It’s only been a month and half, and we’ve already done so much, including a handful of things I’ve never done before:

The first week of October we visited Le Château de Clisson – a castle built in the 13th century that was burned down during the Vendéen Wars in the late 18th century. Out of all the castles I’ve visited – and not just with IES - this one by far outweighed them all, without a shadow of a doubt.

If you didn’t already know, Siena is the home of the famous Palio race – a horse race dating back to medieval times, held in the large Piazza del Campo at the center of Siena. The historic center of Siena is split up into 17 contrades. Each contrada “owns” a part of the historic center, which may range from a street or two to several blocks. A contrada has its own fountain, flag, symbol, and colors. Contrada members are born into or adopted into their contrades. The Palio is held twice a year in July and again in August.

Finally, after weeks of anticipation, we're finally here! We arrived a few days into 0th week, or the week before tutorials and lectures begin, and were met by the always-friendly students and staff of our college, St. Catherine's. Known for being a great college for visiting students, we have been assimilated into the student culture at Oxford with ease, and have truly enjoyed this past week.

When in Europe for 3+ months, why not go to every single place where the airfare is 40 dollars or less? It's quite possibly one of the easiest places to travel at such a low cost, and when you're an impressionable youth with life ambitions and whatnot, that's all the more reason to get out there. In my first three weeks, I was fortunate enough to have friends willing to travel with me, so we were essentially all over western Europe in the midst of also exploring our home-base in London.

There is no better way to learn about a culture than learning a typical grandma-style recipe at her home. Especially in Italy, a country obsessed with producing everything with hands and experience for the "from-scrach" meals. Last night, I signed up for a pasta-cooking lesson in Milan and invited my friend Ryan to come with me.

Living abroad is always a complex process of adjusting, or in my case readjusting, to a different way of life. I've been debating if I wanted to write this blog post, because after months and months of bitching and moaning to come back to Rio, I felt almost embarrassed that I was even the least bit homesick. Yet, here I am - sitting in my bedroom in my apartment in Botafogo, writing this post, and opening myself up once more to the people who read my blog.

Upon arriving in London, it took me a little bit of time to adjust to a few things: the time change, the traffic change (people in London drive like crazy…), and last but most certainly not least…the weather change. I thought I had finally mastered dressing for the slightly chilly and occasionally rainy London weather…that was until Mother Nature changed her weather game.

Last week, Charlie and I flew to Mendoza to (literally) get a taste of Argentine wine country. On Thursday we toured three vineyards at the base of the Andes using a company called “Ampora Wine Tours”—in total we were 8: our lovely guide named Sabrina, a group of 5 Americans, and Charlie and me.