Sydney Hagen

Livin’ Like We’re Renegades

Published on November 10, 2022October 25, 2023 by Sydney HagenLeave a comment

During my Junior of High School I went on a Europe trip with juniors and seniors at my High School . We spent 10 days in Europe visiting Paris, Nice, Florence, Pisa, and Rome. It was an incredible trip, especially because it was my first time traveling outside of the United States. But returning to Europe three and a half years later, feels completely different. I think this is for several reasons. 1. I have grown so much and been through so much in the past three years, making me feel like a different person. 2. I am here with my friends and people I chose to come with, not my high school class filled with high school drama. 3. I have complete control over all planning including what we see but also how we see it (transportation, time management, dining, etc.). It is empowering and also intimidating, but overall it is incredibly exciting. Here is a small recap of our trips to Rome, Italy and Barcelona, Spain.

Roma, Italia

I went to Rome with my best friend and her boyfriend. We also met up with a friend who is studying abroad in Florence, Italy from Colorado State University. Getting to Rome was an adventure in itself. We took a train from Glasgow to London to meet up with my best friend’s boyfriend. We were only in London for a brief 8 hours before getting up at 2am to Uber to the bus station, then take an hour bus ride to Stagnated Airport in London, and then flying to Rome. We had taken all forms of transportation within 24 hours, which besides the exhaustion was fairly impressive. Rome was terrific, we spent half the day Friday and all day Saturday exploring and seeing all the famous sites like the colosseum, pantheon, Trevi fountain, St. Peters Basilica, Spanish Steps, Altar of the Fatherland, and Piazza Navona. The architecture was beautiful. I think the Trevi Fountain was my favorite place but I was thrilled to see all the other sites as well. In High School, we were on a guided tour and had a group of 60 students and chaperones. Even though, it was an eye-opening experience, there was not much cultural interaction, so during this trip I noticed many more insightful cultural differences.

Traffic and Driving in Rome: I have one word for driving in Rome: Terrifying. We took Ubers to and from the city center since our hotel was too far from the center to walk. The traffic near main sites like the colosseum and trevi fountain was insane. You have no idea what cars are going where, there is no direction, just people turning wherever they want, cutting each other off, and honking anytime a car hesitates for any reason. We got stuck in so many traffic jams which did not bother us but our Uber driver was not happy with the congestion. I could never imagine driving in a city like Rome because I a so used to American roads with traffic signs.signals at every intersection, marked lanes, and wide streets. In America, it is rude to switch lanes without a turn signal or speed up around someone if they are going slow, but in Rome it would be weird to not drive in that manner. I’m sure those drivers are used to it, but I was glad to just be a passenger with no driving responsibility.
Eating later and reservations: Restaurants in Italy are not lacking in any way. There is a pasta and pizza place every couple shops down the streets, especially near the main sites like the Trevi Fountain and Colosseum. However, us Americans who are used to being able to stop into a restaurant at 4pm or 5pm for an early dinner were shocked when most restaurants don’t open until 7 or 7:30. The ones that do are typically booked full with reservations making it difficult for us spontaneous tourists to just walk into any restaurant that looked good. We were advised to get to restaurants early if we wanted to steal a table before the rush of reservations which was definitely worth it after eating authentic Italian pasta and drinking homemade limoncello.
Finishing Food at Restaurants: I did not know about this cultural difference until I saw it in action. On our last evening in Rome, my friend was very full from her lunch and only ate about two-thirds of her dinner. The waiter came by the table after we had already gotten our food and been eating for about 45 minutes and when he saw my friend’s plate he was shocked. “You don’t like it? Your food is cold!” He seemed so concerned about her plate, but she calmly laughed and said she was just very full and could not finish the dish. He looked at her like she was crazy because in Italian culture you always finish your food. It is considered rude not to finish your food and the only reason you would not clean the plate is if you did not care for your meal. It took a little more explaining before the waiter accepted her answer and took our dishes away. In America, as a server people rarely clear their plates. Americans are know for large portion sizes and there are even times I see people barely touch their food. I rarely ask people why they did not finish their food, because it seems rude to interrogate the guest about their meal and Americans have no problem telling the server if they do not like their plate and want something different, so this interaction was very interesting to me.

Food and souvenirs in Rome are cheap compared to Glasgow and London. They are not the cheapest in the world but, the cheapest I have seen so far. We went to fancy dinners, ordered drinks and appetizers for four people, but the bill did not break the bank, making Rome one of the lest costly adventures in my travels.

Blog Post 4 — Fontana di Trevi, Rome, Italy

Barcelona, España

Our trip to Spain consisted of two nights. We spent time wandering around the city, walking along the beach, eating incredible seafood, and admiring Gaudí’s architecture. Ubers were not very popular in Spain. It is more efficient and easier to flag a taxi from the side of the road than wait for an Uber with your phone. This was new to us since, getting Ubers and Taxis through the Uber app had been our main form of transportation in the united Kingdom and Rome.

