A cup of hot tea sits in my palms. This is my second visit to India, and I’ve answered this question many times. “Our organization serves the elderly and the critically ill, those who have been abandoned by their families,” I say. “We give them medicine for their pain. We provide social support. Many of our patients don’t even have someone to talk to.”

This country is definitely not in the “most popular study abroad countries” list in our study abroad office, and the last student who adventured in Iceland has already graduated. But, if you are a Geoscience student or a music lover, Iceland can be ranked No.1 in your own list.

Study Abroad will host an information session for LGBTQ students on Tuesday, February 28, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at the LGBTQ Resource Center, 125 Grand Ave. Court. 

UI students who are interested in studying abroad in Germany for the summer, fall, or academic year are invited to attend an information session on the Dortmund Exchange program in Germany on Friday, February 3, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in 315 Phillips Hall. 

Study Abroad will host an information session on its summer program Cultures of Spain, on Wednesday, February 15, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. in 217 Macbride Hall.

Welcome to my first blog! Hopefully that doesn’t scare you away -- we are, after all, just amateurs. As far as I’m concerned, we shouldn’t be concerned about it. If being an amateur, poet, singer, songwriter, actress, writer, and human has taught me anything, it’s that we must all go through this stage on our path to greatness. Or, in my case, heightened mediocrity.

Study Abroad will host an information session on its popular summer Iowa Hispanic Institute program in Valladolid, Spain, on Wednesday, February 15, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. in 217 Macbride Hall. 

International Programs and Study Abroad invite you to attend "Hawks Like Me," a study abroad information session sponsored by the Center for Diversity and Enrichment. This event will take place on Wednesday, February 5, 2017 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in UCC 1117 International Commons.

As this is my first blog post, I will tell everyone a little about myself. My name is Quinn Terrill; I’m a senior at the University of Iowa studying Human Physiology and planning on a very epic victory lap after this semester is over.

Each morning when I wake up in my French apartment, I feel a tiny flicker of panic. Where am I? What am I doing? How could I possibly have packed up and left my entire life behind in the States? Each morning, I make myself a cup of chocolate-pear tea (weird, I know, but I’m making my way through the entire tea section of Carrefour), look out the window at my new city, and reacquaint myself with my new life. Each morning, it gets a little easier.

Happy New Year, Hawkeyes! We're excited to announce our Study Abroad Bloggers for the spring 2017 semester. These unique individuals were selected from a competitive pool of writers to tell the story of their destination and represent the voice of University of Iowa students while abroad. Throughout the semester, these students will share their experiences through writing and photography to be published weekly here on International Accents. 

Emotional maturity is listed as a pre-req for my Rwanda-based program and, considering I’ll be studying the aftermath of a genocide that took 800,000 victims in 100 days, it isn’t hard to see why.