Cooking class with IES Abroad! 

An open letter to the rude foreign woman on the plane:

I have never felt the need to write an open letter because it sounds stupid. You will probably never read this, and I always thought that was the point of letters. Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter if you read this because it was a good lesson for me, and something I hope my blog readers can learn from too.

In this past month that I’ve been in Germany, I have had the opportunity to travel to some very neat places.  This country (and Europe as a whole) is so full of history and culture, it’s impossible to not want to see it all.

One of the key reasons I chose to study abroad in Vienna is because it can arguably be called the classical music capital of the world. The influence of geniuses such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn radiate from the city. Working at a performing arts theatre at Harvard, I had come to appreciate classical music a lot more. When I was registering for my classes at IES Abroad, I knew that I for sure wanted to take at least one music class. I decided to take MS207, music in performance.

I have always known that I was German. I have never met my grandfather, but I knew my grandmother long enough in my youth to remember her telling me German words. A few times, even, she sang in the language. She was a soft women, reserved in a distinctly kind way. I remember taking her out of the nursing home for the day and eating frozen pizza with her.

This past weekend, I got to travel to my dream destination: Amsterdam! Visiting this city of canals, history, and beautiful flowers has been a dream of mine for years. Finally getting to go and experience it in person instead of through pictures was absolutely amazing. Since Amsterdam was my number one destination, I did let myself spend a little more money getting there and on souvenirs. It’s important in my mind to recognize that splurging a bit on a destination you really want to visit is okay.

The IES Abroad Rabat program put together a faux wedding in order for students to better understand Moroccan weddings. Students voted on who the bride and groom would be, and the students' host families provided each student with a keftan — a traditional Moroccan dress — or a jelaba — a traditional Moroccan covering. The wedding process started with a proposal on the roof of the IES Abroad Center on Thursday morning, and the wedding itself was held Friday afternoon at a student's homestay.

I promise I didn't steal this photo from Google Images, this is actually New Zealand.

Two weeks ago, a good friend from my home university visited me in Vienna during her spring break. She stayed with me for five days, and gave me an excuse to repeat all of the typical Vienna-touristy things that I loved, as well as do things that I hadn't yet gotten the chance to do. 

When I decided to study abroad, I knew it would be in Italy because I am learning to speak the language. I just didn’t have any idea where  in Italy. Did I want a smaller town in Emilia-Romagna, for full cultural immersion and the ability to walk wherever I needed to go and only speak Italian?