Brittany and Callum in Strathclyde, Scotland!

Hiyah everyone! I’m Brittany and I am studying this semester at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland with my little dragon Callum. It is hard to believe we’ve already been here for eight weeks.  I am so happy that I chose Strathclyde Uni. It’s in the city centre meaning there’s great night life, plenty to do, and you can see street performers on any given day. The international student community here is extremely close and I’ve yet to meet a mean Scottish person. So far the experience has been amazing. I’ve made several friends, visited sites in Glasgow and Edinburgh. I have participated in a two day tour to the Isle of Skye and the Highlands, where we saw castles and breath-taking landscapes.

Most Recently, Callum and I travelled to Dublin, Ireland (somewhere I’ve always wanted to go) for St. Patrick’s Day weekend! We stayed at Isaac’s Hostel (I highly recommend it) for two nights in a 16 person room. Although it looked like a scene from Annie, it ended up being a lot of fun and incredibly inexpensive. 

Flight to Dublin!  Don't be afraid of Ryan Air.

 

The first day my flatmates, Callum, and I attempted to adventure the city with 6 other girls which we quickly realized was a terrible idea. I definitely recommend traveling with no more than 5 people in a group or it just gets too difficult to keep everyone together and happy. We spent the day wondering around the city centre, mainly along the river and the famous Temple Bar District. Later that night we checked out the Dublin nightlife. We found a random pub called “Bad Ass” (I kid you not) where there was live music, dancing, a bachelor party of men dressed as leprechauns.…to say the least it was a great night. 

Strathclyde girls take Dublin! (I'm third in the front row)

The next day we did 8 hours more of site seeing. We went to an Irish restaurant, Dublin castle, various cathedrals, Ireland’s oldest pub, and visited the Guinness store house which is really impressive! The Guinness store house is about 7 stories high and from the top floor you can see everything in the city. The only things I regretted not seeing while there was the Book of Kells, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral but I know I will visit again in the future. 

Callum tastes his first Guinness!

Callum and I have been bit by the travel bug and can’t wait to visit more places! For spring break in April we have decided on a 10 day trip to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, and Prague ending with 12 hours in Brussels. It’s going to be a tiring 10 days and we’ll probably hate each other by the end but it will be well worth it. If you are thinking of applying to Strathclyde Uni, go for it! Don’t believe what everyone says about the weather. Yes it is quite chilly still but since being here I’ve only seen it rain a handful of times. I still have so much to knock off my Study Abroad bucket list and I hope the next 3 months here will be just as unforgettable as the first 2. Cheers!!

Brittany Jones

University of Strathclyde

Glasgow, Scotland

United Kingdom

Marion and Colin in Staffordshire, England!

Greetings from Staffordshire, UK! My name is Marion, and my dragon Colin and I are going to offer you some tips and tricks when traveling while studying abroad. 

I decided to take a risk and spend a week in London by myself before classes started. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Since then, I have had the opportunity to spend most of my weekends traveling. But there were certainly a few hiccups along the way. I wanted to share a few of the lessons that I learned and hopefully offer some advice along the way. 

Colin climbing along the town walls of Conway, Wales

Tip #1: If you are traveling with approximately one hundred pounds of luggage, you should consider booking a hotel/hostel that is close to your point of arrival. Carrying luggage on a train, the Tube, a bus, and uneven sidewalks while getting accustomed to oncoming traffic coming from opposite directions is no easy task. 

Getting lost in the Hampton Court maze

 

Tip #2: Maps, directions, and where in the world is this hostel? If you are in a major city, there may be maps scattered around the city. Most cities do not offer free maps (but most hostels do!), and the cheaper ones that can be purchased are often not detailed enough for tourists. If you are not good with directions (and functioning Wi-Fi hotspots can be hard to come by), I suggest screenshotting directions from Google Maps or downloading a city map onto your phone in order to save yourself some time. However, keep in mind that your directions may be incorrect. I have found that to be true when using Google Maps to find hostels. Most of the hostels that I have stayed at are in odd locations. I have had to wonder around late at night spending half an hour or more locating hostels. Maybe I’m not very good with maps. However, when Google is telling me that I’m supposed to be spending the night at a bank or a Starbucks, there must be some other factors at work. 

