As a third year student at Trinity College Dublin I got the opportunity to study abroad this year. My abroad placement was the University of Otago in New Zealand. My first semester there was absolutely amazing - I met so many great friends and had the opportunity to travel and visit much of the country. I spent many of my weekends driving up to the mountains with friends to go skiing in August / September and also did a 3 week road trip around the South Island with my sister in November. I am so excited to go back for my next semester where I’ll be living in a house by the beach and one of my best friends from Trinity in Dublin will be joining me on a semester abroad. In between semesters on my summer break I am currently spending 3 months living and working at a ski resort in the French alps before going back to New Zealand in March. This past summer in 2024 before my year abroad I did an internship for a geography fellow at Trinity College Dublin and developed a prototype to teach climate mitigation and adaptation strategies to children in Irish primary schools. It was a great experience and I hope to continue my work when I return for fall 2025. Overall - an absolutely amazing first half of the year with great opportunities I can’t wait to see what happens next semester!