Blog #1: Lessons in an unfortunate series of events.

To begin I would like to say that my trip to Paris, France was wonderful, amazing and one of the most meaningful experiences I will forever cherish, but let's say that it began with a rough start. I spent my first experience outside my comfort bubble thousands of miles away from my close family and friends; everything and I mean EVERYTHING that could go wrong on my first day did and I would like to discuss with my fellow HPU colleagues on how to overcome these challenges and maybe prevent them in the first place.

 Things began going south literally and figuratively as I landed in Frankfurt Germany from Vancouver, Canada. I landed in a very large airport to catch a connecting flight that was to depart within an hour of my arrival. Usually, I would use my time wisely, but a few things got out of hand and out of my control. For example, to list the following:

1) My previous flight was delayed!

2) I was exhausted after 15 hours of flying, 10 hours of layover with no sleep

3) I did not know how to prepare or what to expect when I landed

4)  I got lost + left the connecting flight region of the airport, which meant having to go through security AGAIN

5) I did not keep track of time closely...and soooo yup, I MISSED my last flight to Paris (this is where everything would go wrong). 

If you find yourself missing your flight, my first tip to you, fellow traveler, is to go to the service center of the PREVIOUS flight. It’s important that you catch the next available flight as fast as possible and the service lines can be very long (30-45 min), so don’t waste your time and make sure you’re in the right line. In my case, the airline that delayed my flight was responsible to communicate with the next airline to get me to Paris. Just so that you are aware, once you talk to the service center with all of your previous flight information, they will probably reserve you a seat on standby. This means when you check-in for your flight, it will say that there are no seats available. That is FINE! Just print your boarding pass and they will give you a seat right before they start boarding. I lost so much time trying to figure all of this out. I ran across the unreasonably huge airport several times (note: make sure your carry on has wheels if it is heavy) and waited in long lines. I ended up catching my makeup flight 3 hours after my original time. Another important note: When traveling internationally, your phone may not be able to use data at all so you can use the airport’s WiFi, but sometimes it doesn’t work during their busy hours!

 Once you arrive at your destination, there are some important questions that you should ask yourself. What time are you landing? Where will you be staying overnight? Can you use data or phone service? My original plan was great: I would land at 3 pm and I would have 3 hours to figure out my transportation and my data plan before the office that held the keys to my housing would close. Sadly, I arrived 3 hours late so I had no time to get my keys that day. Luckily, I emailed the office quickly and explained to them my situation. They responded and were very kind to agree that I can use my room without signing any of the legal documents so I could have a place to sleep. All I had to do was contact my roommate to let me into the apartment. It was another great plan, but things went horribly. First, most of the stores closed at the time I arrived so it took me much longer to get my data plan and almost as if the airport was mocking me and my struggles, it went completely on lockdown as I was leaving due to some luggage issues; I only brought a carry-on, so it shouldn’t have affected me. Next, the transportation system by the airport was very expensive and I tried to conserve money by taking a bus service to reach the city and walking the remaining 30 minutes. I am usually very good at using my GPS, but with no surprise, it took me to the wrong location. I learned to never trust my GPS in a scenario like this. I was lost for a very long time as I didn’t know how to use the local buses or metro to reach my apartment and my roommate was getting upset because it started getting late and he was jet-lagged by 7 hours (I was jet-lagged by 12!!). I learned that you should just take an uber or a taxi from the airport even though it will cost about 50 € but they will take you exactly where you have to go quickly.

By the time I arrived at my apartment complex, it was past 11 pm and my roommate fell asleep and the office had closed. As I was waiting in the lobby, one of the residents understood enough English to try to help me. The problem was that I did not know which room was mine or even which building in the complex since I did not officially check-in. One of the managers finally arrived and he did not know any English. He was not very patient for complete strangers that did not know which room they were supposed to stay in so he got VERY upset and I got kicked out. That is when I was pretty much started panicking. I tried calling some nearby hotels, but they were all full, so I knew that I was spending the night out. I called my family and girlfriend for advice and they 🤷‍♂️. They calmed me down a bit and I found a bus stop with a charging port to charge my phone. At this point, I had spent about 35 hours in 3 airports and 3 flights and I decided that I was going to pull another all-nighter so no one could rob my luggage. Around 3-4 am, I had to use the restroom so I started exploring the magnificent city of Paris and I actually really enjoyed myself. I went to the Eiffel Tower for the first time around sunrise and it was just beautiful. At 6 am, my roommate called me to apologize and he let me into our apartment. It was great because I got to sleep for about 45 minutes before I had to get up to go to the first day of orientation!

A newly formed land

Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai: An underwater volcano surfaced in 2015, joining two landmasses together. This is not uncommon in the Kingdom of Tonga for islands to form. Although these masses usually go as fast as they come, as the ocean erodes these soft materials quickly. Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai is different. This land mass is predicted to last 100s of years due to its solidifying crust. Inside the caldera of the volcano, a lake as been created. Although not as salty as the ocean surrounding it, we discovered there is an osmosis occurring through the small rocks creating the joining island. We also gathered this relationship with the ocean by finding hot spots around the crater lake. Knowing that if there was no osmosis occurring then the water would be much warmer. 

