No.  Scottish accents are impossibly challenging to understand.  Unless you’re quite acquired to hearing Scottish english, it essentially sounds like “arghhh larhghg grealallhhhh loch ness.”  But this is not to say it isn’t entertaining to hang out with the Scots, who were friendly and welcoming during my weekend trip to Edinburgh and the highlands!  

Dear Internet,

Though this is usually the point in my posts where I attempt to introduce some vague lesson/insight from my most recent travels, my time in the European Parliament in  Strasbourg, France, and my personal adventure to Munich, Germany (see pictures below), have left me with more political revelations than I'm comfortable with divulging. Instead of jumping into that lava pit, I've opted instead to focus on the days when we're not trekking across Europe and taking selfies at every available national landmark.

Monday, February 29^th, 2016 23:32

Alhamar, Granada

A few weeks ago, I took the bus to meet a friend of mine at Dublin Airport. I’d avoided learning the bus routes for as long as possible up until this point, intimidated by the lines and the Leap Cards, but I finally made it a mission to figure public transport out. One LeapCard and a downloaded Moovit App later, I was venturing on my first solo bus mission, complete with a bus transfer.

January and February are the hardest months of the year. It is cold and wet and we are weary, the dip of the holiday season leaving us in a bit of a haze, and then things are busy, busy, busy.

After hearing about the 'Northern Irish Troubles' for weeks, I finally got to see the place for myself. To be honest, I imagined deserted streets and I thought I would feel completely unsafe the whole weekend. The history of that place is so dark and violent that I was prepared for the worst. Well I ended up feeling pretty dumb when we pulled up to a beautiful part of the city of Belfast, with tons of great nightlife and shopping. If I hadn't known about the troubles previously, I would never have guessed all that had happened there.

The travels to Poland and Germany seemed like such a bubble. The trip allowed me to become even closer to a group of friends, our shared experiences in these new places allowed for the growth of friendship. Getting back to Vienna meant the start of classes; an event that led to distance between some of us as we focused on the schoolwork at hand. 

Osaka has lots to offer, especially on the dining side. From the first day, we got to taste Osaka's famous okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancakes, and fantastic cheese tarts from Pablo. However, the most memorable 2 hours of our trip was paying a visit to one of the largest aquariums in the world spanning 8 floors. As soon as you step into the magical blue underground world with fish swimming over your head, you can't help but silently observe in awe.

My biggest fear about studying abroad wasn’t speaking the language, figuring out transportation, or taking classes.  It was making friends.  I know that even if my Spanish grammar is bad, I’ll get my point across.  Transportation can be confusing, but there are always people to ask if I get lost.  Classes are hard, but I have supportive professors, tutors, and program.  However, making friends is on me.  For me, friends make or break my experience.  Getting lost alone in a railway station is frustrating and stressf

Dear Internet,