Holiday Availability: All IES Abroad offices will be closed on Dec 24, Dec 25, Dec 31, and Jan 1 as we take some time to celebrate. During the weeks of 12/22 and 12/29, our team will be smaller, so responses may take longer than usual. Thanks for your understanding—and happy holidays!
Buenas from Granada!
With the challenge of matching 120 new names to faces and finding the confidence to start actually using Spanish in everyday life, orientation week has definitely been an adventure. Besides orienting ourselves with each other, with our host families, and with our new city, one of the biggest adjustments has been orienting ourselves to Spain’s unique daily schedule.
“We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange.”
-Carson McCullers
For those of us who have been exploring the world since early January it has started to reach the point where the days are now moving a little slower and life isn’t quite as exciting as Day 1. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still enjoying ourselves! But the longing for friends and family and the comfort of our own beds is becoming a little more real.
The decision to live and study an ocean away from everything that you know for a whole semester may seem like one that would take ages to decide. However, I have known in my heart that this was what I was going to do even before I wrote my first college application or stepped foot on my college campus. But before I board the plane that will take me into my spring 2019 semester abroad, let me introduce myself. My name is Rebecca Vernachio, but I usually go by Becky.
Hallo! As you can see by my use of hello in German, I am finally in Freiburg! In fact, I have been in this beautiful city for approximately three weeks! I have been so busy with orientation and classes that I was not able to write a second post until now. So far, I have been enjoying my new home!
The food here is insane and I’ve already been eating SO MUCH. I’ve learned how important meals are in the Spanish culture – dinner is a time for everyone to sit down and recap the day. At home, I tend to grab food on the run, but dinner is a very planned-out event here.
Hi everyone,
This post is more of a reflection about my time in Japan thus far. I have been in Japan almost a month now. *Insert shocked Pikachu meme*
This past Saturday, my roommate and a few friends went to the Naschmarkt and the flea market. While I usually forget to check the weather, my roommate had the right idea to check. It was going to be freezing with a chance of rain. I don’t mind cold weather, but the markets are outdoors. Normally, I would use that weather condition to have a relaxed day in a café or museum. That, or I would just forgo leaving the house entirely. But, it was too late to change course.
A week and a half ago, I took a flight to Madrid. I’m studying in Rabat this spring semester, but I had decided to drift around Spanish cities for a week or so before taking the ferry over to Morocco.
As I awaited my flight from Chicago to Madrid I began to feel that I had conquered a month of cold and snow. What would await me would be warm days with sun that I could endlessly enjoy for the next semester. However, that was not quite the case.
