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Dealing with Homesickness: A Long and Arduous Adventure

For many students, a semester at GTL is the longest span of time away from loved ones they’ve encountered. Maddy has some thoughts and tips on battling homesickness in the toughest moments.

First and foremost, I am not one to get homesick. Ever. Yes, usually I’m in Atlanta which is only 5 hours away from Charleston, but a few visits with the family throughout the semester is more than enough to sustain my emotional support/family bonding health points. My 2017 has been very different than normal, though: I was in Europe for both spring and fall semesters while also working in Atlanta over the summer, so the amount of days I’ve seen my family has been quite sparing. I could probably count them on two hands, actually (okay maybe two and a half hands). I myself am also pretty terrible at keeping up with people, and it’s taken some real mental training to fight against this lackadaisical view of reaching out to my loved ones.

I hadn’t been feeling very homesick all year until a few weeks ago when everyone was home for Thanksgiving. My friend sent me a Snapchat of his dog and his wacky grandparents playing in a bluegrass band (I know, too cool), and my stomach nearly fell out. I missed my mom and my grandparents so, so much in that moment. I miss my dog tearing through the house while my grandmother can only hope to catch and cocoon her in a Christmas dog sweater. I miss those late night talks with friends that only happen by chance but last hours into the morning. I’d been missing southern food the whole time, don’t get me wrong, but in that moment I REALLY could’ve gone for a pimento cheese sandwich.

So obviously, talking to your family helps. I will say, though, a Skype call is really at a higher level than a normal phone conversation: you can get distracted by what’s on your screen or by things around you, but on Skype it’s nearly a face-to-face interaction so your attention is naturally all on the other person.

Get you some photos! And don’t have your family send you the same photos that are everywhere in your house: ask to borrow some pictures that are tucked away in family albums from when your parents dressed you up in a Halloween costume for the first time, or just photos of you and your siblings covered in dirt in the backyard. These will remind you of old memories that haven’t crossed the skies of your mind in a while and will make you appreciate your upbringing. Nostalgia is a great thing.

Schoolwork can loom over you and feel like you must hyper-focus to get anything done, but you need breaks! Use those breaks to chill out, of course, but every few breaks use the time to email your grandma or maybe send your dad an article that you’ve seen recently. Don’t shut yourself out or homesickeness is bound to get worse.

Thanksgiving in Metz!

Thanksgiving can be a scary time for a student: it’s that reality check that finals are right around the corner. But the BDE took GTL students’ minds off of studies for a night of revelry and camaraderie!

Turkey Day has come and gone! Thanksgiving always marks that point in the semester in which beforehand you’re like “Oh, I have all the time in the world before finals,” and after break it’s more like “Oh, I have zero time before finals – how did this happen yet again.” Luckily, for one night GTL students were able to put their student worries aside and come together for the GTL Thanksgiving potluck!

If you’ve never been to a GTL Thanksgiving potluck, which most people only ever go once, it’s a grand old time. We rent tables and benches from the Metz town hall, and the BDE, along with a few volunteers, gets to work setting everything up in the GTL lounge. White boards are moved to make way for Christmas lights and tinsel while we put our studies on hold and enjoy the true significant holiday of fall.

Potlucks usually make me nervous (what if no one brings anything), and especially organizing them, but it ended up working out pretty well: yes, there was a lot of pasta and mac & cheese, and maybe even some cereal/milk combos, but some people really went all out with squash and herbs and even a Polish compote. I haven’t had good green beans with herbs and seasoning in waaaaay too long. People with names A-L made main dishes and everyone else made desserts, which also exhibited a wide range – from ice cream and toffee to Oreo fudge balls and Nutella pie. I still dream about that Nutella pie, so if you’re out there reading this, dear baker, then congratulations.

BDE supplied drinks, turkey and a (slightly ominous?) cake, while we set up Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving/Christmas on the big screen. We busted out the board games, and I personally witnessed and egged on an incredibly competitive game of Uno. It’s all fun and games until someone gets a Swap Hands Wild Card.

All in all, it was a very wholesome night for us hardworking/hard playing GTL students. Props to us all for making it memorable.

