I’m Off to Granada!!

(With a few pitstops along the way:) WOW!! I can’t believe that I am writing a blog for Hope Off-Campus right now, AKA, I can’t believe I am about to start a semester ABROAD! Preparing for this crazy adventure has surprised me in so many ways. In moments that I thought I would struggle to …

TYS > DUB: Look to the Stars

I’ve been in Dublin for three days now after what felt like an endless travel day. Most of the people in my program flew directly to Dublin. Not me though–I took three separate flights, each with a hefty layover in between. In a way, this travel day scared me. I’d known about it for months …

Fall Travels in Japan

I originally planned to study abroad next semester in the spring, but as this semester comes to an end, I couldn’t be happier I chose the fall semester. Autumn in Japan is beautiful. I’m accustomed to Midwest falls that start in September, followed by a temperature drop in October. Here in Japan, until around mid-to-late …

All about IES London Theater Studies

Class Experience As a theatre studies student at IES London, the majority of my classes were theater-based, including Playwriting Workshop, Text and Dramatic Imagination, Theatre Industry, and Acting Then and Now. I loved all of these classes and highly recommend them to anyone interested in studying theatre. One of the highlights for me that came …

Country Havens to Hidden Homes

The places I once called Rome’s havens are now mine too. This morning on the way to class I stopped in with my guy friend at my favorite sweet little Sicilian-style bakery to get an overpriced fluffy cornetto on the walk to our last final (and truthfully treated myself to two cornetti instead of one). …

Treasured memories: my time on the UK DiscoverIES field trips

A few weeks before I left for my semester in London, I was sent the UK DiscoverIES field trip sign up. For IES London, the field trips were to Bath and Stonehenge, Canterbury and Dover, Windsor, Edinburgh, and Oxford. At first, I was hesitant to go on many of them because I knew that there …

Student Life, Cats, and Small Victories

I’m a couple weeks past the halfway point in my semester at Nanzan University here in Nagoya. Since it began, my semester has been full of exciting, new, and immersive experiences, but most days I’m just an ordinary student: attending classes, grabbing lunch with friends, finishing up a reading for class, and heading home to …

Does traveling with your parents really conquer homesickness? 

An overarching struggle that many students seem to face while studying abroad is homesickness. This could be triggered from various things such as illness, seeing a dog that reminds you of your dog, something going wrong while traveling, and the list goes on.  One thing that I was really nervous about upon entering my abroad …

Life in Japan, so far

Inuyama, orientation week, dorm or homestay?, & Kanazawa こんにちは!Since you last heard from me, I’d made it into Nagoya. IES orientation week went great; I was able to meet everyone in the program, do some sightseeing, and had the incredible privilege of a nice hotel room to myself for the duration of orientation. Inuyama. On …

Speedrunning Tokyo

36 hours in Tokyo & how we spent it At the end of September, my friend and I set off for a weekend in Tokyo. To get there, I booked us overnight bus seats. It’s a cheaper, though lengthier and less scenic, convenient alternative to taking the Shinkansen (bullet train). We boarded at 11PM on …