Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

The whole exercise was perhaps the greatest ever illustration of group-think in action: one guy in the big tour bus thinks he sees something in the dark, cloudless sky and rushes out the back door to stare upwards, and then, seconds later, a busload of passengers, easily numbering in the dozens, quickly follow the first guy out of the bus to stare at the sky. Before long, showering in the strong cold sea winds of the North Atlantic, a group of shivering tourists stand on the desolate Icelandic coastline.

In an average quiet residential neighborhood of west London, a little building just like any other around it had a massive national flag of Gambia flying from its second floor. A little plaque at the front door denoted it as the "Gambian High Commission in London," as anyone who did not deliberately came looking for the place surely would have been very much confused as to why there would be such a big flag flying in a random neighborhood of the metropolis without any other diplomatic presence.

As the traveler takes a comfortable and inexpensive ferry ride from Scotland to Northern Ireland, another trip-filled vacation has begun in earnest, safely and steadily. Despite (and perhaps because of) the relative uneventful-ness of the first couple of days, the traveler is given ore time to fill in the details of an ambitious travel plan that will span from the very top of the European continent to the depths of sub-Saharan Africa. Excitement lies ahead as light, knowledge, and understanding are shed on unknown lands.

Being in any university, one has to encounter at least well-organized ethnic society on campus. From the Russian to the Australian, from the Portuguese to the Argentinian, these tight-knit clubs are seem to definitely offer one thing: a home away from home for the students of that particular ethnicity or nationality in the university, maintaining regular contacts with fellow countrymen bolstered with the language, cuisine, and occasional small chats about TV shows and celebrities from back home.