Italy – the country where every city boasts an extensive history of food and wine. Every city you visit has something they are famous for, whether that be the pizza in Naples or the tortellini in Bologna. Spending a semester in Siena, I quickly learned to appreciate high-quality food and the process of creating it. To take this appreciation to the next level, a group of friends and I decided to try our hand at cooking a traditional Italian dish from scratch, and that is how our Gnocchi Night began.

Welcome to my blog! My name is Julianna Connelly, and I am a Junior at Indiana University studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador, for the Spring 2019 semester. I am a double major in English and Spanish with a minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Way back in my Junior year of high school, I was completely unsure about what academic horizons I hoped to explore in college.

Italy is one of the most incredible countries in the world, full of culture, food, and adventure. One of my main focuses when coming to study abroad in Siena was getting to know my host country as much as possible. Therefore, I focused most of my travel within it and spent as much time as possible seeing what makes it so special.

When I applied to IES Abroad - Nagoya in the summer, it seemed pretty far into the future. Throughout the fall semester, after receiving my admittance, I still didn't register what it meant. The past 48 hours have been unreal. I realized that I am going to JAPAN. Yes, I am going to an Asian country with only a year and half of language study under my belt, and no guarantees that there will be another Latinx student at Nanzan University with me. 

What? 

Travel comes with many components, including flights, hotels, cuisine activities, adventure, and packing. Packing is inevitable, especially when you will be living in a new place for months. It is a way to bring pieces of where you come from with you and to prepare for what awaits you. I am by no means an expert packer—I admit I did not put a piece of clothing in my bags until the day before—but here are some tips on how to tackle your luggage.

Don’t feel under the weather.

Hallo Alle,

Hello to everybody who may be reading this! My name is Thomas Hotaling, and I am a geology and environmental studies student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. About a year ago I decided that I should spend a semester in a place that is the exact opposite of Cleveland in every way, which I determined to be Ecuador and the Galapagos. As much as I love where I go to college, I couldn’t be more thrilled to trade in the eternal cloudy sky for a place that has often been described as a paradise.

As of writing this, I’ve been home with my family for a couple weeks, and I’m really enjoying being back!  France was absolutely amazing, but you just can’t beat home!  For my final post, I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve taken from my time in France.

Ah, December in Nantes!  While the weather befits the architecture, Nantes winter isn’t very idyllic: just slightly colder rain and overcast.  (Which is my kind of climate, don’t get me wrong!)

I think I speak for everyone in Nantes when I say that November was a blur!  While school hadn’t been particularly easy up until that point, it certainly hadn’t been particularly hard.  But then, all of the homework hit us!  While he had a few daily or weekly assignments here or there, the majority of our devoirs maison were big projects, which we were supposed to be working on for the whole semester.  For others, and certainly me, the homework crept up a little too quickly!  We all went pretty suddenly from “f