I have to give thanks to my parents and my uncles for making me love nature and be an adventurer at heart. And I also have to give thanks to my friends Kate and Reed for organizing the trip to the best park I’ve visited in a long time.
The Monday of the Chinese national holiday, the Autumn Festival, we embarked on a twenty-four-hour train to the Hunan province, on the south of China. Fortunately, we bought the train tickets with enough time to get beds during the ride and we were able to sleep for most of it until we arrived at Zhangjiajie, the city in Hunan where we stayed. Have already taken four overnight trains during our excursion along the Silk Road, we consider ourselves train experts. And we were very well prepared, with ramen, peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches and a lot of movies, among them Avatar, shot in the park we were going to visit.
After the train trip, we made it to the hostel craving to eat real food and take a shower. The hostel was we stayed was full of international students and close to a lot of local restaurants and bars. We dined like kings. Our friend Lenny, born and raised in the Hunan province, showed us the best traditional food of the area. That night, we also explored the city and bought traditional Chinese mooncakes.
The next day we visited Tianzi mountain, a popular attraction in the Wunlingyuan park. Without noticing and with a lot of strength, we climbed the mountain, our legs begging us to rest and the fog surrounding us. It took us around two hours, but getting to the top of the mountain was worth it. It felt like we were in a movie; the fog embracing us and not letting us see beyond our arms, but we loved the feeling of having made it and touching the highest rocks in the park. My friends almost cried with happiness while eating McDonald’s at the top of the mountain, but I was shocked seeing how far junk food has gotten, to the top of a mountain of one of the most beautiful parks in the world! We didn’t have the energy to walk down the mountain, so we got on a cable car and flew between the mountains, expecting to see the creatures from Avatar fly alongside us. Although I’m terrified of hights, I was able to survive the ride on the cable car. And it was so worth it.
Our hostel was in a city about an hour away from the park, so we took a bus back, where we all fell asleep. When we got back to the city of Zhangjiajie, where we were staying, we discovered a small restaurant next to our hostel and we ate there every single day, enjoying the best fried rice we’ve ever had.
The next day we walked in nature some more, but this time downhill. We took another cable car to the top of a different mountain and saw more fog, beautiful mountains and took a lot of pictures. We walked up a very high peak (I was very scared), we screamed to hear the echo rumble and did more exercise that we had done in weeks. And telling each other stories we hadn’t heard already we started walking downhill, this time our knees suffering. The way down was hard but rewarded by another delicious dinner and a night exploring the nightlife of the city.
Time flew by. And by the third day, I thought we had seen everything. We rode the fastest glass elevator in the world all the way to the top of yet another different mountain. It was a little disappointing because we couldn’t see much due to the amount of people in the elevator. But when we reached the top we had the best view of the whole three days and amazing noodles and roasted walnuts made by locals. We met another group of American students, one of us jumped in a lake after losing a bet, we saw rivers, and monkeys in their natural habitat, we had honey on a stick when we reached the valley of the mountain and we made memories that will be with us forever.
Another memory that is going to last us a lifetime is the one of the ride back to Beijing on a train that lasted almost thirty hours. We didn’t have beds this time, and I slept around two hours, with my head on a small table where three of my friends were also laying their heads. Being the way I am, I finished two books; and being the way we are, we watched three to four movies. And we ate more Nutella and peanut butter sandwiches. It was a very long ride. We spent the last four hours with people really close to us standing in the aisles. It was definitely an interesting experience. But it wasn’t horrible because we were a good group of people; we all got along very well and were organized well. I couldn’t have chosen a better group of people to travel with.
I know this wasn’t my last trip outside of Beijing, but it will certainly be one of the best. And the most beautiful.
Today was our 10th day in Switzerland and in 2 days we will fly back to Amman. So quickly, we switched from conscious showers and laundry days in the 3rd most water stressed country to being steps away from a huge lake where it also rains nearly every other day. We are so lucky to experience two extremely different cultures and landscapes it’s incredible. The only common thing we have experienced in both Amman and Switzerland has been the food. Our stomaches expanded for the frequency of eating in Amman and that did not have to change when we came here! I have never eaten so much ice cream, chocolate, and cheese in my entire life!
