So I have been ranting and raving about all of the cool things in Italy in these blog posts; the sights, the food, the people. But I have received some questions about what it is like on a typical day on exchange. Surely every day can't be a great adventure? Well first off, it is. Even the most basic days are filled with new experiences and adventures, however mundane it may seem. Thats one of the great things about studying abroad! I feel like a little kid sometimes. Just getting on the right bus, or discovering a jar of peanut butter at a new grocery store can make my day! It's kind of an exciting way to live life, and I think it will really make me appreciate the simple things in life when I get back to the US. Given the fact that everyday is an adventure, I thought I would give you guys a play by play of what an average day in my life looks like. Here goes nothing..
8:30am: Wake up to the incessant sound of children crying through the very thin walls of my Italian apartment. (Advice: bring earplugs when you study abroad, then you can sleep anywhere) Even though the walls are thin, I have a room all to myself, that is surprisingly large for European standards so that is really nice.
8:50am: Make myself the best semblance of a breakfast I can put together with my limited cooking skills. Italians usually only have a cappuccino and a croissant for breakfast, which is very different from a large American breakfast, so I usually eat cold pasta or a granola bar on the way out the door, and look forward to lunch.
9:00am: Take the shuttle over to campus. One of the problems with living in a large city is that the school campus isn't all connected like it is at USC. If you have ever visited NYU or Northeastern, our campus is more like that. I live about a thirty minute walk from the building where my classes are, but luckily I live only about 10 minutes away from the political science and law campus, and the University offers a free shuttle from building to building. I have been exposed to a lot of Italian music from riding the shuttle!
9:30am-12:00pm: Class. I was warned many times that classes would be very different in Europe than in the US, but I am not sure that I fully heeded those warnings. They are not bad, or any harder, which I was worried about, they are just very different. First off, classes are extremely long. Like two and a half hours long. I have a huge problem paying attention that long, because I get very restless, but usually we get a 15 minute espresso/cigarette break during class, as that's a big part of Italian culture. Also, our classes are not nearly as interactive as classes in the US. Even if there are only 15 people in the class, the whole thing is a lecture. There is a big relationship gap between professors and students, and they are not nearly as conversational or casual as student-professor relationships are in the US. Finally, the last challenge is the language barrier. Even though my classes are in English, both my professors and classmates are Italian, so sometimes understanding what is going on can be really challenging. Overall, I still get to see a completely different perspective on education, and they have not been too difficult, so even though I would rather be traveling, class is not too bad.
12:00-1:30pm: Lunch. One of my favorite parts of the day. After not eating much breakfast and sitting through a long morning lecture, I really look forward to eating again. Our school canteen is really good and for only 2 euro you can have bread, fruit, a drink, pasta, a vegetable, a main course, and sometimes free pudding! We usually are confused about what exactly the foods are, because the lunch ladies do not speak English, but it doesn't really matter because the food never disappoints! You can't get anything for that good of a deal at restaurants around here, so we get really excited about this everyday. Also due to varying class schedules I get to eat lunch with different friends, both international and Italian students, everyday, so there is always good conversation.
2:00-4:00pm: Class #2. One thing that is also interesting about classes is that they have many different levels of credit hours so the length and frequency of my classes varies a lot. There is also no standard time that classes must be every day (i.e.: class begins at 8:05, 9:30, 10:45) but the professors can choose when they would like class to be. This leads to a lot of clashes when trying to schedule classes, but we figured it out pretty quickly. I also have many international friends that take clashing courses and just rotate which class that they have to skip 15 or 30 minutes of each day.
5:00pm: After taking the shuttle back to the law campus, I stop by the grocery on the way home. You can only buy as much as you can carry, so I have to go grocery shopping a lot more frequently than I do in the US, where I can load up my SUV at Publix every two weeks. The grocery stores are also very small, so there is much less variety of products offered. No Walmart superstores here, folks. Reading product labels has been a high challenge, because the label does not always make it clear what a food is, let alone the instructions of how to cook it. I often Google translate a lot before I leave the house/school (where I have wifi) so I can find what I am looking for.
6:00pm: After arriving home, I spend some time cooking dinner for my roommates and we all eat together. Due to the problems described above, most of our meals are just variations of pasta and sauce, but about once a week we try and make something a little more creative! Like chicken. Exciting, I know. The food isn't quite as good as the cafeteria, but I can always eat some Nutella or gelato for dessert which makes everything better.
