During my weekend in London, my best friend and I took a day trip to Liverpool to visit my friend, Ryan, who was an exchange student at U of I last semester. The first night, we only saw the bottoms of bottles, glasses and a few pitchers. But the next day, we visited Albert Dock and…
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Conversations with Strangers: Renean from South Africa
How we met: Long story short, I moved into my apartment a little early and my new room was occupied by a wonderful girl from The Netherlands who had her friend visiting. Basically, Renean and I got to be roommates for a whole three days. About him: Renean is South African, but resides in The Netherlands. He speaks fluent…
Read MoreConversations with Strangers: Kyle from Boston
How we met: I met Kyle and his buddies, Alex and Ned, while waiting for the metro. They were speaking English, and being an English speaker myself, I decided we had enough in common to become friends. We spent the rest of the night bar hopping and I am most definitely still feeling the remnants of…
Read MoreThe Spanish Host Family Experience
For the first two weeks of my study abroad program, everyone was placed with a host family. I live with a rather nice Spanish family in a small apartment in the northern part of the city. I share a room with another girl in my program, Kelly. My host mother is Montserrat, a sweet woman in…
Read MoreConversations with Strangers: Chris from Brisbane
How we met: I really wish I could make up an exciting story (preferably involving a Vespa and a sunset), but I am a terrible liar and we met on Tinder. I refused to meet him at first because I am convinced that as wonderful and attractive Australians are, they are also heart-breakers and should be avoided…
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