Pictured you can see the inside of the caldera and the different rates of erosion of the volcano. In the second picture is (from left to right) the volcano, the preexisting island Hunga Ha’apai, and the Robert C Seamans at the North side of the landmass. Coming to this new land form was quite amazing. Although it was shocking to see how much plastic pollution littered black pebble beaches. No humans live here yet man made products wash up everyday carried by the strong currents of the region. I was apart pf one of the teams that collected the debris yet during our time there, we tried our best to clean up as much as we possibly could. 

Blog #3: Staying in Paris for the Long Haul

What do you do when a quick, planned trip to France while taking a short summer abroad class suddenly becomes the fight of your life to return to your home and family? Here’s my story on how I survived when I was trapped in Paris. For the longest time, it has always been my dream to explore the streets that my family was originally from, a world that has become so distant in my life in Hawaii. I was very excited when I finally had the opportunity to go to France to take a French language and culture class for 3 weeks during the summer. I have lived most of my life in Hawaii as a French immigrant, but had never been to France since I was born in Brazil. I would learn that traveling from Hawaii to France and from France back to Hawaii was complicated. My parents were concerned about the immigration aspect of my trip and I did my research and got my documents. On the fateful day of my trip, I learned that the immigration office at HPU notified me that I might have missed something and wouldn’t be able to return to the US. I quickly rushed home and completed the last document that I needed. I had my boarding pass in hand, which showed that my plane was to take off in under 2 hours when I learned that I needed to pass an exit interview to obtain my entry visa into the US. Only later on did I find out how difficult this would be.

There are certain things one usually does when preparing for one’s first solo trip, such as budgeting, managing housing, and so on. Things one doesn’t plan to do is stay twice as long as they budgeted for and completely rework their plan for the trip...like I did. Luckily, I brought extra cash to survive, but I had to economize BIG TIME. 

Here is my how-to guide on how to survive a low budget lifestyle in Paris. The first thing I learned was that living in the city is expensive, like hundreds of euros you will never see again after only a few weeks kind of expensive. Therefore, I moved from the city and learned to love the countryside just outside of Paris. From this move, I also grew to love the long commute between my new home to the city and grew to love me saving money. Also, as amazing as the food was in Paris, it was really expensive too! The first thing that most would be tempted to do is buy ready-to-eat frozen foods since it saves time, but even those meals can be expensive over time. That’s when I learned the magic of grocery shopping. This was the first time in my life where I went shopping for different things that I could cook with. I bought lots of pasta, meats, and vegetables and cooked them myself. I found interesting recipes online to cook with and I tried different combinations of the ingredients I bought to make my dishes interesting to eat each day. From these experiences, I learned how to make it on my own.

By the end of the trip, I barely had 100 euros and if I had one more setback, I wouldn’t have known what to do. Luckily, I was able to reschedule my flight (over several hours over the phone) and I made it safely back to my family and friends.

Blog #2: A walk through Paris

One of the most memorable days of my stay in Paris was on a class trip to the historic Opera. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen, with its pristine architecture and elegant decay, that is until I stepped inside and saw even more beauty! From the walls to the ceilings, one could see the golden masterpiece shining brightly and captured me into a trance. Beautiful artwork wrapped the walls and tears formed from it all. The first thing I did was call my girlfriend Liz and showed her the amazingness that was before me. As I gazed upon the ceiling, my body started to spin as I tried to capture it all in. The ceiling was fifty to sixty feet high and gazing upon it felt like my eyes were bathed in warmth. It was an honor just to step in a room of such majesty, but it was only the surface of the true art that occurs every night on stage. The opera is typically booked months in advance, so none of my group nor I had the opportunity to see a show, but as we stood within the theatre seats, it was a mind-blowing feeling I would never forget. On our tour, we explored the hallways, enjoyed the art and took a breath of awe for each room in its own way. As the tour came to end, my friends and I planned a walk through the center of Paris and explored the city to see the sights of the greatest city in the world.

 My roommates, Drew and Micahi, some other classmates, and I joined together on a quest to march forward and take on the city. Before any great quest, we took a quick pit stop to eat lunch. We took the metro to a cafe in the center of the city near Notre Dame as that is where our quest began. As the tables and chairs spread out near the entrance and across the traffic of the streets, we inhaled the scents and aromas of the fine French cuisines of the cafe. My friends and I tried different dishes, excited to see what we could all try. I had the lasagna and my dish overflowed with different cheeses and vegetables that melted in my mouth. Everyone was excited about what they got too!

