There is nothing more exhilarating than trying something new. As soon as I got off the plane, I can feel a new atmosphere in Italy. It might be scary to some, including myself, to make that decision to spend a few weeks away from home. I decided to travel alone without any family or friends. Sometimes you just need to take that jump and I’m glad I decided to study abroad. Now I’m spending my first part of the summer at the John Felice Rome Center.

Rome is absolutely beautiful.

I recently finished my first week of classes and this whole week is becoming a wonderful blur for me. One day, I’m taking pictures of the Vatican. Another night, I’m grabbing a cup of gelato down the road with new friends from the JFRC. The next day, I’m strolling through Villa Borghese. Last night, I was able to enjoy some wood fired pizza for dinner with the other JFRC students.

Hopefully, blogging will give me the opportunity to share my stories and allow others to get a glimpse on what it’s like to study abroad. For classes, I’m reading stories that are set in Italy (Exploring Fiction) and understanding the appreciation of beauty (Aesthetics).

Since this is my first time in Rome, I still have so much to see of the city. I also plan to visit other parts of Italy such as Pompeii, Abruzzo, and Assisi. I am ready for more adventures to come!

I have officially survived and tremendously enjoyed my first week in the beautiful Puntarenas, Costa Rica. My time thus far has been jam packed with traveling, schoolwork, and of course beach time. We first arrived at midnight Friday the 17th, and were greeted by our host families. Costa Ricans, locally referred to as “Ticos,” greet women by hugging and giving you a kiss on the cheek, immediately establishing friendship. My host family consists of my mother Gabriela, her husband Miguel, and her son Jorge. Her husband works in a different city so he is gone a lot, but I am fortunate enough to be able to spend a lot of time with Gabriela and Jorge. When I first arrived at their house, I was offered food and drinks and was given my own bedroom and bathroom. My ethnocentricity led me to believe that everyone everywhere spoke English, so I was very surprised to learn that most people in Puntarenas do not speak English. The mother speaks a little English, but the son speaks quite a bit since he has been taught it for several years in school. I am impressed by both of their English speaking skills, because based on my first semester of college Spanish, it is extremely difficult to learn another language. Jorge was able to translate for his mother and I my first night so that all of my questions were answered.

My first full day in Puntarenas was pretty incredible. I was awakened by the chirping of tropical birds and Costa Rican sunlight pouring into my room around 6:00 am. My host mother made me a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, very similar to a breakfast in America. My host father’s sister also has a USAC student so after breakfast, my host aunt brought the student over. Her name is Diana, and we met up with a few other students and walked around Puntarenas for most of the day. We live literally five minutes from the beach! Puntarenas is a quiet beach town, filled with families who have all lived here for years. There are tons of restaurants and corner stores. We walked town to a local market that is on the beach and bought some souvenirs and real coconut water. By real coconut water, I mean we actually bought a whole coconut with the top cut off and a straw was put in the middle. It was delicious and refreshing on such a hot, humid day in Puntarenas. For the rest of the day we laid out on the beach and went to a club called “Mystikallis.” We looked like such gringos though because we went super early because we were afraid to be out late in a foreign country! Earlier in the day after lunch, Diana and I walked around for about an hour lost out of our minds. The houses in Puntarenas all look very similar with large patios out front and gates so we discovered the importance of paying attention…

On Sunday we had orientation to learn more about the culture and the city of Puntarenas itself. Some interesting things to know about the city are that women wash their own underwear, sunscreen is about $20 a bottle, shampoo and conditioner are in locked cabinets at stores, men constantly cat call women, they have the coolest soap EVER, and most Ticos follow “Tico Time,” which means most Ticos run about 20-30 minutes late. They also told us about the trips we will be taking with USAC which I am super pumped about. We are going to Tortuga Island and the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Overall I am super stoked to be here and to be immersed in such a wonderful and different culture.

