It was around the time that the plane finally dipped below the cloud cover and I could see the first bits of actual “Austrian Ground” that I felt the first nerves start tingling in my stomach. Though I had been preparing to go to Vienna since September, up to that point I had only (minus the small worries about packing and plane-transfers) thought about how exciting it was that I was actually going to Vienna. It wasn’t until that moment that the thought popped into my head: What if I hate it?

Illuminations (イルミネーション) are light displays that pop up all over Japan during the winter/holiday season. Nabana Village (なばなの里) is a large garden and hot spring (温泉) that has a very famous light display in the winter.

IES Barcelona spring classes have now begun, but the last two weeks have felt like a dream — a two-week-long “vacation orientation”. I’ve experienced more in the past two weeks than I could possibly recall in a single blog post, so I’ve decided to organize this post into three sections: Homestay life, night life, and food.

          I’ve been staring at my suitcase now for close to thirty minutes. I pulled it out from my parent’s closet, on the top shelf that I can only reach by standing on my tiptoes. It was buried under three other suitcases that almost toppled onto my head as I yanked the largest looking one from the bunch. The suitcase is large, kind of square, black, tan inside, rather dusty, smells like my parents. But soon it will smell like me.

Anytime that you go to a new city it takes time to get acclimated and learn how to get around, the best local hang out spots, and the vibe of the city overall. Prior to going to college, I had lived in St. Louis my whole life and it wasn’t until moving to Philadelphia for school and Boston last summer that I really had to learn a new city on my own.