The most notable cultural observations I made were regarding speaking English versus Spanish. I have basic Spanish speaking skills. I can hold a basic conversation. However, I found my skills very challenged in Spain. First, I am used to Latin America Spanish which is different form the Spanish spoken in Spain. I did not think there would be as much of a difference as there was. I also get very shy when speaking Spanish because I feel like my pronunciation and grammar is not perfect. In America when I try to speak Spanish to people I feel embarrassed and have even been mocked for trying. So, my hesitancy in Spain combined with my Latin America-based Spanish made for more language barriers than I anticipated. This was different from when I travelled to Mexico last May. In Mexico I was reserved at first with my Spanish skills however, once people say I had a basic knowledge of their language they were so excited and wanted to talk to me in Spanish and teach me new words. I had so much fun speaking Spanish in Mexico, but in Spain when I tried to speak Spanish the people would talk back to me very quickly and when they saw my confusion or surprise, they immediately gave up and started speaking English. Barcelona is a tourist hot spot so I was not surprised that many people in Spain, especially restaurant workers knew basic English. But, I felt disappointed that I could not put my Spanish skills to work as much as I wanted to. One of my friends from DU is studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain and she told me English is hardly spoken there. Clearly the English and Spanish speaking norms are different in different areas, but Barcelona was not what I expected. This did not deter the trip at all, I fell in love with Barcelona and cannot wait to travel back one day.

Another notable cultural difference is similar to Spain in the way that everything happens later. Restaurants open later and clubs/bar stay open later than 2am (closing time in America). I actually saw that some restaurants that are open for lunch and dinner close for a few hours from 4:30pm to 8pm. Originally, I thought I was going to study abroad in Spain and when I was researching the culture I learned they have siesta hours in the afternoon where restaurants and shops close for the workers to take breaks. They can go home and take naps (siestas), run errands, or really do anything, but it is very common in Spain culture. Sometimes, I feel sad I did not study abroad in Spain, but I have a feeling I am right where I am supposed to be in Glasgow. When I left Spain and returned to my Glasgow flat, I remember being exhausted form the busy weekend and thinking to myself that I was so glad to be home. I never thought I would call a place other than Colorado home, but I have made my own little home in Glasgow and I can’t put into words the feelings of pride, joy, and comfort that brings me. I think I will be ready to go home in December, but for now I like my home here.

School Daze

Published on November 8, 2022October 25, 2023 by Sydney HagenLeave a comment

New Kid at a New School

I never had a scary first day of school. I went to the same school from the fourth grade through senior year because it was a K-12 institution. And in the fourth grade your first day of school is not that scary. I was a social kid so making friends was not very intimidating. Going to a new school your freshman year of high school is intimidating. Transferring schools in middle school is intimidating but going to the same school for nine years with the same people, the same teachers, the same building, and the same environment, is not by any means intimidating. I remember being a little nervous at the start of each year but it was more excitement to see all my favorite teachers and my peers that I grew up with. Going to college was scary. Going to college in another country was scarier. At least in America, I knew exactly what to expect in classes. I had taken college courses all through high school so I knew what to expect about the coursework, about the professors, about the structure of the class, about the technology software used, about all of it. In Scotland, I had to relearn everything. It was similar enough to where I was not completely lost, but different enough to where it took effort to learn and many observations to catch on. The following are some of the most notable observations:

