15 Things That Go Through Every Study Abroad Student’s Mind While Abroad

Studying abroad is a lot of fun, but it is also very different from your normal every day life. From the second you get off the plane in Europe, to the last day before you fly home, there are a multitude of thoughts constantly racing through your mind as you take in everything about your new life. Here is a list of 15 things that I believe most students have thought about during their semester abroad.

1. I HATE every item of clothing in my closet and I will never wear any of it again once I am back home.

2. The exchange rate is practically the same now, so one euro is equal to one dollar (even though it’s not).

3. I should probably get all of my study abroad friends numbers before the end of the semester because we wont be using GroupMe or Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp to talk when we’re back in America.

4. I can’t believe life wasn’t frozen back at home and it actually went on without me, and I missed SO much, but that’s okay because my friends weren’t traveling Europe like I was (this is how I make myself feel better and get ride of the FOMO).

5. I’ve got to take a Snapchat of this to make my friends at home jealous!! Time to break out the selfie stick! I can’t decide whether or not I should be ashamed of myself for having one or if I should just embrace it?

6. But oh shoot, I don’t have a phone plan with wifi so I’ll have to wait until I can connect to the wifi at the nearest restaurant/bar/hotel/airbnb/hostel.

7. Should I post this picture on Instagram now so that I can do another one later today or should I wait until everyone at home is awake? Damn you time difference!

8. I’m going to wear my shoes down until they fall apart so that I can throw them away before going home. Actually… I’m going to try to do that with every article of clothing because I’ll never make the 50 pound weight limit.

9. Sometimes I really want to complain about how tired I get from traveling so much, but then I know I’ll get NO sympathy from anyone.

10. I don’t know if I’ll remember how to drive my car when I get home… Will I really not be walking everywhere or using public transportation any more?

11. I miss my family a lot, but what I really really miss are my pets.

12. How am I ever going to be able to go back to school in America, with real work and real studying?! I cannot go back to that library.

13. If I can travel from country to country without a phone or wifi connection, I can pretty much conquer the world. Going state to state, pshhh that is easy!!

14. I should probably stop eating everything and start watching my weight and working out again, but then again… when will I have this much amazing pizza, pasta and wine so regularly available to me?! It is only right that I take advantage of this perfect opportunity to eat!

15. Should I eat gelato, again? Hmmm…. YES! The answer is always yes!!

So lets be honest… at one point or another, while studying abroad, one, if not all, of these things probably went through head. Just admit it, it’s okay!

“Studying” Abroad

So I know what you are all probably thinking, do I ever actually study while studying abroad?! And the answer is yes, I do study, but very little… I have class three days a week but, in my defense, they are long days of class. Every so often I have to write papers and I occasionally do some reading. To be honest, what little work I have is extremely easy, and I love it! Last semester was my hardest semester yet and I worked myself to the bone, so I’ve used this semester to recharge and enjoy life, because in the fall I hardly had a life.

I’ve discovered that traveling is the best kind of education, so technically I am studying/learning every weekend that I travel somewhere. For example, I’ve learned how to speak four languages while abroad!! Italian, Spanish, French and even Arabic! Mom, Dad you’d be so proud! You’d even be amazed by my large vocab. I can say “hello” and “thank you” in all four languages, aren’t you impressed?! The best is when you walk into a restaurant and say hello, only to have them rattle off something long and extensive in the same language you just spoke in. That is when I give them my blank I-am-American-and-only-know-how-to-say-hello-in-(insert language) look. Most of the time we continue the conversation in English, but some times I’ve had to resort to hand gestures to get my point across.

Friday through Monday I usually travel and Tuesday through Thursday I’m in school. I have three classes on Tuesday (9am to 5:30pm, it’s a loooong day), one class on Wednesday (3pm-8:30pm) and three on Thursday (9am to 2:45pm).  The classes I’m taking are Italian Cinema, Italian Renaissance and Culture, Italian language, Photography and Intro to Marketing. In the beginning I wasn’t a huge fan of all my classes but I’ve grown to really like them, and the teachers! Three out of the five classes I’m in are with all UNC students. For some reason, UNC makes us take these three specific classes in order to study abroad in Florence, so I haven’t met many people outside of UNC, but I’ve gotten close with all the people in my program. It’s like we’ve become one big family of sorts. We do everything together. We all even get sick together!! You should hear the classroom during these times, it’s like a symphony of coughs, sneezes and sniffles.

In my Italian Cinema class we learn about Italian history and culture through Italian films. It has turned out to be a very interesting class that I’ve come to enjoy. At first I hated the class and wasn’t a huge fan of the teacher, but now I really like them both, especially the teacher!! Rossella is the cutest, tiniest little woman who wears a black skirt, black shirt and black boots everyday – it’s like her uniform. She has a short red bob with blunt bangs and she always wears her eyeliner in a fierce cat-eye style. Someone once joked that she looks like Katinka from Zoolander, which is sort of true, but I think Rossella is prettier. Her English isn’t great but it’s gotten much better since the beginning. She tries very hard to be good at it and she often apologizes for her English in class and in emails, it’s really quite cute. I can tell that she cares a lot about her students and is also very passionate about film. She gets excited over the movies we discuss and whenever she plays us clips you can always catch her smiling at the screen.

My Renaissance class and teacher, Cecilia, is also great! It is an intriguing class because we learn about the things that we see every day around Florence. Instead of imagining these cathedrals and paintings that we learn about, we actually get to see them in person, which is pretty cool. We often have field trips to different churches around Florence. The other thing I love about my Renaissance class is the room it is in. It is a cute little classroom with beautiful paintings covering the ceiling. When I’m in that class I really do feel like I’m in Italy.

Now for my Italian language class, where do I begin?! For starters, I absolutely LOVE my Italian teacher Daniele. He is the funniest, spunkiest, coolest, most entertaining teacher I’ve ever had! He is 37 years old, from Italy, wears a diamond earring in one ear and always wears the most stylish outfits (usually complete with a scarf). If you ever took Italian at UNC you may know him too because he did an exchange program at UNC Chapel Hill where he taught Italian for a year. I think this is why he loves us as much as we love him, I can tell that he definitely has an affinity for UNC and the students there. He is always really playful and animated in class but we’ve heard that he isn’t this way with his other non-UNC classes. He comes to class five minutes late every day and when he walks in the door he always says, “Ciao bambini, come va?” which means “Hello children, how are you?” One of his favorite things to do is clap extremely loud, so that the whole room rings from the impact of his hands. It startles me every freaking time. In his class you also better be careful about which language you are speaking because if you accidentally say something in Spanish he will (jokingly) threaten to throw a chair at you, or throw you out the window. Whenever he reaches for a chair we all crack up laughing.