 

Also just an added point- we are all thankful for what we have, but there are so many with less and particularly there are individuals whose history is negatively impacted by what has grown into the national holiday of Thanksgiving! If you want to do something extra cool this giving season then donate to a charity that helps impoverished Native American communities!

Cadiz & Castles on the Ocean

The big cities are great and all, but sometime to really experience the daily life of the country, you need to go off the beaten path a bit. Maddy visited Cadiz, Spain over her fall break, and she experienced some great details of living in Spain. Check out her latest blog!

Cadiz is a small peninsular town on the coast of southern Spain, and it is also the capital of the Cadiz region. My mom urged me to go there while I was in Spain for fall break, and because I was doing so many big cities, I figured I’d take a break from the crowds and the beach it for a minute. I will say if you’re tired of swathes of tourists, go to Cadiz – there were very few tourists. I’m not sure if for a particular reason, but we barely saw any at all.

The town is very walk-able, and you’re never farther than a mile away from the coast at any point in the peninsula. It has the classic plaza-centralized landscape of many European cities, but they’re on a much smaller scale and are incredibly personalized with family-owned restaurants and bodegas literally everywhere. At any point in time you can look inside a bar and see old men slicing Iberian ham from the leg and drinking local sherry. What I’m trying to articulate is that it gives off a very homey feel.

One thing I absolutely loved was the market. It’s in the center of town and there’s what feels like miles of freshly caught fish and fruiterias, or fresh fruit and vegetable markets. I’ve never stared 50 lbs. of tuna in the face until that day. The thing about Spain – but particularly southern Spain – is that it is sooooo cheap. So, so incredibly inexpensive. We decided to make dinner that night from market finds with our three-person-can’t-finish-it-all meal totaling up to $4 per person, and this was including some very good fresh fish. I think our vegetables in total were about $1, I’ve never experienced getting a heavy bag of pretty much anything for that much. Once we realized how cheap everything was we just started buying things left and right: our lunch, random juices, and on.

The beach itself was nice, because the water was cold per usual, but the really neat part was the fortress at the very tip of the peninsula. It was a Moorish fortress, but probably Roman before that, and was used by Spaniards afterwards – a classic Mediterranean mix. There’s a long stone walkway that leads out to it, and while you’re not allowed to enter, the tide pulls away from the walkway to where you can climb underneath it and hang out around the natural “moat” that the ocean forms. We were there right at sunset, adding to the whole picturesque beauty of the place.

If you like cathedrals, the Cadiz cathedral is really something you should consider. It’s not all dark and gothic like most cathedrals across Europe: it’s so old that the paint has completely worn off to reveal a creamy white-colored stone, looking much older and more beautiful (in my opinion) than most gothic stuff you’ll see. Downstairs is the crypt in which the ceiling is curved so you can talk on one side and it’ll sound like you’re whispering to your friend across the room.

The cathedral is also home to one of the best views of Cadiz: the bell tower.

While we were up there we heard a group of children singing “Despacito” in the plaza. Very quaint, but lively town!

A Look Into The Typical Week of a GTL Student

Life at GTL is great…and sometimes complicated and awesome and busy. Maddy tells a tall tale of her average week at GTL in her latest blog post.

I understand not all of you reading this are current GTL students, so I’m just going to delve into the (slightly exaggerated) average week of a GTL student for those of you that may be wondering what it’s like.

Monday Morning: Welp, I’m still pretty exhausted from the weekend, but I’ll make it up later. All I have to do today is buy groceries (I really have to stop eating baguette sandwiches), get a head start on all the homework I have due this week, and maybe I’ll even have time to go to the gym or run at some point.

Monday Midday: Okay, so I may have been weak and bought another Fermie Chaud (curry baguette sandwich) for lunch from the sandwich place, but I swear I’ll go get groceries this evening, and I’ll cook everything else this week. Oh, you want to play ping pong? A few rounds can’t hurt – I have tons of time!

Monday Evening: Yes, I may have just played ping pong for two hours and foosball for one, but I’m going to the grocery store, and I’m cooking dinner! I’ll have a few hours to study afterwards and just do the rest tomorrow. Wait, how long does the lab homework take? Are you serious?? How is that even…okay, grocery store tomorrow, La Boite de Pizza tonight. It’s healthier than any pizza in the US probably. Maybe?

