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Month: November 2017

My Internship in Rome (Week 9)

My Internship in Rome (Week 9)

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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, my boss assigned me several tasks that I had to complete by the end of the week. Some of these tasks were my usual assignments, like finding TripAdvisor reviews and posting them to our website, editing several blogs using the Blog Life Cycle rules, writing a small article about Palatine Hill for our Rome Key Attraction page, and posting three instagram pictures and two stories. Some tasks that I had to do this week that were brand new to me was that my boss, Sian, assigned me two challenges that I had to complete in a specific amount of time. The two challenges that Sian assigned me was that I had to come up with 10 different poll ideas for our Facebook page and try to find pictures for each idea, and the other challenge was that I had to think of two video ideas involving the Vatican and The Colosseum and try to find pictures and create quotes that I could include. Previous classroom knowledge has been helping me so far with my internship because in my previous marketing class that I took last semester, we learned how to create content that will attract followers and other tactics for marketing that I learned are also being used during this internship as well. Before starting my internship, I created three learning objectives that I wanted to achieve by the end of my internship. One of the learning objectives that I set for myself was to learn how to monitor my followers activity involving my content and overall learn how to market more successfully. I have been working towards achieving this learning objective because a lot of my work lately has been focused on instagram and creating content that helps attract more followers. This past week, I learned how to find other bloggers pictures on instagram and reblog them to our page. That way I am giving more attention to the blogger by using their picture on The Roman Foodie’s page and I am also building a relationship with the blogger. Some challenges that I have been facing recently regarding this internship is transportation and schoolwork. I usually have quite difficulty with transportation, because I always just miss the train by a minute and I have to wait another 15 minutes for a new one to come and sometimes that can almost cause me to be late. I am going to fix this for next week by researching the times that the train is coming and make sure that I am at the train station at that time. Another challenge that I have been facing is trying to balance my schoolwork with my internship. This has been kind of difficult for me recently because the end of the semester is coming which means that there are a ton of due dates coming up. I can admit that it can be really hard to balance school and my internship together, but I have been resolving this by working on projects ahead of time and also staying up a little later at night than usual to complete school work after my internship. So far, one of the most impressive things about my internship to date is how much it has been pushing me to be better in marketing and in writing. Before starting my internship, I was nervous that I would not be able to complete the tasks that were giving to me because I didn’t really believe in myself and it all seemed so overwhelming. I am really proud of myself because I have been pushing myself out of my comfort zone and I have been completing all of the tasks that are assigned to me. I am also impressed with how this internship has been helping me with my writing skills, because a lot of my professors have said that they have noticed a difference in my writing compared to the beginning of the semester and I owe it all to this internship. Sadly, next week is my last week working as an intern for The Roman Guy. My expectation for next week is that after learning how to edit other creator’s blogs, I am expected to write my own blog about my experience in Rome and all of the places that have I traveled to. I am also expected to use my own pictures from my experiences here in Italy for this blog. Some other work that I will be expected to do is to keep posting on the Roman Foodie’s instagram page, create more Facebook video ideas, and edit more blogs. 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!

Cars on the Wrong Side of the Road

Cars on the Wrong Side of the Road

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Ciao!

These past two weekends, I traveled to Ireland and the United Kingdom. Both areas were beautiful yet strange since cars drive on the opposite side of the road. On the ground, there are signs that tell passerby’s exactly which direction to look in. It would have been helpful if I had used it, yet I wasn’t always looking at the ground when crossing a street. I almost died a few times. An easy way to tell a tourist is which way a person looks when crossing the street. Although Ireland is in the European Union, they use the same type of charger shape as the United Kingdom.

Outside of St. Patrick’s Catherdel.

I traveled to Dublin, Ireland with two of my friends. The trip had a stressful start leaving the Rome Campus and taking a taxi to the airport. My friends and I made our flight by nine minutes. It took an hour to get to the airport with Rome’s terrible traffic. Many thoughts flooded my mind on what I would do if I missed my flight. It was a good thing we did not. Upon arriving in Dublin, the first thing I noticed when I stepped off the plane was the cold. Rome is a tropical climate and Rome’s cold is nothing compared to Ireland’s. For the better part of the weekend, it rained almost the entire time. I was stuffed into layers and layers of clothes. I never left the hostel without a hat, scarf and pair of gloves.

