Hey blog friends! First off, I’m still alive. That’s a good start. Moving on, the past two weeks were some of the most action-packed and exciting days of my life. It started with a 15-hour flight from LA where we landed in Sydney at about 8 in the morning (skipping all of Sunday in the process). I met a few people on the plane and then most all of us were rounded up like cattle after arriving in Sydney. This is where the adventure really began!

We headed directly from the airport to the hostel where we would be staying for all of orientation, and it was amazing! Very new and in a perfect location with a view of the opera house, harbour bridge, and the entire downtown skyline! I’ll get some pictures up here as soon as I can since words really can’t describe the views that we had, especially at sunrise and sunset.

The next 3 ½ days were jam packed with fun activities, which also served as a great way to get to know some of the other 40ish kids in our program. The activities ranged from a walking tour of Sydney, to a trip to a wildlife park with kangaroo petting, to dancing with aborigines, to a trip to see a surf competition at Manly Beach, to an amazing dinner cruise in the Sydney harbour! The last night on the cruise was probably my favorite part of all, although playing around with kangaroos and koalas was definitely a close second! One other cool thing we did in Sydney was to adventure off to a pub one night that was having hermit crab races! It was just as it sounds, and was incredibly entertaining! All in all, the Butler staff put together an absolutely amazing 3 days for us and we were very lucky to have such great leaders!

After orientation, we were on top of the world. Little did we know, things were about to get even better/more exciting/crazier! Our group of 15 (the other 25 were headed to Uni in Sydney or Wollongong) had a quick flight down to Melbourne and then were split up and dropped off at our separate housing areas. I was placed in University College (which I would recommend to anybody applying to Melbourne Uni or RMIT next year) along with 3 other guys (Brian, Cam-bam, and Pat) and 2 girls (Dena and Michelle). College life here is somewhat like a fraternity/sorority back home and it has made it really easy to make friends and get involved in activities!

This brings me to O-week. There is very little that I can actually tell you about O-week, due to extreme confidentiality =) but it’s basically a welcome week for all the new freshers to introduce them to college life, Uni life, and to “initiate” them into UC. I can’t speak for everybody but I think O-week was one of the best weeks of my life! It was jam packed with daily activities and then there were always some good “themed” activities going on at night. It seemed that most everybody was having a great time and it was an awesome way to bond with people and create heaps of memories. Throughout the week your team could earn “fresher points” for a wide variety of things which were tallied up each day and the winning team was awarded the fresher cup on Friday. We also had a fresher king and queen elected (which me and Lisa won!); likely just for being way too keen about everything we did all week. In case any of our leaders or staff ever reads this blog, you were all incredible. Seriously, I’ve never seen 20-some people with as much consistent positive energy and keen-ness as you all. That made the week so much more fun for all of us!

The only negative side of O-week is that it had to come to an end. Unfortunately classes started yesterday so we’re finally getting into a somewhat “normal” schedule, as if that term is really even fair to use. I just got my timetable finalized yesterday and it’s about equal to a US schedule, just with a little less in-class time. In my next blog I’ll make sure to comment a little more on the class structure, since I’m sure I’ll know a little more by then.

Well, that’s all for now folks! As my buddy Justin told me before I left, it really feels impossible to try and describe in words all the things we are experiencing while abroad but I will continue to try my best on here! Hope everything is well back home, miss you all!

Cheers,

Dan

I didn’t feel like typing a ton, so I tried out doing a video… Hope it turns out ok!  Also, I’ve got some pictures of what’s going on so far.  On the 29th, we’re going on a trip funded by IFSA to Colonia, Uruguay, which is a small town that’s apparently very picturesque/historic.  So I should have some good pictures of that for later!    

A couple of weekends ago, IFSA took all of us Ireland students up to the North Antrim Coast to see the sites. One thing you should know right off the bat is that these pictures do NOT even do the coast justice. This was one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. In fact, it is considered the 5th most picturesque drive in the world.