Walking around the Markt in Bruges, Belgium

Tip #3: Bring medicine. I decided to do a weekend trip to Amsterdam. The trip started out nice, and I was feeling great. Then the coughing started. Then a headache. By the time I arrived outside of the city, I had a fever. I arrived in Amsterdam feeling like I had been hit by a train, but I didn’t bring medicine because who would think that it would be necessary for a weekend trip? There were no pharmacies so I decided to walk around and see the sights while looking for one along the way. Four hours later, I felt like I was going to fall over, and finally, I came across a store that sold medicine. Several euros later, I finally had some medicine in my system, but the effects wouldn’t kick in for another few hours. I still wanted to enjoy the city after coming all this way. But after queuing for two and a half hours, in the rain, to enter the Anne Frank House, I started to wonder if going back to the hotel to sleep would have been a better idea (which brings me to Tip #3.5: Purchase tickets ahead of time.) Learn from my mistake. Bring the medicine with you and save yourself the embarrassment of passing out at a table in the cafeteria of the Anne Frank House.

Marion walking along the beach at sunrise in Llandudno, Wales

 

Tip #4: Tour companies. One of the main motivations for studying abroad is to travel. However, it can be very stressful planning all the nuances of the trips. There may also be instances where you cannot find anyone to come with you, and you have to choose whether or not you want to travel alone or skip the trip altogether. Luckily, there are several tour companies that will eliminate several of these problems. They will plan all the details for you often for approximately the same cost as booking transportation, hostels/hotels, and activities on your own. While it may be daunting traveling with a group of strangers, it also provides a great opportunity to make new friends from all around the world who are studying abroad as well. 

Learning to enjoy travel by coach

Marissa and Reggie in Wales, Part 3!

READING WEEK PART THREE: Brecon Beacons in Wales

For the last part of reading week we did yet another hiking trip (see post about the Pembrokeshire Coast). Thankfully this hike was much more relaxed, only lasting a couple hours instead of 8 hours. We left the coast and walked along the valleys of the Brecon Beacons. Our hostel had a wonderfully cozy feel to it with a fireplace in the lounge. It was so nice to read a book (that was not assigned or in Latin) by the warm fire.

The cozy fireplace at the hostel

The next day, after feeling fully relaxed, we got up and hiked the Beacons. We soon felt the burn in our legs, our bodies still being broken from the coast. However we pressed on because 1) the Beacons are gorgeous, 2) hiking hurts but it feels great after and 3) that was literally the only reason we went to the Beacons and that would have wasted money. Of course I was rewarded when we reached the top with the spectacular view of mountains upon mountains. 

Hiking on the snowy Beacons

The day had started out sunny, but eventually the fog rolled in bring an eerie feel to the landscape. It was also nice to see some snow at the top, even if I got some in my socks. 

There was another view that we wanted, but unfortunately there was a fence blocking us. But we had become somewhat master fence jumpers, so we strayed from the path once again (like we had in the coast). After taking a million selfies and adventurous “candid” pictures, we began the walk down. But of course going down would not be as easy as up, and we had to hold on the fence so we would not roll down the hill. There is always some kind of obstacle! 

That night we went back to the lounge and read and talked by the fireside. It has been strange coming back to my home away from home, having to settle in and do actual school work. But we had to come back to school eventually, and after all the next adventure is never far away.

Reggie on the hike

Marissa Sarver

Trinity St. David

Wales

Summer and Dre in Plymouth!

Cheers from Plymouth, England!

Hello everyone. I’m Summer, and I’m studying at Plymouth University with my feisty dragon friend. He goes by Dre (as in Dr.), because his birth name, Draco, was a bit too common for his liking. 

Dr. Dre enjoying some world-famous Plymouth gin

Plymouth is a coastal port city in the south west of England. It might sound familiar to you because it’s the city the Pilgrims left from on the Mayflower (that’s why they named their landing place Plymouth Rock). The city was heavily bombed during the Blitz, destroying many of the historical buildings. Thus, a lot of the architecture in Plymouth has a modern feel, although there are still some beautiful historical gems tucked in between.

Dre and I love Plymouth, because everything is very centrally located. We walk everywhere. We have yet to ride a bus around the city, actually. The big mall in Plymouth, Drake’s Circus, is literally a two-minute walk from our dorm, as is the city centre and all of its shopping. That is both a helpful and dangerous thing, my friends. 

