Studying Abroad: Travel Edition

What are weekends for? When you’re in Europe, the best way to spend a weekend is in another country! This past weekend we took a flight to Italy and visited the city of Florence. It was an absolutely incredible experience and worth every minute. For the next four weekends I will be packing my bags and visiting a different country each weekend. With that in mind I thought I’d share some insights and tips I have gained to help anyone who is planning on studying abroad.

An Open Letter to the SDSU Community

Dear SDSU students and staff,

I was about to title this article “Why the SDSU Campus is not internationalized at all,” but I thought that might be too much, considered presumptuous and make it sound like I’m unhappy with my experience here — and it is really not what I want to express here.

A People of Peace

It has been brought to my attention that I have arrived in a location where I will only find love, togetherness and people who pray for peace and unity every day. The people here pray for peace within their country, as well as in bordering countries where the soldiers of Israel protect their people from conflict. They also pray for peace for those who have immigrated to their country, and peace for those — like me — who may just be here to study, visit or are looking for a life change.

No, I Don’t Mean Australia … I mean Austria!

Over the weekend, I traveled to arguably one of my favorite places in Europe: Vienna, Austria. Austria is a German speaking country in central Europe that is known for its lovely café culture, being the center of many art movements, and being home to classical music and picturesque mountain ranges. However, as a newcomer to this land of mountains, I had no idea what really set it apart from Germany, which is also home to some of these things. Turns out, Austria is more than the Canada to Germany’s United States.

The Long Way to the Library

It’s so easy to get caught up with everything while being abroad. Hanging out with new friends, missing old friends, uni work, regular work, saving money, spending money, trying everything, going everywhere, et cetera. Whatever it may be there’s always something going on and, on top of that, time is flying by so quickly!

Flirting: American And French Ways

As you read in my previous articles, I am struggling quite a bit with the whole flirting process here in America compared to France. After few weeks of living here, I started to come up with some individual assumptions, and I was really starting to wonder if I was right or wrong. In order to be sure, I made a form asking American and French people their thoughts. Today, I am really happy to share the results with you!

Serving it up the British Way!

Proper pub food should be enjoyed from a pub! That’s what my British friend told me when I mentioned that I absolutely needed to try every traditional British meal during my time here. I’d like to think I live a pretty healthy and active lifestyle, so going out to eat is not something I do often. However, this is definitely as much of a need as a want.

I Got a Job!

Piece of advice for all of those considering studying abroad: Save up way more than you think. Like, seriously, work away the entire summer before you go because before you know it your savings account will be completely obliterated and you’ll be eating oatmeal for every meal of the day.

The Earth Is Round For You to Come Back Home At The End

I’ve always dreamed about coming to California. I remember, since I was a little girl, I had posters of San Francisco on my room walls. I learned about the history of the country, its system, and all the music and classic movies you are used to.

Experiencing Elections Abroad

Last year, the United States had an election — for better or for worse. It was quite an emotional time and it occupied every facet of our lives for a year. During the last fall semester, I had made friends with exchange students from Germany and they were quite surprised at how prevalent the election was in the media and on campus. (They would later do a road trip to the inauguration).  Now it was my turn to see a foreign election, but in Europe!