Tuesday Morning: Alright, today is the day! I’m going to catch up so hard from yesterday, and it’s going to be awesome. I still haven’t caught up on sleep because of that lab homework, but as long as the coffee machine works, then so can I! Or I’ll be like my dear friend Ben and bring a literal coffee maker to GTL. After class though.

Tuesday Midday: Only have one more class later, time to sit down and start on more homework. Wait…you didn’t book the hostel? I thought we agreed on that one with the nice rooftop…it’s totally booked? Are you serious? Okay, let’s figure it out – we only have two days before we leave and this homework can wait. I guess I’ll get another baguette for lunch.

*You can imagine how Wednesday went.*

Thursday: I’m exhausted, I’ve only eaten white bread this week and you’re telling me I’m leaving for London tonight when? In two hours?? Well, here we go.

And repeat.

Madrid: Tapas and Parks

What do you think of when you travel? The history? The sights? How about the food – because Maddy took Madrid by the food! Check out her latest blog to read more about the bites and the sights.

I promise I’ll talk about other things as well, but I just have to comment on the food first and foremost. Skip ahead if you don’t care about cuisine (I don’t understand you, but I respect it). I love food! I love food. I love it so much, and it breaks my heart to see people not care about it as much as I do. Madrid is the capital of Spanish food (as well as the capital of other stuff, like the country or something), and I was sure not to squander my appetite before arriving. Like Barcelona, you can get any Spanish food as well as any Spanish-conquered food, so there’s half the globe of options. One thing I knew I had to have was arepas: they’re corn cakes  loaded with your favorite toppings like plantains, steamed pork, and mole sauce. We found a place near Plaza Mayor (which is a big, historic square with not much actually to it) and downed some nice arepas within seconds. Not sure what these candies were but they were super good and just fun to have.

Tapas were incredible, ranging from octopus and fried calamari (Madrid is pretty far from the coast, but they love seafood) to shredded cow tongue and mojo chicken. I thought the classic churros and chocolate I’d dreamed of included hot, drinkable chocolate, not literal melted chocolate: so when they were out of churros and they looked at me funny for just ordering the latter half, I was given a strange glance and soon realized why.

Do not be like me and try to drink melted chocolate by itself, your stomach and wallet will thank you later.

Now on to normal city highlights. Overall, the city was very vibrant and bustling. Most of the streets are narrow, and the buildings all around you are quite tall, so it feels a little claustrophobic, but also could be cozy. It’s a lot like many European cities in which many roads lead to a big plaza or square, but Madrid is special in that there is ALWAYS someone playing music or dancing in them. It felt like we just followed one music scene to the next, consisting of anything from steampunk jazzy-funk to African drumming circles. Right near Plaza Mayor was a guy playing the accordion to “Despacito,” and both Spaniards and a group of Asian tourists were getting down.

One thing we loved was the amount of parks, and these aren’t some dinky half-dog park half-playground parks. One of the main parks is five times the size of Central Park, and the one we spent the most of our time in (El Retiro) was also incredibly massive and absolutely beautiful. The fall leaves were right at their peak turning colors – lucky for us – and we bicycled all over the place.

On a side note, I would kind of recommend renting bikes in Madrid, but also not- some parts are super hilly and don’t have bike lanes, so if you’re wimpy like us, your day may require a lot of bike-walking. We went to the top of the hill of El Retiro to see the skyline and the Temple de Debod for sunset. For some reason or another the president of Egypt gifted an entire temple to the city of Madrid, so it was deconstructed and rebuilt on the highest point in this beautiful park. I had a weird feeling about it (not a fan of displacing ancient religious structures/objects/most things), but I have to say it was an incredible sight, especially at sunset.

Madrid is a great place that I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time in: definitely on my list to go back to though!

How to Pack Light

Now that fall break is in full swing, Maddy has some tips for your big trips and what to pack (and what to not pack)!

