Aside from obvious choices like friends and family, I miss…

• Iced coffee & Dunkin Donuts: Hot coffee is pretty much the norm outside the U.S., even when it’s 90 °F out. If you ask for an iced coffee here, you will probably get a blank stare or a coffee blended with vanilla ice cream. Rumor has it there’s a Dunkin by Canal Walk in Cape Town, but I have yet to see it…

This past weekend, I went on the IES Abroad led trip to Cremona, Parma and Modena. And let me tell you that IES Abroad did not disappoint!!!

So earlier in the semester, I offered my take on neighborhoods in Granada with some help from the cast of Friends. As a follow up, I thought it would be fun to use the earnest thoughts of beloved, Michael Scott, from The Office to convey the range of emotions I experience here on a daily basis. Here's Michael's take on a day in my life in Granada. 

When I wake up:

Before I went to Marseille, I didn’t know much about it. Truth be told, there’s still a lot I could learn. However, the huge takeaway from our Marseille excursion was that it was founded by immigrants. This thought touched me as I compared the city to the United States and its own founding.

This very fact is why the people of Marseille consider themselves to be “Marseille first, French second.” This mantra bears heavy significance in a world where prejudices and nationalist views are so prevalent.

My spring break experience involved two separate and very different journeys. The first several days I spent with IES Abroad on an optional trip to Kruger National Park, with brief stopovers in Johannesburg. The park is on the other side of the country from Cape Town, and from the moment we stepped off the plane at Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, we felt the difference: hot sunshine, which was a change from the temperate days and cooler nights of autumn in the Western Cape.