So its been just over a week since I returned home from New Zealand. Surprisingly, it doesn’t feel very weird to be home. The weirdest part is to think that I have been gone for four months, that I actually spent 4 months in New Zealand. Random little things will remind me of something from my semester abroad, which at times I feel like can annoy the people I bore with all my stories, but I hope that it continues to happen. That a little piece of New Zealand will always stay with me.

A few days after arriving in Cape Town, and after a brief orientation with IES, the entire group took a trip to the Langa Township. Langa is the oldest township of its kind in Cape Town, and was originally an area designated for black South Africans to live during the apartheid era. We spent the day walking around, touring the area, and absorbing the rich culture and history of Langa. Colorful clotheslines hung between each little tin home, and children of the community ran around freely greeting us with smiles and open arms.

Ask most people which is their favorite day of the week and you’ll likely hear a chorus of Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and perhaps Sundays.

But I think Wednesdays take the cake.

After a few weeks here I am really starting to know my way around and I feel a lot more comfortable. I know how to navigate myself around the city, which is wonderful. I’ve also gotten the hang of ordering my food in Spanish and talking to people. Classes are going well. We have class from 9-1 Monday-Thursday so it’s not too stressful. My professor is wonderful and so helpful. Plus it’s a really good way to know some of the other students in the program.

I am still grappling with the fact that the semester I prepared months for and spent (what felt like) endless amount of minutes talking and thinking about is actually over, just like that. It has definitely been difficult to come to terms with. No more trying harder to speak Portuguese, no more practicing Samba in the streets of Lapa, no more endless beaches and friendly Carioca faces.

Week after week, I tell myself, “This is going to be the best week yet!” IES has done an amazing job in offering and sponsoring trips to really help us absorb the British culture. I had been to England before, but I never realized how much more I had to learn about England until I started living here. IES organized a trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath one weekend, and it was so much fun getting to experience the places many of us have studied while we were all together.

I’ve been home since Saturday morning and it is the definition of bitter sweet. When June started I felt like I didn’t want to leave. I feared I hadn’t done enough in Santiago, and I was jealous of some of my friends that were staying longer. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, I got a lot done in Santiago the last couple of weeks. I also began to mentally prepare myself to come home. I thought about the things I missed from home, like food and my family.

Throughout the whole semester there had been the idea of going to Machu Picchu as a possible trip. It had been difficult to coordinate schedules as well as decent airfare, but in the beginning of June I bought tickets and made the trip final. The trip was planned for the last days of June until the 3rd of July (my flight home was July 5th). So after finals and classes were all done, we left Santiago to spend a few of my last days in South America in Peru.

We’re back in Freiburg now, so life is relatively calmer than the last few weeks. It was strange to be back in my apartment, making my own food and talking with my roommates again. It turns out I have a new roommate, part of an IES program through Miami of Ohio’s engineering school. I was excited to meet another American, but it’s been a week since I’ve been home and I still haven’t seen a sign of him…seems strange but I won’t worry about it. I was relieved at least to not be the new kid in my apartment and to have some time to myself to relax.