Julia is Traveling

1/25-30  So, it finally happened. Our first Dublin Covid scare. Well, a little more than a scare because five of my friends have Covid. But so far, I'm negative. I woke up this morning with a headache which could have been new Covid symptoms or my hangover from the night before. The last remaining girls hung out last night while the rest of our friends began their first night of isolation.  I've found a way to mention a different anxiety I have each blog, so today we'll talk about my Covid anxiety. It isn't really a fear of Covid itself, but more the anxiety of spreading it to friends. And the unknown of it.  Last night was in simple terms: wholesome. Flo, Paige, Annie, and I sat at my kitchen table (sorry Brenna) and spent the night listening to a Y2K playlist and drinking. When going abroad, these are the sort of moments I crave because you spend so much of your time socializing and trying as hard as you can to make friends and have fun. When you are making new friend

1/21-23 I get grossed out really easily. I think it’s because I’m a highly sensitive person (google it), but I’m super sensitive to smells and tastes. If a smell doesn’t fit into my standard of pleasant or clean, I quickly become uncomfortable and grossed out.  On the other hand, I’m not typically a germaphobe. I can walk barefoot pretty much anywhere, and I don’t mind not showering for days on end. I’m currently going on day 3 ;). But my mom is a different story. From very early on, she’s instilled in me that anywhere I sleep besides my bed   is probably dirty and that I must wear long sleeves and long pants tucked into my socks. She taught me that top sheets in hotels are probably not clean so don’t use them, carpets are not vacuumed so don’t walk barefoot, and everything needs to be wiped down, so wipe it down.   My sensitive senses mixed with my moms aggressive opinions on hotels mean I get a weird sense of uncomfortableness when staying in new places. Why does this matter you ask?

1/18-1/21 I have this problem with believing that what everyone posts on social media is true. A picture of you smiling on Instagram? You're obviously having a fantastic time. A caption saying that this is the best day of your life? Well, I am so beyond happy for you. This goes for study abroad too. Before leaving for Ireland, I was under the impression that people traveled every other day, never took classes, and booked flights with the snap of their fingers. Now that I'm on the other side of that, I can tell you that that is not completely accurate.  Monday afternoon I was sitting in my climate change class with severe jealousy at the snow that was falling back home. I am a snow addict. Winter is my favorite season and I could live in the snow year round. The fact that it was snowing all over the East Coast while it's 40 degrees and raining here made me angry. So in my 1pm class, I decided that I would travel to Switzerland for the snow.  By 9 pm that night I had it all p

January 5th to Janaury 17th I am not a calm person. I don't relax easily, I can't go with the flow, and I definitely cannot 'see where life takes me.' Despite my urge to do things out of my comfort zone and experience a crazy life that they talk about in movies, doing new things has never been easy for me. If I don't know the exact outcome of something and how every minute of it will go, the anticipation and anxiety will almost kill me. Almost. I'll work myself up until I'm throwing up and crying and convinced that I won't be able to do it and I should just stay home. And that's just me trying to go to class.  The decision to go abroad had been one I made very early. It was kind of a no brainer; it was something I just knew I would always do. But it was a lot easier to say 'yeah, I'm going to study abroad,' then actually studying abroad.  I started to realize that this new adventure may be harder than I thought when I couldn't even ch