October has gone by in a whirlwind, taking with it Halloween festivities and an amazing Fall Break adventure. Since the middle of summer, my flatmates (as the Brits would say), have been brainstorming about what to do for Fall Break. The advantage of studying abroad in Europe, albeit not on the continent, is having the…
Fall Break is Over… Back to Reality
The rest of my weekend in Ibiza was relaxing and exciting. It was exactly what I needed and wanted: to spend the time with my boyfriend having lots of food and drinks by poolside. Sunday afternoon we had a layover in Barcelona. It was just for a few hours but I could tell it was…
Letter 3 God, Jesus, and Mike Ditka I miss sports, Sometime in October
Word count: 426 So being Brazilian, you’d think I’d care about soccer here in Germany. But I could really care less about the Bundesliga, and honestly if it’s not my crappy division three soccer team from Bahia in Brazil I could care less about the beautiful game. However in the defense of the Bundesliga division…
Letter 2 Hochschule Orientation, and the unexpected five days before Hocschule(ll), Sometime in September
Word count: 481 So my in my time here in Germany, all expectations have not been met. Also before I explain myself IF YOU’RE READING THIS SEND TWO ORDERS OF BUTTER CHICKEN FROM TAMARIND. So in the time before Hochschule orientation and the end of the German intensive course we had a Friday-Tuesday break, Hochschule…
Letter 1 German intensive course first two weeks, Sometime in September
Word count: 449 My first two weeks here in Germany have passed, and I must say the pre game stretch was good. So before Hochschule started, I wanted to be responsible and sharpen my German before hand. Therefore I enrolled in a free intensive two week language course as provided by Hochschule, and it was…
A Bird’s-eye View of Shanghai
During orientation in August, the Shanghai Alliance program we’re studying through gave us a “Must-See, Must-Do” list for Shanghai to give us ideas and help us make the most of our stay in this ginormous city. Even though it’s so large, whenever you web image search the term “Shanghai,” most pictures that fill the page are of The Bund and the city’s icon: the Oriental Pearl…
Kindness and Unintentional Hitch-hiking
Wow-time really does fly when you’re abroad! In the blink of an eye it’s been a few weeks and I haven’t uploaded any new posts! A few weeks back during the last day of our independent travel week, two of my friends and I woke up, having no idea what the day would hold for us! All we knew…
Fall Break
I had been looking forward to fall break since August when my roommates and I had begun planning our trip. We decided to take advantage of the 10 day long break by hitting the French Riviera in the South of France, then ending in Paris in order to meet up with some of the other…
Fiji, Our Final Excursion
Our very last group excursion has come and gone, and with only one month left in the program, I really don’t know where the time has gone. This last Sunday, we boarded Fiji Airways, ready to take on Fiji with the very few words we knew. “Bula” “Vinaka” “Moce” were as far as my vocabulary…
Let’s Climb
Returning from the badiyya, I was a bit saddened. The relationships I made, the genuine honesty of the people, the respect between children and parents, family members and general communal respect. The weather, the cleanliness of the air, the quietness, the sunsets across the mountains of Petra. The badiyya is with little comparison. It isn’t Orlando, it isn’t New…