Today is Thursday, October 27th. If you asked me exactly one year ago where I thought I’d be in life right now, this is what I might have told you. I would’ve just finished a summer working in a research lab or participating in a medical internship, I would be continuing my neuroscience studies abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark with Danish International Studies (DIS) surrounded by my closest friends from home, and I would still be pre-med thinking about taking the MCAT’s when I returned to school for my spring semester.

For the first time since arriving in Japan, I got properly frustrated at my non-existent Japanese ability. It was early Wednesday morning, and I found myself frantically pawing at a Suica (commuter pass) machine, trying to get it to accept my ¥1000 bill. I kept looking over at the clock on the wall, aware that I only had 5 minutes until my train left the station. At this point, the machine had spat my card out five times, telling me earnestly in Japanese that I was doing something wrong.

So, we have a big five day weekend coming up for Halloween. It is not actually for Halloween, but it is fun to think that. Anyway, everyone in my program is going somewhere to celebrate and just to get out and travel some more. Many of my friends in the program are going to Barcelona so that they can experience Day of the Dead. Barcelona is a great city and will for sure be fun; especially with Day of the Dead. That's gonna be pretty sweet, but I am more focused on seeing more of central and eastern Europe while I am so close to everything.

One of the most interesting parts of studying abroad here in Milan is taking courses at partner institutions. This means that, in addition to my IES Abroad courses, I go to L’università Cattolica a few times a week for my course on aesthetics (aesthetics, or estetica here in Italy, is essentially the philosophical study of how we perceive beauty and develop our personalized tastes).

While waitressing over the summer, I waited on this very nice lady from New York. She grew up in Maine just like me and had studied abroad in Paris. At the end of the meal she told me that I must travel to San Sebastian and to Corsica. At the time, I did not know much about Corsica, but now I do!!

Madrid and Barcelona are both major cities in Spain. Although these two cities share the same country, they each feel like different worlds. Barcelona has felt very rebellious and young, and I’ll admit I have always felt a little out of place because I don’t share their Catalan pride. Madrid felt much less concerned about where I was from, but more concerned about where I was going.

It’s raining again (Welcome to Amsterdam).

I struggle to motivate myself when it’s raining outside. I definitely haven’t reached the level of local where I continue about my day regardless of the weather. Biking in the pouring rain is probably my least favorite thing (aside from pickled herring…)

This post is dedicated to my parents, migrants everywhere, and to anyone else living in another country and speaking a language everyday that is not their own.