One night I sat down to dinner, my host dad’s computer set up in front of us on the kitchen table. “Time to watch some Chilean music!” He exclaimed. Of course, the first videos on the queue showed my host mom, singing in front of a jazz quartet. Her full voice floated around us as we ate humitas (similar to tamales) and ensalada chilena (chopped tomatoes and onions with cilantro), and sipped Carmenere.

Studying abroad is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! It should be full of laughter, memorable experiences, growth, and many other things. While studying abroad is incredible, it is also important to remain cognizant of responsibilities during your time in a different country. The utilization of a planner and calendar are key for a successful semester or year abroad!

Prior to my arrival in Cape Town, South Africa, I spent some time thinking about what experiences I would encounter abroad as an African-American man. I spent time thinking about this because I am extremely passionate about the representation of African-Americans both domestically and internationally. This has influenced my decision to use my love for storytelling to impact the African-American community positively in a global context. For example, one of my goals in the future is to write a book about a young black boy who wins a spelling bee.

This week I am writing to you all from Freiburg! It has been two weeks since I left the United States and so much has happened. Upon arriving at the airport before my flight the anxiety really started setting in. I really do not like to fly and it was suddenly very clear to me that I would be doing a good amount of it very soon. I am so thankful that I was travelling with my good friend Rachel who is also studying in Freiburg. Our itinerary took us from Newark International Airport to Barcelona where we had a two-hour layover.

I have been in Auckland for a little over two weeks now, and every day I have been blown away by the beauty of my surroundings. Auckland was not quite what I expected. I heard it was a big city so I assumed that would mean lots of tall buildings, very little nature, and streets that weren’t the cleanest. However, it has completely surprised me. There are parks all around and everywhere I look there are unique-looking trees that I would never see back home. The streets are very clean and it is easy to get around by walking.

One of my favorite things to do here is go to a museum on a Sunday or after school and just fill my sketchbook with sculptures and paintings. It's heaven! I've wanted to go to the Louvre and other Parisian museums for as long as I can remember, and it's wonderful that I can go whenever I want now. I'm going to miss free museum admission so much!

This morning, just before noon, I was standing in front of a grad-level human resource management class, gesturing shakily at a PowerPoint presentation and talking about American culture. Forty Moroccan students blinked at me from their desks. It was bewildering.

After just a few weeks here, I have already fallen into a pretty steady routine.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have class 9-11 a.m., and then 2-6 p.m. This may seem like quite a big chunk of time, but my teachers always try to get us outside of the classroom with museum visits or city walks.

I’m writing this from my home in Denver, so I don’t have any thoughts of my own yet regarding Buenos Aires. I have, however, through a lot of frenetic googling, synthesized a lot of other people’s thoughts regarding Buenos Aires. I’m going to share with you my top finds.

Castles, Mosques, Churches, Tapas, Mountains, Beaches, and Sunsets…