It has been such a happy time here for all of us! We all immediately felt excited, safe, and comfortable right when we arrived. We are so lucky because we got to be here during the fall season which has been SO beautiful with so many colors! I’ve gone swimming twice and I got to rent a bike for 4 hours for free!! And I rode it to see the country side! Within the towns we have visited, everything seems so convenient and close — within each town we could walk anywhere we wanted to go. We first stayed in Geneva, then Nyon, and now we are in Montreux. I think we all loved Geneva the most. Everyone here is so beautiful and they all look so effortlessly cool!!! Most people ride their bikes, rollerblades, or scooters. Scooters have been SO common.
We have gotten to visit the United Nations, the Red Cross and their museum, the OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), WHO (World Health Organization), UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). Wow writing that out reminds me how much we have gotten to do in just this short trip! So we had lectures from each of these organizations about what they do, their personal experiences, and challenges they have had. Everyone in our program wants to have some sort of career in humanitarian aid or international relations so this has been a dream to visit these places. It has been so inspiring and helpful to imagine all the different things we are capable of doing with our future!
And while visiting all these organizations and meeting such inspiring people, we have also gotten to explore around so much! Today some of us got to take these cool trains up to this beautiful mountain and we got to hike for over 4 hours! It was such an unbelievable experience with so many beautiful colors, such nice people, and the freshest air!!! We hiked up so high that we could see clouds below us even and we also saw so many people paragliding! It’s so hard to share how beautiful it was I wish I could transport whoever is reading this there for just a few seconds!! Anyways, we got to a point where we climbing vertically kind of haha and then we ate our braided bread up there which we bought in a town down below from the happiest woman (:
Tomorrow we are taking a train to Bern which is the capital and then we will go back to Jordan soon after that! Although we all love it here so much I think it was the perfect amount of time and I am happy we are going back to Amman because we all already feel so comfortable here and at times it reminds us of home in some ways. I think the point of study abroad, or at least the program we chose, is to travel outside of our comfort zone and to experience and learn about things we are not so familiar with. It was so refreshing to be here but it is definitely time soon to go back and challenge ourselves again! We will be starting our independent study projects soon when we get back and I am really looking forward to it. My idea right now is to study and document the struggles of refugee women and girls with disabilities because there are no special services or resources for their needs. So I’m interested to document what they are going through and what would best nurture their mental and physical health. I will write more about it when I develop it further!
The first few times I called home, when I told my family everything we have been doing, it didn’t sound like we were really in school and I know they worried about whether I was really learning or not. So, after after being in Amman for a little more than one month, these are the few things I have learned. (:
Go adventure! Meet people!
Be strong. And Aware. And find the balance of keeping my guard up while also remaining soft and kind.
Try all the new foods.
Do the things I can’t do at home — prioritize spending time & money on experiences not things.
REFLECT REFLECT REFLECT — It is what slows things down and puts me where I am or else everything will just blur by faster than it already does.
Say thank you (:
Drink all the tea!
Listen to people. Get lost in listening to them. Don’t worry so much about the time. Ask them about their life here and what they love about their life!
Pay attention to those around me who make me feel good, appreciate them, and focus on making them feel good too.
Allow people to do nice things for me — then reciprocate!
Contact my family often!!! — Everything for me here is new but for them, life is mostly the same just without me there — so call them and tell them I love them all the time (:
Look up the facebook events in my city so I can do many things!
Find ways to pick myself up when I’m feelin down — music, movies, books, exercise, going outside, dancing, sunsets, climb trees, swim!!
*** Be sure to sincerely thank those who have helped me to have these opportunities & those who have helped me feel welcomed. Then GIVE BACK to the community that has welcomed me!
“Few things in this world are worth feeling like an unwelcomed guest” – Nujeen Mustafa
Remember what it felt like to be a guest so that when I go back home I can warmly welcome others and go out of my way to help them the way countless people have done for me here.
(and of course I am learning arabic and tons of things about humanitarian aid also!!)
This semester in Rome, I was fortunate enough to get hired as a marketing intern for a company called The Roman Guy. The Roman Guy specializes in various VIP tours of different tourist attractions all around Rome, as well as several local food tours in different areas. As an assignment for my class ROST 370, I am required to reflect on my experience of working as an intern for this company.
