After a whole year of waiting to go abroad, I am finally here and settled in the beautiful city of Salamanca, Spain! This first week has been full of fun orientation activities, making new friends, diving headfirst into Spanish immersion, exploring a new place, and trying to beat Jet Lag (it’s affected me a lot more than anticipated)! While I was busy getting oriented, I started to take note of really small cultural differences in Salamanca compared to the United States. Some are arbitrary, some are better (in my opinion) and some are worse.

Hi, guys! I am currently on the express train from Milan to Rome for my first weekend trip! Since I have about 3 hours, I figured this is the perfect time to write about my first 2 weeks here.

There are a few questions I have been asked since arriving in Milan, and instead of just answering them myself, I decided to include some of my friends!

I asked the same questions to:

My time in Nice so far has been nothing short of a dream. It’s only been three weeks, but I’m in love with the city and everything it has to offer. Before arriving in Nice, I had plenty of worries about making friends, the language barrier, or general mishaps. Now that I’m settled, the novelty and sheer beauty of the French Riviera outweighs all of my previous stressors! 

Last time I wrote on here I was sitting in my bed while my suitcases layed open on my bedroom floor daunting me. I wrote about my nerves and anxieties and how I lacked any feeling of sufficient preparation for this trip. I was excited, but terrified; and, if I’m being honest, none of that was necessary. None of my fears or worries ever really came to fruition. Yes, it’s good to be prepared for some things to go south, but allowing my fears to diminish my excitement was a little much. 

I am officially one week away from flying to Berlin for the IES Berlin - Metropolitan & Urban Studies program, so what better time to show you how I've been getting ready for my upcoming German adventure! 

Upon my arrival to Spain I was very eager to immerse myself in all things Spanish cuisine. I would consider myself a food connoisseur. I love everything food, whether it be a quick bite at the deli underneath my apartment for cheap, or grand dinners that I spend my entire savings on; I love it all. 

Studying abroad in Nantes, France was an exciting, unique experience that I am endlessly grateful for. Now that I have been back home for a few weeks, I have been reflecting on this past semester and what it means to me. One of the recurring thoughts that I keep coming back to is that studying abroad made me realize how much I love home. I really want to clarify that this is not meant to paint my time in France in a negative light. Rather, I mean to say that being so far away from home for so long revealed what is most important to me.

My lifestyle while studying abroad in Nantes, France was certainly different than my usual day-to-day life at my home university. Throughout the semester, I noticed that many of my habits and routines had evolved in order to adjust to the new environment.