I attended a Viennese ball (pictured above). In the Hofburg Palace (pictured below). Need I say more!?

Thanks for reading my blog, and tschüss!

As a part of one of my courses, Community Development in Context (I described what that course is about in my last blog), we have to complete 40 hours of community service. As someone who has survived it, I wanted to volunteer at an organization that aimed at alleviating poverty in some way. After doing some research, I found an organization that seemed perfect for me: the Haven Night Shelter (also known as the Haven).

Amsterdam is a really cool city, and while this might seem empirical, it has taken some time for me to come to appreciate this. From my apartment in the financial district, Amsterdam looks like Boston or Long Island City. The culture appears broadly metropolitan, and rather international. In other words, the shift has not been radical, or especially "shocking." This was weird at first. I expected this tremendous transition, this intense adjustment to local customs and ways of being.

After a month and a half living in Vienna, I found some interesting German resources that I’d like to share today. 

Of course, there are our main resources, such as the German classes and faculty of IES Abroad, language buddies, and RAs (if you are living in an apartment). The following are resources other than the obvious:

After our month in Quito came to a close, we all piled on a big metal tube and launched ourselves to a little postage stamp in the middle of the Pacific Ocean known as the Galápagos Islands. Looking out of the window, Isla San Cristóbal, my home for the next three months, appeared out of nowhere.

Hola, Cariños!

If you didn’t know, the Berlin—Language & Area Studies program doesn’t start until March 5th, and all my soon-to-be-classmates and I have been home since the end of winter exams. I always knew the start date of the program, but I didn’t really think much about the break until I was experiencing it.

For some students, volunteering while studying abroad may not be possible because of limited time in their schedules or they prefer to use their spare time to travel with friends on the weekends. Prior to coming to Freiburg, volunteering was not on my list of things to do while abroad.

I recently traveled to Copenhagen with one of my best friends from high school, and I have to say it was truly an amazing experience. Copenhagen wasn’t on my list of places to travel originally so I didn’t really know what to expect, nor was I super enthusiastic about going. Surprisingly, the city blew me away. From the people to the food to the historical monuments Copenhagen is definitely a must-see! Our first stop was brunch at a restaurant called Mad & Kaffe. When we got there the line was out the door and down the street.

After arriving in Rabat and staying in a hotel for two nights, our group took off for Meknes, one of Morocco's imperial cities. We were placed into host families, given classes every morning in Darija (the Moroccan dialect of Arabic), and taken on tours of historical sites and cultural activities and lectures. In our free time every afternoon, we would explore the city and wind up at cafés, drinking tea and avocado juice.

Let's walk starting from my host family's appartment in the downtown Hamria neighborhood.