Hola! I apologize for skipping last week, but there wasn’t much to tell. After having 3 back-to-back weekends of traveling Europe we decided to stay home for once. However, I didn’t get to relax during the week like I planned because I spent most of the week working on group projects. I don’t know if it is a “small school thing” or a “European thing” but I hate that so many of my classes are group project based. I could probably rant on about my classmates not doing any work or about the unclear instructions from my barely English speaking teachers, but I will save the ranting for later. On the bright side, I did get to see the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian Temple that is only about a 10 min walk from my house.

Guten Tag! Switzerland is so beautiful. If you love organization and cleanliness I would highly recommend visiting Switzerland, but note that it is the most expensive country in the world. We saw an advertisement for a Whopper at Burger King that was $17! To stay in budget we made "American" peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and limited ourselves to eating out once a day. Day 1: Our trip began early Saturday morning when we landed in Zürich… and as soon as we got off the plane we were lost. Our Airbnb host gave us directions but figuring out how to use the train system with German signs is quite difficult when you can’t read German. Luckily, we found a Starbucks that had the nicest employees. They told us how to get to our apartment and where the best spots in the city were. While walking around Zürich we made a friend!

Salam Aleykoum! Just as a little disclaimer, for anyone worrying about me and my roommates going to Africa by ourselves, we were careful enough to go with a big group. We went with City Life Madrid, a company that specializes in organizing tours, activities, and Spanish classes for international students. Day 1: Our journey began long before we arrived in Africa when we left Madrid late Thursday night for our ferry in Tarifa. After a short 45 min ride sailing through the Mediterranean, we finally made it to Tangier. We were so exhausted once we got to our hotel, but we were way too excited to nap. After lunch, we went straight to the beach to ride camels!

Dia dhuit! This week was super exciting, it was my first trip out of Madrid to one of my bucket list destinations! Having Irish roots, I’ve always been drawn to the island, and with it just a 2-hour flight away I had to go. Night 1: Our flight landed in Dublin late Friday night and we took a cab straight to our hotel. Unfortunately, we were surprised to find out our hotel was right above a popular club.

Hola! Moving across the world has had its fair share of challenges, lessons, and surprises… but I made it here safely, and I’m excited to share what I have been up to. Hopefully, I can keep up with a weekly update to let everyone back home know what I’m doing and that I am still alive. So far I have: 1. Visited the “Central Park of Spain” - Retiro Park