Arianna O'Dell

Yesterday, I officially booked my Eurail pass to travel through 5 countries over the course of the summer! I’m a tad nervous, as I have yet to do a trip longer than 2 weeks. This trip will last for about 2 month and will end in Paris to live with a friend for a few weeks.

These countries I picked for my pass are:

Belgium

The Netherlands

Greece

Bulgaria

Italy

France.

Starting off:

I will be leaving London on the 7th of July to take a bus to France. Then from France, I will take a train somewhere within one of the countries listed above. I have made no travel plans yet. I really have no idea what to see and don’t particularly like browsing travel guides. Have you been to any of these places? If so, what do you recommend I see? My plans are really flexible as of right now!

For most of my trip, I plan to couchsurf. Couchsurfing, for those who don’t know, is a community of travelers who let one another stay at their place during their traveling. I have done this in the past and have had great experiences from it. Do you know anyone in any of these countries who has a couch I could crash on?

Thanks for any advice, stories, or recommendations you might have!

I have fallen in love with London. I like the way it walks, the way it talks, and how it lives.  Over the past two months, I have found very little to complain about here. Any tinge of homesickness is now gone and I find myself saddened that I will have to go back to the states in four months. As each week passes, I only find myself loving the city more and longing for the states less.

Originally, I had planned to go to Spain for the summer, but recently changed my mind. I have officially decided to spend my summer in London. I love the tube, the people, and everything in between. While yes, I would like to travel and see more of the world – I have my entire life to do this. I have only just started building relationships here – it would seem silly to pick up and leave after only 3 months. I would much rather get to know one person well, than ten only briefly.

So far, I have gotten to meet so many great people. From meeting up with Twitter friends, to attending networking events, to Couchsurfing – the transition here has been very easy. Everyone I have met has been extremely welcoming and I am so appreciate for this. Thank you so much to everyone who has met up with me, offered help, or showed me around.

While I do miss all of my amazing friends in Seattle – I don’t think I have ever felt the sense of belonging that I do here. I’m not sure as to why that is. Maybe I’ll feel different in four months, or maybe I will want to move here permantely. Who knows?

If anyone knows of a place in London for rent let me know!

I have been in Europe for almost a month now – my longest span of time being away from the states. So far, I LOVE London. I am seriously contemplating moving to the UK permanently. I love the rushed pace of life, the crowded underground, the lively nights, the kebabs and definitely  the more attractive men.

Some things I am missing from Seattle:

Friends: Good friends are hard to find – when you have them, hang on and don’t let go. I have found some incredible friends in Seattle. In Washington, I have the “help you move, listen you complain, pick you up at the airport type friends.”  So far on this trip I have made a few new friends already, but the adjustment of leaving my very close friends is hard to adjust to at times. Everything something exciting, troubling, or confusing happens I think “oh I need to call _______.” I then realize I can’t.

Washington air: I love the city of London. It’s fabulous. There are always things to do and see, and the city is constantly moving. I truly enjoy this type of lifestyle when in contrast with Seattle. The part of Washington I do miss is the air. I have a harder time breathing over here and have been longing for a big gasp of clean air. I also miss the water. Something about the showers in the UK make my already hard to manage hair extra dried out.

Capitalism: I miss the entrepreneurship culture of Seattle. The last few weeks, I keep changing my mind as to where I would rather live. I realized that the only thing holding me back from moving to Europe is the capitalism and entrepreneurial mindset found in the USA. Entrepreneurship is a part of me; even though I love it here – it would be extremely hard to not be in a culture that fosters my passion for entrepreneurship and business.

Yellow Gatoraide : Whenever I am sick all I want is some yellow Gatoraide dammit! The Gatoraide here tastes like crap – as does the coffee. Since I do not plan to be sick on a regular basis I think I can live with this. Giving up coffee will be a little bit harder; though the tea here is fantastic.

A few things I have learned about myself this far:

I am not a big partier – I tried. I lasted two weeks. Now I am completely bored of the scene, burnt out, and just want to be productive. There was one night where I got completely sick from alcohol and spent the entire next day in bed. I have never felt so terrible. Talk about a waste of time. Just because other people are doing it does not mean I have to. Even at 20, peer pressure is still hard to resist. I don’t think it ever goes away.