Street in Dublin

The Irish accent is something both merry and vulgar. The taxi drivers were the most hilarious people I encountered. The pubs were endless. If we didn’t like the first pub we walked into, we just walked to the one right next door or down the street. No one every ordered wine, beer was the substance of the Irish people. It was a good stress relief to come to the pub after a long day of touring through freezing cold rain or windy chills. We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, St. Patrick’s, Christ Church, Castle of Dublin, and shopped till we dropped. The most popular things to buy in Ireland were wool and Claddagh rings. I purchased a couple of both.

National Park in Ireland

I also went with a tour to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. It was the worst possible weather day to travel because of endless rain and chilly winds. Upon arriving at the cliffs, it was so foggy that I couldn’t even see the cliff’s I’d paid to see. It was fun despite the weather conditions because I was with a good group of people. We were mainly on the bus because it took three hours to get to the cliffs of Dublin. Then two hours north to get to Galway, then three hours back to Dublin. On the last day, we went started the day with an Irish breakfast and went to the Guinness Factory had toured the museum. I loved Ireland!

Dublin Pub

The next weekend, I went London to visit my cousin who is studying abroad there. I left Rome Thursday evening, and went shopping the entire day Friday. She let me stay in her apartment and took me around London to all the sites on Saturday along with her sister who flew in from Boston Saturday morning. Saturday was rainy and wet, but it was not as miserable as Ireland. I really did enjoy my time in London. I ate a lot of Indian food because as Mexican food is popular in the United States, Indian food is popular in the United Kingdom.

Tower Bridge London

One thing I was unprepared for but loved was how big and familiar London felt to Chicago. Everything is in English and there are familiar food chains. London has some very huge markets, two of which I shopped at. I went to Camden Market and Portobello Market that is on Notting Hill. I saw the Tower Bridge at night and during the day. London is an hour behind Rome so it got dark very early. Everyone I encountered was very friendly and welcoming. I had no idea that London was bigger than New York! The tube was easy and quick to use. One of my favorite thing was cooking food in, especially breakfast because breakfast is not a thing in Rome. I had avocado toast and eggs every morning!

Queens Palace

Ciao for now, next stop will be Vienna Austria!

My Internship in Rome (Week 8)

My Internship in Rome (Week 8)

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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 was assigned multiple tasks that I had to complete by a specific time. Some of these tasks were similar to what I have completed in the past, and some others were brand new. Some of the tasks that I accomplished this week we’re finding TripAdvisor reviews and posting them to our website, editing several blog posts using the Blog Life Cycle, writing about The Vatican Museums for our Vatican Tours, posting three instagram pictures and two stories, inviting people on Facebook to like our page, and finding 10 different photos that I will use to help create a video for our Facebook page. Previous classroom knowledge has helped me because a lot of what I learned, such as tactics for gaining followers, in my previous marketing class is being used during this internship as well. Before starting my internship, I created a learning objectives that I wanted to achieve by the end of my internship. One of my learning objectives that I have been working towards completing is to improve my writing skills for blog posts, various social media apps, and articles. I am working towards achieving this objective, because every week I am assigned a different tourism site in Rome and I have to research it extensively and write a small article about it. After I am done writing it, I send it for my boss to be looked over which will then be posted to The Roman Guy’s website when it is complete. I have also been working on improving my writing, because I have to edit several blogs using rules from the Blog Life Cycle. This challenges me because I have to know how to not use a passive voice, use better transitions, and reword sentences to make them shorter because ultimately that is what helps make a blog post good. A challenge that I have been recently facing regarding my internship is transportation. This past week, getting to work was rough because I missed my train and it was delayed a couple of times, and I also had to deal with a crazy Italian lady that was on the train one day that was giving me a hard time for being an American. Although I can’t control other people’s actions, I am going to fix the other problem by leaving an extra 10 minutes early so that I can hopefully avoid missing the train and dealing with delays. So far, one of the most impressive things about my internship to date is how creative my coworkers are. They can come up with really neat ideas involving photography, video, and content posting, and they push me to think more outside of the box in order to make our content be different and catch peoples attention. For the following weeks, I am expected to take full control of our company’s Instagram, The Roman Foodie, and incorporate creative pictures onto the profile and post more frequently. I will also be working on more creative projects that involve creating and editing videos for our Facebook and Instagram page. Besides that as of now, I am expected to keep interacting with followers, writing and editing blog posts, and marketing our social media to 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!

