Junior pitcher Constance Phelan has taken her talents overseas for the 2019 Fall Semester to study at Suffolk's Madrid campus. While stamping her academic passport, Phelan will check in with GoSuffolkRams.com from time-to-time to tell Ram Nation what she has been up to abroad.
Below is the fourth installment, featuring Phelan's trips to Budapest, London and Amsterdam.
As only a true college student would do, I decided to procrastinate everything until my final month in Spain. That includes most of my travelling, presentations, and final papers. Saving your homework until Sunday does not work as well when you are running to the airport to catch a flight back to Madrid. It would be easy enough to say do the homework on the plane, if it was not for the fact that every homework assignment now a days requires you to have Wi-Fi, which, believe it or not, is hard to find thousands of feet up in the air.
Almost every Thursday since the end of October, I am throwing clothes into a suitcase and setting my alarm for a 7 a.m. flight the next day. After my trip to Germany, I took a school-organized trip to Budapest, Hungary. I had never thought about travelling to Budapest, and when I got there I realized I had never thought about Budapest at all, outside of when I listened to the George Ezra song, which was stuck in my head the majority of my time there. I am glad I got to experience Budapest because I had not realized what a tumultuous history Hungary had suffered; first being overtaken by the Nazis, before then becoming a satellite state of the Soviet Union. While there, we took multiple tours, visited the House of Terror museum, and went to the Szechenyi Bath. The House of Terror museum was the best part, and one of the most fascinating exhibits I have ever seen. It is a museum about Hungary’s fascist and communist histories and is set up inside a building used by the far-right party and then the secret police. Listening to the stories told by the tour guides, and hearing them say how much they wish they could live in America, really made me thankful for the life I’ve lived and the country I’ve grown up in.
Not that it is a surprise to anyone who knows me, but my favorite place I have visited so far has definitely been London. All my life I have loved anything British; from literature, to TV shows, to my best friend Georgina Corrick. London was exactly what I imagined it would be like, but at the same time it reminded me of Boston or New York in certain areas. It was so cool to see the things that I have only seen in pictures. I was able to see Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and many other famous icons of the country. Unfortunately, Big Ben was still under construction, so it was not able to be seen. I spent three days in London and was not able to see nearly half the things I wanted to see because there is just so much in the city. England is somewhere I have wanted to visit all my life, and I hope that later in life I will be able to visit it again.
Another destination I have checked off my bucket list is Amsterdam. The city was so beautiful, the pictures just don’t do it justice. Amsterdam was quieter than a lot of the cities I have been to, and it was a nice break from the commotion of the tourist hot spots. During my trip I visited Rembrandt’s house, took a canal boat tour, walked through the Red-Light District, and spent half a day exploring the Rijksmuseum. I had no idea that the Netherlands were home to some of the most famous artists and artwork. The Rijksmuseum must be the largest museum I have ever been to, and held masterpieces like Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait, and my new favorite, Claude Monet’s La Corniche near Monaco. I fell in love with Amsterdam, and it is a place I would recommend visiting. The city is so unique with its many different sized and colored houses, and the people who live there are incredibly friendly. I wish I’d had more time to explore everything it has to offer.
During my semester in Spain, I have chosen to explore Europe more than Spain. I’m sad that I have not had more time to explore Madrid, let alone Spain as a whole, but I am glad I have taken the opportunity to see everywhere I have always wanted to go. It is hard to balance school and travelling at the same time. My life has become a constant state of tired. I thought it would be easy after spending so many years balancing school with softball, but I forgot that I have spent 17 years fine-tuning that system. Throughout my remainder of time in Europe, I will be visiting Rome and Paris, writing three papers, studying for exams, and hopefully not forgetting that I have to pack to go back to Orlando.
Fans, families, alumni and friends can check in with what Isaak and Phelan are up to over sees by following their adventures on GoSuffolkRams.com or over social media by using the hashtag #RAMsinterNATIONal.