I’m currently a junior with a Marketing major, and a minor in Italian.  I’m from a small town called Golden’s Bridge, in a suburb of New York City.  I’ve known that I wanted to study abroad every since my older brother went to Rome four years ago when I was a junior in high school.  He came back home with some amazing stories about places he’d visited and amazing things he’d done while abroad. It was clear to me that for him America just wasn’t cutting it anymore.  He had the time of his life, and that’s what I’m looking for in my abroad experience.

In exactly one month I’ll be landing in Italy, starting my semester abroad in Perugia.  I can’t wait to finally be in Italy after studying the language for almost 2 years now.  Although I’ll miss Penn State and my friends I’m ready to trade in the -10 degree February weather.  This whole semester I’ve been looking foward to studying abroad, its been the silver lining more than once this semester when my exams started to pile up (like right now with finals right around the corner).

I got off to a little bit of a rough start over Thanksgiving break when I tried to get my visa.  After 3 visits to the Italian Consulate in New York City the officers finally decided I was worthy to come to their country. My visa came in the mail today, so there is nothing standing between me and Italy.

I chose Perugia because one goal I have is to come back to the US fluent in Italian (or as close to fluent as I can get in four months).  I want to meet the locals in Perugia, and really learn about the culture in Italy.  Through out my semester in Italy I hope to travel to as many cities in Italy and countries in Europe as I can.  I’m going to be a pro at traveling on the Eurostar and Ryan Air by April, and will be completely fine living out of my North Face backpack for a few days.  I want to make the most of my experience; if I don’t come back completely broke, I’ll be very upset…sorry Mom and Dad. 

I’m excited to blog about my experience abroad so that my friends and family can see what I’m up to since they can’t physically be there with me.  I promise to be as witty as possible, so you actually want to read what I write. 

Ci vediamo in Italia! (See you in Italy!)

Location: State College, PA