Tag Archives: sightseeing

Expect the Unexpected

I quickly learned after traveling to just a couple of cities that no city is completely how you expected it to be. France was no exception to this rule. Before I went to Paris all that came to mind about the city of love was high fashion, romance, and rude people. While Paris was a very romantic city it has a lot more depth than just being a romantic getaway. Paris boasts w lourve orld famous museums all through out the city. I had the opportunity to visit both the Pompidou and the Louvre. And the best part: both of my visits were free! (You can get in for free by showing a student ID card and an ID card that shows you live in the EU). The Lourve is massive. I think you could spend weeks in there and still not see everything. If you are able to go give yourself a few hours to walk around (and of course time to see the Mona Lisa even though she was named the second most disappointing tourist attraction in the world because of her size).

The architecture in Paris is absolutely breathtaking from the Notre Dame Cathedral to the Eiffel Tower to the Galeries Lafayette (which is a mall!). I would recommend definitely experiencing all the three of the places I just mentioned. While the last is not well known, it has an amazing rooftop view of the city and is the most gorgeous department store you will ever see in your life.

During our tri meandlocks p we stopped at the Love Lock bridge to put up our own locks. We accidentally put our locks on the wrong bridge (oops!) but turns out that was not such a bad idea since the original bridge had begun falling apart and all of those love locks have been taken down. It is easy to find locks in the tourist shops around Paris especially by the bridge.

Paris is known for its food and after visiting I can see why! The street food especially was amazing. Make sure to get a crepe or two during your visit! There are also many restaurants in Paris but just because Paris may resemble the hustle of New York City during the day it does not at night. Be aware that a lot of things close early in this city. I ate at Le Refuge De Fondues one night in Paris and the food was amazing! They serve steak that you cook yourself on the table and bread with cheese fondue. They also are known for serving wine in baby bottles. It was a great restaurant to go with a group but make sure you have a reservation!

After Paris, we flew to Nice using Easy Jet. You can also take a train to Nice, however, flying niceview there worked better with our schedule. Nice is absolutely gorgeous. It boasts a large market in town with delicious fruit and beautiful crafts and paintings. If you like soap you will find lots of handmade soap here especially lavender. Climb up castle hill for a great view of Nice and of its rock beach.

We specifically went to Nice for Carnival in March. The parade was amazing and everyone watching was dressed up. It was a mix of Halloween and Mardis Gra. The parade was much more interactive than any parade I had been to before. People dressed up would enter the crowd. Everyone watching would throw silly string and confetti on friends a nicecarnival nd on the people in the parade. And everyone on the floats was doing the same. The floats were very elaborate and there were a lot of performers walking through the parade too.

Children’s Day and Buddha’s Birthday

After we came home from Jeju, we had midterms. Unfortunately while I was trying to study for midterms, I was really sick. So sick I had to go to the hospital. After doing chest x-rays and ruling out tuberculosis (huge relief) they told me I had pneumonia. I got some antibiotics and the doctor told me to sleep as much as possible. So after spending 10 days mostly in the dorms sleeping and trying to get better, I finally ventured out again last weekend!

While I was still taking my medicine, I felt okay enough to go back to the zoo with my friends. We had a pretty interesting ride there, people not feeling well and going home, getting on the wrong trains and off at the wrong subway stations, but eventually we made it there!

We were supposed to go on a ferry ride along the Han River at night, but we took too long getting there, so we just took a walk instead. Not exactly the most successful night, but it was still fun.

After classes last week, a few friends and I went hiking in Seoraksan National Park. Its about 3 hours away from Seoul, and its soooo nice. It was just four of us, but anymore would have been hard to coordinate. We left the dorms at about 6:00 am, and took the bus to the East coast of Korea, got on a city bus, then ended up in the park at about 10:30. When we first got there, we took a cable car to the top of the mountain, unfortunately it was so foggy at the top that we couldn’t see anything. But the background being completely white makes it a little scary I guess.

With the Korean flag at the summit! There was a small gift shop at the top of the mountain and the guy kept trying to get us to buy some kind of gold piece to prove we had been to the top, but instead we just had him take our picture to prove it. After we took the cable car back down, we visited the giant Buddha statue at the park in honor of Buddha’s Birthday (which was May 10). Lots of people were praying and buying prayer candles, so we decided to do it too. We bought a candle and simply asked that we’d be able to meet each other again someday. We all signed it, wrote the date and then lit it in the glass case they display the candles in. I’m not sure what word I’m looking for, but it was something I’ll remember for a long time.

Just so you can get an idea of how tall it really is the glass cases where the candles are is taller than I am! It stands taller than most of the trees there! We followed a path that was supposed to take us to a cave. We were a little disappointed at first, because we were just walking on flat ground for about 2 kilometers, but we finally got to an area that was so pretty. The water was so clear, and the rocks were massive. It was a really breathtaking place.