7:00pm-8:00pm: I usually spend at least an hour a night Skyping with someone. My parents, my sister, my roommates, my friends. The 6 hour time difference makes this really tricky, because when it is nighttime for me, it is the middle of the afternoon back home. My parents have to come home from work early, and I have to stay up late often to find time that works. The good thing about college is that my friends have more flexible schedules so they can talk to me in the middle of the day!
9:00pm-???: My nighttime routine varies a little bit. Sometimes I have to study for class, sometimes I am planning my next trip, sometimes we go out and have dinner and meet up with friends, it just depends on the night!
It may not seem exciting to read through, but study abroad isn't all about visiting museums and partying around the world. Most of my days are spent more like the one described above, but with that comes many different challenges. Thinking about all the systems I have to figure out, all of the people I interact with everyday that don't speak English, it's a lot more overwhelming than you may imagine! The good news is it gets easier every day and soon these challenges are not challenges any more!
Monday, March 17, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
turista.
This week I surpassed my 2 week anniversary of living in Rome! Woohoo! This may not sound like very long, but when you think about the fact that most people vacation in places like Rome for 3-7 days at a maximum, my trip feels like it has been extraordinarily long. In these two short weeks I have been to all the tourist spots: the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel. I have walked down streets that were built before the birth of Christ, and I have seen the building where democracy was invented. Yeah that's right, democracy. As in the foundation of all modern government. Pretty cool, if you ask me. I have traveled previously to other parts of the world, seen historical sites, gone to art museums, but nothing compares to Rome. Literally every corner of the city is overflowing with incredible art and architecture and the amount of history at every turn is too overwhelming to process. Words are not doing it justice, so I will stop this little diatribe now. In summary: come to Rome, its unlike any other city in the world, and its wonders are ceaseless.
Having been here for two weeks, besides visiting many tourist attractions, I have also learned a lot about what it is like to live in Italy, and more importantly what Italian people are like. Our culture is filed with stereotypes and generalizations about Italy and its people, so I thought that I would take this time to shed some light on some of these things with a little game of "Fact or Crap: Italy Edition." **DISCLAIMER: All stereotypes came from a quick internet search, and are not my personal opinions. However, everything else that follows are entirely my personal commentary**
1. Italians talk with their hands. FACT. Not only do they talk with their hands, but with their entire bodies. This is something I love about the way Italians speak. I may not understand the words coming out of their mouths (update: my Italian vocabulary has now increased to about 13 words), but they are incredibly expressive with their faces and their bodies and body language is universal. (*cue Jesse McCartney song*)
2. Italians are incredibly well-dressed. FACT. I am not an effortlessly chic person. Anyone who knows me knows that this is true. Unfortunately, everyone that lives in Europe happens to be. That is why it is all the more distressing that literally everyone looks great all the time. Even when its cold or raining, Italians rock the sidewalks like its a NYC runway. I just rush home and put on sweatpants as soon as possible. #reasonswhyeveryoneknowsimanamerican
3. All Italians are in the Mafia. CRAP. Movies and television programs like The Godfather and The Sopranos have created a mindset that all Italians have some sort of mobster connections. This is far from the truth, and in fact insulting to all of the incredibly kind, fun-loving, and hospitable people in this country. Sicily is more well-known for seedy behavior than Rome, but as far as illegal activity goes, jaywalking is the biggest crime I've witnessed so far.
4. Italians eat spaghetti every day. FACT (ish.) It may not be spaghetti, but a day has not passed that I have not consumed pasta. Maybe Italians somehow mix up their diet more than I have witnessed, but it is served every single day in the school cafeteria, it is on every single restaurant menu (even Chinese take-out)!, and there are literally multiple aisles of the grocery store dedicated strictly to pasta. This is saying a lot when there are only 8 aisles at the grocery store. Fortunately, there are many different varieties of pasta and every single one of them are delicious, so who cares if I eat it every day?
5. Italians are very romantic. FACT/CRAP I'm not sure if romantic is the right word for it. More like affectionate. Extremely affectionate. If complete strangers kiss you on both cheeks when they meet you, you can imagine what couples in the street (and at school, and restaurants, and on every park bench, etc. etc. etc.) are like. Hopefully no further explanation is needed. My roommates and I have been advised multiple times that the only true way to learn Italian is to get ourselves Italian boyfriends, so I will let you know if we learn anything more about the romance department. Due to the language barrier, I'm guessing that will be a 'no', but ho knows, love is the universal language right?
