(Mis)adventures in a Dresden bus station

Last Friday, I decided to spend a day in Dresden, Germany. The city is about a two-hour bus ride from Prague through the scenic Czech countryside. Ever since reading Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughter-House Five, which chronicles Dresden’s fire-bombing, I wanted to visit the city. So, I boarded my bus at 8:25 am and pulled into …

Pick a Favorite?

Every Monday, the classroom is filled with chatter about what everyone did the previous weekend. “How did you like [insert city name here]?” “What did you do there?” “Oh, I loved/didn’t like that city” “What’s your favorite place you’ve been so far?” Of course I participate in these pre-class discussions. How could I not? The …

The Perfect Holiday Pt. 2: Le Carnaval de Nantes

The highlight of my spring break in Nantes was the Carnivals parade, which had the theme “Around the World.” The floats in the parade represented different countries and cultures and were accompanied by many dancers and performers. These floats were the most amazing ones I have ever seen! You could tell that everyone involved with the parade dedicated a lot of time, …

The Perfect Holiday

Hey there 🙂  The craziness of study abroad has come to a halt because I am now on spring break! Or as Europeans say Holiday. I love to travel and learn about new places but for spring break I decided to return to where I studied last spring; Nantes, France. Sometimes in the midst of …

My Weekend Homestay

It’s been quite some time since I’ve written a post. Life in Berlin is crazy busy! With classes, excursions, church, friends, babysitting and traveling, it’s hard to find time to sleep! Nonetheless, I’ve been having some really great experiences; one being a weekend home stay with a German family. Everyone in my program had the …

Dublin, We love you!

Hey everyone! These past two weeks have been quite crazy, filled with finals and traveling. After getting the finals out the way I prepared for my first trip. I wanted to go somewhere that wasn’t like anywhere I’ve ever been before. As I checked Ryanair for some cheap flights Dublin caught my eye! Shortly after …

“You Need Dirt”

This past week, I and 20 other CIEE students had the great privilege of touring the East Side gallery with the amazing artist and co-founder, Günther Schaefer. The East Side Gallery is the largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. What differentiates the East Side Gallery from all the other graffiti covered areas in Berlin …

An Insider look into CIEE Open Campus-Berlin

CIEE’s Open Campus Berlin program is a brand new program; they just opened their doors last semester! It’s pretty cool to know that I am a part of one of the first groups of students to participate in this program. Throughout the semester, I’ll be referencing different aspects of the program and I wanted to …

First Impressions

Wow the time has finally come; I’ve made it to Deutschland! It’s Friday and I arrived in Berlin on Monday and it has been quite a week to say the least. Studying abroad is crazy because everything is new; the country, the school, the language, my luggage (thank you Macy’s Black Friday sale), my roommate …

Travels around the EU!

Since my last post we’ve have traveled to Luxembourg, Paris, and Brussels, gone to the Swiss Alps, Lucerne, little towns in northern France, castle ruins in southern Germany, Munich, Strasbourg, studied the inner workings of the EU by visiting the institutions, conversed over problems in the Middle East and the way immigrants are integrated (or …