Travels

1.31.2023

I'M HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, I have been so busy and jet lagged and just trying to settle in. The plane ride was honestly miserable. I couldn't sleep and after 3 hours I swear the seat turned into concrete it was so uncomfortable. I met a couple of girls in the airport that were in my program so I talked with them and was able to travel with them from Minnesota all the way to Florence. Once we landed in Paris for our layover we had to go through security and customs so we almost missed our connection. It was so frustrating! 

Once we got to Florence we checked into a hotel for the first couple of nights and I met my roommates! We were in Hotel Croce di Malta which was just around the corner from the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. I really enjoyed being in a hotel for the first couple days because it helped that there was always someone there to ask if I had any questions. Yesterday I met a bunch of new people and we all walked around the city together and explored. Last night we went out to dinner and went to see the Gustavus choir perform in a beautiful church. It was a crazy coincidence that we were able to see them perform. A couple of my friends met some girls in the choir on the street and invited us all to the show and it was so cool to see them all the way across the world when I live 20 minutes down the road from the school!

Today we finally got to move into our apartment and it's beautiful! It's all very modern and everything looks very new. The neighborhood is amazing and so lively and fun. It's a perfect location, right in the middle of the city and just about a block from the river. I got all unpacked and decorated and went out to explore a little more before calling it a night. I bought groceries for the next day or 2 and everything is so cheap here! It was a very big shock to see the prices of everything I got. It's early and this city is all still very much out of my comfort zone, but I can feel myself start to ease into the culture and lifestyle and I am falling in love with Italy! 

I added some pictures from the first few days. Please let me know if you have questions about what any of them are! I did a walking tour where I learned a lot about the history of all these structures. I won't bore you with it in this post but if you would like to know please feel free to ask!

Many more updates to come! :)

2.5.2023

I've officially been in Italy for 1 week. This week has been full of exploring and eating and meeting new friends. On Saturday we took a train to Pisa and got to see the leaning tower. It was so amazing! We explored around Pisa a little and it's very different from Florence. I had my first gelato in Pisa and it was so good! I can't wait to try more in Florence! 

When we got back from Pisa a few of us went to dinner at a place right by the Church of Santa Croce and it was so much fun! We sat in the restaurant for 2 hours and it felt like a real Italian dinner. When we left the restaurant it was around midnight and the plaza in front of the church looked so beautiful and there were so many people hanging out around there. It was so surreal to experience how lively the city was so late at night. 

This is the last day before classes start and I've had a really great and relaxing Sunday reset day. I made some authentic spaghetti carbonara for my roommates and I and it was sooo good! Tomorrow I have my yoga and meditation class at noon and I'm so excited! I'm really looking forward to finding out what my classes will be like and to start getting into a routine. This first week has been so crazy and all over the place. As much fun as it was, some more stability will be really nice. 

I'm still enjoying this place so much and I am so happy and grateful to be here!

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

2.12.2023

Long post, lots has happened in the last couple of days!

On Monday I had my first class. It was my yoga religious studies course and it was awesome! It sounds like we're not just going to learn how to physically do yoga, but also dig deep into the origins and spirituality of yoga. I'm really excited for that class! We did a body scan meditation and I won't lie, I fell asleep a little bit but it was so relaxing. 

On Tuesday I had Italian. We learned how to ask basic conversation questions and it was harder than I thought. The pronunciation can be difficult, and my instructor is very particular about getting it perfect. It can get tedious when she's always correcting us, but I appreciate it because I know it's really important to get it right. 

On Wednesday I had Sports Nutrition. So far it's my favorite class. We talked about some basic nutrition stuff that was kind of review for me, but we also learned some of the best ways to create a meal plan for an athlete. During the semester we will have to actually create a meal plan for either ourselves or another athlete we know, and my roommate/teammate from Duluth is going to be my subject I'm so excited!

On Thursday morning I had Italian Style Cooking. We took a shuttle to the other side of the Arno River to a kitchen lab owned by the school. We had a little lesson on nutrition and food choices and what influences them, and then we watched one of the kitchen staff members make bruschetta and it was sooooo good I'm going to need the recipe so I can make it myself. I'm excited for that class too because it goes in depth into nutrition and then we get to apply our knowledge to make actual healthy meals. Then I had my second Italian class where we learned about the different kinds of things you can order at a cafe and how to order them properly in Italian. I definitely need more practice but it was really helpful! After that I had my last class of the week, Ancient Rome. I did however, decide to drop that class because it seemed like it would take up a lot of my time and might interfere with my other courses. I was a little bummed that it ended up like that because I was excited for that class, but my other classes are more important to me and I want to be able to learn as much as I can in my other classes.

Thursday night I spent some time with my friends at a Mexican restaurant thats really close to our apartment. It was a really great time! We also went to a place that has karaoke every night and I sang Don't Stop Me Now by Queen with 3 friends! It was really out of my comfort zone but so much fun I'm glad I did it! 

