This weekend, as we entered the Catacombs in Paris and saw literally tons of dead bodies, it got me thinking. 20 meters underneath the streets of Paris lie over six million dead bodies, six million souls with their femurs and skulls stacked up all nice for over 200 miles. All of these people lived lives as dynamic and exciting as you or I, had pain, happiness, fears and dreams. They thought about going to faraway lands, and worried about their kids’ future. They may been rich or poor, fallen in love or been heartbroken over and over. And now what?

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Yesterday, we took a trip to Augustinermuseum here in Freiburg. It was a rainy day, so we decided to see what it offered, and we were not disappointed.

Will you miss Shanghai if you don’t see the Shanghai acrobats? No, but it was still fun. It made me wonder how these people get into their career like balancing glass chandeliers on their feet, juggling hats, or rolling around inside a 5-foot hula hoop. Plus, the way some of the performers can twist their bodies is slightly disturbing, and I wonder if it’s healthy.

Happy International Women's Day!

Nagoya's Higashiyama Zoo ranks as the second most visited zoo in Japan, right after the popular Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. It has a variety of attractions including a Botanical Garden, a mini amusement park, and a wide variety of unusual animals, including koalas and kangaroos. Higashiyama Zoo has a special Japanese animals exhibit as well, which is where I saw my very first Japanese native Tanuki (racoon dog), which were as adorable in person as they are in pictures.

Here in Germany, many of the students cook together in their dorms as a social activity.  Tonight, a group of IES Abroad students at Engelbergerstrase decided to use the rainy weather as an excuse to stay inside and cook.  It was really fun and we learned a lot about each other as we sat and ate.  It provided a way for us to bond (and fill our empty stomachs).  We were also able to help each other with homework and practice our German together.

My host señora is becoming increasingly alarmed.

“¡No comeis nada!” she regularly exclaims, gesturing towards the food left on my and my roommate’s plates. I would beg to differ- I feel like I actually eat quite a good deal of food here, although I rarely finish every dish Señora puts in front of me.

It’s been over a month now since I got to Vienna and it let me tell you, it has FLOWN by. When I first got here, I was a teeny bit worried about committing to 4+ months in a foreign country isolated from everything I knew and loved in America. It’s a daunting feeling, knowing that home was kept away by at least 15 hours of flying and a steeply-priced plane ticket. Unlike living in Boston, where I would sometimes buy a spontaneous plane ticket home, this was all or nothing.

Paris has captured and kept my imagination every day for a little under two months, but I wanted to explore the differences between the French capital and other European cities.  Therefore, this past weekend, my friends and I decided to travel to Barcelona.  This was my second visit to the metropolitan port, and I loved my time just as much as the first.