Plane, Plane, Bus, Train, Glasgow!

So it begins!

Saturday was my sister’s wedding day.  It was wonderful and beautiful and everyone cried a bunch. It was amazing to see the accumulation of all the work we have done over the last few months come together in one day of spectacular celebration. Once the rings were exchanged, the toasts were given and the dances were danced the evening started to wind down and the realness of my next hurdle started to hit me. For the last few weeks the wedding has been the primary focus, and leaving was just something I was going to do after the wedding. But now the wedding was over, the reception was coming to a close and people were making plans for the morning. But I wasn’t going to get to go to brunch the next day, by the time most everyone else would be waking up I would already be somewhere over Minnesota.

I got home and finished packing my bag, all put together it weighs about 43 pounds including clothing, drafting materials and tools in a duffle strapped to the bottom (fingers crossed that both pieces make it all the way through!) I didn’t think it was all going to fit but as you can see below…

To

Awe, yeah.

In the morning I woke up with a sour stomach (not from the reception, but nerves) drank some tea and started chewing peppermint gum, a trick I learned from my mechanic a couple of days ago.  If you don’t have antacids it’ll help calm an upset stomach.

Paul and I drove to the airport at 7:15am and it wasn’t until we turned off I-5 to the airport and saw all the signs for it that this finally felt real. I was going to the airport to fly away across the world. We met my parents at the United counter and I had the fastest check-in process ever and the security lines were short enough we had time for a coffee together. But soon, the time came, there was much hugging and crying and I’m going to start again if I don’t stop there.

Once my family was out of sight I was venturing deep into TSA territory, I had an interesting mix of emotions; sadness, loneliness and also a stalwart sense of independence. From this point on I will be the only person in a decent radius that cares about me, my well-being or itinerary, very far away from my wonderful support system.. It’s  a scary, yet invigorating feeling.

When I entered security I saw how much it has changed since I last flew in 2010. For those of you who don’t know, they replaced the doorway-style metal detectors with giant rectangular panels that flank you, then you turn, put your arms up in the “Hands above your head, dirt bag!” style and just wait for what I assume is a detailed picture of all your organs, bones and potentially concealed nail clippers. I heard one baggage x-ray operator exclaim very loudly to another agent

“We gotta 316 over here.” He said, “A big fat water bottle in this suitcase.” The same way a cop might say:

“We gotta big fat kilo of cocaine over here.” Or “He’s smuggling a small child in his laptop case.”  Or “We gotta flock of endangered Himalayan Parakeets.”  Utmost knowledge that the guy did something so obviously illegal and how dare he be stupid enough to bring his own hydration into hydrophobic TSA country.

I found that on the plane everyone had their own screen set in the seat ahead of them, but you have to pay for TV service. Though the welcome video still teaches you how to connect your seatbelt. At least some things never change. I ended up buying the service since it was a five hour flight and I forgot my laptop cable at home.

On the plane from Newark to Edinburgh I made friends with the older lady in the seat next to me. She gave me all kinds of good advice about getting to and from Glasgow by bus and train.

When we landed I said goodbye to my friend and walked outside into the drizzle and grey skies to the little building marked “BUS TICKETS – Edinburgh, Glasgow, London” and asked how I could get to Queen Street in Glasgow. “This bus to Haymarket then the train to Queen Street.” The man said.

At first glance, Scotland looked and felt a lot like home. Lush green lawns, and a stand of trees across from the road. It wasn't so different, not really. But I loved hearing the accents around me, the first real reminder of how far away from home I really was.

I went up to the 2^nd floor of the bus, because, really, I’m in Great Britain and immediately my backpack proved itself extremely awkward and cumbersome. It’s simply too heavy for me to comfortably pack around, a reality I was worried about but I was specifically told not to bring a rolling suitcase. Plus I had my carry on- a regular sized backpack that weighs about 13 pounds because of my laptop.

When I boarded in Seattle I didn’t have a concrete plan of how I was going to get to Glasgow from the Edinburgh Airport. This is a very big deal because I always have a plan and when things don’t go perfectly I sometimes freak out. But I’ve realized that the “I’m just going to wing it” plan will work but it really helps to do it in a place where you speak the language. I asked for directions to the train in Haymarket at least 5 times because of the massive street construction going on there. Everyone I talked to was more than willing to give me detailed directions.

