The Hour's Getting Late

My journey abroad has come to an end. I’m writing this blog from Vancouver airport, which as Joe has delighted in telling me for the last few weeks, is lovely. There are fish tanks and trees, and a stream going through the lounge, so I have to admit it’s pretty nice. From Fairfax via Washington D.C., New York, Marion, Montreal, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle and finally to Vancouver, the year is done- But the last week has been a good one…

It’s a big change going from San Francisco, which is definitely more of a tourist hotspot to Seattle, which isn’t really a typical holiday destination. It is famously rainy, so we were amazed to have brilliant sunshine for our two days there. Our accommodation wasn’t so generous- to stay as cheap as possible the five of us were in an RV, parked in an alleyway a few miles outside the city…It was a step up from the hostel to be fair, but I’m in no rush to go back!

The most obvious Seattle landmark is the Space Needle, a tower overlooking the city, but we gave it a miss and went for the EMP Museum. Standing for Experience Music Project, it’s a stunning building that celebrates rock music and popular culture, and was undoubtedly my favourite museum I’ve visited. The Smithsonian institutions had culture and art, but this was contemporary and a lot of fun. We saw exhibitions on Nirvana, Hendrix in London, a gallery of the history of the guitar and best of all an area where you could play instruments and make your own recordings, which was huge fun. Me, Emily and Ross where a bit lost but Joe was in his element- although I have to say, I think our rendition of Timber was stronger than his Maggie’s Farm!

On the pop culture front the museum looked at some of my favourite genres- science fiction, horror and fantasy, and I was in my geek element. Original costumes, props and artwork from everything from Game of Thrones, Alien, Doctor Who, Fables, Star Trek, The Wizard of Oz, The Terminator, Battlestar Galactica and The Princess Bride was there and I didn’t expect to see so much great stuff. It’s a theme of this year for many of us travellers that the best sights or experiences are the ones that we didn’t know about already, the unknown things that surprised us, and this museum was one of the best.

Then again, other than the Space Needle I didn’t know anything about Seattle so everything was unexpected and great to see. The waterfront and amazing library were examples but the main one was Pike Place Market. Near the seafront it’s a fantastic place full of incredibly friendly people who made what was basically walking through a market a lot of fun. A second-hand bookstore owner gave advice on how to live life (pick something you enjoy, and if it doesn’t work out its ok to change), the fishmongers sang for every big order and threw fish across the counter, and we saw the very first Starbucks, a tiny place with old lettering which gave us way too many coffee shops… but on the plus side, so much free Wi-Fi! The best moment was an old man selling artwork he had done, including on fridge magnets. I bought a few and showed the others who thought they were also great, so we went back and got a few more. The man was so happy I’d brought more people back he gave me a “commission” of a free magnet (“I’m the boss, I can do what I want!”). It was a small thing but it really made my day. These people were incredibly friendly and sold some great stuff, what else could you ask from a market?

One last long coach journey took us across the border as I left the U.S. for the last time on this trip, and returned to Canada for the first time on the West Coast. When I first came here I had no real ambitions for travelling, so the idea I’d go to Canada three times would have been ridiculous, and here I am finishing my journey here. And Vancouver is a great city, quite small, surrounded by spectacular mountains and views and rich in multiculturalism. It might be the most diverse place I’ve been to on the West Coast. We stayed just outside Chinatown, and a lot of the artwork around the town called back to the traditions of native peoples. It’s not really a tourist destination, and without a car we couldn’t explore the surrounding nature, but at this point we are all pretty tired so that’s alright. It’s been good to take a few days to relax, not worry about squeezing in as much activity as possible although we did see a lot of this city, and get ready to go home.

