Hello! My name is Valentina Scarpitta, I am a junior majoring in Global Studies and minoring in Mass Communications. I am taking a month-long USC faculty-led program worth six credits in International Multimedia courses to complete my minor in Madrid! My program is led by two professors from the College of Information and Communications, who have assigned us groups to conduct a multimedia cultural research project in Madrid. My group is going to be doing research on the marke

It is the last week of my semester abroad! It is surreal how time has flown by. In my block program, I have been blessed to spend 6 weeks each in Sydney, Rome, and am in week 6 in Paris now! I think this type of program has definitely made time go by faster, rather than if I stayed in one city, but I would not change it for anything. There is no other way I could have experienced 3 very distinct cultures, made friends from all over the world, and gotten to live out my dream i

We took a weekend trip to Lithuania, where I got to see the cities of Kaunas, Vilnius, and Trakai—and while I love traveling, sometimes it leads to unfortunate outcomes, like getting sick. Suddenly, feeling tired after our trip to Lithuania had a bigger reason behind it: I had caught a cold. Luckily, I was prepared and my program offers really great support. Planning for illness starts before you leave for your host country. You need to consider your personal needs: Do you ge

As the semester comes to an end, I wanted to share some specific reflections I have on wrapping my head around leaving such an amazing experience as well as advice for this part of the journey! Spring break snorkeling in the Amalfi Coast Finals Giving your best effort up until the end isn’t as hard as you think when you’re having fun abroad. The issue is balancing it. You want to go to all your favorite spots one last time and maybe even have some class skips left. Finals sti

Today is my last night in Ireland. I dropped off my friends at the airport and am now having dinner with the last of us before we all go our separate ways. This experience and even this day don’t feel real. I have gotten to experience so much, such as going to the Aran Islands, the Ring of Kerry, and Dingle. I feel sad about leaving, especially now that I’ve only just begun to understand the surface of its culture. My eyes have been opened to Irish culture and the way people

If there’s one piece of advice I have to give to students wanting to go abroad, it has to be do not get sick. Obviously, this is a bit inevitable. However, taking care of yourself abroad is so important and so easily forgotten about! I was extremely excited to go to Germany this past weekend for a music festival. The plane tickets and trains were booked. Of course, I ended up getting really sick and having to go to the hospital. Traveling every weekend and doing activities on

Bonjour toute le monde! A couple weeks ago it was spring break for my best friend who goes to school in Florida, so she decided to come and visit. It was her first time in France, let alone Europe in general. Which means that this had to be a good week. Her arrival day was very packed. We started at a mall near the Notre Dame, then walked across the Seine to the Shakespeare & Co bookshop, got a crepe next door, and continued walking towards the Luxembourg garden (sadly we got

Everyone has their comfort food at home, and new foods and especially new eating habits in Barcelona are real adjustments. From sobremesa, the tradition of prolonged chatting after meals, to late dinner times, I had to find good places to eat that aligned with my schedule. People in Barcelona tend to start eating dinner around 9PM. Going out to dinner around this time is great and relaxing, but many people also have early classes that they need sleep for too. Finding the bala

One of the most valuable competencies I developed over three months studying abroad is resilience. Before this experience, I was extremely hard on myself whenever I made a mistake. I let failure define me. Studying abroad forced me to confront—and rewrite—that mindset. From the start, it wasn’t smooth sailing. On the plane ride to Barcelona, I was already feeling sick. I later discovered this was due to a deviated septum. While in Spain, I got sick multiple times. I went to t

Bonjour toute le monde! Okay so this past week was Paris Fashion Week! And while I don't live in Paris, I live 40 minutes away by train and so I can easily visit whenever I want. So, this past week one of my friends from my hometown came and visited me over her spring break, which called for multiple trips into the city for tourist things. One day we planned to see a lot of the main tourist things in the first couple arrondissements. So, we started at the Arc de Triomphe, mad

The different bins, the shared transportation, and the grocery bag policy are all things I adore about Spain’s sustainability practices. It was inspiring to be in a country that cares deeply for the earth. Bins On my first day in Barcelona, CIS Abroad coordinators brought us all together for a meeting and outlined the differences in American and Spanish cultures. One that stuck with me was Spain’s focus on sustainability. Whether you're picnicking on la playa, uncorking cava

This week I want to talk about something familiar, and something brand new. I spent the past weekend in Switzerland with a lot of people in the IB program. All of us are studying in different places, some on different continents. Seeing everyone was really nice and gave a nice break to the unfamiliarity of being abroad. And a quick warning, this one gets pretty long. A lot of us keep in touch throughout the year, either over text or through IB events. A few wonderful people c

Not everything about going abroad has to be brand new. Some things can still feel like home. For me, the biggest example is dance, something I have done for as long as I can remember. I danced competitively from ages 9 to 18, and currently minor in dance at USC. For this week, I wanted to write about how dance has kept me grounded for my first few weeks in Milan. When I was narrowing down my schools roughly a year ago for the IB requirements, I was pretty certain that none of

Daugavpils has exactly five trains, and all of them go to Riga. Riga, the capital city of Latvia, is around three hours away from Daugavpils, which was the perfect amount of time for an early morning nap ahead of a fun day trip. Although my program has a planned excursion to Riga, I, along with two of my new friends in my program, wanted to take a trip on our own to explore the city in our own time. We bought our tickets and each had ideas of what we wanted to see while we we

Bonjour Toute le Monde! I am back for another helpful (hopefully) guide on all things studying abroad. After this one I'll start actually getting into the exciting part of being abroad, the traveling! But before I was able to start traveling, I had to get to France first. I have been to France twice before so I kinda knew what it was like and a bit on how to prepare. I knew that I had to get a phone plan, but this time I decided to get an esim since I was going to be there fo

Every abroad program is different. From attendance policies to participation requirements, not everyone is in the same boat. This can be especially difficult when you want to do the classic weekend trips and visit as many countries as your bank account will allow—and then some. My program is a full-semester program in Barcelona, Spain. I arrived one week late and honestly had a bit of catching up to do. Luckily, a lot of that catching up involved learning different aspects of

If you're reading this, I'm assuming you are interested in going abroad at some point during college. There's a decent chance your birthday will also happen during your time in another country. Coming from someone that usually doesn't plan a lot for her birthday, I knew I had to make this one special. I'm writing this after an incredible weekend where I turned 21 this past Monday. Along with sharing my experience, I want to explain what made my special day feel so great. Befo

Bonjour toute le monde! So, you're thinking about studying abroad? Well I think that's a terrific idea. Studying abroad is a great way to see the world while also perusing your degree, not to mention experiencing things about different cultures that you wouldn't be able to do in the U.S. However, before you even get to your host country, you have to get a visa. Since I am attending a school in France, I am only able to speak on how that process went. Each country has its own

Hi everyone! I’ve been in Milan for a little over a week now and I wanted to come on here to share some views and some of my initial observations. It’s been quite a great experience so far and I am ready to share what the rest of the semester has in store! Observation 1: There are a LOT of dogs. When walking on the street, you will see all kinds of different dogs, most of which are purebred and distinct. I even saw one with a raincoat and matching boots on a rainy day. I live

Здравствуйте из Латвии! I find it hard to believe that three weeks have already passed since I arrived in Latvia. I find myself already adjusting to life here, from the language, to the food, and even the public transport. I flew into Riga, the capital city of Latvia, on January 10th, before driving 3 hours southeast to a small city called Daugavpils. Russian is the everyday language of communication in Daugavpils. In fact, some of the only places you won’t find Russian in Da