There is of course more than the three things mentioned in the title, but I’ll start there:

A tangle of nerves and excitement filled me from the time my plane landed to being greeted by an IES Abroad staff member in the airport to meeting my host mom.

But it turned out that there was nothing to be nervous about because while it may seem like a whole new world here, everything is new and different in a good way.

One of the perks of being an IES Abroad blogger is that I get to justify my abundant activities all in the name of writing a GOOD blog. Thus, even though I am running dangerously low on money, I decided that a cooking class in Bo Kaap was a good investment in my cooking future. I convinced my friend Atara to join me on this adventure because one thing we have in common is that we both love eating (she also seems to like the cooking part…).

Porta Portese, Italy’s biggest market, pops up every Sunday and we decided to check it out. The market certainly lives up to it’s title since it had everything you could think of: clothes, jewelry, flowers, chandeliers, guns, cameras, toys, etc! While it took a couple hours to get through the entirety of it, it was well worth it.

It has officially been one week since settling into the apartment and we live on the west half of the Tiber so nearly everything is in walking distance – so I’ve been up to lots of exploring and have already seen a few of the city’s best sites!

My whole life, I have been opposed to consumerist values in the US. I believe that material goods dictate much of our existence and that we have confused success with owning “stuff”. When I arrived in Quito, I was disgusted by the lack of recycling, the lack of awareness related to plastic bag use and seeming indifference towards environmental issues (with the exception of Yasunidos members collecting signatures against petroleum). After all, I’m an environmental studies major.

My situation is a little odd. I’m GOING TO LONDON! I am more than excited, but I’m already in the Netherlands. I am so close yet so far away from my summer in the UK.

You might be thinking, “Why is she overseas already?!” Well, friends, my family lives over here and I am fortunate enough to visit them before I take off to new sites, new studies, and new people.

After Nanzan’s graduation ceremony, I travelled around Japan with my mother and her friends before returning to my home country Vietnam. It was fun visiting places I have never been before, like Tokyo and Hakone, and revisiting places for what might be my last time there.

On Saturday, I went with some friends to an exhibition by the Kunst Historisches Museum taking place in the Neue Berg: The Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, “home to the most important collection of renaissance and baroque instruments worldwide.” It was AMAZING.

Rooms upon rooms were filled with rare and historic instruments in beautiful condition, some of which were played upon by some of the greatest composers and musicians of all time, such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, among many others!