Holiday Availability: All IES Abroad offices will be closed on Dec 24, Dec 25, Dec 31, and Jan 1 as we take some time to celebrate. During the weeks of 12/22 and 12/29, our team will be smaller, so responses may take longer than usual. Thanks for your understanding—and happy holidays!
Tomorrow I leave for my semester in Barcelona with IES Abroad! I cannot believe my (almost) four-month journey is beginning; it is such a surreal idea.
Expectations
This isn't my first time in Europe. Last summer, I completed a three-month internship in Germany. It was the time of my life, but I am excited to explore a new part of Europe.
Trip to Tarragona
During the first week of my time in Barcelona, the IES Abroad staff brought students on a trip to a neighboring city, Tarragona. The Catalan port lies west of Barcelona. During our overnight trip, we learned some history, explored historical sites and tasted delicious Catalan cuisine.
Day 1: Monastery Tour & Human Towers
Throughout my life, I've always sought out thrills—be it through roller coasters, snorkeling, skiing, and more. Traveling, in particular, has been an incredible source of knowledge, providing me with experiences beyond imagination.
During my time in Morocco, I kept an art journal and scrapbook documenting my activities, memories, and feelings, and keeping me in touch with my creative side. In this post, I’ll share some of my favorite pages and the stories behind them.
As a girl who loves clothes, two suitcases is my worst nightmare. Okay, that was a little dramatic. But if I’m being honest, I thought about it a great deal as I prepared for Dublin. To calm my nerves as I was starting to pack, I decided to talk to some of my friends who had already been abroad and had the experience of packing. Most of their advice included “bring stuff to mix and match” and “only bring a few statement pieces”.
One of my favorite dishes while I was abroad in Rabat was rfissa, a dish consisting of stewed lentils (and chicken traditionally, although I’m vegetarian) with onions, roasted garlic, and leftover m’semmen (flaky Moroccan flatbread). While feeling homesick for the flavors and feelings of being abroad, I decided to try and approximate rfissa in my apartment kitchen at home. While I ended up with a poor copy of my host mom’s rich, flavorful dish, it was filling and comforting and tasted similar enough to move me to tears.
Over the course of the semester, I spent at least an overnight in 10 different cities across Morocco. I loved traveling within Morocco and thought I’d share my impressions of the various places I visited across the semester, and where I’d recommend visiting within each city if you end up traveling there.
TWO DAYS! TWO DAYS! Every part of my body was shaking with a nervous excitement this morning as I woke up. Ever since I was 10 years old all I have wanted to do is go to Europe. I have dreamed about taking trains, hopping from country to country, and having some of the best experiences of my life. My bucket list is a mile long and has been growing for ten whole years, just let that sink in for a moment. And now, all my wildest dreams are going to come true in only two days. Just typing these words so far has brought about a wave of excitement over me.