He is an incredible teacher and makes the class go by so quickly, while teaching us so much. He often puts on full acts to explain what words mean. My favorite was when he acted out the Italian word for “gypsy.” We were learning how to say things we like and don’t like and his example was “Non mi piacciono zingari” but none of us knew what a “zingari” was. Instead of explaining in words what it was, he took his scarf, wrapped it around his head and then walked up to each of us with his hand outstretched as if he were begging for money. It was probably one the funniest things ever and he put the entire class in stitches! Another time he acted out the difference between the Italian word for taking a leisurely swim and going for an intense workout swim. That was very amusing as well. If Daniele would go back to UNC I would definitely take more Italian classes with him, just because he is so much fun.

As for my other two classes, photography and marketing, they are fascinating but not as entertaining. I really enjoy my photography class, except I hate that it is five and a half hours long. I never knew they could even make classes last that long!! We have one 30 minute break for dinner, but besides that it’s all photography and Photoshop. It has been incredibly beneficial though and I’ve learned so much more about photos and editing.

Photos from my photography class

My marketing class is a little dry and not as fun as the others, but the teacher is sweet and a little bit quirky, which makes the class interesting. She is an older German woman, with short white hair and one purple highlight. She also wears a skirt every day and sometimes they are a little tighter and shorter than need be, but never overly revealing. The class is two and a half hours long so by the end my attention span is shot.

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed “studying” at Lorenzo de Medici. I don’t think I would change anything about my classes or my teachers. The workload is FANTASTIC (because it hardly exists) and the teachers are awesome. Going pack to the UNC workload in the fall is going to be the struggle of the century. How am I to go from one hour of homework a week to over 40 hours of homework a week?!?!

Well, believe it or not I’ve got to go write a paper for my Renaissance class. It is coming close to the end of the year, which means final papers and presentations. Stay posted for another blog post about how depressed I am about leaving…

Ciao for now!!

Third Time’s The Charm: A Weekend in Paris

This weekend I declared Paris as my favorite city in the world. It was very close behind New York for a while, but all the greenery and flowers just bumped it up to first place. I was hesitant about going back because I had already been twice before but I’m happy that I made the choice to go. Paris in the spring time may be my favorite thing ever.

My friends – Ann Marie, Rachel, Jane – and I stayed in my good family friends apartment in the Marais section. It was the perfect location, and was the perfect apartment! Thank you Gendrons!! We felt as if we were living like kings and queens because we could walk around barefoot – without our feet turning black – we had sharps knives too cook with, amazing kitchen appliances and ultra comfy beds. We joked it was our cute little couples retreat.

My favorite view of Paris from the Arc de Triomphe

We got in late Thursday night and grabbed some dinner around the corner from the apartment. The food was great, but the eye candy was better. Our waiter was extremely cute and Rachel and I nicknamed him Klaus from The Vampire Diaries because he resembled him. Not to mention, he had an adorable French accent, which only made him that much cuter. After dinner we got drinks at one of my favorite cafes, La Favorite. My drink was so delicious and might be my new favorite, except I cringe when I say the name because it’s called a Porn Star Martini… Why’d they have to go and name it that?! It’s a passion fruit martini with a champagne shooter, m’mm m’mm good!! Rachel didn’t love her drink as much as I loved mine because, well, she had water, not by choice. The French-English language barrier in the Marais section can be pretty severe and our waiter thought she order water instead of a cocktail. She sure did save a lot of money though because those drinks were NOT cheap.

Friday we made another appearance at La Favorite, but this time for breakfast. Two times in less than 24 hours, sounds exactly like my last trip to Paris when we went there nearly every day for breakfast and then late night drinks. After a delicious croissant, cappuccino and Eggs Benedict we went to Notre Dame and then later the famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Company. I think we spent longer in the bookstore than we did in the church. The store was so cool and housed some of the prettiest book covers I have ever seen. The walls were lined, ceiling to floor, with books of all different genres, colors and sizes. I left with two books – The Fault In Our Stars and The Great Gatsby -and 100 iPhone pictures of beautifully designed book covers.

Shakespeare and Company

On our way to Sainte-Chapelle we stopped and got some ice cream and whoa, plot twist, it wasn’t gelato! After trying and failing at getting a cool food in the air picture we took our cones and sat on the side of the Seine River. My salted caramel ice cream was melt-in-your-mouth (literally) delicious. But really, I think I liked it more than some of the gelato I’ve had in Italy. I think it was the flavor that really did it. Now I’m on the hunt for salted caramel gelato because that’s got to be amazing!!

The beautiful Sainte-Chapelle chapel

By 4pm we had already walked nearly 7 miles and were running on empty. We stopped and got lunch at a little cafe and this is where I was practically forced into trying escargot for my first time. There were two British guys at the table next to us who began talking to us and then, before I knew it, they were handing me a plate with a snail on it from their platter of escargot. He insisted I had to try it because I was in Paris and all my friends agreed, irregardless of their knowledge for my dislike towards exotic foods. Ann Marie ate one before me to prove that it was good and once she didn’t it I knew I couldn’t back out because I’d look like a wimp. So I closed my eyes and pulled the thing out of the shell and chewed as quickly as possibly. Turns out, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but the whole concept still really freaks me out. I used to play family with those creatures when I was little and on the beach! What if I just ate someone’s mom?!?!?

Me cringing while I ate my first bite of escargot

After lunch we went to the Eiffel Tower to read and hang on the lawn. We wanted to chill out and relax before going out to experience the Paris nightlife. We went to a club called Rex and it was pretty cool (minus the EDM music and the odd I-look-like-I-just-got-electrocuted dancing) but the best part of the night was our pregame. Even though it just consisted of the four of us, it was so much fun. We played the card game bullshit pyramid and concocted some interesting cocktails. After we finished two bottles of wine and a bottle of Desperado we moved onto the bottle of Absolute. We had no idea we’d drink that much in one night so we had only bought one mixer (Side note: weirdly none of us were drunk at this point… probably too many croissants). We quickly ran out of our watered down orange juice and had nothing more to drink. No fear, Rachel had a genius idea to make our own juice, out of jelly and water… I know, disgusting, right?! Surprisingly it wasn’t as bad as you’d think it would be, but the wine from earlier may have altered my judgement a little. Now I can say I’ve tried two new things in Paris, escargot and raspberry jelly water juice! Yummy!!

