avventura.

I finally made it. After months of applying, waiting, preparing, waiting, packing, and waiting, I have moved into a flat and began classes in Rome, Italy. It has been exactly a week since my plane touched down at the Leonardo Da Vinci airport, but it has felt like months with all that has happened in that short time. I have had many requests for blog posts and pictures, but my wi-fi access is limited and my schedule has been very full, so it has been tough to find a moment to sit down and reflect on my experiences.

The main thing that I have learned is that a real study abroad trip is very different from just traveling or "academic tourism," which is a new buzzword in the study abroad community. The latter of these distinctions involves touring around, usually with a set schedule, and seeing all the sights, while earning credit for a class that involves little more than your participation and maybe a paper. Studying abroad is more keen to transferring schools, complicated further by the fact that you happen to be in a foreign country with a completely different academic system, where you may or may not happen to speak the language. As soon as I stepped off the plane I was responsible for signing a rental contract, registering my stay with multiple government agencies, finding the school and registering for classes, and finding a store to purchase basic household products and food. Perhaps not what one would expect my first few days in Rome might look like. Either way it has been an exciting and emotional week, and I have already learned and experienced way more than I have in any other week of my life. Since I have been so bad about updating the blog, I figured with this post I would compile a little bit of the best and the worst of my prima settimana in Italia.

The Best:

1. The Food.  Come on, did you expect anything less from me? Literally I have not had one meal that wasn't delicious. All the jokes about me eating pizza, pasta and gelato until I have to roll home, have become reality. I don't think I have gone a day without eating pizza. It just happens to be on the menu of every restaurant that I have been in. Including McDonalds, if you were wondering. Also, gelato. Nutella gelato. That is all.

2. The People. If you would have asked me last week if I expected to have friends from over 15 countries around the world last week, I would have laughed in your face. Yet, here we are. Thanks to a week of activities from the local International Student Association, I have made friends from New Zealand, Singapore, Norway, France, Canada, Austria, and so many other places. I may have learned more about some of these other cultures than I have so far about Italy. It has been incredible to sit down at a cafe and have people from four or five continents sitting around discussing life. Everyone is incredibly friendly, and I can already say that I will walk away from this experience with lifelong friends from all over the globe.

3. The Architecture. Walking down the streets of Rome feels like walking through the set of a movie. I may feel this way because so many iconic movies have been filmed in the very places that I am walking (i.e.: I may have fan-girled at Piazza Navona, set of "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" starring Sophia Loren), however literally every street corner is beautiful. I am in awe pretty much every time I get off the metro, whether I am gazing up at the Colosseum, or just in a beautiful park of a posh Roman neighborhood. I highly doubt that every city with 4 million people is this beautiful and teeming with art and history at every turn. And for that I am incredibly lucky.

The Worst:

1. The Language. Again, this is probably not a surprise to anyone. My vocabulary of 6 Italian words has not taken me very far. Thankfully, my Spanish has helped me read menus and interpret food labels, but beyond that I have pretty much no resources to communicate. Contrary to popular belief, most Italians do not speak much English, especially in the neighborhood that I live in, since it does not cater to tourists. Luckily, I have always been pretty good at charades, so that skill is finally paying off. In an act of desperation I have registered for a beginner Italian class that begins in two weeks so hopefully I begin to improve in this department.

2. The Government. Something that I did not know before moving here is that apparently the Italian government is famous for complicated government bureaucracy and red tape. Refer to bullet point number one fro why this is a problem for me. I have had to fill out unlimited amounts of forms in Italian, and have had multiple encounters where I hope that I am not signing my life away on Italian contracts. The worst part of this is that getting to government offices, waiting at these places DMV style, and trying to act out my wants/needs/desires to government officials kills a lot of time that I could be using to explore this incredible city. On the bright side, I think that after a week we finally have everything straightened out and I am officially legally living here, so hopefully this won't be a problem any more!

3. The Lack of GPS. This is mostly a "me" problem. I seem to lack an internal compass (which my parents have been telling me since I learned to drive) and that makes navigating my way through the winding streets of Rome rather complicated. Unfortunately, the Eternal City is not laid out on a grid system, since it was founded in 753 BC, so just knowing the general direction I need to walk isn't very helpful. Fortunately, this is a really good challenge for my brain and also my Italian skills, so I hope by the end of 6 months I will spend drastically less time being lost, and will be able to navigate the streets, metro and bus system like a true Roman. I will keep you updated on my progress.

Hopefully this satisfied some of your cravings for information and stories, and I promise that the next post will be very soon! This weekend I plan on pretending to be a tourist in Rome, so expect lots of pictures! Ciao for now!

imballaggio.

Somehow the Italian language makes everything sound more beautiful, doesn't it? My word of the week, imballaggio, means "packing", a.k.a the bane of my existence, however the process seems much more pleasant when described in Italian. If you really knew me you would know that I am not exaggerating my hatred of packing for literary purposes. For me, this seemingly mundane activity becomes an extremely laborious process that mostly involves me lying on my floor covered in clothes and complaining to anyone who will listen (notably, my mom). I have memories of packing for a week-long spring break trip in high school and my best friend going through my bag and pulling out almost everything I had packed, exclaiming things like "how could you possibly need 11 bathing suits for only 6 days?!" Unfortunately, this situation is pretty common with me, and has been repeated with small variations many times throughout my life. Admission: I am a serial over-packer. Unfortunately, I am about to get on a plane with some serious packing restrictions, and am supposed to be prepared for the next six months in one of the most fashion-conscious countries in the world. Challenge accepted.

Before I could even begin to imagine what would be filling my bags. I had to do some serious research. I have been abroad before, but for much shorter time periods, and have never needed to pack for multiple seasons and multiple locations. In Costa Rica, I wore a jersey skirt and Chaco sandals every day for 7 weeks. I had a feeling that the sidewalk runways of Rome would not approve.  If my research is correct, this assumption was right. After scouring many blogs, it seemed like there are a few basic rules that were repeated to be over and over again:

1. Neutrals. Wear them. Always. (I am considering leopard print a neutral.)
2. No heels. Cobblestone streets are not friendly to any shoes, especially stilettos.
3. Layers. From February to July temperatures change. Pack layers.
4. Scarves and red lipstick. Chic. 

So armed with these rules I came up with my packing list. It may still seem excessive to the well-traveled backpacker, but for a girl like me with two closets and a shoe collection of over 70 pairs, I think I've done pretty dang good. 

Here's a snippet of the list:

• 2 jackets (1 black Barbour coat, one leather jacket)
• 7 short sleeve shirts (neutrals: black, grey, white, stripes, etc.)
• 5 pairs of pants (2 jeans, 1 black jean, 1 army green chinos, 1 patterned harem)
• 7 skirts (maxis, pencil, jersey, etc.) ((longer skirts are essential for women traveling!))
• 1 denim shirt (wear with EVERYTHING)
• 6 pairs of leggings/leather pants (wear as pants, pajamas, workout gear, all the time)
• 8 dresses (maxis, tank tops, dressy, casual, every kind you can imagine

Most importantly:

• 10 pairs of shoes

I'm including a picture of these just so you can be impressed at how much I can fit into a small amount of luggage. Hopefully my last two months of winter break that have mostly been spent shopping and packing will pay off in 10 days when I touchdown in the Eternal City! I'll be sure to post all of my most fabulous outfits on here for your admiration. I still have a few last minute items to stuff into my bag, but I'll catch up with you next when I actually have landed! Ciao for now!