The train from Edinburgh to Glasgow only took about 45 minutes through beautiful countryside and before I knew it I was standing in Queen Street Station at 11:30am. I admit though, here I paused and walked back and forth between exits unsure of what to do. The city was alive, noisy and mobile through the gatelike doors of the train station, my adventure was waiting for me, but still I hesitated. 
I knew I had to get a phone, I had to call Markee, the friend I was going to stay with and tell her I had arrived and where I was. Most importantly I had to find Wi-Fi and tell my friends and family that I was ok. Also, I had to do this in as few steps as possible because I’m not strong enough to carry my backpacks very long.

The city center of Glasgow was bustling at noon on a weekday; well-dressed people with umbrellas navigated around traffic, bikes and each other seamlessly, usually ignoring “do not walk” signs while an almost constant drizzle fell. George’s Square gave me my first real look at Glaswegian architecture. It’s mostly all stone that I believe at one point was a light brownish yellow but has all turned black and grey via pollution and time. The older buildings in city center almost all have beautiful detailing that engages passers and invites them to pay more attention to their surroundings. Many of the buildings have Roman columns, statues, and engravings into the stone but have a more solid feel to them than many buildings that use that kind of style. Elegant but practical in shades of grey.

Modern Art Museum

On the other side of the square I found a tourist information/gift shop and got directions to Argyle Street just a few more blocks south where I could get a phone. Sure enough there was such a store and I was able to get a phone, SIM card and ten pounds worth of calling/texting for 20 pounds. I’m glad the sales guy activated it for me because he kept asking me questions and I kept having no idea what he was saying. Scotland is a small country, but there are a ton of accents  and some sound like a different language. I heard one that left out the letter “T” all ‘oogether and i’ made i’ really hard oo underand.

The girl at the phone store told me that the nearest free wifi was at McDonalds down the street and she didn’t know of any other place that had it. Once my phone was activated I weighed my options and begrudgingly I headed in that direction. McDonalds was NOT the place I wanted to start my trip. In my opinion it is probably the worst American franchise to take over the planet. Sorry for the obesity and diabetes guys, our bad.

In the oddly chic fast food joint sipping on a child size coke I got Markee’s phone number out of my email and put it into my new little phone and sent her a text. While waiting for a response I re-attached my tool bag to my backpack and noticed I was getting dirty looks from the Micky-D’s staff. Even in a place as used to travelers as Glasgow I still looked like a hobo mooching off the free Wi-Fi (which I was) and re-packing a gigantic bag in the corner didn’t look the best.

By then it was almost one, when Markee was supposed to get off work and come find me. I wasn’t sure how long I had been up but I could start to feel the exhaustion creeping in and affecting my mood and thought process. I was cold, it was raining, I felt vulnerable because of my bag, I was tired and I couldn’t just find a nice bench to sit on because of the rain. So yes, friends, I found another great American franchise in which to take refuge. Starbucks. Where I almost fell asleep with my grande hot chocolate with whip. (The Starbucks staff were much nicer and accomidating. Especially when they learned I am actually FROM Seattle.)

My directions magically worked! Markee came and found me. Half an hour, a subway ride and a short walk later I had tea in hand in her living room on Paisley street.

All is well.

Things I learned today/ Questions I still have

-Is smiling at strangers just a west coast thing? I smile at most people I make eye contact with and I think I wierded out a few people in the New Jersey airport..  But luckily people waiting at the gate with me were happy enough to smile back. I think I’m going to the right place.

-Shillings don’t exist anymore; it’s just pounds and cents or “pence.” They will laugh at you if you ask about this...

-What the heck is with this country and surveillance??? Everywhere, absolutely everywhere is on camera all the time. You cannot get away from it in the city at all. 

-British pounds are a beautiful currency but extremely easy to overspend. A pound is about $1.60, so you see a sandwich for 4.99 and it's not $5 bucks, it's on the upper side of $8

Top 10 Things I'm Going to Miss About the Pacific Northwest

Well here we are, just under three weeks away from the big goodbye. People keep asking me if I'm excited and my general answer is well yes of course I would be excited if I could sift through all of this panic first.

I've been spending a lot of time up in Bellingham visiting and saying goodbye to family. Trying to soak in as much of the Pacific Northwest as possible, gathering a little bit of home to keep with me when I'm homesick. I have been able to spend a lot of time with my parents and my loving and wonderful old GreyFace Mandy.

I know when I get back I won't be returning to the exact place I left. Everyone I know is in a major time of transition, whether  it means graduating UW, moving near or far, getting married.  The comfortable life I've slipped into will not be waiting when I return and the idea that things will not be as they are, that "normal" will be different is a little scary.

