So, after the week that my sister and cousins visited me, I went to Amsterdam! My friends went there sooner, but I couldn’t go on Friday because my family was still in Madrid, so I met up with them on Saturday.
When I arrived, I took the airport shuttle to the hotel we were staying in for the weekend to meet up with my friends. Then, we went back to the airport and got on the train that took us to the central station in the city. When we got there, I was so happy to see how cute Amsterdam was and all the Christmas lights everywhere. It was the first city that I’ve gone to where they had some Christmas decorations and I loved seeing them! It made me really homesick though, but I tried not to think about that because I was in the cutest city ever!
Jackie and I in Amsterdam
We were starving so after walking around a little, we found a place that had gluten free pasta and it was really good. After that, we made our way to the I Amsterdam sign and went ice skating! It was so fun! I can’t ice skate very well, but I didn’t fall at all so I call that a win! However, my friends and I saw a girl fall and she definitely broke her wrist. It was so crazy. My friends and I (also nursing majors) tried to help her and make sure she was going to get help. We were all careful after that. Anyway, it was so fun and it was also hailing at one point and for some reason that made it even better haha! When we were done, we were literally freezing so we decided to go buy some hot chocolate. It was amazing because my hands were literally frozen. Then, we were pretty hungry so we stopped at a place that was selling fries and literally whatever sauce you want. I tried it with spicy mayo and it was so good! We continued walking around while eating our fries and just enjoyed seeing the city! It was a really good day! We were pretty tired though, so we made our way to the hotel.
The next day, we woke up early and made our way to the Anne Frank house! We had a little history lesson before and then got to go inside the Secret Annex. I read her diary as a kid, so I was really looking forward to actually seeing it! It was really cool and an amazing experience, and I’m so happy I had the opportunity to see it. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for her and her family to live there for 2 years. She wrote in her diary that they couldn’t run water or speak too loudly out of fear that the people below the Secret Annex would hear them. It’s amazing how much of an inspiration she is, and that there are millions of unknown stories just like hers. The Anne Frank house was definitely my favorite part of the trip!
The I Amsterdam sign!
After, we bought some souvenirs and had a little snack. I tried a stroopwafel (which has gluten in it lol oops) and it was sooo good! It’s made of two thin layers of dough with caramel in the middle and is a popular snack in the Netherlands. Definitely worth eating gluten for. After that, we went to the Van Gogh museum and got to see a lot of his amazing artwork and see how it developed throughout his life. It was a really cool museum! After the museum, we got dinner at a pancake place. Since they didn’t have any gluten free pancakes, I ordered an omelette which was actually really good. We continued walking around Amsterdam after that, and got even more fries. They were so good I had to get more! Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel for our early flight the next morning. It was a pretty short trip, but I definitely enjoyed my time in Amsterdam! I wish I could have seen the bench from the fault in our stars, but we actually forgot. It was okay though because the original one was stolen lol. There’s one next to it that everyone uses for pictures, but it’s not actually the same one from the movie. If it was, I definitely wouldn’t have forgotten. Anyway, I loved Amsterdam and it was an amazing trip!
So this is a little late because I’ve been super busy lately, but Thanksgiving week was my favorite week here! My sister, Rachel, and my two cousins, Shannon and Corrin visited me in Madrid! We wanted to go to Barcelona, so we planned a short little trip there. We were only there for 25 short hours, but it was definitely a trip worth taking.
When we arrived, we first went to the Sagrada familia, which was amazing! It was funny because when we were walking there, some buildings were blocking it. Google maps told me that it was like right in front of us and I told my family, “There it is!”. They were confused because we still couldn’t see it and then all of a sudden, it was right in front of us. That moment was so breathtaking and mind blowing. It is so beautiful. Gaudi, the creator of the Sagrada familia, did an amazing job designing it. It is also interesting because it isn’t like a typical Spanish cathedral. It looks very modern and something like I’ve never seen. The painted glass all over the inside is stunning. We all really enjoyed it! Since we were super hungry, we then decided to get some dinner. We found the perfect place right by the Sagrada familia. We sat outside where they had giant heaters, and ate some paella and pasta. It was the perfect dinner right after such an exhausting day. Since my family was super tired from their long flight, we went back to our airbnb and hit the hay.