Timetables and registration: I always knew timetables to mean the multiplication charts we were tested on in elementary school, but here you don’t use the word schedule, it’s a time table. This doesn’t just go for school, there’s bus timetables, appointment timetables, etc. My timetable consisted of two public policy classes and a law class. All classes were worth 20 credits which translates to 4 DU credits, but the schedule…sorry…timetable is complicated. For both public policy classes they are once a week for two hours. This is different from DU’s classes being twice a week for two hours. From what I’ve gathered school in the UK is most reliant on self-teaching, so they have less classes to give students time to read and learn the assigned material on their own. The students are expected to complete all out of class preparation materials and readings, which I thought was so interesting. In America, we do not trust that students will do their work on their own so we have participation grades and small quizzes to hold them accountable. That doesn’t happen here. My law class is where things get tricky. I have the class for one hour on Wednesday and then on Fridays from 9am to 10 am and then back again from 12pm to 1pm. It is so odd having a two hour break between the same class and I’m sure it is difficult for students to plan their classes in between a spread out timetable like that. However, they wouldn’t know because they don’t make their schedules. At DU, when registration opens you sign up for your classes and it’s a free for all while everyone enrolls in the classes they need to take. But, in Glasgow the registration department makes your timetable, so all you have to do is submit the classes you want to take with your first choice at the top of the list and hope you get a good schedule. This is probably very nice for the students here that are used to submitting the classes they like and receiving their schedule a couple weeks before class, but for me it was scary. It was scary to wait all Summer with no control over my enrollment, not knowing the classes I was taking and at what times. Another twist is tutorials. My law course has an additional class six Mondays out of the semester where a small group of the large 80 person class meets to discuss a problem solving activity. The problems are given to us in advance and we meet to compare our answers with a tutor (Glasgow’s equivalent to a Teacher’s Assistant). Other classes are sometimes specified as seminars and lectures where seminars are just discussions and lectures are a mix of discussions and teaching, however tutorials are the most interesting aspect of the timetable and class setup.
Professors: The teachers at University of Glasgow are incredibly nice. Each teacher genuinely wants to make sure the students understand and even the more strict teachers are never rude or shut down students ideas. They also do not assert their own political opinions into debates or discussions as much as American professors do. It is not uncommon to have multiple professors for a class here. In my public policy class we will have a total of five professors alternating the weekly lectures. So, one professor may teach weeks 1-3 and week 7. Another professor may only teach weeks 4 and 5 and so on. I wasn’t sure about this system at first but I have to say I actually think it is a brilliant idea. Different teachers have different teaching styles which not only helps keep students engaged because they don’t entirely know what to expect from each professor but they also help if a student is struggling to be receptive to one professor they will still have a chance to connect with the others.
Secondary to Tertiary Education: The transition and roles of High School and college is very different in Scotland. In America, common curriculum is taught all through High School and at the beginning of college. However, in Scotland, students begin specializing in certain education areas in high school, so by the time they reach college they are already set in a major and take just a couple common curriculum classes. This means people rarely switch their major and commonly take gap years so that they are absolutely sure of what they want to get their degree in. Law school is the most interesting course of education in the UK because instead of going to high school and then getting an undergraduate degree and then going to law school for three years, students graduate high school, study law in their undergraduate and then graduate with the ability to practice law. Thus, they receive the equivalent of a bachelors degree and a juris doctor degree in just four years of university. I am taking a contract law class while abroad which has been very insightful to the setup of law school in the UK. When talking to Glasgow students about the Law School setup versus American Law School, it seemed like we did not understand each other. It took a long conversation for us to figure out how the opposite systems worked.

Blog Post Three — Professors Square, University of Glasgow

Trip to Edinburgh

For my birthday abroad my best friend and I took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a city just an hour away from Glasgow and is the Scotland capital. The city is bigger, more expensive, and definitely more ‘touristy’. We took the train to Edinburgh which was interesting for us. In America, I rarely use public transportation. My freshman year at DU, I took the light rail to get downtown, but once I brought my car to school, the light rail was hardly ever a form of transportation for me, However, in Glasgow, public transportation is widely used and heavily preferred. Edinburgh was the same distance from Glasgow as Colorado Springs is from Denver, yet I could never imagine taking a train to Colorado Springs, I would just drive. Not having a vehicle has forced us to use public transportation which was scary at first but easy to master and understand after a couple weeks. Train are also unreliable in Glasgow due to strikes. This may just be a current problem that is not typical for Glasgow but it seems strikes are everywhere causing cancellations and delays. It is not just with train systems either. Strikes have taken place with the post offices, garbage collector companies, airlines, and even the campus gym. To say the least, it has been hard to adjust to relying solely on public transportation, but very insightful after living in a place my whole life that relies little on buses and subway systems.

Regardless, my friend and I took the train to Edinburgh and spent the day exploring. We saw the Scot Monument and the Edinburgh Castle which are two of the most amazing structures in Scotland. Edinburgh was also the birthplace of Harry Potter so there are many historic places that J.K. Rowling either wrote her books at or inspired places/things in the Harry Potter world. There were more American fast food places like Burger King, Five Guys, and Wingstop in Edinburgh which was intriguing for us. We had afternoon tea at a cozy tea room near the Royal Mile. We ordered a ‘high tea’ experience which consisted of a pot of tea as well as an assortment of pastries and snacks. The scones were one of the most incredible pastries I have ever eaten.

We finished our adventure by eating at an Italian Restaurant that had amazing reviews. The waiters were so much fun. They were fascinated that we were from America and had lots of fun teasing us and asking about study abroad. When they found out it was my birthday they gave me a free dessert with a candle and sang me happy birthday in Italian. In America, I used to feel so awkward and embarrassed when restaurants would sing me happy birthday, but for some reason I felt to comfortable and truly grateful to the restaurant staff for making me feel special. The best part of our dinner was when we tipped the waiter. We tipped him 10 pounds on a 50 pound check, so the standard American 20% tip, and the man was appalled. He gasped at the money and with wide eyes tried to not accept the tip. I explained to the man that in America we tip well especially when we receive good service. I told him about my serving experience and he finally understood and took the money. He promised to split the money with his coworkers which I thought was awfully kind and with gratitude he escorted us to the door and gave a happy goodbye. It’s the little things that make me happy, so even though it is amazing that I can say I turned 20 in Edinburgh, Scotland exploring monuments, castles, old shops, and tea rooms, my favorite part of the day was making the waiter’s night with just a 10 pound bill.