I hate traveling with groups of people – We do this often for the program that I am in. No one can make any decisions! It drives me freaking crazy. It takes forever to decide what to do, and makes me feel as I am constantly on a guided tour.  I like to explore cities on my own at a different pace. I am glad I know this for future trips.

I am too independent for my own good – I am used to doing everything for myself. I pay for my own rent, tuition, and all other living expenses. I have held many jobs in the past and understand the value of earning a dollar. I find it very hard to relate to those that don’t. It makes me frustrated when I hear others say “oh it doesn’t matter, my parents are paying for it”  Seriously? In addition, I have also found it hard to adjust to living with a home stay family. I am used to doing what I want, when I want. Even though the family is absolutely wonderful – it seems to be a step backwards from the independence I crave.

I do miss a few things but overall I am very happy here. I can’t believe a month has already flown by. Cheers to the next five!

Along with the British accent, I have already fallen in love with the marketing efforts present in the United Kingdom. Many travelers fill their cameras with pictures of architecture and scenery – I fill mine with advertisements. If you know me personally, you already know I am obsessed with marketing. It’s a healthy obsession I swear! The group I am traveling with are almost all seeking jobs within the English or Drama field; I am probably boring them to tears with my constant fascination with ads and the repetitive “hey look at that ad! – what do you think?”

I have found the advertisements in London to be much more direct than that of the US. Many of the advertisements I have seen so far consistently catch my eye. This doesn’t happen as often for me stateside.  The range of marketing efforts I have seen here tend to be much more dramatic and provocative when compared with ads of the United States.

Great marketing spurs conversation, starts debate, and gets people talking. Recently, I have been disappointed by what I have seen in Seattle. I watch television going “really?” and flip through paper publications going “who created this garbage?”. Since I have been in London I constantly find myself going “that’s brilliant!” or “I wonder who created that”. Maybe it is because they are different from what I am used to, or maybe they are just very effective – this is still yet to be decided.

An effective ad I have come across a few times already is a preventive ad for injuries and death while intoxicated. The ad reads “Don’t let your friendship die on the road” and has a picture of someone lying dead in the middle of the road. The image of the advertisement seems to defy many of the typical ads I tend to see in the US. Even though more graphic – the ad does it’s job. The ad pulls on the heart strings and makes you think. I commend the marketing efforts of the Transport for London.

Another ad that caught my eye was a underground tube ad featuring a women in a provocative outfit. The suggestive text then advertises a website called “Naughty London”.The ad definitely made me go huh? and made me want to go see what exactly the site was – not to join of course.

Even though people may deny reading an ad of that sort, I saw at least 7 people on the underground staring at the ad for an extended period of time (both men and women) Again, another brilliant example of an effective ad.

I would love to see more American marketing campaigns go more outside the box and take more risks as I have seen here so far. For the remainder of my trip I will strive to find out as much as possible about the British marketing field. I think many companies in America could take away some helpful lessons from them.

and I hate it. Two weeks ago I was free. I felt liberated. I got to venture into the world. Ever since I’ve come back from backpacking in Europe I haven’t felt the same. Near the end of the trip I had wanted to be back home in Seattle – landing proved me wrong. The day after returning to the USA I’ve been longing to go back overseas. Every day I have been looking at plane tickets, visas, apartments, jobs and trying to figure out financially how i would be able to afford to stay there for a much longer period of time.

While traveling I never once felt confined. The world was the limit and I could come and go as I pleased. These past three weeks have felt somewhat miserable. Coming back to my “box” and returning to my daily hamster wheel routine was depressing.  I’m now realizing that part of the reason I was sick of social media was that coming back to my “routine” – only frustrated me more, not because I really hated Twitter or Facebook. There is so much value in all mediums of social media and I have reaped so many benefits from it in the past. Maybe I’ll come back soon, or maybe not. 

Yesterday was the first time since my trip I had felt the same sense of happiness I did while traveling – why? I found a program through the University of Washington to study abroad in London this Spring. Even though the deadline had already passed, I emailed the trip adviser seeing if there was any way I could still apply. I turned in my application today and will find out in a few days if I will be able to go. There is nothing more I want more at the moment than to live in Europe and get to experience the culture for an extended period of time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will get into the program.