For some reason we stayed at Rex until 4am and didn’t go to bed until after 5am so, needless to say, waking up the next morning was a bit of a struggle. Brunch at Le Pain Quotidien made the morning much better though. After we ate, we walked around the streets to try and burn off some of those calories from all the jelly (just kidding, it was mostly from the mass amount of bread we had had). We took a spontaneous trip to the Pompidou to see the Jeff Koons exhibit and laughed at how we went all the way to France to see the work of an American artist. I really loved almost all his work, except for a few overly bizarre pieces. In one room there were four photographs blown up to huge sizes and hung on each of the four walls. They were no ordinary photographs, they were photographs of Jeff Koons having sex with his porn-star ex-wife. I’m talking zoomed in, full on porn pictures. I tried so hard to be mature about it, it took all I had to keep my jaw from dropping or a giggle from escaping. It was one of those moments where you need a friend to turn to so you can vent about the “oh my god” moment, but NONE of my friends were in sight!!! They had all already exited the gallery and couldn’t come back in. I snapped a picture of one image because I knew if I explained the picture they wouldn’t believe me because it was that unbelievable that something of that nature would be hanging on a wall in an art gallery! I won’t show the picture on here because it is too explicit but feel free to look it up yourself, you’ll know the one when you see it (Hint: it is called the Made in Heaven series).

Jane, Ann Marie, Rachel and I at the Jeff Koons exhibit

After the Pompidou we walked to the gorgeous Galeries Lafayette and then had dinner at Buddha Bar. The restaurant was a trendy Asian restaurant with dim lighting and exotic decor. I loved it, but I left with a much lighter wallet and a half full stomach. While walking home we passed by the United States Embassy and Rachel and I got super excited when we saw the American flag because we hadn’t seen one in over three months. In the heat of the moment, we whipped out our phones and started taking pictures to put on Snapchat. Seconds later, a French military guard, with a huge gun, came running at us yelling in French. I had no idea what was going on, but immediate became extremely alarmed. Eventually he started speaking English and asked where we were from and what we were doing, in a very stern voice. Little did I know, it’s illegal to take a picture of an embassy building. He had us delete the pictures and then, because that wasn’t enough, he made us go to the deleted file on our camera role so he could check that the photo wasn’t stored there. All I wanted was a picture of the flag, I could care less about the building!! I didn’t think there was any harm in that. I apologized and tried to joke with him about how we just got so excited about the flag but he was NOT having it! Rachel and I scurried back to Ann Marie and Jane who witnessed the whole thing from afar. This event was just the beginning of our strange night.

We went to the Eiffel Tower at dark to get crepes and sit on the lawn. The crepes were wonderful, but the creepy men were not. On the way to the lawn we were practically harassed by these three guys who kept asking us what language we spoke. They trailed us until we took a sharp, and unexpected, turn onto the lawn to lose them. Once on the lawn we passed by some more creepy guys selling wine and champagne. When they saw us they called out, “Ooh sexy’s, so beautiful” and then once we passed we heard them mutter “oh look at the bum.” It was so gross and uncalled for but also extremely hysterical. We couldn’t suppress our disgust and amusement and fell to the ground laughing. Some of these French people sure are bold. I joked that next time I was going to speak to them in fake Chinese so that they’d think we didn’t speak their language. I got carried away and started speaking in fake Chinese a little too loudly, without realizing that a group of Chinese people were sitting directly behind me. Luckily, I don’t think they heard me and we all got a really great laugh out of the almost bad situation.

On the metro home we encountered some more creepy individuals. A group of guys walked up to us and pretended to take our cell phones out of our hands. It freaked us out and put us into hyper aware mode as we got onto the metro. When we got off at our stop the same guys got off too and we witnessed, what looked like, a mugging attempt. The group of guys got in a fight with a girl who was walking alone in the station. To defend herself, she poured a drink on them and tried to kick them, but she was one against four. We hung back in the station to make sure she got away okay because it looked like it could have gotten bad. After all of these events we made a B-line for the apartment and eventually got back safely.

On Sunday we went to Montmartre in the morning and visited la Basilica du Sacré Coeur. It was a section of Paris I had always wanted to visit but never had a chance to, until this past weekend. We had lunch at La Buvette and then walked to the Champs Élysées to go to the original Ladurée and the Arc de Triomphe. On our walk there we had two different people ask if we were Italian. I know I don’t look any bit Italian so I’m assuming it was Rachel and Ann Marie who they were looking at. I suppose Italy could be rubbing off on me more than I thought.

Ladurée macarons on the Arc de Triomphe

The rest of the night was very relaxing, as we were exhausted from our full day of running around. We went to dinner at a little place in our neighborhood and I tried escargot for a second time. Still not my favorite, but not too bad.

Monday morning we woke up early and went to the Eiffel Tower to go up to the top. The view was incredible, as always. After the tower we went to Musée de l’Orangerie and saw the work of Picasso, Monet and Matisse. Then we got lunch in the Tuileries Garden and lounged in the sun for a bit. We didn’t have much time to do anything else substantial because we had to get back to the apartment to pack for our flight. The turn around was quick and before I knew it we were loading our suitcases into the cab and heading out toward the airport.

Even though I wasn’t exploring a new city I loved every minute of my trip to Paris. We had so many laughs and fun times and, as cheesy as it sounds, made memories that will last for the rest of my life. France, thanks for another incredible visit and I know I’ll be seeing you again soon!!

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Falling More In Love With Florence

Two weekends ago I spent some good quality time with my old friend, Florence. It had been far too long since I had a relaxing weekend to myself. Having an empty agenda sounded like a dream. I’ve also begun to realize that my time here is slowly coming to an end and there is still so much more on my to-do list. An entire weekend in Florence with no plans was exactly what I wanted and needed! Also, I’ve lately become a little frustrated with Florence because of the mass influx of tourists and selfie sticks, so I was also in need of a weekend where I could re-fall in love with Florence, and that’s exactly what last weekend was!!

