Reverse Culture Shock is Real
Coming back to the USA from being abroad always requires a period of readjustment, and this journey abroad was no different. My first feeling upon landing in Charlotte was that of being completely overwhelmed. American airports are a sensory overload! Everyone was speaking English, the A.C. was blasting and it was so so cold and all of the different fast food smells mixing together was a lot to take in. After a 20 hour travel day I...
Bonjour de Bruxelles!
Although I’ve only been in Brussels for two weeks, I’ve already come to feel at home here. I’ve found my favorite café on the corner of Place du Jordan and have eaten enough frites to feed a small family for a month. So far we’ve toured the Magritte Museum, visited the main three institutions of the EU here in Brussels – Council of the EU, European Parliament, and the European Commission – and had a meeting with a public diplomat at...
Packing Lightly for Serbia
I travel a lot, and yet packing is still something that I struggle with. It isn’t procrastination that I suffer from more than I can never seem to pack lightly. In the last year, I have traveled thousands and thousands of miles across the country and once abroad, and every single time I found myself overpacking. Although I never came close to the airline weight limit, my heart always dropped a bit when I placed my suitcase on the...
Ciao Firenze!
Italy is beautiful, even more beautiful than I thought. I am enjoying living with my Italian mother, Anastasia. I was worried about living with an Italian family because I thought it might be awkward, but she is wonderful, hospitable, and so kind to both me and my housemates. Learning a language abroad is much more difficult than I imagined. Before I got here, I romanticized the experience and thought about how cool it would be to...
More Than Just the Lago
During each session we had one free weekend to travel on our own. For the second free weekend I decided to travel to Zurich, Switzerland with my friend. The highlight of the weekend was Saturday. We left the hostel early and took the tram to the main train station. We bought our ticket and headed up to Rhine Falls, the largest plain waterfall in Europe. It was amazing. The amount of water rushing over the rocks and the splash at the...
I love you France, but the rest of Europe is waiting
I first travelled to Europe in 2012 on a spring break tour, and it was that quick trip zipping through London, Paris, and Rome, that made me crave the experience of studying abroad. So I should have known that actually going to live abroad in France for a semester was only going to increase my need for travel. Tours, France, where I am studying abroad, is probably what I would describe as a picturesque, staple French town, and while I...