A Day in the Life as an IJM Intern

As an intern or employee in the somewhat-traditional professional world, I often get the question: “What do you, like, do each day?” So, in this blog post, I’ll try my best to outline what a normal day looks like for me. First, I wake up to my 7:00 a.m. alarm, get into my business casual …

The Exhilarating (and Scary!) Onboarding of My Dream Internship

As some of you may know, my off-campus study experience in D.C. was primarily motivated by my life-long dream to work with the non-profit International Justice Mission. International Justice Mission is the largest anti-human trafficking non-profit, existing with the singular mission of protecting the poor from violence. It beautifully and effectively works by building relationships …

The Women’s March: Protesting While Experiencing the Spirit of Washington

One of the best parts about entering the nation’s political hub is definitely getting to watch democracy transpire all around you. Any day, you can witness think tanks updating curious citizens about the details of international tension or maybe faith in politics. Museums outlining the creation of our country and its following issues are open …

Settling In When Far Outside Your Comfort Zone

Don’t get me wrong, traveling or living away from home is a blessing. But one of the many reasons traveling is good for the soul is because it can be, well, uncomfortable. When my family left me to fend for myself in D.C., shortly after this photo was snapped, I wasn’t sure where to go. …

Trust your gut ;)

Food has definitely been a recurring topic on this blog, but this post is extra special to me.  I had the unexpected opportunity to independently travel outside of England and visit Marseille, France. It was upon recommendation of my dad who said “the food there is great!” I quickly discovered that, as per usual, he …

Quick Ramblings

I will forever be grateful for this amazing experience. I feel incredibly blessed to be studying abroad and learning from a new lens, but I have to admit, at times, it is hard being away from home. I miss my amazing, loving parents and sun-shiny sister so, so much, even though our family group chat …

How to Extend And Then Cancel a Study Abroad Extension

What a rollercoaster! So for a variety of reasons and a lot of planning, I decided it would be in my best interest to stay a year. Now, what does that process look like? Well, I can only speak for CIEE. The first thing I did was email the Center for Global Engagement at Hope …

Celebrating My Birthday Abroad

In all honesty, I’ve never really liked where my birthday is placed in the year. I grew up moving around a lot, and September 22nd was always just way too soon in the academic year. When I’d go to a new school, it was nearly guaranteed that it’d be forgotten just because, unless I went …

A Familiar Face & More Hot Takes

This past weekend one of my best friends came to visit me in Liverpool, all the way from Michigan! The travel bug has surely spread through my friend group as she left me to head for Ireland, Germany and Poland. A curious thing happened this weekend – I became a tour guide of sorts. What …

A Wale(s) of a time

Standing back on solid ground with my hands shaking, a classmate asked me, “Is this what you imagined studying abroad would be like?” I replied, “No, I imagined myself in the library doing homework!,” to which our international student support manager overheard us, laughed, and smiled.  I had just completed the second part of that …