Smeaton's Tower, overlooking Plymouth Sound

 

The university holds 33,000 students, making it much larger than UNCG. The campus is about half the size of Greensboro’s, however-- Dre and I can leave our ‘off-campus’ dorm at 8:56 and be at a lecture on the other side of campus by 9! I am only taking three classes (called “modules”) here: Understanding Children’s Development, Equality, Diversity, and Anti-Discrimination, and Heritage and Public History. Our courses are taken with first-years (“freshers”), and I get really annoyed when they do not stop talking during lectures. None of my courses have exams, and each has a maximum of three graded assignments, so it’s a very different system than at home. It provides me with a large amount of free time, which is surprisingly hard to get used to!

Dre is a bit of a party animal, but even he can’t keep up with the amount of nightlife here in Plymouth. There are three bars directly outside of our dorm window, and the flats above and below ours go out EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. I will wake up at 6 am some mornings to the sound of people STILL partying outside. The British know how to have a good time, y’all. Since the drinking age is 18, the university offers alcohol at almost every on-campus event. The student union has three bars of its own, and it turns into an actual nightclub on the weekends.

The best part about Plymouth, for both Dre and I, happens to be the INCREDIBLE international friends we have made. I came to study abroad thinking that I would make a bunch of really close British friends. I have met some nice people from England, but the majority of my friends are from other countries. Some of my closest buds are from China, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Canada. There are a lot of Americans studying at Plymouth, so I’ve made besties out of some girls from New Mexico, Georgia, and Tennessee. One of my flatmates, Cori Cauthen, is also from the Honors College at UNCG. She’s my lifesaver, confidant, and grocery-shopping companion, and I am so thankful to have her here.

My amazing and wonderful international family

 

Plymouth is a lot of fun, but Dre and I have one big goal during our time here, and that is to TRAVEL. We are heading to Portsmouth for a day trip tomorrow, followed by a giant group trip to AMSTERDAM this weekend with our international friends! Dre and I have already traveled to Oxford, Bath, Bristol, London, Newquay, and Exeter. 

Oxford University

 

Exeter Cathedral

Pulteney Bridge, Bath

Marissa and Reggie in Wales, Part 2!

READING WEEK PART TWO: Roman ruins and Roman Legionary Museum in Caerleon

We stayed in Cardiff for three nights, carving out a morning/afternoon to visit the Roman sites and museum in Caerleon. As a Classics major I will always take the opportunity to nerd out. The first site that we saw was an amphitheater built in 90 AD. It was such a thrill to stand in the middle of the arena where there was so much history…although that history did include the deaths of many gladiators…but whoo! I did find it entertaining, however, that the sites seemed to be geared toward children. On this particularly cold and rainy day the only people visiting these sites were my two friends, me, and a huge group of rambunctious kids led by their exhausted chaperons. I figure this would be the equivalent of my elementary school field trips to Monticello. I remember being that young and visiting the amazing piece of architecture lived in by our nation’s third president. All I could ever think about was how hungry I was, or how tired. I certainly did not care about the Latin and Ancient Greek texts outlining the library bookshelves…ha. So as I looked at these young people frolicking through the amphitheater with their scavenger hunts I could only laugh. I also had the pleasure of looking at the signs they had made, with cartoon versions of Romans in the amphitheater. I was laughing pretty hard to say the least.

Cartoon educational boards at the amphitheater in Caerleon

After that we went to the barracks that had been set up in 50 AD so that the Roman Empire could continue to expand their territory, because clearly their empire was not big enough. The amazing part about these barracks is that they are the only ones you can find in the U.K! I walked through the rooms that Roman soldiers would have slept in, and stepped in the kitchen which was conveniently located near the latrines. 

Marissa in the kitchen.

Having walked outside for a good 30 minutes, while dragging my two non-Classicists friends along the way, we then went through the Roman Legionary Museum. It was only one floor, and at first I had a hard time believing half of the artifacts presented were real. This was because a) they were so well preserved, b) there was red writing on the inscriptions (paint does not survive), and c) I am a critic. However, when I had the rare chance to speak with the curator he told me that everything being showcased was the real deal. It had all been excavated in sites in Caerleon. 

