A Sign

Mom and I went out the other day and got another book on European travel:
 Stay here! Beware of this! Beware of that! Travel here! This city isn't worth it! Tricks of the trade! 

The book gave tips on how a traveler can experience the hidden side of Europe, letting you enter through the metaphorical "back door" so that you can see the REAL Paris/Berlin/London/Enter-City-Name-Here. In my opinion, that's how you walk away with more stories. A million people have gone to see the Mona Lisa, but you could be the one person who gets too close, and gets chased out of the Louvre by security.

Not that the book - NOR myself - is encouraging you to get in trouble with the law. But you get what I'm saying.

That same day, we stopped off at the library to pick up some books and movies on Germany, England, etc. I also got a few fun books to read. I picked up a few I'd read a few years ago and knew they were good stories, as well as a few new ones.

The one book I chose was called "Just One Day" by Gayle Forman.

 The blurb at the back talked about a girl on vacation in Europe who traveled to Paris with a guy she just met, and they spent one day together. Typical love story which played to my romantic side (I'm not even ashamed).

The book contained a lot of really great tips about traveling: getting lost on purpose so that you see a side of the city you wouldn't normally; embracing any and all "accidents" since you never know where they'l lead you.
Most importantly, to take every day you have, and to do something spectacular with it.

"We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can 

fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.” 

About half way into the book, things started getting strange.
The guy in the book was Dutch, from Holland - oddly enough, where I'm going next year. They go to Paris, where he introduces her to the hidden side of Paris, taking her in through that "back door" in which they drink wine and spend the night in an Art Squatter building, and she gets to play poker with french men on a riverboat.
After Dutch Boy disappears, she goes in search of him.
Guess where she ends up? at Utrecht University. Utrecht is to Roosevelt what York is to Glendon.

Lets just recap here:
Girl goes to Europe, falls in love with a Dutch man from where I will be living,  and searches for him at the university which is the Mother School of the University I am attending next year.

Call it coincidence, a sign from the universe... It was like fate picked up that book and plopped it down in front of me, whispering "Read me! Read me!" in my ear.... Either way, I am taking it a sign of good fortune and good luck for my travels next year. I've decided to take it as a sign that I just might be lucky enough to experience that mysterious "back door" of Europe.  After all, it had a happy ending.

Although, maybe I should read the sequel before I go.
I'll be there soon!
-Jennifer

The First of Many

Ahhhhhhhh... Spring time.
I have officially arrived safe and sound back in K-Town to begin working and enjoying my summer months before exchange. I always find it funny how, once you get home, it seems like you never left.
It took two days to go through all my stuff again and put everything away. I always find that moving back home creates a perfect opportunity to do some cleaning and get rid of some stuff. Two bags of trash later, my room is officially sorted and cleaned. And it is glorious. I feel like I am in the right mindset for another fresh summer.

But coming home is always a little bitter sweet. Usually, it means it'll be quite some time before you see all your friends again; I'm not the only one out of my friends who does not live in Toronto, and while I can visit, a lot of them can't.

Glendon Formal

I think its different for us students who move away. Your school community and your friends become your second family, since your first isn't always there when you need them. If I have a really bad day, and just need a hug and to watch a movie with someone, I'll call one of my friends on res since I can't exactly go see my mom. They learn the good and the bad about you; they see you at your best and your worst - you practically live together - and they still love you. AND they don't even have to. That's what makes them so special!

BEAUTY!! 

So, leaving Glendon this past weekend was hard. But knowing I wouldn't be back for 18 months made it even... I don't want to say "harder" because it wasn't hard, but it tugged at my heart a little more. It was an odd goodbye; an extremely long "cya later". The weirder part was saying goodbye to one of my best friends and knowing that Skype and Facebook would be our source of communication over the next year.

I've never gone away for this long before, and the goodbyes definitely feel a little weird. But you know what they say:
When a door closes, God opens a window!!
And there are windows open everywhere.

I'll be there soon!
-Jennifer

EUROPE BABY

*ssiiigggghhhhhh*
Can you feel that?
The weight... Its gone.
Do you feel it?

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the universal feeling of your busiest week before the end of the school year coming to an end. And for me, that week was last week. This weekend has been one of recuperation and refreshment.
But break time is over!!!! We are now entering official Exchange Preparation Time!!!!!

