From my experiences this year abroad, I’ve become critical of the way study abroad is portrayed. It seems full of fluff, an experience that is too good to be true. In fact, my high expectations for Amsterdam lead me to be dismayed at points. I’d expected challenges in Ecuador, yet Europe seemed like a different story. An adventure full of happiness and fun 24/7. It hasn’t been, just as life isn’t a continual stream of positivity. My below post is an attempt to expose this unfair standard we hold to those who study abroad.

My childhood neighborhood harbors some of my fondest memories. From sledding in the woods behind my neighbor’s house, barely avoiding shrubs and the impending icy pond at the bottom, to creating neighborhood wide games of tag, capture the flag and manhunt. I was part of something bigger than myself, even if it was only a collection of a few houses in a small suburb of New Hampshire.

In my experience, students have the expectation that studying abroad in one country in Europe easily enables opportunities to travel to other nearby countries. I for one, thought that I would be able to go around Spain with another friend studying in Madrid, visit a family friend in Germany, and other high school classmates in England. Yet, of all of these expectations, I only really managed to make it over to Madrid—and this was largely because my flight to the U.S. was flying out of the airport there.

Hello, everyone, my name is Rachael Haugh and I will be one of the many correspondents for the trip to Dublin, Ireland this summer! I was born and raised in the beautifully green and always misty Portland Oregon where the summers are moderate and hipsters are everywhere. After finals week I came back to Portland and find myself now sitting in my room wondering how I will tackle the massive task of fitting everything in my packing list into a checked bag (which I will be living out of for two months).

Are you searching for advice on packing for an extended stay abroad while your clothes await your careful choices? Have you heard other students regretting their overstuffed suitcases and don't want to repeat their mistakes? In this article I'm going to explain my method for making sure I don't pack too many clothes (and that I don't pack too few!).

Óla!

As a former barista, I love pretty much everything about coffee, and as a student, I normally start my day by either making myself coffee or seeking it out with friends.

I love the way that people congregate around coffee to chat, share ideas, and generate art; I also love how coffee can help switch your attitude from disinterested to alert and motivated (highly recommend Coffee Culture: Local Experiences, Global Linkages by Catherine M.

Hello! So it’s been a little over two weeks since my return from China, and thankfully I have acclimated relatively quickly. I suppose that might sound silly, considering I’ve lived in America my entire life, but spending that amount of time in another country certainly results in a lifestyle which you, to a certain degree, forgo when you return.

Words still cannot describe how much my body, heart, mind, and soul miss Berlin, it makes me laugh a little bit if I am being honest here, because I remember bawling, absolutely bawling, to my mother on the phone my first week out there; feeling absolutely out of place, absolutely unsure about what I am supposed to be getting out of being in Berlin. It felt a little bit like first year of college, except completely new country and language for me, and new people to befriend. Berlin, this is thank you.