Dispatch

I find myself very comfortable with my life in Singapore now.  The city is extremely clean, developed and Western, which facilitated my transition to life in Asia and eliminated my fear of culture shock.

Oktoberfest: the perfect way for Ben and me to end the last four crazy weeks of travel through Europe.  Unfortunately, we could only stay for the first day—Ben had to get back to London for orientation at King’s College and our plan was to fly out the next day, shortly after noon.

But, for the time being, our thoughts were consumed by Oktoberfest—over two weeks of beer, celebration, and Bavarian bliss—one of the most famous festivals in the world, and the one that I had most wanted to go to in my lifetime.  Now, the dream was coming true.

The train ride up to Switzerland was long but gave Ben and me our first glimpses of traditional Alpine wear.  The further our train took us into the heart of the Swiss Alps, the more oddly dressed old men we seemed to see: complete with green feathered hats and traditional lederhosen, and smoking wooden pipes tucked between their long, frizzy beards.

Venice was by far the laziest segment of our trip thus far, and looking back it was still one of my favorite cities to visit.  The place has a certain charm to it, a charm that is not lost even in the midst of the swarm of tourists that crowd its streets every day.  Everywhere you turn there is a postcard-worthy scene, which is greatly due to the absolutely gorgeous buildings, many with cracked paint, but this takes nothing away from their blushing brilliance.

The past week has been a blur of wonderful Italian scenery and new friends.  I don’t have nearly enough words to tell all the crazy things that have happened to Ben and me since we landed in Italy, but suffice it to say that I’m having an amazing time.  We’ve stayed at mostly hostels so far, which provide the perfect opportunity to meet people around the world while letting you save precious travel money.  I’ve met Canadians, Australians, Germans, Japs, Brits, Czechs, Americans, Argentinians, South Africans, and of course Italians in the

 It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog, and a lot has changed since then in my trip planning.  I’ll skip the tedious details; suffice it to say that my travel partner, Ben, had Visa issues and we had to back up the flight out of the USA.  As a result, we had to trim our trip a bit shorter: we missed La Tomatina and had to cut out Edinburgh entirely (quite tragic).  We flew out from Charlotte on August 28 and, after a sleepless night on the plane, landed in London at around 6 am local time. 

Before I could go off to London and study abroad for the semester I had to obtain a PBS Tier 4 (General) (Sponsor) Student visa. This involved collecting a long list of items that helped me prove that I am a real person, and I am for the most part financially and mentally stable. I am fortunate to live close enough to the British Consulate in New York City that I could make an appointment to go there and hand in my materials, rather than mail them away.