Jasonville, Indiana USA (51 Days Later)

The summer is starting to settle down, and so am I.  I am finally getting used to living in the same place for more than 3 days.  I will not lie; it was a tough adjustment coming home, not a bad one, just hard.  Culture shock is definitely a real thing!  For a few days I came home and felt like an outsider; it took some time to catch up with everyone and regain my sense of belonging.

51 days after the adventure of my lifetime, I find myself editing photos from World Tour in the gatehouse at Shakamak State Park.  I work the evening shift and people tend to slow down as the night rolls on which leaves me alone in the gatehouse 5-6 hours every shift.  It sounds boring because it is, but I cannot say that I mind it.  Actually, the peaceful times in the park after everyone has left are what make this job worth it.  After the semester I just had, I welcome any chance to just sit down and relax. 

As work slows down in the evenings I try to edit a couple cities-worth of photos every night.  Every photo gives me a new memory to reflect on or something new to appreciate.  I am finally realizing how awesome it all was, and how blessed I was to be able to experience it.  The diversity of the places I have been is hard for even me to comprehend.  On the trip we were shuffled from place to place without much time to think and appreciate it all.  Thank goodness for pictures!  They have allowed me to relive my trip, the good and the bad. 

Along with the pictures I remember the stress I went through trying to get homework and my project done.  I look back at the 10 days of madness I had to put together my project board and it is obvious, only God would have been able to get me through that.  Not only did he get me through it, he guided me through a project I am proud to call my own.  I even presented it to the President of Ball State, Jo Ann Gora herself.  After my project was finished that week I had some fantastic days making up for lost time with all of my friends.  For once I was sad to leave Muncie; I had just arrived it seemed like and all my friends were leaving for the semester. At least I can look forward to seeing them when I go back in August!

As one can imagine, I have been drilled by everyone since I have been home.  What was your favorite place?  What was (insert country) like?  What was the weirdest food you ate?  Would you go back?  Even the simplest question prompts the most difficult answer.  Traveling the world is not something that can be understood.  Sure I could talk until I was blue in the face and show you every single one of my photos, but until you have experienced the culture and stumbled your way through everyday life in a different country you will not understand it. 

The thing that strengthened my experiences, appreciation, and understanding of life around the world is the fact that God walked with me every step of the way.  Living in the world, he showed me a greater understanding of life itself, what is really important, what to strive for in life, and how to be content with even the littlest things.  Even now, 51 days later, it is hard for me to comprehend that there was once a time on WT5 when all I wanted was to be able to read a restaurant menu, to have a good seat on the plane, to stay at a hotel with free internet access, or to have ten minutes of alone time.  The simplest things made me happy.  I have everything I have ever wanted in life at home right now, yet I still find things to make me grumpy.  What is up with that?  Another thing, I learned really quickly last semester is how to take a step back from the situation and re-evaluate.  Every time I got upset or caught up in a bad situation, I found God waiting patiently to share his peace.  It is little lessons like these that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.  Yeah this trip was awesome! I saw countries and cities that people only dream of visiting.  I stood before some of the best architecture in the world; but even more importantly, God taught me how to live.

The Journey Home

I woke up this morning knowing it would probably be one of the longest days of my life.  That still could not keep the excitement from spreading across my face every time it had a chance.  Our first flight of the day from Dublin to Washington, D.C. was the longest of the day at 7.5 hours, not to mention U.S. customs and security beforehand.  It took us three hours to get through it all.  The flight was relatively uneventful except for the fact that I could not watch free movies because the headphone jack on my seat did not work. 

We arrived in Washington on time and had about an hour layover.  Excitement was in full as we all dusted off our phones and began texting and making phone-calls for the first time in three and a half months.  You could easily tell everyone was ready to be back in America. 

