These first two weeks have already flown by here in New Zealand. I have met some amazing people while seeing some of the most beautiful places!! School starts this coming week, so we have had plenty of time to venture around Christchurch and surrounding towns before classes begin. Within the first few days here, our IES Abroad group went to Springfield, NZ. It was a two-day trip in which we hiked, swam, planted trees, and went jetboating! We saw plenty of sheep and some views unlike anything I have ever seen before.

This past weekend we traveled to Normandy, the northern region of France that has been a pivotal location at many points in history.

Looking back 1200 years, it is the region where the Vikings once called home in the 8th Century AD. When Charles III (king of France from 893–922) took over Normandy, the Vikings living in the region adopted French language and customs and began to be known as the Normans (or “Northmen”, a name originally designated for the plundering activities of the Vikings).

This is my perspective of Shanghai from within the first week of me being here! I have already seen and done so much. I could go home right now and be satisfied with my experience. But, lucky me, I still have four more months! I came to China knowing zero mandarin and now after taking an intensive chinese course can get by with my language skills. I will not die of starvation, for I can order food and I will not get lost because I can now also ask directions (I just recently learned that skill, turns out it is super usefull!

“Do you speak English?” I ask the man who greets me, in German, as I enter the Asian restaurant.

“No, only German,” he replies.

A bit later, when I’m done with my meal, the same man who greeted me when I entered the restaurant brings me the bill. 

“Ten euros and forty cents,” he says.

“Ten euros and…?” I ask, having not entirely heard what he said.

“Ten euros and forty cents,” he repeats — only this time, he says it in English.

Rome is a New York City with century-old monuments across from grocery stores, Flying Tigers, and gelaterias. Culture shocks have been abundant, as have pasta and pizza. Everything in Rome has been a dream. A week of orientation provided more than enough time to meet the other 151 students in this program and to try at least 20 different gelato shops. Honestly, I’m loving it here. Everyone is keen on finding travel buddies, so the process of planning trips each weekend is quite a smooth ordeal.

On the evening of March 7th, two of my close friends and I arrived in Amsterdam, and though tired from an afternoon of travel, we were immediately captivated. A city resting on the canals, like Venice, but unlike Venice, a city that felt alive and with people, stores, and districts to shock you at every turn. Though I would now say Amsterdam is my favorite city I have visited thus far, the city and I began on the wrong foot. Travel connoisseur Anthony Bourdain said, “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable.

I’ve heard people talk about the beautiful landscape of New Zealand. I have seen pictures of the mountainous terrain and I’ve spent many hours researching the University of Auckland. I can’t wait to arrive and start hiking and exploring. 

It was a Wednesday morning, bleary and drizzling, in the center of Meknes, Morocco, a city full of orange trees (don't pick them; they taste like lemons), and we were all slouched in a classroom, learning Moroccan Arabic. Our professor had paused while explaining this particularly baffling bit of grammar.

"If you think about it," he said, after a moment (in Arabic—so I can't be held accountable for the accuracy of this), "the distance between past and future is infinitely small."