Tag Archives: IES

Home, yet Homesick.

It’s mind-boggling to think that nearly five months ago from today I was thrown in the streets of Barcelona by some ignorant taxi driver, with five bags of luggage and no sense of direction.  With a heavy hear and hesitation, I boarded the plane back to the U.S., thinking about the city that I once considered foreign, and a city that I now call home.  I reminisce about all of the memories that I’ve made, and how I will forever cherish the lifelong friends and family that have entered my life, the incredible and unexplainable experience that has shaped and molded me for the better, and the four most precious months of my life.  I have come to terms with, but not accepted the saying, Goodbye, Barcelona… And on a brighter note, HELLO to (friends and fam)— 24/7 wifi, hot water, English and……….’MURRCCAAA!!!

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Now that I am back in the States, it is a little depressing, but as my Homestay mother once said, “You must never forget where you have come from, and you must always be proud of this,” Which is true, and I do value everything that America has to offer. Being abroad has taught me more about myself in the past five months than I have throughout the 20 years that I have been alive. 

ros� y rosa.jpg(Homestay Madres–Ros� y Rosa)

“Don’t make big mistakes, just small ones, and live your life with happiness and luck.” -Rosa

It’s weird, because now that I am home, I have culture shock. I feel homesick, especially when I realize that Barcelona has become my home.  I already do, and always will, miss it. However, I know that I will be back one day, and I know that within time I will readjust to America, the America that I’ve always known. 

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I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. I also hope that those of you who have been following my journeys take studying abroad somewhere as wonderful as Barcelona into serious consideration. I promise you will forever be grateful for the opportunity.

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-Becky


Location: USA

Are these the same blocks Julius Caesar walked on?

Ciao!

It’s been a while since I last updated, but I had another crazy week in Roma.  With every passing day, I come to love this amazing city more and more.  It seems like everywhere I go I wind up basking in amazement at a beautiful statue or a detailed fountain.

Last week was what IES called “intensive Italian” week.  This meant that we had Italian every day for 2.5 hours.  On Monday we had 12 students in our class.  By the end of the week we were down to 8.  For me, the class was not too hard.  We reviewed three of the “past tenses” in Italian for the majority of the week.  Although I have studied them before, I welcomed the review.  Each tense has very specific rules about when you can use it, so I needed the review. 

Our class also watched a movie called “La Finestra di Fronte”.  When our teacher asked if we wanted English subtitles, one of the students surprised her by asking for Italian subtitles instead.  This was a great idea as it allowed us to better understand the film and the Italian language in general without depending on English.  I know that I definitely expanded my vocabulary while watching that film!

We had an exam on Friday followed by a field study.  Since the film we watched took place in the Jewish Ghetto of Rome, we were sent there to fill out a worksheet.  I love how IES tries to get you out into the city as much as possible.  I was very happy to have my first field study so early!

The whole week I was debating whether to go to Florence with some friends or stay in Rome and do “Rome as a tourist” with some other friends.  I decided to stay in Rome.  On Saturday, we decided to go to the Colosseum (or try to go to the Colosseum).  We wound up getting there at 3:30 PM thinking we would have no problem getting in.  We were wrong.  It turns out that people are not allowed into the Colosseum after 3:30 PM and it closes at 4:30 PM. 

Colosseum.jpg

While this was very disappointing we certainly made the best of it.  We walked around the Colosseum, took pictures of the Forum, and basked in the glory of the Arc of Constantine.  It was amazing.  At one point, I turned to my friends and said “Are these the same blocks that Julius Caesar walked on?”  It really put everything in perspective, for me at least.  The blocks I was walking on, the statues I pass every day, the monuments I gaze upon with awe, and the fountains I stop and rest next to are all older than not only the United States of America, but were all there when Christopher Columbus discovered that the world was not flat.  That is pretty amazing.  I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Tomorrow, my full schedule begins,  I can’t wait to meet all my professors and find out exactly what we will be learning about.  I want to continue to take advantage of all Rome has to offer.

Ciao,
Mike

Location: Roma, Italia

Finally in Roma!

Ciao Tutti (Hi All)!

It has been a week since I have arrived in Rome and I am finally getting around to updating my blog.  I think that says a lot about how crazy my week has been! 

I arrived in Rome last Friday (a few days before my program started) to do some sightseeing before I had to start my classes.  I stayed at a hotel near the Vatican which was nice in that it was a bit quieter than staying in the city center of Rome, but it also meant that every time we wanted to get to the main part of the city we needed to either walk 25 minutes or take a taxi.  I normally took a taxi, but it set me back about 10 Euro each time.  In hindsight, I think it would have made more sense to stay a bit closer to the city center.

