Coming "Home": 09/09

They tried to warn me that returning to the States would be as difficult as leaving. However, I had no problems moving to Ireland and adjusting to life there. It was a blast! So just thinking it'd be a bit harder than that to adjust back didn't sound so scary. But now I'm here, alone, and it's like the last year of my life never happened.

After Ireland, I moved straight to Chicago, a city I have visited once before, for an internship with Greenpeace. My boyfriend moved there with me, and I knew no one other than him. So I spent the whole post-year-abroad time with very "non-typical," whale saving, protesting, don't mess with us Americans and my English boyfriend. Needless to say, it wasn't that hard to do.

But then Callum went back to England and I spent a week with my entire extended family and realized that they are a bit more of what I should've expected to find in the States. Unfortunately, all the negative qualities stood out and I simply could not handle going through the re-entry process yet so I resorted to my animalistic qualities: I couldn't fight, so I took flight– literally. I flew back to England to spend my last two weeks before my senior year there.

It was a blissful holiday but might've made what came next all the more difficult. I moved straight up to Minneapolis and started classes 3 days later. Again, I wasn't expecting to "go through a process" and I definitely wasn't expecting it to be hard. But then, here I was, with the exact same people in the exact same spot I was a mere 13 months ago, but a completely different person. My friends, of course, wanted to hear about my time abroad but I could tell after about 3 sentences they had tuned out. And it wasn't their fault– I was describing people they'd never met, places they'd never heard of, and experiences they'd never lived through. It was simply impossible to relate. It was strange to find, too, that most things hadn't changed, yet a lot had. It was hard to comprehend that life went on without me here– people had graduated, moved away, made new friends, changed majors, transferred, started new relationships and ended old ones. I thought I would be able to relate and reminisce with a few of my friends who had also studied abroad, but that wasn't really so. First, we all went to different destinations. And second, most of them only went for a semester, and then came back to Minneapolis straight away meaning they were gone for about 4 months, which is 9 months less than me. I can't even begin to describe how much of a difference that makes. I had this whole other life that is now gone and it's a scary feeling.

There were a few times that I just broke down, feeling completely frustrated, left out, and like I don't belong here. I had been gone for so long that it seems people forgot about me. Still, after nearly a month now, friends forget to call and invite me out. Again, it's not their fault. It is so so so hard to keep in touch with people you haven't seen in a year, especially during a time you have drastically different lives. I'd spend a weekend in Scotland, they'd spend it bar-hopping. It is just impossible to relate.

I also hoped to rely on my closest friend in Ireland, Roberta. She and I took most of our trips together and spent the entire year having similar experiences. There were two stark differences in our lives there, however: First, she's Canadian. And second, she really, really wanted to come home. The differences are obvious when it comes to our home countries. Of course we're going to have much different reactions upon returning. But the latter is really the one that matters. I miss Ireland, I miss my friends, I wanted to stay longer because it was simply the best year of my life. By January, Robbie didn't want to be there anymore for many reasons, and did actually go home for about 2 weeks. She repeatedly wished she'd only gone abroad for a semester and contemplated leaving early. So to talk about returning home with Robbie isn't what I emotionally need it to be. She's so happy to be back and maybe in 5/10 years will return to Derry and reminisce. I am reminiscing already.

But Callum is moving to Minneapolis today and that will be the best thing in the world. Someone will actually be here that knows me now, that knows what I went through and how I changed, that can relate to me. All being said and (definitely not) done, I am surprisingly appreciative that I spent the last month going through this process alone. It has helped and is still helping me figure out how to make sense of it all. And that's kind of the point, right?

Newcastle: 21/5 to 29/5

I stayed in Newcastle

Sweden: 4/5 to 10/5

we went to sweden

Things I really miss about NI: 8/1

1. My friends.
2. Having an accent.
3. Sainsbury's.
4. Cheap, local food.
5. Duncreggan.
6. The incredibly low stress levels.
7. Traveling.
8. EasyJet and RyanAir.
9. Chips and gravy!
10. Primark.
11. So. Green.
12. Sheep.