Friday was full of aimless wandering and exploring. Ann Marie and I discovered a number of things we had never seen before, like the University of Florence, real Florentine apartments, real Florentines and Greek food! We walked about a mile outside of the city center and were surprised to find so many beautiful streets and buildings that we had never seen before. It felt like a real Italian town; free of tourists, the smell of garbage and gypsies! We figured that it must be where the real Italian people live because there are very few who live in the city center. During our walk we stumbled upon a beautiful building with a large courtyard and gated garden. We couldn’t help but go into the courtyard to get a better look, and the door was propped open, making it all the more inviting. We’re still not sure what it is but one section of it may be some sort of doctors office. Inside we found a beautiful grand staircase, that we climbed, but it led to locked doors, so we couldn’t explore further. After exploring a few other areas we decided to move onto something new because we really couldn’t figure out what it was. (I later found it is Palazzo Capponi, but I’m still not sure what it is!!)

Palazzo Capponi courtyard

We walked, with no destination, for a while longer around the beautiful outskirts of the city center. Many buildings were covered in vines with yellow or purple flowers and there were palm trees and beds of grass every few blocks. For those of you who don’t know, greenery is a very rare sight in Florence, it’s very much a concrete jungle. It was so nice to leisurely roam around and take in all of Florence. It also made me realize how little of Florence I actually see because I never leave the center. The farthest place I walk to is about 25 minutes away, and that is considered very far. I finally got to see parts of Florence that make up the real, non-touristy section of the city.

On our walk we stopped in a store called Tiger and that is were I found love (with the store, of course). It was like graphic design and interior design heaven!! They had the cutest little things from desk supplies, to kitchen utensils, to living room accessories and snacks. I had a hard time suppressing the urge to buy everything. I am proud to say that I only bought a few things, mostly desk supplies, but I plan on going back a few times before I leave.

My Tiger purchases

After walking all afternoon we were pretty tired, so we decided that the best way to rest our feet would be by having a picnic near the Arno River.  Ann Marie and I had a romantic picnic with prosecco and our beloved stroopwaffels. The bubbly really goes straight to your head though and before I knew it I was a little bit drunk. That would have been totally fine with me if I hadn’t of had an internship interview coming up in the next three hours. But don’t worry, I stuffed my mouth with so much buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes that I was completely sober by the time of my interview! (P.S. I got that internship position, but ended up turning it down for another)

That night we tried out the Greek place – which was delicious – and went to the “famous” discoteca called Space. It had been a long time since I’d gone out in Florence on a weekend. Space was very cool and a lot of fun, and it was surprisingly filled with all Italians, and males. Since Florence is such a popular study abroad place, bars and clubs are usually filled with many Americans, but not Space on a Friday night! I met a cute guy who told me how he wanted to be an actor and live in America. We bonded over The Vampire Diaries and our love for California. For those of you who know me well, and are familiar with the joke about the guys I like, I know what you’re thinking… and no, he wasn’t gay… At least I’m 95% positive that he wasn’t… Sadly our love fizzled out quickly and I left him for the dance floor, where my friends were. There, in the sea of Italian males, I met another pretty cute Italian guy. His name was Andrea and at the end of the night he asked to take a picture with me… which he later sent to me on his friends Facebook because he had deleted his.

The next morning I awoke to the sound of the accordion playing an adorable song outside my window. It felt like I was in a movie! Oh and did I happen to mention that I awoke at 3:30pm… We may have closed the club the night before at 4am, but in my defense I hadn’t slept in in weeeeeks! Ann Marie and I got breakfast/lunch/linner at La Milkeria and I ordered a Nutella waffle with fruit, which was amazing!! What was rest of the day wasn’t overly eventful. However, I did get my haircut by a world renowned hair dresser, Gianluca Sasso at International Studio, so that was pretty cool. He did a great job too, I didn’t shed one tear once the chopping was done! It was also only an inch…

For dinner, Ann Marie and I made the 47 minute walk out to the Florence 2015 STREEAT Foodtruck Festival. We thought Google Maps was lying when it gave us that ridiculously long travel time, but it turns out it was correct. It was quite a trek, but it was totally worth every step! We went down the Arno River, through the park, past the little Carnival, and then through the park some more. There were around 15 or 20 food trucks there and TONS of Italians! We may have been the only Americans. I loved it because I really felt like I was in Italy. Reading the food truck menus were a little difficult, because everything was in Italian only, but we figured it out. To start, I had a small platter of fried olives, artichokes and cheese. It was AMAZING!! I also had a beer and a good – but strange – veggie wrap. There was a DJ and tables set up all around the pond and in the grassy areas. It was my first food truck festival and it was great!

Later that night we went out with Maddie and her friend again, but this time we went to our favorite club, Yab. As always, it was a good time. We danced all night and on the dance floor I met another cute Italian guy. Italy, you sure know how to make attractive men! Ann Marie didn’t have quite the love story though, as she spent the majority of her night hiding from and dodging a guy we call “her stalker.” A view weeks earlier he consecutively liked 40 of her Facebook photos AND called her on Facebook messenger, who even knew you could make phone calls through Facebook?! We ended our evening with a trip to see Mustafa, at Mesopotamia Kebab, to get some delicious late night kebabs. Ann Marie and I blissfully ate our kebabs and fries on the floor in complete silence before going to sleep.

Sunday was another late-to-rise kinda day, however, we were awake before 3:30pm! I think I got out of bed at approximately 1:30pm. That’s what happens when neither of us set an alarm, we sleep for years! Ann Marie and I had an amazing brunch at Odeon and then went to the Jewish synagogue. Everyone always says that the synagogue is incredibly beautiful so I had to see it, and boy were they right, it was amazing! The walls and ceilings were covered in an intricate Moroccan-like pattern with colors of orange, red and blue – to name a few. Of course I decided to wear a tank top and shorts that day so I had to wrap myself in fabric scraps that the synagogue had. I’m basically the worse Jew ever… I really enjoyed the synagogue though and I’d go back for Friday night services.

