Always the Adventure: Bigfork graduate tackles courses at Oxford and adventures in Europe

Bigfork graduate Amber McDaniel shares her adventures from a semester abroad at Oxford University and four months of backpacking across Europe.

You might have heard my name before. Bigfork is a small town, which are reputably bad at preserving anonymity. You might have even read it in this paper, as a byline, on a volleyball stats list, or in a speech and drama article. Though that was only four years ago, my life has since changed immeasurably.

After graduating Bigfork High School in 2012, I said goodbye to small town life in favor of the big city of Philadelphia where I attended a private liberal arts university called Arcadia University to study English and psychology. If you have not heard of it, you are not alone. Despite its small size, it is renown for its study abroad program, actually ranked by the Institute of International Education Open Doors Report as number one in the nation for its percentage of students who study abroad.

It was this amazing program that first attracted to me to Arcadia; well, that and its campus castle. As the time came for me to begin considering where I wanted to spend my semester abroad, the name Oxford caught my eye on the England program list. It seemed like a pipe dream that I might actually be accepted to the world’s number one ranked university, but considering I had nothing to lose, I decided to apply. One very rigorous application process and a painfully long six months of indecision later, I received the anticipated phone call telling me to pack my bags and book my plane tickets.

In January 2015, I boarded a plane with a single suitcase and a backpack and said farewell to America for next eight months. At the time, it seemed like an impossibly long span but looking back now, it feels like I just left.

After a brief orientation in London with a group of students from various universities, I was driven up to Oxford, booted off the bus at St. Anne’s College, and told. “Have fun!” Oxford runs on a trimester system, and so by choosing to study during the American spring semester, I would be studying for two terms at Oxford. The next eight weeks were a whirlwind, an overwhelming flurry of adjustments as I attempted to adapt to an entirely different culture and academic system.

At the conclusion of Hilary term in mid-March, I flew out of London to begin a six-week long backpacking adventure through southern and southeastern Europe. Meeting up with my mother for the first time in over six months, together we traveled through Spain, France, and Italy, from which I continued on my own through Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.

I then flew back to London for my last term at Oxford. Trinity term was equally as much of a whirlwind, but this time, I had it figured out, and by mid-June, I was not ready for it all to end. With what would become a theme and a continuous lesson over my travels, I said goodbye to Oxford, the place that had become my home and the spires and cobblestone streets that had stolen my heart.

Like any traveler, though, I had only one thing to do: pack up and keep moving. Taking advantage of being across the Pond, I spent the next two months on another solo backpacking trip through Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, and Switzerland. It was an ambitious and exhausting itinerary, filled with life changing lessons, existential epiphanies, and, of course, a great deal of trials and tribulations. I learned, however, that problems are a matter of perspective and every bump in the road and detour should be thought of merely as another adventure. That was the philosophy by which I learned to live: always the adventure.