When I first started this internship, to be honest I did not know what to expect. I’ll admit that I was really excited but also scared over the thought of having an internship in a foreign country. Upon visiting the office for the first time, I expected it to be a huge office with a lot of workers. This surprised me when I first arrived, because the office is pretty small with only about 30 employees. It also surprised me how young the majority of my coworkers are. When I had my first meeting with my bosses Lorna and Sian, they told me that for my internship I would be doing a lot of research on different tourist destinations in Rome and a lot of writing. My internship so far has been filling this expectation, because every week I am given an assignment to finish a blog post about a tourist attraction. For example, this week I had the assignment of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. I spent one of my work days researching the history of the chapel, the artists who painted there, their artwork, and specific rules the chapel has upon visiting. After gathering all of this information, I then have to write a blog post about it and send it to my other boss Francesca when i’m finished for revision. She then looks it over and asks me to change anything if it needs it, and then she sends it over to the graphic design team who then publishes my post to the company’s website. I also expected this internship to be strengthening my marketing skills, and so far having this internship has been filling that expectation. Part of my job is to run the companies instagram, and this previous week I had to read different articles on how to appeal more to your audience and gain more followers. From this, I began to create more aesthetically pleasing posts which helped target a specific audience and ultimately helped us gain more followers. So far, the most interesting part of my internship is when I create different tourism attraction posts for our company’s website. It is interesting to me because I am improving my writing skills drastically and also it is interesting to keep learning new things about different attractions in Rome that I never knew before. It is also awesome to see my finished blog post on our company’s website because it makes me proud of my work. So far, one of the tasks that I have to do that I find the least interesting is editing blog posts using the blog life cycle. For each blog post, there is a checklist that our company has to follow to make sure that the blog has each aspect in order to make a strong post. This is my least favorite task because it usually takes a while to change a specific blog post because some are harder to edit than other ones. Also, it can be frustrating when you have done everything that you thought you could have to make a blog better but WordPress says that the post is not good and still needs more editing. So far, this academic internship has been improving my understanding of concepts that I learned from other marketing courses in college, but in a different way. In my internship, we use aspects like having a target audience and using general marketing tactics to make our company more well known. It is different in a sense because most of my marketing courses focused on marketing a huge corporation or a product, and this internship focuses on marketing our brand as well as a photo, event, or a blog post. Some personal learning goals that I have for this internship are to expand my marketing skills, strengthen my writing, and improve my creativity. So far, I have been achieving my goal of expanding my marketing skills and strengthening my writing, but at this point in my internship I am focusing on being more creative with our content and being more independent with my work. So far, that is my complete reflection about my internship and so far I am really enjoying it. I can’t wait to see what the future holds and how I will change as a person once this internship is completed.
This year for fall break (which was a glorious 10 days long) my father and I traveled to Egypt and Turkey. Why those countries, you ask? They’d been at the top of my bucket list for years. Before, my dad used to say that we couldn’t go, which was probably right with all the political happenings. But this year the trip was planned and booked by June.
My dad met me in the Cairo airport. I landed first and late, so it wasn’t very crowded. I wandered around baggage claim waiting for him, trying to find WiFi to let him know where I was. He got in two hours after me, and then we met our driver and transit guide (from EMO Tours) outside. This was our first major interaction with an Egyptian person, and he was nothing but kind.
The drive was about an hour, and we must’ve driven for about five minutes before we left the secure airport area. The “highway” was surprising clear, as I’d learn later, and we drove past signs for New Cairo, Maadi, and Giza. There were no lines on the road to separate lanes, and there were tons of billboards lit up with English and Arabic words. People were gathered on the side of the highway, waiting for a bus of sorts to come pick them up.
Our hotel was gated and the car was scanned before it was allowed to pass. Dad tipped our driver and guide in Egyptian lira. One of the most heartbreaking things about Egypt is that 1 USD equals 17 Egyptian lira/pounds. We ate at the hotel restaurant a few times, and our bill would say 98 pounds, which in reality is just under $6. And it was good food too, no detail missed.
The next morning we saw the pyramids for the first time from our hotel window. They were just as grand and I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was actually there. When dad and I went downstairs to meet our guide for the day, a woman holding a sign with EMO Tours on it met us. Her name was Ola and she wore a long black skirt that swished around her ankles, a warm-looking green long sleeve, and a black hijab. Over the day, we would learn much about and from her, and she would come to feel much like family.
Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan, the first mosque we visited.A busy street in downtown Cairo.The building on the right is what the majority of buildings in Cairo look like. Some are even empty, and you can tell which ones those are because they don’t have windows yet.
