Edinburgh, London, Spain

Edinburgh

Edinburgh was great. I watched lots of performances at the Fringe, half of which I attended alone.  It was difficult figuring people out, and I’m usually pretty quick to judge (or, as I like to call it, discern) whether someone is ‘my kind’ of person but it’s definitely a lot harder given a smaller pool. I also got ditched a couple of times, but no hard feelings there. Everyone was still figuring things out, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who got left behind a couple times. 

It sometimes turned out to be a blessing in disguise—the coolest thing that happened was that I met Paula, a Spanish actress who had gone to a performing arts/clown school in France and then a dance academy, and was at the Fringe to watch some of her friends’ shows. I ended up going to a show with her, where her friends (clowns) put on a hilarious performance. I would later meet her again for drinks in Madrid (her hometown), but I haven’t quite reached out to her since. It’s slightly difficult to communicate given the language/lifestyle barrier, but it was definitely an interesting experience getting to know her.

I liked Edinburgh. I might go back. I might not. But it was a nice place to start off the semester, for sure.

London

London actually felt more like the start of the program, after the relaxed time we had in Edinburgh (we had a lot of free time, mainly meant to be spent on seeing Fringe performances, which I did). We took several day trips to some other parts of England (Canterbury, Stonehenge, Avebury, etc.) but also spent some time in the city. I managed to catch The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, which was AMAZING!!! So glad I got to see it, even though I’ve never actually read it. It was a super well-done performance, with really great props and all sorts of different elements that they added that just made it a joy to watch. We also saw As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe, which was okay, and Othello at Stratford-Upon-Avon on the way down to London, but I didn’t enjoy them nearly as much. 

St. Paul’s Cathedral was beautiful, and Westminster Abbey was okay in comparison, but still pretty. But it was pretty cool to have been able to attend evensong in both. As for food, I had a really great steak for 10 pounds at Flat Iron, but also tons of sandwiches. I tried to see the changing of the guards, but failed, went down through Churchill’s war rooms, which was super cool, and visited the Imperial War Museum, where they have the original flag that was raised above the former Singapore town hall (I have no idea where that would have been... The building in front of the Padang I'm guessing?) at the end of the Japanese occupation on display.

I also took a bus down to Oxford on my free day to go visit Ms Grace, my sec 2 lit teacher from St Marg’s, who I believe was the one who first sparked my interest in lit. I remember going back to her for consultation in sec 3, even after she was no longer my teacher because I just loved her different perspectives and ways of explaining the concepts that I could not understand from my own lit teacher at the time. She’s now getting her Masters in Theatre and I can’t wait to see where she ends up. It was super nice getting to catch up with her, and that was definitely one of the highlights of London as well. I actually barely did any touristy things (London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, etc.), because of the lack of time, plus I’m leaving them for next time. Overall, I really liked London and it’s probably at the top of my list of places that I’m definitely returning to.

Spain

I’m just condensing Spain into one category even though we were there for 3 weeks and spent time in 4 different cities (not including day trips). We were in Madrid, Granada, Sevilla and Barcelona and took day trips to all sorts of places, such as Avilia, Segovia, Toledo, Cordoba, Rhonda... Funny story about Rhonda—I’d actually been there before a couple years ago but I didn’t realize/recognize the place until we walked past a McDonalds that I remember going into for wifi, and then everywhere else immediately looked very familiar. It’s actually pretty sad because that was basically my #1 priority at the time (and probably would still be, if I didn’t have data) and I pretty much ignored the beauty of everything else that was around me (but I was younger and stupider, I forgive myself). 

I ate a lot of steak and gelato, not as many churros (the ones I had weren’t that great, sadly) and got soooo sick of pork and tapas in general. I did drink a lot of Sangria, though. I actually didn’t particularly love Spain because our schedule was packed and we were rushed around by tour guides all the time and I just felt like there was never time to really stop and appreciate anything, even though we were seeing some really amazing stuff. But I definitely got to see and learn and experience a lot, so I’m thankful for that part. It’s pretty understandable that given how little time we have in every city, we basically have to jam-pack seeing everything into those few days. Plus I gotta go back to see La Sagrada Familia when its construction is complete.

In case you were wondering...

I'm in Italy right now, on the final leg of my semester in Europe. I should be working on a paper that's due today (yes, I actually have school work to do--big shocker!). I've been #blessed (lol) (but really) with the opportunity to be a part of the Europe Semester program that my school offers (one of four programs of the kind to exist in the US, apparently) and it's been an amazing experience just going from city to city, country to country and studying World War II history, European art, technology and current affairs as we go along (yay liberal arts!).

It’s crazy to think that I’m spending the last few months of my teenaged life traveling around Europe. I guess there is some symbolism in it—the idea of being free (kind of) and independent (I’m definitely learning, at least) to mark the end of these years. I’ve definitely felt challenged by circumstances, but I’ve also learnt to take responsibility of my life, actions and duties. I’m glad that I get a slightly longer winter break this year (because the program started two weeks earlier and so we end earlier as well), and I’m hoping that it’s finally time that I get my shit life together and start organizing my life back home. I have way too much stuff all around that I want to sort out (I am a massive hoarder) and I really feel that once I get rid of all that I’m going to feel much less stifled.

I’m excited for the next 1.5 years. I feel like I’ve pretty much got it figured out, aside from smaller details and/or any changes that might be out of my control (which I am prepared to graciously accept, because what’s life without change?) I’m excited for life after college as well. I don’t know what exactly I want to do, but I have ideas. I’m excited to see where life takes me in general. I’m glad I ended up on this trip—it wasn’t exactly something I planned extensively for, but more of something that simply fell onto my lap.

There are times when I feel slightly mad at myself for not journaling extensively (or at all, really) about this trip from the start. But it’s too late to turn back to clock now, but I shall try my best to recall as much as I can. It’s been an amazing trip and I’ve experienced so much, but I guess there’s only so much that may really be worth remembering. I’d like to think I’m pretty good at letting things go, but I just never realize what I need to let go (back to the hoarder characteristic, I guess).

Either way, I should at least try to document some stuff. I already lost most of my pictures and videos from the trip because I left my external hard drive that I saved everything on in Paris (if anyone could help me pull some strings with CapitaLand and get their damn staff at their serviced apartments in Paris to just check under the freaking couch that I’m 99% sure it’s under, I will love you forever… And yes we stayed in a CapitaLand establishment LOL). So here goes nothing. But I shan’t cram it all in this post. On to the next one!