Hostels have a lot of red flags: living with strangers (gross), sharing a bathroom with strangers (extra gross), and half of those strangers being men (gross x3). Naturally, my primary judgement of hostels was unequivocally negative.
Every weekend, I find myself on a train traveling to a new city in Italy. From Milan to Naples, I’ve explored different regions, written down all the restaurants I’ve tried, and kept a running list of the places I must visit again (spoiler alert: it’s most of them).
Florence
Today is my 100th day in Italy. I started writing for this position sitting in bed wondering what the first seven would even be like and now I’m sitting on 100. This past week, I spent days in the sun next to the Mediterranean Sea reading a book on a boat and on the beaches of Cyprus and Crete, Greece. I took 2 a.m. taxis to catch 6 a.m. flights across islands and drove up and down mountains to visit the Balos Lagoon. I saw pink sand beaches and danced in my AirBnB’s kitchen late at night, holding a glass of wine with my two best friends.
I have officially reached the half way point of my journey!
Writing those words are so surreal to me. Here's a short video that gives a glimpse of what I have experienced thus far on my journey. It shows all of the places that I have traveled so far with my friends, but I still have so much more to come.
Salamanca, Spain is under the radar when it comes to Spanish cities. I’ve seen it listed on fun day trips from Madrid, or ideal cities for night-life, but it rarely tops one’s list. For the past three months, however, I’ve explored Salamanca from head to toe and I can wholeheartedly say it’s one of the best European cities I’ve had the pleasure of exploring. So, without further ado, here is my guide to a perfect day in Spain’s golden city.
I have done theatre all my life, so once I saw there was a theatre course offered in my study abroad program, I knew I had to sign up. This amazing class run by Bertrand was something I looked forward to every week. It was so neat seeing the training I have received in English translate over to French theatre. In the beginning, the ten of us in the course were incredibly nervous. Improvising in a foreign language is no joke.
When I stepped inside this art gallery and brutalist church in Kreuzberg, my full body went into shock. Truly I got cramps from the excitement. The König Galerie was the first gallery I had intentionally searched out to familiarize myself with the contemporary art scene in Berlin. There are so many different art museums in the city that it took me 3 months to realize I hadn't seen anything contemporary. This is a shame considering that entry is free for many of these spaces, including the König Galerie.
“Got any good Amsterdam recs?” The question you will inevitably be asked by friends visiting, family passing through, and future perspective study-abroaders. We’ve seen my recs from a resident, but after three months in Amsterdam, I’ve built up quite the list of recs myself, with my roommate even making an itemized list and ranking system. Here, I’ll give you the synopsis and my absolute must-sees. Enjoy!
Being a journalism student studying abroad on the Writers Program, my class material overlaps uniquely with my major, especially Immersion Writing. This class affords me the opportunity to remember my Irish experiences more closely because it pushes me to engage more fully and take everything in so that I may let my writing tell my story here and share that story with others. If you are a prospective student thinking about enrolling in the Writers Program, please enjoy an example of a travel log I wrote for class.
As I get ready to pack up my life in Dublin and head home to the United States, I’ve run into the common problem of stuffing what I brought here in with what I bought so everything fits in the same luggage I used to get to Ireland.
In my perusing, I’m struck by how many things I use every day that I had to purchase upon arrival, and how many things I brought from home that I have never once used.