You know that book “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”? Perhaps you don’t. Mitch Albom’s award-winning novella follows a maintenance man named Eddie as he suddenly embarks on a journey through the afterlife, meeting along the way five people who impacted his life significantly. From encounters with each of these five people, Eddie comes to understand the interconnectedness of his life and experiences on Earth.
A few weeks ago, I went on an incredible trip with IES Abroad to Morocco for 5 days. Although I could probably write an entire book about all of the things we experienced, I’ll stick to the highlights for the sake of brevity 
With the realization that my study abroad experience is already halfway over, I feel the urge to abandon my academic responsibilities so that I can travel and see all that I can. Midterms are tomorrow and instead of studying I am writing this post and reflecting on the past two months I have spent here and anticipating the two months I have left. It scares me that I might go home thinking, “I should have done this, should have gone there.” Once I graduate I probably won’t have the funds or the time to travel like I do now, and I
Hola y Feliz Pascua a todos!
Each semester, IES Abroad hosts a trip for their students and I was lucky enough to go on the trip to the Amalfi Coast. Being someone who is obsessed with taking pictures of everything, the Amalfi Coast has been a photographic dream of mine for a while now, so I am extremely grateful that I got the chance to go!
A couple of weeks ago, IES Abroad hosted a field trip to Narita for the annual Taiko Drum Festival. It was the first time for most of us to go back to Narita after arriving at the airport, and it was a nice change of pace from being in the busy Tokyo area. Aside from Narita’s airport, it is also famous for its grilled eel. IES Abroad took us to one of the oldest restaurants on Omotesando rd. in Narita to eat “unaju,” or grilled eel over rice.
One of my biggest challenges while studying abroad in Italy has been learning Italian and feeling confident enough to speak it when given the chance. Throughout this process I have realized that I really love languages, especially Italian, but that doesn’t mean I am quite comfortable with it just yet. Nonetheless, last week, during my social action seminar, my class had a guest speak who came to talk to us about special education in Italy. And although he understood English well, he preferred to give the presentation in Italian.
I have always dreamed of going to Ireland, and so I knew that if there was one place I would visit while in Europe that would be it. I went to Dublin, Ireland for the second leg of my journey during spring break, and I cannot tell you enough how surreal my being there was. I visited Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse, Wicklow National Park, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.