Copenhagen

            The Copenhagen experience was an experience to say the least. After another 15-hour travel day, I finally arrived at around 3am. I was going to meet up with Matt Marsh who had some friends in the Loyola Copenhagen abroad program, but I got there and could not get in touch with him. A combination of our phones not working, and me figuring that he had gone out or something, I decided to exhaust that as an option. I walked in the direction of his friend’s apartment in search of a park bench. My stubborn self didn’t want to buy a hotel room only for a few hours. I found a picnic table type situation not far from the apartment, and went to lie down. About 5 minutes later I heard two girls walk over with a dog and were speaking English. I got up and asked them if they were American, perhaps they went to Loyola, I thought. One of them was Swedish and the other from England- no luck. They asked me what I was doing and explained to them that I couldn’t get in touch with my friends etc. etc. They insisted that I stay at their apartment on the couch and I did precisely that.  They were incredibly nice and hospitable, and I figured I really didn’t have anything to lose (besides my life).

            I woke up the next morning and used Emmy’s computer to log onto Facebook and get in touch with Marsh. He was all worried about me and apologized about a hundred times, rightfully so. I gave him the address where I was and he came and met me. I told him the whole story and he couldn’t believe it, neither can I really. We walked around and met up with his friend Meg for lunch. At 4:30 I had a skype interview for an internship at Loyola for next school year. I went into the University’s library and did it and I’m pretty sure I crushed it.

            Marsh and I walked around the city and went and saw the famous mermaid statue. We also discovered a little trampoline park situation, which was fun, and free! Also, in downtown Copenhagen there is this cool wall called the #HappyWall which has different colored flaps which you can fold over to make letters. I wrote my signature #LOCALS on the wall so I was happy to get a picture with that. The two of us ended up staying with the Swedish girl again! Marsh ended up leaving me to go to Rome the next day but I figured I would stay one more night instead of having to take an overnight train. In the end, the best thing I ever did was go to that park bench and meet those two girls, because not only did they save me, but also my wallet big time. 

Week 7

               On Monday, I was one of six Loyola at Newcastle students invited to go to lunch with Dr. Kashak who is a Loyola global studies professor. Dr. Kashak was visiting his son getting his graduate degree at Cambridge University, and decided to come up to Newcastle when he had some free time while his son was busy. We went to Northern Lights which is a restaurant on campus but I had never been. We discussed academics, particularly contrasting Loyola's to Newcastle's. There are major differences as Newcastle has about 23,000 students and Loyola has about 4,000. We discussed our travel plans for spring break which is surprisingly already right around the corner and I can't wait for it. Dr. Kashak began talking about his travels throughout Europe and he was shocked about how many of the places he mentioned that I had already been to. He mentioned a tiny country called Liechtenstein which lies between Switzerland and Austria, and he said if you can get there, go - because it's another country to cross off your list. He was amazed when I told him I had lunch in Liechtenstein eight years ago. It was great meeting him and enjoyed the conversation and meal.
              Wednesday, I woke up and me and Matt Marsh walked over to the campus ministry-type place  for an Ash Wednesday service. It was fairly quick but I was glad I went and got it done. We immediately left and went and got sandwiches filled with meat. But I realized before we sat to eat them that it was Ash Wednesday, so we ended up throwing them away and getting a pizza.
              On Thursday, my friend John's little sister was coming- who I know because he and I are good friends from home, so I went with him to the airport to pic her up. I met him at the train station at 7:00 am and we took the train to the airport. He told me that I had a pink eye- which I didn't even realize because I was in such a rush. We got Mary from the airport - and I let him borrow my air mattress so she could sleep on it. After class I went and bought some eye drops at the pharmacy as my eye kept getting worse throughout the day.
             Friday my eye was even worse so I just sat in my room all day doing nothing really, and when I woke up Saturday I couldn't even open it. The eye drops said if it didn't show improvement in 48 hours to go back. I started putting them in Thursday at 6:00 so I decided to wait until Saturday at 6:00. It got worse and worse so I finally walked down to the hospital emergency room where they sent me to the Minor Injuries Unit. I met with a male nurse who gave me ointment to put on the lower lid of the eye. He told me it should clear it up but if it wasn't better by monday morning to go back to the hospital and go to the eye casualties division. Today, it was terrible. I can't look at my computer or phone or anything with light because it is so painful. I keep putting the ointment in but it is terrible. Hopefully when I wake up it will be a little better, but either way i'll probably end up going back. I'll keep you posted.

#locals

Weeks 5 & 6

              I decided to combine weeks five and six because week five was relatively slow and laid back. I mostly spent it doing out first actual assignment since arriving here which was a 1,000 word paper. It was fairly easy and I didn't break my back over it because it is ungraded, mandatory, but ungraded. Last Saturday (22nd) I woke up and watched the NFL combine, as one of my good friends from high school, Richard Rodgers was a participant. He played at Cal Berkeley for 3 years but declared for the draft this year, foregoing his senior season. I was fortunate enough to get out there twice to visit and it was amazing. He didn't do too well in the 40-yd dash but looked good in the cone drill and route running. Hopefully his pro day on March 18th will help raise his draft stock but it will be fun to see where he ends up.
               Thursday, Colin and I woke up at 9:00am and walked to the train station for our 9:50 train to Glasgow, Scotland. My buddy John (the one who I went to visit in Durham) got a group together to go see the American country singer Eric Church in Glasgow. He invited me, so Colin and I jumped all over it. We got there around 12:30 and walked all over creation looking for the hotel and eventually found it. John and Karen (his girlfriend who I met over winter break back home) waited for us and took us to our room so we could drop our bags off. The four of us walked to meet up with the rest of the group at a cool little Mexican restaurant. Two of the guys we met up with, I had already met in Durham , there was another guy and 3 other girls - so 10 of us total (all American). We had a decent Mexican meal and then walked around the city a bit. It was an interesting day weather-wise, a one minute it was sunny, the next it was raining, and the next it was hailing pebble sized sleet- but we did our best to dodge all that. We went back to the room and got ready for the show. The venue was pretty close so when we went to leave, it was only about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. We got there early enough so we were able to get seats (everyone was standing) two rows back from the stage- it was awesome. The concert was probably top five i've ever been to - and i've been to a lot. Up there with Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Chesney, and Zac Brown. We all were going nuts during the show as we a few Americans in a Scottish crowd.
               The next morning we had to wake up and get a train to Newcastle at 7:00 because Colin had class early and couldn't miss it. It was a struggle getting up after a long night, but we made the train and got back to Newcastle 3 hours later.
                Saturday, we went to Tynemouth which is a small little coastal beach town which is only a 30 minute metro ride from newcastle. We saw the ruins of an ancient castle, got some good fish and chips, and walked on the beach a little bit. We were there for about two hours but it was fun to get out and do something for the day and be productive.

#locals