 

At orientation we received our class schedule, and needless to say I was not super thrilled to see that my Spanish class was from 8-11, Monday through Friday. However I was pleasantly surprised when I went to class Monday morning and the three hours flew by. There are only five people in my Spanish class and the professor is a native Costa Rican who speaks English fairly well. Instead of the very structured type of classes that I am used to in the States, my professor, Cristian, is great at maintaining an informal environment that is conducive to students asking questions and learning from each other. When I took Spanish in the States, I found it to be much more difficult because I did not have the opportunity to practice it in a variety of ways. Since I am in such a small classroom here, we write stories in Spanish and receive immediate feedback, we hold conversations with each other in class, and Cristian asks us questions individually to ensure that we each have a chance to practice correctly. Additionally, when we all go home to our host families, we can try and speak all of the new words we learned that day. Although I may be a slow speaker that has a long way to go grammatically and phonetically, my host family is very understanding and they help me finish my sentences and formulate thoughts in Spanish.

The other two classes I am taking are Dances of Latin America and Latin American History. They are each one credit so we only meet for three hours a week for each class. The dance class is so much fun and a nice break from doing homework. Our teacher’s name is David and let me just tell you, his hips don’t lie. I attempt to mimic his steps and movements but continue to fail miserably. Most of the students here are in the class so it is a fun way to interact with each other. So far we have learned the salsa and the merengue. The salsa is much easier, whereas the merengue has a tempo and rhythm that I am not used. I also feel that you need a certain genetic trait to move your hips the way you are supposed to when you do the merengue. David gives us each individual attention to improve our form. There is only one guy in my dance class, so the ladies partner up with each other to learn these two person dances. My history class is super low key, and again has a very small class size. The professor’s name is Arturo, and he is absolutely hilarious. He speaks almost perfect English. He let us choose the three Latin and South American countries that we want to learn about for the remainder of the term. We chose Colombia, Cuba, and Chile. We watched a movie called, “The Mission,” with Robert De Niro on our first day to learn about colonialism and imperialism in South America. I am excited to learn more in all of my classes.

 

One of the most interesting things about studying abroad so far is the Italian culture. It should be no surprise that it’s different from the States. There’s a change of pace.

It is quite challenging to be in a country without knowing the native language. I have picked up some phrases here and there. I might not become an expert, but I’ll be very happy if I at least learn how to order a gelato in Italian!

Of course, when coming to a new country, you start to pick up their customs. Stores are not open during the late afternoon because it’s “siesta” time. You might have to wait five or fifteen minutes for the 990 bus.

That doesn’t mean that Italy is a terrible place. It’s different. Everyone here is more relaxed, which I enjoy. Dinners last longer. Waiters don’t rush you to finish your meal. You can sit back and chat with your friends. It also gives us extra time to savor the pizza and pasta. 

You can’t forget about the “study” part of being abroad. The past weekend I was able to take a tour of Pompeii. Walking through the ancient ruins made me picture a busy ancient Roman city with forums, theatres, and homes. The group and I even got to eat lunch on Mount Vesuvius!

In addition, I had an amazing opportunity with other JFRC students to visit the pope’s summer residency and the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo. Brother Guy Consolmagno, an American reserach astronomer and planetary scientist, gave us a great tour. Lake Albano is gorgeous!

I have to say that the JFRC has done an incredible job on having students connect in studying abroad. We have dinner outings every week and other fun events. You can feel the sense of community here. This weekend I’ll be hiking in Abruzzo for another study trip so I am excited to see another part of Italy. I’ll write again next Thursday. Ciao!

