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!
You’ve heard of spilling the tea but have you ever had a proper Kaffeeklatsch? While it lacks a direct English translation, I’m sure you’ll understand the importance of a designated coffee meeting to relax and talk a lil gossip with your closest friends. In our last week in Freiburg a few of my IES Abroad friends and I embarked on a cafe crawl to revisit our favorite spots and retrace our steps through a semester of spending all our money on sweet treats.
Today I'm here to catch you up on some of the most useful French phrases that I’ve learned during my time abroad. These phrases can’t be learned from a textbook; these terms are fresh off the streets of Nantes, France. Let's dive right in.
Hidden within the hallowed halls of IES Abroad Nantes lies a secret sanctuary, an oasis of serenity. Picture a heavenly cloud from cloud-land, plucked from the skies and transformed into the comfiest, coziest, most nap-inducing contraption known to humankind. This unassuming object isn’t just a piece of furniture—it’s an engineering breakthrough disguised as a mere couch. My heart will forever belong to this rectangular slice of heaven...this heavenly parallelogram, if you will. Or so I thought.
Spending a semester abroad is like experiencing your first year of college all over again. During this time, you’re figuring things out. You’re suddenly placed into an unfamiliar environment, and must figure out a new system in the midst of dozens of other students who are also trying to figure things out. This is an ideal situation to be in: there are endless opportunities to meet new people, form long-lasting relationships and create exciting experiences in a new country. Being a foreigner in a new country automatically draws attention to you.
Planning a backpacking trip is always complicated and stressful but navigating rentals and campsites in a foreign country makes it even more difficult. I relied on asking other exchange students or Chileans who already completed the trek for tips on organizing my trip to Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia. I hope this will help you plan your trip!
Childhood normalcy has finally returned to my life again. I have been back for about a week, and it feels delightful to be back home for the holidays. However, a large part of me feels a bit lost as well. I was always busy in Vienna with museum tours, schoolwork, field trips, dance classes, social activities, general errands, and independent adventures. Now, there is a bit of a slowness to my life back home during winter break. I knew I would be forced to confront what some of my next steps would be when my life in Vienna ended.
My semester abroad has unfortunately come to a close. It was filled with wonderful memories, unforgettable sights, and amazing people. I have said hello and goodbye. I have learned so much. I have seen things I never thought I would see. I have marveled in the splendor and trudged through the mundane. I have done so much and yet it feels like it could never be enough.
One of the reasons I decided to study abroad in Japan is because its society is so vastly different from everything I know. Before going, I knew I'd have culture shock. But I wasn't expecting how even the smallest things would bring me culture shock and how I'd be surprised constantly, even a few days before I went back home.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post about this as it is a topic that I find a little difficult to talk about, but I think it could be helpful for a lot of future students to know what it’s like feeling different while abroad and what I did to counter that. When I say “feeling different," I’m mostly talking about my appearance and my race, as Granada, while it may be more diverse than other cities in Spain, often found me confusing as an individual.