It’s been over two weeks in Siena already, and I know 100% more Italian than I did when I arrived. The days have been filled with orientation activities and most recently, a weekend trip to Florence! It hasn’t all been rainbows and unicorns, though. My stay here so far has definitely been challenging, so I’ll touch on that during this post.

I enjoy numbering, so I’m going to do that this time, for sake of organization. Read on!

One of my best friends back at home, Leah, has a signature prompt she likes to use whenever the room grows a little quiet: “Highs and Lows?”.

I know my last post was all about saying to try new foods, but after my field trip experience today I've started thinking about how my choices affect the world and the people inside it. 

Have I only been in Spain for two weeks?! In all of the of the brochure-perfect study abroad stories I've heard, students state that their time overseas passes extremely quickly. Unique tapas bars, cobblestone-paved walks, and landmark selfies rapidly weave themselves into everyone's tapestry of a semester.

Last weekend, I took a day trip to Montserrat. We got there by Ferrocarril and Funicular Aeri. We decided to do a hike to Sant Jeroni. The hike wasn’t too hard, it mostly consisted of stairs and the view was amazing! I recommend going to Montserrat if you enjoy hiking, it makes for a perfect day trip.

           The first time I talked to my sister on the phone after arriving here, as all the miles and miles of Atlantic Ocean yawned between us, she asked me what I’d found most different about Ireland, what had struck me as strangest.

You know how there are those things that you just can’t do justice to with a photo or video? Maybe it’s the smile of your little cousin on his 6^th birthday. Or the feeling of seeing a friend after a very long time. Or the sunset view from your favorite park that you’ve photographed a million times but never gotten a satisfactory shot. We’ll I’m starting to realize that you get a whole lot of each kind of those moments while studying abroad with a program like IES Abroad.