Over the summer we had decided we wanted to go to the Florence and the Machine concert in London. We had looked into tickets for the show and even train tickets before buying them to make sure we would be able to get back to Cambridge on a Tuesday night. And so last night after Ely cathedral, we set off on our journey to Alexandra Palace. Since I don’t have a data plan I looked up all the directions the night before, printed them out and was prepared to get us there in one piece.

From our train from Ely to Cambridge, we had to make a connection for a train towards King’s Cross. After we got to our stop at Finsbury Park, we then got on another train for Alexandra Palace, our last stop. I was shocked and surprised when we actually made it with no issues! It was amazing! We got off the train at Alexandra Palace with the rest of the train, all heading to the concert, and walked up to the venue, which sat on top of a hill overlooking all of London. It was spectacular. Tiph and I couldn’t believe we were actually in London, seeing Florence, all by ourselves.

As we wandered around after getting food we wandered into a large hall with all different food carts and a large fake lawn for everyone to sit around and eat. It looked like a giant carnival (without the rides) but it was incredible! Since it was already 7:00, we were shocked at how everyone was so chill. Why weren’t people already packed in so tightly, getting as close as they could to the main stage? It was so much more relaxing. Again to our surprise, the opening act didn’t come out until about 7:45, finishing up at 8:30. At this point, I was getting a bit antsy. When was Florence going to come on? Would we be able to make it back to our train?

At 9:00 Florence came on and all my worries went away. The show was phenomenal. I don’t even have the words to explain how amazing it was. By 10:45 the show was coming to an end and while I wish it wouldn’t have ended, Tiph and I went into traveling mode. We found our way onto an earlier train, extremely happy to be getting home faster than we had anticipated. Again we had started on the right track, figuring out our next moves, determined not to get lost. But as fate would have it, of course getting home wouldn’t be that simple. After getting off at Finsbury Park, we discovered that the trains to Hitchin and Cambridge stopped at 10:30 and we had to get on a bus to get to Cambridge. We wandered outside, looking for a bus or any workers to help us but for some reason, it seemed that every employee of the station had already gone home. At this point the nerves started setting in. We found ourselves getting back on a train to King’s Cross to find a way back to Cambridge. There, panic still very much present, we found some workers who we hoped would tell us there was still a way to get back home. They told us to get back on a train to Hitchin, where we will find the bus to get us to Cambridge. Reluctantly, Tiph and I obeyed, found our way to the train, convinced we would be sleeping in the Hitchin train station. Luckily we ended up on a bus to Cambridge and by 2:00 am, we were finally back home.

Last night I learned a lot. I learned, like I do every weekend, that traveling will never go 100% smoothly no matter how well you plan and that’s okay. In fact, it makes for an even better story. I also learned how lucky I am to be here. Sure, traveling is expensive and stressful. But last night I got to see Florence and the Machine, in London, her hometown, in one of the most beautiful arena’s I’ve ever been in. I’m not going to lie, I have a lot to do before I leave for Spain on Thursday but taking time out to enjoy where I am is what’s important. Spending the day at a beautiful place like Ely, then the night in one of the greatest cities in the world, is unbelievable and I need to remember that while I’m here it’s important to make new adventures and experiences that are all my own, not just going along with what everyone else is doing.

-Emily

Well, as we all know, I’m staying up until 4:00 am to watch the Cubs game tonight, so I might as well be getting some work done. Growing up in Chicago, being a Cubs fan is just about as much of my identity as being a white female. So I’m going to take some time to write about what being a Cubs fan has taught me.

My family & I at Wrigley Field, April 2014

First and Foremost, being a Cubs fan has taught me that defeat is inevitable. Losing is a part of life and an important one at that. No one likes to lose, but it takes a true fan to stick with a team after 100+ years of seemingly hopeless baseball. Everyone knows that life is filled with ups and downs and I’ve come to realize that your strength is not about how many more ups you have than downs but how you handle the downs when they occur. Of course, you’ll be disappointed, like I said no one likes to lose. However, with defeat there comes room for hope. And that is one of the many ways that strength can be tested, by how hopeful someone is despite all outs. Season after season, we sit at Wrigley, hoping for our prayers to be answered, hoping for a chance to show what a true fan looks like. This insane hope, is most definitely a trait I possess. Where others would be beaten down by the struggles of daily life, I have learned to find energy and motivation to look to the future. In travel, much like in the friendly confines, you must carry on with this strange understanding that anything can happen. People will think your crazy, for putting up with the stress and defeat of trying to get around a city where no one speaks your language. You don’t know what will happen, some days will be good, and some days will be horrible. However to keep going, you must think of the good days, and more importantly the better days yet to come.

In Chicago, for the most part you have 2 types of people, Cubs fans and Sox Fans (all under one umbrella, Blackhawks fans). I know plenty of Sox fans, and they’re great people, don’t get me wrong. However there’s a world of difference from walking through the friendly confines vs. walking into the Cell. At the Cell, you came to watch baseball, and you came to watch the Sox win. You want fireworks and hype, that’s what makes it a good game. At Wrigley, that’s most certainly not the case. You go for the game, but just as much you go for the people and the atmosphere. There’s something homey about settling into your seats at Wrigley, wanting the Cubbies to win, but knowing that even if they don’t it’s still going to be a wonderful day. And this is where I learned the importance of community. When this view of strong and understanding community is applied to travel and my time abroad I think how it is living in a house with 8 others who I wouldn’t be living with in any other circumstance. The ability to make a house a home, lies in many ways, in the attitude of those living there. There are people who came here, for the wins, for the fireworks and the hype. Then there are those who came for the real experience of studying and living in another country. It’s unrealistic to say that everyday will be perfect and why would you want it that way? If everything was perfect all the time, we would have no sense of overcoming barriers. The bonds that are created at Wrigley over both wins and lose are what make up the friendly confines. You don’t need everyday to be sunny; you just have to hope there’s someone at the game who will share their umbrella with you.