 With our bellies full, we marched on to Notre Dame. As we approached the charred building encased in a cage of metal and concealed by sheets of white. We have all heard of the tragic fire that destroyed iconic portions of the Notre Dame, but it brought us joy to see its resurrection. Hasty Frenchmen patrolled the streets with heavy weapons, while others restored the Notre Dame to what it once was. We were amazed at the grandness of the building. Next, we marched on with the Seine River through the first arch in the Lourve and on our way to the infamous Champs Elysées Avenue with shops popping and the shoppers dropping. As we walked across the various streets and parks to reach the Champs Elysées Avenue, it was a nice time for my group of friends to get to know each other. We have come from all over the world with such different lives to finally meet and enjoy our love for the culture of Paris together. We talked about our lives and our studies, as well as our cultures and our families. I learned about the silly marriage rituals from Russia to the great CN tower of Canada. Soon the sun began to set high, and our sweat strolled down our face.

 Paris is a crowded city, but it doesn’t compare to how crowded it was at the Champs Elysées. The stores from all over the world stood tall as the tourists and local people alike rushed busy like ants in a picnic. We stopped by all the stores along our way and checked all the French decor and knick-knacks. I was reminded of my home as I thought about all my friends and family back in Hawaii and the things that they would like. You have to be careful or else all your money will disappear! Soon we heard the music of the streets as the performers sang and the children danced to Bruno Mars’ music. We approach our final destination, a grand masterpiece, the greatness of Napoleon, the Arc de Triomphe. The line was long and the staircase to the very top was even longer, but the view was one of a kind. From the top, we could see the entirety of Paris and the long way that we had come.

Arriving in England

I admit, I didn’t really prep as much as I should have before booking my flight. If you dig hard enough of the University of Hertfordshire page, it will explain that there are certain days where you can get transportation to the school from Heathrow, but if I remember correctly it was only one day of the weekend before orientation. Because my flight was not on that day, I had to navigate through London to Hatfield on my own. From what I could find online, navigating through London is fairly easy because of the easy access through the tube. Unfortunately, I had my giant luggage so I didn't really want to work out international subway systems with my luggage. I was able to work out a route before my flight though, and ended up taking the Heathrow Express (which offered tickets at the airport) down to Paddington station. From Paddington station I was able to find a starbucks and order an Uber to Kings Cross which had trains directly to Hatfield. It was stressful and hectic, but overall I was able to figure it out fairly easy and not nearly as expensive as a taxi all the way to Hatfield would have been! Unfortunately, I was too stressed to take pictures of any of my first impressions, but I did catch this quick glimpse of platform 9 3/4 my first time in Kings Cross!

What To Pack

Packing was an interesting experience for me, because I wasn't sure what I really would need. I knew that it would be cold, but I didn't know if England's "spring" would be anything like the usual springs I have experienced. looking back on it there are only a few wardrobe essentials I would say you absolutely NEED:

• a reliable pair of pants (or two... or three...)
• sweaters (if you ever crave for sweater season in Hawaii, good news! England is always sweater season)
• Winter coat (my winter coat was my best friend as seen in all of my pictures)
• Sneakers (so. much. walking.)
• Some nicer, dressier clothes (there will always be a social opportunity to dress up, and you can never be too dressed up when going out)
• Slip on shoes for around the flat (dorming is all going to be communal. While you could get away with walking barefoot, it's gross enough that you shouldn't want to)
• a light jacket (even when it starts to warm up, you'll want that extra level of warmth) 

Additionally, if you don't want to buy these things you could bring room essentials like:

• sheets
• a pillow
• a blanket

Places to go within England!

One of my biggest fears with my study abroad experience was that I was going to come away from it wishing I had done more, gone more places, tried more things. Thankfully, now that I'm back I don't feel like that at all! While I didn't get to travel over to Europe during my stay, there were more than enough places within the UK that are just as exciting and beautiful to go to. If you find that you're in England with spare time and money and wanting to travel, these are a few places for day trips/long trips that you can do!

• London: This one's a given but I could go to London and find new things to do with every trip. Make sure you look up what there is around and make the most of it!
• Cambridge: seeing the different colleges is amazing and really feels like you're stepping back in time. Some of the colleges are free to get onto, some cost money so be prepared for that. Also, make sure you book one of the punting tours along the river to see the historic bridges and get historical/fun stories about each of the colleges.
• Oxford: similar to Cambridge, the colleges are so fun to look around. Also, you can see several places where Harry Potter was filmed.
• Dover: aside from being able to see the famous white cliffs, you can also visit Dover Castle which is the largest castle in England.
• Stonehenge: this one is also a given but not only is the experience breathtaking, the town you take the train into is very cute and has a lot of fun little shops to walk through.
• Edinburgh: really visiting anywhere in Scotland is amazing, but Edinburgh has so many cool attractions and picture spots, it's definitely a must! Try to visit Holyrood castle and the Elephant House cafe which is where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter
• The lake district: any of the little towns will do. If you want to really experience the English countryside and small English towns with beautiful views, this is the place to go.
• Harry Potter Studio Tours: If you're a fan of the movies or the books, this is definitely worth it! it's a self guided tour, so you can take as long or short of time as needed.
• Portsmouth: this is a city I hadn't heard of before but I'm so glad I went! It used to be an old navy town, and now you can go explore old British Navy ships as well as see a once sunken ship that was one of the first naval ships in Britain.
• Brighton: worth it just for the pier and fun shops alone but also just a really cool city to explore with fun museums and historical sights.