Now it’s when you feel your experience is coming to and end. On the one hand you feel happy because soon you’ll get to meet your family and friends, and it’s Christmas time, so that makes it even more sugary. On the other hand, there’s the BIG question mark at the end of this whole exciting experience. Well, I know I have to graduate and all that stuff, but what’s next? One starts thinking of so many things, so many opportunities… Maybe Grad School? Volunteering abroad? Gap year? Find a job? Masters degree… In what?

I knew Thanksgiving away from my family was going to be difficult. It’s the first time I’ve had the holiday without them, so the entire month I’ve been bracing for the impact of a new wave of homesickness, which has up until this point gone almost entirely away.

Living with a host family was one of the things I was most nervous about when I first arrived in France. I’m shy, quiet, and introverted, so what little social stamina I have wears out really fast when I’m around people. I desperately wanted my host family to like me, since we were living together for the whole semester.

Being in France for a presidential election was nervewracking. When I left, I thought it was a spectacular plan—after all, if a certain someone were to be elected, I could extend my stay in France indefinitely. From Nantes, it meant we wouldn’t know who the president was until the early hours of the morning.

Today is November 27, 2016. I’ve been in Granada for nearly three months now. In the beginning, walking around Granada, everything seemed completely new and spectacular. Nowadays, I still appreciate the everyday beauty of the city, but at times I think that I’ve seen and done everything there is to do here already.

This semester, through my IES Abroad class I studied polity, gender, and economics in Southern Africa. I was able to learn about people, and their ability to change the world they live in. In South Africa, women are often disregarded as weak members of their community because of their gender and place in society.

While studying abroad, one of the greatest allures is the opportunity to travel outside of your host country, especially if you're in Europe where it's very east to hop over to another country. But don’t forget to explore the culturally vibrant lands of where you are staying, too.

One Saturday, I really had to get some homework done but I also wanted to get out of the house, so I packed up my laptop and notebooks and headed out to find a café to post up at. I remembered a café that I’ve studied at before with a friend, and knew they had good hot chocolate at. After I got to the café, I sat down and after ordering, asked for the wifi password for my computer.

The British Museum, one dedicated to art and human culture, is just one of many free museums offered throughout London. Located in Bloomsburry, London, the permanent collection housed at the British Museum today totals over 8 million individual items. The current collection includes items from all corners of the globe and covers all major continents, from African to Asia and Europe. Since its establishment in 1753 the British Museum has been collecting artifacts for the purpose of preserving human culture and history.