Beccy on Tour - My Semester Abroad in Raleigh, NC, USA

Rebecca Schaden 0:09
Hello guys, and welcome to my podcast Beccy On Tour about my semester abroad in Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States. My name is Beccy, and I'm your reliable source into the exciting world of American college life. So if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, stay tuned

Hey, there guys, it's me again. And let me just tell you this week and the past week have been absolutely crazy so far. Obviously, I've had exam weeks before at my Austrian university, but it was never as cramped with work as it is here. It feels like every single day I open up my Moodle account, there's some new assignment on there, it just never ends. And I wasn't even sure if I could find time for putting together a podcast episode today. But then I figured life is meant to be enjoyed. And it's meant to be fun. And I definitely love talking to you guys so it's definitely time well spent.

On that note, I have two announcements to make. The first one's: A colleague of mine and international student, Abdullah Najjar, who also works at WKNC interviewed me for his podcast 'Connecting the Pack'. The podcast episode is probably going to be published this Wednesday, same day as mine. So if you want to find out how I do on the other side of the microphone, I would love for you to check it out. And because us international students need to stick together, he's agreed to let me interview him as well. But for this episode, in particular, and that is the next big announcement, we're going to do it on camera. I am so excited guys, most of you probably know that I would love to be an anchor and have my own show one day and that is definitely going to be good practice. Also, a big thank you goes out to my guests, Abdullah, of course, and Jason, who's going to help me with the setup. I am going to drop the link to the finished episode in my Instagram story as soon as I have it. And I would love your opinion on it.

But let's not rush ahead and instead talk about my Thanksgiving break in Florida. Yes. Finally, I think some of you have been waiting for that one because I've been spamming my Instagram story while I was there. Sorry about that. But let's start at the beginning. The main reason I flew down to Miami was because my parents had already booked the trip to Miami. Originally just the two of them but as Miami and Raleigh aren't that far apart, and they could still change the booking they asked me if I wanted to join them. And honestly, who would not jump at that opportunity. So my flight took off on Wednesday morning, and I got back to Raleigh Sunday morning, which in hindsight, definitely wasn't enough time to see all the cool parts of Miami and the rest of Florida. But is there ever enough time to see and do everything? That's a very philosophical question. So you don't have to answer that. But honestly, we definitely made the most out of our time there.

When my parents picked me up from the airport, my mom greeted me with a balloon that had 'Welcome Home' written on it. And while that's not completely accurate, given that Miami isn't really home, it's somewhat hit the mark because personally, I think home could also be a person or people in that case, my parents, so I was really happy to see them. Life is going by so fast here and I hadn't realized how much I missed them until they were standing right in front of me. Crazy, isn't it? But anyway, my parents rented a cute, blue car and our first stop was our hotel Leslie Hotel Ocean Drive, which was right by the sea at Miami Beach. On top of that, we also had a pool on the roof and a gym in the basement. But because we were always busy, I unfortunately didn't get to use either. But as always, I'm going to put the location in the description of the episode and if you decide to visit Miami and stay at the hotel, I definitely recommend you use the equipment and eat at its own restaurant. The food's great and all the drinks come in these massive glasses with a small glowing ball in it. Well, I'm not entirely sure that it was a ball but it was glowing and it looked cool. So I liked it.

I was pretty exhausted from flying and studying before that. So we didn't do much that first day. My parents showed me around Miami Beach, I got a new bikini because of course I had forgotten mine at home -big surprise- and my dad even got me a new sports outfit. Oh, and I lost my phone at one of the stores, again. I almost had a heart attack when I realized I didn't have it on me. Luckily a woman who worked in the store had found it and picked it up. So when I rushed back, she said she'd already been waiting for me. So lucky me but no, for real, I need to start being more responsible with my stuff.

For dinner, my parents took me out to the Cheesecake Factory, and let me tell you, their menu is impressive. And not only because of the many cheesecakes you can choose from, they also have a lunch, dinner and brunch menu, I have never seen before in my life. They have small plates called SkinnyLicious with less than 590 calories, flatbread pizzas, pastas, steaks, burgers, and what not. And then there's the different cheesecakes, of course. They do 10 inch, seven inch and six inch ones and you can choose from a variety of different flavors. My mom got one, the smallest one I might add, and it was still too much, but delicious, nonetheless. Some of you might have already been to the Cheesecake Factory someplace else. But I'll still put the link to this one in particular in the episode description because well, there might be regional differences you never know.