Hello dear travelers, let me tell you all that I know about how to not crush yourself with 50 pounds of things you don’t need. I had to learn this the hard way. It was spring break 2017, I was super excited to make my merry way through Greece and Italy, and my backpack ruined everything. This is an over-exaggeration of course, I had a wonderful time, but it honestly would’ve been so much better if I hadn’t brought 10 days worth of clothes and my heavy computer with me. I ended up getting a big hiking backpack with hip straps, but that can only help so much. My shoulders could barely be called shoulders by the end of the trip and it actually took a few days for them to feel normal again. Granted, I am a small female that can’t handle an entirely full school backpack sometimes. Regardless of your size, here are some ways to ensure you don’t have my experience.

Realize you don’t need that many options. One going out outfit, one comfy outfit for trains, and a few normal day outfits will do. (That is, if you’re doing cities. Obviously you don’t need a clubbing outfit if you’re camping in the Dolomites… at least I don’t think so?) Choose carefully, and choose things that can dress up and dress down easily. Don’t bring something you would be iffy about wearing normally. Only bringing about 5 days worth of clothing got me this size Jansport backpack, which is incredible compared to what I had last break.

I mentioned bringing a few outfits, so how are you supposed to make them last the whole trip? You try your hardest to stay in AirBnB’s and hostels with washers. Most hostels have a laundromat either in them or close to them, just pop your clothes in while making breakfast and hang them to dry somewhere during the day.

If you’re positive you’ll be staying somewhere with no access to a washer, get a small thing of detergent and hand-wash your clothes in the sink. It’s a lot easier than you think.

Also – you’re not going to use your computer enough to make it worth bringing, so don’t make my mistake!

Sweet, Sweet Barthelona

Food, feats, fun… what more could you ask for? Maddy soaked in the sights and tastes of Barcelona, and she’s determined to go back. Check out why in her latest blog!

My experience of Barcelona is split up between two short and sweet weekends, one in the spring and one in the fall. I’m definitely going to come back to Barcelona to truly steep in the culture, but the time that I had with it was pretty meaningful. I packed a ridiculous amount of activities in for a total of 72 hours.

The overall feeling of the city is very young and vibrant. Everyone is either a chic, well-dressed woman, a punkish-looking skateboarder, one half of an adorable and small old couple, or a man with an incredible beard reading a philosophy book. Or a tourist, which comes with being anywhere, but especially Barcelona, being the capital of Catalonia. The boardwalk on the beach is always so full of life, with people walking their dogs and rollerblading and playing volleyball. Barcelona is also the skateboarding capital of the world, so you can always spot some young guys and girls doing tricks on any available surface. I’d highly recommend finding a famous skating spot and just watching some professionals take on feats of stairs and inclines that make me cringe just thinking about them.

If there’s anything I want to impress upon you about this particular city, it’s (surprise) to not just go see the Sagrada Familia, but to go IN the church itself. You will never see anything like it in your life, and the beauty of it is literally breathtaking. I gasped out loud. It’s a similar response to seeing the Grand Canyon or the Alps for the first time, except this is man-made which makes it all the more incredible of an experience. The church was designed primarily by Antoni Gaudi, the famous Catalonian architect that has done many crazy architectural feats across the city. They started construction in the 1870’s and it has yet to be finished, projected to be done in 2026 (as of now). The church is designed to mirror the unparalleled beauty of nature, and man does it do the trick: I don’t want to show too many photos because I want you, dear reader, to have my experience, but I’ll give you a little taste. (Photos don’t do it justice anyway.)

LOOK AT THAT. Look at how beautiful that light is. There are so many gothic, dark, and musty cathedrals all over Europe, whose stained glass are full of cluttered depictions from the Bible, but this church completely rejects these norms and uses light for the sole purpose of beauty in color and gradient. I absolutely love it and I will try my hardest to come back when it’s totally finished.