The Great Synagogue of Florence from the outside

After the synagogue we went to Palazzo Vecchio and did the complete two hour tour. We saw the ancient underground Roman theatre that Palazzo Vecchio is built on, as well as the various rooms in the palace and the tower. While up on the tower we could hear the street performers down below playing different musical tunes. One of the perks of studying abroad in Florence is that you have a permanent study abroad soundtrack for all your days. We were the only ones up on the tower so we pranced around the top, listening to the music from below and enjoying the incredible view of the duomo and the mountains.

We ended our amazing weekend with drinks and aperitivo on the rooftop of the Westin Excelsior with a few of our friends. And to top everything off, I was offered an internship as a graphic designer with Horizon Media in New York City!!! It looks like my next stop after Florence will be New York!!!

What remains of the Roman theatre

Inside Palazzo Vecchio

The view from the tower

Right Place, Wrong Time: Spring Break In Ibiza

What first comes to mind when you think of college spring break? My guess is parties, beach, drinking, sleepless nights, bikinis, and sun tans. And what first comes to mind when you think of Ibiza, Spain? My guess is everything that I just mentioned above but x100. We figured that Ibiza would be the best possible place to go for spring break to get in a tan and maybe do a little spring break partying. Everything would have been perfect had Ibiza not closed down nearly every hotel, restaurant, bar and club… Off season in Ibiza means that basically the whole island shuts down and hibernates for the winter.

What I thought our spring break would be like

When planning our spring break we forgot to take into consideration the fact that it is much colder in Europe in March than it is in America or the Bahamas. We just assumed that going to an island would mean warm weather and bikinis, no matter where that island was. We realized how wrong this assumption was as soon as we started looking for a hotel to stay in in Ibiza. All but about four hotels were closed on the island. Then we started looking at clubs and bars, just for fun, and discovered that they too were all closed except for one called Pacha, which was only open on the weekends. We couldn’t change our flight so we decided we’d just make the most out of it!

What our spring break was actually like

Ann Marie, Maddie and I landed on Tuesday night to a gloomy, rainy Ibiza. It’s become a tradition that it rains at least once in EVERY place we visit abroad. I’ve yet to travel somewhere where it hasn’t rained. Venice, London, Dublin, Seville, Chefchaouen, and the list goes on and on. I guess that’s just Europe in the winter for you. Don’t be fooled by the fact that I’m studying abroad during the “spring” semester. It’s a very misleading name because it’s not at all spring here in Europe, but that’s okay because I’d be happy to be in Europe at any time of the year.

Later that night we went to All Cafe Bistro, a little restaurant on the water just a ways down from our hotel, and here is where we learned of the fantastic three course prefix meal that Ibiza does so well. In the morning we awoke to another rainy day… how typical. Because the beach was out of the question, we decided to go on a walk to a cute little restaurant called Passion Cafe. A mile and a half walk didn’t sound that bad, but when you’re walking through the rain and fighting with the wind to keep your umbrella the right side up, it’s not so easy.

Dinner at All Cafe – smoked salmon and avocado salad with a glass of Rosé

We stayed at the restaurant for nearly three hours because we loved it so much and, mostly, because we didn’t know what else we’d do that day. Eventually we went back to our hotel and met up with more UNC LdM friends who had the same idea to go to Ibiza for spring break. We hung around the hotel for a few hours and then all six of us went out for a nice dinner.

Passion Cafe

The sun finally came out on Thursday and we hung out by the pool and tanned all day long. For dinner we went to the city center to watch the sunset and get dinner. The clouds prevented us from seeing the real deal sunset but it was still pretty. We walked around town before getting drinks and dinner, and we successfully got stared down by every single Ibizan because we were wearing summery clothes. Everyone was bundled up in sweaters, scarves and jackets and then there was us in bright floral prints, maxi dresses, rompers and skirts. The six of us stuck out like a sore thumb. Granted, it was in the 40s, but it was OUR spring break and we were determined to make it feel like it was really a “spring” break and not a winter break.

The next morning we pulled back the curtains to see another beautiful blue sky and the sun shining brightly over the Mediterranean Sea. A hike to the old city led us to discover a secret little beach that was tucked away between the rocks and cliffs. We climbed down to the beach only to find an old naked man strolling along the shoreline. We had planned to go in for a spontaneous dip in the sea, but once we saw him we were stopped dead in our tracks. Instead, we continued our hike up to the old city and agreed to come back later with the proper attire (and we hoped the man would be gone by then).

The hike was absolutely beautiful! The water was so clear that you could see straight down to the floor of the sea. In some parts the water looked nearly white because it was such a bright teal color. Poor Ann Marie had a cactus prick her in the butt during our walk, so her hike experience was a little less pleasurable than the rest of ours.

Whenever we returned to the little beach we were utterly horrified to see not only one naked man, but six naked men!!! We were going to turn around but instead decided to embrace the Spanish lifestyle and continue onto the beach. It was so hard to suppress our laughter and keep a straight face. We didn’t want to embarrass the men and make them feel uncomfortable, but we had such a hard time acting like they weren’t walking around with it all hanging out. Ann Marie took the plunge and was the first to walk out onto the beach. We all followed suit and, once on the sand, realized there were many more men tanning nude than we had thought. SCARY!!!

We turned our backs to the men and tried to avoid looking their way at all costs. We got into the freezing cold water just long enough to dunk our heads and be able to say we went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. As time went on we started to get used to the naked guys and, because we had already made the long trek out, we voted to stay on the beach and lay out. In the Ibizan spirit, and with much hesitation at first, we took off our tops and once again embraced the Spanish lifestyle. More women eventually came down to the beach and they too took of their tops so we felt much more comfortable. The weirdest thing was that no one seemed phased by the fact that we didn’t have tops on. No one cared because it was so normal to them and I was thankful that no one looked our way.

We had a very relaxing end to our time in Ibiza with a few more meals by the pool and a couple dinners out. No clubs or bars for us, we were happy being old ladies staying in. Though Ibiza wasn’t the party scene we thought it would be, it turned out to be a wonderful and relaxing trip. I know I don’t have much room to complain, but traveling does get very exhausting. I’ve also missed the sun and sand so much and I was very happy to be back on a beach!

Now I’m off to Milan to meet my family who just flew in from America! I cannot wait to show them around Florence and introduce them to my Italian life. More to come later!

 

It’s Time For Africa

My entire life I’ve always dreamed of going to Morocco. A big reason as to why I’ve always wanted to go is because my grandma is from Casablanca, Morocco and she grew up there, and the other reason is because I’m in love with the architecture and food. I’ve also always wanted to go with her, but since she couldn’t make the trek out, for obvious reasons, I decided I’d go for spring break and I’ll just have to come back with her!

