I quickly made my apartment my home when I got to China. My belongings are spread out all over the place: socks hang from a bungee clothesline along the window, various pairs of shoes scatter the apartment floor, the coins I accumulated throughout the summer litter my bedside table, a mound of dirty clothes dominates the floor space next to my bed. As I begin to consolidate these belongings and pack my suitcase, I have flashbacks to doing the same in my slightly messy bedroom in America ten weeks ago.

I tend to shy away from tour guided trips, so I obviously signed up for every tour guided trip offered on the university itinerary. Attending a Shakespeare play or The Lion King play? Trip to Oxford? Trip to Stonehenge and Bath? Did not know what Bath meant, but sign me up!

Hiking is one of my biggest passions and in my first few weeks in Auckland, I've gone to as many places I can to walk trails and climb up mountains. One of my favorite things about Auckland is that it has an abundance of opportunities to climb up hills or mountains and get amazing views of the New Zealand landscape, even within the city. I’ve come to really appreciate how close nature is to the city in Auckland. I can be downtown one minute and only 30 minutes later be at the top of a volcano or walking along the beach.

With all the pasta, pizza, and gelato there is in Italy, you might be wondering how one is supposed to stay in shape while abroad. From personal experience, I can’t say that staying in shape has been easy. It’s easy to forget about fitness when you are distracted by all of the weekend trips, wine tastings, and four-course italian meals. Additionally, gyms are not as widely available in Siena as they are in the U.S. (your apartment complex will definitely not have a gym!).

Every day up until the last week of my homestay, my Chilean parents would ask me “Estai acostumbrada? Are you getting settled in?” I would always tell them that yes, I was finding this and that easier than before, but still didn’t know the mechanisms of this thing, etc. It opened the door to many enlightening conversations for me during my program in Santiago.

I've made it back to the United States and am starting to reflect on my past two months in Europe. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to take this journey and learn about other cultures, while also learning a lot about myself. I also met fifteen other amazing people from across the United States. We were adapting to new cultures while also learning about each other.

Being back in the United States feels different but somehow neutral and insignificant. I didn’t have any profound epiphanies while abroad, but coming home I realized how much I genuinely grew as a person and in my ability to be self-aware. I feel calm and grounded being home, knowing, seeing, and feeling the power of slow growth. I want to intensify my practice of learning German by centering my academic studies around the connections between German and European colonialism in the Americas and Africa as a lens for decolonial study and practice.

You know, education is a very cool and important thing. I am extremely lucky to attend a great home university and an amazing school abroad as well. However, I would not be fooling anyone if I said I decided to study in New Zealand because of academics alone. I picked this small country on the other side of the world, more specifically the South Island, because of the vast natural beauties this land has to offer. As you could easily guess if you’ve seen my tattoo (sorry, Dad), I am a mountain girl.

While in Buenos Aires, I have explored much inside and outside of the city. I am going to touch on a few of my favorite adventures.

Do you ever have the urge to suddenly hike Cape Town's biggest mountains all in one day? No? Well for some reason the Three Peak challenge called our names, and we were determined to crush it. Nothing like an asthmatic and two amateur hikers taking on what native South Africans don't even like to do for fun. I don't think anyone considered this to be a "fun" experience. It was more of a cross it off the bucket list, prove to everyone that you did it, do it for the title kind of experience.