I had a lot of video clips I never got the chance to use so I decided to throw them together into a fun final video post. I wanted to make a video that reminded me of all the good times, the laughs, the love, the energy of our program group and of Rio de Janeiro, “Cidade Marvilhosa”!

After another great week in South Africa I have many more photos to share! From hiking Table Mountain, to attending rugby matches, shopping in the markets, diving with Great Whites, and hanging out in the townships, we have done it all! It is bittersweet to think that we are already halfway through our adventures in Cape Town…

For the past three days, the weather has been perfect. This is exceptionally uncommon in Beijing where pollution is an almost permanent resident. Since the smog is so thick, most days you can’t see the sky, or the sun, or sometimes even the tops of tall buildings. This article from February says you can even see the pollution from space. As I learned recently, though, this is partly because of topography.

It is quite hard to believe that my time in Rome has already come to an end. These four months passed very quickly, something I believe had much to do with the fact that I was so engrossed with my internship and the development of Italian politics during this period. While a semester is hardly enough to understand why Italy is in its current state, I undoubtedly have a better understanding of how the country presently functions and what obstacles it will need to overcome in order to return to being influential on the international stage.

Artist, Teacher, and Friend…

When telling friends and family about my upcoming semester abroad their reactions were somewhat typical.  They would usually express their excitement and envy all the while adding a bit of curiosity about how I would spend my time in one of the most famous cities in the world.  People would usually exclaim their envy about two things in particular, the food and wine.  Now that I have settled into my abroad experience and been fortunate enough to have an internship, I can say with confidence, that the food and wine are perfect avenues

On Wednesday, the third nonconsecutive day of my internship, I walked to class with a bounce in my step.  I had such an enjoyable and fun first meeting with the Italian middle schoolers last week that I had been looking forward to my teaching day all weekend.  As I crossed Piazza Venezia, my mind wandered to what would happen in class today.  Would I be teacher or teaching assistant? Would the classes be rowdier or calmer than last week? Did I prepare enough information to occupy the classes for their hour of English?

In my first blog I mentioned the importance of being flexible and adaptable in the work environment of Italian politics. Since then, those traits have taken on a brand new importance for me as I continue to navigate the internship portion of my study abroad experience in Rome. Despite the best efforts of our office, our deputy failed to win in the national elections at the end of February. Understandably, everyone was very disappointed in the result.

Since I arrived at day one of my internship in Italian Parliament, my personal mantra has been to keep an open mind and to be prepared to expect the unexpected. As most Italian parents do, my mom tried to make a useful analogy using food to help me out: “You have to be like a meatball and just roll with it!” Of course, it’s a slightly harder task for a third-year political science major to be calm in a country where both the language and the government are foreign entities.