May 17th, 2013: the day I’d been waiting for since I first heard about the John Felice Rome Center. The day that trumped being done with finals. The day that I would continue to live my dream of traveling the world. May 17th, 2013 was the day that I departed for 6 weeks in Rome and there was no looking back. This particular Friday was not like any other travel day I had ever experienced. For instance, wake up, wave goodbye to my small Iowa town, drive 2 hours to the Minneapolis airport, go through security, eat overpriced airport food blah blah blah, you know the routine. For me, May 17th, 2013 was also the day that my little brother would make his debut at the Iowa High School State Track and Field Meet at Drake University. What a day for my parents, watch their only son be one of 24 boys in the 1A state division to compete for the high jump state title, and ship me off to Europe for half of the summer (probably to get me out of the house. Genius.) This day of excitement called for a 5 am wake up, I repeat, 5 AM! A little fun fact about myself, I am not exactly the happiest camper in the morning (and that’s putting it nicely, ask my mother). But as my Dynamite alarm clock sounded, I had to have been the happiest person on planet earth; I kid you not. Fast-forwarding through the track meet, I gave my brother a congratulatory slap on the back and received my first goodbye hug. Needless to say, there were no tears shed on either end. And so my parents and I went on our merry way. Des Moines → Mason City (to pick up the dog of course) → Minneapolis → Amsterdam → Rome. Unfortunately for my parents, that sequence stopped at Minneapolis and took a u-turn back to Mason City. Saying goodbye to my parents went exactly how I expected it to go. My dad gave me the typical “Be safe honey. You’re going to have the time of your life but you need to be careful, you’re in a foreign place and people will recognize that” lecture. My mom, a woman of many tears, surprisingly did not cry. Which proved my theory that she was indeed sending me off to Europe to get me out of the house. However, only 15 minutes into my solo journey, 1 new text message (MOM). Apparently the tears were just a little delayed that day because she told me that she was now crying. To whoever is reading this, I will save you all some time, the Minneapolis airport and my slumber across the Atlantic Ocean is not all that exciting. “Attention passengers traveling on Delta flight 9580 service from Amsterdam to Rome, at this time we will begin boarding business class and Platinum card holders.” I anxiously jump out of my chair only to sadly remember that I am a college student who is definitely not flying first class. Wait, did I really just use the adverb sadly while explaining my travel experience to Rome?! Someone slap me now. When it was finally turn for me to board, I happily claimed my seat next to a window. Remember when I said I wasn’t exactly a morning person? Well that was all catching up to me (even after I slept 7 of the 9 hours of the first flight) so naturally I slept a majority of this flight as well. When I woke up, I started talking to the middle-aged American woman next to me about our travel plans. She then began digging around in her purse and telling me about her daughters that were my age. She pulled out a small paperback prayer booklet and handed it to me. She knew I was traveling alone and going to be a long ways from home for a while and told me if I ever get lonely or homesick to take a look inside. It’s small acts of kindness like that that restore my faith in humanity. It wasn’t until I had to lug my bags on my own that I realized I EXTREMELY over packed. Luckily it wasn’t more than 200 feet before I was swarmed with Italian male taxi drivers. I agreed to one and he led me to his car where his wife actually drove me to campus. After some slight confusion with directions (yes Mom, I got lost, not surprising I know), my two-day travel extravaganza was over. As I walked up the cobblestone walkway I heard a familiar voice clearly coming from a window of one of the dorm rooms. “Grace grace!” I looked up and noticed it was my friend and teammate, Rachel Bush, surrounded by a group of new friends hollering, smiling, and laughing. It was that moment that I knew I was going to have the time of my life at the John Felice Rome Center. Keep reading miei amici (my friends). Ciao! grace

USAC spontaneously decided to take us on a field trip to San Jose, Costa Rica in the middle of the week. They generously cancelled classes for the day and paid for a bus and for some professors to come with us. San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica and the country’s largest city. It is where our plane flew into when we arrived. The bus ride was about an hour and a half from Puntarenas. Our first stop in San Jose was the Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica. It is a gorgeous, historical building where there are musical performances and also where many international leaders come together. President Obama was there just a few weeks ago. The building’s actual theater is very vintage and has a box called the President’s Box. This is where the President (Gobierno) of Costa Rica sits with guests. Anyone can buy a ticket to sit with her and get to know her if they are willing to buy a ticket.

