Bitter Sweet Days

So I’m writing this super late, per usual, but here goes nothing!

As I continue blogging and write about the days that I’m experiencing here it’s a little bittersweet – on the one hand I’m having the time of my life.. on the other hand the end of summer is getting closer and closer and I’m so not ready to go back to Walmarts and Wendys on every corner.

  

The highlights of July are almost always my mornings with my Survey of Art and Architecture professor, Ferro. He loves taking us to off the beaten path spots in Rome and will talk us through the structure and purpose behind the place.

We went to an ancient city called Ostia Antica which was a throw back to my time spent in Pompeii! It was a great glimpse into the past and my favorite part was seeing the public baths because it’s something so foreign to what I’m accustomed to in America and I had a grand time imagining a bunch of old, powerful dudes hanging out in their swim trunks.

  

Another spot that got my full attention was where Peter the apostle was initially thought to have been crucified. Although archaeologists speculate that he likely died closer to the basilica where he’s buried it was still a jolting reminder that people from the beginnings of Christianity walked in the city I’ve spent my summer. Talk about crazy.

One evening we went to a concert with the Lumineers and Passenger. Sigh. Passenger is my main man and I loved seeing him perform live! Since we got there pretty early we were 15 feet from the stage and it was an incredible experience to share with my friends and hey, maybe I’ll check out the concert scene more when I get back to Gainesville.

*Insert irrelevant story time* So I was at the concert with a guy I had a vested interest in and since I have a real life issue with overactive sweat glands I had to find a way to mask the effect of this insanely hot Roman summer. I ended up shelling out 25 euro –  32 American dollars – for a large band t-shirt that didn’t even end up being from the band.  And it had an image of poop on the front of it. Effectively leaving me with a crappy (ha get it?) souvenir from the night. (High five for irrelevant anecdotes?)

One of my favorite people here, Alison, had her 20th birthday in Rome! It was such a great night and I loved sharing such a special occasion with new friends in new places. Plus she’s a super great rapper so it was kind of like concert round 2 for me. Thanks Alison 😉

 

At one point we went down into an ancient temple which laid below a classic basilica which was below an old medieval cathedral. No biggie.

  

These were a couple of pictures from more of our class time adventures.

   

I have been in more churches than I can count and I’m pretty sure I average a 10 mile day.

 

One of my favorite lessons was on the phases of the iconography of Christ. During the first couple hundred centuries after the death of Christ he was represented through symbols of faith such as the dove, greek letters, anchors, and other such biblically founded references. He was depicted through a couple of scratches on his followers tombs and was etched in hidden places. It wasn’t until Constantine adopted Christianity that he took a place on the throne in basilicas, as a Shepard and then finally as a king. It is remarkable to me when I learn about the martyrs of the faith and to see how much the perception of Christianity has changed over the years.

   

One night at our spot in Campo De Fiori we met some Italian people and rode the struggle bus together as we tried to communicate in our broken Italian and them in their broken English.

 

I could sit here and try and name all of the museums I’ve been through at this point but my spelling would embarrass both of us and you would probably wander away from the blog.. but let me just say I have seen more paintings this summer than I probably will for the next 20 years.

    

I think probably my favorite place we visited this week was in Trastevere where we wandered around and went into churches with Ferro and explored some of the Piazzas. It was a beautiful day and I loved the quaint streets that I just don’t see a lot in the area where my university is located.

 

 

 

 

I stinking love the little cars in Rome. They are all over the place and one of the greatest things is that a ton of them are smart cars so they’re conserving energy and just generally looking pretty cool.

On Friday on a spur of the moment type thing Jacob, Michelle, Eryn and I took a 30 minute train ride to the beach! Mind you, this was a cultural experience, not just a tanning opportunity. The men there were sporting their speedos, girls would have made the cast of Jersey Shore jealous, and there was not a tourist in sight. We got a ton of strange looks but hey, I get weird looks at Florida beaches for being so pale so at least this time I was used to it.

