To Europe with Love, Kelly # 84

And with this comic, Kelly’s adventures studying abroad have come to an end. Reading it now nearly 12 years later makes me incredibly nostalgic and miss those good times. In my short Michelmas term at Lancaster, I was able to travel to many other places, experience different cultures, make good friends, plus get more flirting under my belt. Now looking back, I wish I had created more comics about my adventures traveling beyond my uni but I am also proud of myself to stick with creating regular comics while also still taking classes and having fun traveling. The benefits of having more free time during college, but especially at an English university where I spent much less time in classes than I did in the U.S.

Since 2009, I have been back to Europe twice, visiting some of my same study abroad mates in London instead of in Lancaster. Within the next couple of years, I hope to return again, and while it would be nice to return to Paris or Rome, I also want to see new places like Spain and Belgium. If you didn’t get a chance to study abroad in college, go for fun in the future. Maybe we will even see each other there.

Kelly 83: European faux pas

This one makes me laugh because it never actually happened. I wish that I had intentions to take an exercise spin class and ended up making a tapestry instead! The only reason I think I created this one was for the play on the word “spin.” If my English uni did have this as a class, I am sad that I missed out on my chance to use a spindle, especially now that I started knitting during COVID.

Kelly 82: English Elocution

This one was based on an actual conversation I had with my English flatmates. They thought it was hilarious I couldn’t pronounce yogurt “correctly” and they enjoyed telling me the way they say it. There were several words that differed in pronunciations depending on what side of the Atlantic you were on. Although I know these differences were based on where I was raised and not my difficulty to hear accurately, I also know I am terrible at pronouncing things in different languages which is why I didn’t do well in my French classes. Also, I remember that rose hat I got at Covent Garden and I miss it.

Kelly 81: English Thanksgiving

I still remember this conversation with my parents. Yes, it really happened. I believe my mom claims she knew Thanksgiving was just an American holiday but she wanted to get a rise out of me, which worked. In actuality, I and my fellow American students hosted a Thanksgiving party in our British dorms and even had a turkey. For the life of me, I can’t remember what I made but I wasn’t a very good cook then so perhaps nothing very special. The dinner, however, made for a very nice night, making it one of my favorite memories from studying abroad, though I exited halfway through to Skype my whole family (cousins and all) at their midday Thanksgiving meal back in the states.

Another thing of note was that back in 2009, Skype was the only free way really to do a video call with someone internationally. Thankfully, COVID didn’t happen back then because as it was in 2020 I think the main thing that kept people sane was seeing each other over video calls using all of the options available.