8 posts tagged Study Abroad.

On Bus 40 to the train station, I caught glances of places I had visited for class–the corner of Palazzo Venezia, the tip of the obelisk on the Quirinal Hill, Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Baths of Diocletian… It's strange to leave.

Spring is in Rome! While I sit in the warm sun amidst budding trees leafing through my book, I wonder why I hadn't read more in the past springs. It is wonderful to feel my body soak up the sun and my imagination spin with fictional worlds!

I first learned about Naples in my Italian class during the height of COVID. Our professor showed us a travel video where a young couple tried sfogliatella, babà, and attempted to defy Queen Magherita's curse at Piazza del Plebiscito. I watched the cream ooze out of their pastries as clouds floated above the sea, and found myself romanticizing Goethe's famous saying–vedi Napoli e poi muori (see Naples and then die).

The next day, we departed Rome for Tuscany on a fieldtrip. We first arrived in Montepulciano, a quiet hilltop town surrounded by vineyards and lush green hills. Walking through cobbled stone streets flanked by artisanal wine shops and luxury real estate agencies marketing villas to English-speaking tourists...

Paris feels like a contemporary dance. To me, it is the rearranging of desks and chairs in Finn's studio apartment, meandering through streets and boulevards and avenues, peering into boulangeries and browsing outside vintage map shops.

I am sitting at my studio desk and pathetically rant-blogging. The Italian class is next door and I can hear snippets of conversations exchanged. I tell myself that there's nothing to be upset about, that not taking the course is perhaps a good thing, that I can have more time to blog and do other things I don't usually have time for.

Wednesday morning Thuan and I walked across the Tiber river and further east to the Vatican City. Along the way, we passed the Pantheon and exclaimed at how integrated into the urban fabric it is. From countless encounters with it in architectural history texts, I had imagined it as a grand monument as opposed to a medium-sized temple ruin that was surrounded by coffee shops, restaurants and even a butcher shop.

I left New York City the day after my 22nd birthday, on a redeye flight that departed JFK at 8pm. The airport felt as crowded as Union Square during fresh markets, except hip New Yorkers with tote bags and sunglasses were swapped for travelers in hoodies and sweatpants.