6. Italians are poor drivers. FACT/CRAP Poor is probably not a very accurate description. In fact most drivers in Italy are probably much more skilled than anyone that I know. They just happen to drive extremely aggressively through the most confusing maze of streets that I have ever seen. Also, everyone, LITERALLY EVERYONE, drives a SmartCar or a Vespa. I have never seen so many tiny vehicles in my life. I have no idea how real humans fit inside them. But these incredibly tiny vehicles lead to people parking in the most incredibly tiny spots ever. I will have to post some pictures because it really is an unbelievable sight. There also seems to be no stoplights. Or street signs. Or turning signals. I'm still currently trying to figure out how everyone knows who gets to go and who doesn't. I may never figure it out. All I know is that I am getting really good at human Frogger. And that I am never getting on the back of a Vespa (all Lizzie McGuire fantasies put aside.)
7. The Pope is everything. FACT/CRAP Vatican City does happen to be located inside Rome. So that makes it a bit hard to ignore. And millions of Catholic believes make their way to Rome as a religious pilgrimage every year. Flags with Pope Francis' face on it and rosary beads are sold on almost every corner. All these things should not be a surprise to anyone. But even though almost every single Italian identifies as being Roman Catholic, very few of them are actually practicing believers who attend church every week. Because I live in a modern society, this should not surprise me, but Catholic culture is extremely ingrained in everyday life (i.e.: pretty much nothing is open on Sundays) that I guess I would expect it to be more important to the average Italian than it seems to be. On another note, even for a completely non-religious person, the Vatican Museums may be the coolest collection of art ever. Add it to your agenda for your next Rome.
8. Italians are not very reliable. FACT/CRAP Again, reliable may not be the best word for it. Reliable has a negative connotation, and implies that this characteristic bears negatively on peoples lives. I think laid-back might be a better way to describe it. Timeliness just isn't very important here. Buses, classes, meetings, nothing starts on time, and no one seems bothered by it. Except me, because efficiency and timeliness is valued extremely highly in the US, so it is against my nature to be unaffected by tardiness. I am trying to embrace the Italian lifestyle a little more, but it still irks me a little bit every time my professor shows up twenty minutes late for class when I got there ten minutes early. I just hope my professors at USC don't get upset when after this semester I roll into class fifteen minutes after it starts because I needed to grab a cappuccino first.
So most of them, I didn't even choose a clear answer. Sue me. Life doesn't have clear answers. All I know is that the longer I live in Europe the more questions I have! This week I have a London trip coming up and will also be celebrating my birthday abroad so there will be a lot to look forward to in the next post! Ciao for now!
Having been here for two weeks, besides visiting many tourist attractions, I have also learned a lot about what it is like to live in Italy, and more importantly what Italian people are like. Our culture is filed with stereotypes and generalizations about Italy and its people, so I thought that I would take this time to shed some light on some of these things with a little game of "Fact or Crap: Italy Edition." **DISCLAIMER: All stereotypes came from a quick internet search, and are not my personal opinions. However, everything else that follows are entirely my personal commentary**
1. Italians talk with their hands. FACT. Not only do they talk with their hands, but with their entire bodies. This is something I love about the way Italians speak. I may not understand the words coming out of their mouths (update: my Italian vocabulary has now increased to about 13 words), but they are incredibly expressive with their faces and their bodies and body language is universal. (*cue Jesse McCartney song*)
2. Italians are incredibly well-dressed. FACT. I am not an effortlessly chic person. Anyone who knows me knows that this is true. Unfortunately, everyone that lives in Europe happens to be. That is why it is all the more distressing that literally everyone looks great all the time. Even when its cold or raining, Italians rock the sidewalks like its a NYC runway. I just rush home and put on sweatpants as soon as possible. #reasonswhyeveryoneknowsimanamerican
3. All Italians are in the Mafia. CRAP. Movies and television programs like The Godfather and The Sopranos have created a mindset that all Italians have some sort of mobster connections. This is far from the truth, and in fact insulting to all of the incredibly kind, fun-loving, and hospitable people in this country. Sicily is more well-known for seedy behavior than Rome, but as far as illegal activity goes, jaywalking is the biggest crime I've witnessed so far.
4. Italians eat spaghetti every day. FACT (ish.) It may not be spaghetti, but a day has not passed that I have not consumed pasta. Maybe Italians somehow mix up their diet more than I have witnessed, but it is served every single day in the school cafeteria, it is on every single restaurant menu (even Chinese take-out)!, and there are literally multiple aisles of the grocery store dedicated strictly to pasta. This is saying a lot when there are only 8 aisles at the grocery store. Fortunately, there are many different varieties of pasta and every single one of them are delicious, so who cares if I eat it every day?
