Within the past few years, my home university implemented a seemingly progressive and inclusive administrative effort, allowing students to add their preferred names and gender pronouns, which will appear on class rosters and other administrative systems and therefore allegedly avoid misnaming or/and misgendering students.

Pack your walking shoes! Maintaining a healthy lifestyle abroad is easier (and almost unavoidable) than I had even anticipated. My health has always been extremely important to me and while I took a few weeks to get acclimated (aka indulge), I have developed a routine to remain healthy that keeps up with my busy schedule.

Exercise:

When in Europe, you must travel. Day trips and weekend trips are affrordable and can be planned ahead of time so you can save even more money. Milan is in Northern Italy which is a perfect location in terms of proximity to other countries. It easy to take a train, bus or even plane out of Milan's three airports.

I've come to greatly apperciate the Netherlands' incredible attention to detail. In practically every aspect of Amsterdam, no corners are cut when it comes to design. The escalators are color coded red and green, the trashcans are geometric cylinders and cubes, and the bathroom stalls are covered in checkered tile with blue trimming. Bold color combinations and repeating design patterns are used on everything in Amsterdam. There are no blank walls. There is not wasted space.

February has flown by in the blink of an eye. Of course, it’s a few days shorter than most months, but also because in the middle of February I had an entire week of vacation from school. I was able to have this vacation time because soon to be graduating high school students were taking their placement exams this week. In Japan, getting into a four -year university is not guaranteed, but earned through rigorous testing. Each university has their own entrance exam, and a lot of high school students are coming to universities to take these exams.

Before my trip to Amsterdam a few weekends ago, it was just another city to check off my bucket list. I knew almost nothing about the city, and I didn't know what to expect.

                After finally submitting all my application materials to IES Abroad, compiling everything for my Spanish student visa, and reading pages of packing guidelines and class registration information, I thought I would be done with paperwork, applications, and logistics for a semester.

If you were to ask a sampling of granadinos for their opinions on Madrid, you would get a variety of responses. Some view it as the economic and cultural capital of Spain. Others consider it crowded and overwhelming. Then there are those who call it less exciting than its rival in size and prosperity, Barcelona.