I’ll admit, I’m usually a band wagoner. In 2013, I watched maybe 3 games of the Stanley Cup, bought a T shirt and went to the Blackhawks parade simply because my friends were going. However, with the Cubs its different, they’re the only team I’ve followed and loved all my life. Throughout this season, the cubs have taught me how to be proud without being arrogant. It’s something that is difficult in this day and age. How at 20 years old, can I talk about myself and my accomplishments without bragging? It’s a question I ask myself, nearly everyday as I’m relaying my daily adventures to my friends back home. I want to convey the stresses of traveling and planning when all they (understandably) hear is the fact that I get to spend a week in Spain. The Cubs are proud to be where they are today, we know we’re the underdogs; we’ve never denied that fact. And maybe that’s why everyone else is so proud too, because they all know how the Cubs have struggled. But just people others from back home don’t always understand what I could be going through here doesn’t mean I can’t be proud of the victories I’m accomplishing. There’s a certain pride that comes with leaving Cambridge and ending up hours later in Barcelona at the hostel, no matter how many times you didn’t think it would happen. That pride is something that has helped me a lot this semester. Whenever it feels like too much, or like I can’t do it, I think about the hope I’ve learned from the cubbies, or the community I have backing me up every step of the way and I find the strength within myself to carry on because I know that the risk will be worth the reward.

In all of the craziness of packing and planning this past summer, I found myself getting more and more stressed about the semester to come. Then we got an email about Open Cambridge, at weekend completely devoted to experiencing and learning about Cambridge. Since this city would become my home, I was so excited. I started planning every event that I wanted to go to. Planning my events for Open Cambridge was something that became a kind of solace for me. It was relaxing and fun but also productive since I was able to at least check one thing off my list. As the weekend approached I was happy to see more of Cambridge and to have a break after a busy weekend in London.

Newnham College of Cambridge University

I really enjoyed the weekend but it was for different reasons than I originally thought. The event I was most excited for was a talk at Newnham College about Women’s history and literary heritage. Coming from a sorority whose open motto is “Inspiring the highest type of womanhood” and main philanthropy is an organization that works to instill confidence in your girls, I was SO excited for this talk. I wasn’t sure if it would be a lecture or a discussion but I was eager to find out how women had worked their way through history in Cambridge. I did end up learning a lot, however it was much more focused on a tour of the campus itself with some history about how the college came to be. The campus was beautiful and the buildings were absolutely gorgeous but just wasn’t the talk I was expecting. Even though it was a bit of a let down, we did get to know more of Cambridge just by walking out there and seeing a part of town we don’t usually venture out to.

On a brighter note, there were 2 events that stood out to me above others and I absolutely loved. The first was the session of Squash that we played at the Sports Center in West Cambridge. That was another event where it was quite a trek to get there. Being the navigator and the broke college student, I figured we’d be better off walking there rather than taking a cab that would actually know where the sports center was. Having screenshot different pages of Google maps, we seemed to be on the right track, but it was taking much longer than expected. We managed to only get lost once, finding ourselves wandering through a large field but soon got back on the right road. Finally we arrived and learned how to play squash and racquetball. Although we were horrible and we didn’t keep score, it was a blast! Of all the things I’ve done in Cambridge it’s been one of the most enjoyable because it’s something that is much more unique to this culture. Being able to tell my friends that I spent the afternoon playing squash was something so simple yet an adventure all on its own. I also loved being able to be a part of Bridge the Gap. Walking around the city and campuses without being talked at was a break that I needed. I love exploring this city and seeing all the history it has but it was refreshing to take my time and see the campuses on my own.

Although this weekend wasn’t quite what I expected, I think it was exactly what I needed. I needed to have time to explore Cambridge, I needed to take a break from the craziness of the last 3 weeks and most importantly, I needed to know that while things don’t always go as you would expect, that’s part of traveling. Open Cambridge wasn’t what I expected but I still had a wonderful weekend and had great experiences.

-Emily

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for nearly a month! In all honesty I’ve been putting off writing this first blog post because I’ve been so amazed by my experience here in Cambridge I haven’t known how to put it into words. But today I’m going to try my hardest to describe how fantastic this experience has been already.

The 9 of us arrived in Cambridge on August 27^th, ready to start our semester-long adventure in the UK. The first few weeks were filled with guided tours and orientation sessions to get us familiar with the area. While some tours seemed longer than others, I can say that the tours combined with our own time to explore was the perfect way to find our way around the city during the first few days.

In addition to life in Cambridge, the program through Valparaiso University, provides us a few class trips throughout the semester. Our first trip was a weekend spent in London. We spent our days, seeing all the main sites of London including The Tower of London, West Minster Abbey, The House of Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral and a play at Shakepseare’s Globe Theatre. We also got the chance to take a boat tour down the Thames to the markets of Greenwich. It was an incredible but exhausting weekend filled with minor obstacles. I feel like this weekend trip was essential to have in the first few weeks of arriving because we were able to test our travel endurance. We got to run from train to train in the underground, checking to see which one is the right one to take. Because of this amazing weekend, no matter how draining it was, I got an idea of what London is really like. I know there is so much more to London than what we originally saw, but now I feel confident enough to go into the city and get my way around the Underground.

Since that first trip to London, our group has began planning our future weekend breaks, making sure we have back up plans for any of our travels. It’s been a semester of ups and downs, dealing with the stresses of travel and homesickness. However in the past month I can say that all of the ups have made all the downs worth it. Cambridge has already became a 2nd home for everyone in our cohort and I can’t wait to see what else the semester has to bring!

-Emily