I cannot sing enough praises about visiting Italy – or any country, really – in the quiet months between tourist seasons. Our hostel owner in Florence a few weeks ago told us how in the summer, the piazza in front of the Duomo will be shoulder to shoulder with visitors, and it can take half an hour to get close to Michelangelo’s “David” once you wait the three hours in line to get into the museum itself. This weekend, my friends and I went to a picturesque region of the Italian Riviera called Cinque Terre, in what was decidedly the off season.

I was never enchanted by Santiago.

From above, the dense, brown smog makes it hard to see the city at all, let alone the Andes. The architecture is bland, poorly maintained and out of place. Even Plaza de Arma’s historic cathedral stands in the depressing shadow of a brutally modern high rise.

Think of that friend who always seems to be flawlessly stylish, multiply them by a million or so, add in some more fashionable friends and you’d get the general population of Paris. In honor of fashion week, I’d like to share my experiences with the street style of Paris. Understandably, there are a few unfashionable people in the city of a little over 2 million people, but for the most part Parisians are a fairly fashionable bunch.

It recently dawned on me that I have made it through nearly two months of study abroad blogging without mentioning academics.

I’ve had my reasons, first and foremost being that registration at Trinity is an unholy pain from which I’m still recovering. I thought I was prepared for it, having been thoroughly warned by IES officials and Wash U advisors, usually with the optimistic spin that “It’s not like the US, but you came here to experience new things!”

This weekend, some friends and I went to Prague, which was really fun!

On Saturday, we did a lot of exploring. We walked from our hostel to the Old City, which was really cool to see and had a lot of character. The main square was full of people and there were a few performers and food stands. We got mulled wine and trdelník (all the consonants), which was a kind of flakey pastry on a stick with some cinnamon sugar situation on top and it was amazing.