Japan is a country that prides itself on its technological advancement and modernity, but one only needs to look at the temples and shrines nestled between tall modern buildings, to tell Japan is still set in its traditional ancient ways. Japanese values all tie back to several important matsuri (celebrations/holidays) and traditions, and one such tradition is yakudoshi, the belief there are specific years in a person's lifespan that are prone to bad luck or disaster.
Global Citizen of the Year Sydni Williams talks about why she chose to travel abroad to Madrid.
This post is a bit late but I have arrived in Freiburg, and the program has officially began. As for arrival into Freiburg I had to take a train from the Frankfurt airport, due to Freiburg not having their own airport. Initially, I was nervous about taking the train and getting lost, or missing my stop and getting lost in an unknown German city, but luckily none of those things happened.
After all the research I did prior to arriving in Buenos Aires, there’s still so much to learn about the city. Firstly, it is in fact a city. I’m not quite sure what I pictured before arriving but it was not a massive and sprawling metropolis that I viewed out of the window of the airplane. I had read about how important and accessible public transportation was and the different barrios of the city but still had not made the connection of how truly large this city is.
The Tiputini River in the Amazon Rainforest
Freiburg is beginning to feel like home and I thought I would share the goodbye letter I wrote to Madrid in an attempt to compare and contrast my study abroad experiences so far.
"Madrid, my goodbye in writing
My biggest fear is routine -- getting stuck doing the same thing over and over until one day you look back and wonder where the time has gone. I fear looking back on my life and thinking I could’ve done more with it. That’s becoming more and more obvious here in Spain. I feel like I’ve learned and done as much this past month and a half as I have the past year or two at home. Why? Probably because I’m here in a new city, with easy access to a lot of cool places, and basically zero responsibility.
