Last summer, my roommate and I hopped on a plane and took off to the energetic city of Barcelona! After two hours on the plane, we finally landed! I was meeting with one of my friends from back home who was also studying abroad, but in Barcelona. She...

I am a huge fan of ocean and beaches; when I found out that we were visiting one of the calmest beaches in Morocco I jumped with joy and couldn’t wait to explore the lovely and peaceful city of Asilah.   My classmates and I jumped into our...

There are many reasons why people don’t go to the gym: a busy schedule, work, kids, laziness, but some reasons are uncontrollable, at least on one side. For a woman, often times, our insecurities come from others’ lack of intelligence and manners. A...

“Monji?” Saeeda would ask my roommate and I. “Monji” is a phrase in the Darija dialect described as food. Every morning Layla and Saeeda, who were our homestay housekeepers, prepared a tray of cookies and Malwi (a traditional Moroccan bread),...

UTEP students were caught off guard as their first week of school was not only met with a stack of syllabi and new class routines, but a new piece of public art commissioned by the city standing tall in the center of Schuster’s roundabout. Unfortunately...

A closet full of Barbie dolls in their sealed boxes, hair intact, shoes still strapped on and all of her accessories still included—I never played with my dolls because of the fear of ruining their perfect image. I would go over to my cousins’ houses...