How is it that I have only one week left of my JYA experience? I’m not ready to say goodbye to Italia yet! This past month has been absolutely fantastic. To start, I took two amazing trips: one to Venice and the other to Rome. Venice is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. There are absolutely no cars or vespas. Instead, there are tons of boats and bridges to connect the city and its inhabitants. I loved getting lost on the tiny streets…
Home Sweet Bologna Last night as I Skyped my mom, she asked me what my favorite Italian city has been during my study-abroad experience. I had to think about it for a second, and found it rather strange that the obvious answers of Florence or Rome didn’t come to mind. I then recalled last Sunday night when I was getting off a four-hour train ride from Napoli and the Amalfi coast, bone-tired and freezing cold in the December air. As I climbed down the three…
I honestly don’t know where the past three months have gone. Yesterday a friend told me that we have less than 50 days left in Italy. How did that happen? On the bright side, I do have about two months left of my stay in Bologna, and I definitely plan on making the most of them. Future excursions include sightseeing in Milan, spending the day in Ravenna, and maybe even returning to Rome. A lot of my friends in the…
This morning I woke up and felt like I was actually in college. Before today, life in Bologna had been pretty easy. I only had to worry about one class each day, left with most of my waking hours to explore the city and travel. Real classes started this week, though, and I am feeling slightly overwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong—the program classes at the E.C.C.O center are great. I’m taking a theater class and an Italian literature class, and I love them both. What’s freaking…
La Vita Bolognese One of the advantages of being abroad is that you’re already across the Atlantic Ocean, which means that traveling to different places for a weekend only costs about 100€ instead of $800-$1000. Anyone who’s traveled around Europe knows how wonderful it is to take a train or plane to another not-so-far-away place that speaks a different language, eats different food, and boasts different romantic stereotypes. Despite the convenience, however, I’ve decided to forego the traveller’s life for the…
Gli Italiani When you move to a foreign country for six months, you expect to learn about the people and the culture there, as well as to temporarily adopt their way of life. In my case, I’ve adopted Bologna, located in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, as my international home. The perfect place to study abroad, Bologna is filled with college students and people who refuse to speak English to foreigners—as opposed to locals who cater to tourists in major cities like Florence, Rome, and Venice—which forces visitors to familiarize themselves with the language. Small enough to redner walking almost anywhere feasible and large…