Friday was a really chill day, I slept in and pretty much watched movies all day. That night my roommate and I went to our friends apartment and just had a really fun game night! I also made the decision that day to spend my birthday weekend in Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg! I'm going with all my friends through this company that provides transportation, housing accommodation, and an itinerary and you pay a flat rate. I'm so excited for that weekend! I get to wake up in Vienna on my 20th birthday!!!!! 

Saturday (today), 2 of my roommates and I spent our day in Bologna. We went into a couple churches and an old palace that now serves as a "city hall" and workplace for their local politicians. There were so many beautiful rooms. We had a delicious lunch and then did a little window shopping. Bologna is a really colorful city so it was kind of a refreshing change from the brown of all the buildings in Florence. 

This was such a busy week but so much fun! I've had so many "holy crap I'm living here" moments and I'm so thankful for every day and memory I've been making here! I'm going to try to be better about making smaller posts and not big long ones like this with a whole week update, but I hope this wasn't too much! 

As usual, enjoy the pictures! :)

2.20.2023

I've been here for just over 3 weeks now. It's kind of hard to wrap my head around that. This city is becoming much more like home rather than a vacation spot. It felt a lot like vacation before school started but now I'm getting into a routine and I'm loving it. I meant to write at the end of the week but I forgot so I think I'm going to make 2 posts. One about last week and one about my weekend. Otherwise this one would be way too long and nobody would read it. 

Last Sunday I went to a friend's apartment for the Super Bowl (yay Chiefs!!) and I was up way too late for a Sunday but it was so worth it. The game got over just before 5am in Italy, so needless to say, Monday was pretty tough. I missed watching it with my family but I'm glad I was able to create a different kind of memory associated with that day. We all brought some appetizers and I made the queso I make all the time at home and everyone loved it! It was one of the better batches of queso I've made even though I wasn't able to find any salsa or onion powder to put in it. We also had some questionable frozen appetizers from Conad which is one of the more popular grocery stores here. I would recommend their fresh produce, but personally I'll be staying away from their frozen snacks! 

Monday and Tuesday were pretty mild. I went to class and had some homework but that's pretty much it other than trying to recover from Sunday!

On Wednesday I went to lunch with a couple of my friends at this place near our apartments called Com Saigon. It's a Vietnamese food place with a massive selection of wine. I had some amazing ginger tea and pho soup. It was so incredible and so reasonably priced I can't wait to go back. That afternoon I had my favorite class, sports nutrition. I learned about exercise physiology and what kind of foods fuel what kind of participation. I could sit in that class all day, I almost wish it was longer than 2.5 hours! In the evening, we had a cultural event through the program I am studying through. We went to an opera called La Traviata. I got all dressed up with my friends and walked to the theater and it was the most beautiful walk. It was about 30 minutes away and we were walking along the river almost the whole time. The opera itself was really long. It was a little over 3 hours, and kind of hard to follow, but the talent was incredible. After the opera we were walking back and decided to go to a pizza place right by the Duomo called Mr. Pizza. They are open until 4am so it was the perfect late night spot. It was actually really good pizza and I will definitely be going back!

On Thursday I was walking out of class and I ran into a friend who was going to this activity with the school so I decided to join him. It was a hat making demonstration at this family business called My Mother Is A Biker. They make totally custom hats and clothing all by hand. We talked to the son for a while about the shop and what they do, and then his dad (the hatmaker) came and made a couple hats and we got to see some of the techniques he uses. At the end he told us if we ever wanted to customize a hat we could come in and let us know we were on that tour and he would give us 20% off! They were very nice and so generous I would absolutely go back and recommend going to check it out if you're ever in Florence! I went to bed pretty early that night because we were heading off to Rome pretty early the next day! 

I will make a separate post about Rome because it was an absolutely crazy fun weekend, but in the meantime here are some pictures from my week!

3.23.2023

(Written Thursday 3.23, posted Friday 3.24)

Hi! It's been a while. I've been so busy studying for midterms recently I haven't had the chance to get on here. Anyways, I went to Venice 2 weekends ago and I absolutely fell in love. It was so quiet without all the noise from cars or vespas. It was a really refreshing change from noisy Florence. We didn't have all that much time, but we were able to do a 30 minute gondola ride which was well worth it. We had dinner at this all you can eat sushi place which my friends and I took great advantage of that. The place definitely lost money that night. The next day we went to another one of the Venetian islands called Murano where we saw a glass blowing demonstration and were able to buy real Murano glass. I guess it's pretty famous around the world! I bought a ring (that I broke 2 days later...), some earrings, and a couple gifts. Then we went to Burano that same day and experienced an even quieter lifestyle. All the houses were so colorful and amazing it was so much fun.

The next weekend I finally had a full weekend in Florence and it was finally nice out. I spent a lot of time studying for midterms outside at this park I found right on the Arno River. It's so peaceful there and I love to bring a blanket and just relax in the sun. I'm almost done with my exams, I have one more today, and then it's spring break!