American Surprises; 7/1

So I've been back in the States for a few months and, just like everyone told me, coming back was a lot harder than leaving. Here's a few things I forgot about:

1. Our toilets use SO MUCH WATER!
2. Subway isn't $2.
3. Good supermarkets are hard to find.
4. Our license plates are silly.
5. CHEETOS!
6. People change clothes every day.
7. Dollar bills are incredibly small and all the same size.
8. People actually watch the news.
9. Satellite dishes provide an absurd amount of television channels.
10. Our coins sizes and colors just do not make sense.
11. Lots of people bike!
12. There is an unbelievable amount of chain stores and restaurants.
13. Twitter happened..?
14. Sweet foods are sweeter and portions are bigger.
15. Cheap stuff exists.
16. The overall sense of style is lacking, or maybe just a few years behind.
17. We have AWESOME Chinese food. At unbeatable prices. From people that don't speak English.
18. There's a lot of diversity here.
19. SPICY STUFF EXISTS! And, naturally, is delicious.

London: 25/4 to 27/4

I wouldn't have been happy to have lived in Ireland for 9 months and not have been to London. I've heard many mixed reactions to the city but was determined to go and find my own. With such a short stay, we tried to make full use of our time, going straight from the airport to a bike tour, again with Fat Tire. This tour wasn't as good as Barcelona since we didn't really cover that much of the city and had a massive group, but was still fun and we got really great ideas for what to do with the rest of our time. We saw Big Ben, Hyde Park, Westminster, Westminster Abbey, the Buckingham Palace, the Winston Churchill Museum, Number 10 Downing Street, the London Marathon, the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and Trafalger Square. Fun fact about Big Ben: Big Ben isn't actually the name of the clock, it's the name of the biggest bell in the clock tower. I know, shocking! The Churchill Museum was in the bomb shelter where Great Britain planned their WWII strategies and was spectacularly done, with most untouched since the War. They had audio guides that explained what each room was used for and so on. Part of the museum that was my favourite was super interactive just about Churchill: there was touch screens everywhere to learn more about him as a person and politician. Another highlight was finding Platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross Station (for those not in the know, that's the platform Harry Potter and co use to get to Hogwart's). They had a trolley halfway in the wall- it was very impressive and fun. London served host to fantastic Indian food! Surprisingly, I was incredibly disappointed by their subway system! It was outrageously expensive compared to everywhere else I've lived in and traveled to, didn't have that many stops in the city center, and was poorly marked. But other than that, London was pretty good and about what I was expecting: another big city with sites to see.

Big Ben. Surprise.

Platform 9 and 3/4

Lights on Tower Bridge

Water at the Princess Diana Fountain Memorial

Westminster Abbey, complete with double decker bus

Barcelona: 17/4 to 21/4

The last stop of my almost three week tour was Barcelona and what a stop it was! This was probably my favourite city that I have ever visited and I would love to live there for any amount of time. Gaudi of course is absolutely breathtaking but there was much more to the city than his buildings. The first day, we rented a little three-wheeler/golfcart/most fun ever vehicle from a tour company (www.gocartours.es) and drove around on the busy city roads attempting to follow a set route, giggling all the way. It was so fun- the steering, gas, and brakes were just like a four-wheeler: you twisted the handle to accelerate and had handbrakes and turned the handles to turn. We also got quite amusing helmets so most people that saw us were laughing, taking pictures, or just stariing. When you are on one of the two routes, the car tells you all about what you are seeing, from architecture to history to fun facts. When you're not on the route, which was unintentionally fairly often for us, you're on your own to drive and discover. Much of the time I spent wandering the streets, taking pictures, people watching, and enjoying the weather. We did find time to see the only cathedral in the city, the Sagrada Familia, the Picasso Museum, and do a bike tour! The Sagrada Familia was incredible, they've been building it for about 100 years, with funding strictly from donations only, and they aren't close to being done for good reason- every tiny detail was thoughtfully designed with painstaking precision. There is scaffolding inside and out, plus ladders, machinery, and construction workers at every turn. It was really neat to see it now, when it is still a construction site. I'm planning on coming back once it is completely, which is currently estimated to 2026, the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death. I went up to the top of the church and saw all of Barcelona laid out around me and then took hundreds of spiraling stairs down to ground level again. The Picasso Museum was pretty cool, seeing many of his first first attempts of his later famous paintings, sketches, and coursework from school. They also showed the inspiration and starting point to many of his later paintings and explained how he got to the point of it at its finished state. The bike tour with Fat Tire was a highlight of the trip, I met some really awesome people from all over the world and had a blast. We went all around the city, learned some interesting facts, and had some great food on the beach. The weather again for the entire trip was fabulous- sunny and blue skies in every direction. I really can't wait to go back to this city.

Me and Robbie in the Go "Car"

Pretty tree at a pack

Pretty lamp posts by City Hall

Just one I like

Typical street at night

The front of the Sagrada Familia

The spiral steps down


Two of the four towers


Inside the church with tons of scaffolding