The excitement quickly faded as we learned of a couple of explosions that happened at the Boston Marathon.  As the news developed, the spirit of the airport became more and more somber.  I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that most people waiting for their flights were glued to the television watching CNN coverage of the tragedy.  I later realized that our plane had landed in Washington, D.C.  at almost exactly the same time as the bombs detonated.  Welcome home!  To make this even more dramatic, we boarded our plane to Chicago and the screens on the plane were playing the news coverage.  I’m not going to lie; I was a little worried as our plane took off.  I was flying out of the nation’s capital with a destination of one of America’s major urban cities, Chicago.  At this point the only thing I wanted was home and my family.  We made it to Chicago safely, thank goodness!  About half of our group had another flight to Indy, but nothing could break the excitement of me going home.  I watched some of my friends reunite with loved ones and then I headed through security one last time.  I boarded the tiny airplane to Indy and immediately fell asleep.  I opened my eyes to the lights of Indianapolis as we landed.  Finally after 103 days, I had made it home safely.

It is hard to pinpoint a time in my life that I was happier than the moment I realized I was back home.  I rushed off the plane and through baggage claim only to be kept waiting for several minutes outside.  Apparently our flight got in a little early so my parents had not arrived yet.  When I finally saw my blue Jeep pull up I was relieved.  A dream-like 103 days of traveling had finally come to an end.  Nothing could have prepared me for the semester that I just lived through.  The past 2 years of saving and preparation all ended with this night, but I was not sad.  I had 10,000 photos and three-and-a-half months-worth of new experiences to share. 

To top the night off, the face of one of my best friends, Jenica, was staring at me through the back window of my car.  She surprised me and came with my parents to pick me up.  It was a great time!  Perhaps my favorite part of the night, however, was the moment I got to crawl into my own personal bed, with my room and bathroom surrounding me.  It’s hard to understand the importance of this until you have spent the last 103 days living out of two bags and a hotel room.  Oh my, what an experience!  

Dublin, Ireland

It is crazy to think that we have reached our last city on World Tour.  To be honest, no one was really in the mood to do much touring while we were in Dublin because we were too busy anticipating the end, most of us excited, the rest dreading going back.  While I have been grateful for the past two weeks, all I can think of is going home.  Thankfully Dublin is awesome so I have been able to enjoy myself the past 3 days.  We have had very little structured time, so that has probably helped quite a bit. 

The first day we arrived in Dublin we had a free afternoon and evening, so we hung around the hotel for a bit and then headed out to a nearby pub for dinner.  The second day we had a morning tour with a guide that gave us a broad overview of Ireland and Dublin’s history and culture.  I ended up shopping the rest of that day and wandering around the pedestrian streets of the city.  I spent way too much money for my budget that day, but one way I can justify it with myself is that I was buying pretty cool ancestry stuff.  My mom has done some intensive research and sent me to Ireland with a couple family names in mind, Miller and Farquar.  I found a cool shop that had a wealth of information regarding Irish ancestry where I was able to purchase a parchment with our family crest and history printed on it.  I also found a neat guide to tracing Irish roots. 

While searching for dinner that night, we stumbled upon the most unique restaurant I have experienced on this trip around the world.  Just off the pedestrian street is a historic church dating back to the 1700s.  It was saved from being torn down and deprogrammed to become a restaurant/ bar/ nightclub.  As we walked into the front doors of the main sanctuary a huge bar dominated my view of the large room.  I then discovered the original organ in place along with a significant amount of the original interior architecture.  I clearly went architecture nerd as soon as I walked in, but I am not even ashamed.  It was that cool!  The food and drinks were great too!

Our last day in Dublin was an independent study day so Dan, Devin, Libby, Hanna, and I decided to spend it at the Guinness Storehouse, the brewery where the famous Guinness beer originated.  I had a wonderfully relaxing morning then left around noon to walk the long trek to Guinness.  It was a fun day, but I have to say that the Heineken experience was so much better!  The best part was drinking a Guinness in the Gravity Bar, the highest point in Dublin.  From there I could see the entire city from above.  We had to hurry back from the Storehouse though because a group farewell dinner was scheduled for 7:00p.m. at the Arlington Hotel Bar. 

