September 2017 – Page 3 – #RamblersAbroad

Capri State of Mind

By luctechco | September 24, 2017

Another early morning for a wonderful day trip. Capri was on the top of everybody’s list of places to visit, so naturally we booked a last-minute train and ferry to the island. Coming in to the island by ferry offered a stunning view of the rocky cliffs and sparkling waters. I grew up spending summers on the East Coast, so I was extremely happy to be close to the water again. I wished there was a sailboat I could rent for cheap to get out on the water! We got there by 10am, and the place was already a hub of activity. There were buildings climbing their way up the steep hillside, and taxis with open roofs and small motor scooters weaved in and out between tourists.

The port area is full of boats, big and small!

The first thing we did when we got there was try and find out how to get to the Blue Grotto. We ended up paying 14 euros and getting on a tour boat, which we thought would take us inside the Blue Grotto, and take us on a tour around the island. The boat motored out of the small harbor and into more open water, with the sun glinting off the surface like hundreds of ice crystals. The air that whipped by held only the faintest traces of salt, but I could feel it sticking to my sun-warmed skin.

We passed by huge cliffs, other tour boats, and smaller, private ones. The guide pointed out major spots on the island, and we saw a few other grottos. They were small, and the tour boat would turn around and stick the back end, where we were sitting, in as far as it could go. The water was absolutely gorgeous, and was my favorite shade of blue. I’m grateful now for the opportunity to visit such a beautiful place!

The most disappointing thing was not getting to go inside the Blue Grotto. When the tour boat approached it, there were about eight other boats already there with passengers waiting to get in line for the rowboats that would enter the Blue Grotto. The guide told us that it would be a three hour wait, time that we didn’t have. So we went on our way with only a glimpse of the outside.

Back on dry land, we made our way to the small rocky beach. I hadn’t brought my swimsuit, but two of my friends had so they jumped right into the water. I stood taking pictures of my surroundings, while my other two friends walked a little down the beach to a outcropping made of huge rocks. I was content just to stand with the air blowing around me, shaded by the trees behind me.

The small, rocky beach where my friends swam.

We found lunch at a uncrowded little restaurant, one of many lining the touristy street. Three of my friends then had a ferry to catch to Sorrento, while my roommate, Audrey, and I stayed. We’d catch our ferry back to Naples at 6. In the hour we had left, we did our last minute shopping (I got a postcard and handmade sandals, and she got a sweatshirt) and got gelato from the place we’d been eyeing. The sun was now blocked by the island itself, so the port was in the shade, dropping the temperature a few degrees. It was still beautiful out, and I didn’t want to leave.

All in all, Capri is worth it. I had a great time, and although we didn’t get to go into the Blue Grotto or see much other than the port area of the island, it was worth getting up at 4am for. It’s a photographer’s dream, and so I was content.

My first trips!

By luctechco | September 27, 2017

Hello again,

It has now been a little over three weeks into my study abroad experience in Madrid, and everything is going great! I haven’t been keeping up with my blog because I have been busy with school and traveling, so I apologize that this is late!

About a week and a half ago I went on a day trip to Salamanca with SLU, and it was so much fun. Salamanca is a city in Spain that is filled with cobblestone roads and amazing architecture, making it a beautiful city. The trip was super fun, and it was amazing to learn all about the history. We had the opportunity to climb to the top of the University of Salamanca building, and look over the whole town. The view was so pretty, and totally worth the 3 euros it cost. My friends and I had no choice but to take a million pictures. I swear we were up there for like an hour. On the front of the building, there is a frog etched into it, and there’s a belief that if the students find the frog, then they will pass all of their classes. Our tour guide actually showed us the frog, and told us that we will pass all of our classes! So that was good to hear! When my friends and I came across the plaza mayor, we saw there was a spin class being held right in the middle of it! It was so fun to see, and they actually played Livin’ on a Prayer! They said to sing along, and we were probably the only ones. We looked very American and totally stood out, but it was totally worth it! We also saw a wedding being held, which was super beautiful. Like imagine getting married in Salamanca! They were taking pictures in front of an amazing building, and singing some spanish song and looked like they were having the time of their life! Overall, it was a pretty cool day trip!

