While the leaves are beginning to change color and brisk temperatures emerge at my home university, it has started to get warmer and rainier in San Cristóbal. Luckily, a week-long Fall Break arrived alongside the warmer temperatures and provided a wonderful opportunity to experience the other three human-inhabited islands in the Galápagos.

Life in Rome is completely different from what I was expecting, both in good and bad ways. To be honest, I think it’s easy to conjure this fantasy image of Rome based off of pretty Instagram photos and movies; it certainly is a beautiful place to live, filled to the brim with history and culture, but it’s not a flawless Utopia with nothing but postcard-like beauty (though, again, there is quite a lot of that too.) Like any city, it has it’s broken and ugly things.

When most people think of a homestay in Berlin, they think of a standard small apartment in the city with maybe one person, a couple, or a small family. They have a roommate-type relationship with the host family that requires limited interaction. I am having the opposite of a typical homestay experience.

I live with eleven people. You read that right: ELEVEN.

Hola amigos!

Now that it is November, I have been in Italy for over 2 months! The time has gone by so fast and I have gotten to see and experience some incredible things. I thought I'd share my experience on what it's like to live in a foreign country for what I believe to be a significant amount of time. Italy is incredibly beautiful, the food is amazing, the culture is vibrant, and the people are fun. Spending this much time in Italy has given me a chance to form opinions about the lifestyle here.

Right now, I’m attempting to neatly pack six days, six busses, four nights spent in hostels, three countries, a million steps, a few too many euros, 810 phone photos, and 1,279 camera photos into a several-hundred word post to release to the internet about one of the craziest weeks of my life. It’s not going to be easy, but hey, neither was the trip itself.

One of the benefits of living in Paris is how easy it to get anywhere within the city; There are buses, trains, Ubers, taxis, motorcyclists and my personal favorite, the metro. As a tourist, you might be tempted to get on a tourist bus that drops you off at specific touristic locations, but today I want to encourage you to do something different. I've had friends visit Paris for a weekend and spend way too much on transportation when they could be putting that money elsewhere. The most efficient way that I've found to get around Paris is the metro.

Traveling to a foreign country on a tight budget can spark grueling internal warfare. On one hand, you want to make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity in every possible way - on the other hand, every cool experience seems marked with a price tag that would only create an even bigger hole in your wallet. 

Oh, blog. I’ve been neglecting you.

Growing Pains

After the conclusion of my stressful and sleep-deprived midterm exams, I’ve found myself sick for the second time this semester, munching on pieces of chocolate and rice crackers, hunched over a youtube video in my room at my host family's house. Not exactly the glamorous image of a young traveler fulfilling her dreams and having life-changing experiences in France