Waking up yesterday morning to cloudy skies, I should have known that the terrible saga of plane troubles I’ve been experiencing pretty much since the day I purchased my plane tickets to Florence, would only continue. After arriving at Bradley International Airport and finally getting my tickets (which, by the way wouldn’t print because of all the issues we had been having with the airlines up to that point), I was finally beginning to feel a little optimistic. “Getting there is half the battle”, they say, but I knew when our first flight was delayed almost two hours that getting to Florence would probably be about 79.99999% of my battle. After finally touching down in Philadelphia 30 minutes after the departure time of our connection flight to Brussles, Alex and I found ourselves sprinting through the airport in the hopes that perhaps they had held the flight for us. Now, here comes the humor in this whole situation. While Alex and I were running to our gate, our friend Brandon (who was also on the same flight from Philly to Brussles) called us. So now you’re thinking, okay this is a good thing, maybe they were able to catch their flight after all! …. Well, no, not quite. Our flight was still on the tarmac, yes, but it had already departed the gate. So close, yet so far. SIGH.  So then it was time to make the trek half way across the airport to support services and hope we could find another flight to get us to Florence – preferably before the semester was over. The two ladies from U.S. Airways that assisted us with the biggest smiles, and best sense of humor, were a shining beacon in our dreary day.  After battling the horrible customer service phone line for about an hour, they finally were able to get Alex and myself on a flight to Frankfort, Germany. Determined not to let any opportunity get away from me, I thought I would strike up a conversation with the nice lady I sat next to on my flight .I’m kicking myself for not catching her name, but I must say, she has had quite an interesting life. She travels often: far and wide both with her husband and their two children and also for her work. She’s been everywhere from France to San Francisco, to Spain and Italy. A lovely woman, originally from Germany, and it seems she has had so many wonderful life experiences globe-trotting. We talked a little about my studies and what I hope to do after college, and after our long flight, we wished one another well.  And so that brings us to where I am as I write this blog: waiting for our flight from Frankfort into Florence. We’ve been here about two and a half hours already and have about an hour and twenty minutes left to wait until our flight leaves. I’m a mix of excitement, nerves, and uncertainty as I’m still not quite sure that it’s hit me fully that I will be living in Italy for the next three months. I find myself fantasizing about what my first taste of Florence will be like as I drive in the taxi to the hotel we are staying at tonight. Although I am certain this journey will prove to be a roller coaster of emotions for me, I only hope that I will remember that this is an opportunity not to let slip through my fingers.

P.S. Hi Dad and Liz! I miss you guys! LU!!

PPS. To all my followers, I love you too, but sorry guys, family are VIPs

PPPS. Promise this is the last one…. Only if you all promise to pray that our bags will be waiting for us when we get to Florence and not stuck in Brussels!!

la vita è bella!!

Well it's officially arrived! Tonight is my last night home and with everything all settled (hopefully), I will be enjoying a nice, relaxing night with my dad. It wasn't an easy choice, but the meal selection for my last dinner home is Shrimp scampi with peppers and peas! Yumm! Tomorrow I will be setting off on my three month long journey and I truly hope that as the days and months of my journey pass, you all get to follow along with my amazing journey and that I come back a changed (in a better way, of course) person. Although of course,  I have the pre-travel jitters, I think I can truly say that I am ready to take on this experience and while I am sure there will be tough times, I am overly optimistic and hopeful that this trip will be the experience of a lifetime. 

Addio America! 


And just to let the nerdy side of me show through, I've decided to include a quote from one of my favorite movies, "The Hunger Games": 

"Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear" 


So with that, I go into this trip only with hope. Hope that I will become a stronger, more cultured, and well-rounded (although not physically rounded ;) which may very well happen with all that tempting pizza!), person. I look forward to all the experiences I am sure to have and I vow to make each experience a wonderful memory, and to always reamember:

la vita è bella

Lucky for all of you reading my blog, you get a two-for-one today! I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, things have certainly been crazy. So let me just give you the quick run-down of all the recent events. 

Luckily, no more calls from Expedia cancelling or changing my flight around...for the third time (fingers crossed!) But in the mean time I have managed to lose my passport, stuff one suitcase (weighing in at 65 pounds....oops)  with all my belongings, book my first trip which will be to the Amalfi Coast in early September, and find two gnomes which I will be hiding in a number of my photos throughout the course of my trip. 

It's hard to believe I started this process just over six months ago and here I am, only one full day left until I set off on my amazing journey to Florence. 

