Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad,
Dacy
Just some pictures from around Long Beach. As always, there will be more pictures soon.
Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad, Dacy
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I know I just posted a blog all about loneliness, but there are also times of such fullness that the lonely parts fade away to the edges. The past few days have been so full of family, friends, laughing, eating, cooking, and just plain old good times. I may have occasional bouts of loneliness and sadness, but those bouts are surrounded by so much love and laughter. I am thankful that my life, mind, and belly are so full of the things that make me smile.
Life is pretty good. Thanks for reading. Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad, Dacy I have always enjoyed the industrial skyline that Terminal Island offers up in place of the traditional landscape. Stacks of shipping containers, giant freighter ships, and the dirty isolated streets of a strictly industrial zone make up Terminal Island, which is nestled in between San Pedro and Long Beach. It takes two bridges to get to Terminal Island, but other than some beautiful industrial landscapes and a small yet touching memorial to the Japanese Fishing Village, which had every last one of its inhabitants sent to internment camps, there isn't much else. If you look up pictures of the Japanese Fishing Village and then compare them to what Terminal Island is now, it's a little heartbreaking. It used to be a thriving community and now the one restaurant/convenience store I saw was dangerously dilapidated and though the sign said open, looked very much closed. It's a wasteland now. . More pictures, more writing soon.
Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad, Dacy I imagined that all the learning, growing, and changing would happen while I was in England. And it did. But I'm still, and will always be, learning, growing, and changing. One of my more recent lessons is on loneliness. When I'm traveling, it's all good. The loneliness is to be expected, even welcomed. It's so rare to really be alone and solo traveling seems to offer that escape from social interaction I sometimes crave so deeply. I was lonely plenty of times during my solo travels, sometimes to the point of wanting to cut trips short and go back to my home away from home, Canterbury. But sticking through that loneliness is a great feat of independence. It's proof I can find my way on my own, make decisions on my own,
Now that I'm back in Long Beach, loneliness takes on a different form. It's knowing all sorts of people, but never really feeling connected, or familiar. It's knowing where everything is, but still not knowing where to go. Loneliness here feels distinctly sharper because I feel like I should not be lonely. I am surrounded by friends, family, coworkers. Yet I have this sort of loneliness hanging over me, which could potentially be attributed to post-study abroad blues. It's been a solid 4 months since I've been back, so I can't fully agree with that idea. Maybe it's the growing need for connectivity via phones, computers, television. Everything is connected to everything. You can't open a Spotify account without being asked to link your facebook. You can't read an article without the website suggesting to share said article on facebook, twitter, or whatever else. You can't use MapMyRide without the app asking if you want to share your most recent run with your friends. All these things are meant to make us feel closer, more in tune. more connected. But, really, it just pushes us further and further apart. I feel like there's a growing anxiety about social media- one that preys on our inherent need to belong. That anxiety is a result of being able to see when a person read a message, or being constantly able to check what other people are doing, thinking, liking. Just the idea of posting something and viewing how many likes you can get...it's a bizarre new social world we live in. But I digress. This is about loneliness, which I feel can be facilitated by technology. But is also a result of working too much and trying to coordinate schedules with family and friends. It's living in a more isolated environment, it's living far away enough to have to drive places, it's just a different sort of loneliness. It's not all bad. It's not all loneliness. In my 4 months back there have also been plenty of smiles and laughing and good (really great) times with friends and family. It's not all bad, certainly. Life is good, but it wouldn't be life without the downs to balance the ups. Also, wouldn't it be better if I could just be in England all the time? It would. Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad, Dacy Just a few quick pictures from a recent visit to the Queen Mary for some afternoon tea to remind me of England. I should note that it's not the best afternoon tea, but it'll do since I cannot go to Moat Tea Room way over in Canterbury. Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad,
Dacy Post-graduation life is a lot of working and fretting about what to do next. Applying to jobs, researching grad schools, and most recently putting my ass in gear to apply for a particular scholarship. I was already a tad late in getting started on the application, but I worked at it. I got my recommendations, I wrote my Statement of Purpose and Personal Statement. I compiled my portfolio of creative work. I filled out the application and even submitted it in advance in order to be interviewed by CSULB (and endorsed by them). My interview went swimmingly.
But this is where the application goes awry. A small typo in my statement led to a request to un-submit my application. The very same day, I made the changes, re-uploaded, and re-submitted. Seconds later, a confirmation page and a confirmation email. Submitted, to all appearances. Come the deadline date a week later, my application had not been submitted due to some glitch in the online system. After emails, phone calls, and complaints the scholarship foundation has made it clear that despite an error in their system, they will not accept my application. It is disappointing, to say the least. But also appalling that the foundation acknowledges errors may occur, acknowledges I received a confirmation, but still refuses to take my application. The email confirmation, as I was told, is sent BEFORE the application is fully submitted and that after the confirmation was sent my application must have had a communication interruption. How that makes any sense is beyond me. I'm about 99.9% positive that technology today can provide an email confirmation AFTER something has been submitted rather than before. For a foundation that wants to promote international relations and humanizing people from other cultures, they don't seem to care very much for people from their own country. It's a shame. It was a blow to my momentum, but I'm getting over it. It's one drawback. It's entirely possible I would not have been chosen as a scholarship recipient (though it would have been nice to at least be a candidate). But, as it is, I can only keep on keepin' on. Keep researching, applying, and moving on. Get over it and whatnot. Enough yapping, my next post will include some pictures. Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad, Dacy One of the best parts of Long Beach is the architecture. There's a great mix of Art Deco and modern design. I love that the neighborhoods vary so much. One minute it's grimy streets and apartments jammed together, the next it's spacious craftsman style homes. Every bit of Long Beach has its charm and is not so scary as people sometimes perceive it as. As always, I have more pictures that need more posting. Till next time....
Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad, Dacy So begins my photo adventures from the good old LBC. Transitioning back has been both easier and harder than I expected. There are things like the food, the friends, and the family that are so easy to get used to again. And there are things like catcalling and heckling in Long Beach that are just hard to adjust to after 6 months of pretty much nothing of the sort in Canterbury. I've also graduated since my return home. Scary, exciting, and long overdue! Now I begin the equally scary and exciting journey of grad school applications. I'll update on that later. For now, some random photos taken since my grand return home. More to come, as always.
Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad, Dacy Here are just a few pictures of my short time in Reading and the surrounding area. Much like the rest of England it was lush and serene. Perfect for a late afternoon stroll and a drink. It's too bad I forgot my camera the day we went on a pretty decent walk. It happens. Your Broad (No Longer) Abroad,
Dacy Finally, the bittersweet last post from my European travels. Copenhagen, you were the perfect end to a perfect trip. I have a more in depth post of Copenhagen with some photos from my phone, so I won't dilly dally here. There is so much to do in Copenhagen that I wish I could have stayed longer. But the time I did spend there was glorious. Good times, great light, gorgeous colors.
From here, there isn't much left of my study abroad trip, but I've been storing away the photos I've taken since being back. I'll continue posting because, at heart, I'm always a broad abroad. Your Broad (Always at Heart) Abroad, Dacy |
DacyLimFrom Long Beach, CA to Canterbury, England and back. Archives
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