The other highlight that I will mention is food. I love Hispanic food of every kind, so I’m a little biased towards Spain in general, but I will say there are some places in Barcelona that totally blew my mind. There is one restaurant that isn’t necessarily Catalonian, but is too good: Brunch and Cake. Yes, it’s a bit “white girl overpays for Instagram-able plate,” but good God, is that plate incredible. If you want a dark green matcha pancake with strawberry compote while overlooking the harbor, I suggest you try out this restaurant. A great thing about Spain in general is that there’s a ton of immigrants from all the places they imperialized (a little disturbing, yes), so you can find every kind of Hispanic-infused meal in Barcelona/major cities. One of my travel buddies is Colombian so he took us to a few Colombian restaurants and I was schooled in the ways of the Colombian meal.

I ate so much I was on the verge of puking for a few hours in fact. If you like fun at all, go to Barcelona! Maybe not in fall 2017 because of the independence marches, but you should definitely go at some point.

Crêpe and Game Night!

The BDE did it again! Crêpes and board games were a hit, bringing the fall’s GTL students together unlike never before.

My favorite night of the year happened last week: crêpe making night!! Okay, it isn’t my favorite night of the whole entire year, but I love crêpes, and I love making crêpes, so it’s always a great time. The Bureau des Etudiants pulled out all the stops with assorted jams, hella Nutella, and even a jar of that Biscoff cookie spread (the only thing we look forward to on Delta flights – you know I’m right). We got the crêpe hot plates heated up, Ratatouille on the big screen, and a plethora of various board games that are usually stowed away in the BDE closet.

Giant Jenga was a big hit: I’m not sure whether to blame the design-oriented part of us GT students, or the need for a small no-stakes gamble. Regardless, it’s simply fun to watch this massive tower crash down and make everyone in the GTL lounge jump every 20 minutes. I haven’t played small baby (now) Jenga in a long time, but I’m nearly positive you couldn’t do the craziness that I saw with big Jenga. Or maybe that’s just GT engineers blowing my mind with their planning and balancing skills. To be honest I’m a little shocked that no one happened to get hit by the avalanche.

The crêpes were a bit of a mess at first: getting an even consistency is difficult the first time, and then flipping it just becomes a jumbled debacle not dissimilar to scrambled eggs. Soon enough everyone got the hang of it, and people not in BDE came over and just made crêpes for others out of personal enjoyment.

All in all, it was a very successful night, in which people from all realms of GTL – some that I see every day, some I’d never met before – could come together for games and food.

(Thanks, BDE!)

Paris: A Couple of My Favorite Things

Every GTL student visits Paris at least once – without fail. Maddy has been a few times now, and she has some tips on what not to miss.

Throughout GTL, I’ve technically been to Paris more times than I can count: I know the walk from Gare de l’Est to Gare du Nord by heart. As far as actually spending time in Paris, I’ve seen a good bit of it (I think), and far too much of it to cram into one blog post. Therefore, these are a few things that I’ve done recently that I think are essential Parisian activities (not just hitting all the big monuments).

One thing I love is tea. A good, warm cup of tea is absolutely heart-warming, especially when having to brace the harsh cold that usually hangs over Paris’s shoulder. When you look up tea houses on your phone, it will lead you to places like Angelina, which certainly are a nice couple of restaurants, but they’re very touristy and overpriced. I had a brioche bun with salmon that could’ve fed one cat fully. Last spring I found a little British-style teahouse near the Notre Dame with good tea and incredible strawberry jam, but I was more so looking for a real Parisian tea experience, which this place obviously didn’t fulfill.

This past weekend I finally found it: Mariage Frères. Yes, there is a chain of them around Paris, and yes they are in somewhat popular and touristy places, but man is it an experience. Up front is the whole store with rows and rows of massive barrels of tea, alongside tea sets ranging anywhere from 30-700 euros. There was a line in which you could smell whatever tea happened to be near you, and when you got to the front a nicely-shaven, dapper man greeted you and got you the tea you wanted with incredible speed and agility.

There was a menu, yes, but it was the size of a Bible, and we just went with asking him what his favorites were. We walked out with 200 grams of nice tea for a pretty affordable price (I think). In the back was the restaurant, which unfortunately we didn’t get to eat at, but I’m sure it’s incredible. Pricey, but this place is the real deal, so I’d put down for a brunch at Mariage Frères.