 

It was a great week with a lot of memories – I’m kind of flying through these posts so I can make way for my current trip to Lake Como, Milan, and Cinque Terre, but even writing about these experiences just a couple of weeks later makes me wish I could stop time for just a little while longer.

Fall is approaching way too quickly and I need the clock to just roll back!

 

New Semester and New Scenery

So I’m on a train furiously trying to catch up on all my missed blogs. Here goes nothing.

  

This past Monday was spent recovering from a 9 day travel venture. We all pretended to study for our upcoming exams but in an effort to procrastinate 3 of us ended up going out for wine night followed by a session of hair dying.

My hair is now a lovely shade of burgundy and magenta. Breaking news: Rachel is now bringing all the Italian boys the the yard by attracting them with purple hair and a lovely shade of paper white skin. It’s a beautiful combo, really.

After that I decided I had way too much time on my hands and that instead of getting a good grade in my marketing class I should spend an hour switching rooms with my friend so that I’m now in a single dorm room. That happened.

  

Tuesday was my “big day”. We started our new class, survey of art and architecture. I’m not sure what I expected but it definitely wasn’t what I got on Tuesday. To start with our Roman professor was an Italian turned California PhD dude with bare feet. I instantly took a liking to him because he embraced the controversial and asked that we really think about what we’re trying to communicate. He went around and asked us what our favorite piece of art was in Rome so far and every time anyone gave a cop out answer or “it’s beautiful/interesting” or any “insert vague terminology here” he would challenge the speaker to figure out why it was interesting, beautiful, and so on. He asked me what I wanted to be when I was older and I told him my immediate plan was the Peace Corps. We got to talking and he was asking about my plans for my career. What I liked the most is that the big question he posed to me was not how I would help other countries but how they would help me. This is definitely a professor I’m going to enjoy.

After class I promise I had ambitious plans to study. I really did. But then Renoli poked her head in my new room and invited me to read over notes in Villa Borghese, one of my new favorite places in the whole world. So we went! It was a beautiful day and we sat on the grass.. And proceeded to talk about how study abroad has changed our perspective on life in general and ourselves personally.  I got to share how study abroad has completely altered my ranking system in life. Most notably my relationship and attitude toward institutions like government, my church, and my education. We then talked about social responsibility and why we felt called to do things in our lives.. So basically my Marketing exam just kept on taking a back seat to the more important things in the world!

 

After our talk we both sat atop a wall that overlooked a bed of trees and we had a beautiful view of Rome. Definitely one of my most favorite afternoons in recent memory just because I missed having conversations like that, which I became accustomed to back in Gainesville.

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Since I was on a roll with the whole procrastination thing when I heard there was a community service projects of sorts I was so down. We went downstairs and helped make dinner bags with sandwiches and an apple. Then we went out into the streets and distributed the food to anyone who looked homeless or hungry.

Wow. I have never done this before but the first woman we went up to was crouched low over a cup, silently pleading with anyone to stop and help. I have walked past these people every day of my life. I get uncomfortable, I debate whether to give them money, I don’t want to look at their eyes in case they call me out for my self absorption. But we looked this woman in the eye when she glanced up at us and when we gave her the sandwich and we made eye contact, she was suddenly very, very human. And I felt like I was missing that connection when I walked past these people every day. As we walked away we all looked back because she had taken the dirty edge of the shirt she was wearing to wipe away tears. It was the most eye-opening thing that bringing a woman a shabby nutella sandwich was enough to make someone emotional and something we are directly in a position to change, at least for a moment.

That night we must have only spent an hour in total making and distributing the food but it absolutely altered my view of the homeless. My sister, Kara, has always been the advocate for the homeless back in Gainesville but I’ve always preferred looking at international aid or more removed poverty alleviation tactics. Kara has always been the one at the food shelters during the week and in her spare time but in the past I’ve always been mildly uncomfortable in those settings.