When I left George Mason about a week and a half ago (has it only been that long?!) I was really sad to be leaving, and I didn’t feel like my time in America should be about to come to an end. This trip to the other side of the continent has been fantastic, packed, tiring, eye-opening and most of all fun, and it’s helped me get prepared for home. Doing so much in such a short amount of time has felt like an epic journey, and I’ve shared it with some great people. I’ve met amazing people from all over the world, but some of the best have been the fellow Brits I met at Mason, and who saw the West Coast with me. Enjoy the rest of your trip guys as you make a few more stops before Britain welcomes us home.

So see you later Ross, the full-on Scot with a kilt who doesn’t really sound that Scottish, are you sure you’re not American? Emily, who has been there from drinking apple pie flavoured moonshine around a bonfire in South Virginia to us trying to figure out how to kayak around the Potomac on the hottest day of the year, I’ll see you for karaoke eventually! And Joe and Georgia, my fellow Leicester students who I didn’t really know but waited hours for me in the airport anyway. Our search for Walmart feels like a long time ago now! I’m glad we made it out those study rooms alive Georgia, and there’ve been too many jokes to remember Joe (I can never think about Bob Dylan without laughing again). Still don’t like your jacket though…. Thanks to all of you guys for a great year from the first day to the last, and I’ll see you back home.

So this actually is the proper end of the Year Abroad… I feel like I have to capitalise it, for so long it was this abstract thing I was working up to, probably since Summer 2010 when I was picking my University course. Most people will tell you it’s gone so fast, but for me it feels like a long time ago that I really realised what I was getting into. It was halfway through the first plane here, I’d watched about 2 films and it hit me for the first time that I was doing this massive undertaking alone, knowing nobody. 9 months later that day seems like a long time ago, and the experiences that have followed have made this, I think I can honestly say, the best year of my life. Leaving Mason I felt like it was over and was very downbeat, but after this West Coast adventure it feels right this time has come to an end. And in whatever shape or form the next adventure comes, I look forward to it.

Until then, London’s Calling…

A

Headed for the Frisco Bay

With our studies at George Mason behind us and an eventual return home not too far ahead, a few Brits and I have made the long journey west to see the West Coast of America, which has turned out to be a very different experience to the East. Alongside Joe, Georgia, Emily and Ross, I boarded the plane to leave D.C. for the last time and head to our first stop in San Francisco, via Dallas- which turned out to be a bit trickier than we’d planned. Sitting on the plane we were told by the pilot they were working on a technical fault which could take anything from 5 minutes to 5 hours to fix, a reassuring start! Our plane eventually set off and we landed in Dallas, complete with typical Texas Cowboy-dressed men walking around, just in time to miss our plane and be told we’d wait until the next morning to get to San Fran. After being awake the whole night before bidding goodbye to Mason and carrying a year’s worth of luggage with me, it was a pretty emotional day to say the least… thankfully some space opened up and 7 hours later than planned, we arrived in San Francisco and the 5 of us squeezed into a tiny hostel with a stranger who you had to feel sorry for. Our student travels had begun!

I didn't know much about San Fran more than the obvious Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, so our first day was well spent seeing new sights like the famous twisting Lombard Street, the Coit Tower, and hills- lots of hills. Seriously, people in this city must stay so fit because the amount of walking up and down is insane! With some beautiful weather out as well making the day a hot one, it might have been the reason I didn’t take to San Fran as quickly as I had other cities. We saw plenty but it felt a bit lifeless, or underwhelming considering how famous it is.

Our evening was great though, as I saw my very first baseball game with the Giants playing the Miami Marlins. The sport is much better to watch in person than on television because the atmosphere is everything in a stop-start game like baseball, and we quickly picked our favourite players to support- go Pabs! I love how passionate Americans get about sports, especially when they are celebrating their national anthem performed here by Metallica on guitar which was strange but great to witness first-hand. The Giants eventually lost after 4 hours or so but we’d left after 2- it got very cold, very quick, but seeing baseball along with ice hockey and basketball has been fantastic. My team always lost, but still…

 Big Fan

Less interested

Day 2 brought us to Alcatraz Island, a typical tourist activity but a must-see in San Francisco if you ever visit. Everyone has heard of the Rock- even if it’s through a silly Sean Connery film, and the tour didn’t disappoint, as we saw where the inmates were locked up, tried to escape, and how the history of the facility unfolded. For me, the best part was seeing some of the graffiti left by American Indians during their occupation of the island. We’d learned about this in seminars at Leicester, so to see the first hand evidence of it was fascinating. American Indians seem to be the forgotten group of this nation, with their decline simply accepted and ignored in popular consciousness, so this was a rare reminder of their place in history and current society.

