Welcome to my blog! My name is April Johnson and I am an undergraduate student studying at Harvard University. I am a pre-med concentrating (majoring) in Neurobiology and obtaining a secondary (minoring) in Astrophysics. At Harvard, I manage a café, serve as a production assistant at a theatre, and play on the women’s club soccer team. I was born in the Philippines and came to the United States when I was 7 years old.

Today is my second day in Barcelona, and it's the perfect day to write this blog post.

Going into the IES Abroad Vienna program, I am ignorant of most things. I don’t know who my private horn teacher will be, I haven’t met any of the people I’ll be living with, I’m not sure whether I’ll do well enough during my “on-site” audition to get into the Performance Workshop, I don’t know what my weekly or daily schedule will look like, and I don’t know how to speak German beyond “Ich komme aus Amerika,” which I’m sure people will be able figure out on their own.

After endless hours of traveling, lugging around 100 lbs of clothes, and eating airplane food, I have officially arrived in Barcelona, Spain. It's a strange feeling when you step off the plane. Besides your body-clock being messed up and there being no way to contact people, you suddenly feel a rush. You feel a sense of independence, even though you'll be relying on Google Maps most of the time. It hasn't settled in that this is home for the next four months.

Growing up I never traveled. The most traveling I did was to South Padre Island on weekends with my family; it was only a fifteen minute ride from my house. There was simply not enough money to do much traveling. It wasn’t until I went to college that I was able to go outside the vicinity of my hometown and even then I was just 5 hours away from home. A year ago, I remember how Austin was such a new world to me but never in a thousand years would I ever think that I would be studying abroad in Germany for a semester.

It has officially been a week of London. A chaotic, wonderful week. Since walking off the plane and through customs, there has been barely a moment of rest. Orientation hit first which began with a lot of information about the program and city, all whilst my body was still adjusting to London time, and ended with several excursions. My advice on field trips? Take them! Especially if they’re free. It might not seem like something that you would plan to do yourself but that’s part of the benefit of them.

Bienvenidos a mi blog! My name is Kate and I am originally from Albany, New York, but am currently a junior at George Washington University in Washington, DC majoring in International Affairs with a minor in Spanish. I am beyond thrilled to be studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain this semester! As 2016 draws to a close, I say goodbye to the wonderful city of Washington. It has become my ideal college town over the past five semesters with my go-to restaurants, weekend hotspots, and the envious political scene that brought me to DC in the first place.

Hour 1:

It’s hard to believe that in a few short days I will be traveling over three thousand miles from my home in Connecticut to Paris for a semester abroad. This day seemed so far away back in June when I found out I was going to study abroad in Paris, but now it is finally here. Am I packed? Mostly. Have I forgotten something? Most likely. Am I excited? Absolutely. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Katie and I am a junior at Penn State University.

As my time in Madrid comes to an end (at least for this time around), I can’t help but feel nostalgic about my experiences here. I’ve done so many wonderful things that many people will never do and I’ve met some incredible people; I’m so fortunate to have had my time here and I will cherish it for the rest of my life. I never could have imagined when I came here that I would do some of the things that I did, or find such close friendship.