Student Bloggers

It’s been a little bit since I’ve been able to blog - which is to say, I’ve been busy and having a great time in Rome (and devoting time and energy to navigating my own comfort zone here). Orientation is finally complete, and my first week of classes…

The first half of my semester was all in all pretty uneventful. I walked into a cult meeting on accident, but decided to stay until it was over so I could eat their free vegan food. I tried my hand at kayaking, which in hindsight wasn’t a good fit because…

The final days before departure include many goodbyes, final work shifts, and lots and lots of packing and repacking. Packing for an entire academic year has been insanely challenging, but saying goodbye to everyone has been harder. Saying goodbye to…

It’s been so hard to find the time to sit down to write this blog post. As the end of my second full week in Edinburgh approaches, part of me feels like there’s no way I’ve already been here that long, and the other part of me feels like I’ve been living…

I knew that I would be thrown into a completely different culture, but not like this. The first day my exchange advisors released us into the city, I was baffled by many things going on. In the U.S., everyone is just now discovering thrift stores and…

At the top of a mountain everyone is in the happiest moment of their lives. I’ve never bonded with complete strangers faster than after summitting Roy’s Peak on the South Island, on a day so clear that the full magnificence of the Southern Alps flanking…

Hello from Scotland! I've now been in Edinburgh for almost two weeks and the city is finally starting to feel like home. I'm starting to figure out how to get from place to place, which coins mean how many pence, and where to buy the cheapest groceries…

Editor's note: If you are struggling with depression or anxiety, please reach out for help. In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. If you are on an Arcadia program abroad, contact an Arcadia staff member to be connected…

The following is a direct quote from the 1996 film Trainspotting "It's (bleep) being Scottish! We're the lowest of the low. The scum of the (bleep) Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever (bleep) into civilization.…