Bienvenidos a todos a mi blog y estoy emocionada para compartir mis experiencias en Ecuador con ustedes. (Welcome everyone to my blog and I am excited to be sharing my experiences of my time in Ecuador with you all). I leave tomorrow morning, and I still feel like I have another month to spend at home. My name is Tabitha Ato, and I am a senior (I still cannot believe it!) at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., but I call Oakdale, Minnesota, home.

November, 2018—I’m doodling a row of gabled canal houses along my arm, waiting for Creative Writing 203 to begin. Because it’s November in Illinois, winter is almost here. At the moment, Amsterdam is a dream and a distraction. It exists for me merely as the conveniently picturesque backdrop to John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars. As another name on the map of airline hubs that I memorize during the long flights between my college in the U.S. and my hometown in Sri Lanka. As a city I might visit. Someday.  

Some would say they’d like to trade winter for summer. Arriving in Sydney, Australia in August I have found that I made the less popular decision to trade summer for winter. Well—only for a bit, and not such a brutal one at least. I am studying abroad through the University of Sydney from August to December; September onward is supposed to be going into spring and summer here in Australia, so I do not have to endure so much of their said “winter” here.

Reflecting on my study abroad experience, one of the biggest things I’ve learned from studying abroad in Amsterdam is you don’t understand your own context until you leave it. It's hard to imagine a world you haven’t yet seen, and even harder to really dream beyond it. In our normal day-to-day lives, most of us rarely deviate from that which is familiar, and when we do it is rarely as unfamiliar as one would think.

Studying abroad has always been a dream for me: a chance to dive into a new community, experience a different lifestyle, build relationships, and develop a more inclusive perspective. But, the opportunity to study abroad in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands—a place that has inspired my passion for the environment—transformed this dream into a complete fairytale. When I first applied to the program I could not believe that the possibility of visiting and living in such a beautiful environment existed.

Sitting at the airport, ready to depart to Sydney, Australia, where I will be studying abroad for the next four months…I watch one of the great films of many that Audrey Hepburn acted in called Love in The Afternoon. In the film, our lovely icon meets a man who tells her he finds it best if people meet between planes. He thinks the concept of constantly having to leave creates a perfect space for people to meet.

I’m not an artist, but I’m a massive art fan. Art distilled down to its purest form is expression. Expression can range from imagery, to thought, to political message. For this reason, art and culture go hand and hand. For me, one of the greatest things you can do to get to know a city is to get lost in the city’s art, and that’s exactly how I got to know Amsterdam as a city. The Netherlands has a rich art history, and Amsterdam itself is overflowing with beauty and art. This expressive and diverse history is best seen in its art museums.

Hello, everyone! My name is Charlotte, and I’ll be working as an IES Abroad Correspondent during my Fall 2019 semester in Rome. With about three weeks left until departure, it’s a relief to be able to say that most of my document hunting, fund-gathering, and travel preparations are taken care of, leaving me with little else to do to prepare but pack and fantasize about all of the things that I’m going to do while I’m abroad.

Well, hello there!

My name is Caroline Norton, and I can hardly believe it, but in less than a month I will be living in Dublin, Ireland! It seems absolutely crazy that my life is about to change so radically so soon, but I could not be more excited to begin this journey.