It’s true, it will be one of the most eye opening, liberating, exciting, amazing times in your life. There is no way around it. But what no one tells you is how exhausting it is. Unless you are fifteen different types of superperson, you cannot possibly travel to twelve countries in 20 days and not be exhausted. Even 12 cities in 20 days is outrageous. Sure, there is enough time to show up, take pictures, and go on to the next place, but you miss what traveling is really all about.

With all due respect, you can only see so many churches before they all start looking the same. If you go from one European city to another without taking time to fully stop and appreciate what is different about each individual one, the same applies to cities. Europe is not going anywhere, but I STRONGLY URGE you to be realistic about your energy reserves. Plan an extra day to go to the beach and nothing else. Know that if you’re traveling for a month, two of those days you should be able to just relax and talk and reflect and read and be immobile.

I say this because I learned the hard way through Barcelona. One of the most amazing cities (from what I have been told) I spent burnt out and completely unable to appreciate because every moment I was experiencing the city, I was thinking about experiencing my bed. Two days is not enough to experience any city larger than 50 sqkm, so do yourself a favor and wittle down that ”to do and see” list to a more traveler-friendly version. I promise you’ll thank yourself later. These places are amazing, so take the time they merit to sift through and figure it out for yourself. Tripadvisor can only do so much.

And P.S. I promise there are better restaurants than those on main streets. Turn left, turn right, get lost, and stumble into a place without a sign, it’ll be the best food you’ve ever tasted. xo

I’ve been in Europe for only two weeks now and I have never walked so much in my life. We walk to and from school, to the grocery store, to restaurants. Anywhere you could imagine. There is a sufficient public transport system, yet we all decide walking is a better way to explore.

Maybe my surprise is due to the fact that I come from a smaller town and go to school in a relatively small city as well. But before arrival, I was expecting Lille to be a city similar to the size of Louisville. After all, not many people have even heard of Lille, France. You can see my shock when I arrived and realized that this is practically the only city in the northern part of the country and it is the fourth largest in France.

Needless to say, with all of the walking that I have been doing with the friends I have met here has not dismayed us from traveling to other cities and walking around there as well. This week we took a train to Brussels to see all of the sites that everyone talks about. Then, we took another train to Bruges, a small Belgium town that looks like it is straight out of a fairytale book. At the end of the day, the fitness app on my phone had logged 13 miles. That’s 13 miles of walking around cities and seeing things from the beautiful gold trimmed Town Hall in Brussels to the swans swimming through the canals in Bruges.

Everyone studies abroad for different reasons. I’ve realized the main reason I came to Europe was to travel and see more of Europe. I’m very grateful to be able to have this opportunity and to have already walked around such beautiful cities like Brussels, Bruges, Amiens, Roubaix, and of course Lille.

I’m on my way to Paris this morning and will no doubt be doing more walking. Maybe I’ll log another 13 miles.

Flight Struggles

May 28, 2016

My flight was set to leave at 2:30 PM until this morning I received a call saying I would not make my connecting flight from charlotte to Louisville so I decided to take an extra connection to Miami. I had about 30 minutes to brace through security and check my luggage and make it to my gate. It was a miracle that I managed to make it to the gate before the plane stopped boarding.

However, once I landed in Miami I had to collect my baggage and go through customs in an hour. somehow we made it through that hoop and to get to Miami we made it though security by having a priority pass which was another miracle.

When I boarded in Miami at 7:10 I was excited and felt like I had beaten the odds to make it back to Louisville. When we didn’t take off until 8:30 I felt defeated again as though fate or God didn’t want me to be in Louisville tonight.  I got to spend time with other Louisville students who are struggling to catch a flight to Louisville as well. We then were in route to charlotte and thankfully the other plane was delayed to wait for us. I felt bad for the other passengers who had to wait an extra 25 minutes for us to board the plane. Once we landed we had about 8 minutes to go from concourse

B to concourse E which if you look at a map is a long distance. Most of us ran and some were able to hop onto carts for rides.

Now again, once we boarding the plane we were still unable to leave “on time”. We had made it to the plane and knew we would make it home. Once we began to  leave the door had a malfunction and the pilot had to turn the plane off and back on to fix the issue. When the plane had finished rebooting almost 20 minutes later we were finally able to take off for a 50 minute ride to Louisville. We arrived to Louisville at 12:30 AM Sunday morning.

