Hello everyone! Greetings from mystical Ireland—a land steeped in tradition and natural wonders, with Subway restaurants around every corner.

I was lucky enough to grow up in the suburbs of Kansas City in a very nice area. Being the daughter of an American and a Filipino, I’ve grown up living in the American culture while celebrating the Filipino every chance I get. If anyone knew how important it was to understand, respect, and appreciate other cultures, it would be me. I’ve had opportunities to travel to the Caribbean area multiple times for vacation, but I’ll admit that my experience with the different cultures never passed a superficial level. I may have seen all of the beautiful sights a country has to offer, but all I was seeing was just another beach. I was so excited to get the opportunity to redeem myself and be completely immersed in the Italian culture, one I’ve had little to no experience with.

My name is Ashley Arkfeld, and I am a first generation student as well as the first in my family to study abroad. I interned abroad in Barcelona, Spain this summer. Funding a trip abroad for an unpaid internship was something that many of my peers, family members, and friends couldn’t quite wrap their heads around. “Why are you paying to go work over there?” “Couldn’t you get a paid internship here?” “That seems like a waste of money.” I listened to comments and questions such as these for months prior to my trip abroad. Though it seemed silly to so many bystanders, the experience was worth the cost in my eyes. With that being said, scholarships and grants covered 70% of my program costs.

My name is Marcus Smith and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the spring 2016 semester in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was without a doubt the best 5 months of my life, and gave me the chance to grow intellectually, emotionally, and culturally. That being said though, I did have several concerns before my departure, and a majority of them had to do with how my identity as a black male would be received over there.

Although my daily life in Bolivia is so much more than a class schedule, I want to describe what college is like in Cochabamba. It’s (almost) perfect and I (almost) never speak English. From indigenous languages to week-long field trips, my class schedule is anything but dull. Here’s a look at my classes

Are you prepared to sell your study abroad experience in a job interview? Learn techniques to tie together your stories and experiences abroad with the skill sets employers are looking for at a hands-on career prep workshop with UI Study Abroad on Thursday October 20, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre.

I know I promised to deliver a blog about my classes this week, but consider that cancelled for the moment. Instead, I feel it is necessary to discuss my past week in Potosí. I’m fortunate to be studying here on a program that takes us to 6 major cities of Bolivia and even into parts of the countryside. I was not, however, mentally prepared for Potosí.

My daily commute to class is something that makes even me jealous. When I was given my housing assignment the first day I arrived in Florence I was a bit panicked because it seemed so far away from the main school building and I was obviously worried that I would get lost in the labyrinthine streets of Florence. However, I quickly realized that it was not nearly as far as it seemed and while it took me a bit to get the hang of my commute without getting lost, once I did, I realized that it was a blessing in (not so subtle) disguise.

Aubree Compton, senior study abroad advisor and program coordinator at the University of Iowa, recently received her professional certification in education abroad. She is the first individual to successfully complete the program in Iowa, the Big Ten conference, and 19th overall.

Being in CIEE’s Santiago de Chile program has been an extraordinary and seemingly-existential experience thus far.  I’m having a wonderful time, my host family is so nice and so supportive—I couldn’t imagine a better housing arrangement—my classes are so interesting and thought-provoking, and Santiago (well… Chile, itself, really) is full of unexpected adventures.

Travel anxiety is not a recent development of mine. Of course, I call it “travel anxiety” because I don’t know what else to call it, and it’s difficult to pin with words

It’s now been a week since I moved in with my host family and began classes in Cochabamba! Much has changed in this short time both for me and Bolivia as a whole. With that, I want to take a moment to touch on what’s been going on in the heart of South America.