Park Guell
In the morning, we woke up early to go to Park Guell. If you get there before 8 am, they let you in for free, so we forsure wanted to take advantage of that. We left at around 7:45 am, which should have been enough time because our airbnb is a 5 minute walk from the park. We ended up going the wrong way though, so we made it at 7:59am!! It was a close one, but super funny because we were literally running up a hill so we wouldn’t have to pay. Anyway, Park Guell is the public park designed by Gaudi. His house was even in the park too, and it was funny because we walked right by it and said it was a cute pink house and later we realized it was Gaudi’s house lol. Anyway, the paying section of the park has an amazing view of the city and a really cute area for pictures. Since we were there early, we got to see the sun rise too. It was definitely worth running up the hill lol.
After Park Guell, we decided to be spontaneous and go to the beach! We only had a couple hours till our flight, so we needed to be fast. It took an hour metro ride, a little walk, and then we were there. We were hungry, so we decided to eat lunch at a restaurant on the beach. It was really cool and the ocean was so pretty. It was nice catching up and eating by the water. After lunch, we spent some time on the beach. Corrin and Shannon were looking for sea glass the entire time, and Rachel and I were just hung out and took some pictures. It was really fun and a good last thing to do before leaving. Since Corrin, Shan, and Rach aren’t used to flying in Spain, they were really worried they were going to miss their flight. I wasn’t worried at all because getting through security doesn’t take that long, but they were totally freaking out. Don’t worry though, we made our flight with plenty of time to spare! After arriving in Madrid, we went to burger king for dinner lol. Why burger king in Spain? I don’t know haha. They were hungry and wanted it, so I chose not to argue with them. After that, I checked them into their airbnb and then went home and ate dinner with my host mom.
Retiro park!Selfie on the boat!
The next day, I skipped class so I could show my family around. Don’t worry, it was only my dance class. First, we went to Retiro park and went in the little row boats in the pond. It was super fun! At the beginning, Rachel and Corrin were both rowing and it wasn’t really working. We all wanted to try rowing, so we kept rocking the boat while switching seats. Haha I thought we were gonna tip the boat over. Thankfully, we didn’t! After Retiro park, we went to Cherry pecas, a mexican restaurant by my school, for lunch. Our food and drinks were so good! After, we walked around Puerta de Sol, which is the popular shopping and touristy area in Madrid. We went into a million souvenir shops, listened to a mariachi band in the square, and also tried chocolate with churros. (I even had some too because how could I have studied in Madrid without at least trying a bite?) It was sooo good! My cousins didn’t really like it, and I couldn’t believe it! After churros, we made our way back to the airbnb. Rachel, Shannon, and Corrin needed to get up early Tuesday for their day trip to Toledo and El Escorial. Since I have class all day, they planned day trips for Tuesday and Thursday.
On Wednesday, we slept in a little bit and then walked around the park by my house. After that, we made our way to cien montaditos, a restaurant that many students go to by my school. Every Wednesday, they have mini sandwiches for 1 euro. They aren’t gluten free, but they have other things like nachos too. We hung out there for awhile and enjoyed the food and tinto de verano. After lunch, I brought Rach, Shan, and Corrin to my flamenco class to watch! They said they really enjoyed it and wanted to join in! My dance teacher, Yolanda, is super funny and speaks only Spanish, so Corrin and Rachel were very confused the whole time. Shannon could understand her though, so she was the translator lol. Anyway, I was really happy that they enjoyed my class! After that, we went to a rooftop bar called Circulo de las Bellas Artes. It had a beautiful view of the city at the top, and we got to watch the sunset! It was a great place to enjoy a glass of wine and talk. We stayed there awhile and then made our way to my house. My host mom had invited my family over for dinner that night for pasta, salad, and some tapas! It was so good (of course because my host mom is a wonderful cook), and my family really enjoyed it! It was cool introducing them to my host mom and showing them where I have been living for the past 3 months!