To bring or not to bring? That is the question.

To bring or not to bring? That is the question.

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There is something satisfactory about finally finishing packing for a trip. The feeling that you can check something off your list and it’s done. For some, they try to put it off as long as they can because they truly hate packing (me) or their packing is done a week before their trip. The one thing I have learned while studying abroad is packing efficiently. My family and friends are shocked that I have learned to not over pack, but when European dimensions are very constricting and very expensive to check a bag, the college student in you decides it’s time to pack a carry-on. It’s all fun and games until you have to haul your bag over your shoulder through the airport at an unamusing time in the morning or night. That is why I opted for a backpacking backpack and have 10 tips to help you pack.

  1. If you are HESITATING to pack something, don’t do it. Hesitation is reason enough that you do not need to bring it.
  2. Keep your outfits as INTERCHANGEABLE as possible. When traveling to a colder place it’s harder to pack light because sweaters can take up so much room, but if you can mix one or two pieces of your outfit, you’re golden.
  3. ROLL, don’t fold. I cannot stress enough how much room this saves you, especially when it comes to jeans.
  4. Cut the FOOTWEAR. Try to wear your heaviest shoes to avoid putting them in your bag, giving your bag extra weight.
  5. LAY OUT all the clothes you want to take before packing. Seeing everything laid out before you will keep you from over packing.
  6. Leave SPACE in your bag for souvenirs. You’ll buy things, it’ll happen so leave space in your bag so you won’t overstuff it.
  7. Pack a few granola bars or SNACKS just in case. When you’re flying at odd times of the day it’s hard to get food right when you’re hungry, so pack some snacks just in case! They don’t take up much room and you’ll thank me later.
  8. Travel size EVERYTHING. You don’t need a week’s worth of shampoo for a 3-day trip so consolidate your toiletries to smaller sizes, thus giving more room in your bag.
  9. Convert your cash BEFORE traveling. The airport charges horrible rates for converting currency at the airport so to save the hassle do it before.
  10. When in doubt SHOP. Don’t worry if you forget something because chances are you’ll be able to find it where you are going.
Waka Waka (this time for Africa)

Waka Waka (this time for Africa)

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Hey guys! If you don’t understand the title of this blog post, it’s from Shakira’s song! Anyway, this blog post is mostly about how I went to Africa and crossed another continent off my bucket list, but first I’m going to talk about Halloween. 

I’m sure you guys all know what day it was 2 weeks ago. If you say Halloween, you are correct! Halloween in Madrid was very interesting. It is definitely not as big of a deal as it is in the states, so I actually forgot about it. I know, how could I forget Halloween? Well, not everything is decorated all spooky and scary. The only reason I actually remembered was because all the Americans I was around kept talking about it. I definitely wanted to have a chill night and watch halloween movies and eat candy, but my friends wouldn’t let me. They told me I would regret it if I didn’t go out and do something fun, so that’s what we did lol. We had a pretty good night, but Halloween in Madrid is kinda crazy. My friend Shrina can verify that it wasn’t that great, but hey, it was an experience right?

Two weekends ago I went to Morocco, and it was an amazing trip! I knew a lot of friends going, so I have been looking forward to it! It was through Discover Excursions, and it was nice because all of our food, transportation, and hotel was paid for in advance. It was nice to have everything planned out for us, but it was a pretty exhausting trip. We first had to take a 7 hour bus from Madrid to Seville to meet up with the tour guides. Once we met up with them we got on another bus, a ferry, and a bus one more time and then finally made it to the hotel. After 12 hours of travelling, we ate dinner at our hotel and then fell asleep. The next day, we took a 2 hour bus ride to Chefchaouen, aka the blue city! Mostly everything is painted blue, and it is really amazing to see. Unfortunately, it was raining a little bit, but I tried to stay optimistic. When we arrived, we had a tour and then some free time. The tour was really interesting because it is an undeveloped city and houses don’t have ovens and there’s also a communal laundry area where they use river water and washboard type things. It was really interesting to see this different way of life and imagine what it would be like to live there.