Over the first day we visited mosques, the Step Pyramid in Sakkara, the three major pyramids, the Sphinx, a major historic street, and so many other gorgeous sites. At every site, we went through a metal detector. There were usually multiple armed guards, and tons of salesmen trying to sell cheap little Pyramids, scarves, and other souvenirs from China. And of course, a good number of tourists and Egyptian people alike.
The Great Pyramid of Giza was one of my favorite sites. First of all, it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and probably the only one I’ll get to visit in my lifetime. Second, the view from up there was amazing, and it was my first time seeing the sandy and dark brown city from above. The air was warm and dry, and the sun was baking. Third, I got to stand on the Pyramid! (We didn’t go in because we’d heard that there wasn’t much to see and that it was just cramped.) The blocks that made up the Pyramid itself were huge, and the ones we walked on were worn from shoes. It towered over us, and put history in perspective. Ola was very kind and let us explore on our own a little bit because she knew my dad and I both loved photography. She waited patiently for us and gave us tips on how to avoid getting scammed out of our money, one of which was don’t take a picture of a camel because the rider will charge you money for it! Another bit of advice was avoid the people in bathrooms trying to turn the faucet on for you or give you paper towels because they will ask you for money too.
The view while standing on the side of the Great Pyramid of Giza.The Great Pyramid of Giza with the Pyramid of Khafre in the foreground.
We ate lunch at a local shop, where Ola ordered us food that she thought we should try at my dad’s request. It was amazing. My dad asked Ola tons of questions, some on the etiquette of men and women in Egyptian society. Ola told us that if I hadn’t been with them, another woman, people would have frowned upon Ola because she was with an unfamiliar man (my dad) who wasn’t her husband. When we first met her, she shook our hands, which she later explained wasn’t normal because she wasn’t supposed to touch a man. She greeted/said goodbye to me by “kissing” both cheeks, which I came to expect while in Egypt and Turkey. We stopped at a papyrus shop on the way back to our hotel where we learned how papyrus paper is made, and purchased a small bit to take home.
The next morning, we left for the airport at 3:30am. We were flying to Luxor, Egypt, which is about 400 miles south of Cairo. Our second tour guide, Shimaa, met us at Luxor Airport. Our driver for that day had a car with a bright, lime green interior. It constantly baffles me that although the average income in Egypt is $300, the majority own cars.
Luxor was much quieter than Cairo, with far fewer cars, and much warmer. We drove alongside the river, past a herd of sheep, tied up horses and donkeys, and gatherings of kids on the tall bank above the water. Trees sprouted at the edge of the water and on the higher banks. Both in Cairo and Luxor people still use horses/donkeys to pull carts of produce. It’s definitely a unique cross of developed and undeveloped.
The herd of sheep we passed while on our way to the Temple of Hatshepsut.
Our first stop in Luxor was the Temple of Hatshepsut. It’s carved directly out of the side of the mountain, with three layered terraces each with an impressive set of columns. It has a “modern” feel, that was not repeated in that time. Shimaa, our tour guide, told us the story of why the temple was built so large, which was because Hatshepsut was unhappy each time the designer added another layer. On its walls it featured beautifully painted walls that were mostly faded, but some held their color.
The great Temple of Hatshepsut.
Next up was Karnak Temple, a huge temple that’s still largely intact. It had absolutely gorgeous columns carved with Egyptian symbols. Then we ate lunch at one of the open restaurants, which was rice and stew. We also met a family of six that was originally from America, but were living in Saudi Arabia. After lunch we went to our last place of the day: Luxor Temple. It is a good sized temple with huge statues of Egyptian kings and pharos, such as King Ramses II and King Tut. It has giant columns like other temples, and at sunset the light shining through them was beautiful. That night we returned to Cairo.
Karnak Temple.The Temple of Luxor at sunset.A typical fruit market in Luxor, Egypt.
On our third day in Egypt, Ola was our guide again. She took us to the Egyptian Museum, which we breezed through. We saw hundreds of artifacts from King Tut’s tomb, which must’ve taken up half a floor of the museum. We spent only an hour there, when we could’ve spent five. Next we visited a series of religious buildings, which included a Catholic Church, two mosques, and an old synagogue. The last hour of the time we had with Ola she took us on a cruise on the Nile River. We got on a huge sailboat and ate koshari, which is a traditional Egyptian dish made up of rice, lentils, pasta noodles, and topped with tomato sauce. It was delicious! Dad asked Ola if we could make it at home, and she laughed and said no because it would take a long time because there were so many parts. When it came time to say goodbye to Ola, we tipped her 50 Egyptian pounds (about $3) and €20, which for her would go a long way. We wanted to help her out, even though we knew that it wouldn’t go very far for long.