So I'm going to make a list in no particular order of my favorite things as they are in the Pacific Northwest that I love and am going to miss like crazy, (excluding people and families, that could get messy and mushy and we don't want that)

1) THIS DOG

I know it's cheating because I already put her in once, but look she's smiling!

2) The Chuckanut Mountains

Are a mountain range up in Bellingham and they are full of absolutely fantastic trails and views. They span easy hikes (like at Lake Padden) up to pretty strenuous (Oyster Dome, Pine and Cedar). All of them are lovely. 

Oyster Dome! Ahoy! -View west to the Sound

3) Pho

This fabulous Vietnamese soup is very easy to find in the PNW. It's cheap, delicious, and DELICIOUS. Thus far the best place I've found is "Time 4 Pho" in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. The bullet holes in the window just make it more authentic. If you don't want to truck all the way out there, the Ave in the University district of Seattle has many decent choices.

4) The Weather.

Call me crazy, but I love the weather in the PNW. The only reason we complain about it so much is because we secretly are trying to keep people from discovering our secret. Yes it rains a lot, is overcast, foggy and cloudy many days. When it snows Seattle generally completely shuts down more as an excuse to take a day off rather than because we are unable to get around. I think our weather has character, personality and is really beautiful if you have the right equipment to get through it. 

5) Hidden Gems.

Fun Vandalism

I haven't spent a ton of time in the rest of the U.S., but something I appreciate about the PNW is that a lot of our cities have had time to grow from homesteads, to villages, to towns and onward. The addition of layers of influence, culture and infrastructure makes for some pretty spectacular hidden gems out there to discover right in your backyard or along the trail. It makes the cities engaging places for pedestrians instead of flat concrete jungles without a lot to offer a human experience.

Unintentional Greenwall - Pioneer Square

A tree growing over the "On-Ramp to Nowhere" at the Arboretum

6) Fairhaven, Bellingham, Washington

Is the wonderful Old-Town of Bellingham. In the last 10 years the city has done a lot to fix up the area and still try to preserve the old-timey feel. It's home to many stores considered almost sacred in Bellingham like Village Books, where many local authors come and speak and the Colophon Cafe in the same building. More recently there has been the addition of Bay to Baker, and the fabulous Sirena with a gelato flavor for every day of the week. The farmer's market and events like the summer outdoor movies happen at the Village Green, a small greenspace plaza in the center of it all.

7) Our Affinity for Zombies

The PNW for some reason has a real and true love of Zombies. From zombie walks, zombie parties, massive games of humans vs. Zombies on all the major university campuses, Zombie sporting events and Zombie re-enactments of "Thriller" in the streets of downtown Bellingham on Halloween. WE LOVE OUR UNDEAD. 

Excuse me, I was using the facilities and now I eat your brain.

8) The Suzzalo Reading Room

or the Harry Potter room as some call it is a feat of marvelous architecture on the UW campus. It's my favorite place to hang out at UW other than the quad in spring or the fountain when the roses are in bloom. And yes, I understand that it is almost everyone's favorite place to the point of almost being a cliche, but it's awesome. 

9) Our Nerds, Geeks and Dorks,

Up here, everyone is a Nerd about something. It may be rocks, or Harry Potter, or astrophysics, or Zelda or Star Trek, or Halo, or weather, or My Little Freaking Pony. But everyone up here has an irrational love of something. And that's AWESOME, very few people are too busy being cool to really love something with other people. We just had PAX at the convention center and it was a Mecca for Nerds of all kinds. 

Professors Lockhart and Trelawney I presume?

10) Canada. 

Having Canada up there is like having an extremely friendly next door neighbor who has better toys than you...and sneaks you drinks when you're 19. I like going to Canada for the all you can eat sushi in Richmond, the water slides and visiting the megafauna. 

This is a fuzzy picture of the Grizzly bear we saw just hanging out in a swamp.

Is that Switzerland!? No! It's Canada!

Cute right? - In Banff

Well I don't know about you but I feel better. I love this place, I must be crazy to leave it! 
But adventure awaits!


"Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

-J.R.R. Tolkein 

(nerdiness in action!)

"The Program is Canceled" - With A Spark of Hope

About a month ago I bought my plane tickets for the whole fall quarter Croatia trip (yay!). A feat of faith in the trip and in my ability to pay for it. The tickets were $1500 total through Expedia, the cheapest I could find anywhere for a multiple-destination trip hopping over Europe a few times. I also renewed my passport because the last one I had expired after only 5 years because I was a minor when I got it. My new one will last 10 years. Make sure you check your expiration dates before solidifying your travel plans!

