Now that final exams are in, my dorm room empty, and first year of college complete, it’s time for Salamanca!!

While I was always bent on doing a study abroad while in university, I wasn't really particular about where I ended up. Though I decided to do the program in Granada rather arbitrarily (since I knew one person who had done it before), my experiences during the past semester have definitely confirmed that Granada was a great fit for me. Here are just twenty moments when I was grateful that I ended up spending my study abroad in this small city in the south of Spain. 

Here I am, terrified, 3 days away from my travel to an entirely new world (or so it seems to little old me). For most of my life, I’ve been rather stagnant – born in Houston, TX, moved a whopping two hours away to Austin, and remained there for college as well. For me, travel never was much of a reality due to my financial situation. However, upon deciding to make the financially responsible decision to stay in my hometown for college, I knew that studying abroad was an absolute necessity for me to balance that out.

Hello there all you Italian lovers,

A common weekend activity for students studying abroad in New Zealand is to go camping on the weekends.  Many of the best trails in New Zealand are very long and often require camping overnight to finish the tramp.  However, there is another alternative to camping which many people enjoy, but isn’t as common in other places around the world.  

If you could only see what my room is covered in right now as I am preparing to pack for my trip for Rome. My bed is full of travel-size necessities. Not just a travel size package of Tums or deodorant, there is everything. Yesterday I stopped at my happy place Target to get a few last minute things before my flight, but instead I raided the aisle of everything miniature. You know, I really did need shampoo and conditioner, but instead I left with EVERYTHING.

Months before even coming to Morocco, I got excited when I found out that Ramadan was supposed to start a few days before the end of my program. I knew that getting to see how this holy month is observed and celebrated in Morocco would be a special experience. Ramadan officially started in Morocco this past Thursday. A couple weeks ago, my host mom and host sister started preparing large batches of cookies and food to prepare for the days of fasting and evenings of breaking the fast that were to come.

The day before I left Milano, I sat down with Elyse Resnick, the professor of the service learning class to learn more about the Fulbright program. Not only did I enjoy listening to her experiences and stories, but I genuinely feel like I made a friend.