Huong Nguyen, a 2012 Baylor medical humanities graduate, was one of six Baylor students selected to receive a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship during the 2011-2012 academic year. This is the second of her blog posts discussing her experiences so far this year studying at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and traveling across the United Kingdom.
I Chose to Swim
By Huong Nguyen
Before I start this blog post, I want to say thank you to Senator Fulbright, Michael, Lauren, Rebecca, Monique and the US-UK Fulbright Commission for making the dreams I never even dared to dream come true.
After I graduated from Baylor in 2012, I spent a few months at home interspersed with traveling all over for weddings, and then I moved across the 7,000 miles away from everything I’ve ever known. For a while, I couldn’t even catch my breath because things were moving so fast. Now that I have finally gotten a chance to sit and think, I’m realizing how crazy my life has been even just within the last four or five years.
Here are just a few of the places I’ve been.
London was where this incredible journey with Fulbright started. It was my introduction to United Kingdom life, and it couldn’t have been a better city. We spent a week getting to know each other and learned about what life was going to be like and how to adjust to the changes. It was “sink or swim.” I chose to swim.
I’ve been to Edinburgh, Scotland, more times than I can count, each time doing something different and I love everything about this city. A few weeks ago, I was invited to a reception here and I met the Ambassador of the United States of America, the Honorable Louis B. Susman. That is a moment that I will cherish for a very long time.
Stonehaven is my “go-to” place when friends visit. The first time I went, we had a fried Mars bar and visited Dunnotar Castle, the first castle I set foot in. It sits on a huge hill that overlooks the North Sea. Such a stunning sight, it’s really unbelievable.
Other places I’ve visited are Glencoe and the Highlands where I saw the most stunning mountains and sights I’ve ever seen. I could spend hours just looking at the snow-capped mountains and the waterfalls. I’ve been to Inverness to find the Loch Ness Monster (no luck yet). Glasgow is a cool city with a ton of hidden gems; two of my closest friends in the Fulbright cohort study in Glasgow, so I visit this city often. This is where I saw the most beautiful painting by Salvador Dali titled “Christ of Saint John of the Cross” at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Over Christmas break, I visited Manchester, Norwich, London, Dublin, Cardiff and Bristol.
And of course Aberdeen, the city that I currently live in, has captivated me completely. It’s the oil capital of the UK and the “beach” is the North Sea! It rains often here, but not as much as it does in other places in the UK. One day a few weeks ago it rained, snowed, sleeted and hailed — all in two hours. I grew up in Texas. I’m used to the heat, humidity and droughts. I could write an entire blog about the weather, but I’m afraid that would mean that I was “becoming British” (although I must admit, I do talk about the weather a lot now).
Before I moved to Scotland, I had never been to the United Kingdom (which consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). In six short months, I’ve traveled to so many places that I still can’t believe it. Even the way that I’m traveling (by train mostly) makes me think of how incredible this experience has been.
I was on a train making my way back up to Aberdeen from Glasgow a few weeks ago when I looked up just as we were passing the North Sea. The sun was out and shining over the bluest water I’ve ever seen. For five minutes, I just stared at the sea surrounded by miles and miles of mountains and hills. I finally had that “moment” — the one in which I really thought to myself, “How did I ever get so lucky?”
If I could wish for one thing, it’s that everyone that I care about and love gets to do something like this at one point in his or her life. Whether it’s for a week, a few months, a year or a decade. Pack your bags, throw away your fears and dive headfirst into all of your wildest dreams. Do it. Trust me.
Cheers,
Huong
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Huong discusses the photos pictured above:
PHOTO NO. 1, at top: “Here I am on New Year’s in London at the New Year’s Parade in Trafalgar Square with (L to R) Blake Zwerling and Dana Boebinger (Fulbright Post-graduate Scholars)”
PHOTO NO. 2: “This is Dunnottar Castle with myself, Bradford McMullen and Monica Mazzoli (Fulbright Post-graduate Scholars)”
PHOTO NO. 3, at bottom: “Baylor Alums in Scotland! At left is Alejandra Perez (Biology, BS 2012).”