After our trip out in the streets I ran into a supermarket and grabbed a thing of Nutella and sandwich bread and a few of us decided to start bringing a couple of sandwiches around with us when we went back on the streets during the days. This morning (Thursday) we stopped by a man who is always sitting by our school who I have always struggled with looking at despite the fact that every day, without fail, he calls out “Ciao Bella” — Michelle bent over and gave him the sandwich and at the sight of it the man clapped twice and opened his mouth with brittle looking teeth and starting pouring out thanks. This man suddenly transformed in my eyes from an old, worn out looking street accessory into a person that deserved to be cared for and spoken to. And I am sitting here wondering how I could allowed myself to have missed this!

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After such a thought provoking day it was fun to go out with some new Australian friends to Campo di Fiori, a large outdoor piazza, to watch the Brazil Germany game compete in the semi finals.. That was possibly the most painful thing I have ever witnessed as far as sports goes. I will leave that topic to the rest of the general public. I watched my new friends bargain with a street vendor for his megaphone, shook hands with a dog, and protected said dog from getting stolen from a stranger who tried to take her from her owner. It was a pretty fun night.

   

On Wednesday we started really experiencing our art and architecture class. Since we only have 3 days a week of class and only 4 weeks our professor has generously decided to host our lectures on the spot.. Meaning every Monday-Wednesday we go to a new place in Rome and learn about its rich history and structure. No big deal.

We went to the aqueducts! I was reminded again of why I liked my professor, Ferro, so much. Although he talked about the aqueducts themselves and the structure of them he also discussed the social costs of creating such a monument (aqueducts preserved in a national park). He mentioned that in order to create the park they had to evacuate and relocate 10,000 residents who had created homes for themselves under the structures of the aqueducts during a time of a severe economic depression in Italy. It was a sad reminder that art is not just meant for admiration but that monuments had significance to people and that preserving them might have meant stripping people of their access to the monuments.

  

I ended the night by going to a sale at brandy Melville. Marketing notes were nowhere in site. T minus 1 day until the worst exam of my life.

Stay tuned to see if I’ll be dropping out of college and bumming it in Europe indefinitely or if I’m going back to the grind in Gainesville come August.

A week in pictures

I am keeping this as short as humanly possible so I can get straight to my adventures in London.. so here’s my past week in pictures!

Left: I have blunt cut bangs. This is me growing them out. The crazy happenings in Rome, people.
Middle: My oral presentation in Italian was on Thursday and my professor interrupted me to tell me I should really look up when I speak Italian. Yeahnothankyou.
Right: I went to watch the Italians play in the World Cup! It was a sad day in Rome after the match ended.

  

Left: A nifty looking piece of history at the Colosseum
Middle: The Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum
Right: Let’s take a moment to appreciate the fact that one of the students kicked in a door as a prank, on accident, and tried to cover it up with duct tape. Let’s all take bets to see how long that takes to back fire.

 

Left: Meet Jacob and Renoli. This is us bonding on our return from the soccer match.
Right: My second trip to the Colosseum in a week – It was just as great the second time.

Left: Remnants of the Roman Forum
Right: More ruins

Left: Definitely a huge highlight of the week! Accidentally finding a huge music festival in  Piazza del Popolo with Jacob and Renoli
Middle: The concert was HUGE and had amazing live artists
Right: Highlight of my night? Watching the Italians dance.

Middle: Back to my happy vibes book from France – I really liked this week’s reading on taking ownership and responsibility for where you are at in your life! You’re the only person in charge of your own happiness.
Right: Libraries will always be my go to place no matter which country I’m in. This is my dorm’s library and I spent a lot of my week down here just studying, reading, and catching up on travel planning.

 

Left: You can’t really tell from the picture but good Lord did it pour this week. Super dreary but that’s okay because…
Middle: At our good bye dinner for half of our program who is leaving, we had an unlimited supply of Coca Cola! I filled up my wine glass with coke and declared it to be a great night.
Right: The restaurant we were in was the typical Italian place with guys on the walls with mustaches. No big.

