Sipping tea at a café in Prague; admiring Van Gogh in the Louvre; wildflower fields in the Austrian Alps; exploring quaint cobblestone backstreets and the breathtaking cathedrals they lead to. These are my daydreams. What are yours? Where do you want to go?
My time abroad is quickly running out, and so is my cash.
On October 6th, I went to the art aquarium museum in Ginza and experienced one of the most beautiful days of my life to date. Words cannot describe how magical the museum was, though I'll do my best.
On October 2nd, I went to Yokohama for a class trip and got to experience a different environment compared to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. I went to a customs museum, Cosmoworld, and a museum based on Yokohama's ports.
There are so many ways to get around here - usually if one doesn’t work out, you can try another. I’ve found that my go-to’s are the bus or if I’m feeling fancy, a cab. I feel like there are some types that use these different means of transportation and I am here to educate the audience should they ever come to Buenos Aires. Honestly, it’s pretty hard to generalize it, so my claims are only based on what I’ve seen. What I’m saying is, don’t take it to heart if I slam skateboarding and that’s the only way you get around, Chad with the mullet.
Tonight on La Rioja, a street a block and a half from my climbing gym, I wait for the 101 bus. It’s about a week and a half until the end of my time in Buenos Aires, so I'm trying to reflect on the present moment. The sky in the city is washed in a nice pinky blue, like a watercolor framed by apartments and laundromats and trees. It’s warm and my hair is in a tiny bun at the back of my head. I’m listening to soft reggae because it feels like summer and that’s what I like to listen to in the summer.
“Cincuenta de crol con aletas, ¡venga!"
Panicked, I looked to the single other IES Abroad student with me—only to find that her face, unfortunately, mirrored my own. It was our first practice at the University of Granada Swim Club (CDU), and we were beginning to realize that brushing up on Spanish swim vocabulary would have perhaps been useful prior to joining the team.
Fortunately, a pair of chattering 15-year-old girls noted our distress.
“Fins!” they giggled before sending off in front of us.
If Vienna were on the beach, it would be the perfect city for me. The combination of a super safe, clean city with access to the ocean and good weather year-round would be my ideal place. While the Danube is beautiful and I enjoy watching the changing of the seasons, I love the sea and the warmth. Both were calling my name mid-October when my friends and I started making our fall break plans. Our program includes a ten-day fall break, and I was determined to spend at least part of that time on the Mediterranean.
Each semester, IES Abroad Granada hosts a 5-day trip to Morocco—and, last week, we returned from ours. The word “trip,” though, doesn’t really encapsulate the experience: 5 cities, a multi-night homestay, 2 ferries, and over 30 hours on a minibus (for which my stomach is still, unfortunately, paying the consequences) within the span of 5 days felt more like a modern Odyssey than a “trip.”
When most people think of studying abroad, they think of exciting things: sightseeing, staying up at pubs and nightclubs, and hopping on trains and cheap flights to explore more new places.
What they don’t think of is cramming for a midterm in your room until 2 a.m., rushing to get coffee between classes, or racking your brain for which assignments are due the next day.