Advice upon departure: “This summer is about you. With that being said, don’t be selfish, be self-aware.” This was the best advice I was given before studying abroad. One of my friends who was about to graduate college was reflecting on her study abroad experience and how it affected her as she prepared to enter the “real world.” She also encouraged me to give myself the opportunity to see how I as an individual worked on my own.

Hi friends!

So this weekend I decided to stay in Sydney to save money for my upcoming trip to Fiji (blog posts will follow)! Since my friend and I knew we wanted to do something different & fun for the weekend, we headed to the SGA travel office on the UNSW campus to help us out. They recommended heading to the Blue Mountains and they actually knew a tour group that we could join for the day!

A few weekends ago, a group of friends and I hopped aboard the TranzAlpine train bound for Arthur’s Pass. We’d planned a few weeks in advance, and were really looking forward to this trip – our first overnight trip! Saturday morning we had to get up horribly early (I’m talking like 5am here), to be ready for the bus to the train station, leaving at 7:05. We met up at my place (which I share with two other girls in our group, so it’s the logical meet-up place) at 6:45, to make sure everyone was awake and ready to get to the bus.

“It’s good to feel uncomfortable” -Sameer Gadhia.  I am sitting here typing this up thanks to this quote by the lead singer of the band Young the Giant.

Now, the first two weeks in Santiago has been nothing short of amazing. Making awesome new friends, going out with awesome new friends, exploring the city at 2 am with awesome new friends, the list goes on.

Before departing on my year long stay in Vienna, I have millions of thoughts flitting in and out of the subconscious of my everyday. The troubling thing however, is that until quite recently none of these thoughts had any real connection to going abroad. It wasn’t until about a week ago, that the wet blanket of realization wrapped itself around my sunburnt shoulders, and two words rang loudly in space between my ears, shaking me to my core, “I’m leaving”. The implication of these simple words brought a handful of anxieties with them.

I’ve had a difficult time beginning this post.  Coming home for the first time in a year, the adjustment back isn’t exactly black and white.  Maybe I’m a little in denial, because honestly, being home feels like vacation, another weekend trip, and any moment now I’ll be on a plane or a bus back to Santiago. Perhaps the “return shock” will hit me once I move back to my home university.

            ¿Cómo te va? My name is Julian Garcia. I am from San Antonio, Texas and am currently attending Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. I am wrapping up my time there, as I will be a senior this year. As I write this, I am waiting for a flight back home outside of Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport. I have been in Tanzania for two months now working as an intern with the Diocese of Central Tanganyika (DCT). The internship was in Dodoma, Tanzania’s national capital city.