Our group had a fantastic dinner along with great entertainment provided by a traditional Irish band, complete with dancers.  The music group awakened my new love for Irish pub music.  After the show our group collectively decided to finish off our world tour with the ultimate Dublin experience.  In search of a pub with enough room to fit us all, we accidentally found the perfect place.  All 24 of us raided the dance floor of a sketchy nightclub in the Temple Bar District of Dublin.  It. Was. Awesome!  And probably the best night of the tour by far!  All of our frustrations, stresses, and annoyances that had built up in the past 102 days just disappeared as we danced for at least two hours straight!  It was definitely a sight to see as we all danced in our world tour attire.  I was rocking a thermal shirt, jeans, and hiking boots in a club in Dublin, and I did not even care because there were 23 other people dressed exactly like me!  It was a heck of an ending to possibly the greatest adventure of my life!

The Greatest Lesson

I developed the following paragraphs for a friend who is writing an essay about traveling.  The most important things I have learned on this trip became apparent to me while I was putting this together, so I thought I would share it will you all!

I was raised in a non-denominational Christian church.  I believe Christianity is only about you and your relationship with Christ.  For me, religious spaces are personal.  They are a place for an individual to use for fellowship, reflectance, or a simple escape from the distractions of life.  Because of this, I had an awesome time experiencing religious places in different cultures throughout Europe, Russia, and Asia.  Catholicism, Buddhism, Muslim, and Jewish religions are some of the main ones I was introduced to over the past 3 months.  It does not matter what religion, we all believe in God in one way or another, but it is our actions and methods of worshipping that make the difference.  The cathedrals, pagodas, temples, mosques, and synagogues were all entirely different in the culture of the space, but I also found them to have one thing in common; I almost always felt a spiritual presence. 

I made it a personal goal at the beginning of this trip to take advantage of the wide range of religions I would be introduced to and pray in every church or religious space that I could.  As the end of World Tour 5 nears, I can say that this has been my absolute favorite thing I have done.  It has opened my eyes to the world, and caused me to question my faith in a good way.  Even though I may not agree with different religions, I am more respectful of them.  Witnessing day after day the Muslim dedication to prayer in Turkey is perhaps the most inspiring to me spiritually.  Also being able to worship in historic places like Notre Dame in Paris, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and the Vatican in Rome was almost unreal, knowing I was one of the millions of people who have worshipped there.  For me to say that I have grown in my faith is a huge understatement because my experiences in religious spaces around the world have simply been indescribable. 

Belfast, Northern Ireland

The weather we have had in Belfast has not been the greatest, compared to the warm weather at home.  Two straight days of rain and 40 degree temperatures is not quite what I had in mind, but it is definitely not the first time my expectations have not be met on this trip.  We had another long travel day as we made our way from Edinburgh to Belfast.  Our bus took us from Edinburgh to Cairn Ryan where we boarded a ferry for Belfast.  The ferry was nice and relaxing; I was even able to get some long-overdue sketching done.  We did not get to Belfast until about 7 p.m. so I decided to call it a night and stay at the hotel for the evening. 

I woke up the next morning to pouring rain, but thankfully we had a bus tour planned of the city.  We toured Belfast for a couple hours in the morning and headed out on a bus trip in the afternoon to Giant’s Causeway.  It is an amazing rock formation on the coast of Northern Ireland that makes up a beautiful Irish landscape.  Even though the day was gloomy and wet, it was still picturesque.  We started to climb the rock but after Dan slipped and fell we decided it was too slick.  I would love to be at Giant’s Causeway when the weather is more cooperative because it would be a really fun place to climb and hike.

We got back to the hotel and decided on a time for group dinner.  Someone had recommended to us a restaurant that would accept reservations for all 26 of us.  It was easily the fanciest place I have ever eaten at before.  I got a gnocchi dish that was extremely expensive for the food they brought me.  I had two pieces of cauliflower and 3 tiny gnocchi.  I did not eat lunch because I was saving my appetite for dinner.  Turns out, I probably should have gotten some lunch because that meal was a joke.  

After the not-so-filling dinner, Devin took me to a pub that he knew of which had Smithwick’s Irish Beer on tap.  I was told before I left home that I had to try it, so I was excited to finally get one; it was probably one of my favorite beers I have had so far!  The experience was pretty awesome too because the pub had live music and a lively atmosphere; I named it the Ultimate Irish Experience.  It was a great time!  I am even more excited for Dublin now, oh and the fact that I will be home in just 3 days!!!

