I know, I know. It really shouldn’t take me a week just to upload the second part of a two-part post. I never said I was perfect, but, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve been having some (ongoing) internet problems here.

It’s partly a blessing because it forces me to actually leave my comfortable homestay and go and out and, you know, interact with real live people.

But I recognize the adverse effects on the Blog and I apologize.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Kia Ora,

Here is one of my many new poems I have been working on. This one I actually wrote today, but I think the first draft is pretty decent. I hope you feel the same.

The Last Resort

I blink
Slowly
My eyes closed
I see paintings
On the backs
Of my eyelids

Long yellow waves
Of the farmers handiwork
And the yellow leaves
Kissing their families goodbye
As they finally let go
And fall to the Earth

So… I know I´ve been away from the blogging world for 2 months BUT I have an explanation (not an excuse but an actual explanation) so here it is: after coming back from the amazing trip to the Amazon I had my memory card full of photos and videos. I download all of these to my computer plus all of the other photos (so basically a lot of photos and videos) and my computer died. It turned off and when I tried to turn it on again all I could see was a white screen. I freaked out because I hadn´t done backup to any of my Brazil photos.

I finally made it to Muizenberg Beach, Cape Town’s surfer haven. Only a 20 minute train ride from our home in Rosebank, Muizenberg is a really easy way to escape from University life for a bit and enjoy the beauty of the greater Cape Town area. This was my first time ever surfing, although as a NY native I’ve come to love the ocean so I was pretty excited to finally try my hand at this. We rented wetsuits and boards from one of the surf shops on the water and got ready to hit the waves!

Home Sweet Home. It’s weird to being saying that. “Home sweet home”. After spending the last two months living in Berlin, the city does feel like home, especially after spending the last week in St. Petersburg, Russia. I was just getting the hang of German, so spending a week in Russia was challenging, but nevertheless it was one in a life time opportunity. The week was jam-packed with tours of museums, palaces and various important sites related to Russian history. We visited St.

The Berlin Metropolitan Studies program has been nothing but amazing these last two months. The faculty and staff here at IES Abroad are extremely organized, friendly and always willing to go out of their way to make our experience here the absolute best. One of the reasons I chose this program, in addition to the academic focus, was the home-stay option. I have been truly blessed with my home-stay situation. I live with a woman in her apartment in Shöneberg on the S1 bahn line.