Track Mac

* Beware: This is a pretty corny blog post. You can cringe if you want, I know I am. But what else did you expect for a last post?* Do you ever feel like if you blink, you might miss something? Yeah, well that’s how abroad basically felt. I remember back in January, staying up late with my roommates the night our abroad decisions went live. We were all so nervous to see if we got our first choices or if we even got into abroad. And I remember all of our excitement for each other and ourselves when we realized we all got our number one choice.  I remember during summer, not having a social life because I was working two jobs back to back to save for abroad. Because September to December would be the best months of my life. So, I heard. And it was true. It’s also true that it all went by too quick. Like when you fast forward a movie and see clips of different moments and then suddenly, you’re at the end of the movie within a few short minutes. That’s abroad. While abroad, I caugh

In September (or some time in early October), Allie, Molly, Anna, Jade, Shannon, Liv, Kathryn, Bridget, Abby, and myself planned a trip to Switzerland. We did this because we anticipated it would’ve been our most expensive trip and we didn’t want to have to worry about not having enough money for planning this trip towards the end of abroad. So, we ripped the band aid and made sure we already spent the money for Switzerland for our plane tickets, train tickets, Airbnb, and hotel rooms before we spent all of our money from our summer jobs throughout our other trips abroad. Waking up to the piercing, anxiety producing sound of my cell phone alarm was difficult to hear at 6 in the morning to leave at 6:20 for our 8:45 a.m. flight. But I knew the destination would be worth it.  Our flight was about a three-hour long trip which landed us in Zurich, Switzerland. We then hopped on a 45-minute train that would take us to another track for us to make our way to our second train which

Around Greece there are a few options to travel around the country. You can walk for the most part but if you’ve grown a bit lazy and tired of walking everywhere, like me most of the time after three and a half months, here’s some options and how to’s. The metro is an efficient method of transportation and doesn't create a hole in your wallet! Heading from my dorm, it’s about a two mile walk to the metro. And if you think that’s far, find yourself a taxi for about 5 Euros to the metro. Or just buy yourself a bike or car at this point. At first, the metro can be a bit confusing in some areas, but it’s easy to get the hang of! Walk up to the machine to purchase your ticket with Euro or credit card. For about 2.70 Euro you can head into downtown Athens. Don't forget to hold onto your ticket so you can swipe yourself in and out of the station. If you happen to “misplace” your ticket (wink, wink), for the most part you can walk closely behind another person as they’re swipi

Out of all the trips planned, I didn’t think Barcelona would’ve been as interesting compared to all of the other trips. Yet, it’s in the top three of my favorite trips so far. I felt as though Barcelona was similar to America in a way that it was pretty modern and familiar through their stores, a bit of the culture, and architecture. It was definitely an eventful weekend. Jade, Liv, Shannon, Allie, Kathryn, and I arrived in Barcelona Friday evening on November 15th. We got situated with our Airbnb which was pretty and comfy. We looked for a place to eat dinner.  At dinner, we ordered a bunch of appetizers. My favorite was the pile of mussels we ordered. The restaurant at the time was empty, but we began talking to a local couple who said we picked a good spot to eat. It was the husbands favorite restaurant and he shared that it would get packed later. Probably because we were at the restaurant earlier then the usual Barcelona dinner time, since some European countries tend to eat

For Thanksgiving our University gave us off for the holiday. Since I only take classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I decided to take a long trip. How generous of me to treat myself. I traveled to Italy Thursday night to visit a few friends for the weekend who are studying abroad in Rome and Florence and on Sunday, November 24, me and my broken backpack left Rome for Ireland. Ireland holds a very special place in my heart. As I went into more depth in my homesick blog post, both my parents immigrated from Ireland to America and majority of their family still resides in the beautiful country. My dad is from the West while my mom is from Northern Ireland. While my family on my moms side knew I was coming to visit, everyone on my dad's side knew I was coming except my uncle and granny. Surprise! When I first arrived into Dublin Airport, I met up with my dads two sisters, Catherine and Carmel. My aunt Carmel lives in England and traveled to Dublin for a work trip. She was leavin

Oh, the topic I probably should be writing more about. Ya know, the study in study abroad. First, some students would be glad to know that there are benefits to classes at The American College of Greece that are better than Loyola (sorry not sorry Loyola). But, then again there are some downsides. Opinions may vary. The way the classes are physically structured, are similar. Meaning they all contain desks while a teacher stands in front of the class. But, their rules and ways of teaching are rather different. For example, you get six skips per class but for language classes, you only get 4 skips. After this, you fail the class. Scary. Another difference is, besides with language classes, there’s not much assigned homework besides maybe reading for some classes or recommended work. Some of the classes use powerpoints while others are merely a lecture class. When it comes to tests, depending on the level of your class, some classes will have a midterm and final exam while some of my

I’ve been hearing from friends at other abroad programs admitting they’re homesick. While I did understand, I thought it would somehow skip me. My thought process was, “we’re in another country exploring other countries only for a short period of time. Study abroad will be gone in a blink of an eye, and when we’re home, we’ll be wishing we were still abroad. So why waste our time being homesick, and just enjoy where we are?” I was doing swell for a good amount of time and sticking to my initial thought. That is, until I traveled to Ireland. I can see some of my readers already rolling their eyes thinking I'm trying to act super Irish. But, I'm not one of those people who claim to be super Irish because their cousins neighbors cat is 20% Irish. Yes, that was intended to be a hardcore roast to all Irish wannabe's.  You see, my parents both immigrated from Ireland to America. They come from big families, and majority, almost all, of their siblings still reside th