North America

Quería gritar: “¡SI, ACEPTO!” Pero traté de mantener la calma.

“The Wall” — local people like to address it this way. To locals, the mere length or the grandeur of it does not ring any bells.

I wanted to yell and say: “YES I ACCEPT!” But I tried to be cool.

I was petrified of volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, high winds, lightning, and even--when I was very young--the sound of the ocean.

I sometimes imagine how my path would be different if I had pursued music instead of science.

No way, this is a mistake. This email is probably directed to another Nicole. I’ll get a second email soon saying it was a mistake.

No sooner had I landed in Cairo after four long years of absence than I discovered my watch broke.

...feelings of failure are physical. I threw up my dinner that night, I could not stop crying, and my body would not stop trembling.

Even though I didn’t feel like I belonged, I was always more than happy to be there because it meant I didn’t have to be at home.

The fellow student couldn’t even tell me what city their Croatian relatives were from. I was disappointed, it’s a small country after all.