Wow! It’s hard to believe that I have been in Berlin for a month already. The first two weeks were spent with our IES Abroad coordinators in an orientation to the Metropolitan Studies program and to the city of Berlin. We are about three weeks into our semester and about two and half weeks away from our first excursion to St. Petersburg! We all take our German language course in the morning, Tuesday through Thursday and have our other four classes for an hour and a half twice a week with Fridays are reserved for field trips.

Time here is precious! Even though I’ve already taken in so much, Buenos Aires has so much to explore. With my busy class schedule and internship on Tuesdays , my “free time” to explore is Thursday afternoon through Sunday evenings! I try to put this time to good use. Early on, IES Abroad organized a walking tour of Recoleta that helped us see some of the most exquisite European buildings as well as the amazing cemetery.

I’ve barely traveled the world, but I find it hard-pressed to believe that one would be able to point to a people who are more generous than Moroccans. Hospitality is a crucial component of Moroccan culture. When you enter a home, tea is offered. When you meet a stranger on the street, an invitation to visit his/her home is extended. And when you pass a group of local Berbers picnicking by a beachfront, a full meal is provided. These are all normal occurrences. Well…maybe not that last one, but it did happen to me.

I think it’s reasonable enough to say that you don’t realize how important money is until you stop earning it completely. This has most definitely been the case for me. I entered Spain with what I thought was a pretty good amount of dollars that I earned from working the entire summer. It has been four weeks now, and I’ve already gone through roughly 35% of it. Granted, I have had to get some early tourist/souvenir spending out of my system, but, even still, Spain is a pretty darn expensive country.

We just went on a trip that was planned by IES Abroad, to the beautiful Sicilian region. The majority of our program was in attendance and it was a great opportunity to meet more kids in the program. We went on a beautiful walking tour of different churches and a monastery upon our arrival. That night we set out and explored the Sicilian nightlife. The Sicilian people were very lively and the squares were full of young people.

Hey there,

This is a new poem I wrote for my Music paper. It’s meant to be read in a spoken word, musical style (youtube “Frank” by Tom Waits for an idea. That song actually inspired a verse of my song). It’s not the most upbeat and happy piece I’ve written, but neither was the content we were discussing in class. I’ve added and taken away parts, still in construction. Aren’t they all?

The Painfully Alone

I once knew a guy
Name was Frank
Everybody called him
Redneck

Kia Ora!

These past two weeks have been both generally incredible and incredibly busy.

The final week of orientation focused a lot on history, and honestly left me with a strong desire to learn more about Italian history as a whole.

It’s not that I find U.S. history boring, so much as the novelty of it has worn away with time. We grow up and go to school learning about U.S. history, and therefore it feels less interesting.

What you see here is a re-cap video from our 3-day orientation in the Northern Styrian city of Mariazell. Here, we were acquainted with most everything that has to do with our program and beginning our experience in Vienna (I say ‘beginning’, because there was and is still much to learn, everyday while being here).