Left: These super great guys I met at Campo di Fiori one night.. an hour before my flight left for London. When in Rome?
Right: Mercedes and Michelle. This picture is our relationship.

 

Left: Bitter sweet about this picture. This was our group for first session and half of the kids are leaving because they run on a different calendar than we do.. Next week we get a new group of students and I was sad to see these guys go.

This week was an incredible mix of new memories, new people, and old history! I can’t wait to share all about my 9 day vacation to London and Dublin!

Ugly Americans

So I’m absolutely rushing through these next two posts because I’m in LONDON, ENGLAND and I can’t wait to share all this trip’s adventures! So in no particular order here is a recount of my parents’ stop in Rome last weekend.

 

Here are a couple pictures from the Colosseum from when the ‘rents were visiting. I was really surprised by the size – the pictures had led me to believe the place was gigantic but when I actually got there it wasn’t nearly as big as I’d had in mind.. like as big as The Swamp. That being said the sheer history that took place there was incredible. It was both horrifying and unbelievable that the games (aka battles) lasted for hundreds of years before they were halted. I am thrilled that as each generation grows we are less and less satisfied with our quality of education/entertainment/politics and feel the need to change it as every new generation comes into power.

  

Afterward we went to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum and whoa dang. It took me right back to Pompeii. I loved seeing the ruins because it was definitely a flash back to the past. I also loved that during all of these trips I was visiting with my parents! After so long in Rome on my own it was nice to give up the reigns and let the ‘rents pick the time and place. No complaints on that end.

   

After that my dad took up a modeling career. This is him featured in the top left with a classic cowboy hat,  chic shorts, and a pose Tyra Banks would kill for. Ladies and gentleman, I introduce Dave.

In all seriousness we went to a really great museum that I can’t remember the name to. Which is pretty typical. All I know is I was that person who didn’t see the sign to turn off the cameras.. but I kind of can’t even regret it because I captured a shot of the Michaelangelo’s Cristo della Minerva which I really enjoyed.

    

I think these two pictures deserve their own caption.
Day 2 or something we go out for dinner. I’m excited, right? Parents finally come to town which means I can eat for the first time in weeks. My dear mother who at some point in my life valued the safety of her children had us walk to Travestere. For those of you unfamiliar with the Rome geography, Travestere is its own stinkin’ district. Long story short we walked the wrong way on a highway and almost died. Seriously, no big deal. I promise.

We finally found a restaurant and went straight in. Mind you this was not a place for tourists. The gentleman taking our order really didn’t understand too much of what we were saying. I think okay no big deal, I’ll go for the pizza. Problem is I think maybe I was a little shaken up from the near death experience because I see “pizzicheria” and think YUP that’s pizza for sure. I’ll take the formaggio. I’m so cultured.

30 minutes later, I’m dying of hunger, the wine is gone, and I had made a hike just to get there. Out comes our food and on my plate, 4 pieces of cheese. Yes. I ordered cheese for dinner. The shock was overwhelming but I had no choice but to enjoy it because the manager looked so proud of me that I felt like I was overcoming cultural divides with these 4 pieces of cheese.

So I ate with gusto and that was my story with the cheese.

 

This is mom, dad and I practicing our serious time in front of the Vatican. This is a sarcophagus we saw in the National Museum of Rome.

   

I have never done so much in one weekend. One of the better places we visited was the National Museum of Rome. I feel like at some point I’m probably going to become desensitized to all the statues I see (I mean come on, how many different ways can you sculpt an old dude), but for now I’m still on that statue high.

I loved visiting the place and it’s one of those things that if I hadn’t had my parents along I probably wouldn’t have made time for it!

One day we went to two churches. I’m going to be embarrassing and wait to say the names of them until I can text my mother and ask for a reminder.