 The plan was to leave the day after my beautiful sister's wedding in September and fly to Edinburgh, Scotland. I would stay in Scotland for a week then fly to Zagreb, via Frankfurt and get a bus to Bale. Then in December fly back to Seattle via Frankfurt again. With my schedule set, and money spent I committed to believing in the trip and the project.

Fast forward a few weeks and into my poor unsuspecting inbox comes the bombshell. An email from Winterbottom explaining that our partners in Croatia, the Mayor of Bale etc. have pulled out. Leaving us with nowhere to stay, no food, and no building materials.

The project is canceled.

Winterbottom was distraught and doing everything he could to find us a new project ASAP but the future of the project was looking pretty grim, and we might want to start looking for  other options.

Understandably everyone in the program was heartbroken. I myself dealt with it by crying by a river for awhile. Besides the disappointing about not getting to go, I think all of us had already bought our tickets, and most of them were non-refundable. Classes here at UW were already full and a lot of people like myself had our hearts set on going abroad. Things looked like they were really going to suck. 

I and I'm sure a lot of us spent the next week refreshing my email every hour, waiting for any kind of news, good or bad. I started to look into other options for fall quarter, such as an exchange or an individualized study abroad, but anything like that takes a lot of time and planning. I was just about to try to register for classes when we got an e-mail from Winterbottom asking those of us that could to come to a meeting at UW on Friday. 

The meeting was fairly brief. Winterbottom explained what happened with the people in Bale, and how he has been awake for three weeks trying to fix this. He had two possible projects lined up, one at a psychiatric hospital on the Island of Rab in Croatia and the other in New Orleans. But it would still be a week at least before we knew for sure what our fate would be. 

Upon returning home, into my poor, unsuspecting little inbox came my salvation! An email from Winterbottom, saying that the director of the psychiatric hospital on Rab had committed! She wants us there! We are going there! The hospital has gardens already for food and gardening therapy and we'll be building them a healing garden! It's happening, we are going! 

The hospital looks beautiful, it already has a garden/agricultural feel to it from what I've seen of it from youtube videos and pictures on their facebook page page. 

We'll be flying a bit by the seat of our pants, usually Winterbottom gets almost a year to do what he has done in the last three weeks, and we are extremely grateful for all the work he has done so we can go do this. He usually gets to go a few months before and check out the site and do some preliminary analysis, meet the people and form some connections for us over there. Not this time though, so it will be one heck of an adventure for sure. We'll be doing some in-the-moment problem solving, negotiating, re-thinking and fast acting. 

This is going to be so cool! Only 42 days! Gah!

and here is a video about projects from a few years ago, very similar to what we'll be doing :) 

"You're going to be treated like royalty and work like a slave."

Wow. What a flurry!

Spring quarter has finally come to a close, and it feels like it took an excruciating eternity and was also gone in the blink of an eye. I packed up all my pens, clay, rulers, pushpins, food, and many sheets of trace paper from our Landscape Architecture studio in Gould hall on Wednesday; leaving my desk bare and a little sad waiting for the next first year to come along and cover it over again. Today I went back into U-District to tie up some loose ends like library books to the College of Built Environments (CBE) library. When I left I became aware that it could be the last time I go to Gould Hall until next January, quite a thought considering how much of my life has been lived there for the last year.

But enough of this sentimental silliness, on to the exciting travel news!

Tuesday we had one of our last Croatia meetings in studio before everyone left for summer. Winterbottom had been in communication with the hotel we will be living in and had answers to questions we had about our living environment.

He started off with a little talk on a philosophical note, that we will need to understand that we will be guests in this place, there are aspects to their culture we may not understand or even agree with but will nonetheless need to respect and do our best to work with.
Also, we will need to be aware of our infamous American arrogance! He said we may not even realize that we are being arrogant or disrespectful, so for the first while we are in Croatia it would be a good idea to stand back and observe rather than start yammering away. Like that quote, "God gave you two ears and one mouth so use them accordingly." I was a little surprised that no one in the group seemed offended by this. We all seemed to understand that the very nature by which we interact culturally could be offensive to other people, and especially on their home turf when we are guests in their town, region, country, we had better just keep it in check.

With that out of the way we met our TA, Carl who did the last Croatia Design/Build, is a graduate of the program and is also apparently a masonry genius. So as we say in the business SCORE.

