April 29th - In the air, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. I've dreamt of studying abroad since I was in my early teens, after watching endless travel TV shows. To understand my sentimentality I feel it necessary to share the story of my dream: During high school, when I wanted to study veterinary science, I recall presenting my parents with a summer program in Thailand for pre-vet, but I was met with a reasonable no. Later, I applied to a school outside the state; I wante

April 10th - Sorrento and Naples, Italy Before I left to study abroad, I was testing out my camera here in Laredo. I remember I posted it to Instagram with text over it that said: "back to the house under the palm trees." Ever since I lived in Mexico, I don't know why, but our house has always had at least one palm tree. So when I first left for Urbino, and all I saw was some sort of pine tree and other kinds of trees I didn't know a single thing about, I loved it. It was

April 3rd - Raveena and Urbino, Italy (home away from home) Our visit to Raveena was a great experience and full of beautiful sights, but, admittedly, one of the more interesting and perhaps enjoyable parts for me was seeing how excited the literature majors were about visiting an exhibit about Dante. It is something I hold in great admiration, and I think that, because we were such a multidisciplinary cohort, we've all had our time to really enjoy certain things on our tra

March 27th - Florence, Italy I had visited Florence maybe three times before we went, and grief hit me hard while we were in Piazzale Michelangelo. I visited in 2017 with my family, including my godmother and my mom, and we also visited many of the places we went to. My godmother passed away in February of 2025, and it is a loss that I am still healing from. My brain sometimes likes to play tricks with me when it comes to the mystery of death, because sometimes I can almos

March 20th - Gubbio, Italy The highlight of our studies in linguistics, though, was welcomed with a small wave of exhaustion that quickly dwindled upon our arrival, out of pure excitement. I consider myself a moderately superstitious person, so when we arrived, and we did our walk along the fountain, forget luck, I fully told myself that this was a good omen and felt a shared belief with this other culture. My mom and I practice many holistic rituals for protection and abun

March 13th - Florence, Italy Spring break left me, as the Mexican saying goes, with my heart swollen, full of happy memories, and with the honor of having both of my parents visit me in Italy. My dad has never traveled overseas. Despite giving my mom and me multiple opportunities to go, he has never taken more than four days off, much less a whole week. So having him visit me and take a week off work meant everything to me. Even more, it meant a lot to me to help them naviga

March 6th, 2026 - Venice, Italy Our arrival in Venice came with, as with many of our long trips this semester, an added level of nostalgia, as I had traveled to these places before in 2017 and 2021. It will always be weird to me to step into the streets I wandered around with my mom. In 2017, I recall fighting with my brother because, while we were in Venice, he kept crying and spending time on his phone, missing his girlfriend and wanting to go home. I remember thinking,