View of Cairo from the Mosque of Muhammad Ali.The Nile River at sundown.The Mosque of Amr.
We spent a lot of time in traffic on the last day, but the first two days were fairly easy. Friday and Saturday are holy days, so nobody works. Sunday is a work day, which caused every single car it seemed to be on the road. Cairo, and Egypt in general, is a country that never sleeps. We were out at 12am and a decent number of people would still be out. A interesting part of Egyptian culture is that they eat breakfast around 10am, lunch around 4pm, and then dinner around 10pm and sometimes even later. Traditionally, only men are “allowed” out at late hours. Families hope for boys to be born because they have much more freedom than women do. Egypt is a country tied to their traditions, although some are trying to change the norms. The difference between Ola (living in Cairo) and Shimaa (living in Luxor) was vast. Shimaa said that she believed that believing in her religion was enough; that she didn’t need to pray the allotted five times a day because Allah already knows that she believes in him. Ola, on the other hand, prays as much as she can. She finds comfort in it, and at one of the mosques we visited, my dad and I explored while she went to prayer. Ola also told us that she doesn’t listen to music because it’s forbidden, while Shimaa talked openly about what music she liked.
Walking around Cairo people stared at us. My dad asked Ola if she noticed it once, and she said yes. She said it was because he was there, and that I had my head uncovered and was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt. Ola said that they appreciated us being there because we were tourists. After the revolution in 2011, the tourism at some monuments dropped 95%. Its made a slow recovery, but nothing like it used to be pre-revolution. That is evident in the “average” life of Egyptians, where they work hard if they have a job and work hard if they don’t. This was the closest to poverty that I have ever come. Ola worked incredibly hard and suffers from neck and back pain. She doesn’t complain because she has to work to help support her family (husband + two kids). I hope someday that I can return to Egypt and see her. I’ve never had a friend in a country like Egypt, and it tugs at my heart when I think of her.
Me and our wonderful, amazing tour guide Ola. I hope to see her again one day!
P.S. Turkey is blogged about in a different post. Happy Halloween!
The leaves have started changing color here and you can find me drinking, no not tea, but instant coffee. Yes, the locals might be ashamed of me that I don’t drink tea but I don’t think anyone has caught on to me yet. Fun fact, the public transportation system is entirely different from the crazy L train in Chicago. The Tube is quiet, yes, I really mean quiet and if someone is having a conversation they’re talking in hushed tone. So, if you’re on the Tube and you’re talking extremely loudly expect to get some dirty looks thrown at you or at least a sideways glance. On the plus side, I’d like to think I’m blending in because I get asked for directions. I’ve also probably directed people the total opposite way, but hey that’s okay. Also, don’t forget to tap your oyster when leaving the Tube because that will get you some dirty looks for holding up the exit and a very embarrassing experience.
If you decide to take a walk through the beautiful Kensington Gardens, watch out for the birds. The swans and geese swimming in the pond are stunning, until they decide to attack. A flock of pigeons almost took me down after my run and I seemed to be the only person fazed. Kensington Gardens is beautiful in the fall with all the leaves changing color so it is definitely a must see, especially with Kensington Palace attached to it where William and Kate live (no sightings of them yet unfortunately). If you’re told to “queue up” they’re not talking about your Netflix queue they’re asking you to line up. As much as I’ve tried to blend in they definitely know the Americans from the locals and there is nothing wrong with that! Just remember to stay in hushed tones on the Tube and watch out for the birds and you’ll be okay.
So, it’s been awhile. I haven’t had the opportunity to make a blog post recently because my computer broke and I wasn’t able to use it for awhile. So, I’m gonna try to catch you guys up on what I have been up to. Because I haven’t posted in awhile, this post won’t have any pictures, but you can see them all on my facebook!
