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Last weekend, I left the Midlands. Weeeeee. It was through a uni organized trip so we got to tour around more Western-Southern England. We traveled in a group of about 20 other international students and had a professional tour guide who was an absolute riot. Our first stop was the shining city of Bath. The […]

I had the most fun traveling, getting to know the beautiful country of Germany in great detail, and experiencing all the wonderful opportunities it had to offer. I traveled all around the country and visited many different places including Neuschwanstein Schloss in Füssen (the castle Disney based Cinderella’s Castle on) and Oktoberfest in München, and […]

Living in a large ancient city definitely took an adjustment. Most of the streets were windy and narrow without any sidewalks. Cars, mopeds, and pedestrians have to share the area. Navigating through all the streets was definitely a process and it was still easy to get lost. People’s driving was insane in Rome and parking […]

This is a photo of the Thanksgiving dinner that I prepared for myself while studying abroad in England. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, because I love spending a cozy and relaxing day at home with my family. It was difficult to have my first Thanksgiving away from home in a different country, and without my […]

I studied abroad in Kawagoe, Japan this past fall semester. Although there were many frustrating and trying times trying to integrate into a culture so vastly different from what I was accustomed too, it was so incredibly rewarding. I met many friends, both American and Japanese, and made so many great memories that I still […]

My host family showed me a flyer for an archery event at the park near our house. I convinced my friend Alyssa to go with me. The event was fun and the archery was amazing. The archers raced down a path and shot at three targets. They did this routine three times before the event […]

When my friend invited our mutual friend Kelsey and me to come to her house, I didn’t realize I’d get to make takoyaki. I’d eaten takoyaki before and really enjoyed it, and had been wanting to learn to prepare a Japanese dish. Takoyaki seemed like a good choice. After all how hard could making small […]

Older Jazz musicians from my hometown of New Orleans have proclaimed to me that the country to bring the next golden age of Jazz will be Japan. With this prediction in mind, I decided to go to a theme cafe where Jazz is not performed, but consumed. Milestone, a jazz cafe located just blocks away […]

This was taken outside of the Blue Mosque. We went with the entire group of exchange students to all of the touristy locations. Somehow I never made it back. That is one of biggest regrets about my trip. During a trip organized by a group of Turkish grads, we were stopped at a shady beach […]

This picture was taken on San Cristobal island in the Galapagos Islands. We had arrived in Ecuador only weeks before, and everyone was very excited for our trip. This photo is significant to me because exploring the Galapagos Islands was one of my favorite experiences while abroad. I had never been in an environment where wild animals […]

This picture reminds me of one of my favorite moments in Spain. This picture was taken on my birthday and its of me and some of my new friends that I made while abroad. By the time this picture was taken I had about a month left until I would return home in the United […]

Sept 17 Florence! Firenze! Today, Cybelle and I traveled to the beautiful city of Florence. We took the train from Termina to Florence and it took about an hour and a half. The train went really fast a total speed of about 250km/h which is equivalent to one of Andy Roddick’s serve or 150mph. The […]

No matter which country you are planning to go to, studying abroad is an extraordinary experience; however, every experience is different, so as a seasoned study abroad student, I would like to offer three pieces of broad advice that I believe can apply no matter where you choose to go. (1) Before you get caught […]

The stars in the Sahara desert were the most surreal thing I have ever seen in my life. During my time in Morocco, I took a weekend trek out to the Sahara, where I rode a camel into the sand dunes for an hour to find a campsite. The lack of light pollution and open […]

(This blog entry originally appeared on my personal travel blog, Fisch and Chips, on September 15, 2013.): Whew!  Today was quite the adventure in London!  There were plenty of famous landmarks all fairly close to each other, so I got quite a bit of sightseeing in. I’ve been on top of my homework so far, […]

When I decided to study abroad, I figured I would return having had the same experiences most other study abroad students have: a new perspective on life, improved language skills, etc. But my two most fond memories are not at all what I would have expected. The first is living with a host family and […]