Before I came abroad, I knew that my biggest struggle was going to be making friends and building a new social life. For the first few weeks, I bounced around multiple “friend groups” and figured that I was experiencing this social issue because I didn’t try hard to make friends earlier in the program, so everyone had already built their social circles. I made myself more extroverted than usual, but I always ended up all by myself at the end of the day. It took a negative toll on my mental, physical and emotional health.

I had quite the picturesque afternoon last Thursday.

Never in a million years did I think there would be so much to do in a small town in the South of France. I’ve been (very happily) busy every single minute since I got here. Between my classes (History of Art and History of Photography), all the cultural events in Arles, IES Abroad Excursions, and the AMAZING meals my host parents have been cooking, I have so little time to myself and I am so, so happily enjoying life here.

So you’re going to study abroad? ME TOO!

How are you feeling? Excited? Adventurous? Exhilarated? Prepared? Nervous? Tense? Frightened? Worried?

My name is Natalie and I will be studying abroad with IES Abroad Arles - Summer in Provence this year. Last summer, I studied abroad in Paris through IES Abroad Advanced Language Program so this summer, I am completely ecstatic to be going back to my favorite country in the whole world. Luckily for me, I already kind of know what to expect since I had a similar experience last summer too.

So, I'll be real, Tokyo has been way too cool to be keeping up with planning videos and actually shooting, editing, and exporting them. Sorry everyone! But here we are, in this, my most recent upload, I recap some time spent away from the city center of Tokyo, as my friends and I venture out into the areas of Yokosuka and Kawaguchi. In Kawaguchi, one of the villages at the base of Mt. Fuji, we spent the night in a tradional Japanese inn, known as a ryokan.

Interning in Shanghai this summer was not only going to allow me to continue living in Shanghai, experiencing the culture, and practicing my Mandarin skills, but also to give me the change to get a taste of the working environment in China. When I decided to apply for the Summer Internship Program, I was looking to expand my understanding of what I may want to do post-graduation and whether I could see myself working in Shanghai, or abroad in general, after my four years at Lafayette.

As I await the second of three planes in 28 hours, I’m realizing the dramatic difference between planning study abroad and actually embarking on the trip. I personally didn’t really think about the 20+ hours of travel, the time changes, and the small but mighty task of navigating new airports. Now, sitting in New York’s JFK airport, all the planning, excitement, and preparations culminate into one feeling - exhaustion.

Hello again!

In this video, I finally travel to New Zealand! It was one of the longest days of my life with a total of three flights and about 20 hours. 

When the curtains close and your time abroad seems to come to a close, it hits you like a brick wall. At least in my experience, hugging your friends good-bye is the first time you realize it may be the last time you’ll see them again. What may be even worse is realizing you have to go home, back to reality.

So what did I do? Well I decided to extend my stay for a week and travel around the parts of Spain I hadn’t seen yet, of course!

I came to Madrid with no expectations – but had I set them, they would have been met. One thing that I wasn’t expecting however were the moments of true boredom in a city with a million things to do. So, after the frustration of sitting around for an entire weekend, I decided to bite the bullet and plan for a weekend getaway with some of the other American students I had met.