Some of my classes are getting a little more difficult, so I’ve been checking out different coffee shops that are perfect for enjoying some coffee and to get some studying done. One coffee shop I found is called La bicicleta cafe, and I am totally obsessed with it! It is super cute on the inside, and has the best “cafe con leche”. One of the employees there speaks english, and these two girls were ordering their coffees and weren’t sure how to pronounce it, so the employee was telling them that “Spaniards are shameless”. My friend Alex and I overheard and he said again that it is good to be shameless and “not give a shit”. We were laughing, but honestly it is really good advice! His accent and the way he said it made it funnier than it was, but being shameless and just living life is a really good thing! The employees are super fun there, so I’ve already gone there a couple times to get some homework done! My classes are definitely easier than at Loyola, but there’s still work and studying to do. My host mom thinks since I’m not taking any nursing classes that I’m on a “four month vacation”. I thought that was really funny because even though I don’t have as much work to do and will be traveling around a lot, I definitely still need to focus on school! Considering that I am in fact “studying” abroad, and not just spending 4 months in Spain!

As you guys probably know, I was living alone with just my host mom, but I actually have a roommate now! Her name is Jasmine and she’s super nice and we get along great! I was excited to hear that I was getting a roommate because I live kinda far from my friends, so I thought it would be nice to have one in my house! We have already gone to starbucks together, and hopefully a trip or two. Who knows! That’s the beauty of studying abroad because you become friends with someone and then typically go on trips together! No one really cares! All people want is just someone to travel with and make memories with. One of my favorite things about studying abroad so far is that mostly everyone is so open to making friends and travel plans together!

Anyway, last weekend I went on my first trip to Mallorca! Mallorca is a beautiful island off of Spain, and the perfect location for a super fun and relaxing getaway! It was a short two days, but just the right amount of time because at the end of the trip I was totally exhausted. Alex and I woke up at 4am in order to make our flight, so we were tired from the start. There was also a totally embarrassing moment where I fell in the airport and a lot of people saw. It was really funny, and I just got right back up, but waking up at 4am will do that to ya! Alex and I thought about the employee at the cafe and laughed about how I should be shameless about it. I’m not even going to describe how I fell, but let’s just say it had to do with one of those moving walkway things! Anyway, after we arrived, we first walked around Palma de Mallorca, and enjoyed seeing the cute shops and street performers. Then, we made our way to the Cathedral de Santa Maria, which was probably the prettiest building I have ever seen! Eventually we made it to our airbnb, and enjoyed some snacks while sitting on the terrace that had a beautiful view of the ocean! The next day, we stayed at the beach for about 6 hours, and then made our way back to the airport. It was very short, but super nice to be able to just relax on the beach! We found some really cute cafes and had some really good food too! Definitely a good trip, which makes me super excited for all of my future travels!

Alright that’s it for now guys!

¡Hasta luego!

My Internship in Rome (Week 2)

By luctechco | September 28, 2017

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.

Specific Tasks

This week at the Roman Guy, I had almost the same tasks as last week. I found good reviews on trip advisor and posted them to our website, I continued to edit blog posts using the blog life cycle, brainstormed and researched ideas for my companies study abroad blog, posting on our company’s instagram, and I completed my Underground Colosseum essay for our website. Information from my marketing class that I took last semester has been helping me a lot so far with this internship, making certain marketing strategies a lot simpler for me to complete because my professor taught me this previous semester.

Learning Objectives

One of my learning objectives is to attract and communicate with travel bloggers in order to help market The Roman Guy tours and blogs. I have started to work towards achieving my learning objective because I have been interacting with some bloggers on instagram. I will find bloggers in the area and reach out to them, or bloggers that already know our company I will post their pictures and give them credit to our thousands of followers and they will do the same in return. Although this is just the start, by the end of my internship I hope that I could attract a wide variety of bloggers in order to help market The Roman Guy.

Challenges

Something that I have recently found very hard for me to do is to write for several hours without losing focus. I can easily lose focus if I am working on the same project for too long. My coworkers on the other hand can sit and write for the whole entire day without any breaks. Some efforts that I have been making to fix this is that I set a goal for how much I want to write and a certain amount of time, and when I achieve that goal I give myself a small break and go for a walk around the office. I also switch up my tasks frequently, so that I don’t get easily bored of doing the same thing.