We went to Giant’s Causeway (the 8th wonder of the World), Carick-a-Reed Bridge and Dunluce Castle. There are superstitions and stories we learned about each of these things and I’ve included links to the stories if you’d like to read them. All in all, it was a fabulous adventure and it was fun to hang out with some of the other IFSA students since my group in Belfast is so small. While I was at the bridge, I even ran into 3 other Butler students so we took a picture with our mascot, Blue II. It was nice to see people I go to school with so that we could talk about how cool it is to have this opportunity!

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Hello everyone! First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my delay in blogging. Since I’ve gotten here, it has been nothing but chaos but also nothing very “blog-worthy” has happened until this past weekend.

One of the first things we did once arriving to Belfast was go on a black cab taxi tour of the city. While Belfast isn’t an overwhelmingly big city, it is filled with history and interesting places to see. One of the main things Belfast is famous for is all of the murals around town. I have included pictures of those below about the time period called “The Troubles” which is Belfast’s most famous piece of history.

Another thing I should mention are my classes! Here at Queen’s University – Belfast, I am considered a third year (just like in America). However, the difference here is that students only complete three years of college. So if I was a full-time Irish student, I would be getting ready to graduate…yikes!

I only have classes on Wednesday and Thursday even though I’m taking 15 credit hours. This is because the English Department at Queen’s is more interested in self-taught reading and then discussion in class. In each of my classes, we read a book a week and then come to class prepared to discuss each one. Let’s just say I’ve been doing a LOT of reading.

I hope you enjoy the deviation from the norm this time with a video! Associated photos are also posted. Cheers!

Hello my lovely followers!  I hope this blog finds you in good spirits because the Welsh weather is not so nice.  I am currently writing this entry on a gloomy day with a misty rain.  4 hours ago while I was in the city centre, it was beautifully warm with the sun out.  Wow, look at me…complaining about the weather already.  I’m just like a true Brit.

But besides my weather woes, I am doing quite well.  School has nothing exciting to report, but I am soon going on some fun adventures once March rolls around.  Here’s what’s coming up:

March 2-3 – I am going to London for the night, then onward to the second Butler excursion to Oxford and Blenheim Palace.  I don’t know much about these places, but I’ll learn once I’m there.

March 9-11 – This is the big Butler weekend of the spring semester, aka Adventure Weekend.  This weekend is taking place in Bangor at Snowdonia National Park in northwest Wales.  It is a very mountainous area with similar terrain as northwest England.  I plan on hiking, mountain biking, go karting, and socializing to name a few.  Obviously, this one weekend will be a main topic of this blog in the future.

March 15-19 – I’ve booked my flight to visit my friends Norah and Taylor in Dublin, Ireland for St. Patty’s Day!  This will be my first time outside Great Britain and the United Kingdom this semester, and it will be my first time in Ireland.

I am looking forward to these trips.  On February 4, I went on Butler’s first excursion to Stonehenge and Winchester.  This trip is a part of my study abroad program fee, and all I had to do was buy transportation from Cardiff to London.  After spending Friday night at my cousin’s house, I made my way to the IFSA-Butler London office in Notting Hill where three coach buses were waiting to take 150 American students studying abroad in England, Wales, and Scotland to Stonehenge.  I got a lot of much needed sleep on the bus ride out to Stonehenge.

So, what is Stonehenge?  It’s basically a lot of stones in a circular layout.  That’s about it.  No one knows what it was used for exactly.  Some reckon it was a place for worship and studying the stars, others believe it was a place for trading.  It is an open field with a path around the stones that visitors walk on while listening to an audio tour.  All of the IFSA-Butler students had audio tours, but only a handful used them.  Embarrassingly, most of the American students were loud and obnoxious at this historic site.  They really disrupted the peace at Stonehenge, and I felt sorry for the other visitors who were there to enjoy the historic atmosphere.  A lot of students just cared about getting the best pictures, and were extremely rude in their big groups.  One visitor even ran off the path, touched the stones, and ran back.  Touching the stones is a big offense at Stonehenge, but I don’t know if he was an American in our study abroad group or not.  Security obviously escorted him out, but how discourteous is that?  Typical Americans I guess…

