You know that emotion between excitement and terror? Where you are so excited for tomorrow to begin that you can’t sleep but, at the same time you hide under your covers because you just want to stay in bed forever and not have to face tomorrow? That would be the word to describe my emotional state right now. It’s only two days before I leave for Prague and I am now scrambling to pack everything I need.

We're excited to announce our Study Abroad Bloggers for the spring 2016 semester! These nine 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.

Hello everyone! First off, I would like to thank everyone who is reading my blog, and hope you find my posts somewhat entertaining and interesting as I document my times here in Scotland. For my first entry, I’m going to talk about getting around the city of Edinburgh, which has been quite different than my time in Iowa City.

If you ask me, “How was Morocco?” or any similar iteration of the question, my scripted response will be something along the lines of, “It was great! I learned a lot, and I loved being there, but I’m glad to be home.” This answer, or whichever variation of it bores me the least, satisfies ninety-eight percent of the frustrating, albeit well-meaning, questioners.

Hey Everyone! Well, my semester abroad has come to an end and I am back in the U.S. As much as I miss Nagasaki and all of the new friends I made during my time abroad, it was still great to be home for Christmas with the family. Today, for my last blog, I thought I would tell you a little about the holiday season in Japan and then give some farewell words of wisdom…at least my kind of wisdom.

Yu Hua, considered by many to be China’s greatest living author, begins his remarks with a joke. Brothers, a novel he calls his most important, has received critical acclaim abroad but encountered mixed reviews at home. International critics, under the pretense that Chinese critiques of the book were government-sponsored, flock furiously to the novel’s defense. In fact, Yu Hua sheepishly concludes, the negative assessments were offered spontaneously and freely by the Chinese public.

Hey Everyone! Well…It’s about that time. I am currently preparing to head back to the U.S. However, before I do, I thought I’d do something a little different and make a video giving you all a tour of where I’ve been living for the last few months, my host parent’s house. I thought you may appreciate it a little more than just a few pictures and me talking about it.

For those of you who understand the reference in my title, you already know what this blog is going to be about. For those who don’t, it is arguably one of the most famous lines from a very popular show you may have heard of: Dragon Ball Z. That’s right people, today we are going to get nerdy and talk a little bit about something Japan has become extremely famous for worldwide, anime.

Part I. Tell Me How I’m Supposed to Breathe in This Air The first thing I check every morning is the U.S. Embassy’s AQI (Air Quality Index). This Tuesday, the AQI reads “beyond index” (>500 AQI), which is a diplomatic way of saying “deathly.” The annoying lump in my throat and its companion “Beijing cough” reappears. When I look outside, I wonder if I have been transported back to the 1950s to London’s Smog Menace when couples kissed with their masks on and people relied on the blind to lead them home. I can’t help but question why I chose to study here, a decision that will probably cost me in life expectancy.

Here's a fun fact about me: I almost never get sick. Aside from my annual two- to three-day stomach flu, usually in December or January, the most I get is allergy-related sniffles or the occasional migraine. Last year, my annual stomach flu fell during finals week of spring semester, which I maintain is the reason I did so poorly on my Computer Science Fundamentals exam. So it has been surprising (and somewhat irritating) to me that in the last three weeks I've gotten sick twice and missed more classes than the previous months of the semester combined.

For about a month, a group of international students and I planned on going to Marseille for a weekend trip. In light of recent events in France right now, some had to drop out. One of my friends, a wonderful American Muslim girl, decided not to go because she wears a hijab, and she was afraid of how people there will treat her. She already has trouble going through airports under normal circumstances, but now she's worried that even people on the streets in France will harass her, like they have many others. France doesn't have a history of dealing well with different religions and cultures, and Muslims in particular.

How was your week off for Thanksgiving? I hope you all had a good chance to visit with friends and family and also eat your fill of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and of course, pie. Being here in Japan, I’ve obviously been unable to celebrate in the traditional way. However, throughout the month of November I’ve been keeping myself busy in a few other ways.