A little over a month ago, I went on a day trip to Segovia with my friends Julia and Rachel. After arriving at the train station, we took a cab to the Roman Aqueduct. It’s original purpose was to bring in water to the city. Now, it’s just kinda there and something that looks really cool. Actually, it is one of the best preserved elevated aqueducts! We then walked to the cathedral and then did a little tour. With it’s beautiful gothic architecture, it was amazing inside and out. After the cathedral, we went to the Alcazar, which means its a Spanish palace of moorish origin. There are many Alcazars around Spain because it is where the royal family would stay when visiting different cities. We decided that paying the extra 2 euros would be worth the view at the top of the castle, and we were right! We had a view of most of the town and could even see the cathedral. The 152 steps were kinda rough, but the view was totally worth it! Overall, the day trip to Segovia was super fun and very interesting!
The next weekend I actually stayed in Madrid and had a very relaxing weekend. It was nice to relax, and catch up with family and friends from home. I think I facetimed different people almost all day long. I realized I couldn’t stay in my room the whole weekend though, so I decided to explore Madrid a little bit more. I ended up going the Prado with some friends, which is an art museum in Madrid. The artwork was super interesting, and it was a pretty good day learning more about the history of Spain. During the week in my flamenco class, we had a super fun day of trying on different flamenco outfits. We had a little photoshoot, and it was so fun! After that, my friend Julia and I went to a cute coffee shop called Monkee Koffee and hung out there for a little bit and did some studying! As a snack, I bought a “bowl of fruit” and it was honestly so good. They mixed the fruit with honey and some other stuff that makes it a pretty popular snack that students get while studying here.
The weekend after that I went to Córdoba with Jackie! It was the weekend of our fall break, so we decided a short two day trip would be perfect. Afterall, we still had midterms that we needed to study for. Córdoba is a super cute town about a 4 hour bus ride away from Madrid! It is full of flowers and narrow cobblestone streets, and I loved it. The only problem about this trip was that Jackie literally almost missed the bus. I was standing in between the door, so the driver wouldn’t leave without her. I thought I was going to have to go by myself, but thankfully she made it! When we arrived, we walked around the town a little bit. It’s a pretty small town, and the main things to see is the cathedral and the alcazar. We did those the second day we were there, so the first day we had a pretty chill day of getting to know Córdoba. Of course, Jackie wanted to go to cien montaditos. I don’t know if I talked about it yet, but it is literally the best place ever. They have the best tinto de verano and it is only 1.5 euros. So, we went to cien and had some tinto and then we ate at The Good Burger. (I know, we are in Spain, and we are eating at an American restaurant? I guess we just miss America lol). We ended up eating there because it was kinda difficult to find gluten free places in Córdoba. We were only there for two days though, so it wasn’t too bad.
So, our second day in Córdoba we did all the touristy stuff. First, we went to the Alcazar. The best thing about it was probably the garden. It was so pretty! Jackie and I enjoyed looking at all the flowers and taking a million pictures. The next thing we did was go to the Mosque that was turned into a Cathedral. It had a mix of Christian and Islamic characteristics that made it super interesting to see. After that, we were starving so we found a place to get lunch. It took so long, and the service was super bad. We ended up getting our food over an hour after we ordered. We did know we were in Spain though, so it was kinda expected. For those who don’t know, bad service is typical in Spain. Don’t expect to have a quick lunch anywhere in Spain. We’ve definitely gotten used to it. Overall, I loved how cute of a town Córdoba was and it was a perfect trip for two days.
My next blog post will be about my weekends in San Sebastian and Rome! You’ll hopefully be hearing from me soon! Hasta luego!
This semester in Rome, I was fortunate enough to get hired as a marketing intern for a company called The Roman Guy. The Roman Guy specializes in various VIP tours of different tourist attractions all around Rome, as well as several local food tours in different areas. As an assignment for my class ROST 370, I am required to reflect on my experience of working as an intern for this company.