Stonehenge

My not-so-obnoxious picture of Stonehenge and I

What Stonehenge might have looked like

Our trip out to Winchester was delayed.  There were students returning back to the buses about 30 minutes late, ruining the experience for the rest of us who were on time.  The only reason we didn’t leave without them was because there is no public transportation out of Stonehenge.  I didn’t get to spend as much time in Winchester as I hoped, but I still enjoyed my time there.  Winchester is about 45 minutes southeast of Stonehenge.  It’s a small English town that houses The Great Hall and King Arthur’s Round Table, Winchester Cathedral (where Jane Austen is buried), and a cute city centre.  Once again, the American students entered the town like a herd of wild animals.  The 5 Cardiff students (including myself) left the massive group immediately and found a nice quiet Indian restaurant for lunch.  We also figured that if all the students were going into the city centre, we wouldn’t find a place to eat without a wait.  For small town Winchester, this Indian restaurant was surprisingly delicious.  After lunch, we made our way to The Great Hall.  I didn’t take any tours of The Great Hall so I don’t know much about it, besides it holds King Arthur’s Round Table, and had the king and queen’s thrones.

The main entrance to The Great Hall

More of The Great Hall

King Arthur’s Round Table

The king and queen’s thrones sat upon these stones

Once we left The Great Hall, we made our way to the city centre.  It was very lively for being very small (only about 3 city blocks long).  There were vendors selling pasties along with other treats, and there were stores on either side of the main street.  A group of people gathered around to watch a civilian break dancing with music in the background.  I made my way to a chocolate shop and bought two bars of organic chocolate: 34% cocoa smooth milk chocolate and 54% cocoa dark side milk chocolate & butterscotch.  That was probably the best chocolate I’ve had in a long time; needless to say, it didn’t last long.

The very beginning of the city centre

A statue in the middle of the city centre

We left the city centre and quickly made our way to Winchester Cathedral.  It was a gorgeous cathedral, but unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to take a tour.  However, we met a wonderful tour guide who let us through the cathedral quickly so we could get a better look inside.  She took us to Jane Austen’s resting place within the cathedral and told us why she was buried there because she wasn’t from Winchester.  Apparently Jane Austen was very sick and was seeing a doctor in Winchester, but she passed away shortly after.  She was buried here because she died here, and she was buried in the cathedral not because she was a well-known author, but because her father had powerful connections and pulled some strings so she had a proper resting site.  It was extremely expensive to travel a dead person back to their hometown, so people were usually buried where they had died.  It was only a coincidence that Jane Austen is a famous author, and it wasn’t until much later after she died when she gained her popularity.

Front/main entrance of Winchester Cathedral

Side view of Winchester Cathedral

A memorial for Jane Austen

Jane Austen’s resting place

After the cathedral we left for the buses and back to London.  London was just starting a pretty nice snow storm which impacted my bus ride to Cardiff.  Of course once we arrived back to Wales, the snow turned to rain and it was pretty foggy.

Hopefully the next excursion next weekend won’t be so hectic and chaotic (and embarrassing for me).

Word of the Entry: Aubergine.  You know that purple vegetable I adore so much?  Yeah, eggplant!  Except they don’t call it eggplant; in the United Kingdom, it’s called aubergine.  And zucchini is called courgette.  If I said zucchini, people would probably not know what I’m talking about.

Here’s a little video-slideshow I made about my daytrip to Bath a few weeks ago. If you can’t see it, just put this address in a new tab and it should pop up for you: https://voicethread.com/share/2759155/

Enjoy!

After less than one week in New Zealand, I can definitively say that this country deserves all the hype it gets not only for the physical beauty of the country, but also for the friendliness of the people.  I’m a master of building things up to the point where reality can never meet my expectations, but this is one time where my expectations were blown out of the water across the board.  All the stories people told me, all the pictures I looked at, and all the things I read failed to even come close to how incredible everything here has been thus far.

