While some of us have yet to buy a passport, others are running out of room for stamps on theirs. Meet a Domer that knows her way through airport customs better than she knows the fastest route to DeBart.
Name: Sophie Penn
Dorm: Welsh Family Hall
Major: Civil Engineering
Grade: Junior
Relationship Status: None of your business, MOM (aka single)
Where were you born?
Quito, Ecuador
How many places have you lived?
Five – Ecuador, USA, South Africa, Uruguay, and Venezuela. (I also spent a summer in Spain and in Uzbekistan)
Uzbekistan
Why did you travel so much while growing up?
I was an international fugitive from justice.
Just kidding, my dad works for the state department so his job involved being assigned to different countries to represent the US.
What was different about studying abroad through Notre Dame versus living abroad as a kid?
People talk about the Notre Dame bubble a lot, and while it is definitely present (even while studying abroad), I also felt that I had more independence through Notre Dame than when I was growing up. Of course, a lot of this might have just been because I was older when I studied abroad than when I lived abroad. When you live abroad as part of a state department family, it is very easy to get into the ‘embassy bubble’ which provides a lot of comfort in unfamiliar environments, but it also shielded me and meant that I didn’t have to engage as much with the culture of the place I was living in.
What country had the most beautiful scenery?
Seeing the sun rise over Table Mountain in the morning in South Africa was pretty magical.
Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa
What’s your favorite international vacation spot?
Ireland! I’d also love to go back to Spain.
Who speaks Spanish better: Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio?
Rubio (and Jeb! speaks it really well too, poor Jeb)
If I gave you a blank map of the United States, could you fill in the states without the help of the internet?
I feel reasonably confident that I could identify like 85% of the east coast and parts of the midwest? And the rest are states that nobody cares about (just kidding, all states are lovely and I apologize for my failures in US Geography)
London, England
What are best things about living in the USA?
FREEDOM, cereal options (so many cereal options), and relatively smooth roads.
More seriously, though, I think that there a lot of comforts and opportunities present in the US that can be taken for granted if you have never lived abroad. Visiting the US as a kid when we were living abroad was always a very magical experience, just because everything seemed so spacious and clean and efficiently run (I obviously never had to visit the DMV on these visits otherwise I probably would have had a very different opinion on US efficiency).
Is there any country or city still on your bucket list?
I still haven’t seen Italy! I’d love to go to Rome or Venice… Also Australia.
What’s something you might not have learned if you’d never left the United States?
How to effectively get through International airports. Also probably would not have heard of or been as aware of a lot of interesting and beautiful places in the world, so I’m really grateful for that.
Paris, France
Quick Picks:
Pitbull the rapper or pitbull the dog?
The dawg (interpret this as you will)
Breaking Bad or Fargo?
Always got to go with Breaking Bad.
Book genre: Murder Mystery or Russian History?
Murder Mystery (less likely to be totally depressing)
Wikipedia or Google?
Wikipedia
Beyonce or Dave Matthews Band?
Do you want people to hate me?
…Dave Matthews Band #sorrynotsorry #sparemeBeygency
Alcoy, Spain
Thank you for your international insight, Sophie, and good luck in your future travels!
XOXO, HCND
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Images: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 (provided by author), 3