My first impressions of Rome are pure excitement and amazement.  The weather is gorgeous (55+ every day I’ve been here) and it seems like there is a beautiful building, statue, or fountain around every street corner.  I think it is impossible to see all the sites in Rome in a lifetime, yet alone in 4 months!  Given this, I got started right away by going to see a bunch of sites the right after I got to my hotel.  I took a taxi to my apartment’s address and started from there.  As I mentioned in my last post, the Castel Sant’Angelo is literally a 2 minute walk from my apartment, so I saw that one first.

Castel Sant'Angelo

There is a pathway that connects Vatican City with the Castel Sant’Angelo.  Whenever the Pope was in danger, he would leave Vatican City and take refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo.  It was essentially his fort!  is actually an old fortress.  At the top of the Castel is Michael the Arc Angel.  The statue was put there after a plague devastated Rome and the Pope led a procession around the city of Rome praying for God to intervene and end the plague.  When the procession made it to the Castel Sant’Angelo everyone saw an image of Michael the Arc Angel holding a sword.  Shortly after this, the plague ended. 

After seeing this, I ventured into the winding cobblestone roads behind my apartment.  My apartment is situated in what was the rich section of Rome during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, so chances are that I am walking on the same roads some of the great minds of Rome walked on.  There are so many great looking restaurants close to me – I hope I can see them all!  After about a 10 minute walk (and passing the famous “Steeler’s Bar” in Rome), I stumbled into the Piazza Navona which is considered to be one of the nicest Piazzas in Rome. 

Piazza Navona

This is a fountain that is in Piazza Navona.  Piazza Navona is a very touristy place, but that does not detract from its beauty.  There are artists selling their gorgeous art, a lot of cafes along the sides of the piazzas, and musicians playing the “typical” Italian music.  I could definitely see myself walking down to that Piazza to people watch while enjoying some gelato.

After seeing the Piazza Navona, I continued on to see the Forum and the “Wedding Cake” (a name that tourists gave to a monument commerating Victor Emmanuale – it actually looks like a wedding cake!).

The Forum

Largo Argentina.  It is actually below street level by at least 30 feet.  The reason for the change in street level is because the Tiber River used to flood every year.  This led to a higher street level.  The Romans eventually built walls around the Tiber River to keep this from happening again.

Il Vittoriano

This is the Wedding Cake AKA “Il Vittoriano”.  Il Vittoriano is also home to Piazza Venezia, another well known Piazza in Rome.

I then walked down the Via del Corso which can be equated to New York’s 5th Avenue.  It has a lot of very well known stores.  Along here, I bought a cell phone with a company called Tre.  This was very challenging because it was the first time I had to use upper level Italian, but I succeeded and got a phone.  Very proud of myself, I continued on my way up the Via del Corso. 

The Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps are both a block off of the Via del Corso.

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountian.

The Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps.

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A fountain near the Spanish Steps.

I then walked to the Piazza del Popolo and went back to my hotel.  I was amazed to see how many amazing and famous sites were within walking distance to my apartment.  I even missed a site along the way – the Pantheon.  The Pantheon is a 10 minute walk from my apartment.  Rome is truly an amazing city. 

The next day, I took a hop-on, hop-off tour and was able to see some other sites like the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and the Baths of Caracalla.  

Then, it was the day I’ve been waiting for since I knew I wanted to study abroad – move-in day.  Our apartment is absolutely gorgeous and exceeded my expectations in every single way.  It is less than a 2 minute walk from the IES Center where I will be taking all of my classes.  It has a great view of the Castel Sant’Angelo from my window.  There are two bedrooms, a huge living room, a kitchen with a dishwasher and a washing machine, and separate dining area.  I was so happy that we have a washing machine because it would have been painful to bring my laundry to a laundromat every week!

My Apartment

This is my room.  My bed is the one closest to the window.

View from my window - to the right

This is the view from my window looking to the right.  Not a bad view at all….

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am in an “Italiano a Casa” apartment which means that all four people who live in my apartment can only speak Italian within the confines of my apartment.  The hope is that by using Italian in an everyday conversational context I will be able to pick up Italian at a much faster rate than I would otherwise.  It is definitely working – one of my roommates, Silvio, is an Italian student who attends the University of Roma Tre, another of my roommates, Jordan, is an Italian major and goes to Seton Hall, and the last roommate, Zach, is an Italian minor at Connecticut College.  My Italian is definitely the worst out of the group, but I look at it with a sense of optimism in that I have the greatest chance to improve my Italian. 