Ann Marie, Maddie and I met up with our three other Florence UNC friends who also came with two other friends. The eight of us boarded the big bus together and found seats to get ready for our journey to Morocco. We were on team yellow and were split between two buses. There were two tour guides on each bus and I swear a requirement for getting a tour guide job with Discover Excursions was that you had to be attractive. ALL of the tour guides were so hot, it was kind of unbelievable that not one of them was slightly bad looking. None of us knew their names so we gave each of them nicknames so that we could more easily talk about them, and their hotness. There was San Diego, Spanish Guy, British Guy and Other Random Guy (we didn’t have a way to identify him besides saying he wasn’t San Diego or Spanish Guy, etc.). I personally found San Diego the most attractive, by far, but Ann Marie and a few others disagreed, putting him last or even third in the level of hotness rank.

Anyways, getting back on track, we had to take a bus, then a ferry and then another bus to get to our destination in Morocco. We made it to our hotel, La Paloma, in Tétouan pretty late and were given a full meal of couscous, chicken and bread. I was very impressed with the hotel we stayed at. It was really cool and looked perfectly Moroccan inside. The best part was that we had a comfy king size bed in our room.

The lobby at Hotel La Paloma

We started our Saturday off in Chefchaouen, the blue city of Morocco. The drive to get there took about an hour and it was a beautiful view. We wound in and out, and up and down the hills in Morocco. We passed donkeys, small villages and gigantic windmills on our drive. Everything was so green and beautiful and I just kept thinking, “Oh my god I’m in Africa right now…”.

Unfortunately it rained as soon as we got off the bus in Chefchaouen but it didn’t make the city any less spectacular. Everything was blue. It was a blue world, just like the one described in the song “I’m Blue” by Eiffel 65. Blue his house with a blue little window and a blue corvette, just kidding there were not blue corvettes, lots of blue houses and blue windows though! Everything was either blue or white and it reminded me a lot of Santorini, Greece but cooler because of the Moroccan flare and because nearly everything was blue, the stairs, flower pots, walls, and more.

We went on a walking tour with the cutest, sweetest little Moroccan man who had one big tooth on the bottom of his mouth. He later showed just the eight of us the coolest shop, tucked away in one of the side streets. The man working in the store was beaming with joy when we walked in and welcomed us with open arms. He ushered us to the back room and offered us tea and a special viewing of all the rugs he had. He was so proud of everything and it was the most adorable thing ever. I didn’t think I even wanted a rug into he started showing them to us. There were actually a few really awesome ones and I was extremely tempted by a hot pink rug with teal details, but I opted not to get it because it was tiny.

Later we walked through the market and each of us bought a few more souvenirs. Their currency is Dirham and 10 Dirham is equal to one euro so at first the price of things sound really expensive but then once you do the conversion you realize how truly cheap it is. I nearly choked when I heard a candle was 300 but once I figured out that meant 30 euro I felt much better.

Me and all the girls got henna on our hands. I was amazed at how quickly they did it. It took the woman less than a minute to do my entire hand and it turned out awesome, she even wrote my name in Arabic.

Dinner was served at the hotel and during our meal we had an entertaining performance. There were dancers and drummers and men with trays of candles on their head. They came tearing into the room like a hurricane. The most impressive part was the little old man with the fire and candles. I still don’t understand how he was able to balance all the candles on his head with such ease.

I learned an interesting thing about eating in Morocco. You technically aren’t supposed to eat with your left hand because your left hand is said to be used to wipe yourself in the bathroom. Times are changing and now people use toilet paper (thank god) and they don’t frown upon using your left hand as much, but back in the day it was a very big no no. Same goes for shaking hands, you are never supposed to use your left hand to greet someone. It is like saying f you, but 100 times worse.

After dinner there was a party on the top floor for all the DiscoverExcursion people. We went for a little to make an appearance, but didn’t stay long. We stayed for just enough time to drool over the attractive tour guides. The whole trip we had a sneaking suspicion that one girl was dating San Diego, but we weren’t too sure because they weren’t affectionate. After placing our bets about their relationship, my friend Jordan pranced right on up to her and flat out asked her about her and San Diego. And yes, he called him that to her. I was shocked and horrified and extremely amused all at one time. At first the girl denied it but then ultimately admitted that they were together but had to keep it on the DL because of the tour company rules.

The next day we went to Asilah, a little town on the coast of Morocco. Here we did some bargaining, exploring and picture taking. It was beautiful and there were the coolest little colorful doors all over the place. After we exhausted our wallets we went to ride camels! Because there were so many of us we only got about five minutes on the camel but I luckily got to go twice. They were rather uncomfortable to sit on, but sort of felt like riding a horse. I felt bad for the camels though because they were treated so badly. I could tell they were not happy little guys.

One of the awesome walls in Asilah

After riding camels and playing on the beach we took off for the ferry to start our descent back to Seville. Morocco was an incredible place to visit and I will definitely be going back. It was eye opening and informative but also unbelievably beautiful. Hopefully next time I’ll be able to go back with my Meme! I’ve already found a view awesome resorts in Marrakesh with lavish spas and dining (wink, wink).

Me riding a camel!

The beach right next to where we were riding camels – a view of the Atlantic from Africa!

A Rough Start to Spring Break

For my break from break (as my dad likes to put it) me,  Ann Marie and our friend Maddie decided we wanted to go to Morocco and Spain. We knew doing a trip to Morocco on our own would be really difficult so we planned it through a tour company. We chose DiscoverExcursions, which had a weekend trip to Morocco that left from Seville, Spain. It seemed like everything would be relatively simple to get to Morocco. We’d train to Rome Friday morning , then take a plane from Rome to Seville and then we’d bus to Morocco that afternoon. Not super simple, but not overly complicated. Train, plane, bus, we could do it! We just had to make sure we were in Seville by 4:30pm to get on the tour bus.