As part of my online orientation for Florence, my program suggests that each student make a list of five things we wish to learn or do on our trip. So here are my five! (You may notice that some are taken from my bucket list!)

1) I would like to get to really know at least one local from Florence and learn their story. 
2) I would like to shop for fresh foods and make a full Italian meal 
3) I want to do one thing that scares me -- conquer a fear
4) I want to experience as much of the culture as possible and attend cultural events like a theater performance
5) I want to learn more about myself and come to understand myself better

I kid you not.... this is what my room looked like as I was preparing to pack for my trip. Admittedly, I probably couldn't tell you how I managed to pack all of this stuff into one large suite case and two small carry-ons. Also, every time I look at this photo, I have to admit that my blood pressure spikes quite dramatically, as my room never looks this messy. Thanks to the amazing packing skills of my sister, Liz, packing for my trip took a mere two hours! 

Some time ago, me and my boyfriend, Alex, were talking about Italy and all the many things we would see there, when we came up with this idea to get a Gnome that we could hide in different places in the pictures we take. For a while, we toyed around with the idea and kept an eye out for any gnomes we thought would work well. The time kept passing and we didn't feel that "gnome connection". Well, last weekend Alex came to visit and we thought we would venture into the crazy world of The Christmas Tree Shop. After searching high and low we were just about to give up when what do you know? Toby and Gunther were hiding among a group of turtles and just happened to catch our eye! We were thrilled! It was Gnome love at first sight! We snatched them up and headed home, happy campers and ready to embark on our travels! 

In the section of my blog entitled "Gunther and Toby's Travels" you can follow Gunther and Toby around Italy as they embark on their own travels! You'll have to have a sharp eye to pick out where they are though!

I hope you enjoy following their travels as I'm sure it will prove to be funny!  

With only twenty - yes, TWENTY, - days until I'm (hopefully) packed and sitting on my flight to Florence, the time has come for me to really start buckling down and preparing myself, mentally, emotionally and even, physically. The program I am traveling through - API - has thus far been amazing with making the study abroad process an easy and even, dare I say, enjoyable experience. With only a few short weeks to go, API has just introduced us to our first "Orientation" of sorts -- an online site where there is a plethora of information ranging from what we should expect the food, living conditions and general way of life to be like in Italy. This handy photo they supplied us with (see above) is ever so nicely showing us students the roller coaster of emotions we can expect to feel over the course of this experience. As if being a college student doesn't already bring out almost every emotion in the book, now we get to be tossed onto a new roller coaster ride. WOOOOHOOOO! 

Although this picture can certainly be a bit of a turn-off, it's important that everyone - myself included - remember that above all, life - and this trip- are what you make of it. Life itself is a roller coaster ride, might as well throw your arms up and enjoy the ride. 

Here are a few things that API mentioned in the online "orientation" that I felt I could really relate to and that would be extremely helpful for myself whenever I feel a bit overwhelmed by the whole experience: 

Above all, keep an open mind and try to accept the people and culture rather than resist them. This requires great maturity, perceptiveness and skill in cross-cultural communication. 

Key skills that will help you as you adjust to a new culture: 

Tolerance for ambiguity 

Low goal/task orientation 

Open-mindedness 

Nonjudgmentalness 

Empathy 

Communicativeness 

Flexibility; adaptablity 

Curiosity 

Sense of humor 

Warmth in human relationships 

Motivation 

Self-reliance 

Strong sense of self 

After all, you only live once, might as well make the best of it! 

~ la vita è bella ~

“We can't be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don't have something better.” 
― C. JoyBell C.  

         I’d be lying to you – and myself – if I didn’t admit there are many things I’m nervous about. Going abroad for an extended period of time evokes a wide range of emotions. There’s the obvious emotions like: excitement, nervousness, anticipation, and uncertainty, but there are also a million and a half other emotions that spring up on you at all different times throughout the process of getting ready to go. In this blog, I’m going to address some of the many emotions I’ve been feeling (and that you may often feel when preparing for a big change i.e. college, travel, moving) and some tips on how to ride out the roller coaster ride.

      Although it is very exciting to experience change, there is also a lot of anxiety that can come with shaking up the normalcy of the life you know. In getting ready for my trip to Italy, I realize that more and more, I’m feeling anxious: what if I can’t adjust to the way of life in Italy? What if something happens back home? What if I can’t manage my school work? What do I pack?! It’s important to realize that there is a lot of uncertainty involved with change. Until you establish a new routine, or begin to experience the change, you may realize you had a much better imagination than you ever thought possible! What I mean is, you may start thinking of all the things that could go wrong, all the "what ifs". It’s okay to be nervous, and it’s important that you are prepared to maneuver any bumps that may arise in the middle of the road. But instead of letting yourself get lost in a heap of nervous and negative thoughts, try instead to think of a positive spin to each of your worries.


