The first time I went abroad...

Minutes before take-off on my first transatlantic flight

 I had been looking forward to this trip since I was in high school.  My entire college experience was set up so I could go on this trip.  I spent months planning it and years saving for it.  I applied to the program in the middle of trying to recover from a serious concussion that left me with the memory of a goldfish with three different medications for months.  I was extremely put out when I had to wait to were months before departure to send out for my visa.  I had books and language guides, researched itineraries, skype account, and a year's range of clothing covering my bed way before I needed to pack.

Packing for the 2008-2009 school year

The minute my last suitcase was zipped, a switch flipped.  I began doubting if I was making the right decision.  I tried to hide my tears from my mom has we drove to the airport. Surprisingly, the flight was fine (KungFu Panda will forever be one of my pick-me-up movies).  I navigated through the trains with my giant luggage in tow. I made it all the way to my dorm before I completely lost it.  I started sobbing uncontrollably.  For the next four months, if things were going smoothly and I wasn't in my room, I was perfectly happy.  But as soon as I got back to my room, or felt tired or stressed.  I would start to bawl.

During this time I began to travel and even took my first solo trips to Liverpool and Dublin and feel in love with the independence. I went on field trips, pub nights, joined the chemistry society, learned more about English folklore than most people in England.  I explored London, and Brighton.  I found a favorite cafe.  Everything a study abroad student is supposed to do.  Ironically, traveling away from the school made things easier and less emotional.  Every field trip, day trip, week away from school was I like to think that only a few select people knew how much I was struggling during the first few months but I'm sure more people were on to me.

Easier days of Spring 2009

 I went home for a little over a week following New Years and seriously considered not returning to England to finish the year.  But I couldn't stand the idea of quitting something that I had fought so hard to be able to do. It's a good thing I went back for a second round.  The New Year brought new light to my study abroad experience.  Things got a little bit easier.  I still had my complaints but I was no longer in hysterical tears every day.  I started seeing friends more often.  I tried to relax more when it came to my classes.  My journaling and gym time exploded. And while I was happy to head home in late June, it was no longer a desperate waiting game. The day-to-day from January to June was like a different world compared to the first four months.

To this day I can't pinpoint a cause(s) for my misery.  There were so many things going on in my life then that I will probably never know for sure but here are something that I know didn't help.

• Withdrawl: I went off all of my concussion meds days before I left for England. I had been on medications for months to deal with the symptoms for my concussion.  Some of these meds had mood altering side effects.  I tried to wean myself off the drugs gradually, with plenty of time before I left.  I ended up with only a couple drug free days before I left. I'm sure that the change in body chemistry combined with the stress of moving across an ocean didn't help.

•  Living Situation: I lived in a six-person flat for most of the year.  The housing office didn't hand out any surveys to try to match personality types.  We have a theory that they simply went through the flats and placed people in a roughly alphabetical fashion.  Needless to say the personalities didn't match up.  We were five girls and one boy in a two bathroom flat.  One girl and I didn't get along from day one.  One of the girls had the most horrible case of homesickness I'd ever seen and definitely contributed to mine more than once.  No surprise, the one guy and I probably got along best as the two international misfits (he's from Australia/Singapore).  I was also staying in freshers housing which meant that it was everyone else's first year of uni and I wasn't willing to repeat that experience.  Upperclassmen, ie my classmates, all in off-campus and several miles away. I definitely think that the lack of connection to my flatmates, and the physical distance between me and my classmates made creating a social circle much more difficult.

•  Don't underestimate the Dreary: I arrived in England at the end of one of the coldest, rainiest summers in recent years.  It was very cold and the heat in the dorm was not going to be turned on until October 1st.   Once the days started getting shorter and the mist set in, I understood why the English drink so much beer.  It was dark before 3:30pm for months.  It doesn't sound so bad but the lack of light and dry warmth gets to you after a while.

• Good old fashion homesickness and culture shock: The biggest culture shocks I remember where the grocery store and the difference in cheeseburgers.  However there were definitely times when I was quickly snapped back to the to the fact that I was in England and not at RPI.  I wasn't homesick for the US specifically but given my initial lack of social life, I'm sure that missing my friends from RPI added to my strife more than I was expecting.

 No matter what the reasons, I am more determined than ever to get out and see the world.  As my list keeps growing, I'm glad I already had some rough times so I have some tools to use if  I ever get hit with melancholy again.  Have you ever ended up sad or homesick while traveling? How did you deal with it?

Places I Would Rather Be on Monday Morning: Talking science in España

Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain

This Monday I learned that I will be traveling to Spain this July to participate in the International Carbohydrate Symposium in Madrid.  My abstract was chosen as one of the short talks or "flash communications" in the Young Investigator division.  I have a feeling that spending that much time in Madrid for a conference will be forcing myself to attend all of the conference.  Luckily, I think the boyfriend will be joining me for a long weekend in Barcelona after the conference.

Places I Would Rather be on Monday Morning: Crossing into Medieval Times

St. Charles Bridge (originally constructed 1357), Prague, Czech Republic

Places I Would Rather be on Monday Morning: Marveling at Tradition

Approaching Vatican City, Italia

Back Where I Come From: The List

I moved away from my small, more cows than people small, hometown in Western NY about 6 years ago for better or worse.  Since then I've learned that there are some things that are endemic to growing up in a rural county that don't translate to other demographics.  This is my take on the "you might be from Livingston County if" list.  Please comment any that I forgot!