Well… we had a very, very large wrench thrown in our plans when Thursday afternoon Ryanair CANCELED our flight from Rome to Seville. They just flat out canceled it less than 24 hours before our flight. I had already checked in online and printed out my boarding pass for crying out loud!! Ryanair didn’t even give us another option to get there. They basically said sorry you are SOL and you can switch to another flight for free so long as you can find one taking you to where you need to go. We went into full panic mode searching for cheap flights to get us to Seville. Everything we found was about 300 euro or more, but we eventually found another Ryanair flight from Milan Bergamo to Seville on Friday morning. It sounded wonderful and all until we realized it meant we’d have to leave THAT night for Milan and spend the night in a hotel. This threw us into a packing frenzy trying to get everything ready last minute. We were expecting to have the entire night to get packed and prepared to leave for 10 days.

Four hours later we were on our way to the train station in Florence. I practically dragged my body to the Santa Maria Novella station because I was so exhausted from not sleeping a minute the night before. I was assured that I’d get to sleep on the train though so that was helping to keep me sane. We had to train to Milan Central and then had a connecting train from Milan Central to Bergamo. But because having your flight get cancelled last minute isn’t enough, we also had our train to Milan get delayed an hour. This then made us miss our train to Bergamo. Basically everything that could do wrong DID go wrong. When we got to the Milan Central station our train was no where to be found. Ann Marie and Maddie deliberated staying in the train station until 3am when the buses would start to run, but I couldn’t physically or mentally take another night of no sleep. We had to cave and get a taxi all the way to Bergamo, which was about 45 minutes away and cost 100 euro. The ride really wasn’t too bad though and it went quicker than expected. I was beyond ecstatic when we got to the Best Western in Bergamo. We checked in around 1:30am and as soon as I got into our room I crashed on the bed. By Thursday night (technically Friday morning) I had been awake for 41 straight hours, no naps no nothing, except a lot of stress.

The next day we woke up at 6:30am and got on our way to the airport to leave for Seville. We eventually made it to Seville and now we are in safely in Morocco!! It was quite the journey to get here but it’s been so beautiful and different, and definitely worth all the traveling troubles. I just pray we don’t have something like that happen again. Moral of the story is DO NOT trust Ryanair or trains, or for that matter, any form of transportation, but mostly don’t trust Ryanair. I’m still blown away by the fact that they can just up and cancel a flight a few hours before it’s supposed to leave and not give anyone another option of getting to their destination. This has been my first time flying Ryanair and will mostly likely be my last.

So Not A Morning Person

For those of you who know me well, you know I’m the farthest thing from a morning person. I despise mornings more than anything in this world. My body, my brain, neither function in the early morning hours. It doesn’t matter how much coffee I have either, nothing helps. In the morning I don’t speak and I can hardly move. You’d think I was pissed at the world and sometimes I’ve had people think I was pissed at them, but that’s never it, I just can’t do mornings.

Waking up before 10am is a feat for me, so you can imagine how difficult I find it to wake up for these 6:30am, 7:30am flights. The cheap airlines always seems to have the absolute worst flight times. It’s like they get the left over times that no other airline wants because they’re so awful.

The reason I’m telling you this is because I am currently sitting on a plane getting ready to take off for Italy and the time is 7:10am. This is the second day in a row that I’ve woken up before sunrise. Now, I know I can’t complain too much because these early mornings are getting me to places all over the world, but it doesn’t make waking up at 4:30am any easier.

It’s at the point where getting more than 6 hours of sleep is abnormal. Usually I run off of about 4 hours of sleep, but I’m the kind of person who needs at least 8 hours to function properly. It’s been a rough two months, well, kinda… Not really. I’ve gotten to travel to three different countries and multiple different cities, so it’s only been rough up to a certain point.

Just to give you an idea of how often I wake up early I’d like to tell you how many alarms before 7am I currently have saved on my phone. Drum roll please! There are alarms for 3:50am, 4am, 4:40am, 5am, 5:15am, 5:50am, 6:15am and 6:45am. The 3:50am alarm was definitely the roughest, leaving me two hours of sleep the night before. Today was the 4:40am alarm and when it went off I thought it was a bad dream. I’ve been walking around like a half asleep zombie and, to make matters worse, I was forced to throw my brand new coffee away before I got on the plane because they wouldn’t allow hot drinks. I think I took three sips of it max. I also burnt my tongue, and for what… NADA.

I suppose I should try to learn how to be a morning person because for the next month and a half I will be traveling nearly every weekend. I am so excited to travel to places like Morocco, Spain, France and Switzerland but I am very much less than excited to wake up at the crack of dawn.

Well, I’m off to try and nap on this two hour flight back to Italy. Stay posted for a blog about my amazing trip to Ireland, one of my new favorite countries!

A Taste of Tuscany

There is an unwritten rule that you can’t study abroad in Italy and not do a wine tasting tour. My whole life I’ve heard of people talking about how beautiful the wine vineyards are in Tuscany and how you have to go visit. I figured this weekend would be as good a time as ever to do my first wine tasting!

Now… what I’m about to say puts me at risk of sounding like a huge idiot, but I’m going to say it anyways. However, before I say anything I have a question/test for anyone reading this. Raise your hand if you think Tuscany is a town/village in Italy. Well, if you are one of those people who raised your hand or just thought, “yes, Tuscany is a town” you are, how do I say this nicely?, wrong. Tuscany is actually a region in Italy and is composed of approximately 38 different cities and communes, Florence being the capital. For the longest amount of time I thought Tuscany was a town in Italy, I had no idea it was a region. You can imagine just how stupid I felt when I found out I was living in Tuscany, while still talking about wanting to visit Tuscany.

Anyways, yesterday I got to experience my first wine tasting! My friend Rachel and I did a Bus2Alps wine tasting tour of Tuscany. The bus left bright and early at 8am for our first stop in Montalcino. I tried so hard to keep my eyes open, to watch the beautiful view on the ride up, but I couldn’t fight my tiredness and I eventually fell asleep. It took us two hours to get to the vineyard in Montalcino, but it felt like 20 minutes to me. Montalcino is known for boasting some of the world’s greatest grapes. While there, we got a vineyard tour and tasted a few different wines, one being the famous Brunello di Montalcino. It was a little early in the morning to be drinking (10:30 am to be exact) but we didn’t have much of a choice so Rachel and I decided to just drink up.