The Montmartre neighborhood is somewhere I’m getting to know pretty well since my friend just moved there, and it’s been slowly growing on me recently. Montmartre is the whole hill of the Sacre Coeur down to the Moulin Rouge, and while it’s certainly a hike to get up there, it’s by far the best view of the city that exists in Paris (not just my novice opinion by the way). The Sacre Coeur is nice; it looks like most fancy big cathedrals (although the outside is cooler than most), but the view from its front porch is absolutely incredible. You can see pretty much any tall monument or church in all of Paris at once.

The foot traffic in that particular area can be a nightmare, filled to the brim with tourists all trying to get themselves drawn by a Montmartre street artist, but if you go down west of the Basilica a ways there’s a really nice neighborhood with some incredible food and cute local Parisian shops. Go to a fruit stand and get white strawberries, or enjoy one of the endless incredible French pastries while sitting on the classic Montmartre staircases that line the Butte. It’s a lively area with a lot of green and a lot of verve. Check it out the next time you have a long layover in Paris.

Freiburg: Short & Sweet

Sometimes, things go wrong. That’s when you make the most of things – like when Maddy ended up in the charming town of Freiburg, Germany this weekend.

Long story short, I had a major miscommunication with a friend of mine that was coming to Paris to study at the Louvre, and I ended up in Paris with a bunch of nice clothing and literally no plan for the weekend. It was nearing Friday night, so I had to decide quickly what I was doing. That had never happened to me before: I was alone with a backpack of clothes in an incredibly central location, and I could go nearly anywhere. It honestly felt exhilarating and liberating, 10/10 would recommend (if you’re not the anxious type).

After spending an hour at the train station help desk figuring out how to get to Cinque Terre, I actually decided to play it safe and just go back to Metz and figure out what to do from there. I quickly convinced a friend to come with me to Freiburg, the closest, cutest German town I could find. It’s about 2.5-4 hours by train away from Metz, and I thought the fall colors would be in full swing for a nice Black Forest hike. Unfortunately, we somehow missed the train TWICE (this was not a good weekend for me), one because we were late and the other for literally no reason except that we didn’t check our watches. We finally got into Freiburg in the early evening, not giving us time to really do too much, but we made the most of it. The town butts up against a series of hills that are densely forested, mostly pine but a lot of little foliage as well.

We found a babbling brook and a whole host of little fens where a million rabbits lived. We came down at sunset and found our way to a tavern that served the meatiest, heftiest German meals I’ve ever seen. I had Schweinhaxen (pork knuckle), which sounds weird or even gross, but I promise it was incredible. I’m a small human and tried my hardest to finish the whole thing, but there was simply no way that could happen, as you may see in the picture.

My friend captured me with my hand over my heart, in a subconscious pledge of allegiance to the schweinhaxen. It was so good. We also had Black Forest cake, which is this thick cake with a ton of whipped cream and wine-soaked cherries on the bottom. Satisfied that we stuffed ourselves with pure Allemagne culture, we waddled back to the train station to hop over to our AirBnB in a neighboring suburb. If you have time, I’d definitely recommend taking a walk through the place where people actually live. It’s so interesting to see how just little things are similar or different from your own American neighborhood.

The next morning we headed into town for a last meal and walkabout before we trained home. Freiburg is one of the most eco-friendly places in Germany, so everyone is out on their bikes enjoying the cool fall weather. We weaved through a bunch of modern home decor shops and old woodworking stores, finally settling on a nice, strangely cheap fish restaurant for lunch near the old tower.

Fun fact: after WWII, Europe was so devastated that America had to step in and help rebuild, creating the Marshall Plan to stimulate the European economy. While doing so, America saw this as an opportunity to spread U.S. pop culture and business as widely as possible in an effort to unify a broken Europe wracked with inter-fighting and distrust. I love a lot of things about America, but the fact that you can’t take a picture of Checkpoint Charlie without also catching the KFC sign, and that McDonald’s chose to brandish its name on the defining cultural symbol of a small German town: this is absolutely ridiculous and asinine. American imperialism is alive and well.

Putting the America rant aside, Freiburg was a super cute town with a great atmosphere, I’d recommend it as a short weekend trip for sure.