Winter in New Zealand is not nearly as cold or “wintery” as I expected. No snow or freezing rain. No days where it’s so chilly you can’t bear to leave your bed. The days are in the 50s and 60s (Fahrenheit), and with a light jacket you don’t notice the weather. It has been the perfect premise to explore Auckland and orient myself to a New Zealand way of living—which is relaxed, flexible, and fun!

My Uber driver laughed when I told him I was traveling to Santiago for four months. 

"And that's all you packed?" 

The Spirit of Mate

Here is everything that I knew about South Africa before I left: It was super far away, there were a few YouTubers that I knew were from there, South African accents sounded like a mix of British and Australian accents and it’s warmer than Michigan. I think that not knowing anything might be better than knowing a ton about South Africa, more specifically Cape Town. Everyone I told about this trip had pretty much the exact same reaction. "Wow.

I spent the week before I left in Eastham on the cape where there is infinite entertainment at the shore: drive-ins, flea markets, ovens cooking twenty pizzas at a time, a grave unmarked except for bones and shells, a seal eating an octopus just ten feet from sandy onlookers, the sun descending each night into alternate islands of Rothko reds, after dark the beach alight in bonfires and the dancing flashlights of elves.

While studying abroad, you might feel the need to visit and see as many different places as possible, traveling to a new city or country every weekend. It makes sense to want to do this, because how often do we get the chance to visit a different continent? But sometimes, it can be stressful and tiring visiting a new place every weekend. Many of my friends who are studying abroad have told me how always being on the go can get very stressful.

IES Abroad: Tell us a bit about yourself and your study abroad blog.

Katya Schwenk (KS): I grew up in Vermont and Massachusetts, and am now living in D.C., where I'm a senior at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, I've studied government, creative writing, Arabic, and Spanish; outside of that, though, I'm a writer and reporter, focusing on longform journalism. Other interests of mine include the mountains, radio, and distance running.

Today, I left a whirlwind visit with some of my closest college friends, and as I was waving goodbye, it suddenly hit me that in 10 days I will be waving goodbye to the U.S. and hello to Argentina. Wow. I had a similar feeling 10 days ago after saying goodbye to a high school friend. At that time, it was only 20 days before my grand departure, which in my procrastinating vision seemed like an eternity. At the 20-day point, I had just bought my plane tickets, and I didn’t even know who my host family was.