Either way we saw the really great Bernini sculpture of St. Teresa of Avalon. A lot of the time here I get frustrated with my lack of knowledge of art, religion, or politics of the day. This was an exciting sculpture to see because I had a background understanding of who St. Teresa of Avalon was, I read the Dan Brown book where it mentioned the sculpture, and I had previously read up on what the significance of the sculpture was. It definitely made the viewing process a lot more enjoyable.

 

The ‘rents and I at the Eatery. Need I say more?

  

To wrap up the wonderful weekend with my parents we randomly took the metro one evening and my mom decided to pick the San Giovani stop to find us some dinner. After we spot a pizza joint we look across the street and see a massive building. We saw a couple people coming out so we decided to check it out.

I’m so glad we did. It’s called the Basilica of St. John Lateran and we found out after our visit that it’s actually considered to be the highest ranking basilica above all others in the Roman Catholic church. The fact that we casually stumbled into this just goes to show how incredibly unique Rome is turning out to be!

It was a magnificent basilica with every nook and cranny stuffed with some form of art or another. The ceilings were ornate, the walls had niches crammed with statues, and every other foot was a chapel tucked away into a little cubby. It was absolutely stunning and I was so glad to see it!

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Throughout the weekend, every time my parents or I would do something outrageously embarrassing, my dad would hiss “ugly Americans”, just to really solidify our rank as the lowliest amongst all the countries. Every time my mom whipped out the map with expert skill and ease, my dad would whisper “ugly Americans”. If I complained about my dad’s cowboy hat, UA. If I forgot how to ask for the check in Italian, UA. If I pushed a door instead of pulled it, UA. At every point we were committing some serious cultural no-nos but it was humbling to recognize that I really can’t “unamericanize” myself. I can do everything in my power to assimilate to another culture and respect the place I’m in, but at the end of the day I probably laugh a little too loudly, my map probably crinkles a lot when I open it, and I’m sure my excitement over gelato and coke is offensive to someone somewhere.. But that’s okay. So hey, here’s to the rest of my life as a proud, ugly American.

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My weekend was made so much better just with the presence of my parents. I’ve definitely missed my American culture and a lot of us have just adapted here and done our best to “fit in”. Having my parents come made me feel like it was my first time in Rome and I was happy to be able to experience a part of Europe with them. It was pretty great.

Tomorrow I need to put up pictures from last week so I can fast forward to my current trip to London and Dublin! Stay tuned for more of my travel adventures!

 

My Monday to Thursday job

Getting off that France high wasn’t really much of a challenge when I got to jump right back into all the fun happening in Rome.

I am sitting here going back through my pictures from last week and I am continuously awed by the sheer amount of history and life here in Rome. I was speaking with my mom last night (more about the ‘rents in a later post!) and I was saying how much I love being surrounded by people. Every day there are kids, puppies, older couples, and young business-y type people walking the streets of Rome. It definitely makes you feel guilty if you allow yourself to be cooped up inside all day because you just know there are people  seeing something cool and exciting right outside your window!

Anyway.. Here is my “typical” Monday – Thursday

   

First up.. My Monday adventure back to the hospital! I had to go get my booty problems all cleared up so after missing my bus stop and waiting for 2 hours, I finally got to see a doctor and he gave me the all clear!

Earlier that day I had a quiz to study for so my friend Mercedes, Michelle and I walked 10 minutes to Piazza Cavore where we all studied for our various classes. It was a beautiful day with birds chirping, dogs barking, and kids screeching at the top of their lungs. My favorite.

The picture in the middle is my face of joy when I realized I’m never going to conquer Italian. We must have sat out there for 20 minutes slowly panicking over our lack of Italian and just praying our teacher, Ms Ipolita, didn’t come over and quiz us.

Tuesday was something of a blur.. really the most important part of Tuesday was when I finally watched an episode of Game of Thrones and captured this stunning smile on Arya’s face. Arya doesn’t smile. This was maybe the highlight of my Tuesday — I don’t even feel bad.