Winterbottom gave us a bit more information on the style of design of the area, which I as of now don't know anything about but will fix as soon as possible. He says that Croatia and the general region have set historically based rules for design, that it's very formal. But the interesting part is most of their design is Beaux Arts, which if you don't know much about looks like this:

(This is one from Versailles but you get the idea, they are highly controlled environments where hedges and lawn usually prevail, clipped and manicured within an inch of their lives. You can tell what I generally think about the style but come on! Nothing in nature should be that pyramidal.) 

But they apparently also have a deep love and respect of nature with roots going back to pre-Christianity, some educated modern people fully believe that there are fairies in the forest. Can I just say that I would LOVE to design a fairy garden.

Also at the meeting we learned more about the town and exactly where we will be staying. Hotel la Grisa is going to be our home and home base for 2 months, and can I just say that it is SWANKY. (that link also has some great info on the town). 

We'll have laundry service, access to wifi and probably have our studio space right in the hotel with access to plotters (big giant printers for posters) nearby. They will prepare all of our meals, maybe even bring them down to us on the job site when we enter the construction phase AND we'll get a bilingual assistant to stay with us more or less constantly to help with the language barrier. Though we won't have access to the kitchen to make any of our own food and we will have to share rooms with one other person... and my diamond shoes are too tight and my $20 don't fit in my wallet. Basically this place sounds amazing, and we are extremely lucky that they will put us up and do all these nice things for us. 

Though I'm also very aware that they won't be doing all of this just to be nice, they are going to expect some serious work to get done for all their trouble and by gum I want to give it to them. As Winterbottom said "You're going to be treated like royalty and work like a slave." he was kind of joking, but also a big part of why we are allowed to work there. With an unemployment rate of around 18%, if we were working for any kind of compensation in Croatia other than education and experience there would be a problem.

We know a little bit more of the program for the site now as well. Bale is "The City of Butterflies" and has over 390 different species according to the Hotel la Grisa website. So the design will incorporate a butterfly garden, a performance space, and some kind of community meeting space I think. Still very minimal information, but enough to get the design ball rolling.

I think that's enough information to lay on you at the moment, thanks for reading! 

And if you want to know the answer to "Where The Heck Is Caitlin?" currently, the answer is sleeping for just about ever to make up for those last few all-nighters. Sleep tight internet!

Post Number 1, QUITE awhile before leaving.

Hello my friends, loved ones and random internet people!

Welcome to my travel blog. It's a standing tradition of people in my friend group when one of us goes away to study abroad (Ireland, France, Spain, Amsterdam and Morocco off the top of my head) we start a travel blog so everyone back at home can keep tabs on them and live vicariously through their blog posts. And now FINALLY it's my turn. 

This blog will be a way to tell the story of my experience in a new, beautiful place learning how to work in a way I never have before, in close quarters with people I only kind of know. I hope to share some revelations about travel, food, culture, experience and hard work. Also, it will chronicle the long, arduous process of even getting into a study abroad program. And before you say it, yes I know I borrowed the title from "Where The Hell Is Matt?"  because I hope to one day dance across the planet like that lucky guy.

I am in the Landscape Architecture department at the University of Washington. For those of you who don't know, Landscape Architecture is like architecture, except the idea is to create space and place through plants and land form. It's likely all your favorite parks, public spaces and plazas had a Landscape Architect involved. Think of it like the Architect designs the building and we design most everything else, from the stormwater management, to bioswales, considering habitat, the systems involved to make the place successful and how our site affects other places around it. That's LA in a nutshell. 

And this year I was accepted to get to go do it in foreign country. Croatia here I come!

From what I know so far the program isn't your average study abroad. It's going to be an intensive couple of months living and working in a small, walled, medieval city with weekends off to get in as much travel time as possible. The professor in charge will be our guide, boss and tutor and will henceforth be referred to Winterbottom, as that is his name and I've always had a hard time undoing the training of public school to NEVER refer to a teacher by their first name. 

Winterbottom will be leading a small group of Landscape Architecture students (18 are accepted at this point) to go to the town of Bale in Croatia to do a Design/Build. Where, you guessed it, we will be designing a public space for the town and then building some of its elements if not all of it. I have been told that its a lot of fun but also a TON of work, mentally and physically. We start our work day at 8:00am, end at 5:00pm and then have classes in the evening during the week. Winterbottom suggests getting our bodies as physically strong as we can this summer before we go to keep us going all fall.

I'm a pretty strong chick but I'm nervous about how much work it's going to be. 

But despite nervousness, a currently stunning lack of funds, and a finals-depleted amount of physical stamina, I'm going, and it's going to be amazing. And I'm excited to share it with you :)