Unintentional Wanderlust

I have always liked the idea of wanderlust. Having that moment in life where you’re free to choose any path you like–opening up doors to meet new people, learn new things, and find places that feel right. It’s a great thing to be able to wander and it’s even greater to have a lust for it. A lust for life, really.

I’ve always loved traveling and experiencing new cultures and meeting people. I especially like traveling with other people so I can share my experiences with someone and because I like having someone to laugh with. Being insanely lucky in life, I’ve managed to fall into most of my adventures.

My high school choir was pretty successful. I am aware how extremely lame it is that I was part of such an activity, but it brought me to some amazing places. In one school year, we were invited to compete in Italy, sing for the Austrian president in Vienna, and join a handful of other choirs to perform in the Sydney opera house. Needless to say, after those trips, I had the travel bug.

Instead of going to university somewhere close to home, I went to a school in Northern Utah surrounded by mountains and not much else. It was totally different from what I was used to. I met a lot of great people there. It felt refreshing to live somewhere new.

A couple of years later I decided to study abroad in Canterbury, U.K. and instead of staying there for 3 months, I stayed there for 3 years and finished my history degree. Canterbury was my happy place. London became my favorite city. And I managed to hop over to Edinburgh, Paris, and Oslo while I was studying. I also met some of my favorite people in Canterbury, one of them being my husband.

After getting married, I moved to a Canadian town that I knew nothing about. It’s bizarre that I wasn’t even looking to travel during most of these moments, but I found myself in situations that led me down these paths. Most of my experiences were extremely good. There have always been bad and scary scenarios but I feel like those things happen when you step outside of your comfort zone. I always look at the big picture, and as a whole, my life has been pretty great. No complaints.

I like that everyone’s journey in life is different. Some people never leave their home state and others travel outside of our planet’s atmosphere. I have been given much, and therefore I feel like much is expected of me. I expect much of myself.

Our world is pretty small. Wandering and living life to the fullest is the best thing we can do with our short time here. I saw this video the other day and it made me think about our sweet little planet and how much it’s given us.

This post has been inspired by The Duck and The Owl’s Theme Week

My Trip to Oslo

Since my Seattle post was so well received, I thought I might as well write about my other travel adventures. Especially the ones where I look thin in pictures.

During my study abroad in fall 2008, a lot of my friends were going to Amsterdam. I of course was banned from going there because I would most likely get caught up in the red-light district and sold as a sex slave. Or worse, smoke pot. Luckily, a couple of my friends weren’t interested in going either. We looked on RyanAir’s list of destinations and saw that flights to Oslo were going for a mere 7 pounds! Brilliant. Side note: RyanAir is the sketchiest airline you can take. Flights are cancelled constantly and they fly to airports that are more or less 2 hours outside of the city that you think you’re going to.

I was excited to go to Norway mostly because I am of Norwegian heritage. It’s easy to mistake me for a Viking woman. In fact, when we were there, most people would talk to my friends in English and then talk to me in Norwegian. Unfortunately the only words that I bothered learning were hai hai (hi) and tak (thanks). So my cover was blown often.

As for eating, we had an amazing breakfast buffet every morning at our hotel. We would stock up on food there and then grab crap at 7-11 at night. Oslo had a lot of 7-11’s. But not one Starbucks. Go figure.

I remember when we first got there, some homeless Norwegian put his arm around me and I did a full “As if!” from Clueless.

So that was fun. Besides that clingy homeless dude, Oslo was dead. And by dead, I mean that there was literally no one around. It was a ghost town. Streets were empty. Stores were closed. It was spooky.

We were smart and went on a bunch of free tours to all of the hotspots in the city. One of the most memorable stops was the Vigeland Sculpture Park. So this Vigeland guy basically made a bunch of sculptures of people without clothes on so they would be timeless. Unfortunately everything just looks very sexual. You cannot take a normal picture there. For example:

Not phallic at all.

We went to an amazing Viking Ship Museum which was a definite highlight. I could just imagine my ancestors raping and pillaging other nation’s carefully built towns. Often times their boats were buried with the men who died so it’s a real miracle that these boats are in such good shape.