First, let me address the nearly 20 hours of flying.  While not one of my favorite lifetime experiences, the reward at the end of the airtime is well worth it.  I also would recommend that anyone else who goes books their flight from Chicago or Tampa or wherever you are as one continuous flight.  It takes away any worries of trying to grab your luggage and haul it to the next gate.  Even if that is a bit more expensive, you can’t really put a price on peace of mind.

Once we arrived in Auckland, clearing customs was a breeze and everyone was very friendly.  Most people employed in US airports are quite hostile, so that was a nice change, though I imagine if someone were trying to smuggle in plants or fruit or drugs that they would have quite a different opinion.  The country of New Zealand as a whole is incredibly committed to maintaining the integrity of their beautiful landscape and any violation of that is taken very seriously.

After retrieving luggage and going through security one more time, the incredible IFSA-Butler staff greeted us.  I was so impressed by their knowledge, their kindness, and willingness to put up with interrogations from students about their country and the University of Otago.  We took a bus from the airport to the YMCA Shakespear park lodge.  I was 99% certain that I would pass out in the bus, but luckily Andrew, one of the IFSA-Butler crew, told us entertaining trivia and stories along the way.  For instance, did you know that the U2 song “One Tree Hill” was written about a place in New Zealand?  I have seen U2 in concert several times and thought I knew quite a bit about them but this was completely new information to me.

Once we arrived at the park, the YMCA and IFSA leaders lost no time in ensuring we stayed conscious.  After a quick briefing, they fed us and then we took a quick “wander” around the park.  Another aspect of New Zealand that is in no way exaggerated:  there is, in fact, sheep everywhere.  I do not in any way doubt that there are more of them than there are people.  I am also probably one of the only people who becomes homesick at the sight of sheep.  At home, I have a Border Collie and just this past year started taking her for herding lessons.  So now, all the sheep make me wish I could have her here.  Jazz might like New Zealand even better than me.

After the hike, we went kayaking around the bay.  The ocean in New Zealand is brighter than anywhere I have ever been; it truly is blue rather than the kind of green-grey that proliferates in Florida.  We paddled out to another beach and climbed a few rocks that were on the beach before jumping into the ocean and swimming around for a bit.  Apparently, there were a couple of giant stingrays joining in on the festivities but I did not see them.

Following the kayaking, we ate dinner and then most of us were ready for bed.  I think I was one of the earliest ones to sleep; I gave up the fight against jet lag and was asleep by about 8:30 p.m.  However, I would recommend that future travelers try to fight it out a bit longer than that as I also woke up at 5:00 AM and had nothing to do until 8 AM and those extra hours awake made me drag a bit on the second day.

The second day was, if possible, even more exciting than the first.  We played a New Zealand trivia game and then, with our same teams, played ROGAINE, which is basically a type of scavenger hunt.  I must apologize to my teammates; I have a strange love of clambering through the denser parts of the brush which kind of slowed things down a bit.  However, I was adequately punished for that with the number of scratches and burs I acquired on my legs during that adventure.  It was lots of fun though and it alerted me to the fact that those New Zealand hills have the capability to whip me into shape better than any treadmill or elliptical ever could.

Next, we had our choice of many different and equally interesting activities.  Among those were archery, mountain biking, sailing, rock climbing, and kayaking.  I chose to do archery and rock climbing because I had never done archery before and though I did a lot of rock climbing in high school, there had not been an opportunity for it in a few years.  My family and friends will be glad to know that I did not shoot anyone in the face with the archery (though I did turn around with a loaded bow to talk to someone behind me…a big no no…) and my aim wasn’t entirely awful.

We then had our long-anticipated rugby lesson and game.  I chose to be a spectator for that (I can only embarrass myself so many times in one day…) but I wanted to learn the rules since it is so huge here in New Zealand.  It’s a cool game and I think I would prefer it to football but my hand-eye coordination is not that which would enable me to ever play it very well.

Following rugby, we had an early dinner before our briefing for the Marae visit the following day.  I should probably mention something before I get much further: at the YMCA Shakespear lodge, you eat like a hobbit.  First breakfast, second breakfast, luncheon, afternoon tea, and supper (or, as it’s actually called, breakfast, morning tea or “kai”, lunch, afternoon tea or “kai”, and then dinner.  You never go hungry, but I am afraid it spoiled me for being a poor college student in Dunedin.  However, we were so active and jet-lagged for much of the time that we may not have gotten through it as well without all the sustenance.  And ALL the food was incredible.  I wish we could have taken their chef with us back to Dunedin.

