Studying in Europe has made me even more restless to travel. There are so many countries so close by that you can just jump on a train or a super cheap flight and see the world. In Texas, I could drive for 8 hours and still be in Texas. In Europe, I could be in four different countries within a week. And I did just that. 

October was cold in New York. Not the kind of cold that bleeds through your clothes and to your core, but rather the sort that chills the outside air while still leaving your body its warmth. After every drawn-out summer, October would seize the earth with its brisk weather and reinspire my love of the outdoors. In the mornings before school, I would wander through the dew-strung grass searching for mushrooms. On the weekends my parents would take me to the local pumpkin patches and farm stands for produce and apple cider donuts.

I was prepared to face some cultural differences when I arrived in Germany. I’ve lived in Berlin before, during a high school exchange, I was more prepared for the apparent brusqueness of the city’s inhabitants and the entspannen Feirabends. There were a few things, however, that I’d either forgotten or hadn’t noticed before. So I’ve decided to compile the most significant of those in a list. Some of them may be useful for anyone traveling in Berlin or Germany and some of them are simply observations. All of them are hopefully amusing to read. 

Throughout the last two months, I have discovered many things I love about Morocco. In particular, I have absolutely fallen in love with the unique and intricate beauty of Islamic architecture, a style I had previously believed was only genuinely prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa. So, imagine my delight when I traveled to Spain with my cohort and discovered an entire assortment of Islamic architectural monuments throughout this neighboring European country!

I don’t believe people when they say that life is about the journey rather than the destination. I love being in new places, but the process of reaching them makes me pull at my hair.

At long last my time in Santiago has come to end. Generally, my expectations were met or exceeded. Food, clothes, transportation, people, language: let's get into it.

The Atacama desert in the north of Chile is the driest in the world. Due to climate change, it gets drier every year. Also because of the continuous change in climates, it only rains in the desert once every 4-6 years. The amount of rain it receives is miniscule, but the effects are gigantic. When the rain reaches the desert, it explodes in flora. Fuchsia, white, yellow, lilac, and green are everywhere the eye can see. The display of flowers is well-known in the country and generally as something everyone should see.

A cemetery is probably not the first place you think of as a center of cultural differences and exchanges, much less an interesting place to take a field trip. Obviously, the second part of the equation is much more dependent on personal preference, but I think my fellow IES Abroad exchange students in Santiago would agree that our visit to the Cementerio General on the north side of Santiago taught us a lot.