While studying abroad, living with a family is often the most common option, and for many good reasons. Doing a homestay is a surefire way to get comfortable with the language, culture, and food of your host country, and it’s always nice to have host parents or siblings to talk to at the end of the day. For my semester in Salamanca, however, I chose to live in a residence hall.

I was hesitant about Granada specifically, Spain as a country, and Europe all together.

I like to think that I am adventurous. That I’m this cool chick who is always up for a good time and can make fun from anything/anywhere. I like to think that I am charismatic and can make friends anywhere. Boy, did that get tested my first two weeks here in Dublin. Being in a new country is hard. Being in a new country without old friends or family is even harder. Yet here I am, making it, adjusting and killin’ the game. 

About a week and a half ago, I was sitting at the gate for my flight from Paris to Rabat. The closer we got to boarding time, the more American college students showed up, gravitating towards each other in mutual recognition. We made up a considerable portion of the members of our program, that group of us who were all on Air France Flight 1258 from Charles de Gaulle to Rabat-Salé.

It has only been about a week and a half since then, but it feels like ages ago.

When living in a city as sprawling and culturally rich as Paris, it's easy to get lost there and forget the rest of the world. But Paris is not the center of the universe (despite what some Parisians might say), and a necessary part of study abroad should be to explore more of your host country.

It is my third week here in Shanghai, and if it weren't for the fact that I'm not fluent in Mandarin, I would feel like I've been here forever. It's actually really quite spooky, but I think that after having had legitamately every day be filled with tons of activity, with intensive language study, cultural immersion inside and outside of class, and almost every meal being eaten out, it feels like I've fulfilled my travel time for the next several years.

Ich war ein Berliner!!! 

As part of the IES Abroad EU program we get the opportunity to go on a lot of excursions across Europe that are included in our program and our courses/seminars.

Last week we went on our very first excursion, spending 3 days in Berlin and 2 days in Prague.  In this video, I show you some moments from our time in Berlin.

One of the main arguments for studying a language in its cultural context is that often the phrases that are essential to understanding a certain culture, are the ones for which there are no direct translations. 

Take, for example, the Spanish phrase, tomarse algo. In English, it literally translates, “to take something for yourself.”