Of course we wanted to take a million pictures, so we started at the most famous steps in the city. We ran into these two Irish guys who were professional photographers just travelling, and he saw my bright pink umbrella. He asked if he could borrow it, and then went to show me how I could use it as a “prop” to get really good pictures. It was super funny because this guy was doing really girly poses to show me how I can use the prop. (On my instagram you can see that I followed his advice lol). After, we just walked around and ran into a super nice lady doing henna. My friends and I each got a henna on our hand, and then continued walking around the blue city. Overall, it was a really good day and the bus ride back to our hotel had really pretty views!

The blue city!
After we got henna on our hands!

That night, we had some free time and then ate dinner. The meal was actually gluten free itself, so they forgot that the dessert wasn’t and that I couldn’t eat it. When I asked him if it had gluten, he took my plate away and brought me back an apple on a pretty plate lol. All my friends were laughing, but I was fine with it. It was a pretty good apple! After dinner, our tour guides told us to meet us on the top floor for a “surprise”. When we arrived they told us to sit against the walls and then presented a Moroccan show! It consisted of 5 men in traditional outfits and 3 of them were dancing and the other 2 were banging on drums. One of the guys at one point was dancing with a tray of candles on his head! It was really cool and super interesting to see, plus everyone was super into it! Then we joined in and had our own little dance party, which made it a super fun night!

The next day, we went to Tangier. We had a little bus tour around the city, where our tour guide described how Tangier is a rapidly expanding city. He said that in the last 20 years it has grown so much that the airport used to be 10 km outside the city, but is now included in the city limits. It was interesting to see an underdeveloped city and also a developed city that is continuing to expand in the same country. Our first stop in Tangier was to the cave of Hercules. It has a famous cut out in the shape of Hercules’ face that has a view of the ocean. The cave got its name from the legend that Hercules pushed apart Africa and Europe. Also, the tour guide told us that there is only a few times a year that you can actually see the sunset from inside the cave. It was interesting to see! Our next stop was to ride camels on the beach! It was really fun, but also a little scary and bumpy! I seriously thought I was going to fall off lol. The baby camels were super cute, and it was a really cool experience. When else can you say that you rode a camel in Africa? Yeah exactly!

Julia and I riding a camel!
In Tangier by the beach!

After our camel ride, we went to the old section of the city and visited a Moroccan pharmacy where they sold all kinds of natural products. Morocco is known for producing argan oil, so it is actually pretty cheap to buy. In America it is so much more expensive. They sold many different lotions and other products that smelled amazing! There was no way I could walk out without buying something. After that, we spent some time walking around and shopping. Then, we had some lunch and made our way to the ferry to embark on our 12 hour trip back home to Madrid! By the time I got back to Madrid at about 7:30am I was exhausted! It was so much traveling, but definitely worth it in the end!

Last weekend, I stayed in Madrid and got some homework and studying done! I didn’t do too much, so there’s nothing really to blog about. Im super excited about this weekend though because my two cousins, Corrin and Shannon, and also my sister Rachel are coming to visit me! I’ve been a little homesick lately, so I can’t wait to see them and show them around the place I have been calling home for the past 2 and a half months!
My week in Spain

My week in Spain

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I spent my 10-day long fall break in Spain and I couldn’t have asked for a better week. I flew from London to Madrid to meet up with a few friends who are studying in Madrid, then flew to Barcelona, then back to London. So, in one week, I took 3 plane rides. I was excited to spend my fall break in Spain not only to see my friends but to experience Spain’s culture. Coming from a partially Hispanic background, I have grown up around Spanish (more specifically Puerto Rican culture) but I am by no means fluent. I can understand simple phrases, which after spending a week in Spain I am thankful for. Throughout the week I would message my mom asking what certain words were and how to say certain phrases (so shout out to my mom for being a lifesaver).

In Madrid, there were very few people who spoke English but the people were very nice. I enjoyed the feeling in Madrid- and I’m not talking about just the warm weather and sunshine. After studying in London, I could vaguely recall what the sun looked like which isn’t very different from when I live in Chicago. Barcelona was different. It was beautiful but even fewer people spoke English than in Madrid. Although it was difficult at times, it was a great way to fully immerse myself. Upon arriving in Barcelona, Ally and I had to figure out how to get to our Airbnb. While the Airbnb lady had left us directions to get from the airport to the place, we frantically searched the map and could not find the directions she had told us. After asking different people with what little Spanish I knew we finally found the metro and someone to help us buy the tickets to get to the place. We got on the metro and followed the directions, until maps took us to the wrong building. With Whatsapp not connecting to contact the Airbnb owner and us being sleep deprived, it was not a good mix. Three hours later we made it to our Airbnb and went to a restaurant where they spoke no English. With the help of Google translate, my limited (very limited) Spanish, and photos of their food they had we managed to order our dinner which turned out to be amazing.

