Am I an impostor?

The first half of the video is the IES Abroad sponsored day trip to Delft, NL which is home to the infamous Dutch Royal Blue as well as home to well known Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (The Girl with the Pearl Earring)! In Delft, we took a tour of the Royal Blue factory and also made our own Royal Blue tiles! It is a lot harder than it looks to paint the tiles, I can't even imagine painting plates and vases that are commisioned for the royal family!

Hallo,

With the first week finished I have found Berlin and German culture very interesting. The program hosted a bus city tour on weekend when we got to see the main city sites in Berlin. It was very informative and gave everyone a better understanding as to where all the historical sites are located in relation to their homestays and the IES Abroad building.

I’ve always loved creating playlists for when I’m traveling. Whether they’re made weeks in advance or when I’m sitting at my departure gate, picking out music helps me get excited and into a creative headspace for wherever I’m about to be. Oftentimes, making playlists distracts me from nerves or homesickness. Favorite songs remind me of home, and when I hear a new song I like, I always remember the situation surrounding when I first heard it: the people I was with, where I was, and how I was feeling.

I think the hardest part of being abroad is feeling guilty for wanting to go home in the last month, and then actually taking the steps to go home; packing and saying goodbye, to name a few.  

I’m going to be completely honest; I have absolutely loved my semester in New Zealand.  This has, by far, been the best semester of my college experience.  I procrastinated packing my things in the days leading up to my flight home, because I did not want to admit that I was leaving.

This past weekend, IES Abroad organized an optional weekend trip to Huangshan for both my Summer Internship program and the IES Abroad Summer Engineering program. My program had our last day of back-to-back Chinese classes on Thursday and departed from our apartments early Friday morning to make the six-hour drive to Anhui. Most of us were tired from having class all week and slept for the majority of the bus ride.

Back again, with some bigger ups and downs on the rollercoaster of life! I can very truthfully say I would have never imagined spending my 21st birthday weekend the way that I have.