like walking down a street in London. 

3.  I would have liked to make more friends who were locals and/or not Americans.  And I do not mean that as an insult to my American friends because I am so glad that I met them and am friends with them.  But I also wish that I had made more friends who weren't Americans.  However, I'm not sure if this is something that is my fault.  I don't think that the University did a very good job at encouraging interaction between local students and study abroad students.  It might sound stupid but, during the first couple of weeks, you pretty much become friends with the people you'll be friends with the whole time, and all of their orientation activities for us kept us completely seperate from local students.  And as much as I enjoyed the fact that we got an extra week to get to know the city before classes started, we were alone in Cairncross House for a week or so before local students moved in.

My last do over is not a true do over, but:

4.  I would like to have eaten all sorts of local cuisine, and I really regret the fact that I didn't eat pastries or baguettes in Paris, couldn't have a pint of Guinness in Dublin or have pretty much any of the other traditional foods.  I do feel like I missed out on something.  I hate the fact that the only food I ate the entire time we were in Paris were McDonald's french fries.  However, there was nothing I could do about that (I am on a gluten-free diet), so its not a real do over.  I only put this out there because I feel like its something that people should make an effort to do when they go to these different countries.  Now I'm not saying that you need to eat the seriously gross sounding stuff, but I think eating traditional food is important.

Thats pretty much it for my do overs.  Anything else is either very specific (and I was trying to look at the big picture), or I consider it as part of the study abroad "learning experience".  For example, while in Paris, we went to the Louvre on a Friday night, when it had free admission for students.  I'm super glad we did that because it saved us money, but we never really got the best view of the outside of the Louvre, because obviously, it was dark.  And none of my pictures came out.  We had hoped to go back at some point during the day but ran out of time.  So I wish I had been able to see that during the day.  I also wish that we had gone up the Eiffel Tower during the day, both because of how cold it was at night, and because maybe we would have been able to see something.  So those are a couple of very specific things. 

And then as far as the "learning experience" ones, there is the whole, missing our flight out of Paris and then wandering around Paris at 2 am, thing.  As much as that sucked and I didn't enjoy it and wish it hadn't happened, I do consider it to be a very important experience for me.  And I know that might sound stupid but... I was basically in an emergency situation and had to try to figure out what to do for myself, without my parent's help.  I hate to sound arrogant or something but I am proud of myself that I was able to not fall down crying, and able to come up with ideas on what to do (even though some of them didn't work).  I'm also happy that my brain knows more French than I thought it did, and I was able to communicate with people in an attempt to fix our situation (even though I don't think THAT helped either).  So yeah.  DISCLAIMER:  I am not advising you to get stranded in Paris at 2 am in an attempt to become a stronger person.  :)

Ok thats all for me.  At the bottom here is the link to the article I was talking about.  I think she's got some very good points but while reading the article it was very clear to me that these do over things are something that are really specific to each person, so don't necessarily take any of these (hers or mine) as being rules or advice you should live by... just something to keep in mind.


  One last thing... All last summer I was thinking about this really cool thing I was going to do during my whole study abroad trip, where I would take pictures of my feet in all the different places that I went (so some would just be me standing on random streets, and some would clearly be places like the Eiffel Tower or something else recognizable).  It's a lot cooler in my head than I'm describing it here, but anywho, I never did it.  I don't know if I forgot or if I just thought it would take too much time or be too silly or something.  But I really wish I had taken the time to do that.  I still think it would be really cool.
        


http://bostinno.com/channels/if-i-had-a-study-abroad-do-over/

Paris and Language Concerns

I've heard many a rumor about what its like to be a visitor in Paris, particularly if you're American, and particularly if you are not fluent in French.  Prior to actually visiting Paris myself, I believed the majority of these rumors.  So I thought I'd do a blog post that addresses concerns that I had about visiting Paris, and the actual experiences - in regards to French.  Obviously, things may be different for different people in different areas, but this is what it was like for me.

I had heard that people in Paris could be very tough on those who didn't speak French, or who weren't fluent.  I had heard that Americans were not exactly well liked (although that is not really a France-specific concern).  When I went to Paris, I went with three others - two did not speak a single word of French and one knew some French.  I have studied French for quite a few years but was not confident in my abilities and so I was concerned.  The friend who spoke some French and I decided to try and teach our non-French speaking friends some French words that would probably come in handy.  My main concern is that I had heard that if you entered a store and didn't say 'Hello, how are you?', that the storeowners may decide to not let you buy from them (or something along those lines).  So that was my main concern for my friends.  I had also been taught in French class that if you didn't ask for help in a very specific way, that a French person may just ignore you completely. 

My experience in Paris was that essentially, it was not necessary to know any French.  Most people visiting Paris are in tourist zones, and most people that we encountered in tourist attractions or surrounding shops either 1) spoke English 2) spoke enough English to get by or 3) it just wasn't necessary to speak, as clearly you were buying what you brought up to the counter, and the rest is just money.

During the regular part of our visit (see my post about coming home from Paris if you're confused), I spoke French once.  To a woman selling food in a cart thing (?) because my friend had a question about the price and sizing. 

I did have to use more French at the end of our trip but it still probably wouldn't have been super necessary.  The fact that I could speak French didn't REALLY help us get out of our situation.  But who knows.  Oh wait, okay, one situation in this part that French helped was in the hotel that we ended up staying at, the guy didn't speak any English.  But after a few minutes, he went and found some guy who did speak English so boo, that was no fun. 

To sum it up... don't avoid Paris because you don't speak French.  A lot of people speak English, and I know that sounds really American or something to expect people in another country to speak English for you, but if they're already speaking it, why not take advantage of it, right? 

However, I do recommend learning a couple basic words because that will make your encounters with people much easier.  Even if you don't pronounce things right or say the "right" things.