 

After we went to the National Theater, we visited the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica. At this museum we first had the opportunity to peruse through a stunning butterfly exhibit. We were able to see gigantic, cerulean colored butterflies and other uniquely colored characters. They even had a stand that housed the chrysalises of butterflies undergoing metamorphosis.  Once we finished walking through a kingdom of “mariposas,” (butterflies), we looked at art exhibits of portraits of the wildlife in Puntarenas, and also some Colombian art. The immaculate paintings of jaguars, tropical fruit, and tapirs made me even more excited for our trip to the rain forest.

For the rest of our day we did some typical American activities: shopping and eating. We went to what one of the professors called the “hippie market,” which was an outdoor market in the middle of San Jose that sold cheap souvenirs and clothing. I bought some Costa Rican shot glasses for some friends and my mom a pair of earrings, which totaled up to about $5 or $6. We ended our day at the mall in San Jose which was absolutely gigantic. It was only two stories, but it was incredibly long and had a million stores. We ate at the food court, which had mostly American fast food restaurants, however there were some other places that I did not recognize as well. I did not want to eat American fast food in Costa Rica, so I went to a Greek style place and order a pita with pesto and vegetables.

Today marks the ONE MONTH countdown until my program in Aix en Provence begins! I will be traveling with about 10 other students from Loyola, as well as with professor McKenna, who will be our faculty leader. I know our program will be an incredibly amazing experience and I can’t wait to receive our full itinerary of adventures. We will be staying at our choice of either the residence hotel near the university or at a homestay, both of which will give us a real experience of actually living in France. As for me, expect tons of photos, thanks to my love of photography, which I hope will help you follow along with my study abroad experience! I know this post is a little short but trust me they will get much more detailed once I land in France! Once again, I’m so excited that I can share my adventure with you all!

Au Revoir et à la prochaine!

(Goodbye and until next time!)

All I’ve been wanting to do this week is sing “The Sound of Music” while frolicking along the grassy hills. I guess that’s what happens when you spend time in the mountains. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to travel in Abruzzo, one of Italy’s most mountainous regions. The study trip was organized by the JFRC and led by Professor Jim Schwarten.

Hiking, of course, was the main activity on the trip. I’ve never been hiking before so it was a great, new experience. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We hiked through the trees and even if it was rainy, we got a chance to see the longest waterfall on the Central Apennine mountains. The next day, we climbed atop Mount Viglio. We were so high up that we were in the clouds. It was awesome! Hiking gave me a new appreciation for beautiful nature. I wanted to spend a hours staring at the mountains in a dream-like state.

Another favorite part of the Abruzzo Trip was spending time in an Italian village. We got to visit Civita D’Antino, a small town located on a hill. Village life is obviously different from city life. Everyone knew each other and they were so friendly to us tourists. Musicians gave us a mini concert of classic Italian mandolin and guitar music. The group and I ate at the same local restaurant for dinner and they provided us with traditional (and delicious) Italian dishes. We even learned how to make gnocchi.

The vibe of the village was completely laid-back. It gave us a chance to slow down and enjoy that we were in Italy. The Abruzzo study trip also gave me more time with the other JFRC students. Who knew playing a card game of Scopa could bring a group of us together? I honestly never would have thought to have that experience on a weekend trip. If you plan to study at JFRC, sign up for their study trips. It’s worth the money.

I’m almost done with midterms week, so I’ve been spending the last few days at the IC and grabbing pizza for dinner. I can’t believe I only have two weeks left in Italy. Where did the time go? This weekend I’ll be visiting Assisi and other places. I’ll talk about it more next week!

For our first USAC led trip in Costa Rica, we went to Tortuga Island. It is called Tortuga Island because tortuga means turtle in Spanish, and the island itself is shaped like a turtle. We traveled there by boat, which was either a great adventure or the worst experience of your life depending on your sensitivity to motion sickness. I was on the smallest boat and really enjoyed the ride. It was about an hour and a half boat ride to Tortuga Island from Puntarenas. It was a bright sunny day, and the wind from the boat ride was a nice change from the hot, humid weather in Puntarenas.

