"'In what way does China problematise and illustrate the criticism of the global north/south binary?'

One weekend I had the pleasure of getting to climb an old volcano called Imbabura. First we took buses on a Saturday morning to a town underneath the mountain near the popular town of Otavalo. After stopping at the grocery store to stock up on some camping food, we headed to the town that leads right up to the trail and walked for a couple of hours to the trail head. There was a small abandoned home where some local kids were hanging out and listening to music.

Yesterday, I moved out of my apartment. In a frenzy of cleaning and packing and multiple trips to the recycling bins, I said goodbye. To my flatmates, to the bed that I have called mine for the past four months, to the spot on the couch that overlooks the main street, to the neighborhood of Rathmines, to Dublin. It's not an official goodbye, not yet. I don't leave Europe until the 26th of April (I'm writing this in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland), but the Dublin that I have grown attached to is gone.

I don’t believe I’ve yet told you about my friend Ryan. If you look at the photo of my friends that I put up in my first blog post, Ryan is the red-headed one in the T-shirt with the rude Fifty Shades of Grey quote on it. The writing on the shirt is small and mostly blocked by my head, so you can’t actually read it, but that’s not the point. It’s what you might call a character detail. Ryan is what you might call a character.

My last weekend here was spent in just the right way, walking around in colorful and bright Portugal. Lisbon was absolutely beautiful and so welcoming. Our Airbnb was in a really great area, right by all the major tourist attractions, so we spent the weekend in the most relaxing way possible.

                That process repeated itself a number of times before we got to the top, but we still made it right around 5:30 a.m., and the sun was just rising as we emerged on the cliff’s edge. I felt great! We had made it! I hadn’t fallen asleep before the sunrise! We joined a group of maybe 50 other people spread out along the cliff’s edge, some in sporty clothes, and some with wine bottles laying beside them while they laid on top of their backpacks.

As we drove along the Copacabana beach, we hit a patch of traffic where a number of cars were pulled to the left hand side of the road, watching a tense situation. As the driver saw what was unfolding, he pulled to the left hand side of the road, and Felipe and I stared out of the window, looking up a a man in only his underwear standing on a window ledge, looking like he was ready to jump. Inside, people were leaning out through the broken window, pleading with him to come inside.

                Though it happened almost two months ago, and many other amazing things have happened since then, the night that I hiked Pedra Bonita has stuck in my mind for some time. It was one of those nights that didn’t seem like it was going to be anything special, but has proved to be one of the most amazing nights of my time in Rio de Janeiro.

One huge perk of studying abroad in Milan is its location. Its proximity to the rest of Europe has allowed me to travel to such places as London, Stockholm, and Belgium without any trouble. Simply hop on the metro, take the train for about 40 minutes to the airport, and you’re good to go!