Dear Study Abroad Quito, You’ve changed me and my story. Maybe rather than changed, you added to my story. 4.5 months is not a long time, but it is plenty of time to be transformed, renewed, and strengthened. You were a risky choice in my college career because I had to give up a semester …
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The adventure begins…
The Adventure Begins… Before I even left the country, trouble ensued. My mother and I were driving from our home in Grand Rapids to the Chicago O’Hare airport so I could catch my first flight to get to Oman. Our drive began easily enough, but trust Michigan to throw a weather curveball when you most …
One Month Left Until Graduation!
Oh my stars have the last several weeks flown by with both joy of the happy and bittersweet kind. Adventures have included exploration of the Chicago Natural History Museum, ’80 & ’90s-themed milkshake bars, the “World’s Best Fried Chicken”, the creamiest of ice creams, the Art Institute, green rivers, the Cheesecake Factory Experience, nostalgia of …
Language Fluency: How do you know when you have it?
“So, how do you think your Spanish is?” This is a question I’ve been asked recently, as I complete 3 of my 4.5 months abroad, by my host mom, my biological mom, and friends. This is another one of those questions that is hard to answer from my own perspective. Though I am not the …
Continue reading “Language Fluency: How do you know when you have it?”
The Start of my Journey
People say to trust your instincts because they’re usually right. Instincts, it turns out, aren’t as good when you’ve just arrived in a foreign country, sleep deprived, and in desperate need of food and a shower. I took a flight from Minneapolis to Cincinnati on Sunday, January 6 and from there I took an overnight …
Thoughts on Leaving Australia
Recently I thought, how will it feel to leave Australia? This isn’t the first time that I have reflected on the idea of going home, but I realized that in the past, I had always been focused on the returning rather than the leaving. I would think about seeing my family and friends who I …
Knowing Your Nature
Branches whip madly above my head as we walk along a mountainside that’s alternately damp, earthy forest and golden-haired meadows. With his growth potion (aka me – he’s on my shoulders) my young friend Kylan is among the trees. Kylan, when not making the most of his childhood, is an alchemist, who happens to make …
It’s the Climb… or Three
Being surrounded by mountains is something new for me, but here in Cape Town, I have caught the hiking bug. I have really enjoyed spending a morning or a day climbing up one of the mountains here and being rewarded with beautiful views of the city. There are three mountains that are the most well …
Lo Logramos!
Four hours up and five hours down… An exhaustingly magnificent hike up La Campana, a beautiful mountain situated 2000 meters above sea level. The guides say that it takes the average person 5 hours to reach the top, so why did it only take us 4? Well, please, let me explain. Our incredibly exhausting journey …
Self-Care
I wake with a foot planted on me. I am immediately angry. So is the owner of the foot. Who’s to blame: me for sleeping on a trail or them for stepping on a sleeping body? I narrowly avoided the above situation. We had just come back from caves filled with tragic stories of …
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