These past few weeks have been a whirlwind. I spent the summer in Williamstown in the Berkshires (Massachusetts), writing for a local newspaper there. I went home for a week to say goodbye to my family, and today my mom drove me from San Diego to Los Angeles, where I will be flying to Istanbul.
The first time I went to France was the summer after my junior year of high school. I was part of a two month summer immersion program that concluded its journey through France with a few days in the big city. My main memories consist of a waiter who yelled at us in comically exaggerated Franglish “DO VOUS LIKE ZE SHNAILZ” when we ordered escargot, discovering my intense fear of heights at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and subsisting entirely on pain au chocolat.
I have now been in Australia just over a month and I can honestly say that this has been the most wonderful and eventful month of my life. The people I have met through my program are some of the most unique and charismatic people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and they have enriched this experience beyond my wildest dreams. I was nervous before I came here, I am sure we all were, but I feel like people abroad connect almost instantly through the experiences they are sharing so there really was no reason to be nervous after all.
“Santiago is Chile.” It’s easy to see where the expression comes from – about a third of the population lives in Santiago. However, Santiago is by no means all of Chile, and so I set out with some friends last weekend to explore the territory beyond what I could see from the top of El Cerro San Cristobal.
Quito is known for its incredible historical district, El Centro Histórico. My host mom, dad, and abuela took me there on one of my first nights. The streets are so narrow that one lane of cars can barely fit through. Cars parallel park half on the sidewalk and half in the lane of traffic. Each block has an unofficial attendant who will walk into the street to block traffic while you park. The driver pays a few dollars for this service, which is not optional. Police are everywhere and so are thieves.
Since I left Cape Town I really have not spent much time at home in Vermont, which I think has probably been for the best.
From Cape Town I flew to London where I spent a week with my family before my sister flew off to Tanzania for the summer. I also got to spend some time with some good friends I met on my first trip to Africa a few years ago. We have stayed pretty close over the years and they made me feel better about being able to stay close to the amazing friends I made while in South Africa.
We left our hostel and got a cab to the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. From here we had to walk through customs and across the bridge over the Zambezi River separating the two countries. Once in Zambia we had to obtain our Zambian visas and after some issues with the multiple currencies we had on hand we were finally in a cab on our way to Livingston.
My first experience with study abroad was when I became a recipient of the State Department NSLI-Y scholarship. On this scholarship, I spent the summer between my junior and senior year of high school studying Mandarin Chinese in Harbin, a city in the North of China. I lived with a host family and was completely immersed in Chinese language and culture 24/7.