After Alcatraz we went to the famous Bubba Gump restaurant. I have to admit I’m not a fan of Forrest Gump (I know, I’m terrible) but the food was amazing, the best Jambalaya I've ever had… sorry Mum!

At this point I was enjoying my time but I still didn’t feel like I’d really seen San Francisco, but on our last full day that changed as we walked up through the heart of Downtown, taking in Union Square, Chinatown (the biggest in North America) and up to Fishermen’s Wharf, and I finally saw a city bursting with life and colour, hustle and bustle and movement, art and music, and finally San Francisco won me over. It took it’s time, but it was worth it; I can’t compare it to any other place I've been, truly unique.

While doing my research one of the places I found that I really wanted to see was the Walt Disney Family Museum, in the Presidio along the way to the Bridge. I’m a big fan of those classic Disney films from the 40s and 50s so I wanted to check this out, and it didn’t disappoint, telling you the story of Walt Disney’s life through this amazing body of work, and best of all it had the stunning original artwork from films like Fantasia, Bambi and The Jungle Book which I loved. These tiny sketches and watercolours had so much energy and character to them, they matched any of the masterpieces I've seen in the many art museums I've visited this year- and I've seen a lot!

So San Francisco turned out to be so much more than a bridge, it was my introduction to the West Coast, and a place to see things I never thought I would or had never even heard of, but I’m very glad I did. And speaking of the Bridge- that was a pretty amazing sight too!

A

Goodbye George Mason

The last week of the semester has been perhaps the most eventful, as I’ve explored Washington D.C. for the last few times this year and had some of my best days there, completed my exams and all my classes at George Mason with strong grades to take back to Leicester, and said our goodbyes for now to each other as my time at Mason came to an end. Emotional rollercoaster isn’t even the word for this week, but if there was any other way to bid farewell to this University, Fairfax and D.C., and these brilliant people of Hampton Roads and beyond I can’t imagine it being better than this. Well, maybe you could take away the exams, but in the end they weren’t too stressful. It’s a shame we didn’t have a few more days after exams ended, but you make the most of what you have.

Before exams we got away from revision by first having a little picnic and one of our last Time’s Up games, always with some names nobody else knew (“he’s a famous French actor, part of the new wave, you must know” really Benjamin?) and Joe in full Bob Dylan tribute mode. Then this past Sunday I went with Pauline, Emily, Rafael and GG to Georgetown for a last day there. The weather was beautiful for kayaking on the Potomac which was absolutely brilliant, one of the best things I’ve done in D.C. It was so much fun to get in a boat (with suspiciously little health and safety, mind you), head down the river, around Theodore Roosevelt Island, back up and past the Lincoln Memorial and seeing it from the water. Afterwards we checked out the final few landmarks in Georgetown we hadn’t seen yet, like the Old Stone House, the only surviving pre-Revolution building in the area, the steps that appeared in the film The Exorcist (which are incredibly steep, so if you’ve seen the film you can imagine how intimidating they could be), and one last D.C. memorial to T. Roosevelt. It’s an island on the river, completely covered in forest apart from one grand clearing with 

classical fountains and a huge statue, very fitting for the larger than life President it remembers.

3 exams in 2 days came and went, tough schedule but learning about the Revolution, Vietnam War and U.S Foreign Policy was interesting and got me through them- how much of that knowledge will stick around I don’t know! We took a chilled evening afterwards, apart from Yusuke who soldiered on for 35 hours straight without sleep to study for his exams, because he’s absolutely mad! To the cake-making team led by Sahrish, thank you for creating an epic Hogwarts Express cake complete with passengers, it was delicious!

