Even before coming to Paris, I knew I wanted to participate in the internship program IES Abroad offers. The center has ties with several different businesses within Paris, many of which are small startup companies. As the program is through BIA, the internship and accompanying seminar count for college credit (which is an awesome bonus). For me, it was not just a way to improve my resume, but a way to really understand the entirety of the country, its people, and their culture.

I considered myself to be a fairly thrifty person. My roommate has consistently called me “cheap” the entire time I’ve known her. And while I do splurge occasionally on items, I’m fairly careful with how I spend my money. Throughout my time in France though, I’ve seen my funds dwindle and dwindle to the point where I feel like there must be a hole in my pocket! One thing students rarely keep in mind is how expensive studying abroad is!

One of the courses I am taking at the IES Abroad Center here is called Service Learning. Through this class, we have a once-a-week academic seminar, and the required opportunity to volunteer with a local organization. I was so excited for this opportunity to get out into the city of Rio and be able to form relationships with local people.

After only one week of volunteering, it’s crazy to think about how many benefits I already have seen in my life here.

I remember first searching for program options to study abroad. My university has a huge database to find different countries, with options to filter by academic major or language requirements. I remember spending hours filtering through different options and practically drooling at all of the wonderful places that I could potentially be.

Uffda. We have reached the halfway point of our time here in Rio. We are 2 months deep into our 4 month program. At this midway point, murmur around our study abroad program is pretty evenly split between positive and negative feelings about this realization.

The idea: A trip – 9 days in duration (from Friday, after our German exam, to the next Sunday before classes resumed on Monday). Perfect! But where should we go? How will get there? Where will we stay? The planning questions kept coming. France? Italy? Austria? Hungary? the wonderful Alps? or the gothic architecture of Prague?

Too many decisions to make!

Two week ago I had the pleasure of venturing up to Kruger National Park with the IES Abroad program for our Spring Break trip. Although I knew we were going to see tons of wild animals, I failed to realize just how beautiful nature could be. We started our adventure by flying from Cape Town to Jo’burg, and from there we ventured to the Apartheid museum, which contained a wealth of information that couldn’t be fully digested in the mere 2 hours we had to tour the space.

This week we had off from classes, so I went up to the north island with my friend Eric.  We traveled the middle part of the island, going to Hamilton, Waitomo, Turangi, Tongariro National Park, and Rotorua.