August 17, 2010 – 11:23 am
Well, this is it. The last blog that i will write for this trip. And let’s face it, the rest of my life. The life of blogger is quite exciting, too exciting in fact. Thats why I am unable to continue on this long and lonesome road. I need security and peace and stability in my life. Not a constant barrage of demands to write more blogs.
Europe has taught me a lot of things this time around. Unfortunately, it did not teach me to be an excellent speller. Thats one thing about the Europe trip that I realized since being home. The trip teaches each of us a lot of things, but not everyday practical things. Things that we won’t realize until later in our lives.
In a way I am so glad that the trip can do this in my life, but on the other hand I just wish I was a speller.
A good beer brewed from the righteous land of Belgium is the best way to end any day. Tomorrow we head across the channel to London; English pubs and fish chips are already calling my name. We have traveled across Europe now and have seen many things.
The other day we visited Vimy Ridge, a WWI memorial site. I looked around it and found the name of a relative on the wall, one that my mother showed me when we were there together 8 years ago. The names that cover this
monument are for the fallen soldiers that were not found. Many of them were volunteers who died without a trace, and all that is left is a name etched into a stone wall. I would have had no idea that I had any form of family on that wall had my parents not shown me.
What would it be like to be a volunteer in a war? To die for a good cause, but to die lost? Are the fallen lost if their name is written on a wall with hundreds and hundreds of other names? Here I sit writing and having a beer. Will my name be written on a wall, will it be remembered?
Regardless, whether my name is etched on a wall on not, I think that it is not how your name is remembered by those who come after you, but how your life is lived. Living well seems to be what is important. Seeing these names, and the names of so many others, on monuments and memorials all over Europe, it is not the name that lives on in stone, but the memory of the life that was lived, that is written in people’s hearts.
Whenever I want to have a good time in Europe I sit down and write a blog. There is nothing more exciting than what I am doing right now.
For reals though, this trip has been great. With this being my fourth trip and fourth time seeing the sites that we visit, i find myself wishing once again that i was experiencing these things for the first time. I am enjoying seeing all these pieces of art and huge churches again, and it is nice that I have memories of the cities that we visit and for the most part can remember my way around, but i can’t help but feel left out in a way.
When we first arrived at Carcasonne I watched Aaron jump up on the same wall that I had climbed when I was 12, and it made me sad. Not really, but I did wish that I could be experiencing this crazy walled city for the first time with him, instead of from the ground looking up at the joy on his face.
I find myself fighting to try and experience these old cities in a new way, but my expectations and memories of how I spent my time within their walls creates a difficult barrier to overcome. I have and will continue to have new experiences and to create new memories… but I have to write a blog about something.
Isaac F.
I have only been back home, here in St. Stephen for a week, and yet here I am leaving once again. I had spent the last term in Fort Mac, or ‘hell on earth’ as I like to call it. I have been looking forward to this trip to Europe for four years, since I was last there in 2006. The streets, the smells, the pizza, it all calls out to me, begging for me to return.
Today, I sit on my porch in the sun, beer in hand, writing this blog and I find myself wishing I could spend a little more time in my home town before setting off on another adventure. However, when it comes to it, St. Stephen only has so much to offer.
I have previously been on three other Europe trips with the SSU community. Every two years since I was 12, until I entered SSU as a student. Now finally feeling the burden of the work load I feel as if I deserve to be on the trip. For the first time I will be there, not as a under aged tag-a-long or small fry mascot, but as a student experiencing my dream like childhood in real time. From seeing new cities to actually researching the art that I have seen time and time again, this will be the first time that I have truly been to Europe. Also, did I mention Kendall likes flowers?
February 2, 2009 – 5:27 pm
By Isaac
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Posted in Uncategorized
The only reason why I spend my time at SSU is of course due to its convenient location, which is right across the street from my house. Another reason might also be due to the whole travel aspect of the school. Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to travel along with the school through the Europe trip that takes place. Though for each of the trips that I have experienced I have not been a student and so have not had the opportunity to test the academic waters of the trip. With this being my first Asia trip experience with the school and my first travel experience as a student, I am no doubt excited. In my years hanging around the school without being a student, I had always heard horror stories of the amount of work and classes that accompany the trips. I was surprised to find that the stories were not far from true. There has definitely been enough activity in the classroom and on the keyboard to tire me out for a little while; but my spirits surrounding the trip are still high.
I am looking forward to experiencing some of the different cultures that we have been looking at in class. From what I have heard, the Southeast Asians are very formidable and generous hosts. This is a comforting notion as we will be staying with varying families throughout the trip. One of the things that I looking forward to the most over the trip is just the simple act of experiencing new things in a new and interesting place. From what I have heard about the trip from past students it will no doubt hold up to any expectation that I might have, and I looking forward to gaining new stories that I will be able to share with my friends and family pending my return.