I can victoriously proclaim that I no longer feel like a total tourist! It took a few months, plenty of wrong turns, one temporarily lost Oyster card, and more credit card bills than I would care to think about, but I feel settled.

Greetings from March! This month has flown. I’m having a hard time remembering the date, constantly thinking that I’m living a month in the past. What do you mean, there is less than a month of the program left? What do you mean, my precious time here in Dublin is running out? I’m living in a state of denial.

I spend a lot of time staring at ceilings.  No, I’m probably not crazy.  But I’ve noticed that many people don’t look to see what’s above them, missing an extraordinary world of art and design.  In Spain and the rest of Europe, I’ve noticed artists pay particular attention to the design and decoration of higher spaces, which makes sense given the prominence of Catholicism in Europe.  The idea of ceilings being metaphorically closer to God has inspired artists to create exquisite works of art and complex geometric designs.  F

In my previous posts, I have tried hard to suggest, but not state outright, my struggles with anxiety and depression. Even in person, I write them off as being shy or awkward, when in reality mental illness informs everything I do, and study abroad is no exception. In fact, it's why I wanted to blog in the first place, to try to illuminate the study abroad experience from a non-typical perspective. But, with anxiety, being totally honest about my experience is, well, scary.

First of all, I'll explain why France is in quotation marks in a little. Anyways, I am enrolled in a cultural/social/politics class at IES Abroad, called French Overseas Territories: A Model of Diversity Management. The first half of the semester was spent talking about the history of colonization/decolonization and other various aspects, but recently, we've dived into actually discussing French territories and their cultures and customs.

I’m feeling a bit guilty.  Because Salamanca is so close to the Portugal/Spain border, I was able to travel to Portugal for a weekend.  And I fell in love.  Coimbra and Lisbon, two of the cities I visited, were bathed in warmth and sunshine, two things that Salamanca has been quite lacking.  Surrounded by sunshine, beach, colors and textures, I forgot Portugal’s sole purpose wasn’t to encapsulate the feeling of summer.  It was like some alternate reality after the cold and wind and rain of Salamanca. 

I've been working on this post for a while, because it was very apparent to me when I first came to Chile that santiaguinos don't realize how great their city is. If you ask a Chilean what they think about Santiago, more than likely they'll mention how awful the pollution and transantiago are.

Hey everyone!