I’m a month into studying abroad, the chaos has somewhat subsided, and my life has finally developed into some semblance of a routine. Along with that, I’ve started to notice several trends in my day to day life that reallyyy would have been awesome to know during my first week here. Without further ado, here’s my advice to my past self:

We met on early on a Thursday morning in the busy streets of Cumbaya and headed north to the airport.  I spent the plane ride admiring the volcanoes peeking through the clouds until we landed on San Cristobal Island, where we were greeted by heavy humidity and rainy skies.  We instantly felt the stickiness on our skin, shocked by the sharp contrast to the chilly mountain air in Quito. We were instantly ready to cool off at the beach and headed to the bus to begin our adventure.

INTRO

Whether it is a companion on a 10 hour road trip, background noise for studying or doing chores, country songs for summer beach drives, or motivation to get through a tough workout, music exists as the soundtrack of my life. 

I want to preface this by saying the trip to Florence my friends and I went on this past weekend was incredible. I recommend going if you can. That said, everyone has horror stories of their first real trip outside of where they study. Unfortunately, this applies to the adventures my friends and I had. So read along as I share the ups and downs of planning a last-minute trip to Florence. I hope by the end you take away the painful lessons we learned from this experience.

Last weekend, after our classes finished on Thursday, my friends and I went to Madrid. We had been planning the trip since the end of Orientation week and were ready to leave. The hostel was booked, the train tickets were purchased, and we even had a spreadsheet containing all of the things that we would like to do. Friday at 5:30 am, seven other students and I hopped on a train to Madrid-Príncipe Pío from the station in Salamanca. The prospect of extra time in Madrid gave us just enough energy to roll out of bed that Friday morning and make it to our train on time.