For example: Negative thought “What if I don’t make any friends?!” can be instead turned into a positive thought simply by saying to yourself, “I can’t wait to meet everyone, I wonder what everyone will be like.”

 It’s much easier said than done, but with a little conscious effort, you’ll start to notice that the more you put a positive spin on your fears, the easier it will be to take on change with a positive, upbeat attitude. 

Another extremely common emotion when it comes to traveling (and often with change in general) is stress. Stress can come on almost instantaneously when you finally come to terms with the fact that a large change or, in my case, long term travel is upon you. For some people, a little stress can be a good thing, it can act as the match that lights the fuse under your procrastinating bum to get you going and get things done. For others, it can cause them to completely shut down and freak out. Everyone’s different, but the best thing in this situation is to try and find a middle ground. A little stress is good, but it’s important to be calm. Here are a few tips I’m trying out as I get ready for my trip: 

1)   When it gets too overwhelming: take a short break. Breathe, do something you enjoy (reading, shopping, napping etc.) and try to think of all the positive things that will come after you finally set off on your travels or after the craze of change settles down a bit.

2)   Write out a to-do list. I love the feeling of crossing things off of my to-do list and it keeps things in order so I’m not constantly wondering “what was that other thing I had on my list? I know there was something!” When you finally cross off the last thing on your to-do list, you can be confident in knowing that you’ve done everything (because it was all on the to-do list) and that you’re ready to go.

3)   Don’t convert your stress into anger or frustration directed at others. This will only lead to more stress, frustration and anger at yourself for snapping at others. You then have another thing you’d have to add to your to-do list: apologize to all the people you snapped at.

4)   Don’t be afraid to ask for a little help! I’ll admit it, when I’m stressed, anxious, or nervous, the best thing for me to do is ask for help. My sister is coming home in two weeks, and I  know how stressful it is for me to pack, but I also know she’s great at it! So I’ve already recruited her help in packing for my trip! It just so happens she’ll be visiting the weekend before I set off, so it's a well-timed trip home (well, for me at least) for some much needed packing guidance.

 Change isn’t a bad thing.  As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe so perfectly put it, “Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes”. So get out there and live. Don’t be afraid to embrace change.

 

Life is beautiful and there is so much waiting out there for you.

~la vita è bella~ 

As the time for my departure to Florence draws closer and closer, I’ve realized it’s probably about that time where I should stop procrastinating and actually get down to getting things done! First up on that long list of things I probably should do? …. The one everyone loves best, yup, PACKING! (if you didn’t catch the sarcasm in that, well, just keep reading, there will be plenty of places to practice picking up on my sarcasm throughout this post)

Now you may be asking yourself, “What is so daunting about packing? Just throw all your clothes into a suitcase and be done with it!” well, if I was going on a weeklong vacation, I’d do just that and I wouldn’t give it a second thought. Yes, I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m the type of packer who thinks I need to pack everything but the kitchen sink just for a weeklong vacation, so for me, this is quite a daunting task. Now, I do credit myself on being quite strong for my petite size and if it were up to me, I’d be able to pack everything but the kitchen sink as I’d find a way of managing to lug all of it around Florence with me. But, fortunately for me (see, there’s that sarcasm again), the extremely generous airline companies have allowed me one, 75 pound suitcase limit and two carry on’s. oh, lucky meeee! Let me just take a minute to jump for joy over all that space I have to stuff three months’ worth of clothing, necessities and other things into that. So now where does this really leave me? Oh yes, that leaves me sitting on my bed eating a box of chocolates as I stare at everything but the kitchen sink that I’m attempting to pack for my trip. NOT EXCITED. And after I finish that chocolate, and manage to get everything into that space, you will probably find me jumping up and down on the suitcase as my partner in crime, Liz (my sister and expert packer), attempts to zip up the suitcases. Then after a fair amount of praying that the suitcase doesn’t weigh more than 75 pounds, I will pray even harder that it doesn’t explode open in the middle of Bradley International Airport for everyone to see! **Fingers crossed!!** 

Stay tuned!! My next blog is going to be my actual, running list of "things to pack" and some helpful tips for packing lightly when traveling for longer than two months

~la vita è bella~