Living Abroad.

[gWIL 0]

So last spring for the second semester of my freshmen year I spent a semester in Florence, Italy and fell in love with being outside of the US. I traveled throughout Europe and meet more people and saw more things then I ever could have imagined. I slept on trains and outdoors like a bum and traveled for weeks on end with nothing but the clothes on my back. I've done more in my 19 years than most of my family has in their whole lives. Than I came back and boy does Indiana really seem to suck now. I now several other people yhere have lived asbroad and I thought I'd make a thread to share memories from living and traveling abroad.

 

In two months I'm moving to Buenos Aires and I can't wait to start that chapter of my life.

 

Favorite memories from being abroad:

 

Visiting the old Communist prison in Budapest, Hungrary and being placed in one of the solitary confinement chambers. That was probably the scariest thing I've ever seen.

 

Going to a HIM concert in Barcelona by myself and being unable to catch a cab or a ride back to town. Having to walk for miles without a clue where I was going in what I later found out was the dangerous part of Barcelona. Purely lucking into a ride finally and hoping for the best.

 

Sleeping on the Beach in Barcelona with some friends because we were too cheap to get a room. Smoking some great weed in the open and just chilling on the beach with it and some Absinthe (however that's spelled, and the real kind too with the wormroot or whatever)

 

Accidentally carrying both weed and a knife in my carry-on in my flight between Spain and Italy and not getting caught. They have some really relaxed regulations.

 

Sleeping at the ruins of Pompeii where it overlooked the sea and the volcano.

 

Traveling throughout Italy on trains without buying a ticket and hiding in the bathroom when there was someone checking these tickets.

 

Washing my clothes for months with what I later found out was dish soup. Detergente isn't what you'd think it would be.

 

Randomly wandering around Amsterdam's Red Light District on shrooms unable to sleep.

 

Going out and getting drunk with my professors and drunkenly asking for an A+ and getting the A+.

 

Taking a bus throughout Austria that kept breaking down every ten minutes and thus seeing just about every gas station in the country. Frinking several bottles of Champagne to ease the trip along.

 

Climbing over my balcony to try and get to my hotel room in Greece and banging on the window trying to get my friend to wake up and let me in, failing but managed to wake up everybody else in the hotel.

 

Going four wheeling in Corfu, Greece and not dying.

 

 

There's mine, whatcha y'all got. I know somebody was in Japan and I'm sure we have a well traveled cultured board.

 

 

[Copper Feel 0]

When I (briefly) lived in Puerto Rico, the weather disagreed with me horribly. Sorry, I can't really contribute much here. The food was good atleast.

[The Niggardly King 0]

[Guest Vitamin X]

Going out and getting drunk with my professors and drunkenly asking for an A+ and getting the A+.

 

Czech rant coming in 3... 2... 1..

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Most of my travels have been within the US. Outside of it, I've been to Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica.

 

Your carefree tooling around Europe sounds fun and all, but when I travel, I typically seek profound solitude. A couple of nights in the backcountry in the Badlands is enough to realize that you're as much of a flyspeck as the pebbles you're sleeping on.

 

My favorite interesting places that are easy to find and easy to be alone:

 

1. Craters of the Moon: http://www.nps.gov/crmo/

 

2. The Badlands: http://www.nps.gov/badl/

 

3. Death Valley: http://www.nps.gov/deva/

[Guest Czecherbear]

Going out and getting drunk with my professors and drunkenly asking for an A+ and getting the A+.

 

Czech rant coming in 3... 2... 1..

Rant about what? That's cool. My dad did that once in college.

 

I finagled grade improvements from high school teachers once or twice, but I didn't get them drunk first. Should have. My neighbor sold pot to our middle school home ec teacher. Not that he needed a bump in home ec grades, he just liked selling pot.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

The Rocket and I had a teacher in college who was notoriously tough. He was also a Jehovah's Witness. Our bribe of "No Christmas Presents" failed.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Going out and getting drunk with my professors and drunkenly asking for an A+ and getting the A+.

 

Czech rant coming in 3... 2... 1..

Rant about what? That's cool. My dad did that once in college.

 

I finagled grade improvements from high school teachers once or twice, but I didn't get them drunk first. Should have. My neighbor sold pot to our middle school home ec teacher. Not that he needed a bump in home ec grades, he just liked selling pot.

 

I figured you'd have more to say on the fact that he's doing this as a typical American College Student, drunk and abroad on an "enriching foreign learning experience."

 

While I always liked the premise of going abroad to study, I liked the idea of actually studying and not just "Man, I just practically took a term off and got straight A's for fucking a bunch of French chicks and being drunk every day." Then again, if I wanted to do that, I could just stay home in Portland.