I’m obsessed with British culture – in particular the music scene:

Tinchy Stryder – You’re Not Alone

Chipmunk – Oopsy Daisy

Maximo Park – From Books to Boxes

Jamie T – If You’ve Got the Money

Kate Nash – Merry Happy

5 I’m digging ATM. Need more recs? I know hundreds

I finally understand. I understand what it feels like to completely not understand.

From December 27th through January 8th I had the incredible opportunity to travel and see some of the world. Backpacking around in Europe for two weeks was an eye opening experience for me. I bought my plane ticket to Germany prior to leaving, but other than that I did no planning whatsoever until I got there. I learned a lot about other cultures and myself. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done yet one of the best.

During my trip I got to visit France, Spain, Germany; all wonderful countries with their own set of social norms and customs. While visiting all of these countries the language barrier was very difficult for me. I am only proficient in English and my Spanish is definitely not up to par. I had to find my way on buses, trains, airplanes, and though entire cities using the “nodding, pointing, and smiling” technique. It made traveling very stressful at times because of not being able to navigate through different cities easily. Even with my lack of knowledge of the language, I found people to be so incredibly helpful. I had complete strangers walk me places to show me how to get there, write me maps, or sit down with me and help me plan out where to go.

In the past, I had never thought about how difficult it must be for those not born in the United Sates to live in our country and not be able to understand. I’m guilty of having not enough patience and regret not taking more time to help those who weren’t at my same level of comprehension. I now completely understand what it feels like to not be able to understand – and it’s not exactly a feeling I would wish upon others. I’m glad to have realized this so in the future I will be more understanding and helpful to others.

Even though I had no major problems, I did run into a few roadblocks. Hostels being full, getting very lost, and a case of food poisoning all happened at one point but were all fixable problems. If something doesn’t happen as planned there is always a way to fix it – some solutions were more costly than others but all in all, were not enough to make a trip turn sour.

During the trip, I tried CouchSurfing for the first time. For three days of the trip, I stayed with a host from a different country – complete strangers I had found through the website. It allowed me to bring my guard down for a bit and be more open and trusting towards other people. The news always brings the worse case scenarios up. No, I didn’t get robbed, raped, or stabbed – I had an incredible experience and would definitely recommend it to everyone I know. My hosts were wonderful, helpful, and made me feel right at home. In addition to using Couchsufing to find a place to stay, I met up with a few people who offered to show me around. Traveling alone can sometimes be lonely and it was so awesome to find people willing to met up and show me the sights. Even though traveling alone was sometimes stressful, it enabled me to meet more people I wouldn’t have otherwise.

I learned a lot about myself during the course of two weeks. If I can go to three entirely different countries in two weeks by myself, navigate and find my way around alone, and fund the trip with my savings – I can pretty much do anything I set my mind to. I’ve had so many people tell me “oh I could never do that” but in reality, yes you could. You don’t know what you are capable of unless you try. For giving up your latte a day, you could fund a trip in less than a year. For anyone wanting to travel, but putting it off because “you don’t have enough money” – there is always a way to fund anything if you put your mind to it and cut back on other expenses. I’m a broke college student, and am by no means rolling in it. If I can do it, so can you!

Even though I had a great time traveling I am glad to be back in Seattle. I’ve never loved living in another city more and am so glad to know the great community of people that I do.

Highlights of the trip:

• Spending New Years Eve in Paris, France with a wonderful group of people from all over
• Walking on the beach in Cadiz, Spain
  
• Learning “Que Cono!” y “Es de puta madre!” from my amigo.
• Drinking in the street with Omid.
• Getting to see all of the products we don’t have in the US.
• Seeing all of the different kinds of marketing.
• Checking out the differences in stores. (can you tell i love marketing?)
  
• Eating Kebobs – best food ever.
• Riding the train from Paris to Frankfurt
  
• Not hearing anyone talk about social media.
  
• Eating French food.
• Eating Spanish food.
• Eating German food.
  
• Being legal to drink.
  

Playlist of my trip:

Voxtrot, Buddy Holly, Mika, Niel Diamond, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, Cake

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