My week in Spain was amazing and I gained a new respect for another culture and language. The language barrier at times was difficult but definitely added to the experience.  I will never forget visiting the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and the San Miguel Market in Madrid.

My Internship in Rome (Week 7)

My Internship in Rome (Week 7)

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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 an article about St. Peter’s Basilica Dome for our Vatican Tours. After I finish writing, I send it to my boss Francesca and she reviews it before it is finally published to the company’s website. Other tasks that I did this week including finding and posting TripAdvisor reviews to our website, editing a previous Rome Key Attraction article about the Colosseum, researching tactics on how to gain followers for the company’s Instagram account “The Roman Foodie”, and also editing blog posts on WordPress using the blog life cycle as my guideline. Lastly, I was in charge with coming up with six different creative video topics that my co workers can produce for our website, and I had to present them to my coworkers and get their advice and approval for which ones they would decide to use. Previous classroom knowledge has helped me because a lot of what I learned,  like concepts such as tactics for gaining followers and marketing content, in my previous marketing class is being used during this internship as well. 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 to learn how to monitor my followers activity involving my content and overall learn how to market my work successfully. I have been working towards achieving this learning objective, because this past week was primarily focused on instagram and how to gain and interact with followers. I have been researching and reading articles on different techniques on how to do this, and for next week I was even given a creative Instagram challenge from my boss in order to gain more followers and post more creative content. A problem that I have encountered involving my internship was that last week, my professor accidently broke my phone. I resolved this by purchasing a new Italian phone, and although my new phone has bad photo quality, I have thought of different ways to not let this affect my internship. I made a file that has good quality pictures in Google Docs so that for the future, I am able to use my other phone to access the photos and still be able to post. So far, the most impressive thing about my internship to date is getting to experience the teamwork that all of my coworkers have with one another. They all communicate very well and although they are all good friends, they don’t let that get in the way of their work and they complete all of their given tasks above and beyond. For the following weeks, I am expected to take full control of our company’s Instagram, The Roman Foodie, and incorporate more creative posts, videos, and stories, onto the profile. My boss is also in charge of creating different videos, and in the future I am expected to help out with that and get some video footage of different sites so that she can use it for the final copy. So far I have been loving my internship and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me. Thanks for reading and ciao for now!

San Sebastian and Rome!

San Sebastian and Rome!

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Hola!

This blog post is all about my weekends in San Sebastian and Rome! Just warning you now, this is a long one, so make sure you have some time if you wanna read it all.

San Sebastian is a town in northern Spain and it is the cutest little beach town. It’s perfect if you’re looking for a super chill and fun weekend. San Sebastian was about 2 and a half weeks ago, and it was one of my favorite trips. I really enjoyed it! The only thing that got me down was the rain, but it wasn’t too bad. My trip started off with a 7 hour bus ride, which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Once we arrived, my friends Julia, Rachel, Benita, and I dropped our stuff off at our hostel and then started to walk around. We were blown away by how beautiful it is! We grabbed some lunch and then made our way to the mountain that we were about to hike up so we could watch the sunset. It was kinda rough, but once we made it to the top it was totally worth it. We took a million pics at the top and then found a good spot to watch the sunset. It was so beautiful and an amazing view!

After the sunset, we just grabbed some dinner and walked around a little more. We wanted to get to bed early because in the morning we were supposed to go to a little town in France for a day trip, however, I actually forgot my passport in Madrid! So unfortunately, I couldn’t go. It turned out to be a good thing though because everyone says if you study abroad, you need to go on a solo trip. I had the day in San Sebastian to do whatever I wanted! I ended up at first getting starbucks (of course right?), and then going to the aquarium. I also did some shopping and bought some souvenirs. It was a really good day! I wanted to go to the beach, but it was drizzling on and off almost all day. I did find a pretty cool spot to relax and enjoy the view though! That night, my friends and I tried pintxos, which you have to do when coming to San Sebastian. It’s really cool! Different bars have many plates of food out, and you can try a portion of whatever you want. It costs only 2 euros per portion, which is a pretty good deal! We went to 3 different bars, and the bartenders were super fun to talk to. We also met two australian guys who just graduated high school and took a year off to travel around Europe. It’s easy to meet a lot of cool people from travelling around! The next day, my friends and I went in a cable car up a mountain to see the view! Once we got up there, it was breathtaking! We also got to ride a roller coaster around the top of the mountain. It was actually really fun, and we weren’t expecting it to be like a mini roller coaster. It seemed like we were riding over the ocean, and it was honestly so cool.

