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.

We have to keep in mind that the first word in the phrase “study abroad” is indeed “study”. After my trip to Croatia earlier this month, I made the decision to take a break from traveling and focus my efforts into finishing strong in school. Throughout my stay in Amsterdam, I’ve been attending a Dutch course every Tuesday evening. While this is true, I did not really take my lessons seriously until about a week ago when I was studying for the Dutch final exam.

            “Life is short so you gotta do what you want because we’ll all eventually die!”

            “Savage.”

I wouldn’t necessarily consider my home university a liberal campus, but I specifically come from a very liberal and seemingly inclusive bubble of community with a strong activist culture of social justice and inclusion.

Before I left for my adventures abroad, there was a lot of preparation materials and questions I had, one of the most pressing was: What is the best plan for my cell phone?

Naturally, all IES Abroad students are required to have working cell phones while abroad; and for good reason. Not only is everything going to be unfamiliar, but Google Maps will be your friend when it comes to navigating the public transport systems at the beginning of the semester.

I never thought I was “good at languages.” I took Spanish classes for four years and liked it, but never felt confident speaking. My parents stopped attempting to teach me Hebrew when I was little because I was stubborn. Even with English, I never had a proper grammar class and often can’t think of the right words to say. German is not easy and I make mistakes all the time, but I love speaking German. I feel motivated to continue learning, especially because I want to return to Vienna.

Mari Mari means "hello" in Mapuzungun, and Mapuzungun, the Mapuche language, means "the language of the earth." Che means "people," and kaflu is "blue." Mapuches, meaning "the people of the earth," said if we learn Spanish while we are in Argentina, we need to learn Mapuzungun while in Bariloche. Now, four days is pretty short to learn a new language, but I promise I'll remember the few words that I learned!