Transitions: going from Hi, to hola to ciao

Hello everyone! or better yet, Ciao Tutti (!) I’m Esther and I’ll be keeping you updated on all things Roma during this Fall 2013 semester. I will also be writing a regular column on the Loyola Phoenix so check it out!

As I said on my bio, I’m a journalism student at Loyola with a particular interest in cultural anthropology and international studies. Translation: I LOVE observing, talking to, and writing about people, culture and city life. As a dear professor of mine once said, I get my best stories from taxi drivers, people at the bus, and street vendors, and I really hope you find them as exciting as I do! (they are really cool people and always have the coolest stories to tell, you’d be surprised).

So let’s get down to business and tell you a little more about my background.

I was born and raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela, a coastal city in the north west of the country–or, as I usually describe it, the place next to the lake where most of Venezuelan oil is. I moved to the US in 2011 and since then have been trying to keep my tropical blood warm in the cold Chicago weather. I love it though!

Having been fortunate enough to travel around  from an early age, I caught the traveling bug a while ago. As my parents like to say, you need to see the world and its different cultures, peoples and places, to understand your place in the global society. In other words, the most you see, the most you learn, the most you know and become to respect other people (and who doesn’t like to travel to cool places anyway).

Bottom line, I like moving around, explore and get to know new places, so it was about time to leave Chicago for a while and experience a new culture here in Italy. I’ve been in Europe for three weeks now (first with my family and now at the JFRC), and have had a blast walking around and getting lost in the cities I’ve visited–from taking a gondola ride around Venice to almost falling off the Swiss Alps inside a tour bus on my way to Furka Pass (I’m not even kidding). It has been quite an adventure!

Well, that’s enough about me. I hope to be blogging soon with more details of my time here. Ci vediamo dopo amici! (See you later guys!).

 

Baci,

 

Esther