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After months of planning, I am now just days away from stepping onto the plane that will take me on the greatest adventure of my life. This summer I will be spending four weeks in Quito, Ecuador, three weeks in the Galapagos Islands, and will even be flying out a week early in order to hike to the incredible Machu Picchu in Peru. Though I’ve been planning this trip for months, it seems that I’ve just realized that I’m actually going!
For our last day-trip getaway, my friends and I decided to spend the day in Haarlem, a city west of Amsterdam. With clear blue skies, infinite sunshine, and temperatures in the low 70s, we set off from Centraal Station via the Intercity Train. After a quick 15-minute ride, we arrived to a quiet but beautiful Haarlem. Our first stop was the Teylers Museum, a science-art-history museum featuring a variety of rooms boasting everything from gemstones and crystals, to a Rembrandt exhibit. We then headed to the St.
Going home has been a bittersweet event. After almost four months, I am ready to see my family. However, I have made a lot of really good friends with people in my program and am sad to leave them. They live all over the U.S., so it will be convenient to have people to stay with if I ever decide to visit! It was especially hard to leave when the weather is getting hotter and more consistently warm. It is a joke in Berlin that people who live there never go on vacation because there is so much to do in Berlin.
My semester abroad is about to come to an end. I do not feel like I have done everything in Berlin, but that gives me an excuse to visit again. I have made some really good friends on the program and enjoyed traveling and exploring Berlin with them.
I am nervous, surprisingly. The past few months have been stressful, trying to get things done for study abroad, but now that things are finalizing, I’m feeling less stressed. At Nanzan University, I will be studying Japanese, so I have to prepare for that. I am worried about…everything! From figuring out train systems to making friends to being prepared for my classes! However, everything will probably be okay. It took a lot of work to get to this point, and yet it almost seems unreal.
Our weekend agenda for Paris was a very ambitious one. It was definitely not a relaxing trip because we wanted to see so much. We walked around 15 miles every day and tried to get in as many sites as possible. I would suggest waiting to go to Paris until you have the German residents permits because then you can get into most museums and churches for free. This makes Paris a more affordable travel option for students.
Hi everyone,
Eight years ago, I sat behind a desk prepared to take my first Chinese language course. I could have never imagined that my teacher 袁老师 (Yuan Laoshi) and her lessons would encourage me to visit the country I learned so much about. Four programs, a dozen scholarship applications, and a few disappointments later, I finally had the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream. Preparing for this opportunity had its ups and downs.
My friends and I made a weekend trip out to Mendoza, which is famous in Argentina as wine region. Mendoza is close to the Argentina-Chile border and sits on the eatsern side of the Andes. It's also a bustling city that is famous for its tree-lined streets and lively plazas. Mendoza is technically in the desert, and it sustains itself through its acecquias—irrigation ditches—that run on nearly every street.
I am so excited for the experience of living, studying, and immersing myself in Italian culture for the summer! I hope to truly develop a global mindset and global citizenship. As I am an extremely task- and goal-oriented person, I decided to make a list of things I aim to accomplish while abroad. I am sharing my list with you all in hopes of not only keeping myself accountable but to hopefully (fingers crossed) by the end of the summer be able to check off my goals and reflect on new experiences that I have added to my list.