What impresses me about my internship

Like I said last post, the main thing that still impresses me the most about my internship are my coworkers. It amazes me that in the marketing department, all of the girls will sit on their computer for several hours straight without any breaks and just write for that whole entire time. All of my coworkers experience in their field really impresses me and also how well everyone works together as a team in the small office to be successful.

Expectations for the Future

In the future, I am going to continue working towards improving my writing because next week I have my study abroad blog due. On this blog, I am researching the best places to see amazing street art in Rome. After writing about six places, I have to go to each of the places and take/edit pictures of the art on my own. After I finish this project, my next project will be working on a different Rome Key Attraction post for the Roman Guy’s website.

Exploring: Trial and Error

By luctechco | September 28, 2017

During this past summer, I started thinking about where I wanted to travel while in Spain. Then when I arrived, I saw the list of cities to visit with the Erasmus group (they are a group that organizes trips, tours, and parties for international students). But their trips don’t start till next weekend. This past weekend, I was getting restless in Sevilla and wanted to go exploring in another city. Luckily my friends thought the same, so later that night we booked some cheap train tickets to Cádiz. I did some research to find places to visit in this ancient, ocean-side city and planned a general path we could take when we arrived on Saturday morning.

The rest of the week flew by and before we knew it, it was Saturday morning and we were waiting in the train station to begin our first trip outside Sevilla. There were four of us going, and we were split up between 2 train cars. Two of us got off 1 stop too early, and we had to take a taxi to try and find the other 2. But luckily the meeting spot we picked was easy to find. Crisis averted. Now it was time to explore.

Our first stop was a Roman theater tucked away in the winding roads. Unlike Sevilla, Cádiz had more of a Roman influence. The ruins were only recently discovered so there is still archaeological work being done. They rebuilt part of the seating to resemble what it would have looked like a thousand years ago. It was very cool to see!

Next we stumbled upon the Cathedral of Cádiz. We were going to go in, but there was an entrance fee, so we took a quick peak and started walking again. We found a quiet cafe off the main tourist path and had a quick lunch.

We went to the Market of Cádiz. This was very cool. I love exploring different foods, and the markets all over Spain are the best way to see the wide variety of foods Spain has to offer. Because Cádiz is know for the seafood that is caught fresh everyday, this market had a very large section devoted to just fish and other seafood. Some of the tuna that they were selling were over 6 feet long. Everything was so fresh!

Our next stop was a tower in the middle of the city. In order to get to the top, we had to climb 6 flights of narrow, glass stairs, squeezing past the people that were coming down from the tower the entire way. But the view at the top was spectacular! Every part of the city could be seen: the cathedral, the market, some old military forts, and the ocean. This city was so beautiful.

After we climbed back down, we made our way to the gardens near the ocean. We saw beautiful flowers, giant trees, lots of cats, some ducks, a waterfall, and some swings. Everything was very picturesque.

We walked along the ocean until we came to the Castillo de Santa Catalina, an old military base on the edge of the ocean. It was like a small city. There was a chapel, huge walls, watch towers, and many buildings that are now filled with historic artifacts about important moments in the city’s history. We walked all around the base, imagining what it would have been like to see it up and running.

Whenever someone says they went to Cádiz, the first question asked is which beach did they go to. So we took our siesta on a small beach between the two military bases. The water was so refreshing, but the sun was hot so we left to find some food.

Many small restaurants lined a street near the beach, so we decided to try one of them. Now an important thing to remember in Spain is that no one is ever in a rush. If you sit down to eat, expect to be there for at least an hour. The service is at times very slow in comparison to what is usually expected in the US. But the restaurant we picked was very attentive and had amazing food. I had some tortillitas de camarones, which is a famous shrimp dish of Cádiz.

After our very filling dinner, we walked to the second military base and watched as kids jumped off the walkway into the water. It was closed, but we got some great pictures of the ocean and the city. On our way back, we stopped and each bought a bracelet to remember the first trip we took in Spain.

Sitting in the train station, exhausted and a bit sun burnt, we quietly sat thinking about everything we had seen that day. Besides a few small bumps, it was a successful trip. The bit of planning I had done before the trip to find the main sights had helped a lot and let us have more free time to relax on the beach or eating. The only thing to remember for next time was to remember to ride the train all the way to the city and not get off 1 stop early.