This is the glory of traveling throughout the world in this day and age....I post this blog at night, and it's the afternoon for my family in Chicago, the morning for my Grandparents in Vegas, and the Evening for my mates who I studied abroad with in England. Never did I realize, prior to January 2007, that I would have such an affinity for something that I had never experienced before...on the international scale anyway. I was fortunate to have traveled many of the beautiful Western United States on family vacations and a few short visits to the east coast - NYC, DC, and various locations in Florida...Never, however, had I left the country - that all changed January 17, 2007.
I packed up my belongings to live in England for 5 months, got a ride to the airport with my family, shed some tears, and my college roommate, Mark Schaffer and I boarded a plane from O'Hare to Manchester, England. Our excitement flying over Ireland and finally to England, where the cars were on the left side of the road, was unparalleled. We were actually flying over Europe, we knew this was a whole new chapter in our life that we were opening - but little did I know, how much it would change my life and how much I would learn. We parted ways, and I was on a train, on zero hours sleep, to Leeds, England, my home for the next five months. I knew no one, I was alone, but I was ready to face this challenge head on.
I arrived at my dorm, Bodington Hall - Seton House. It couldn't have been more than a minute until I heard the friendly greeting, "Hello Mate!!"...and next thing I knew, within 5 minutes of being there, my newly found friends were whisking me away to the local pub, in true British Fashion, for my first legal pint. I had a Tetley's Cask Ale - a local Leeds brew - my lips, my taste buds, my mind....I couldn't get enough of it. I already felt at home, and at this moment, I knew that I was going to have the time of my life here.
Over the next few weeks, I grew more and more accustomed to living in another country and a different culture, and I loved discussing the cultural differences with each new Brit I met. Three weeks later, I had my first 'backpacking' experience - a 2 hour train ride for a weekend in London, where I was meeting up with every University of Illinois student who was studying abroad in England - 20 to 30 students in all. Little did I know that this word "backpacking" which I did not fully understand at the time, would carve my life in a way I never thought it could. I had a great weekend, and was excited to plan further travels - within the next month, I spent a weekend in Liverpool, took a long weekend trip to Paris for 5 days, followed a week later by a 3 day weekend in Dublin and the Irish Countryside.
The next weekend was a pub crawl across campus, and it more than lived up to the hype, "The Otley Run" is a social get together (read: 'pub crawl') to 17 pubs along Otley Road, stretching 3 miles through downtown Leeds. The Goal - Have a pint of beer at each pub...oh, and this is almost always "Fancy Dress" or Themed, so everyone in your group is in costume. My whole dorm did it together - about 25 of us, and it was an absolute blast. One day, after a late night out, two of my best mates and I decided to go do another one...and one of them had an exam later that day...on a whim, just us 3...and it leads to new adventures....<---- The Condiment Challenge.
This would mark the last weekend of my life that I would not have the constant desire to see the world and expand my horizons. The following Saturday marked the first day of my life changing month long Western Euro-Trip.
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