This week at The Roman Guy, I finished writing and researching a post about Michelangelo’s the Pietà for our Vatican Tours. After my work is read and reviewed by my boss, it is later posted to our website in order to inform customers who are interested in taking a tour of the Vatican. I also found Tripadvisor reviews about our tours online and posted them to our website, so that customers are able to see other positive reviews about our service. Lastly, I interacted with followers and posted on my company’s instagram, The Roman Foodie, in order to increase followers and market the company. Previous classroom knowledge has been helping me because since the majority of my internship involves writing, some English courses that I took last semester are really coming in handy. Also specifics that I learned in my previous marketing classes has been helping me too, because a lot of the things that I do at my internship relate to what I learned about marketing in school. Before starting my internship, I created a learning objective that I wanted to achieve by the end of my internship. One of my learning objectives that I have been working towards completing is improving my writing skills regarding blog posts, various social media apps, and articles as well as having my boss critique my work when I am finished. I am reaching this objective because every week I am in charge of researching and writing an article on a famous tourist site in Rome, and afterwards my boss reviews and critiques my work in order to help me improve. Regarding challenges, I had something terrible happen to me that will affect my internship. In class, my iPhone was sitting on the edge of the table and when my professor walked past and bumped the table, my iPhone fell on the ground. At first it appeared fine because it did not have any cracks, but then I realized that the whole touch screen was broke and the screen wouldn’t stop flashing. This is crucial because I am in charge of running my company’s instagram, which I use my iPhone to do. Luckily my friends are amazing, as they are letting me use their phone to post for the company whenever I need to and continue to interact with followers in the mean time, so hopefully this accident won’t be too much of an inconvenience. So far, one of the most impressive things about my internship to date is my coworkers. They are really supportive of me being a leader and the decisions that I make, and whenever there is a problem they always completely understand and help me with whatever I need. They are the best and I always look forward to working with them. My expectations for the following weeks is that I am going to be researching and writing more about Rome key attractions, running The Roman Foodie instagram account, and I will also be taking over my companies Pinterest page and learning how to monitor our followers. So far I have been loving my internship and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me. Ciao for now and thanks for reading!
As we approach our three month mark of living in Beijing, there are many things I’m grateful for that TBC has provided to make the experience of studying in another country comfortable.
What I’m most thankful for is the opportunity to live with a Chinese roommate, a student chosen by TBC to be our support and guide throughout our semester here. My roommate, April, has been and is the greatest help I have in China and is an amazing friend who supports me in every aspect of my life here. From telling me I’m going to do great before a test and hearing me talk endlessly about my worries, to showing me where the best restaurants and salons are.
By giving us the opportunity to live with a Chinese student attending Universtiy of International Business and Economics, we are more immersed in the culture and have an easier time adapting to living in another country. Due to the age connection, the Chinese roommates are able to understand us better and guide us through college life in Beijing. And they didn’t just take care of us by taking us to dinner and supermarkets the first week of classes either. They are still supporting us every day in the smallest things like helping us figure out how to other take-out food and bigger things like taking us to visit different neighborhoods, like the Lama Temple, around Beijing.
I know my study abroad experience wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t live with April. Additionally, TBC has done a great job of pairing us up with roommates that have similar habits as us, giving us very comfortable and friendly living situations. One of my favorite parts of the day is before going to bed, when April and I both turn off the lights at the same time and take out our Kindles to read, putting them down later at the same time.
Where do I even begin? I adventured across Greece for ten days. I walked down streets that fellow Greeks walked as well. Each city I traveled to had ancient roots that went back thousands of years. The things I saw, felt, heard, and tasted made my experience memorable and life-changing. My tour guide, a professor named Ioanna, helped to make all the student’s experiences in Greece amazing. She took us to the old Greek city-states Athens, Delphi, Sparta, and Corinth. One of my favorite parts was seeing the cities and lands in which they ruled.
The sites we visited were very relevant to my current history class I am taking at John Felice Rome Center. It is one thing to learn about history in class, it is another thing to visit the lands in which the Greeks dominated. I have had the wonderful opportunity to live and flourish in the eternal city and have experienced much of Roman history, yet Greece’s history dates back much further. The things I touched and saw were the same things that ancient Greeks saw and touched thousands of years before me. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to take part in such a life changing opportunity.
view looking over Athens
Life is a good, a world filled with happiness, friendship and love. Ioanna taught me that love is good, kind and it is in everything. The Greeks believed in six kinds of love: Eros, Philia, Ludus, Agape, Pragma, and Philautia. I have experienced almost all during my time in Greece. I was taught so much in ten days. A large group of students came together and went on an adventure through Greece. I gained knowledge of Greece and her history. I was gifted the greatest opportunity, to have my dreams turn into reality and have my curiosity and love of art run wild. I flourished in Greece’s culture, beauty, individuality, and history. I lived, walking through the streets of Greece, a city where I made memories that will last a life-time. There were good times and bad, but together with the sites, museums, monuments, and beautiful landscape of Greece, I have found a new place to call home.
