Last week I had the refreshing opportunity to view Milan with new eyes. A friend from home was visiting for the day, and I had some time to show her my adopted city of the past few months. Before she arrived, I thought for a while about what the best sights would be to give her an idea the character of the area and also of Italy in general, as it was her first time visiting the country.

If I were to leave Germany now, I would feel much better about my experience than had you asked me a week ago. Why? Because I can finally say I’ve been to Berlin! I was struggling with the idea that I may not visit not just the capital of Germany but also one of the most historically known cities in all of Europe. And what an awesome city it is! Don’t get my wrong, I’m so much happier I’m studying in Freiburg because I can see now that I’ve saved myself from getting lost a countless number of times. Berlin is massive!

For the first time since arriving in January, I left Italy for the weekend with my friend Marissa – trading my familiar spaghetti and risotto for the exotic and unpronounceable dishes of Paris, France. As excited as I was to see the city of light I’ll admit I was concerned about the food, as my knowledge of French is limited to what I’ve learned from Beauty and the Beast and Les Miserables. Of course, the only thing I forgot to bring with me was the French phrase book that I bought before I left for the semester.

Weekends away make it hard for me to believe I’m supposed to be learning and doing school! I had such an awesome weekend in Langenbruck, Switzerland working as a camp counselor and teaching Swiss kids English. The theme for the weekend was “Let’s go to the USA”, so we got to make s’mores, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and (the best part) eat waffles and pancakes for breakfast. The weekend exhausted me, but it was so worth it to get to hang out with kids and be encouraged to speak English!

The holiday of “Holi Day” that is celebrated in India is something that I have always wanted to take part in. Unfortunately until I get to go to India, I will have to take part in all the quasi- color parties that I can find. Fortunately, The We Are One festival, was Cape Town’s version of Holi Day, and overall just a giant excuse to party, which seems to be a common theme in Cape Town. We decided that we would arrive at the celebration at about 1:30pm, since it started at 12, and of course we wanted to be fashionably late.

This second part of this journal includes what we did outside of the actual lectures and IES Abroad accompanied site visits. I know for a fact that we had a great time exploring the city. Without a doubt, we never felt unsafe anywhere. Even the taxis are known to be the most genuine people ever – they’ll give you tips and won’t cheat you off on a route somewhere. Anyway, we went to a number of places on our own time including the Night Safari, Chinatown, and Sentosa Island!