Upon arrival in Sydney, Australia I expected to be faced with a few challenges. However, a week in, I was hit with a wave of obstacles that led to an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty. Was this the right place for me? Did I make the wrong decision? Will I ever adjust to the Australian way of life? Being abroad was …
Booze and Bullfighting in The Sun Also Rises
How the characters in Ernest Hemingway novels never wake up with hangovers is beyond me. Is it water and aspirin before bed? Pedialyte for breakfast? A shot of pickle juice first thing in the morning? The characters of The Sun Also Rises must know a cure the rest of us don’t, since they spend their lives getting plastered in cafés …
Let us Live…
Over my life, I’ve noticed a strong recurring tendency of mine to drop everything and leave everyone I know behind. Going to college in New York, potentially dropping out and moving to the middle of nowhere, deciding to live by myself, then move in with my friends, and then move out a year later. But now that I’ve surrepticiously come …
Shanghai in Love
Last night, four friends and I walked around the corner to a small Chinese restaurant for a final dinner. Inside, there were no pictures, and the menu was completely in Chinese. At first, I was apprehensive but soon realized that I had the skills that I needed to order exactly what I wanted. This, above all else, is what I’ve …
In the Immortal Words of David Tennant
“I don’t want to go”. So speaks David Tennant rights before his version of The Doctor dies in the BBC SIFI show “Doctor Who”. It’s ironic that I sit here, sad to leave a place I had once dreaded coming to. In the end, I don’t think I could have ever hoped for a better experience in Italy. Sure there …
The Great Green Room: Farewell, Prague
This post is written in the style of my favorite book as a child, the literary masterpiece Goodnight, Moon. Well, kind of- we all know that level of genius can’t be matched. On the banks of the Vltava there was a castle. But who cares? I’ve only heaved myself up to it once in the last four months, lazily throwing …
Supercut
Dear Andie, ten years from now, Do you remember taking an overnight bus to Amsterdam? How about listening to the passengers in front argue at full volume in three different languages at 2:00 A.M? Or maybe the flight into Bastia, with the sea out one window and the mountains cutting into the clouds on the other side? Can you remember …
Vielen Dank Berlin!
As I sit under these trees in Berlin , I feel the breeze on my face. In Germany, the breeze feels cool and fresh. I am sitting along the river, this reminds me of a usual hangout spot for me in New York, along the East River. The space by the River in New York is different from the River …
Until Next Time
No part of me is ready to write this blog post. I’m in massive denial that leaving is something I’ll be doing in a week. I’m ready to be finished with finals, sure, but I’m certainly not ready to say goodbye (for now) to the magical place I have been able to call my home for the last four months. …
A Farewell
My feelings about going home have made a complete 180 from pure excitement to nervousness in the past week. After coming home from my spring break trip in Bali and Thailand, I felt absolutely finished with my abroad. Not only was I exhausted, I was questioning whether I’m even somebody who likes to travel, and if I should’ve stayed home …
Tips for those venturing abroad
Looking back on my semester abroad, there’s not much I regret. Rather than dwell on what should’ve been, I truly appreciate every inconvenient experience and how they’ve contributed to enhancing my growth this semester. What I do look back and wish I’d done was ask for more advice before coming here to Austrailia. I consider myself a pretty independent person, …
Snapshots of Sydney
I know that as soon as I touch down in the United States, the ensuing few weeks will consist of me trying to articulate my experience in Sydney over the past four months, with little success. How can I put into words the emotions and adventures and hardships and incredible lust for life that came out of my time here? …
It Always Seems to be Too Little, Too Late
2 semesters in a row I’ve dreaded the end of the semester, because of how I know the relationships with the friends I’ve made here will never be the same again, and how I might never ever see some of them ever again and I’ve literally only became really close to some of them merely days ago. I was having …
If I Can Make it in Florence, So Can You!
Let’s Talk Florence. Real quick. So I didn’t do a lot of traveling this semester, so I spent 90% of my time here in the actual city of Florence. First things first, taxis…don’t take them. Only exception is moving luggage around and getting to the airport. Even then the tram line should be open in a month so by the …
Beauty in the Exceedingly Finite
There’s a certain beauty in the finite. To know that, no matter what we do, things will come to a close. Without getting to existential, this has been a guiding principle of mine throughout my entire experience abroad. Realizing that, though we are here to study in a classroom setting, we’re also here to study ourselves and what we expect …