In the blink of an eye Spring Break has come and gone. As I write this, I can still feel the sea breeze whipping my hair, the smell of falafel, and the braying of the donkeys, and I am certain that these memories will be carried with me for the rest of my life. I just returned from nine days in Greece, where I travelled to Athens, Santorini, and Mykonos with four friends.

My time abroad has well exceeded any expectations I had before studying in New Zealand. Over a very quick three months, I have seen so many unbelievable places on this island that I am so fortunate to call home for the time being. The pictures attached with this post are from some of my favorite trips within New Zealand, more specifically, within the south island. A lot of the pictures are from my trips to Mount Cook and Queenstown, which have undoubtedly been two of my favorites. 

It can hardly be a surprise that when you are placed in a new situation, with new people, a new culture, and a new language that you are going to have to step outside of your comfort zone. I have been in Freiburg for two months now, and within the past week or so I’ve been really thinking more about what I have been learning about myself here. I have been constantly learning since I’ve come to Freiburg, and not everything I have learned can be quantified into directions to the market or different grammar structures or vocabulary.

Spring Break has sadly come to an end. Although I wish it could have been longer, I miss my family and friends back in the United States, hence I am looking forward to my departure flight in less than two weeks. My mom’s visit to Freiburg was an amazing experience, she absolutely loved it! Like me, this was her first time coming to Europe, therefore she was nervous but also excited to witness a new environment outside of New York City.

Hola! This blog post is for everyone else like me who was worried about going abroad on a tight budget. Me and my friends have an expression: “balling on a budget.” It means we that we still want to “ball out”, which essentially means still having a good time and doing all the things we want and going on adventures and having fun, BUT, on a budget. I am keeping track of my budget diligently because I can’t blow through all my life savings, so I recommend using an app called TripCoin because it’s a huge life saver.

One of the things I have loved the most about my study abroad experience are the program trips organized by my center. Usually these are day trips to nearby locations in Spain that allow us to get to know Andalucía and better understand its rich and varied history. However, my absolute favorite was to Morocco—in the span of five days we visited six towns, stayed with host families, ate amazing food, rode camels, and spent time gazing over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

One aspect of the Christchurch IES Abroad program that is not typical for most programs is that in mid-semester they offer a trip to the Cook Islands. This has been one of my favorite parts of my time abroad so far and strongly recommend to anyone deciding to study abroad in Christchurch—you won’t regret it! A little background: the Cook Islands is a nation in the South Pacific with about fifteen islands.

I was on spring break last week, and I must say that it was a break well needed. IES Abroad took us to visit Kruger National Park and Johannesburg, a trip that lasted four days (Saturday, April 13^th – Tuesday, April 16^th). I also went on some other adventures, which I’ll detail in another post. But for now, let’s talk about Kruger National Park and Jo-Burg!

Day 1

When an opportunity to see Eastern Europe's three most beautiful cities on a budget come up, you don't ignore it—or at least I simply couldn't! The International Student Network at Universiteit van Amsterdam offers an annual trip to Prague, Budapest, and Vienna over the Easter weekend in April, and when I saw the price, I couldn't resist signing up. I signed up, however, knowing very little other than the locations, the dates, and the price. The trip that resulted was like nothing I've ever experienced before.