We also went to the Kon Tiki Museum. Before visiting the museum, I hadn’t ever heard of the Kon Tiki expedition. In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl made a journey to the Polynesian islands. The museum pretty much explains his entire journey. It was a cool place and I got some good pictures most importantly.

I’m probably the most annoying person you’ll ever meet.

I think we also went to Oslo’s Opera house which is right on the water and shaped like a glacier which is pretty bomb. But probably slightly traumatizing for any titanic survivors. Oh, and we went to the art museum to see some Edvard Munch paintings. After being in Oslo for a couple of days, I could see why Munch painted “The Scream”.

Along the way I manged to abuse most statues that I came across.
I hope this post encourages everyone to visit Oslo at least once in their lives. It’s clearly such a hot spot!

The Story of Us

Yes, that’s a Taylor Swift song. I’m too lazy to think of another title. I’m also too lazy to think of a creative Valentine’s Day themed blog post, so I’m going to copy everyone else and tell the story of how Paul and I met.

I went to Utah State University for a year and a half. My first year was really great. I loved my friends, my school, where I lived–everything! The next year, everyone split up and it wasn’t the same. I mean, it was good, but it wasn’t the best! One of our new roommates stole money from me (I ended up getting it back). After that, my parents asked me if I wanted to come home. I said yes.

I went to a community college close to my house for a semester so I could figure things out. I was thinking about transferring to DePaul in Lincoln Park downtown. I wasn’t sure about the whole thing (I have trouble making decisions). My parents told me that the community college had a study abroad program in Canterbury and that I should go for a semester and figure things out. I thought about it, but I wasn’t really feeling it. A couple days before the plane left for the study abroad, my parents were like, “Just go! You’ll have the best time!” So I decided to go. And I’m really glad I did.

I met all sorts of great friends on my trip. I laughed my way through Europe. It was seriously my favorite semester of all time. In my study abroad group were 3 Canadian students. They invited me over to their dorm all the time. They introduced me to their roommate, Paul. He was Canadian too and a full-time student. Not a study abroad joker like us.

My friends and I arrived in Canterbury on September 13th so my birthday (Oct. 5th) rolled around pretty soon after we got there. I was turning 21, which doesn’t really matter in England, but in the States it’s a pretty big one! I gave all of my friends invitations to come down to my favorite pub, The Jolly Sailor. On my Canadian friend’s invitation, I wrote at the bottom “Tell Paul to come too!”

All of my friends were there, but there wasn’t any sight of Paul. I was having a lot of fun because everyone was celebrating my existence, so it wasn’t a super big deal. Later that night Paul showed up! He was at tennis practice (seriously, tennis instead of my birthday?!). I walked up to him and gave him a hug. I was slightly intoxicated, but not by choice! Everyone was buying me birthday drinks, so I couldn’t turn them down! I told him that I was really glad that he came to my party. He told me that he thought I was beautiful.

So happy!

Even though we had only met a couple times before my birthday, Paul telling me I was beautiful made me so happy. It was sincere and sweet and I instantly fell in love. The next day I told everyone I knew that I was in love with Paul. Well, I actually said, “I think I like Paul” or something eloquent like that. I decided that if my study abroad ended on December 13th, I was going to use all of my time to ensure that Paul would feel the same way about me by hanging out with him as much as possible.

As the days grew closer to my flight home, I grew more and more depressed. Would I ever see Paul again? What will I do when I go home? Why can’t I just stay here and be with someone I love in a place that I love? Why do fools fall in love?!

When I came home I literally wilted. I stayed at home, ate a lot, watched a lot of tv, and went online all the time so I could talk to Paul.

My parents were like, “Umm why don’t you just go back to England and finish out your degree there?” And I was like, “WAIT. I can do that?”

So I packed up my bags and finished my degree in Canterbury. Paul ended up feeling the same way that I did except that my my emotions were 10x what his were because I’m a girl.

In our 3rd and final year of school together Paul asked me to marry him. Now we would never be apart! We got married on August 20th, 2011. This is our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple.

I know you’re reading this at work, Paul. I love you so much and I’m so lucky to have you in my life!

Lilypad and Paulywog