They say home is where the heart is.

I’m a cardiac surgeon’s worst nightmare.

I’ve got family living in three countries, two of which I have lived in myself, and then I went and moved to a totally different one for school. ‘What are you doing, Hannah?’ you ask. ‘What on earth are you doing?’ Well, it’s pretty simple, really. I’m following my heart, and chopping it up a bit more along the way.

A few weeks ago Alan Epstein, author of As the Romans Do: An American Family’s Italian Odyssey, visited IES. He  gave a passionate lecture about the beauty of the art, architecture, and history here in Rome. Epstein reminded me of why I fell in love with this beautiful city I now call home. I am living in a museum that is more than 3,000 years old. Every day I walk on cobbled-stone streets and I pass, and on occasion visit, many of the world’s and the Catholic Church’s greatest (and oldest) structures.

Barcelona,

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, a few words of affection for you, my beautiful city this semester.

I love my walk to class each day, under the Arc de Triomf. Sometimes I walk through the Parc de la Ciutadella, which is always full of people playing guitars or enjoying each other’s company under the lush greenery. I love the fact that I walk onto my university campus and am surrounded by different languages.

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and the city knows it. There are explosions of pink cards in every corner store, massive displays in the window of Butlers Chocolates, and happy couples blocking traffic on every sidewalk.

(I could do without that last one.)

Yes, love is in the air, even if the last thing I kissed was the Blarney Stone. I’m in the middle of a full-blown romance with Dublin, and I’m not even sure when it began…