A Look Down Luggage Lane
Written by mekennaearnhart July 1, 2022
As my time here at CIMBA is coming to an end, I wanted to use this blog to share some funny moments that happened during my time abroad! You only post what you want people to see on Instagram and needless to say these fails did not make my Instagram feed…
Cobble stone roads:
As soon as my friends and I landed in London, we got our bags from baggage claim and went outside to call a taxi to our our Airbnb. I have all of my things with me which is my suitcase, a carry on, and my backpack! As I am walking to taxi pickup, I am dragging it across the cobble stone roads and my suitcase gets stuck on the cobble stone and I trip over my suitcase leaving my suitcase, carry on, and backpack sprawled right on the road. A very kind English man helped me pick up all my things, but my pride is still laying there on that crosswalk. I learned very quickly after that how to navigate rolling luggage and cobble stone.
Molto Cibo:
My friends and I went to visit Rome one weekend and our Uber driver made us a reservation at this amazing hole in the wall 5 star Italian restaurant. Well, although these people were very nice, the restaurant was not tourist friendly, or in other words – very local! They only spoke Italian and very basic English. I was feeling pretty confident in my Italian skills from the Italian class I had been taking at CIMBA, so I decided to order for the table that night! We decided that we wanted to start with an appetizer or “antipasti” as you do at an Italian restaurant and to our surprise when our appetizer came out, I accidentally ordered EVERY appetizer on the menu. It was so funny our table was filled up with food. Honestly, we were not mad about it though because the food was all so amazing and worth every penny! No worries, we still ordered entrees!
Turn up your nose the rose:
Ah yes the infamous rose scammers. We all have heard of them, but I was not expecting how intense they were! Walking the streets of London, this woman holding a rose comes up to my friends and I and hands the rose to us so we thought it was for free! I mean, she really did just put it in our hands. Then she starts gesturing for money. I was about to give her 1 pound – no big deal. Well, when I handed her a pound, she said it is 3 pounds! Then she took the rose from me AND my 1 pound and took off. So, note to self, no one is above a rose scammer, even if you think they are giving you a rose for free, they are not!
The train game:
This was my 5th week abroad so I thought I was a pro at the train station…well never be too confident! On my long travel day to Lake Como, my friends and I started to see crystal clear water through the trains windows and got super excited. At the next stop, we grabbed our stuff and got off the train…only to find out our stop was actually the next one! We had to jump back on the train just as the doors closed. We definitely gave all the other passengers a good laugh.
Needless to say, with all the luxury traveling abroad brings, it brings some pretty good laughs as well! I have memories to last me a lifetime.
Ciao for now,
Mekenna
Blogger: , University of Arkansas
