Category: Europe

Halfway Through and Highland Coos 

Published on by Haylee GriffithLeave a comment

How did 99 days so quickly become less than 50?

I finally got to see and take some photos of the infamous highland cows not too long ago. Past me would freak out to know I was just inches away from these creatures that she has been obsessed with for so long. 

It was a bittersweet moment, though, because now that initial excitement is over. I will never experience that first sight of them again. This makes me grateful for the fact I am able to capture everything with photos and videos. 

I was talking with my dad the other day about how easy it is to relive memories and keep them forever thanks to our cameras; something he didn’t have the privilege of doing at my age. So, while these 99 days may be just about halfway done, with how many pictures I take of everything I do, my time here will never be lost or forgotten. 

Here I sit now, with a little over a month left, looking through my camera roll at what I have accomplished. It may seem silly, but seeing these cows has been the absolute highlight for me, and I truly don’t think anything will top it, though I’m happy to try. 

To me, these cows are what Scotland is all about. When I think of this country, I think of the highland cows. Seeing them is something that absolutely cannot be explained, but must be experienced, and while I am proud of the pictures I managed to get, they don’t do them nearly enough justice. 

I guess what I’m really trying to say, in what is now seeming like an ode to highland cows, is that I think we should never take the privilege of capturing photos and videos for granted. A day hasn’t gone by that I don’t scroll through my camera roll and smile at all the pictures I’ve taken here. 

My advice to anyone going abroad: take the picture, it really does make it last longer. My goal for the next 40-some days is to keep making my thumb hurt from clicking the photo button endlessly. I know I will appreciate all these moments now, a day later, a year later, twenty years later. 

I say never let anyone tell you to “live in the moment” and stop filming or taking photos. These are the things that make the moment last forever. 

I’ll be back with more photos soon, thanks for reading 🙂

Confessions of a Typical Tourist

Published on by Haylee GriffithLeave a comment

One of the biggest appeals of studying abroad for me was the idea that I technically wouldn’t be considered a tourist. Your stereotypical tourist is annoying, and the idea of being one of them is something I constantly fear when I’m anywhere new. The idea, then, that I would be living in Glasgow was all I needed to hear. 

Living around locals, going to school with them, and eating at the restaurants they go to makes me feel fully immersed in this culture. So when I go to Edinburgh, for example, I am nothing but a tourist sightseeing and standing in everyone’s way like the rest of them. 

Edinburgh is packed every day of the week at any time to the point where I can’t ever get those nice, aesthetic Instagram photos everyone else seems to have no trouble with. I know their secret is more likely than not just Photoshop, but my point still stands. I hate feeling like a tourist. 

In Glasgow, I feel like I belong. I know where all the grocery stores are and all the best places to eat near me. I even know the pattern of the stop lights at this point. I live here and I feel like a local. 

Sometimes, admittedly, I forget that I’m not. 

The other weekend, my friend and I took a weekend trip to Dublin, and this fact hit me in the face. We were walking around like chickens with their heads cut off because we didn’t know anything, and I hate not knowing anything. No amount of watching TikToks or reading Google reviews will ever prepare you enough to just plant yourself in another country. 

This is the fun of the experience, just trying to figure things out, but it makes me feel like the tourists that always get on my nerves when they just stand around not knowing anything. And so I choose to wear my heart on my sleeve when I confess that, I too, am an annoying tourist at times. Nobody is safe from the stereotype, I fear, but it’s okay. 

Yes, I took pictures of all the landmarks, bought postcards, and went on a Guinness tour. I fell into every tourist trap, and I absolutely loved every second of it. These experiences and landmarks are popular for a reason: they’re fun! 

My advice to anyone fighting the tourist label like myself is to just embrace it. Feeling like a local is fun, it’s my favorite part, but it is just as fun sometimes to take a corny selfie in front of the Guinness factory like everyone else. 

Since we’re being fully honest here, I am also typing this whilst currently wearing a sweater I bought from the Guinness Store. Was it ten times more expensive than it should have been? Of course. But do I regret it? Of course not. 

Fashion has no price tag in my mind. And while walking around the airport decked out in Guinness made me embarrassed at first, I was only one of a dozen others. This is my version of embracing my tourist tendencies, slowly but surely.