5. Italians are very romantic. FACT/CRAP I'm not sure if romantic is the right word for it. More like affectionate. Extremely affectionate. If complete strangers kiss you on both cheeks when they meet you, you can imagine what couples in the street (and at school, and restaurants, and on every park bench, etc. etc. etc.) are like. Hopefully no further explanation is needed. My roommates and I have been advised multiple times that the only true way to learn Italian is to get ourselves Italian boyfriends, so I will let you know if we learn anything more about the romance department. Due to the language barrier, I'm guessing that will be a 'no', but ho knows, love is the universal language right?
6. Italians are poor drivers. FACT/CRAP Poor is probably not a very accurate description. In fact most drivers in Italy are probably much more skilled than anyone that I know. They just happen to drive extremely aggressively through the most confusing maze of streets that I have ever seen. Also, everyone, LITERALLY EVERYONE, drives a SmartCar or a Vespa. I have never seen so many tiny vehicles in my life. I have no idea how real humans fit inside them. But these incredibly tiny vehicles lead to people parking in the most incredibly tiny spots ever. I will have to post some pictures because it really is an unbelievable sight. There also seems to be no stoplights. Or street signs. Or turning signals. I'm still currently trying to figure out how everyone knows who gets to go and who doesn't. I may never figure it out. All I know is that I am getting really good at human Frogger. And that I am never getting on the back of a Vespa (all Lizzie McGuire fantasies put aside.)
7. The Pope is everything. FACT/CRAP Vatican City does happen to be located inside Rome. So that makes it a bit hard to ignore. And millions of Catholic believes make their way to Rome as a religious pilgrimage every year. Flags with Pope Francis' face on it and rosary beads are sold on almost every corner. All these things should not be a surprise to anyone. But even though almost every single Italian identifies as being Roman Catholic, very few of them are actually practicing believers who attend church every week. Because I live in a modern society, this should not surprise me, but Catholic culture is extremely ingrained in everyday life (i.e.: pretty much nothing is open on Sundays) that I guess I would expect it to be more important to the average Italian than it seems to be. On another note, even for a completely non-religious person, the Vatican Museums may be the coolest collection of art ever. Add it to your agenda for your next Rome.
8. Italians are not very reliable. FACT/CRAP Again, reliable may not be the best word for it. Reliable has a negative connotation, and implies that this characteristic bears negatively on peoples lives. I think laid-back might be a better way to describe it. Timeliness just isn't very important here. Buses, classes, meetings, nothing starts on time, and no one seems bothered by it. Except me, because efficiency and timeliness is valued extremely highly in the US, so it is against my nature to be unaffected by tardiness. I am trying to embrace the Italian lifestyle a little more, but it still irks me a little bit every time my professor shows up twenty minutes late for class when I got there ten minutes early. I just hope my professors at USC don't get upset when after this semester I roll into class fifteen minutes after it starts because I needed to grab a cappuccino first.
So most of them, I didn't even choose a clear answer. Sue me. Life doesn't have clear answers. All I know is that the longer I live in Europe the more questions I have! This week I have a London trip coming up and will also be celebrating my birthday abroad so there will be a lot to look forward to in the next post! Ciao for now!
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
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!
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!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
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:
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:
- Neutrals. Wear them. Always. (I am considering leopard print a neutral.)
- No heels. Cobblestone streets are not friendly to any shoes, especially stilettos.
- Layers. From February to July temperatures change. Pack layers.
- 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!
Friday, January 17, 2014
benvenuto.
So how does one begin to write a blog? "Welcome" (in Italian) seems like the best way to me. If you are actually taking time out of your life to read my ramblings, I, 1. sincerely appreciate it, and 2. want to welcome you to this little page. However, don't be fooled by my greeting. This is actually the only word I know in Italian (besides perhaps 'gelato' or 'mozzarella', which shows you where my interests lie.) Second confession: I only know this word because I just googled it. Despite my lack of knowledge about Italian language and culture, this semester I am moving to Rome, Italy on a quest to experience a little bit of "la dolce vita," the sweet life. My plane doesn't take off for another 24 days, but I still have a lot of preparing to do for my trip, most of which involves watching Roman Holiday, Eat, Pray, Love, Under the Tuscan Sun, and The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Unfortunately, I also have to figure out how to pack six months worth of clothes and shoes into two suitcases, and yes, learn some more Italian. Alas, the details of the struggle involved in both of these things will appear soon in writing. Until then, you should read this article. Then you should buy a plane ticket and find yourself a little bit of the sweet life.
"Why You Should Travel Young"
"Why You Should Travel Young"
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