As I write this, tomorrow I’ll be getting on a plane to the Galápagos Islands where I’ll be living for the next two months. It’s a place I’ve been dreaming about visiting since I got hooked on biology my sophomore year of high school, and it seems surreal that I’m this close to stepping foot on the same islands where Darwin collected samples that led to his theory of evolution.

IES Abroad recently sent out an email to us bloggers which included an optional prompt proposing that we write a post as an homage to Valentine’s Day reflecting on our experiences abroad thus far and how they are playing into the notion of “living a life we love.” Since I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor to spend time focusing on the positives anyhow, this love-filled holiday presents an optimal opportunity to do just that.

“Squeeze the Juice” is what they say. It’s the title that is given to the section of the IES Abroad app, which tells about ways to make the most of your adventures abroad. Besides the fact that I absolutely love juice (especially the excessive amount of apricot juices and jams, as well as many grocery stores selling orange juice which you can squeeze by hand). I thought I would share a few ways in which I have “squeezed the juice” since I have been in Austria.

Acclimation to my semester in Nantes has been, and will continue to be, a long process; for my friends and I, it really does feel like puberty all over again. Our bodies are changing, such as my skin's backlash to my daily cheese intake. We have new responsibilities and challenges ahead of us, with 15-19 credit hours of French courses on our plates.

Honestly, it still doesn’t feel quite real.

On my last day as a resident of Berlin, I took a final walk through the city. It was a beautiful, bright blue, cloudless day reaching 8 or 9 degrees Celsius. For the first time in months, people settled in the parks and on the river with a beer or a coffee. By the Friedrichstrasse U- and S-Bahn Station, a nun in drag sang pop tunes and across the street, a rock band played. With the tourists, I turned onto Unter der Linden toward the Brandenburg Gate.

On Friday January 17th, I woke up at 4:00am and headed to Barcelona El Prat airport for a 7:00 am flight to Porto, Portugal. I booked this early flight so that I would have the whole day to explore the city. I was particularly excited when my plane landed in Porto because I was by myself in a city that was completely foreign to me. I checked in to my Airbnb, dropped off my luggage, and immediately got to exploring the unknown. 

On our trip to Galway this weekend, all the various programs that IES Abroad runs in Dublin came together for a weekend sightseeing in the west of Ireland. Breaking out of my little Writer's Program bubble, this trip gave me the opportunity to talk to people who enrolled in Irish universities like Trinity College or Dublin City University. My first question, automatically, was, "Have you been able to make some Irish friends then?"

I was surprised to find that the common answer was, "It's more difficult than you'd think."

Here is the first half of the first week of studying abroad in Rome Italy! It has been SO much fun! From traveling for over 20 hours by myself to starting a new life here for the next 3 months. Everything is jam packed the first week but now I have had some time to settle in during the end of the week. I have been absorbing everything like a sponge, I have talked the basic Italian to locals and it has been so fun! There are so many sites to see and it has been such a great time so far!