The past 3 days have been solid walking tours of the city and I wanted to highlight some of my favorite parts-of course it is so hard to narrow down the cool things since at every street corner in this city is another historical landmark. This is the street my school is on, apparently the Pope used to walk on this street during his initiation ceremony when he would march from the Vatican and tour around Rome. The past few days have been a crazy blurr of walking tours, Italian [...]

The past 48 hours can be summed up in to one word: WOW. What an experience this has already started off as! The flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam was uneventful. Sleep wasn’t as easy to come by as I expected. I had more movie choices on the way over than I’ve seen in most movie stores! We landed in Amsterdam about an hour early, left there and landed in my home for the next three and a half months. The flight in and first couple hours here were almost an [...]

When I decided to study abroad in Italy, I also made the decision to travel around Europe and see as much as I possibly can within the semester that I am here.   In attempt to be efficient in my planing process, I created a calendar with all my weekend trips written in it.  Here are some of the places I have already planned and booked my flights for in Europe: Nice, France Munich, Germany Budapest, Hungary London, England Dublin, Ireland Brussels, Belgium Amsterdam, Netherlands   Here are some cities I will [...]

After months of planning and much anticipation, I am here in Rome, Italy studying abroad for my third time.  I arrived here almost two weeks ago and have been adjusting pretty well. The picture on the right is of my condo that I share with 7 other girls in my program. We have one whole side of the second floor, and lucky for me, I have a spacious single room. My roommates are all from different states (California, Arizona, Indiana, and Pennsylvania)     The is a picture of Global Campus CEA- [...]

Even though I spent last weekend in Florence, Pisa, and the Tuscan wine vineyards, I’m really behind on things I’ve learned in class all week. So here is my favorite outside-of-the-classroom experience of last week: The Doria-Pamphilj Palace. The palace (meaning large house in the city, while villa means large house in the countryside) is one of the few noble places in the world that is still inhabited by members of the original aristocratic family and is open to the public on a daily basis. So…obviously no pictures are allowed. [...]

Monday: We had our first day of classes today. The program is set up so we have a two-week intensive language class and then I start the rest of my classes at the beginning of July. I go to class all morning, have a break for lunch, and then I have an afternoon activity. I am trying really hard in Italian because it is so helpful to communicate with people around here…people speak less English than I expected. We then spent the afternoon at the Vatican. We had a great [...]

Ciao! Roma is bella! After not having internet for a few days in our apartment, this post will be a condensed version of the first few days. The eight-hour, sleepless flight to Amsterdam: I sat smushed between Katie and this horribly cynical woman whose elbows were in my rib cage almost the entire flight while she studied her “Birds of Europe” book like she was being tested on it. Protip—don’t make small talk with me while I’m trying to watch Harry Potter 7. You and I both know that you [...]

Well of course we had to have a little bump in the road to test our strengths and attitudes while under pressure in the first moments of our journey! The day started off well. It was a beautiful sunny, blue skies day that would allow for easy plane travel. (No storms or wind to hinder the flight) We had an easy drive over the airport where we 2.5 hours early…which is typical for the Rouse family. We were sitting down after we made it through security and I found this [...]

I’m pretty sure the title of this post is: Packing Extravaganza! (Still working on my Italian.) Going abroad isn’t anything new to me. I’ve been out of the country on my own twice before in high school, so packing shouldn’t be hard right? Wrong. There are only 12 days until departure and packing a suitcase for two months takes a lot of preparation (just how much shampoo does one actually use in that amount of time? I guess I’ll find out.) I started packing the essentials tonight: THE ESSENTIALS IN [...]

AHHHHHHHH! Here we go here we go here we go! I am ready…I have my traveling outfit picked out. I have my backpack packed…and my suitcase will be ready to go…on time. I celebrated my 21st birthday yesterday. I am so happy that I was home for the big day because I love to be surrounded by my loved ones on my favorite day of the year! I spent the morning at Katherine Ramey’s house where we enjoyed lots of delicious food and a great amount of desserts. I was [...]

This study abroad experience has not only been educational but has also opened my eyes and taught me about embracing the differences of new countries and cultures, my eagerness to learn about the history of a country, the importance of putting effort towards learning the language of the culture you are in, and finally, about myself. I have learned that I am strong and independent for leaving my comfortable life in the States for a completely new country and culture. I would like to thank everyone who followed along with [...]

If you can’t live longer, live deeper – Italian Proverb My last few days in Rome were bittersweet. For my final exam of my Italian Communications class, Sean took us to the Vatican Radio Station, to create a short segment about our work experience and then to the Vatican Television Station, where we were each able to talk about our study abroad experiences. It was incredible to be able to go into many places that only a select few have been to and to have such a lively and entertaining professor [...]

On April 20th, I celebrated my 21st birthday! The day started out with a mandatory field trip to a farm with our Sustainable Foods class. The farm that we went to was actually in Rome and I couldn’t believe that this wide stretch of land was hidden within the densely populated city of Rome. We learned about the farms’ organic and sustainable practices and got to see some of the cows and pigs. Although the smell of the farm wasn’t pleasant, it was very educational. After seeing the farm, we [...]

Eight Essentials for Your European Excursions  Traveling throughout Europe for the past 3 months has taught me a lot about what is essential and what is unnecessary. I find it important to share this new acquired wisdom with the rest of the world to aid with pre-packing hassles. 1. Hand Sanitizer Hand Sanitizer  From Italians picking their noses and wiping it on the walls of the buses to sneezing directly on the hand poles of the tram, every square meter of Italy is crying out to be cleansed. Rome’s trams, buses, and [...]

In late March, all of us went to our second cooking class for my Sustainable Foods class at our professor’s (Sergio) house. During this cooking extravaganza, we focused on the region of Tuscany. We started off the early morning with our routine cafe and cornetto on Sergio’s garden terrace. After waking up a little bit, we got going on the cooking. Fiore, who helps Sergio with the class, split us into three different groups and each group would be making a different Tuscan course. Our professor, Sergio, and a few [...]