Adventures in America

By Sarah Westgate, University of Maryland, College Park, USA

To be honest with you, I didn’t fancy a year in the US. However, I was placed here anyway, and in hindsight I don’t know why I was so against it. Sure, the politics leave something to be desired, and you can turn right on a red light (insanity!) but there are so many other things that make this country totally awesome.

In a way, the adventure started when I joined the Terrapin Trail club here at UMD (thus named for the mascot of UMD: a noble terrapin). This is a group of people who love the outdoors and meet weekly to discuss the trips they’ve been on, the trips they’re planning to go on, and have an all-round good time. It’s been a fantastic way to meet some very cool people and do some very cool things in the DMV area. Their most notable trip is the notorious four-state challenge, where you have a 24-hour time limit to hike 48 miles through 4 different states (VA, WV, MD and PA). Upon hearing about it for the first time in September, I thought ‘maybe not for me’.  Then, in October, I found myself hiking it and having more fun than you might expect. Finally, come March, I was training for it and managed to complete it in under 14 hours. This was an incredible personal achievement and symbolic of how this year has helped me to push my limits and discover more about myself.

When winter break came around, I decided that actually, while I was out here, I didn’t want to fly all the way home. Instead, I flew 6 hours in the opposite direction to San Francisco, where my lovely boyfriend flew out from England to meet me. We saw all the sights, including spending Christmas Eve on Alcatraz, and we visited a fellow UoM exchange student who is at Berkeley. It was cool to compare our experiences of the US and spend some time with people from home.

After this, I had some time to kill, so I spent a week volunteering in Arizona where there are some Buddhist nuns tackling food insecurity in small towns in the desert, with big plans to expand all over the world. I learnt a lot about arid-climate gardening, and spent my days off in the mountains. On the morning of New Year’s I saw the sunrise at Chiricahua national monument, which is breathtaking. And who knew about this world of Buddhist nuns in the Arizona desert?

Following this, I went to Florida and spent two weeks on the beach in January with my darling parents, then spent a couple of days in Nashville with some of my friends that I’ve met abroad. I came home with a snorkel, a pair of cowboy boots and memories that I will cherish forever. The adventures don’t end here; I’ve been backpacking on the Appalachian trail and in Paria, Utah, I’ve managed to squeeze in day trips to Philadelphia, Annapolis and Boston, and I still have time- next up is a camping trip in the Roaring Plains in West Virginia. These are all things that I probably wouldn’t have done if I didn’t go on a year abroad, and as a result I would urge everyone to take this opportunity if you can – I am so grateful for the position this has put me in, and I’m having the time of my life!