Hello, my name is Christella, I was born in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. I am a Vocal Music major at Berea College and will be in Paris this semester as I continue to study music. 

I spent the past weekend on my college campus saying goodbye to my friends. They started school Aug 21 but I don't leave the country until Sep 1. While on campus, I saw so many new faces, faces I wouldn't get a chance to meet until January. 

The beginning of classes has gotten everyone to start settling into life here abroad in Sydney. While often many students travel around Australia when they come to study abroad, many who are living on a budget (like myself), find more local means of traveling around. I have a trip planned to Byron Bay for the mid-semester break, which I am excited to write about when I experience it later. For now, however, I have been taking a liking to adventuring around the suburbs surrounding Sydney.

Hi everyone, my name is Sallie and I will be studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain for the next three and a half months! I only have one more full day left until my departure, so I have been frantically running errands, making lists, and throwing really unnecessary things into suitcases. During this exciting time, I have been painting to calm my nerves and ease all the anxieties that come along with moving to a country I’ve never been to before (and it’s a great way to procrastinate packing).

Bulky, olive and brutish, frays schism and cleave at every corner. Hard plastic worn smooth. Metal neatly pinched together. It waits, patient and tranquil, unrelenting and demanding, prepared to be prepared. 

In two days I will be heading to Rome for the semester. This whole endeavor has always felt so distant and far away. The closer it gets to departure the more I find myself trying to comprehend the reality of it all. The past few weeks I have found myself subconsciously looking a little closer at the things I drive by every single day in Hillsborough, New Jersey.

I’m standing at my apartment windows, watching Amsterdam light up all the way to the horizon. Excited Dutch chatter floats up from the courtyard; from further out comes the click-whoosh of bicycle wheels and the clang of tram bells. After dark, everything hums with energy -  the planes circling Schiphol like fireflies, the turrets and treetops claiming space from the skyscrapers. Everyone seems so alive. 

While preparing for my semester in Quito, it completely escaped my mind to research the food and eating habits of Ecuador. Based on the meals I had been served in local Mexican and Columbian restaurants at home, I had the misconception that most meals would consist of rice, beans, a protein and vegetables by the side…however, I was totally wrong.

The longest amount of time I’ve spent in Italy is 15 minutes. It was a gas station pit stop in Acceglio (or maybe Canosio?) the summer after my first year of college while I was touring France with a choir from my hometown. Now, I’m starting my last year of college studying abroad in Milan for 16 weeks— pursuing my dual-degree in Creative Writing and Opera & Voice Performance.  

One of the first questions I get when I tell people where I’m studying abroad is: “Why Milan?”

"...And all the men and women merely players." If old Will's claim is true, then I have been in rehearsal for Katie's London Adventures since middle school. It all started with a summer of binge-watching the 2005 movie adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. My best friend and I watched that movie at least once a week, dreaming of the day when we would stroll through the streets of Brighton or cascade down the steps of Pemberly (brooding Mr.