Hey everyone!

Throughout my time abroad, my roommate and I have been really good about asking each other quiestions, checking in, and taking time out of our days to reflect on our experience. We often ask for the highs and lows of a trip together, check in on things that we are excited for or things that we would have done differently. 

On our last day in Dublin, we talked about lessons learned, things that we would maybe do differently. 

Dearest Dublin, 

I’ve been resistant on writing this post, putting it off and off until, quite literally, the last possible minute. I left you early Tuesday morning and am still trying to process that. I know that this isn’t the end - there is still so much of the city to explore, more areas of Ireland I haven’t been in awed by yet. But for now, goodbye has come and gone, and these things are always bittersweet. 

I’ve seen an obscene amount of beauty since arriving in New Zealand.  

After a week here, I caught a bus to Taylor’s Mistake Beach and became overwhelmed by nature’s beauty for the first time since leaving the US.  I’d never stood on a cliff overlooking dark blue waves that crashed continuously on the black rocks beneath me.    

I then traveled to Lake Tekapo and saw the most incredible stars that lit up an ominous black sky. 

I’m currently sitting in the living room of my homestay here in Granada, mostly missing my mother and brother back home, and simultaneously figuring out how in the world I’m already at the end of April. 

Next adventure took me and my classmates to Asakusa to go check out the Tokyo Skytree. One really cool thing about this tower is that you can see it from neighboring cities. Inside there is a plethora of shops and specialty food you can buy.

Harajuku is only a little ways away from Shibuya. This is where my prior knowledge failed me. I knew it would be crowded, but to the extent it was left me (sans a few choice words) speechless. For the life of me, I could hardly move. It was like marching with penguins in sync but far less enjoyable. It also didn’t help that many of the places I had been looking forward to visiting, decided to move shop.

In the beginning of the month of March, I was blessed with a visit from Tom and Mary Donahue, my eccentric and amiable parents. They took the long flight from little old Maryland, USA, all the way to Vienna, Austria. As their week long visit commenced, I quickly realized that during that short time period I would become more of a tourist than I had ever been before. I hopped off my plane after getting right back from Venice, dropped my things at home, and immediately ran to my parents’ side.

What an action-packed weekend in the tourist city called Baños. Baños is located in yet another beautiful valley, and underneath a sometimes active volcano called Tungurahua. It's small streets are lined with restaurants, hostels, and tourist agencies, which make any sort of extreme sport that you could find in a mountainous region very easy to access. There is ziplining, bungee jumping, biking, cascading, and much more.