WEDNESDAY DOE. We started off the day going to Galleria Borghese with the program I’m with. This is one of those museums all the guide books say to do and it was absolutely filled to the brim with sculptures and stunning artwork. During our walk to the gallery we passed through Piazza del Popolo and had a great view of Rome once we reached the top at Villa Borghese, a huge park in the middle of Rome.

Once in the museum I quickly established that my favorite sculpture was The Rape of Persephone. I was blown away by the life like quality of the marble and where Hades hands dug into Persephones thigh it looked like her skin was actually stretching out. It was absolutely remarkable and I enjoyed the minor fact that I recognized enough of ancient mythology to understand what was being illustrated.

  

We continued through the halls of the gallery and seeing all the paintings and sculptures gave me a huge appreciation for the patience and creativity of the artists back in the day. It definitely saddens me that up until this trip I had no preference one way or another for art. However after being in Rome for even just 3 weeks I am definitely being challenged to reevaluate my previous attitude toward art!

After our trip to Galleria Borghese my Italian teacher took us to Eataly to identify all the different food types in Italian! Whoa man, Eataly is big. They had every food group you could possibly think up and it was 4 floors of a foody’s heaven.

I mentioned my new obsession with brie but I think I’m expanding my addition to encompass all types of cheese. I about died when I found the “formaggio” section of the place.

Thursday was hands down my favorite day this whole week. My priest from Tampa, Florida was in town. Yup, he just swung by Rome before he jetted off to a bunch of other countries in Europe. He knew I would be studying here this summer so he invited me to celebrate a private Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Wow.

I actually didn’t take any pictures because I wasn’t really there for the scenery aspect, more just for the Mass but take my word that it was beautiful. I did figure I should take a picture as I was leaving St. Peters but there are definitely more to come when I go back!

We celebrated Mass in one of the side chapels within the Basilica itself. Before we actually made it to Mass though my priest invited me back into the Sacristy which was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my short time here in Rome! It was quiet because it closed off to the public but you could hear the slight murmurs coming from priests all around the room as they prepared to deliver mass in various chapels. We were also led back into a room not opened to the public and I wish I could recall the name of it. We walked in and it was empty. It was dead silent and also one of the most beautiful rooms I’ve ever been in. The ceiling was ornately decorated and there were seats around what appeared to be some kind of altar or another. I was informed that there are priests who live in Rome and their full time job is to go in this room every day and pray.

After the quick tour of the room and Sacristy we went and celebrated mass. It was so, so lovely to hear Mass in my native tongue and from a priest I admire and know.

After Mass I headed over to Villa Borghese. I knew from Wednesday that the park was massive and I wanted to explore it a little more.

I got lost. That was to be expected but I was definitely a little surprised by just how big it really was. I ended up finding a map and wandered around. This park has everything. I found a lake, a dog park, and a fountain where I read my book for a few hours. There were musicians, go carts, segways, bikes, and trolleys. There were restaurants, museums, and casinos.. And I’m not kidding when I say I could spend the rest of my summer just in that park and be completely satisfied.

 

I could not think of a better way to spend a Thursday before Italian class.

It was an amazing week and one filled with new discoveries and a lot of fun. Friday is when my parents stopped by Rome to start off their 3 week adventure in Europe and we had a great time! More to come on that later.

Pompeii

In my defense I am in Rome, Italy so at least I have a valid reason for not updating the blog! However at the request of my mother I am uploading my travel pictures on here because I absolutely hate Facebook albums. There is a big pressure to have great lighting and pretty hair. And let’s be honest.. I just got bangs so the pretty hair thing is out the window. So here are some pictures from my weekend trip! Our group from St. Johns and the University of Florida went on a 3 day excursion to Pompeii, Paestum, and Naples.   I think the easiest way to separate these pictures are just by places visited – So up first, Pompeii!

