“So I’m packin’ my bags for the Misty Mountains; over the hills where the spirits lie.” – Led Zeppelin, Misty Mountain Hop

Bella and I stopped walking and surveyed our surroundings.

“It looks like some kind of horseback riding trail,” Bella stated, referring to the hoof prints and dried up piles of horse waste in the sand.

I write this post after coming back from Easter break, during which I went to Biarritz and Amsterdam.  I had a splendid time traveling to and enjoying each city and would like to impart some general traveling advice upon future study abroad students!

Nestled among the craggy, rocky cliffs, the wind blows through my hair, salty breezes reminding me of my home in the Gulf of Mexico. Boca do Infierno, one of my favorite places in Portugal. I look out at the expansive, aquamarine waves, thinking that my family is on the other side of the Atlantic. But it’s not time to go home, not yet.

I don’t want to go home yet, so I’m not going to. I feel like I have just started to get comfortable in Shanghai, so why should I leave? I shouldn’t. Instead, I’m applying to internships in China for the summer.

Hi Folks! Apparently another two weeks had passed since my last photo blog post, which it's freaky because it doesn't feel like it... time is going by so fast already!). Anyway, here I am with another two-week update :) In this post you can see photos from Krakow(Poland), Potsdam, and the city of Berlin itself.

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On one of Berlin' nicer days (which is diffult to predict because the weather has been quite bipolar here), I was able to set up a comfy spot for myself to sit/chill on my roof:

Being in Rome for Easter and attending mass at St. Peter’s Basilica is a once in a lifetime opportunity I did not want to pass up. Thankfully, IES Abroad helped my roommates and I get tickets for Easter Sunday mass and we were able to go!

I don’t think I’m revealing a big secret when I say that Italy is a beautiful country. The architecture in the cities is gorgeous, the countryside towns are quaint and picturesque, and the coast line is incredible. Italy’s beauty is well documented and well known.

Then why hadn’t I heard of the island of Ischia until I was here?

“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.”

Growing up as Americans, we’ve all seen it, heard it, breathed it: The Sound of Music and the story of the von Trapp family. Now if you were to ask an Austrian if they’ve ever seen The Sound of Music, they’d probably roll their eyes or give you a confused look, replying “never heard of it”. The odd thing is that the American pop classic, based in the Austrian town of Salzburg, never made as much of a success in Austria as it did in the rest of the world.

This past week we had a week long break for Easter. In Germany students typically get breaks for Christian holidays due to the high number of Christians in Germany. I took advantage of this break to do some much-needed travel. Myself and four other IES Abroad students in my program traveled around Eastern Europe. We visited Budapest, and Kraków for a few days each, and then a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia.