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!
Two of my most memorable trips during my study abroad were my trips to San Pedro de Atacama and to Paraguay. I went to San Pedro de Atacama (the most arid desert in the world) with two of my friends from study abroad and we stayed in a hostel that was super cute and cozy. Atacama was like nowhere I have never been before as the town was super rustic and very very small.
The day came for me to leave Chile after saying goodbye to my two closest friends on the program, Abby and Quincy. The beautiful and very sad part about studying abroad is leaving your life at home for a few months to completely create a new life abroad while exploring new places with a different language and with different friends. Although it can feel like we have forever at some times, the time in general flies by really quickly when you are abroad.
I will start by saying that I am genuinely one of the biggest advocates of studying abroad and leaving your comfort zone. I have spent a year living in Belgium through Rotary Youth Exchange, spent two months working on farms in Alaska and Hawaii, conducted research in Puerto Rico, drove my car across the good ol' USA for a month, connected with my family in Egypt, and now studied abroad in South America.
The past two weeks in Chile have been really chill but fun at the same time. I am enjoying a different pace of life here. I loved Argentina and I loved everything I did there, but I felt like I was constantly going somewhere every minute of the day and constantly trying to see everything I could. I think you should be doing this, but sometimes I was exhausted and just needed to rest and felt like I couldn't. Here, the city feels much more suburban and I feel that I am able to rest a little bit better (also thanks to my super comfortable bed).
After an amazing week-long trip in Peru trying some of the best food I have eaten in South America (and probably in my life) it was time to go to Santiago, Chile to complete the second half of my Emerging Economies program. After spending most of the day traveling, we landed in Santiago and IES Abroad organized an airport transfer for us to our homestays. I was really excited at this point because funny enough one of my friends from my university at home lived with the host family I was going to live with in Chile!
Nightfall stretched beyond the horizon, disturbed by orange specks of light emanating from the ground far below. Everything was so tranquil. The cabin lights were dimmed, there were no babies crying, no stewards doing their rounds serving airplane coffee and packets of peanuts. I felt so unrushed—no preoccupations, no worries, no distracting chatter in my mind, just a rolling view of the world below me. I’m usually a slightly nervous flyer, but on this occasion, I couldn’t think of anywhere else that I’d rather be.
One of the more challenging courses that I took this past semester was French Gastronomy. Like many, I initially registered for the class intrigued by the free food. However, I soon found myself academically challenged and fascinated by the art of free-food-tasting. Throughout the semester, we tried different types of wine, cheese, and classic French dishes. Each day, I walked into the class not knowing what to expect, which made the overall experience enjoyable and exciting.
Trying new things can be terrifying. Especially when you’re in a new country, with strange people surrounding you every day. But sometimes, those people can be just the guidance you need to try something you never would have tried otherwise. At the close of my term in Dublin, I have been reflecting on all the new and scary things I tried. I remember my roommate telling me in the first week that her goal for the semester was ‘to be a feather in the wind.’ To say yes to everything, and follow your heart.
Centrally located and near a large airport, Madrid is a great city for travelling around Spain and even other parts of Europe. It is probably my number one recommendation for anyone studying in Madrid to take advantage of this and to travel as much as you can. It is important, though, to be sure that you are living within your means when it comes to time, energy, and money. Keeping a simple budget and tracking your expenses will be extremely helpful. This will save you a lot of stress and indecisiveness when deciding what trips to go on and what trips to not go on.
Packing for a semester abroad may seem daunting, but if you take a few minutes to envision what you might need and make a list, it’s not as tiresome of a task as it initially seems. For me it helped to tell myself that as long as I had my essentials (phone, wallet, passport, headphones, laptop, portable charger) then everything would turn out fine. It also helps to accept that there are going to be things that you won’t realize you’ll need until you get there, and that you probably wouldn’t have room in your suitcase for those things anyways.