May 29, 2016

Finally, now back at home I am realizing that I may have a bit of jet lag. I have spent the last two nights being awake until 3 AM because in San Jose that is only 1 AM. As I start classes tomorrow I am trying to control my sleeping patterns and get back into a routine.

One of the things I was excited about when back in the states was to see my friends and family. Also we were able to flush toilet paper again! It still does not seem real to be back in Louisville but it is awesome and I miss San Jose. The struggle was worth getting to be back in my city of lights and culture!

Many people have asked me when I started planning my weekend trips in Costa Rica. I started planning my weekend trips around 5 hours after I arrived to my host home. Luckily, my roommate had done her research and had hostel recommendations, and a clear plan. I definitely recommend researching before and compiling a list of what you want to do while in the country. However, even with the numerous hours she spent researching we did not accomplish all we wanted and some of the information was false.

Our tico tour advisor was immensely helpful in getting us deals and recommending hostels for the weekends. We would usually on Monday send Jason a list of what we wanted to accomplish for the following weekend and where we wanted to go. We would list the prices we had found and he would send back cheaper deals for possibly different places. He would also let us know from connections and other students if the ratings were true to the hostels.

For example this past weekend we knew we wanted to go to La Fortuna. We sent him a list with hot springs, waterfall, hiking trails, and the Arenal Volcano. We also sent him the duration we wanted to stay and the bus schedule we had found through online.

He replied reassuring us of the correct bus station and a hotel for one night that we requested that included everything we wanted except for the waterfall for 60 dollars. This was a great deal because hot springs are usually 40 on their own and the hiking trails range from 8-12 dollars. The waterfall was only a extra 8 dollar fee. This also included an all inclusive resort that fed us a buffet breakfast, had HD tv, wifi, ziplining, horse back riding, butterfly garden, alligators, 6 waterslides, 5 hot springs, wet bar, and 4 pools. The deal for 60 dollars was too sweet to pass.

These are the essentials you need to know to plan a trip:

Budget: How much am I willing to spend?

Packing: How much do I need to bring? (For example some places provide towels and shampoo)

Duration: How long do I want to stay there?

Transport: How am I getting there? (Refer to last blog post) How much is the bus and how long is the ride?

Food: Is any food included? (Many tourist areas are very expensive for food… don’t let the menu price trick you they add on an extra 13% and 10% fee after you make that purchase)

References: What have I heard about these places? Are these reliable sources?

*Always ask the tour expert with your university or program if there are any deals or student discounts! These are life savers and money savers!

Now that you have the main questions answered what do you do next?

Consult with your program representative and double check the transportation schedule the day before you leave. Many of the buses can change stations or times because low passenger quantity or bus strikes. Always double check the night before that you can get a bus. Arrive 30-45 minutes earlier than the departure time to ensure you have a seat (sometimes they over sell and you have to stand for hours), and in case there are any last second changes for the stations.

I also recommend if you are timely to get your bus ticket before the day of leaving. Our last trip we had to leave at 6:15 and they usually fill up buses 30 minutes before prior departure. We had to leave our house at 5 am to make it to the bus stop and get our tickets. This is why if you can afford the inconvenience to get the tickets earlier please heed my advice and do so.

Now that you have consulted with the expert and you have your ticket your almost ready to leave. The last step before leaving is packing (assuming you have already booked your hostel). Pack a small backpack or duffel bag for a weekend trip. You will recognize even on weekend trips its easy to over pack. Only take the essentials. You can put duffel bags under the bus so you will not have it in your way. Also if you have Spotify download songs before entering the long bus rides (found this out the hard way).

And with that your ready to embark on your journey!

Enjoy your weekends with these few steps you’ll be a pro weekend planner!

There are 5 main ways to travel in Costa Rica:

1. Bus

2. Taxi

3. Uber

4. Walk

5. Car (Possible to rent)

For long trips to the Pacific Coast or Caribbean I advise taking a bus. Our bus prices have been $4,500 (Manuel Antonio), $2,450 (La Fortuna), and $2,750 (Monte Verde) for the trips. You can also take the public bus to close by towns like Heredia or down town. The bus price for down town is $265 and $600 for Heredia.  (All prices in Colones (mil))

Most people take a taxi around town or to the mall. However, I suggest taking uber instead because it is cheaper and the drivers have to use WAZE which is an app I would suggest you download before coming to Costa Rica. Also download Uber with a card that is able to work out of the country. You may use a taxi but make sure that Maria is on. Maria is the meter that keeps the distance and price in check. Some taxi drivers will give you a flat rate and usually it is more than the actual rate.

