Alright - I’m not exactly proud of what I’m about to describe here, but here we go… My top 4 Cultural Misunderstandings living in Ecuador thus far:

1. A Tale of Two Gringas and a Chinita

I never imagined being stranded in the middle of a cloud forest 30 minutes before dark. But there’s a first time for everything.

What’s Cool?

Wow, so even though it’s now coming up on halfway through the IES Dublin program (halfway! I can’t believe it!), I feel like every week I’m learning and experiencing something new. Last Friday I embarked on an amazing trip to the UK, and got to see things that I think I could only have dreamed of less than a year ago. First stop? London! We bought tickets to spend our first full day in London at the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour and, let me say, the 30 or so pounds I ended up spending on it? SO WORTH IT.

            It isn’t that I can’t spin off some simple definition for the brave or the beautiful here. I’ve seen enough saccharine television, read enough moralizing novels, and lived enough years to know that bravery involves acting in spite of the pit in your stomach.

            “Jesus, Chelsea,” my friend Danny says when I stretch my left leg out behind me, pointing my toes backwards and extending my arms wide like the ballerina I have never been. I quit dance lessons in elementary school. “Will you stop that?”

Living in Japan for a few months now, I feel quite comfortable with all the goes on around me every day. I've even come to a point in which I've adapted to the smallest changes--which most often make the biggest impacts, for me at least--by observing and imitating those around me. I'm not talking about language or mannerisms this time, though I have definitely improved and adapted to both of those since being here, but rather the small idiosyncrasies of individuals that I've noticed seem to be parts of the culture in Japan.

Not a single trip to Italy is complete without going to Tuscany--slow-cooking food movement, the famous Chianti wine region, and the rich artistic tradition of Renaissance style all originated from this territory. In early October, I hopped up the bus with my IES Abroad Milan program to Siena, a medieval town in central Tuscany.