So on Thursday, my mom and me had some differences in opinion about how to spend our day. I wanted to do an Everglades tour because I had never done that before. And I thought it would be cool to see an alligator in his natural habitat. But my mom wanted to check out Downtown Miami. So in the end, my dad was the one to make the call. He chose the Everglades tour, much to my delight, but as it is so often the case it didn't quite go as planned. Because it was Thanksgiving on Thursday, the Everglades tour wasn't happening. Instead, they offered to change our tickets to a bus sightseeing tour. And as we didn't have anything else planned, we agreed. And in hindsight, I'm definitely really glad we did the bus sightseeing tour because otherwise I wouldn't have seen as much of Miami as I did.

There were three stops included: The first one was Wynwood District, which is a neighborhood known for its large-scale graffiti works by well known artists and it's basically a huge outdoor museum. The district's also home to clothing boutiques, art galleries and craft breweries, all giving off the same vibrant energy. I took hundreds of pictures there, some of which you probably saw on my Instagram. I especially loved the mural painting of an angel protecting the Earth. I'm no believer, but I do find the thought of some kind of higher power watching over us somewhat calming.

Next stop was Cuban Heart, Little Havana. And that's a whole different vibe for sure. Cuban people definitely know how to party and have fun. And our bus driver slash tour guide even took us to his personal favorite bar where he claims they have the best mojitos in the city. We didn't have enough time to prove him wrong, but I'm inclined to believe him because the mojito was really good. And the live Cuban music show they put together for us was an experience as well, especially when one of the waitresses hopped on the stage and started dancing. The bars name is Alfaro's, and it's located in the south of the Little Havana district. But don't worry, I will link it in the description for you guys. Next stop on the list was a night boat tour on Miami River. And I always love boat tours. But this one was definitely special. Our tour guide was a little over the top, especially when he aggressively demanded tips at the end of the trip. I mean, the tour was fun and I know that tips are a huge source of income in the states but his repetitive insistence was kind of annoying. Anyway, it didn't dampen the experience. In fact, the stories he shared about the people who lived in the properties by the river were really interesting. Apparently, one is owned by J-lo, and another one is owned by an ex boyfriend of hers. Some of the houses also belong to less well known but not less wealthy business people and we also passed David and Victoria Beckham's mansion. And as you can likely imagine these buildings were massive and some of them were architectural masterpieces and I was wondering what it would be like living there. Well, who knows maybe one day if I make a lot of money and can afford to buy a house there, the tour guide will mention my name too. The skyline of Miami at night is incredibly beautiful as well. The lights and how they're reflected in the water gives off a very dreamy vibe. I could have stayed on that boat forever but eventually we had to get back to shore mostly because my dad and I were really hungry at this point. This time we tried the in-house restaurant at the hotel I mentioned before is a hot tip, especially if you're tired and don't want to travel far to get food.

Friday was Key West day. For all of you who don't know what that is, Key West is Florida's southernmost point and a small island city in the state of Florida. They only have about 26,000 people living there but all the more tourism. I remember people were queuing to take a picture with the buoy, designating the southernmost point and the line went all the way back to the crossing of the street and it was a long street. As you probably guessed, I was not dedicated enough to go through that ordeal for a single picture but I did get one without anyone on it, which wasn't as easy as it sounds. So we decided we'd rather spend our time doing something useful. So we visited the Key West light house, which is a 65 foot tower that was opened in 1848, and some interesting background information: The first keeper was actually a woman, which was very unusual at the time. And one of the keepers who served the longest was also a woman. So yeah, we really rocked it. Anyway, the lighthouse is definitely an interesting monument. There's a museum next to it, and you can walk up the stairs and enjoy a great view over Key West. I would definitely recommend checking it out. What impressed me most though, and some of you might have seen my LinkedIn post about it was the Hemingway House and Museum. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and an amazing presenter. So that was probably partly why I enjoyed it so much. But learning more about what kind of a person the great Hemingway was, about his four wives, yep, that guy was busy and his journalistic work was definitely an experience. What I personally found most impressive was his work as a war journalist, and the fact that he had actually been to every place and lived through the experiences he reported on. He's definitely a controversial character, especially because he had a bad rep for being a ladies' man and an irresponsible father. But he's no doubt an amazing writer and a brave one at that. Very few people have the guts to enter a war zone. But I'm getting off track here. If you're interested in journalism, or just want to learn more about Ernest Hemingway, definitely check out the museum and take a tour. I promise it makes all the difference. There also some really cute restaurants and coffee shops in the area, like the 'Banana Cafe' and the 'Moondog Cafe'. I will give you all the locations and if you're ever in the area, be sure to check them out.

