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a wise man who would know
told me that you will never see
the exact same London twice
and I believe him
because I have seen a thousand
Londons in far less days
from the back alley curry houses
in Tower Hamlets to
Fleet Street whirling by from the front seat
top level of a double-decker bus to
the awareness of spanning the entire
Earth at once on that line in Greenwich to
My last week here in Cumbayá is bittersweet. I wish I got more time to explore the mainland and I hate to say goodbye to my host family but the Galapagos Islands are waiting for me. I had a bunch of things I wanted to get done during my one-month stay here in Cumbayá/Quito and although I didn’t complete all of them, I did make it to Baños…Finally!! The marine track returned from our coastal field trip on Friday leaving us one final weekend to spend here on the mainland and I just had to go to Baños. My friends and I only spent one full day there.
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I think it’s finally time to gush all about how I met my study abroad soulmate: London. Finding the perfect place to study abroad can be a tough decision and for multiple reasons. Not only are there so many beautiful and interesting places to choose as your home base for when you're abroad, you also need to find a program that facilitates your personality and interests.
Although I haven’t been here for long, I already have a lot to say about why I like Nantes. This post was inspired by IES Abroad’s campaign on finding the perfect study abroad match, which will launch this Valentine’s Day.
4 weeks ago, I arrived in Milano. I was tired after 24 hours of flights and layovers, of toting my massive Vera Bradley duffle on my shoulder, of waiting for and planning this semester. But I arrived. 4. Weeks. Ago.
One month of Italy- of family, of food, of linguistic immersion. I threw myself right in the mouth of the wolf (in bocca al lupo) and I let Milano happen.
The weekend before all IES Abroad classes commenced, every student in our program received the opportunity to travel to the Loire Valley, where the majority of France’s mesmerizing chateaus reside. This type of excursion is something I was looking forward to before I came to Paris. Although I love every aspect of this city, I wanted the opportunity to see other parts of France, and this short trip gave me that chance.
I'm going to make an analogy, and I hope by the end of my explanation you will understand what I'm trying to share with you, and the analogy is that -- immersing one's self in a new culture is comparable to learning how to walk.
The choices of where to study abroad seemed endless. Spend a day in France eating a croissant and being able to visit the Eiffel Tower on the weekend? Going to Italy and being able to drink wine with good food at every meal? Going to Australia to see kangaroos and hear Australian accents all day- sign me up! And these were just some of the popular study abroad locations I could choose from.
“To be away from home and yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world—impartial natures which the tongue can but clumsily define. The spectator is a prince who everywhere rejoices in his incognito.”
― Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays
