I spent the last three weeks in three different time zones, in three homes—two of which I called my own—and one country.

On May 12th, nine of us along our program directors Octavio and Silvia said goodbye to Rio city life and headed to Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas. Manaus is located at the convergence of the Negro and Solimões rivers.

Milford Sounds. This place was full of some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen or ever will. We spent one night camping along the Milford Road and had some time to do several short walks. The places we saw really couldn’t be captured in a picture.

The first hike we did was to Key Summit. We reached the top just as the light rain stopped and got to view a magnificent rainbow, surrounded by mountains on all sides, and sitting beside a picturesque pond that sat calmly on the mountain peak.

I know I’ve already addressed how I only wrote blogs when I’m angry… Well…

I was excited when IES contacted me to write the “A Year Later” blog post because my future plans are a direct result of my time studying abroad. My semester in Paris was an unforgettable experience and as soon as I left I wanted to go back. I spent the majority of my senior year working on a project that I named “Going back to Paris…” and it turned out to be like taking an extra class!

I can’t believe I’ve been in Vienna for over a week now! On Saturday (May 25th) we had a walking tour of the nearby attractions in Stephansplatz. That night was the Life Ball, an AIDS benefit ball, in front of the Rathaus and they had standing room for people without tickets to come and oggle at the celebrities. It was so accessible to the public through huge screens broadcasting the event the whole time with sign interpreters and English captioning on some of the speeches.

It is with no small amount of trepidation that I embark on this journey.  The wide array of unknowns before me…well, it’s a bit daunting.

Today was the last day of class for the semester!  In a little less than four weeks, I’ll be on a plane home!  Before that, and also before my soon-to-be epic adventure to Stewart Island, let me tell you about what has probably been my favorite city in New Zealand so far.

Last weekend, a group of four other Americans and I went down to the second largest city on the South Island: Dunedin.  Never have I been to a city in such a beautiful place….well, next to my native Minneapolis.