My European Experience

By Paul Fan

My adventures in Europe across countries including Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, Croatia and more. Photos and a personal detail of each destination is covered. My details on a July long exchange in Leeds, England are included with a personalized taste.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Fan
• Release date: Aug 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781365402388

Book preview

My European Experience

Paul Fan

Paul Fan

2016

Copyright © 2016 by Paul Fan

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2016

ISBN: 978-1-365-40238-8

Contents

Preface ...................................................................................................................................... xi Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1

July 3........................................................................................................................................... 3

July 4........................................................................................................................................... 4

July 5........................................................................................................................................... 6

July 6........................................................................................................................................... 8

July 7......................................................................................................................................... 10

July 8......................................................................................................................................... 12

July 9......................................................................................................................................... 15

July 10 ...................................................................................................................................... 17

July 11 ...................................................................................................................................... 19

July 12 ...................................................................................................................................... 20

July 13 ...................................................................................................................................... 21

July 14 ...................................................................................................................................... 24

July 15 ...................................................................................................................................... 26

July 16 ...................................................................................................................................... 29

July 17 ...................................................................................................................................... 31

July 18 ...................................................................................................................................... 33

July 19 ...................................................................................................................................... 35

July 20 ...................................................................................................................................... 37

July 21 ...................................................................................................................................... 39

July 22 ...................................................................................................................................... 42

July 23 ...................................................................................................................................... 44

July 24 ...................................................................................................................................... 46

July 25 ...................................................................................................................................... 47

July 26 ...................................................................................................................................... 49

July 27 ...................................................................................................................................... 51

July 28 ...................................................................................................................................... 54

July 29 ...................................................................................................................................... 57

July 30 ...................................................................................................................................... 59

July 31 ...................................................................................................................................... 62

August 1 .................................................................................................................................. 65

August 2 .................................................................................................................................. 68

August 3 .................................................................................................................................. 70

August 4 .................................................................................................................................. 72

August 5 .................................................................................................................................. 75

August 6 .................................................................................................................................. 77

August 7 .................................................................................................................................. 79

August 8 .................................................................................................................................. 82

August 9 .................................................................................................................................. 84

August 10 ................................................................................................................................ 87

August 11 ................................................................................................................................ 90

P a g e | vi

August 12 ................................................................................................................................ 92

August 13 ................................................................................................................................ 95

August 14 ................................................................................................................................ 99

August 15 ............................................................................................................................. 100

August 16 ............................................................................................................................. 102

August 17 ............................................................................................................................. 104

August 18 ............................................................................................................................. 107

August 19 ............................................................................................................................. 109

August 20 ............................................................................................................................. 112

August 21 ............................................................................................................................. 115

August 22 ............................................................................................................................. 117

August 23 ............................................................................................................................. 120

August 24 ............................................................................................................................. 122

August 25 ............................................................................................................................. 125

August 26 ............................................................................................................................. 128

P a g e | ix

Preface

This hybrid journal and scrapbook contains a politically incorrect, opinionated raw una-bridged view of my exchange in Leeds, England in July 2016 and then my backpacking in London, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Spain and Portugal. Everything from food, emotions, people, culture, events, history, visitor attractions and more are discussed with no views hidden. Be ready to read something that feels abrasive, offensive, truthful, and more. Feel free to drop this book at any time if it feels too uncomfortable for you to read. In our day and age there is far too much politically correctness in an effort to be socially accepted, satisfied, and to socially climb to the top of the ladder. If you enjoy harsh opinions spoken with utter honesty, then this book may be of interest to you.

P a g e | xi

Paul Fan

Introduction

I took an international exchange via the University of Calgary Study Abroad program CISSA (Centre for International Students and Study Abroad) for July and decided to travel for August after that. Of note, this book contains approximately 22,000 words and 120 photos that have been organized so that those photos are relevant to the places I visited and which I often to speak to in the journal. I’d like to thank everyone who provided me inspira-tion towards writing this book, whether that was positive or negative, or if I knew them intimately or not.

P a g e | 1

My European Experience

P a g e | 2

July 3, 2016; Day 1

-Got to Leeds in a frantic day; had to re-line up in airport due to too much liquids fewer than 100ml (had to check bag in and line up again).

-Likely will have to use a burner phone with the SIM card given by University of Leeds.

-Arrived with limited sleep during 4 hour bus ride at 4:30pm the Sunday night before class starts on July 4.

-There are 89 students in total and from who I talked to, all over the world: Australia, US, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong (more than 10), Singapore, etc. Lots of Asian languages and dialects used over English: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese; the immigrant effect is taking place where those who grew up in a geographical region are sticking with those that also did (same language, cultures, etc).

-Rooms are small but are independent as a washroom is in the middle shared by two people. There is one kitchen for everyone to use in another independent room – things may get tight making food with so many of us in one quarter.

-Everything is much smaller than in North America: roads, buildings, shops, washrooms, it seems cars as well. Public washrooms cost money to use just as in China.

-Quote of the day: it is in times of uncertainty that we learn the most, and yet those are the times that we instinctively wish to avoid

P a g e | 3

My European Experience

July 4, 2016; Day 2

P a g e | 4

Paul Fan

-Today had my first class in Wealth and Poverty; highly interesting. Focuses on historical and social constructs of society to explain why some countries are aggre-gately rich and some are poor (for instance; colonialism, military dominance, imperialism, slaves, racism, etc). -Reminds me of social studies from high school except only much better. We got to walk around the campus and it is bigger than Calgary and far older. Quite a few buildings lack elevators and many are installing or have recently installed them. But, they have a very unique architectural design.

-Bought groceries at the store and I had to show ID to get some knives to cut food. When many young people in university get together in a dormitory, quite often one can assume chaos to occur. Many people are running around drunk, accusing me of things I did not do to them (I did not even come into contact with them until that moment?). It will be interesting to see how people progress 15 or 20 years down their lives.

-Quote of the day: sometimes the greatest action we take is the action that we don’t take

P a g e | 5

My European Experience

July 5, 2016; Day 3

-I see the core principles of cultures, namely individualism and collectivism, coming into play here. For instance, during our class lectures, it is people from individualist nations (Australia, US, Canada) that answer professor questions while those of collectivist culture did not. Also, there are 4 Indian girls in the class that would pass around a large water bottle with each other (the principle of the betterment of the good of the group in play). Although the four came from India and go to the same university, this did not occur with the Australians on the trip who also knew each other and went to the same university.

P a g e | 6

-Went and explored the Leeds campus main library today. There are four floors and the flooring system is the same as China but different from Canada. For instance, the ground floor is labelled the zero