I always thought my Spanish was good. After my three weeks in Spain as an exchange student in high school, I felt like I could get through any situation with the level of Spanish I possessed. Even up to the final days before I departed for my semester here in Madrid, I was very confident that all of my Spanish would come back to me despite little practice in the previous year and a half. I thought I would easily become fluent well before the end of my semester.

I know that the standard American abroad experience involves traveling somewhere new every single weekend, but I’ve spent a couple of mine in Siena.

I think staying in your city for the weekend has been highly underrated by students generally. Obviously I am pro-traveling, but staying in your city has some serious perks.

Back in Chicago during the spring 2014 semester, a typical day consisted of waking up at 6am, rushing to the train station so I can get on the early but very crowded train, and making it to my first class at 8am. After class, I’d go to my job on campus and get out during the afternoon, leaving the rest of the day for papers and assigned readings. On the two days I didn’t work during the weekday, I had three classes starting from 8am to 12:45pm. My fast pace routine came to a sudden halt when I arrived to Costa Rica.

I was talking with a friend who is from Germany and here on a working holiday visa. Her year is almost over and so I asked if she planned on staying for longer. She said that she had indeed planned on staying as she had fallen in love with Australia and was contacting farms already. I was confused as to what farms had to do with her wanting to stay but she informed of the process of renewing a visa in Australia:

A recent trip to Hikone (彦根市) and Kanazawa (金沢市) started off with rising early (much earlier than I even wake up for school) and meeting up with my friends at Nagoya Station (名古屋駅). After a semi-long bus ride, we found ourselves at Hikone Castle (彦根城). The entire castle and grounds were really beautiful. We even got a chance to see a small performance from the cute Hikone Castle mascot, Hikonyan (ひこにゃん). After exploring the castle, a friend and I decided to have lunch at a small takoyaki shop (たこ焼き屋).