At the Roman Legionary Museum in Caerelon.

For any conservation nerds this will be interesting…for others it may just be…well nerdy. The archaeologists had used clear acrylic paint on the inscriptions as to not damage the stone, and then painted over with red paint to make it easier to read. The inscription in the bottom of the above picture has no modern paint added to it, but is red only because you can actually see the faint remainder of the original paint (WOAH).

An inscription in the Roman Legionary Museum.

Then there is the mosaic floor, and I have always been curious as to how archaeologists literally pick up and move an ancient floor without it breaking. Like I said before, I am Queen of the Skeptics. It turns out they use animal glue and a thin sheet material in order to keep each individual tile together. Then they scrape the floor up…and roll it up…LIKE A RUG. They finally take it to where they want to house it, roll it back out, and pour hot water on it to take off the glue and sheet. You have to admit: Archaeology and conservation are bad-ass.

Mosaic floor.

 Marissa Sarver
Trinity St. David
Wales

Marissa and Reggie in Wales!

READING WEEK PART 1: Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

This past week my University had reading week so that students could have uninterrupted time to study. So naturally I abandoned all responsibility for course work and instead dedicated my free time to travel. I easily could have traveled farther, but we decided to get to know our host country better. And let me tell you, such a good choice. Samantha, Lauren, Parmigiano Reggiano the dragon (or Reggie for short), and myself traveled around Wales! 

Parmigiano Reggiano (Reggie) the dragon in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

For the first night we stayed in Poppit sands, starting off the next day hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. We were told by experienced hikers that the hike to Newport should only take about 3-5 hours, and of course we trusted this. So the next day we set off with all of our belongings expecting to be in Newport in time for lunch. After some pretty steep climbs along the coastline we had become exhausted. However, our optimistic outlook was still going strong with the beautiful view. 

Along the way we reached a farm with some very friendly horses, and also met the older man who owned them. Reggie wanted to eat the horses but I told him they were just for petting. He was reluctant but eventually he did bond with one of them! 

Marissa and her new friend.

We then asked the owner, already assuming we were correct, if Newport was close. He laughed. We became afraid. He then proceeded to tell us that we were barely halfway. Our hearts broke a little, because after 6 miles/3 hours of hiking up and down hills we were exhausted. But we had our destination, and we had our goals! We continued to trek on, and finally came upon a sign that said 8 1/2 miles left…and then another sign telling us that we were now coming upon the most difficult part of the hike. With hardly any food and the fear of losing daylight, all we could do was get there.

The view was still beautiful, but there came a point when all I wanted to see was a town…with other people. Gradually our motivation dwindled, which led to us jumping fences. I do not feel bad for trespassing because 1) we were in the middle of nowhere, 2) what is a nice Welsh gentleman actually going to do?, and 3) the territory over the fence was drastically easier to hike than the stupid up and down hills (where we basically had to crawl on our hands in order to pull ourselves up). Of course Reggie made no complaints the whole time because he was either flying or riding in my backpack. I would be lying if I didn’t say that the little dragon’s peppy mood didn’t bug me about half way through. But I am happy that the little guy had fun…while I was in pain. Finally after 14 miles we came over a hill and saw civilization…praise! Not only was it gorgeous because civilization, but in general Newport is an amazing town. We climbed down from a waterfall (because once again there was a hill and we were done with those) onto the bay. It was the perfect time of day, with the sun setting and the clouds reflected in the water. 

Success!

 

But we were not done yet! We had to walk about another mile to the center of town, catch the bus to Haverford West, and then catch a train to Cardiff. With an hour to spare before the train came, we took the bus back into town to get some food. Only thing about this last excursion…the next bus to take us back to the train station would arrive 5 minutes before the last train left. We were a little on edge. Thankfully it did come, and we stepped onto the platform just as the train pulled in. I sat down, breathed the biggest sigh of relief, ate my healthy choice of KitKats and chips, and napped until Cardiff.

It was definitely a long day and certainly painful, but now I can look back and say I hiked a total of 19 miles in one day. It may have been torture in the moment, but it’s one heck of a story.

Part 2: Bath, to follow!

Marissa Sarver

Trinity St. David

Wales