This has been such a busy past two weeks but I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the events I have planned. Two weeks ago, I went on a two-hour plane flight to meet a friend from TCU in Amsterdam. We waited a little too long to find housing accommodations, so we ended up splitting the cost of an Airbnb private room. Thinking it would be too cramped and a being a little bit skeptical of the room, we were very relieved to find out that the room we rented was comfortable and our hosts were only a few years older than ourselves.

The question I expect everyone will ask me when I return home, and the question that I had asked every other person I knew who had studied in Germany, is: have my German language abilities improved? Put simply: yes!

I’m not one for corny pick-up lines or cheesy sayings, but I feel like recently I’ve found myself starting many conversations with the clichéd phase: “How about this weather?”

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.