My "Making of the Patagonia" class and I just returned from a long weekend trip to Bariloche, Argentina to enhance our studies by visiting face-to-face cultural sites about which we had read. In other words, we took a class field trip to Patagonia.
Bariloche is known by foreigners as a beautiful South American getaway - prime for skiing in the June, July, and August and spectacular for trekking in November, December, and January.
Since sharing about the restaurant Il Bio months ago, a lot has happened. In those months, I have made a lovely friend. Her name is Andrea, and she and her husband are the sole owners and employees of Il Bio.
I suspect that people are going to think that I don't even live in Morocco anymore with the amount of traveling that I've done in the past few weeks. But, I'm back now! Back and feeling extremely reflective on the past ten days that I spent traveling Spain and Portugal during the fall break. After the first four days with the IES Abroad program visiting Granada and Cordoba, the (what sometimes feels like a mammoth size) group of 28 dispersed into smaller cliques to do our independent travel.
It's easy to think of a study abroad experience as a break from the "norm" or a break from the everyday, and in many ways it is. Living in a place where everything is different can make it hard to imagine anything has stayed the same. Most of the time, finding these similarities is a pleasant surprise, but there's one similarity that isn't fun no matter what part of the world you're in--being sick.
Preface: I am sorry for letting so many weeks pass without an update and yet I am not, for I have been living so fully and presently that I have simply lost track of time. I promise to try to be a better blogger from here on out.
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It has been longer than I would have liked since my last post and I have had several friends and family asking "when is the next post?!" haha. Well, here ya go guys! I'm glad to finally have a little extra time to post about some of the really awesome experiences I've been having while abroad. This post, while still for the most part pertaining to mother nature, is very much focused on the expectantly long-lasting friendships I have made so far here in Japan on the IES Abroad Nagoya program.
The process that I have been dreading has slowly started to begin. My parents are discussing my return flights, my friends are counting down the remaining days, and professors are assigning final exams and papers. Sure, I'm excited to reunite with my family and friends and get back to my university campus...but I'm nowhere near ready to return home! I feel like there is so much more to London that I haven't seen yet and I'm trying to do everything that I can in the remaining few weeks that I have here.
I cannot believe that at the exact moment in time I'm writing this, I am a day and a half from leaving Cape Town. Of course, by the time you read this, I will have less than that, or possibly even be already home.