Edinburgh,Scotland

It is only natural that World Tour cannot go down without a fight.  After almost a whole day on the bus, we got to Edinburgh around 9:00 p.m.  It was obvious we would be staying in a hostel, but the big surprise was that I got to room with 7 other girls!  My tolerance at this point on the trip is running thin, so the idea of 8 girls sharing 1 room, 1 bathroom, and 1 mirror was a bit like doomsday for me.  Now I realize this may seem quite dramatic, but it was like summer camp all over again, especially when I walked in to my roommates reading a Cosmo out loud as a group.  I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I did survive the doomsday hostel and the second night was not nearly as painful as the first, but I will get to that in a second.

Our full day in Edinburgh began at 8:30 a.m. with probably my favorite guide that we have had so far.  He had a lot of random information and did not just pump us full of ridiculous history facts.  Edinburgh is a pretty cool place with different historic buildings than we have seen in the past.  In the midst of all the old buildings was a pretty interesting modern piece of architecture, The Scottish Parliament Building.  I have studied it quite a bit in the past because I used it for a precedent in one of my projects, so I was excited to see it in person.

We had half a day for our own independent study.  It was a great afternoon of the exploring the Royal Mile and the rest of the city.  We went in to a couple whiskey stores, which was a lot cooler than I thought it would be.  A friend of mine was looking for some Scotch for his dad but had no clue where to even start.  The guy working was friendly and excited to give us a quick run-down of the basics of Scottish-Whiskey.  It was awesome, and so informative!  We found a cool pub with the nicest waiter and had a late lunch/ early dinner, then headed back to the hostel to work. 

Back at the hostel Dan, Devin, Ryan, Courtney, and I gathered together in the lobby to do homework, hang out, and eat Skittles, which by the way, do not taste the same here as they do at home.  I was so productive, it is almost unreal!  I got 3 different things done, all in one night!  As we were lying down to sleep we noticed a loud buzzing in our room followed by a slight burning smell.  Long story short, 2 electrical outlets for a room of 8 girls is not nearly enough!  Despite us overloading the outlets everything was fine, but we were lucky that we were awake when it happened; it would not have taken much to start a fire. 

So yeah, Edinburgh was cool, but I am so excited for Ireland!

Yorkshire-Dales National Park, England

After a long and exciting week in Paris and London, we finally got a much-needed break at Yorkshire-Dales National Park in England.  We arrived at our hostel in the village of Malham around midday and dropped off our luggage.  Malham is situated at the base of a popular hiking trail in the National Park.  Yorkshire-Dales is a national park set aside to preserve the natural countryside of England.  As you can imagine the entire park is possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  Rolling hill after hill and pastures outlined with waist-high stone walls.  Lambs frolicked in the fields alongside their mothers.  It was just so peaceful, and it reminded me of home.  Outside our hostel window was a small farm with chickens and geese roaming around the yard.  It was just like at home!  I cannot wait to get home to my own room.  I am getting sick of living in the city like I basically have for the past 3 months.  I need to see some more countryside!

Our group hiked the nearby trail in its entirety and made a day of it.  The trail is about 4.5 miles long, and we stopped periodically to enjoy the view.  Two waterfalls and a limestone formation called The Pavement were the highlights of the hike, as well as amazing views down into Malham.  The weather was perfect for our hike with the temperature around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  We took our time and enjoyed the peaceful walk. 

We got back to Malham just in time for dinner at The Buck Inn, a small pub just down the road from our hostel.  We hung around the pub for a while just talking and enjoying our down time.  It was a great night except I was ready for bed before I got any work done!  Oh that is not true; I did do some laundry, which is the last time I will have to do laundry on this trip! :D  But still, I should have at least worked on my studio project.  Oh well, I guess I needed the sleep more!

We did not have to leave until 11:00 this morning so I took advantage of a nice, relaxing morning.  I woke up around 7:30 and took my time getting ready.  I headed down to get breakfast and joined up with Courtney and Ryan so we could walk around the village before it was time to leave.  The rest of the day will probably be a boring bus day with a high productivity level, which is what I am hoping for at least.