Brussels and Copenhagen

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Off to Brussels, country number 2 of 5. We arrived in the morning to meet up with Sarah and another friend. The four of us spent the whole day eating as much chocolate, waffles, and fries as possible! Brussels really put us all in the Christmas spirit with its delightful Christmas market and decorations throughout the city. We may not have been in Brussels for 24 hours, but we admired the gorgeous architecture.

      

The next morning we flew to Copenhagen, Denmark. This city was my favorite to visit! We enjoyed our morning sipping coffee in the cutest cafe and watching the changing of the guards at Amalienborg Palace. We wondered and found ourselves spending most of our time in the area around Nyhavn. Oh, we also saw the little mermaid!

      

November 9-11

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My dad came to Dublin, Ireland to visit me during the second weekend of November. We stayed in Dublin for the weekend but I brought him to Limerick to show him around the city. We went to the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Guinness has a rich history. We took a self-guided tour of the storehouse and it was an interesting tour because we were able to see how the beer was made. It was a short weekend but I enjoyed the visit from my dad. I had a fun time showing him around Limerick.

 

2 Birthdays 🎂🎉

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On October 30th, I turned 21 and two weeks later my good friend Rachel turned 20! My friends and I celebrated my birthday by ordering out food and hanging out at my house. It was relaxing to spend time with friends. At the end of the night, I received my care package from my parents which made it even better because I wasn’t expecting it to come until later in the week. I Skyped with my niece, sister, and brother-in-law before I went to bed so my birthday was pretty amazing. We celebrated my friend Rachel’s birthday by going out to one the university’s pub(Scholars) on campus. It was relaxing to talk with her and see how her day went. Rachel is a sophomore in college and I met her through one of the education modules I am taking at the university. I feel so blessed to have made so many new friends over here during my experience. Definitely recommend study abroad to anyone who is interested because you have the opportunity to meet many new people.

 

Halloween

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Sarah’s Blog:

Our excursions for our study abroad program wrapped up at the end of November so I have had some free time to spend time with my friends. Many events have happened within the past month and Halloween was one big event. Halloween came from Ireland which is really interesting. My friends and I celebrated the holiday by dressing up and going out to the university’s pub. The pub we went to is called Stables and every Friday there is a DJ inside and outside. It is a great time to spend with your friends and have a blast. Every Friday is International Night hosted by the International Society which is really awesome so you are able to meet me other study abroad students. Also, we went to a haunted house to celebrate the spooky season.

 

It’s all Greek to me

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Hello everyone! In this post I’ll be talking a little bit about the language barrier ! 
The College we are attending is an American College. This means that American tax payers help pay for costs at the college. This does not mean that everyone in attendance is American. The student population is about 30 percent study abroad students from around the world. I would estimate that 90 percent of the study abroad students are American. This is a large chunk of the student body! However the larger part of the students are all Greek as well as all of the staff. Classes are all taught in English, and teachers require Greek students to ask and respond in English. This is to include all students in the learning. Understanding accents is still a challenge, but gets easier with time!
The language barrier in Greece for an English speaker is not as hard as we expected it to be. Public transportation is basic, many store signs are in English and many Greeks speak English. If they do not, Greeks (in general) are extremely accommodating of English speakers. We were told that Greeks have a “culture of hospitality” meaning they want outsiders to feel as comfortable as possible. I believe the trickiest thing to get down is grocery shopping. Almost all of the products in stores are labeled in Greek, and some products that are common to me at home cannot be found or are very expensive. But this is fun to try and figure out!