When visiting Paris, every tourist has The Louvre on his or her list, and musée d’Orsay often makes the cut, too.  However, have you ever heard of the musée national Jean-Jacques Henner or the musée Cognacq-Jay?  These tiny gems rarely make a traveler’s list, but they are well worth a visit.

As I mentioned previously in some of my blog posts, one of the main reasons I chose China out of all the other places I could have studied abroad was because China is where I was born. I thought going back to my birth city was my personal quest and something I needed to do alone. I gladly would have enjoyed the company of my IES Abroad peers, but what I desperately wanted was to explore the city on my own. I hoped to find peace and answers to the questions I've always had about my birth family and where I came from.

There is one fact in particular about Ireland has stuck out to me: it is approximately the size of the state of Indiana.

I didn’t have to wear a hazmat suit in Beijing. I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to breathe in Beijing because I was told that the air pollution was really bad that sometimes you can’t see your hand in front of you, and in the winter, the snow is black. However, the factories were closed for the weekend, so there didn’t seem to be a difference in air quality compared to Shanghai.

Classrooms get boring pretty easily, right? The same four walls staring at you and the trapped feeling you get when you can see how nice it is outside, or when your classroom doesn’t have windows?

As part of the IES Abroad World Heritage Tour trip, we spent three days in Prague. Although it was EXTREMELY cold (it was early February), Prague was altogether an incredible place to be. It felt like a completely different world to me, and my favorite part was just walking through side-streets and less populated parts of the city with a cup of mulled wine to keep me warm. I was fascinated by the presence of both Eastern and Western cultures in Prague, and amazed by the architecture. 

Antes de empezar, quiero clarificar algunas cosas. Tengo mucha privilegia: soy una estudiante universitaria, siempre tengo comida, y aunque mis padres no sean ricos, siempre van a ayudarme si estoy en problemas. Hay gente que no tienen esas privilegiadas, y no quiero minimizar sus esfuerzos. No clamo a tener una vida dura ni pobre, sólo quiero hablar de mi experiencia en estudiar en el extranjero con algunas personas que tienen más dinero que yo.

Okay so I'm going to be crazy biased about this topic. Obviously I grew up experiencing American culture, and so Italy (and generally Europe) feel foreign to me, and its easy to say "I don't like (insert this or that)." So I'm going to do my best to remain nuetral and fair. 

Okay so ignore my last post.

So I would like to tell you all about what it's like to travel abroad, live in a new culture, try new foods, learn a new language, and spend most of your time with Americans. Don't get the wrong impression, I'm not upset that most of my time (and free time) are spent with people that speak the same language as me, understand more of my background, and above all are just as uncomfortable as I am in a new culture.