Featured image: The view from of a summit called “Feliz Cumpleaños” that I appropriately climbed the day before my birthday I have now been in Mendoza for just over three weeks and I am loving it! In the U.S., I am a pretty high-strung person, but here in Argentina, I have become much more laid back. The way the day unfolds here is much more relaxed than in the U.S., or even in Buenos Aires. Whereas the capital is a huge…
Featured image: A winter wonderland—in March—in Strasbourg, a beautiful fairytale city on France’s border with Germany. Ah, French. The language of poets, the mots justes of Flaubert and Camus, evocative of ballet, theatre, cuisine, art—and, it often feels, the construction of a madman. Though grammar, syntax and conjugation are by this point full-on hobbies of mine (I take Ancient Greek back at Vassar, if that’s any indication), French’s contradictory rules and endless exceptions are a world unto themselves. Getting a…
Featured image: The London Eye I can’t say when I made the switch from counting the number of days and weeks I had been in London to counting down the number of weeks and days I had left, but last week, I woke up March 14 to the realisation that the one-month countdown had already started. Honestly, the thought didn’t sit well with me. How long had I been taking for granted living in one of the most remarkable cities…
Featured Image: A very bready brunch France, and especially Paris, is known for its food. However, foreigners generally don’t realize just how much meaning they put behind it until it comes time to order in a boulangerie (a cafe-style store that sells primarily bread). The first time I tried to order I was taking my time looking at the menu while I was in line, choosing between different sandwiches. Little did I know, that this was unacceptable. The line moved so…
Featured image: Since 300 million BC, the Cliffs of Moher have produced over 500,000 Instagram caption puns centered around the word “more” Happy Saint Patrick’s Day from Saint Patrick’s Land! When I was a young Irish-American lad, I used to imagine that Ireland’s celebration for its national holiday would be an event beyond comparison, an explosion of all the symbols and stereotypes and sights and sounds one might expect from being in the most Irish place on the most Irish…
Featured image: Vibrantly colored houses on a street in the La Boca region of Buenos Aires—like the country of Argentina, Buenos Aires has various distinctive regions in different parts of the city. Saludos desde Argentina! My name is Isabel and this semester I am studying abroad in Mendoza, Argentina, a city just east of the Andes mountains, close to the border with Chile. I chose Mendoza because the universities here will allow me to continue being involved with music while…
Featured image: Beautiful gray Paris days—here, in the jardin des Tuileries—have been slowly showing signs of the spring to come. The notion of being abroad comes with a lot of expectations. What essentially describes a physical distance morphs into this romantic notion of difference, of monumental personal change, of an irreversible growth and expansion in understanding. Frankly, that’s a lot of pressure. I’m often reminded that I’m not that much farther away from Vassar here in Paris than I am…
Featured image: St James’ Park A few weeks ago, I realized I could save time using the transit app on my phone if I just saved my dorm address instead of manually inputting it every time. Storing that address as my “home address” however, gave me pause. It spurred me to consider this idea of “home.” How permanent does a home have to be to be considered a home? Is duration of stay the determining factor, or are there other…