***Due to the inability to access a wireless connection, this post refers to the time around the first week of October***

***I've had trouble uploading my blog posts, so this post refers to the time around the second to last week of September***

With two weeks of classes in the book, I’m beginning to have a whole new perspective of Shanghai. I really enjoy the classes I’m taking, and I’ve already noticed how they are further enriching my experience here so far.

As we were nearing October things started getting crazy. Not only was it midterms week but spring break was upon us and six of us were about to embark on our 10-day journey to the south of Argentina. Sounds fun right? Besides the lingering worries that we were going to die on our trek in snowy Patagonia we were all very excited. The plans were slightly unorganized and the journey was a bit more involved then we expected but this is the tale of the greatest and hardest 10 days I’ve spent in Argentina thus far.

Over the past weeks, I’ve thought about writing a post about my Mexican identity while in Spain, but that seems like too great a task for one short text. So, I’ve decided to break up my soul searching into sections, detailing instances that have made me reflect on that special part of me that I hold so dear. This is my first installment in trying to understand how my Chicana Californian self fits into this complex new world, and what I’ve learned from being torn away from my culture and home.

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Being polite is important to me while I am in Ecuador. Politeness is generally a good tactic, and as I am visibly a foreigner here, I don’t want to perpetuate stereotypes about rude Americans. Plus, Ecuadorians are habitually polite—you are expected to say hello and goodbye to everyone you know every time you see them and you ask the bus driver to stop by saying “gracias.”

It is such a privilege to be able to continue my college education and gain life experiences in an entirely different country. It is an even greater privilege to be able to travel outside of where I’m studying in Ireland to other nearby (and maybe even not-so-nearby) countries. My first destination of choice: Iceland!

Social media notoriously makes everything look crystal clear in people's lives. Traveling to a new city (and country) every weekend has given me a very tough skin. I'm not bothered by early wake up calls, long flights, middle seats on an airplane, carrying multiple adapters, packing four days worth of clothing into a backpack, or all the other things people tend to stress out about during their travels. This is something that has just come so naturally for me.

Late September, all of the Gaiety students got the chance to travel to London for a weekend to see some West End shows and explore the city's passionate artistic culture. When I had found out about this trip, I was absolutely stoked. In fact, this was actually one of the many experiences that had led me to choose to go abroad with IES Abroad in the Fall! Just a little bit of a preface on my overly enthusiastic attitudes... I had: