After a day of just getting there, we ate our first delicious Tiputini dinner and watched Diego’s presentation about his revolutionary camera trapping program.

The next morning, we split into groups for the week’s activities. First came a hike to La Laguna, the lagoon.

Spanish class today: We were supposed to go to the Cerro Santa Lucia, randomly interview some Chileans, and take a picture to prove we actually went. I ended up with 67 photos on my camera. Whoops. But then, that’s typical – everytime I leave the apartment (or even when I don’t), I get more than I ask for, in the best possible way. Here are my top 4 this week:

Going into the study abroad process, one of my biggest concerns was the essential traveling. What should I expect in the process of getting from point A all the way to point B on the other side of the world? If this is a concern for anyone else considering study abroad, let me illustrate my journey from Kansas City to London to give you an idea of what it looks like. For others who have studied abroad before or have experience in traveling overseas, this will probably be nothing new to you.

Ciao Milano!

It’s been two and a half weeks since I arrived in Istanbul, and while my Turkish definitely needs work, I’m beginning to feel a lot more at home here.  It’s been requested that I write about the arrival process, and that seems as good a place as any to start.

I’ve been in Berlin for a full week and I’m finally caught up on sleep—for now. Even after a walking tour, a bus tour, and several hours of getting lost, I know I’ve barely experienced the tip of the iceberg in terms of all this city has to offer. While there is still much to do, I’ve definitely seen a great deal and I continue to gape at how interesting Berlin looks. The architecture amazes me; on the same street, buildings decked with Baroque filigree neighbor block-color contemporary designs that seem to defy gravity.

It started the night before, when I called seven taxi companies twice each. No answer. My host brother tried, then my host mom. We finally decided my host dad (the only one not present at the time) would be in charge of dropping me off the next morning at 5:30am. (Sound familiar, Dad?)

After a 14 hour plane ride, I finally arrived in Tokyo about four days ago! Even though I was buzzing with excitement about just being in Japan, the first thing I noticed when I got off the plane was probably the humidity. I guess I figured that Japan would be having fall weather in September – I was wrong! It is typhoon season here, and it doesn’t start getting colder until around November. So, there I was, with a sweater on in 85F/30+C weather. Looks like I might have to go shopping in some Tokyo department stores for more warm-weather clothing!

It has already been 9 days since I got to Spain! IES orientation (which began the day after I arrived in Spain) has been very packed, y por eso I have been very exhausted. (apologies for using Spanglish. I am practicando español)

My journey to Spain was long and rough. From Incheon (South Korea) to Amsterdam to Madrid! Because I had 12 hrs transit at Amsterdam, I stayed at a hotel in the airport.