Featured image: Canale Grande in Venezia It’s hard to imagine that I’ve been here in Italy for over two months now and have just under two months left. It’s not that I’m particularly apt at staying here or particularly attached to going home. There’s just a vague sense of comfort to finding a routine, but here, I’ve found, my routine is very easily disrupted. In late February, my boyfriend found his way across the Atlantic and stayed in Bologna for…
Featured image: Old Street, where I take the underground to UCL. I’m starting to get to the point in my year abroad when I’m realizing just how little time I have left in London. I’m doing my best to not let my brain—which loves doing this—start any sort of official internal countdown. But a nagging thought does surface unbidden every now and then: Enjoy it while it lasts, you don’t have much longer here. Judging by my last few posts,…
Featured image: The beautiful beach that welcomed us to South Africa. Our hostel was only about five minutes walking from here – how incredible! Hello from Cape Town, South Africa! Two weeks ago, it was very sad to say goodbye to my Indian homestay family, local faculty, and Delhi. I had finally gotten used to the rhythm of having class, commuting home, and fitting in fun things on the side, when we flew to Cape Town and everything became new…
Featured image: The tilapia pond and the finca. I’m sitting on a mossy rock in Costa Rica on the shore of my host father’s tilapia pond. Eli, another SIT student, and Eduardo, a member of the indigenous Ngobe people, are both fishing for our lunch with worms we dug from the earth and fishing line with no poles. Right now we’re in La Argentina, Costa Rica, and our group is split up amongst a few of the subsistence farms, or…
Featured image: The Santiago skyline from the top of Cerro Santa Lucía Hello from América del Sur! Trading wintry New York for sunny Santiago has been strange, but in the best way. Many of my friends were abroad for almost two months by the time I left for Chile, so it wasn’t until my flight landed that the trip finally felt real. Adjusting to life in an unfamiliar city is challenging, especially since I’m clearly “extranjera” (foreign) with my map…
Featured image: Double Rainbow beaming down on the city of Honolulu. This was taken on my sunset cruise! Aloha! Currently, I am cruising through week 6 of my study abroad program with SIT Samoa: Social and Environmental Change in Oceania. However, since I am terribly late to this Far and Away game, I think it’s still important for me to talk about what’s happened to me thus far. So I’m backtracking and taking y’all all the way to week one…
Featured image: The chuchula (scarecrow) of the Maslenitsa celebration near Red Square, is usually burned to signify the end of winter and rebirth of spring. Privet! I’ve been in Moscow, Russia for just about a month now, and so far it’s been a whirlwind of new people, new words, and new sights. Before I left, I worried a lot about the semester ahead and constantly asked myself if I had made the right decision by staying abroad for the spring. At Moscow…
Featured image: Castello Estense in Ferrara TW: mental health and sexual harassment Almost two months into my adventure in Bologna, Italy, I’m still very wary of my adjustment to this place. First off, there’s the constant presence of the language barrier. I’ve taken Italian since sixth grade, but I’ve never been really confident with speaking. Obviously, this experience is not too unique, but I don’t know. I feel like my past teachers’ ears are ringing every time I butcher the subjunctive…