Please excuse the formatting on this. I’m not a professional blogger or even remotely competent when it comes to WordPress.. so please bear with me. LOOK HOW COOL THIS IS. We started off our weekend trip with Pompeii and it. was. amazing. I’d never heard the story of how Pompeii was preserved over thousands of years and it was simultaneously heartbreaking to hear of the horrific death of thousands of residents and amazing that nature could preserve the color and structure of tons of art despite the age.

We were fortunate enough to have a tour guide and as we were walking through this entire village that used to house 20,000 people I found it was relatively easy to envision the lives these people lived. It was crazy to be reminded that people still had relationships, “fast food” vendors, art, and an idea of what happiness was. It really made history “come alive” in a way I’ve never experienced and I absolutely loved it!

 

I mean look at this scenery! Absolutely breathtaking. I’ll be posting pictures sometime today or tomorrow from Paestum and Naples so stay tuned!

 

 

I’ve arrived(!!!!!)

After waking up at 6 a.m, taking a 2 hour flight to Chicago followed by a 9 hour flight to Italy.. I have arrived! 

I am so tired right now that every time I blink I get worried my eyes aren’t going to open up again. Today has been a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts! I think it didn’t really sink in that I had arrived in an entirely foreign country until I was left waiting at the baggage claim for 20 minutes, wondering if I had really lost all my clothes for the next 2 months. Luckily my bag arrived in an ungraceful fashion and I found 3 other girls from my program at the airport. 

For a few minutes we just kind of stood around.. discussing exactly how we planned on getting to our university. I, in typical Rachel fashion, had no idea where in the heck I was, geographically speaking, and at that point was just ready to splurge on a cab. However the others were amped and ready for a trip on the shuttle bus. So after walking back and forth (literally. We kept missing signs.) we navigated our way to the bus stop, where I was greeted with the most fashionable men I have ever seen. They made me feel like I was underdressed and sloppy in what I had previously considered a cute maxi dress and a scarf! Once on the shuttle I was tasked with the challenge of thrusting my 50 lb suitcase on a tiny rack.. I’m pretty sure a fair share of Italians got a sneak peek of what was under my maxi dress with that little move. Oops.

At that point some of the Italians were laughing and/or shaking their heads in disappointment at our group of 4 when one of my friends had tried to just hold onto her suitcase because it was just too gosh darn hard to move anywhere else. After holding up the ENTIRE shuttle we finally were off.. and I promptly passed out on the shuttle and missed all the scenery. Cool.

Anyways – My eyes are really starting to fight back now, so I will keep it brief. I was initially terrified. I was reminded of how much of a foreigner I am, how silly my “American” behaviors are, and even how loud I can be in a public setting. I have never been more aware of how quickly I am prone to laugh because I have never had such an audience before when I flashed my front teeth. Seriously, I went through a phase of guilt for being a relatively upbeat person.

Despite the exhaustion, blisters from hiking from the bus stop to our university, and the embarrassment of all my faux pas, I’M SO GLAD TO BE HERE. The group I’m with is an amazing mix of smart, sassy, and easy going girls and guys. We immediately hit it off and stopped by the market, gelato shop, and fruit stand. I unpacked, went to dinner, and just toured the place while I constantly had to remind myself that yes -ohmyactualgosh- I am in Rome. Holy cow. 

Here are pictures from day 1. I know. I’m bad at picture taking. It’s a work in progress.

The Dreaded Plane

When I was younger I always claimed the window seat. I loved pressing my forehead against the plastic sheet that made up the window and I would watch the clouds fly by until my breath fogged up my vision. I was a kid that was fascinated by the terminal – I loved seeing all the different kinds of people. The women who looked so chic and professional; the men who wore pajama bottoms; the kids who looked friendly and approachable. The terminal was like a playground. I loved the takeoff, the landing, the flying, heck – I even loved using the tiny little bathroom.