Uber is frowned upon here by the locals because the Taxi drivers have been on strike from uber because people are flooding to use uber. Uber not only uses a gps and is cheaper but you can easily split the fee with another person and you can also get candy and usually a person who speaks some English. This is great for people coming that do not speak Spanish fluently.

For school, I often walk about three blocks. I have walked from the mall and have walked to downtown and it is possible but if you are not good with directions I would not recommend walking to a new place. There are some areas of town that you need to avoid and walking and getting lost is not the best situation. If you are wanting to live a healthier lifestyle while here than I definitely recommend walking every time you have the chance. The distances are fairly long but not difficult. Do take an umbrella or rain jacket with you if you decide to walk anywhere because the rain is unpredictable.

If you are having a long weekend and feel comfortable driving a stick shift I would recommend using a car rented instead of taking the bus. You can make it there with an hour or two to spare because of the various stops the bus makes on its way to the location. Having a car is also convenient if you are staying in a hostel away from town or other activities. The buses have broken down and they do not have A/C. A car can be very handy but also a lot of responsibility. They are around $5 dollars a day.

You should travel when you have the chance and weigh the pros and cons and prices of how you will reach your destination. I have used all of the above methods other than renting a car. However, a friend here has rented a car for ten days to travel the country with her boyfriend and she is nervous. She is from Denmark where they grow up knowing how to drive a stick shift so I highly advise if you are not comfortable driving a stick shift that you hold off on renting a car for safety.

If you have any questions about traveling with transportation in Costa Rica feel free to email me or comment below and I would be more than happier to help!

Unlike many exchange experiences, the location of my University is in a tiny town. I’m talking 10,000 people split between 5 villages tiny; median age of 60 (and I’m not sure I’m exaggerating). A few of my friends and I were discussing this the other day; that EBS university wasn’t properly explained or even advertised to us before we came, and that even google maps wasn’t much in terms of a warning. This blog post is about the huge disclaimer to that sentence.

It’s true, when you look at the maps, Frankfurt is about a 30 minute drive away, “right around the corner” by any America standard–but it’s not close. With a car, sure, it’s reachable, but this is from an American perspective (and from what I can tell, Australian and Canadian as well). Here, there are cars, but only the Germans and French have them, and even then, someone has to drive home, right? The actuality of the situation is that you take a train, which takes you an hour and seven minutes, to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station), and from there you walk or take a bus to your destination. You’re probably thinking, “alright, not ideal but not a deal-breaker.” It’s true! Getting to Frankfurt or Wiesbaden or Mainz is never the issue, it’s about getting home. The last train arrives in oewi (Oestrich-Winkel) at 12:05 from all locations, the last bus leaves Wiesbaden at 2:40, and the last car is few and far between. Sure you can go out, but can you get home? For those who can’t wrap their head around the first train at 6 in the morning (yes clubs are open until then), the last bus is typically the answer, or staying in our lovely town. 

When you think about your dream exchange, you think about travel, you think about adventure, you think about new experiences; you DON’T think about a sleepy village, nuzzled in wine country next to the river Rhine. I’m here to tell you that you should. Big cities are big cities, and yes, they offer more night options, bright lights and bustling streets–but they don’t offer you the opportunity to understand the culture. Here in Oestrich-Winkel, where the curfew is 10pm and the groceries are a 5 minute walk (there are a lot of them), students are a captive audience. There are only a few places to gather, so gather we do. Human interaction becomes your greatest form of entertainment, and personally, I love it. For such a small town, there are NEVER a shortage of things to do, and most of the time, you have TOO MANY options.

So yes, when you get here, you won’t be overwhelmed with city lights, but when you leave, you’ll be overcome with memories, and stories, and friendships. This place becomes your home in a way that a big city never can. You’ll learn to love the lazy Sundays where shops are closer, but you’ll also learn that if you take the train to Wiesbaden, you have a 9 minute turn-around before the train comes back to buy whatever your arms can carry from McDonals and Rossmans. You’ll get the disapproving grandma scolds and stares when you’re crossing a street when the sign is red or being too rowdy past bedtime, but you’ll also learn that your actions impact others, and that social responsibility is something that goes both ways; you’ll learn to covet this and, surprisingly, begin to wonder why your neighbors think that playing music past 22:00 is at all acceptable. There are things about living in a small town that city dwellers never get to experience.