• Your Halloween Costume was made to go over a winter coat
• You learned to drive a tractor before you could drive a car
• Half the school was absent on Opening Day and know I'm not talking about baseball
• You were absent from school due to "Buck Fever"
• You've been to a party in a field
• Said party was moved to a barn when it started to rain
• GFR breakfast special, 'nough said
• In high school, you hang out at Denny's, Walmart, or Wegmans because they're the only places open later than 9pm
• Aunt Cookie's
• Mia's $2 lunch special
• You've seen a deer on the side of the road with the good meat cut out of it
• You hit a deer and ask the sheriff for a tag
• You know the whole police department and half the sheriff's office.
• If you get pulled over 3 people will call your mom before you get home
• Going into town = Marketplace mall
• Going to the City = Rochester
• Country Concerts at Darien Lake were the top social events of the summer
• You went to Minnehan's for Senior Bash
• You're upset if no one get's a deer because you'll have to buy meat that winter
• You have at least one freezer specifically for venison and homegrown vegetables
• The best paying summer job you could get was throwing hay
• Going to the grocery store for your mom at Christmas doubles as a mini class reunion
• You go away to school and find out that your family's property is larger than your roommate's neighborhood. 

BioBay Kayaking Adventure: Fajardo

There was one activity in Puerto Rico that I knew I wanted to do long before I knew when I would go to the island - kayaking on a bio-luminescent lagoon.  One of my friends went on such an adventure four years ago when she was visiting family in PR.  After hearing about her experience I decided that whenever I made it to Puerto Rico, I was going to go on one of these trips.  Laguna Grande in Fajardo is one of three bioluminescent areas in Puerto Rico.  It's a little over an hour from San Juan and if there's six or more people leaving from your area you can arrange for a shuttle to pick you up (for an additional fee).  After some research and price scouting, we booked a tour with transport with Kayaking Puerto Rico.  Our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up shortly after 4pm which meant we had the whole day to do things before we had to be at our pickup point.

Just to recap, that's 6 college girls with dozens of shops and a beach who need to show up at the same time and a specific spot. 

I was a little concerned.

Somehow we managed to get everyone there, early and with a good meal in them. At 4:30pm on the dot we were on our way from San Juan to Fajardo to check out the BioBay.  Who says things don't happen on time when you're on Latin Time?  The 90 minute drive was fairly uneventful save one crazy motorcyclist.  The shuttle drove past the outskirts of El Yunque, a cloud forest with amazing waterfalls.  Unfortunately, you really need at least half a day to do the forest any kind of justice and we didn't have time to fit it in this trip.  One last stop at McDonald's for a last chance at a clean bathroom before reaching the lagoon.

About to get in the kayaks

The tours start from a small harbor so the first half of the kayaking trip was across the harbor and through a channel in the mangroves.  They forgot to mention that the harbor is littered with sandbars.  Everybody ran aground right before entering the mangrove channel.  I think they planned it that way so they could do a head count before heading into the darkness.

Do not want to kayak into the mangrove roots, brings new meaning to the term 'treehugger'

 If you want to simulate moving through a mangrove forest after dark, activate a green glowstick and try to navigate through a dark garage filled with piles of stuff.  Except the floor is flooded with three feet of water and you're in a tandem kayak with a chance of a startled iguana landing in your boat.  Tandem kayaking takes a special kind of team work.  As one of the guides quipped, "if you can survive kayaking with your partner, you add five years to your relationship."  Every once in a while there was a break in the branched canopy revealing a pocket of bright stars.  Paddling out to the lagoon, we thought that debris from the mangroves was causing the water to be very foamy as the paddle-blades disturbed the water.  A few minutes out from the lagoon we realized the "foam" was was angry Pyrodinium Bahamense, the bioluminescent plankton we were in search of.

Improbable Image - http://kayakingpuertorico.com/images/excursions/bio_bay/foto-con-brillo.jpg

The channel opened into Laguna Grande, where we listened to a quick biology lesson and learned such valuable lessons as 'if you have an irrational fear of fish, you shouldn't go on a kayaking trip that warns you that krill will jump in your boat,' and the part of the tax on Puerto Rican rum goes to conservation leading to the phrase "drink rum, save a tree."  After some free time to paddle around and try unsuccessfully to capture photos or videos of the luminescent display before heading back through the mangrove channel.  To be honest, I liked the going through the mangroves better than the actual lagoon.  We took the earlier tour so it wasn't totally dark by the time we reached the lagoon causing some light pollution.  The mangroves were pitch-dark, especially on the way back, so the luminescence was bright blue in the channel compared to a dull glow in the lagoon.

On the way back we learned another valuable lesson, 'when you get stuck on a sandbar and your kayaking partner gets out to push, do not paddle away and leave them on the sandbar because everyone will laugh.'  That happened to one boat on our tour and we all giggled as the runaway got towed back to her partner by one of the guides.

We survived!

If you have the chance I definitely recommend taking one a biobay tour.  Kayaking Puerto Rico staff was friendly and professional with a great sense of humor.  They had the best price and reviews I could find.  I was worried about taking tour transport but our driver stayed with the vehicle during the tour and the bonus of not having to drive back in the dark on unfamiliar roads was well worth the extra $20 to me.

Tips for Surviving BioBay kayaking:

• Eat a good meal before you leave, two hours of kayaking on an empty stomach is not fun
• Pick your partner carefully 
• Wear dark, quick-drying clothes over your swimsuit (the dark colors reveal any sparkling plankton that get splashed on you)
• Beware of on-coming kayakers, they can be more dangerous than the mangroves (we were rammed multiple times)
• Unless you have Jedi powers, you will not get awesome pictures of glowing plankton

Places I Would Rather be on Monday Morning:Taking Quality Control Statistics

Birthplace of the Student T Test, Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, Ireland