The sun setting in Berlin’s biggest park: Tiergarten

The Sun shines and the green grass decides to grow.
I sit here and start to ponder,
why it is so beautiful without the snow?
But it is obviously shown.

Despite everyone telling me this semester would be over before I knew it, I still felt like I had all the time in the world when I arrived in Nantes in January. I could see the four months stretching out in front of me and felt like I could fit a million things in and still have time leftover.

We just had our second week of vacation and I went to Marseille with three friends from IES Abroad.  Many people visited multiple cities during the week but we stayed in Marseille the whole time to have a more relaxing week. We rented an apartment downtown in a young neighborhood, which was great except for the six flights of stairs we had to climb to get to it. It was great to have a week to repose and not feel pressed to do too many things each day.

Happy ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) Day!

San Jose is in the center of Costa Rica, and it is also a center of culture and art. During my time in the city, I have had the opportunity to go to numerous festivals, parades, and museums. So far, I have visited the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, the Children’s Museum, the National Theater, and the National Museum of Costa Rica. However, I was recently able to visit two festivals that don’t happen that often. One was the International Arts Festival (FIA) and the other was the Festival of Masks in Barva.

A few weeks ago, I met up with my best friend from home for a much needed vacation around the Mediterranean and up to England. We ended up traveling to Rome, Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, and London, and despite being completely exhausted (and broke) at the end of it all, it was one of the most incredible trips I’ve ever taken. Here’s a quick summary (with pictures!) of the places we visited and the things we did.

First Stop: Rome!

Hello Readers!

I had the privilege of celebrating my 21rst birthday in Madrid! I never would have imagined that life would bring me here  had you asked me a few years ago.

Birthdays are my favorite. Not because I get to be the center of attention for a day (because I kind of hate that) but because birthdays are a reminder that my life is a gift. My friend sent me the most beautiful quote as a birthday present:

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see an opera at the Vienna State Opera House, which I walk by every day on my way to school.

You can wait in line for standing room tickets for about 4 Euros, but we decided to splurge for 11 Euro seats with a “partially obstructed view.”

I saw “Madame Butterfly” and it was all in German, but there were little plaques with subtitles in front of the seats.

I wasn’t really supposed to take pictures inside, so I apologize for the quality of my photos.

A running theme through this semester has been the incredible amount of opera and opera culture that I’ve been able to experience. Last semester I took a general Opera History course, and this semester I continued my study of the art form through a fantastic class offered at IES Abroad entitled “Giuseppe Verdi: Melodrama and Italian Identity.” Among our numerous field studies, such as visiting the La Scala museum and Verdi’s grave in Milan, we were able to attend two complete operas through IES Abroad.