When we celebrated Shannon’s bday at Ojala!
Thursday was Thanksgiving and Shannons birthday!! Unfortunately, I had a spanish presentation and other classes, so I couldn’t go to Segovia and Avila with them. I already went to Segovia though, so it didn’t really matter. After my classes, I met up with them and we went to a restaurant that I made reservations for. The restaurant is called Ojala and it has a super cool beach bar in the basement. There is literally sand on the floor and you sit in cute little beach chairs. It was the perfect place to celebrate Shannon’s birthday! We had a great time at the restaurant and then explored Madrid’s night life a little more. It was kinda sad that I couldn’t spend Thanksgiving like I usually do every year, but I was happy I could celebrate it with some of my family. It made me miss my parents and my brother a lot, but it was okay because I knew I was going to be home before I knew it!
On Friday, we woke up and went on a nice walk to the Royal Palace of Madrid! We took a little detour to see the templo de Debod, the ancient Egyptian temple that was donated to Spain. We went at the wrong time though because it is best to see at sunset. It was still cool to see though. When we arrived at the Royal Palace, we decided we needed to go inside. It was super pretty and had so many different rooms. Shannon could not get over the fact that they have a room for just silverware lol. It was a fun last thing to do before they catch their flight back home. I went halfway with them to the airport to say goodbye. It was sad, but I was still excited for my last few trips here. Also, I was going to Amsterdam the next day, so I was super excited about that! Overall, I am beyond grateful that they visited me and enjoyed seeing what I now consider my second home. It was a really amazing week with them!
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 blogs using the blog life cycle rules, and posting three instagram pictures and two stories. However, since this was my last week working as an intern for the Roman Guy, I was also assigned some tasks that were very different. Instead of writing a Rome Key Attraction paper, I was assigned to write my own blog while following all of the rules that I learned this semester. There is so much more than what meets the eye about blog writing. When you write one, you have to follow about 15 different rules of the Blog Life Cycle. These rules range from what kind of title you chose, to the pictures you have, all the way down to how the grammar is composed. This was one of my challenges for this week, because although I learned all of the rules and worked with them throughout the semester, I found it hard to make your blog post still apply to them. For example, my blog could be about whatever I wanted it to be, so I chose to write about three different places in Italy that I went to while studying abroad and what my favorite memories were there. My coworkers loved this blog idea but it was hard to write since everything was in the past tense, which is a rule that the blog life cycle wants you to avoid. In order to make my blog pass all of the rules, I had to figure out how to edit my post and keep it in the past tense, but change some sentence structures in order for the blog to be completely green and good to post. 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 improve my writing. I believe that I definitely achieved this goal while working as an intern for the Roman Guy, because the majority of the tasks that I had to complete involved writing. This at first was another challenge of mine, because I was not that confident in myself and I thought that all of the tasks that I had to do that involved writing would not turn out well. I overcame this by becoming more confident in myself and my writing, and overall others have told me that I have improved significantly. So far, one of the most impressive things about my internship to date is my co workers and how well good they are at their job. They are some of the most creative people I know and they are always coming up with ideas that are outside of the box. Another thing that impresses me is how well my co workers work as a team together. They are all good friends, and yet they don’t let that get in the way of their work and they can all compose work with one another that is very professional. Overall, I am extremely happy that I decided to do this internship because it has helped me improve in many significant ways and it helped open my eyes up to what my future career could potentially look like. I am extremely blessed to have been able to work at The Roman Guy, and to have such amazing co workers that were constantly pushing me to do better and were so supportive of my decisions. I will forever remember and cherish the memories that I has working as an intern for this company. Thank you for reading about my journey working as an intern for the Roman Guy and ciao for now!