And last but not least on Saturday, we went up to Orlando to visit the Universal Orlando Resort. And yes, you may wonder now isn't that quite a long drive? And the answer is yes! It is about four hours by car and it probably took us even longer because traffic was crazy. And it got worse the closer we got to the park. But you know, I have no idea when I'll ever get the chance again to visit Florida and I've always wanted to see the Universal Orlando Resort, so we decided to make it work. A friend of mine who visited a couple of times before had already told me that there are three different parks. But I was still surprised by the sheer size of the premises. And don't even get me started on the price. Even though we only did one park because we figured you can only do one park in one day, we paid a total of $550 for the three of us and that's just insane. No wonder families start saving money for a trip like that way in advance. I was lucky and grateful my dad paid for me because otherwise I could not have afforded that. But let's move away from the negative cost aspect and onto the fun part of the trip. As mentioned before, there are three different parks Universal Studios Florida, Universal's Island of Adventures and Universal's Volcano Bay water park theme. We went for the first one because it's constructed as a big interactive film and TV studio and gives you an idea of what it's like to work in the media industry at Universal, which of course, as someone who wants to work in that exact industry piqued my interest. In fact, my favorite ride was the 'Race through New York City starring Jimmy Fallon'. I don't want to spoil it for you guys but you can look forward to seeing all your favorites from the Tonight Show and join them on a tour through the city that never sleeps, which as we established in last episode is a very accurate description of New York. Other than that, we also visited the 'Bourne Stunt Show', which features the adventures of Jason Bourne and some of the really crazy and cool stunts they do in action movies. We did the 'Fast and Furious ride' where they also showed a collection of the cars they used in the movies, which was pretty impressive.

But, and that's where I have to rant a little, we lost a considerable amount of time because we had to wait over two and a half hours in line at the 'Harry Potter and the Escape of Gringotts ride'. They apparently had some technical difficulties that had to be taken care of and while I did expect the waiting time and lines to be on the longer end, especially after having been to Disneyland in Paris, two and a half hours is just ridiculous. And on top of that, whenever they claimed to have solved the issue, they withdrew that statement a few minutes later. And I still remember the woman apologizing for the delay in her British accent over the speaker. I'm not going to repeat that now because I don't trust my British accent but let me tell you guys, it was annoying. The ride was still a lot of fun. Don't get me wrong, but whether it was worth waiting two and a half hours for I am not sure. At least I got a butter beer at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so it wasn't all bad. Great drink, by the way! I get why Harry, Hermione, Ron, and all the others had a thing for it. Because of that incident, we didn't get to do as many rides as I had hoped but it was still a great experience and I wouldn't want to miss it. They also had a Christmas show at 5pm, where dancers and actors dressed up as movie characters and did a street performance. You might have seen some of it on my Instagram and if not, as soon as finals are over, I will become more active on my socials again and post some more content about my Florida, New York and DC trip and whatever is still to come. That's a promise.

And that being said, I hope I could give you some good Florida traveling tips and that you had a good laugh about some of the incidents. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me on Instagram on beccyontour_ or beccy_schdn and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. But for now, have a great rest of your week. Greetings from the other side of the ocean, and I will talk to you next week. Bye, bye!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai