Thursday, April 14, 2016 1:54

Alhamar, Granada

Hola! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated on Morocco, mainly due to the fact that I’ve been on Spring Break in España! I’ve spent the past 10 days practicing my Spanish, eating lots of tapas, and taking some time off to relax in and explore another beautiful new country.

​Bonjour!

On a sunny Friday morning we headed to the beautiful volcano Pichincha that sits just to the west of my house. It is the one that I stare at in admiration every day on my walk to school and the way I tell the weather because you can always tell if it's going to rain based on the clouds rolling over the volcano. I had gone half way up this volcano once before because there is a famous cable car called El Teleférico that takes you up a big portion up the mountain.

My first week in Santiago de Chile has been a real adjustment. Arriving in Santiago and jumping straight into classes after a busy week in Peru made for a very hard first week. First of all, we arrived in Chile’s autumn months – much colder than Rio’s summer.

Our adventure in Peru was undoubtedly fantastic! It was a week of waking up way too early, visiting every landmark possible, dealing with the change to high altitude pressures, and of course the amazing Peruvian food! It was a whirlwind of experiences visiting Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu within a week.

It is still the orientation month and our housing tutors planned to take us to a hiking trip to black forest which is quite close to Freiburg. I woke up early in the morning all excited to go on the hiking tour. It was still snowy outside, but I think it was a great opportunity to get to know other people in the program. It was quite difficult for many students to hike specially in the snow, yet it was one of the most enjoyable hiking trip I have ever been to. The view from the top was worth the effort to go all the way.

My first few weeks in Freiburg were quite overwhelming. At first I thought what I have gotten myself into, I should not have done this, I shouldn’t have challenged myself to this extent, but after a while I started enjoying each moment and realized that its an opportunity of a lifetime to experience all of those amazing cultures which I will experience over this trip. The first night our housing tutors took us to a dinner in town. I met many people from all across the States, but it was difficult to decide who will become my friend at that point.

People aren’t exaggerating when they say Paris is the most romantic city in the world.  On my final trip outside of Italy during my semester abroad I had the privilege to visit the “City of Light.”  There are no words to describe just how incredible Paris truly is, and when I left I felt like I had only seen a fraction of what Paris had to offer.