Our briefing for our visit to the Maori marae taught us the proper etiquette for the visit as well as a general idea of what would occur the next day.  We were also taught two songs to sing while there, and also how to introduce ourselves in Maori.  The language is very beautiful, but the vowels are pronounced quite differently than they are in English and I found it helpful to like the pronunciations as more like to Spanish.

The following day, we said our good-byes to the wonderful YMCA staff before heading out to the Marae.  On the way, we stopped in the Auckland mall to buy cell phones.  I think about 90% of us ended up owning the same phone so we can hope no one mixes theirs up.

Once at the Marae, we were privileged enough to be inducted into their tribe through a traditional ceremony.  It was beautiful and quite moving to be given the chance to see something that not many people are able to.  After that, we had some more tea (I think I have drank more tea since being in New Zealand than I have during the rest of my life combined), before we were granted a tour of the Te Hana Marae and told about their plans for future renovations.  Learning the story of Te Hana was quite an inspiration.  These people took their home, which was essentially a slum, and built it up to something beautiful and unique that anyone who is in New Zealand should visit if they can.

Next, we were granted a tour of their recreated village.  It looks very real, and is kind of frightening at times when they re-enact the traditional hakas.  I would not go to war with them.  However, it was a really amazing opportunity and continued to show off the work of all the people at Te Hana as plans to create their center began less than ten years ago.  This Marae visit was something really special and unique and I am so grateful for having been given the opportunity to see and experience what I did.

Following our visit, we had a brief visit to the very interesting Auckland War Museum before heading back to the Auckland airport so we could make the flight to Dunedin.  There, we had some surprisingly sad good-byes to most of the IFSA-Butler coordinators.  Only one, Leila, would be flying down with us to manage and issues and lead the trips we will be taking during the semester.  The entire staff was so wonderful the entire time and none of us were happy to leave them behind.

However, Dunedin has not disappointed.  The city itself is gorgeous, if significantly chillier than Auckland.  It doesn’t quite feel like summer here; I would place it more along the lines of late fall.  However, that is still warmer than Chicago, so I am not complaining.  I must note, however, that my friends Lisa Muhs and Sarah Robertson who came here before were in no way exaggerating about how cold it gets indoors.  I was freezing last night and it’s not even winter yet.  Lots of blankets and hot water bottles will be in my future.

Anyway, that about sums up my orientation and first peek at Dunedin.  I’ve already met some incredible people, and I look forward to sharing more stories with you as time goes on.  Kia ora!

Yesterday I received my host family information, which made me realize that I have four days left until I’ll be on a plane heading to Argentina! I’ll be living with a mom and her two teenage daughters. Their house is located 20 minutes near the university and close to several parks and public transit, according to Google Maps. The fact that I’m leaving so soon feels very unreal!

While most of my friends have returned to school, some are off on amazing adventures abroad. I ended the first half of my junior year in December, and since then, I’ve been jealously watching everyone pack their bags and begin their study abroad experiences. But after my long vacation, I can finally look forward to the 90 degree weather, (a welcome change from Boston weather, although it hasn’t been much of a winter so far), increasing my Spanish skills, a new environment, meeting new people, and learning about a new culture!

So far I have no idea what to expect, but one of my greatest fears is not being able to communicate in Spanish. Ever since middle school, I’ve take Latin, and it wasn’t until freshmen year of college that I decided to take Spanish (versus a “dead language”). I’ve studied Spanish for five semesters, but I’m very nervous that I won’t be able to communicate with my host family, understand my professors, and that I’ll have extreme difficulty in writing papers in Spanish, etc. Well if anything, I’ll have my potable Spanish dictionary on my Kindle that I can quickly access Overall, I feel that everything will turn out fine, but I just need to leave and start my adventure already!