I can already see a difference in my Italian.  When I first arrived in the apartment, I understood around 60% of what my roommates said.  This was partly because I was not used to listening to Italians talk as fast as they do.  Now, I have gotten used to the speed and have built up my vocabulary a bit.  I would say I understand about 70% of what my roommates say – not a bad improvement for only 5 days!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were the orientation to IES Rome.  We were introduced to the staff, listened to a police officer talk about the rules of Italy and how to stay safe, learned how to take the public transportation in Rome, and took our Italian placement exams.  I placed into Italian 301.  I’m very happy I got into this one because I did not do very well on the oral exam.  The questions they asked you were hard to answer in English, yet alone Italian.  The hardest one was “If you were the President of the United States, what would you do?”.  I obviously did well enough to get into the 300 level class which will transfer to Penn State and satisfy the requirement for my minor.

We also had the chance to introduce ourselves to the other students.  It definitely is true what they say about Penn State – we travel well.  There are 16 other Penn Staters in the program (143 students in total), so Penn State was the most common school.  I had the opportunity to meet people from many schools including Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Emory.  Everyone at the program is so outgoing and so much fun to be around.  I could easily see myself socializing with anyone over here.

On Friday, we took a tour of the historical section of the city.  We saw many sites that I already saw like Piazza Navona, but I got to see the Jewish Ghetto which was very interesting.  It has all been torn down, but all the Jewish people of Rome had to live in an area of four square blocks between the years of 1555 and Italian Unification in 1861.  It is estimated that at one point, there were over 9,000 people living in those four square blocks.  The Jews were also forced to go to Catholic mass on Sunday.  The people who remained in the Jewish Ghetto after Italian Unification were also the first people to be sent to concentration camps in Italy during World War II.

On Saturday, IES hosted a scavenger hunt called the Amazing Roman Race.  This was very exhausting as we had to walk to pretty much every major site in Rome in period of three hours. 

That brings me to today.  This morning, my roommate and I went to an open air market called Porta Portese which is the largest open air market in Rome.  It is open on every Sunday and the vendors sell things from clothes to electronics to old books and postcards.  I bought an alarm clock for 10 Euro, so I was satisfied.  Tonight, we’re going to one of the “American Bars” in Rome to watch the Super Bowl.  It starts at 12:30 AM, so it is going to be a long night.

I apologize for the length of this entry.  I will try to update my blog more frequently once things calm down.

Ciao,
Mike


Location: Roma, Italia

Ciao!

Ciao!

Things are starting to wind down at Penn State this semester and finals week is dreadfully coming near.  The good news is that this means I am closer to studying abroad than ever!

Before I get into too much detail, I want to give you all some background information about me.  My name is Mike McHugh and I am a junior in the Smeal College of Business.  I am majoring in finance and minoring in Italian and International Business.  I recently started and am now Co-President of a club called Adaptive Outreach, play Wheelchair Basketball, and am actively involved with THON as a member of the Finance Committee.  Outside of Penn State, I am on a ski team for people with disabilities and coach a travel baseball team. 

One of my true passions is traveling.  I have been all over the United States (including Hawaii), to Italy (Rome, Florence, Ravenna, and Venice), Australia (Sydney & Melbourne), and Hong Kong.  My favorite country was Italy, not just because my mother’s side of the family is Italian, but because of all the beautiful architecture and rich culture the country has to offer.

As you have probably figured out by now, I am heading to Italy.  Rome to be more exact.  I cannot wait to get over there as I have not been there since I was 12.  Rome is a great city with amazing people and famous landmarks around nearly every corner! 

One of the things I am most looking forward to is improving my Italian language skills.  I have been taking Italian since the seventh grade and absolutely love the language.  This fall, I am taking a course entitled “Fluency in Italian” and have learned a great deal about the intricacies of the language.  I can’t wait to apply it in real life situations on a daily basis.

One of the great things that IES Abroad offers is a contract called “Italiano a casa” which means “Italian in the house”.  While it is completely optional, I am going to sign this contract and agree to only speak Italian to my roommates within our apartment.  I believe this is the best way to master a new language.  Also, I will be rooming with two other American students and one Italian student called an ISC.  Our ISC will help us truly immerse ourselves within the Italian culture and show us some places off the beaten path.  This is exactly what I want to accomplish – I do not want to be a tourist, I want to be a resident of Italy!

While I am abroad, I intend to travel across Europe and visit as many amazing places as possible.  My current list of places I definitely want to go to are Dublin, London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Switzerland, Belgium, Venice, Milan, Sicily, Naples, Pisa, and the Amalfi Coast.

I would like to leave you all with a quote by John Hope Franklin – “We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.”

Arriverderci,
Mike McHugh


Location: 10567