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.…

A thousand natural beautiesThat take my breath awayA soft melting in my chestOf falling in loveWith the breeze, with the skyWith the warmth from the sandWith the greatest master piece In which I standSo much grander than the thingsWe could ever make or beA thousand natural beauties Laid out before meThe complexity of a world So much bigger…

Luckily for me, it turns out being in a brand new country, on a brand new continent, where no one knows anyone else and you have to speak another language seems to be very bonding. The American students in the program made friends very quickly, and everyone is very friendly. Most of us (there are…

It's an understatement to say that there have been several major changes blowing through my life recently, the most obvious of which is that I moved to another continent. What I didn't expect is that surprisingly, I can still feel the ground under my feet. It's almost anticlimactic that I came all the way across…

7:00 pm, EST, January 3 After a stressful time trying to fit everything I need into my baggage, getting to the airport, and saying goodbye to everyone I know, I’m finally flying into the night over the Atlantic Ocean. The very big plane waiting to take me to Europe When I considered, applied, and prepared…

I'm in Utah skiing at the moment, so Alicante will be quite a temperature change... and 10 hours worth of jet lag :0 I'm that person who's lived in the same town my whole life. I've traveled in my native country, but other than vacations, I've never lived more than 40 minutes from my home.…