The first glimpses of spring are beginning to show in beautiful Vienna! It's been a long winter, and we're all yearning for the warm and sunny days. Buds are finally opening up on plants all around the city.

Your class registration date is on April 7th , 2017 at 10:30 am

It’s the first email I opened that morning. While I had known this was something I would have to do while abroad and I had made a tentative plan for what my next semester would look like, I was not prepared for the panic of trying to figure out my schedule that ensued after that email was read.

Orientation just finished and it was not all ice breakers and learning about the program and the semester ahead. I have now been in Freiburg for a little over two weeks, and am loving it so far. The past two and a half weeks have I been pretty busy with my German course, along with various day trips which were sponsored by IES Abroad. There have been a few day trips which have been fun adventures, along with two weeks of intensive German courses.

Kiwi is the term for a person from New Zealand.  Over the past two weeks I’ve met a lot of people, both international folks and Kiwis.  Initially I thought the natural landscape would trigger my writing reflex, but my time so far has led me to some incredible people. This post is dedicated to them.

Andrew and Joanne: the couple who introduced me to New Zealand

“Surrealism comes from the reality of Latin America.”- Gabriel García Márquez

This weekend, as we entered the Catacombs in Paris and saw literally tons of dead bodies, it got me thinking. 20 meters underneath the streets of Paris lie over six million dead bodies, six million souls with their femurs and skulls stacked up all nice for over 200 miles. All of these people lived lives as dynamic and exciting as you or I, had pain, happiness, fears and dreams. They thought about going to faraway lands, and worried about their kids’ future. They may been rich or poor, fallen in love or been heartbroken over and over. And now what?

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Yesterday, we took a trip to Augustinermuseum here in Freiburg. It was a rainy day, so we decided to see what it offered, and we were not disappointed.

Will you miss Shanghai if you don’t see the Shanghai acrobats? No, but it was still fun. It made me wonder how these people get into their career like balancing glass chandeliers on their feet, juggling hats, or rolling around inside a 5-foot hula hoop. Plus, the way some of the performers can twist their bodies is slightly disturbing, and I wonder if it’s healthy.

Happy International Women's Day!