This year marks yet another where I have completed no new honors experiences. Probably not how I’m supposed to start, but lets get it all out there. What I can say, however, is that I have not had a shortage of other experiences. I think I have travelled more this past year than any other in my life. From back home in Canada, to visit my sister co-oping out in San Francisco to the beautiful beaches of Hawaii for spring break and two glorious weeks in Europe at the end of spring semester, I have had a plethora of new experiences. With half of my college career down and a daunting five semesters to go, I hope they fly by and last forever all at the same time.
I started out this year returning to Interbrand Design Forum. Remember the barn? (Refer to my previous Year In Review, it was well covered) I spent another four months in the tumultuous transition of Interbrand Design Forum and Interbrand Cincinnati as the two offices joined forces. I was still surrounded by a great group of people, the work itself came and went, and the time flew by. Before I knew it, I was back in class again.
The spring semester marked the beginning of most of my travel. My sister was co-oping, for nothing other than graphic design, out in San Francisco, California. Lucky girl. In retrospect I am envious of her ambition to get out of Cincinnati, I’m not sure why I felt the need to stay. (But here I am again for the summer). I was lucky enough to spend a weekend out in sunny California with her. We explored the Walt Disney Family Museum, ate what I consider to be the best vegetarian taco ever, went to a farmers market on the pier, saw the art of my favorite artist, explored San Fran’s many diverse neighborhoods on foot, explored San Fran’s many diverse neighborhoods by car, enjoyed a Chinese New Years parade, and were even Berkley students for a couple hours.
My next and most significant venture of the year was the two weeks I spent in Europe in late May. This trip was about a year in coming, as soon as I figured out I had several friends studying abroad I knew I needed to figure out a way to visit. Finals week and the week before coop quickly became the perfect opportunity. So my best friend, a fellow DAAPer and I, spent two weeks in Ireland, England and Scotland. It was the trip of a lifetime. In Ireland we spent day trips on buses with our hilarious tour guide Joe, found a hole in the wall pub with the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten, snuck into five star castles renovated as hotels, found deserted pubs in Galway, met a fantastic family of Canadians, ate potatoes with every meal, shared our first pints of Guinness and encountered some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Ireland will always hold a special place in my heart and it was my favorite of the three countries.
I started out this year returning to Interbrand Design Forum. Remember the barn? (Refer to my previous Year In Review, it was well covered) I spent another four months in the tumultuous transition of Interbrand Design Forum and Interbrand Cincinnati as the two offices joined forces. I was still surrounded by a great group of people, the work itself came and went, and the time flew by. Before I knew it, I was back in class again.
The spring semester marked the beginning of most of my travel. My sister was co-oping, for nothing other than graphic design, out in San Francisco, California. Lucky girl. In retrospect I am envious of her ambition to get out of Cincinnati, I’m not sure why I felt the need to stay. (But here I am again for the summer). I was lucky enough to spend a weekend out in sunny California with her. We explored the Walt Disney Family Museum, ate what I consider to be the best vegetarian taco ever, went to a farmers market on the pier, saw the art of my favorite artist, explored San Fran’s many diverse neighborhoods on foot, explored San Fran’s many diverse neighborhoods by car, enjoyed a Chinese New Years parade, and were even Berkley students for a couple hours.
My next and most significant venture of the year was the two weeks I spent in Europe in late May. This trip was about a year in coming, as soon as I figured out I had several friends studying abroad I knew I needed to figure out a way to visit. Finals week and the week before coop quickly became the perfect opportunity. So my best friend, a fellow DAAPer and I, spent two weeks in Ireland, England and Scotland. It was the trip of a lifetime. In Ireland we spent day trips on buses with our hilarious tour guide Joe, found a hole in the wall pub with the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten, snuck into five star castles renovated as hotels, found deserted pubs in Galway, met a fantastic family of Canadians, ate potatoes with every meal, shared our first pints of Guinness and encountered some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Ireland will always hold a special place in my heart and it was my favorite of the three countries.
England was next and we spent our first three days in London. From finding dimly lit underground wine bars, eclectic food markets, drinking tea with every meal, enjoying the city and the River Thames at sunset from the London Eye, seeing the Crown Jewels, it felt like we walked the entire city! London was one of the most diverse cities I’ve ever experienced and by far my favorite on the trip. No I didn’t just say the same thing about Ireland, I was referring to the entire country. From there we spent a day in Salisbury visiting a historic manor home called the Winton House and Stonehenge and then two days in the beautifully historic city of Bath.
From Bath we took six hour train ride up to Edinburgh, Scotland. The end of the trip quickly became a whirlwind, with two days in Edinburgh, a bus trip into the Scottish Highlands and a final day in Glasgow before returning to Dublin to fly home. At this point we were exhausted and had planned to try to do too much. However, I wouldn’t trade this trip for the world.
From Bath we took six hour train ride up to Edinburgh, Scotland. The end of the trip quickly became a whirlwind, with two days in Edinburgh, a bus trip into the Scottish Highlands and a final day in Glasgow before returning to Dublin to fly home. At this point we were exhausted and had planned to try to do too much. However, I wouldn’t trade this trip for the world.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was staying in Airbnbs. It was such a unique experience to stay with locals almost everywhere we went. We stayed with families, couples, even college roommates. Several of them were even kind enough to feed us breakfast. In Edinburgh we had a basket of assorted breakfast foods delivered to our door each morning. In Bath we sat down with a lovely couple to talk over breakfast. It was so interesting to share stories and meet people that quickly became friendly faces. A smile is a smile no matter the language, and even though we didn’t encounter any language barriers, we felt overly welcomed and rather at home with complete strangers. One of the most interesting and coincidental things that happened as well was that many of the people that we stayed with were fellow creatives. We stayed in a girl’s room in London who was also a graphic designer, at the Royal Academy of Art no less. The couple we stayed with in Bath, the husband was a ceramist and was actually showing his work and his studio the weekend we were visiting. I am kicking myself now for not purchasing a piece. The mother in Edinburgh was a professor of design.
I love travel for the unique interactions that you get to share with people. Not just the ones you travel with, but the ones you meet, the ones you stay with and then ones with whom you may not exchange more than a few words. You leave feeling as though you have lived through something you can hardly explain. Something that has changed you for the better. I loved my time abroad and I love any time that I get to spend in new places. I love the memories made, the food, the culture, and most importantly the people I meet. I met people my own age and well beyond on this trip, and had conversations that have stuck with me and I have people that I now follow on social media. It may have been pure happenstance that we met and the time we spent may have been far to brief but I am extremely grateful for it nonetheless. I cannot wait to continue to travel and I know that this travel bug that I have caught will push me to explore every corner of the world.
I love travel for the unique interactions that you get to share with people. Not just the ones you travel with, but the ones you meet, the ones you stay with and then ones with whom you may not exchange more than a few words. You leave feeling as though you have lived through something you can hardly explain. Something that has changed you for the better. I loved my time abroad and I love any time that I get to spend in new places. I love the memories made, the food, the culture, and most importantly the people I meet. I met people my own age and well beyond on this trip, and had conversations that have stuck with me and I have people that I now follow on social media. It may have been pure happenstance that we met and the time we spent may have been far to brief but I am extremely grateful for it nonetheless. I cannot wait to continue to travel and I know that this travel bug that I have caught will push me to explore every corner of the world.