*insert intense intro music here*

Last Friday, all of the students at Glendon who are going on exchange got together for a meeting to sign some paperwork, to learn about financing, scholarships, things to do before leaving (read: Visa!!!!!!) and what to do about classes and credits.  It was a very important meeting.
The coolest part of it was that we got to see everyone else who would be on exchange next year! A few of my friends are going - not to Netherlands, but Europe in general - which is amazing! It will be nice to be able to see a friendly face for a vacation on a weekend or something.

I've already been meeting with profs, verifying my classes and everything, now that I've officially been accepted by UCR and need to fill out paperwork and get it back ASAP. And this meeting made things feel real. Not REALLY real, but realer than its been since this process first began.
Everyone says that feeling hits at a different time. My one friend has been saying that shes been extremely excited, and its felt like reality to her ever since she got accepted. Another one of my friends who has already been on exchange said he didn't feel like it was actually happening until he landed in Europe.
That take-my-breath-away-oh-my-god-what-is-happening feeling hasn't hit me yet. And I honestly don't know when it will.

Part of me hopes it happens before I get to Europe. I'd rather feel prepared so I don't hyperventilate in a European airport. Plus, the less tears I shed at the airport when saying goodbye to my family,the better, I think. For both them and myself.

The "realness" feeling of this trip and the trip itself are both two things I can feel myself preparing for. The difference is, is that I know that on August 18th, 2014, I'll be at URC. This feeling I keep talking about, on the other hand, may hit a few weeks after I've been there. It could be September, in the middle of the night, and I could be laying in my bed when BAM!!!!! Heart beats fast, breathing quickens, and the "What am I doing?!" thoughts come racing. I'll lay there, repeating to myself "This is Europe. I'm in Europe. Holy crap I'm in EUROPE!" until my brain starts to wrap itself around my reality.

But even as I write this, I start second guessing myself. Will that feeling ever really come to pass? And is it necessarily a bad thing? Say I'm walking down the street one day, and i see a group of Dutch people on bikes, and BAM!!! Feeling. And then a few weeks later, I'm on a train visiting, say... Belgium. and BAM!!!! Feeling.
Maybe that realization that your life really is in fact YOUR LIFE happens to keep us grounded. In new situations, the Universe just KNOWS you need your breath stolen in a moment to make you realize just how lucking you are, how special that moment is.

Maybe I should stop worrying about when the feeling will hit, and what tears I'll cry, and start prepping myself to embrace those feelings, and if I start crying when I'm standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, to remember to turn my face to the sky and to FEEL THOSE TEARS! Because, baby, I'll be in Europe. Coming home, those feelings are what I'll hold on to as memories of the next year of my life, and I want to remember them right down to the very detail.

Good thing I'm coming to these realizations now! After all, I'll be there soon.
-Jennifer

All The Feels

HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER!!

So today, I woke up, went and got some breakfast, went to class, handed in a paper, checked my email... BAM!! EMAIL FROM UCR!!!
It was my official acceptance to the university for exchange.
I KNOW!
You see, you get accepted by Glendon into the exchange program, but then the university must review your application and then accept you themselves to allow you entrance into the university.
It was only a few pages attached to the email, reviewing info about my address, email, things like this.
And then the holy grail of information: DATES!
As of now, it is only FOUR LITTLE MONTHS until I'll be headed to Europe. I know that may seem like a lot, in the past I would say its a lot of time, but when you think about what the countdown is to, its actually extremely short.

I have been in contact with Julie Watson, a fellow Glendonite who attended UCR for a year in the past. She has been SO helpful, giving me information about things I wouldn't normally have thought about. Things such as the importance of rain boots, the inability to comprehend the amount of bicycles until you actually get there and see it.  From the perspective of a 20  year old female Canadian who has never been to Europe, any information I can get is good information.
I feel like the more I'm learning, the better prepared I will be.

Even just knowing that school starts in August (INTRO WEEK STARTS AUGUST 18TH!!! AHHH!!) and Ends on May 13th makes me feel more grounded in the year to come. I know the days. I'm not totally lost in the adventure that is Netherland-ian education.

How am I feeling?
ALL the feels.
And I guess that's a good thing, since I'll be there soon.
-Jennifer