The view was absolutely spectacular! We looked out at rolling hills and scattered vineyards, a sea of various green hues. We took pictures and sipped our wine until it was time to head back onto the bus. Our next stop was a local winery outside of Siena, Tenuta Torciano. There we tried around eight different types of wine paired with traditional Tuscan appetizers and meals. When we were first told we would be having eight glasses of wine everyone was a little concerned, but it turned out that those “glasses” were more like sips. I think I maybe have had two full glasses of wine, if that.

The guy leading the wine tasting was funny, but extremely flirty and kept making sexual innuendos… kinda strange. He told us that the winery was a family business and that his great-great-grandma and grandpa were the ones who started it. He also informed us that they had 18 children, so it’s no wonder it’s still a family business. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that that woman had 18 children! Crazy people. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to handle one of my own…

The wine and food was delicious but I got a slight headache from all the wine I had slowly consumed over the course of the day. Once again, I fell asleep on the bus on our way to San Gimignano, missing the breathtaking winding view through the mountains.

The view from San Gimignano

San Gimignano was a beautiful little medieval town perched on a hill overlooking all of Tuscany. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, it has 14 of the original 72 towers that were once standing. It was such an adorable, quaint town but I found it hard to enjoy because it was freezing outside and the small walkways, which made up the town, functioned a lot like wind tunnels. The wind was just too vicious to compete against. Of course, that didn’t stop us from getting gelato because we are American girls and every where we go we must get gelato. We got “the worlds greatest gelato” at Gelateria Dondoli and I must say, it was pretty damn good.

We left San Gimignano for Florence at 5pm and as soon as I made it back I went home and headed straight for my bed, which I didn’t leave for the rest of the night. I decided that I will need to make another trip back to San Gimignano another time when it is warmer. I thought that studying abroad during the spring semester would mean that it would be warm out, but I was horribly mistaken. IT IS FREEZING, EVERYWHERE! I decided to give up watching SnapChat stories because they only make me depressed when I see everyone in 75 degree weather. The weather here is in the 50s but the crazy strong winds make it feel like its in the 40s. I’m turning into a ghost and a hermit, I need some sun shine already!!

Florence For A Change

Every weekend of this semester I have traveled to a different place. Sometimes it’s a day trip, but most times it’s a long, multiple nights kind of trip. This past weekend was the first time since the first weekend I got here that I stayed in Florence the entire time. And you know what I realized, I really love Florence! It was nice not to travel for a change because, as much as I love airports, I had had my fair share of them this past month. Traveling is also extremely tiring so I was definitely in need of some down time.

My two friends from UGA, who are studying abroad in London, came to Florence for the weekend as part of their Italy tour spring break. They were the first people to visit me here and it was so fun showing them all around Florence. On Saturday night Ann Marie and I took them out to Osteria Santo Spirito, one of the best restaurants in Florence. I got the most delicious pasta with clams and Victoria and Katelyn got some traditional limoncello. Later we took them to Yab Night Club because we wanted to give them an authentic night out in Italy. Most other places, like Red Garter or TwentyOne, are filled with American study abroad students and sometimes it’s hard to tell if you are in Italy or America. Of course it is impossible to avoid all Americans when going out in Florence and inevitably we met some American guys. They seemed normal and not creepy until one of them randomly, and to my surprise, introduced me to someone as his wife. I remember standing with my mouth gaping open at him, unable to shake hands with the guy in front of me when I heard him say it. He could tell I was shocked and he encouraged me to go with it, which I eventually did because why not, I knew I’d never see either of them again.

On Sunday we did a grand tour of Florence and walked all around the city. We tried to get into The Boboli Gardens but because it was the first Sunday of the month the line was out the door, and then some. Florence does this annoying-yet-trying-to-be-nice thing where all public museums and historical buildings are free to enter on the first Sunday of every month. It sounds great in theory but it is actually awful because lines wrap around buildings and into the streets. I also have a museum card so I get into places for free on any day of the week, but even if I didn’t have that card I’d still rather pay seven euro than wait in line for an hour.

We went to Gusta Pizza for lunch because you can’t visit Florence without eating there. It would just be wrong. Gusta Pizza is the best pizza I’ve ever had in my entire life and I’ve had A LOT of New York pizza before, this beats any of it. We all made ourselves sick because the pizza was so incredible that we couldn’t stop until every last crumb of our personal pizzas was gone. A long walk after lunch helped us feel a little less guilty about the mass amount of pizza we had just ate. We made our way back across the river to Piazza della Signoria and found ourselves in the middle of some parade-like performance. There were tons of men in medieval/renaissance costumes with large flags and instruments. I had no idea what was going on but it looked really cool and they put on a good show! We eventually ended our walking tour with a visit to the Gucci museum, which I had been dying to go to.

I planned so many things for us to do on Monday but Mother Nature had other plans and we couldn’t do any of the things I wanted to do because of the rain. It wasn’t until Wednesday that we were finally able to go to the Boboli Gardens. I immediately fell in love with the gardens and I kept wondering why I hadn’t been earlier. It is my new favorite place in Florence. Actually… it may be tied with Piazzale Michelangelo. We went there on Tuesday night and the whole city of Florence was lit up. It was absolutely stunning.

The view from Piazzale Michelangelo

After seeing the gardens we went inside the Pitti Palace and walked around the costume gallery and jewels gallery. Fashion and jewelry museum exhibits, just the kind of exhibits I love! Basically I fell in love with all things related to the Pitti Palace and I can’t wait to go back again, which will probably be tomorrow.

Victoria and I in the Boboli Gardens

The most outrageous part of Victoria and Katelyn’s visit was “The Coco Guy’s” concert aka O.T. Genasis. He sings the song “Coco” and if you don’t know it have no fear because you can learn all the lyrics in approximately 30 seconds. All you need to know is “I’m in love with the coco” and “baking soda, I got baking soda.” If you know those two lines you’ll be set to see him in concert! He sings one song, and one song only, therefore, he restarted the song three times before singing it all the way through. Even though he is a one hit wonder and his song only has two different lines, it was a fun concert. I still cannot get the song out of my head to save my life. It may be a ridiculous song, but it sure is a ridiculously catchy song.

O.T. Genasis “The Coco Guy”

I’m spending this weekend in Florence AGAIN because I loved it so much last weekend. Isn’t spending time in the city you’re studying abroad in such a novel idea?! Yeah, I thought so too. Maybe I will finally get to climb the duomo and bell tower! One can only hope. Stay posted to find out!

Side Note: I caved and bought a selfie stick