The end of the year was rather challenging, and it sped up to high speed right before spring break. It turns out that it's rather difficult to succeed in astrophysics in Spanish, and takes quite a lot of work, especially if you're planning on spending all of spring break backpacking through Italy with no access…
After March I was so utterly exhausted that I was thrilled to have a break from traveling. I spent the first weekend doing homework for the online differential equations class I'm taking so as not to fall behind with my physics work due to this time in Spain. The next weekend, I spent writing six…
I generally believe that what most people call luck is just chance. If I did believe in luck, I would say that mine is generally pretty awful in card games and the like, maybe to make up for my unbelievably good luck in the big things, like where I was born, the opportunities I have,…
I don’t give a lot of credence to horoscopes, but there are a few things they get right. For example, mine is a fire sign. And I love fire. Yes, in a safe environment, thank you; you won’t find me maniacally starting forest fires. However, I do find it beautiful to watch. Regardless, I’ve now…
Most girls dream of being a princess when they are little. I feel like I am experiencing those dreams more powerfully now. Surrounded by castles, history that goes back millennia, and celebrated female royalty that accomplished amazing things, my imagination is ignited with what it would have been like to have been a Queen. I…
Going into March, things were looking up. My grammar intensive was ending, so I would have much more free time during the week. Spring was peeking out on the horizon. And we were off to Granada for the second Spanish Studies Abroad program-wide excursion. Granada is in Andalucía, the southernmost autonomous community of Spain. Andalucía…
There aren't many places I would consider moving, and less so far away as Europe, but I found one. The last week in February, Christine (a friend from my program) and I took a road trip to Castilla y León to a city in which I could definitely see myself living. In fact we went…
The third weekend in February, Yui was in Barcelona and I decided to rest and catch up in Alicante. Except then I found out there was a hiking day trip to la Font Rocha, near Alcoy, about an hour away, and some of my friends were going. So I coughed up the 20 euro, and…
The first Sunday morning in February, my host mother peeked into my room to invite me to come with her to pick up my new Japanese host sister. At first wasn't going to go; I'd gone out the night before and was just getting up. But my host mother had asked me to come, and…
First I want to apologize for not publishing anything in February. What follows in this post happened the end of January and early February, but it took me a long time and many drafts to write, each different as I processed the situation and tried to condense a very complex experience into a blog post.…