After that we made our way down the mountain and found a place to eat lunch. They had really good burgers and gluten free bread. I was super excited about the bread lol. Definitely my chow of the trip. Oh let me explain what that means. My friends and I have a pow, wow, and chow of every trip. The pow is the worst thing that happened, wow is the best, and chow is the best thing you ate or drank. It’s pretty fun comparing everyone’s pow’s, wow’s, and chow’s. Anyway, after we ate we walked around a little more and made our way to the bus station for our 7 hour ride back to Madrid. I really liked this trip, and even though I forgot my passport, everything worked out for the best!

Before we rode the roller coaster on top of the mountain!
View from the top of the mountain!
The beautiful sunset!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay now about Roma! I fell in love with Italy! And it was really cool because it was the first time I was outside of Spain. I kept responding to Italian in Spanish lol. Anyway, the trip started out kinda rough. Because Jackie and I are broke college students, we decided to sleep in the airport the night before our early flight. We decided we would lose some sleep instead of 30 euros on a taxi. Jackie fell asleep, but I was definitely not comfortable to fall asleep on a cold floor. So I got two hours of sleep on the plane and that was it lol. When we arrived in Rome, we got some coffee and did some of the touristy things. We saw the Victor Emmanuel National Monument, the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican, and also the Pantheon. We ended up getting about 35 thousand steps that day. I was so exhausted! For dinner, Jackie and I met up with our friends who are studying abroad in Rome! I know a lot of people studying in Rome because Loyola actually has a campus there. My friend Francie is in nursing with me and one of my really good friends, so it was really good to see her! At dinner, they had a student deal that included a bunch of food and some wine for only 15 euros each. It was so good and the dessert wine was to die for! After dinner, we were in Rome so of course we had to get gelato. It was probably the best gelato I have ever had! Then, Francie and I went to our hostel to try to get some sleep because we were so exhausted.

Since Francie studies in Rome, she was my tour guide the entire weekend! My second day in Rome consisted of Francie and I going to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We spent the entire day there, but took a break to get some pizza and gelato. I was really surprised how many restaurants offer gluten free pizza and pasta! Because we were at the Colosseum, I had Lizzie McGuire stuck in my head and was constantly singing “What dreams are made of”. It was a really fun day! At night, we went to a gluten free restaurant and as we were walking across the river, we came across a street performer on the bridge. He was amazing! He was singing American songs, so it was really fun to sing along with him. He even attracted a huge crowd of people because it was obvious he loved performing. Francie and I listened to like 10 of his songs before continuing to explore Rome. I got to meet some of her friends and we had a really fun night!

The next day, my last day in Rome, we went to the Vatican to see the pope. He was performing an Angelus ceremony. We didn’t have a good spot, so we could barely see but it was still really cool. After, we went into the St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the largest church in the world. It is crazy how big and beautiful it is! After that, we got lunch and met up with one of Francie’s friends! We did some more touristy things, and then I had the night to myself. I went to get dinner and ate some gluten free pizza one last time. The waiter was super nice and we had a pretty good conversation about travelling and a bunch of stuff. I stayed one more night in the hostel and then woke up early and went to the airport to come home to Madrid. I loved Rome, and so far it is my favorite trip! Rome is amazing, but unfortunately the public transportation sucks, so you can’t expect to get anywhere fast in Rome lol. Other than that, it was an amazing trip! I still can’t believe how much money I spent on food. I had enough pizza, pasta, and gelato to last a lifetime lol. No, I could never get tired of Italian. Well that’s it for now guys! See ya later!

France and I at the Colosseum!
The Colosseum!
Break Spent Exploring Greece

Break Spent Exploring Greece

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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.

Temple of Poseidon
Living With a Chinese Roommate

Living With a Chinese Roommate

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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.