It has been a while since you blog readers have last heard from me! I did not forget about you, but I will admit the month of January was a hectic month. All of winter break, I watched enviously as my friends from Pitt relaxed after their final exams, enjoying the holiday, while I had…

Dear Adriana-from-September-before-leaving-for-the-experience-of-a-lifetime, It is December 14th, 2022, exactly one week before I am flying back to the States for the holidays. I am currently sitting in a new coffee shop I discovered this past weekend with my friend from Barcelona. They have amazing tiramisu here, and their hot chocolate is to die for. Today, I…

With each week that goes by, my heart becomes more and more torn at the thought of leaving Belgium. I would place myself in the denial stage of grief at the moment; I refuse to believe that I only have about a month and a half left. On some nights, I feel as though I…

In one of my first French classes at Université Libre de Bruxelles, we had a lively discussion about the “savoir-vivres” of Belgian life, and I, as a freshly-arrived and still moderately-slow French speaker, tried as hard as I could to keep up with the language while also really taking note of the “savoir-vivres” we were…

Before arriving in Belgium, my stomach was in knots from worry, wondering what it would be like to study, to make friends, and to create a feeling of “home” in a foreign country. I expected my courses to be as challenging and rigorous as my courses at Pitt, but with the added dimension of being…

The beginning of my study abroad experience was very similar to the typical freshman-moving-into-college-and-leaving-mom-and-dad-for-the-first-time experience. The only difference is that this time, I am in an entirely new country that has a completely different system for handling student housing! Unfortunately, Université Libre de Bruxelles does not offer their exchange students on-campus housing, so it was…

Landing in Brussels after an exhausting flight (and a 10 hour layover!!), I saw a huge sign in the airport that said “Bienvenue à Bruxelles!” Thankfully, I understood this elementary level French, but I knew that a bigger challenge awaits. I chose this program particularly because of the incredible opportunity provided by the Université Libre…

Bonjour! My name is Adriana, and I am just a week away from embarking on an exciting journey to Brussels, Belgium as a part of the Panther Exchange Program with Université Libre de Bruxelles! This exchange program stood out to me particularly because of the incredible opportunity to perfect my French; in fact, all of…