When I first landed in France, I was terrified. I didn’t know if my French was good enough to get me from the airport to the “navette” (bus to the train station), and then from the train station to Arles. I got my luggage and then made two loops around a grand hall of the airport, hoping that I’d see a sign and wouldn’t have to ask anyone.
So much has happened since I wrote last! My sense of time is messed up because I’m 7 hours ahead of everyone back home (my mom tells me I’m living in the future), but it feels like I haven’t been here for long enough to do all the things that I’ve already done.
When we first got here, we went to an orientation at a hotel for a few days. I didn’t know anyone, so it was nice to get to know the other people in the program. Not through painful get-to-know-you-games, though…we played eclectic French board games like “Monte Banana"...
Aaaaand we’re in Senegal. This post is way overdue and there is a lot to say. However, I’m going to have to leave you with fragments.
June 7, 2015
Woke up in Senegal this morning. In a white walled, orange accented, hella posh hotel room. And then we went swimming in the rooftop pool. Welcome to Africa.
So for this blog post, I’m going to break from tradition here to talk about one specific place. Joe’s Garage is what is called a squat. Squats are situated throughout Amsterdam, and are basically locations where people inhabit previously unoccupied spaces without paying rent. Squatting was legal in Amsterdam until 2010, when the Dutch government declared the practice illegal and punishable of up to one year’s imprisonment.
Last weekend, my roommates, Hannah, Claire, and I decided to take a trip to Madrid, Spain. We had no idea what to expect but were presently surprised by numerous things throughout the city. I found a lot of similarities and differences between Barcelona and Madrid during this weekend trip.
Berlin is not the city I imagined when deciding to come here for the summer. I really wanted to study abroad in Freiburg, a beautiful city in the Black Forest of Southern Germany. Having been to the city before, I know that it’s surrounded by forested hills and has the feeling of a small town, despite the fact that it is a rather large city. Berlin, on the other hand, I pictured as a bustling metropolis: a concrete beast.
Yesterday, June 27, marks the first departure date of many IES students. Our IES Berlin program celebrated together on Thursday night, where we shared a nice meal at a Mediterranean restaurant, reminisced over the semester, and took one last group photo.
An empty field stands at the crossroads of two busy streets near the outskirts of Galway. Three cows graze inside it, and a lone tree stands near the perimeter. On every other corner is a gas station or an apartment complex, a development of some variety; but not this one. Despite its desirable location, despite the city being less than ten minutes away, it remains mostly untouched. There's no clear reason why, not unless you know your trees.
As this experience comes to a close, finals quickly approaching, friends buying their bus tickets home it becomes important for me to spend more time processing this past month. This month, having gone by in what seems like a week, has served as more than an intensive language course or an extended vacation but instead as a crash course to crucial life skills. The reason a student should go abroad isn’t simply to learn a language or meet new people but to have the opportunity to absorb a culture unlike anything they have experienced before.
As final exams are approaching I feel much calmer than I had previously anticipated. Even though my past associations with testing have revolved around fear and nervous anticipation my language professor has been reviewing daily with us, brushing up on our grammar as well as our vocabulary. This will actually be my first time taking an exam without extended time, which is a choice that I have made after attempting to step out of my own comfort zone.