When we arrived, the first thing we did was go snorkeling. I absolutely loved it. We literally swam alongside entire schools of fish. We saw some Dory fish from Finding Nemo, and there was a school of hundreds of little minnows under the boat. The fish did not even seem to be phased by us snorkelers, implying that it was really their ocean and we were merely visitors. After we finished snorkeling, we spent the rest of the day at the beach. The beach at Tortuga is fabulous. The water is a crisp, cerulean blue and the sand is practically white. The island itself is quaint and is definitely a hot spot for tourists. We walked around the island, attempted to take a few action shots jumping on the beach, ate a catered lunch, and went tubing. Growing up in Kansas near a lake, tubing was a common past time for most kids growing up. However, tubing on a huge hot dog tube in the Pacific Ocean surrounded by mountains and islands compares to nothing I have ever experienced.

My time in Monteverde was quite possibly one of the best experiences I have ever had. It is a place like nothing else in the world filled with trees and houses on a mountainside. Monteverde is a very small town, located in the mountains of the province of Puntarenas. It is one of the most famous ecotourism spots in the world. This was another one of our USAC sponsored trips so they provided transportation. The bus ride itself was an experience due to the high altitude and steepness of Monteverde’s location on top of the mountains. At times I felt like we were driving up a hill with a 90 degree angle. The views were spectacular though and the ride only lasted about three hours or so. When we arrived, we were each assigned a cabin. I roomed with two other girls, and I was lucky enough to have the queen bed, which was a nice change from the twin bed I have been in for the past three weeks. We were so high up in the mountains that when we looked out our window, we were in clouds.

Our first excursion in Monteverde was a hike through the famous Monteverde Cloud Forest. It only cost us $4 because we are USAC students. I did not see as many animals as I would have liked, but I did witness some awesome plants and insects. We saw several strange looking caterpillars and incredibly tall trees with exposed roots that continued on for miles. When we got to the top of the trail, I was expecting an immaculate view, but alas I was greeted with clouds. I guess it was a semi fair tradeoff since I did see the whole countryside on the ride up the mountain. It is just super peaceful to walk around in a biodiversity hot spot that is so well preserved that you forget you are walking on a path in a national park. Costa Rica should be proud of their dedication to protecting the environment and preserving biodiversity. I will treasure the memory of being inside nature’s lungs, the rainforest.

After the two hour hike, we headed back to our cabin and went to the “downtown” area of Monteverde, which was literally a five minute bus ride. We bought some overpriced souvenirs which included a wooden mug with a parrot on it that I convinced myself I had to have. We had dinner at a bar and I had the strangest concoction. I love the fried plantains here which are called, “patacones,” so I ordered a plantain sandwich type thing. It was not very appetizing due to the fact it was smothered with cabbage and watery refried beans. I definitely prefer the patacones that I have eaten in Puntarenas. We ended the night with dancing at Bar Amigos, probably the most exciting night I have had since I have been here.

For our last day in Monteverde, we went ziplining in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. It is something I will never forget. We did about 10 or 11 different ziplining rides throughout the whole forest, totaling about 1.5-2 hours. Many of the rides lasted about 20 or 30 seconds, which is a lot when you consider you were practically flying through mid-air above treetops. I definitely felt like Tarzan, but in lieu of vines I used ziplines. To be overlooking such a massive rainforest rich with biodiversity is breathtakingly spectacular, and makes you appreciate how amazing our planet is. For the remainder of the afternoon, we went to the amphibian and reptile exhibit in Monteverde. We learned about all the different types of snakes, frogs, and lizards that live in Costa Rica. They have some vicious poisonous snakes here that have the ability to make you go brain dead or venom that will literally eat away at your skin and organs. Luckily they mostly just come out at night, and most of them live in the rainforest. I had the opportunity to hold a baby snake at the end and it was surprisingly adorable despite my fear of snakes.