Early this Monday morning U.S. Central Time the IES Abroad website will undergo scheduled maintenance. During this time some or all features of the site - like login and account creation - may be unavailable, but we expect this disruption to be brief. Thank you for your patience.
Hallo Alles!
My name is Juan and I am excited to be one of your IES Abroad Correspondants for the Fall 2018 Freiburg Program! I am really excited to be visiting Germany for the first time and especially, Freiburg! I'll have a couple of new and exciting videos for you later on in the term, but right now, I am just gonna introduce myself!
After the end of my program, I look back on a piece I wrote during my 3rd week in Argentina. (8-15-18)
Latino friends and family at home: "You know they're pretty racist in Argentina".
First, I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm Emily, a rising junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I'm a History and Dramatic Arts double major, most likely with a German minor (but please don't try to speak to me in German--I'm very rusty and easily embarrassed!). I love sweets, coffee, and dogs and hate beets, elevators, and fish. If you like astrology, I'm a Scorpio sun, Taurus moon, and Virgo rising. If you don't like astrology, this means that I possess a very interesting mix of personality traits.
The past few weeks between finishing my summer internship and work until now has felt kind of like a time warp. All my friends are back in classes and starting to gear up for football games and all the fun a new semester brings, while I am gearing up in my own way. Making packing lists, endless trips to the doctor’s office (more on that later), and frantic online shopping for things I realized I need to bring have been building up to me taking off for Rome.
Today is the first time I've felt nervous about my trip.
All week I've been so excited and ready to be in country already, and I still am feeling that, but the nerves crept up on me today with only a day to go before departure.
Last month, IES Abroad took us to Bo Kaap for a cooking class amid the famous colorful houses. We made samoosas, dhaltijies (Chilli bites), and the most incredible curry. Personally, I love to cook, but my scope of cooking abilities is limited. I am confident in my ability to make approximately five recipes, including cheesy pasta and grilled chicken, but am easily intimidated by recipes with more than six ingredients and complicated instructions.
Winter in Cape Town is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. Seriously. It’s cold and hot at the same time, with some days being absolutely beautiful and others feeling like a brisk October day at home in Washington D.C. On the cold days, I’ll layer on all the sweaters I brought – usually spending the day in the library, a coffee shop, or somewhere indoors. The warm days, however, we have learned to take advantage of.
Chile feels far, far away.
I've been home from Chile for several weeks now, and I've been busy almost ever since I stepped off the plane in the United States. But in the whirlwind time since, reminders of Chile show up in my life almost every day.
Many study abroad guides for American students encourage us to reflect on our “privilege” prior to leaving. However, the concept of “privilege” doesn’t go deep enough, as it uproots individual people from the historical contexts that brought them to where they are today. I find history to be exceedingly important in my understanding of the world.
