Hey Everyone,

My Name is Daniel McGee and I am going to Rome this summer through the Architectural Engineering Rome Program. I am a second year AE and I am looking forward to a great time this summer! These past few weeks have been filled with packing and planning for the summer abroad, as well as finishing up my current semester. I find it is getting harder to concentrate in school right now since I am getting excited for it to end because that will mean the start of my stay in Rome!

I am leaving for Rome on May 7, the friday of final exams week, and I have a ton to do before that! I am hosting a dinner on Monday night to finalize our plans and preparations for the trip with a few of my friends. It will be fun to collect as a group to talk about everything that we all want to do and experince while we are over there. We have a ton of plans for the 7 weeks — Venice, Pompeii, Florence…The list seems endless. I hope I will have time to post everything I do!

I just got back from the first Geoblog meeting where we learned how all of this works — Afterwards I met a lot of cool people with great study abroad plans. I really look forward to reading about their adventures abroad, so I can see what some other cultures are like. So far, this Geoblog sounds like a great program. Even though I will be going through my own adventure in Rome, I will get to chat with other Penn State students each on their own adventures. It will be cool to swap stories and experiences with all of them.

Anyway, I have some goals for the future posts of my GeoBlog —

1. Discuss the Architecture of Rome. Since I am an Architectural Engineering major, in my opinion there is no better place to study abroad than Rome because of the rich architecture that I will find there. All of my classes involve architecture in some way, so I will be fully immersed in the architecture aspect of the culture. I hope to discuss with my blog readers some of the things that I learn about the architecture here as I go.

2. Share the foods that I will eat. I am planning on gaining about 20 pounds (or should I say kilos?) while I am over there since I am expecting that I will have some of the best food that I will have eaten thus far in my life. I plan on sharing some of these dishes with all of you in hopes that I can convince everybody to come to Rome.

3. Create a guide for future AE’s going on this same program. I hope to write about some daily activities and schoolwork that I will do while I am here. Hopefully I can create a good guide to what is expected and what kinds of things future AE’s will experience on this trip. I will write about great places to visit, great restaurants to eat at, and so forth.

4. Learn from other Geobloggers. Even though I will be having a great time in Italy, I hope to use this Geoblog as a tool to connect to other study abroad students across the globe. As I said earlier, I met a bunch of other people today who have great trips adventures planned. I look forward to reading about those adventures.

Well, that’s all I have for now — I will probably write another blog post before I leave for Rome when it gets closer to the departure date. So for now, Ciao!

Location: 520 E Calder Way, State College PA 16801