I don’t know that it’s necessarily an unexpected thing to no longer have the same enjoyment of flying as I used to. I think after it became a source of transportation for me, instead of the destination, it lost a little bit of the thrill. I’m coming up on a roughly 10 hour flight in about a month. And I need all the thrill I can get to survive this one.

Rather than research Rome or surrounding European countries, I have spent the last week looking up survival tips for long flights. My number one concern is that it will be smack in the middle of the day which will probably lead me to be more wired than tired, and more irate than drowsy. I’m a student.. in college.. which means I’m on a budget. I can only dream of flying first class but, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. For half a day I am going to be wedged between two strangers with not enough leg room. However I’m determined to stay practical and positive!

Here are a couple tips I’ve read online for flying across the world:

1. We’ve all heard it, but it bears repeating: Don’t wear jeans. Or tight tanks. Or tight shoes. Or just about anything that has a button on it. I am the hunt for some long, comfortable pants that aren’t so baggy that I’m drowning in them, and aren’t too tight that I questioned that last cupcake I ate.
2. Layers, Layers, Layers. One of the worst feelings in the world is being too cold or too hot. Worse is when you are stuck feeling like that for 10+ hours! I’ll probably end up bringing a cardigan over a t-shirt over a tank.. Hopefully that’s not too excessive?
3. Compression socks. You, like me, might be wondering who puts any kind of word like “compression” in front of socks. After tireless research (Ahem. A google search) I learned that compression socks are just a fancy name for keepin’ yo feet happy. That’s all I really needed to hear. I added those to my never-ending online shopping cart.
4. Moisturizer and hydration is apparently a thing. After I went on an 8-ish hour flight to San Francisco I felt sick, dry, and dirty. After looking into it I realized it’s because I wasn’t looking after my poor skin and I was drinking next to no water on the flight. Definitely filling up a bottle before I hop on the flight.
5. Finally – This is probably the only time in my entire life I will be forced to sit down with no where to go. Knowing me I will still find a way to procrastinate but how great would it be to get a jump start on some of my course work so I can focus on Rome the minute I get there?

So there were my 5 takeaway tips from what I’ve read online. Granted I am a student with no professional travel experience, so feel free to disregard everything I’ve written.

Do you have any travel tips?

From the Beginning!

I imagine most students who study abroad and intend on keeping a travel journal start a few days beforehand or even on the plane to their destination (my brother).

However I figured if I’m going to do this blog right – unlike all the other blogs I’ve tried to maintain – I should get into the habit of writing frequently now, while I’m still in a familiar environment.

So I’ll start from the beginning.. On May 8, 1995.. Just kidding. But that is my birthday, if anyone wants to send presents.

So I’m a Freshman at the University of Florida and a soon to be study abroad student. I am an Information Systems major which is like the coolest major there is and you should totally wikipedia it because it’s really great. I knew in August that I wanted to study abroad in Rome and before I could psych myself out and convince myself why it wasn’t a good idea (money, age, experience, potential homesickness) I took the plunge and paid my deposit.

I was born and raised Catholic but somewhere along the way I stopped identifying myself as a Catholic until about 2 years ago when I returned from Haiti (That would take a whole seperate blog to talk about) and now the church is a huge part of my life. The biggest factor in deciding to study in Rome this summer was the sheer amount of history of the church located in Rome. Not to mention there’s this super cool guy running our church now and how cool is it going to be to witness the masses he performs?

To wrap this historic blog post up I’ll just give a brief overview of what I hope to get out of this summer from studying in Rome. I want to travel around Europe on the weekends, drink Italian wine with new friends, run a 5k around Rome, potentially fall in love with an Italian and never return, learn Italian, get lost, and pass my 3 classes in the midst of all the excitement!

This blog is probally going to attract one audience, my mother. And maybe my sister if I’m really lucky.. So hi Mom and Kara. But if you’re not one of those two, my name is Rachel and I’d love to share some of my travel adventures with you!