Let's be honest here. Travelling is amazing and so much fun, but long flights are not. As someone who has taken more flights than they care to count (I once took 10 flights over the course of 14 days), I've learned a thing or two about how to have really good -- and really bad -- flights. Here's my list of top tips to leave airports feeling refreshed, awake, and actually alive.

1. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables whenever possible.

After a week of 3 mid-terms and a presentation, finally it was time for spring (or fall?) break. We had 12 days off, 12 beautiful days! As my friends and I were looking into places we could go to, we found cheap flight tickets to Chile, so we decided we’d go to Santiago and Valparaíso for a week and I made plans to go to Iguazú Falls after with an exchange student group.

Bonjour from France! 

Today my friend Doris and I decided to just hop across the border and visit Strasbourg, France! We woke up at 7:30 am bought tickets for a 9 am FlixBus and just went. We had no idea what to expect or what we were even going to do there, but we had the best time. Sometimes spontaneous adventures are the best ones. Here is a step-by-step list of what to do while in Strasbourg on a SUNDAY. 

Step one: Take a Flixbus to Strasbourg.

Hey everyone!

I needed to take a break from studying for my last two finals so I decided to share some money-saving tips with you all. If you are planning to come abroad on a budget, fear nothing. You can still have so much fun even if you're balling on a budget.

It’s hard to believe that my Shanghai abroad program is more than halfway over. I feel like I just arrived in Shanghai, but at the same time it feels like I’ve been living here forever; time really does fly by when you’re having fun. Looking back on all that I’ve been able to see so far, I wanted to share my experiences during weekends I’ve traveled outside Shanghai.

Like most students studying abroad, my friends and I take every weekend as an opportunity to travel around New Zealand.  This weekend, we chose to spend a day in Kaikoura, a town north of Christchurch. When planning the trip, our group decided to split up once we arrived, since we only had one day.  A couple of my friends wanted to explore the town and walk along the peninsula, while a couple others wanted to do a day hike in the mountains, further inland.

Well, this is it. Four months in Paris have come and gone in a flash. I'm filled with so many emotions (and croissants) I don't think I'll be able to fully digest them until after I get home. All of these feelings also made it really difficult to decide what I should write my second to last blog post about. I have so much left to say! How can I condense four months of life abroad into a few blog posts?

Heimat ist für mich Lieben und Lernen und Leben und Leute…

To me, home is love and learning and life and people…

Home is a mutual acceptance of how things work, not an understanding, not a place of comfort, but a place where things make some sort of sense.

Welcome to Naomi’s censored, semi-stream of conscious rant.

Home is where I don’t agree with everyone but have a place to disagree with them, where I don’t have to hide who I am, but don’t feel the need to prove who I am.