It’s hard to imagine a daily routine in Rio, I’ve been here more than month and no two days have been the same. While most of our days are unplanned, we still have classes to attend at the center. For the most part your classes will be the most consistent part of studying abroad, unless you join a club or an organization around the city. Even getting to and from classes can still be an adventure, but here’s my attempt at trying to document a regular weekday in Rio de Janeiro!

So it turns out that my plan to post consistently isn't quite working out. Between all of the traveling, meeting new people, seeing Rome, and all of the other amazing things that happen with study abroad, sometimes I forget to take a step back and reflect on everything that’s been going on.

Recently I had an amazing opportunity to travel outside of Italy for the first time. I was able to go Madrid, Spain for three days. It was an absolutely amazing experience.

One of the most enticing things for me when deciding on IES Abroad Beijing was the remarkable IES Abroad-sponsored trip to a unique place in China. For our trip, we traveled to one of the southern most provinces of China: Yunnan.

The weather is warming, vibes are grooving, and reality is sinking in. "I thought we all agreed - no more talk of time." This is what we keep reminding each other as classes and projects and shows are quickly coming to an end. 

"March winds

and April showers

make way for 

sweet May flowers"

March 19, 2016 9:43pm When I came to Spain I never thought I would meet someone so much like me. Let alone a person who spoke an entirely different language. I thought that living with my host family would be much like simply living in someone's home, and gliding in and out of my own accord -- and it is this to an extent. My host mom checks on me often, I tell her before I leave, and when I'm back, and text her when I'll be back late.

Everyone lies somewhere on the spectrum of introversion versus extraversion. What this essentially means is that we all gain our energy from different sources: the extraverts among us seek activity and social interaction, whereas the introverts prefer solitude or a small intimate group. However, extra/introversion is not a dichotomy; each us can be a little bit of both.

Since I've been here, I've heard multiple British people say, "London is not England."  I can understand where they're coming from, since I feel the same way about France when visitors see Paris for two days and feel like they've covered the country.  I silently scream, "There is so much more to it!"  I'm guessing the Brits living in more rural areas would say the same to an American who thinks that if she sees London, she has seen it all.  Thanks to short trips (shoutout to IES Abroad field