Yesterday I had a magical experience horseback riding in the Andes. Maipo is a little town in the mountains on the border of Chile and Argentina. We got up at 7:15 and took a train, a bus and a taxi do make the 4 hour journey there from Santiago. In the taxi, we were stopped by the police who wouldn’t permit anyone to go up the mountain except for the locals. It had rained all day the day before in Santiago, which translated to snow at higher altitude.

I raced to the finish line….for pickles!

Last weekend I ran a Halbmarathon with Dana and Claire, in rural Germany. It was a decision I made about three weeks ago, and I dragged them in with me. The websites were in German, the hotel sites were in German, I was beginning to think, no one is going to speak English, what the heck are we doing? Google translate was my buddy. I diligently copied everything from the running website into Google translate to find out where the packet pick-up was and how we get to the start.

Inner Mongolia is one of five autonomous regions in China, and its capital city, Hohhot, is about a seven-hour train ride from Beijing. In case you’re not a geopolitical wiz, like me, you probably didn’t already know that autonomous regions in China are areas where the government’s legislative grip is a little looser and there are high concentrations of ethnic minorities—in this case, Mongolians.

Shalom from Tel Aviv, Israel! After my program ended in Buenos Aires, I boarded plane after plane after plane – and after a layover in Santiago, a mere night at home in New York City and then yet another layover in Paris, and ended up in the Middle East. I barely had time to process my semester in South America as I did as much laundry as I could, ate as many bagels as possible (alas, only two) and tried to prepare myself to move to a country whose language I cannot read, let alone speak.

I can’t believe I’m sitting here in my house writing this post. The summer flew by at an incoherent speed. But it truly was an amazing experience, I met two of the best girls on the planet and I think these are friendships that will last a life timeJ

My time is Berlin was filled with many emotions, experiences, and times that I will never forget.

I think if you’re reading this because you chose Berlin for your study abroad experience, you won’t regret it, I promise!

In three days, I will be suspended over the Andes, attempting to capture the majesty of their snow-capped peaks with my digital camera pressed against the smudged window, hours from landing in Santiago, Chile. Now, however, I am in a different kind of suspension. Part of me is still in Boston – frantically trying to pack and see all my friends one last time before I leave.

Time is flying by so quickly! I have gotten so close to some of the people in my program, and I can’t believe our classes are about to end. We had an amazing time in Scotland, and I’m going to start looking into Masters programs there. It was partially a combination of the kilts and bagpipes that sold me! We had a quick transition from the northern part of the island to the southern part, by going to Brighton the next day for my British Youth Culture class.

I’m starting my last week in Arles. A few weeks ago, the half ruined towers that marked the entrance of the city were slightly terrifying. Now they feel welcoming and familiar. A friend of mine even described them as “confining,” which is odd when you consider the fact that Arles is the largest commune in France. However, you have to take that record with a grain of salt; that commune includes the Camargue nature reserve. The actual city of Arles is small enough that you can walk from one end of the town to the other in twenty minutes.

After a long, and emotionally draining week of shadowing doctors and nurses at Rob Ferreira tertiary hospital in Mpumalanga, we woke up at 4 Am for our African safari experience. After seeing a seemingly endless number of patients ravaged by HIV, TB, and other communicable diseases over the past few weeks, surrounded by endless desolation, poverty, heart-breaking stories, and illness, it was refreshing to have a day to simply sit back and experience the natural beauty of South Africa.

I don’t think I realized quite how much I took my host mom for granted until I moved out of her apartment and into the dorms for a few days.