July 19th, 2018

"I really have no intention on ever going to Italy..." 

Last year these words came out of my mouth when discussing where I wanted to go abroad. Though at the time I insulted my older sister who studied here in Rome a few years back, I have to admit, I will never be so wrong in my life. Oh boy, I cannot believe how close-minded and wrong I was.

Travel

Hi everyone!

I wanted to take a post to appreciate the beauty of Ireland and highlight the places I have traveled to within the country. I know I have mentioned it before, but Ireland truly is such a naturally beautiful country and I have had such a lovely time going to different cities along the coast. Without further hesitation, here is a comprehensive list of the places I have been able to experience while in Ireland.

Cliffs of Moher

Hello ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary folk!

So last time I was speaking to you, I was just arriving in Auckland. As I am writing to you now, I am just a few days away from ending my program. I still can not believe that.

It’s hard to believe that one more week has passed by and there’s only one week left of the program. It feels like we just landed yesterday, and everything went by in the blink of an eye. Sounds cliche as all hell, but it’s true. Over the course of the past eight weeks, being able to intern at LivItaly has been a wonderful experience—a lot of what the other intern and I have been doing there has been working as part of their content team and helping them with the marketing for their company.

If you are like me, you may have a lot of questions about studying abroad in the summer. Is it too short? Is it enough time to travel? Do you get full credits for the courses you take? Are there less places and courses to choose from? Do you get the full experience of being abroad? Well, my short answer to all of these questions is … yes. Like everything in life, studying abroad in the summer has its pros and its cons.

I feel like pinching myself when I say it, but I miss home a lot. It’s so hard to admit it to myself. How could I possibly want this wonderful trip to end? It seems ungrateful, and whiny. But I guess my brain is hardly ever in cahoots with my emotions, and whenever I start to get lonely and miss home, my thoughts tell me that I should not feel this way. I should go out there and love every second of my time here. I guess it’s similar to the way I felt upon arriving- unable to accept my trepidation at the idea of adjusting to so many new things.

In addition to our internships, we all have Chinese class once a week, as well as our internship seminar course. Our internship seminar course is a two-and-a-half hour class, which meets Thursday nights after we arrive home from our respective internships. After a long day at work, everyone from the program gathers to address issues in the workplace, as well as our individual intern experiences and how they may be similar and/or different to previous internships in the States or elsewhere.

Nothing, absolutely nothing prepared me for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would be the winning of the World Cup by France while I was abroad. I always liked sports (mainly American football - I am a die-hard Pittsburgh Steelers fan) but because America was never good at Football (Soccer - but I'll use its proper name football), it wasn't something that crossed my mind a lot. Particularly not the World Cup - which only occurs once every 4 years.

This is one of those things that you just can’t make up. I didn’t think Europe would change my opinion of the United States – and I’m still not entirely convinced it has. So, let’s just call this the story of the time I thought for a second it did.

  I have to say, celebrating the Fourth of July in a different country was a weird experience. Not seeing people all decked out in American flag gear and expressing high amounts of American-themed patriotism and nationalism on a nation-wide day off was a new experience.