When we first visited D.C. in September, as we exited the Metro the first landmark we saw was the Washington Monument, the giant obelisk in the centre of the city. It was covered in scaffolding as it had been since late 2011, when an earthquake meant it was closed for repairs. Over the course of this year we’ve watched the scaffold slowly be removed until 3 days before we left, the Monument reopened for visitors. So as our time around the American capital ended, Joe and I went to the first landmark we had seen all those months ago, and it was a nice way to complete our D.C. experiences. The views were spectacular too! Then on our return journey to campus, on the bus in Fairfax an eccentric man from Nicaragua in a patterned shirt, very short shorts and a crazy laugh got on, and we remembered back to our first night in America. We had been trying to get back to campus from Walmart and this man had helped us find the bus, and chatted to us about guns, Playboy, Nicaragua and Mick Jagger for a very surreal first day. 9 months later he turned up again for our last… either it’s a symbol that the circle was complete, or this guy just rides the bus a lot!

The last night was an all-nighter, as those of us departing on the 15^th finished packing and had a last supper in Fairfax. After a long night of hanging out, eating the cake (and wishing happy birthday to Yunjin and Mahmud!), a final game of Fifa against Youssef (my Juventus were schooled 5-3 by his Barca) getting emotional at Sahrish’s Hampton Roads video and one last Time’s Up, it was time to head to the airport. Thank you guys for staying up the whole night with us to see us off, it meant so much to me to see the friends I’ve made over this past year stick around until the end. Because you guys are some of the closest and best friends I’ve ever known, and I will miss you and this 4^th floor so much. When you look towards doing an experience like this, you think about and anticipate all the places you’ll visit and things you can do in America which have been brilliant. What you can’t anticipate or expect are the people you’ll meet, the friendships you’ll forge, or the memories made that will be treasured forever.

Me, the King and the Peacock

So with all my heart, I say goodbye for now to you strange, wonderful people, good luck for the future and I promise to see you again, whether it’s visiting you around the world or pressuring you guys to come to England. And thank you all- Joo Hyun the classy peacock, Yusef for your fellow geekiness, and Kazuki for the love of trains (and grapes). Soomin who you never knew if she was joking or actually being so mean, Sana, Monisola and Vanessa for your unforgettable laughter, Josh for your deadpan humour and being a great RA along with Sarah whose enthusiasm got me through a lot of study sessions, and Abigail for your kindness and baking skills. The ever-red GG, badminton champion Pauline and anxious Rafael. To Charles for introducing Freddies, Hannah and Seth for geek talk, Erim for your artistry, Angelita and Augusto for pool at the Hub, Phil for the reliable madness of our chats. Alexandre for your amazing photos which we’re all going to steal, Bruno our King, Shelby for your teaching and Benjamin for your wisdom and entertaining fashion choices. Tara being laid-back, Percy getting Fifa rage, Youssef staying cool as he lost big time to Percy, Sebastian for always asking what’s up, Patrick for never knowing what was happening in Global Crossings, Susan’s high fives and everyone else who made this semester and year great. Thank you to Terry for being a great mate, see you at Leicester-Liverpool next year. Thanks to Sophia for your smuggling, Sahrish for your wisdom and jokes, and the late, late night conversations we all had that never ended. And thank you Yusuke, my roommate for the past year for putting up with me. I know he’ll never read this- he’s probably mentioned in this blog more than anyone, but doesn’t read it, when I asked he said “I lived it you know, it’s like homework to read it”. But you’ve been a great friend and I will miss you along with everyone else.

This blog isn’t quite done yet- I’m typing this from San Francisco, and then it’s onto Seattle and Vancouver- but my time at Mason is done. It’s been the best guys, until the next time,

A