About two weekends ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Verona and Venice! I have wanted to go to Verona to see Juliet’s house for so long, so I was definitely excited for it to be actually happening. Unfortunately, other than Juliet’s house and a few other touristy things, there wasn’t much to do in Verona. But even so, the city itself is beautiful and I definitely do not regret making the trip there.

One of my best friends from the States recently finished her semester at sea in London, so I popped over to see her for a couple days. Amid the general hugging and squealing that comes with seeing someone from home for the first time in months, I realized the painfully obvious fact that London is massive. Districts I had never heard of, the sprawling Underground (not being able to walk everywhere was a rude shock after Dublin), unbelievable throngs of people everywhere (compounded by the fact that it happened to be a bank holiday)…

We left on Thursday evening and arrived two and a half hours later in another well-known city, Guilin. Guilin is a tourist spot known for its beautiful scenery along the Li River. We spent three days and four nights there and stayed at the Ming Palace International Youth Hostel. If you ever get the chance to go down to Guilin and a small budget, I’d definitely recommend this hostel. They have a number of discounted packages to get to various sites like Elephant Trunk Hill, Reed Flute Cave, Seven Star Park, Longji Rice Terrace, and Yangshuo.

For the last module of the program, we have the option of completing an internship, service learning project, or research paper. I chose to do an internship located in San Jose with INAMU, the National Institute for Women. Each week, I will be interning in a different office or center of INAMU that deals with the issue of violence against women. This past week, I shadowed and helped out in the Office of the Delegation of the Women.

I have been very lucky regarding my nut allergy this semester-not a single visit to the hospital or need to use my Epi-Pen. The biggest problem I have had to deal with, however, has been my flight home from Italy. I’ve flown to and from Europe before on Delta without problems, and I have a procedure for situations where food is to be provided by the airline – even the smell of nuts is dangerous for me. First, I make a note on my reservation.

The day before our four-day Labor Day weekend, our entire IES Abroad program had a BBQ at 顾村公园 (Gucun Park). It was the perfect day to have the BBQ because it was the first sunny day in a while! So what exactly do you eat at a Chinese BBQ? Surely, not the good steak I typically get at home, but rather, chuanr 串. Chuanr is exactly what the character looks like, food on a stick. We barbecued various meats and vegetables.

As I was walking to school today, it occurred to me that I have yet to write a blog post about Quito. I’ve written about adventures in Cuenca, the Amazon, the Galápagos and shared pictures of many more beautiful places around Ecuador. But Quito in and of itself is a spectacular city (and very proud to be the first UNESCO national heritage site) that deserves some attention, especially since it is the place I’ve called home for the past 4 (!) months.