So yes, when you get here, you’ll wonder how you ever made the choice to come, but when you leave, you’ll wonder how you will ever bring yourself to go.

Three must brings to Costa Rica:

1. Umbrella and rain jacket
2. Bug spray and sun screen
3. Colones and American dollars

Now why do you need to bring these three things?

Well let’s start with the umbrella and rain jacket; if your coming during the summer at all this is the rainy season for Costa Rica. Although August to September has the most rain it still rains frequently and randomly during May-July. I would not worry about rain boots but instead wear old shoes or Chaco’s / flip flops that can handle the rain.

The bug spray and sun screen are an absolute must. With the amount of bugs that enjoy eating us we have to put bug spray on at least twice a day. The sun screen is mainly for the trips on weekends such a  Manuel Antonio.

Using your card abroad because expensive very fast. I suggest bringing 300 American dollars in colones which you can acquire from any major bank in Kentucky such as pnc or fifth third. If you choose to use your card while in the country make sure that you do not charge in dollars but in the country’s currency,this eliminates some fees for exchanging the currrency. If you decide to pull out money while in the country do so wisely. Do not go weekly to pull out small amounts because the fees for ATMs can be outrageous. Budget correctly and maintain self control and you should be able to pull out larger amounts and eliminate a majority of ATM fees.

My next post will be about planning trips and transportation in Costa Rica. Read on tomorrow to know more about the planning behind trips and the best uses of transportation.

These ten things are in my opinion some of the best memories I have had in Costa Rica as I reflect on being half way done with my time abroad.

1. Get to know your tico family and roommates right away. Don’t waste time dilly dalling. Dive into the culture and begin to use the language, no matter how uncomfortable you are.

2. Visit Monte Verde; While in Monte Verde go to the Natural Cloud Forest. You will take pictures literally in the clouds! Below is an example from this past weekend. 

3. Also while in Monte Verde go Zip lining, ATV riding, Horse back riding, whatever your wallet will allow. You must do Zip lining. I recommend 110% Aventura, we got a deal for $40 bucks to do 9 zip lines, 2 superman’s, and the Tarzan swing (which is basically bungee jumping but sitting down). A terrifying experience for someone like me afraid of heights but totally worth the risk and I did live to tell you to do it. So you should try!

4. Eat REAL Costa Rican food, many places are called Sodas and they provide regular average food, while the sabor tico is to know tico. This is the way to know the culture by eating the food.

5. Visit Manuel Antonio. There is a free public beach which is pretty awesome, but typical like most beaches. I recommend paying $16 bucks to go into the national park where there are private beaches that are beautiful. Almost as blue water as the Bahamas. In the park you will come across lizards, monkeys, sloths, raccoons, and occasionally if lucky like us maybe a snake or two. Make sure not to bring food into the park and keep an eye on your bag because the monkeys will steal your stuff.

6. In Manuel Antonio you should stay in the hostel Vista Serena if traveling in a small group. Its about $15 a night and provides breakfast and a view so incredible. Below is a snip it of what you’ll see.

7. In Manuel Antonio be prepared for over priced food that is taxed with service 10% and another 13% for preparation. I recommend you eat at El Avion. This sight of eating on a cliff and in a plane is pretty neat! There is also a restaurant a few blocks down called the wagon where you can sit in a train and eat. Both restaurants offer great food at an affordable price.

8. If staying close to the airport or San Jose I recommend you visit the land of the strays which is a puppy park essentially. This park has over 900 puppies that are strays waiting to be adopted. If you are getting close to finals and need a stress reliever this is the place to go!

9. One of the most beautiful places we have been is La Fortuna. This scenery of the Arenal Volcano outside and huge waterfall maybe 10 minutes away is gorgeous. While in La Fortuna the tourists (aka us) usually enjoy the hot springs if not offered by your hostel or hotel there are some free ones to the public, however they can be crowded. I recommend you get there early if you go the free way. I also recommend staying at Mayol Lodge (another hostel) in La Fortuna. It is close in proximity to town, the waterfall, hot springs, and volcano.

10. Lastly, have a good time. Balance the school work and free time and plan ahead for these trips. I hope if you are planning a trip abroad and especially to Costa Rica that you will check out these places and heed some advice. Best wishes to all those who are traveling soon or in the future!