It's absolutely insane that after years of dreaming about this trip and months of planning, the time has finally come to pack up and get on a (very long) plane ride to Sydney, Australia!  The Pre-departure jitters are definitely a real thing, and my first of three flights tomorrow morning can't come soon enough.  For some reason that I can't even explain, I've always been fascinated with everything about Australia, I even have a canvas painting of the harbour and iconic Sydney bridge above my bed.

I had set my alarm for 7:45am, having been informed that the painters would arrive at eight and I’d need to be out of bed. The renovation of my old bedroom marches along with no regard for which country I am in and during these few, fleeting days at home I’m forced to accommodate it. In January I left the bedroom I had slept in for almost ten years. Last week, I returned to find it transformed, supplemented by a half-finished extension on top of our sun porch and a walk-in closet that had replaced our guest room.

Hello from Santiago!

I am just starting my third week in Chile and I can’t believe it’s already been this long. Honestly, time does really fly by when you are studying abroad. Sometimes the days may individually feel really long, but overall, things zoom by.

If you have the chance to live with a host family while abroad, go for it. It may be nerve-wracking to commit to living with a family in another country, especially if you have the more comfortable option of living with your peers who are having similar experiences, but living with a host family is well worth it.

For this blog post, I wanted to make something different. So I decided to create a little recipe/guide for the basic stuff you need to get together before studying abroad. Of course, I made a super simple recipe, and as I wrote in the recipe - "procedure may vary." For those of you reading this prior to your abroad experience, I'm incredibly excited for you! Good luck, and you got this! Go on and make some of the best memories of your life. 

Love, 

Bea.

It’s hard to believe I’ve only been in Barcelona for two weeks. I’ve already done so much since I got here; it feels like arrival day was months ago.

After MUCH struggle with the Chinese Visa office in D.C., I’m finally approved to go to Shanghai! I’ll be there for 2 months and will be working at the Oriental Danology Institute, which is a non-profit, independent think-tank based in Shanghai. Not going to lie, I’m pretty nervous about the whole process of arriving there. I’ve taken many plane trips within the U.S., but this will be my first international one and alone at that.

May 19, 2017

My last post in Spain on my last day here. It’ll be a while before that fully sinks in but I’ve come a long way since I arrived in January. This trip has made a big impression on me and I have a lot of new views on the world because of it.