Most places asked us to stay off the rocks, but we climbed around on the few places that didn’t have any signs asking us not to. It was just so pretty it was hard to stay away. Still a little disappointed that we were walking on a flat path, we walked on the rocks a little more then kept going on the path. Finally we started having to actually hike. When we got to the top of section we used stairs to climb, we got to see the whole valley, which was incredible.

The last .4 km or whatever it was was brutal. It was a direct climb up, and I thought I was going to die a few times, but it was a good hike. The “cave” they were talking about was really just a tiny hole in the side of the mountain where they had 3 more small Buddha statues where people can pray. After such a hard hike up, it was a little bit of a let down, but it was still nice to see. We had planned on camping at the park, but it was raining and all the tents and sleeping bags had been rented out, so instead we came back to Seoul at about 1:00am. It was a long day.

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed and enjoyed our time together. My time here is coming to an end quickly! A little over 5 weeks left until I’m back in State College! Its gonna go fast.

Location: Sokcho, South Korea

The Wall of Greatness

The Great Wall of China. A Wonder of the world. Continuous in its run through the hills of China (false), the only man-made structure that can be seen from space (false), and filled with the lost lives of those who paid the ultimate price to build it (also, false). Now that we’ve gotten some misconceptions out of the way, we can start a real assessment of this wall that is considered so great.

The drive is about 2-3 hours from Beijing via bus. Upon arrival I was immediately rushed by a bunch of xiaofan, or souvenir vendors catering to the “needs” of tourists. They followed us for a whiles on the hike but we paid no mind to them. In terms of how the Great Wall of China actually is, I can only really say it’s exactly what it looks like in the pictures: majestic, breathtaking, a pain in the butt.

Compared to Tiger Leaping Gorge, I suppose it wasn’t nearly that bad (I didn’t contemplate suicide!), but there were times I was definitely in want of rocket boots, a Segway, or a weird hybrid contraption that serves the needs of speedy horizontal movement with the capacity to jet me up and down those the parts of the wall that goes up and down. Despite being centuries old, most of the wall looked pretty intact, until I realized that those were the renovated parts. As we traveled further along the wall, hitting around 30 towers check-points along the way, the intactedness of the structure disappeared, only to be replaced with crumbling stone bricks, ledges that must be carefully crossed like in the video games, and fragments of walls and poles that once held the archers who fired at the invading Huns. It was actually pretty cool. Visually, it looked ancient. I revered the Wall’s antiquity and cultural meaning. I didn’t appreciate the hiking, which as we’ve already establish, I don’t care much for.

Through the arduous hike, we took breaks and rested alongside the wall’s edge. Most of the landscape was barren. The deforestation that took place centuries ago to fuel the brick making had been devastating to the surroundings. I can only imagine with my eyes closed how cool it would’ve looked if there were dense, thick forests on both sides of this giant stone snake. It would’ve been really cool, I think.

As we walked, those darned xiaofans kept bothering us so I eventually caved in a bought a Great Wall photo book, which I am pleased to say I bargained down to a decent price. The xiaofans also collected our empty bottles, which apparently they could cash in for a measly 3 fen (about half a cent). I’ve noticed this phenomenon elsewhere. People, often fish through trash bins looking for plastic water and soft drink bottles and collect them in hug bags. I always wondered if they traded those in for money, and if it was really worth all that trouble. I learned that it is humiliating and difficult, but for some it is scraping together a living.

We entered a forbidden part of the wall, and it was totally awesome. I felt like Kratos from God of War, except less muscular and less adept at jumping, ledge hopping, and walking along narrow bridges. Eventually, we ended up in a small village near the wall where we would be homestaying for the night. They had the best kung pao chicken I have ever tasted in all of China.

Location: The Great Wall of China, China

Half-way point

Officially at the half way point now. But once again, it’s been ages since I’ve written anything. I feel like I’m always so busy here that its impossible to sit down long enough to write a blog that actually tells people anything! In my last blog I know I said I was going to Thailand this weekend, but unfortunately that didn’t happen 🙁 But there’s been lots to do anyway! After we got home from MT, it was a pretty normal week. My friends and I went bowling one night, and it was just as you’d expect. Normal bowling with a lane and ten pins (there weren’t any bumpers which I thought would be bad, but I still won – 129!) Bowling wasn’t something I thought I’d do in Korea, but it was still fun!

We took lots of pictures while we were bowling, but some Korean lady yelled at me… She told me we were “disturbing” her. Not in the disruptive loud way, the “you’re scaring me” way. She told me our group didn’t understand Korean bowling etiquette and if we couldn’t learn it we should probably leave the bowling alley. So instead we stopped taking pictures and just finished our game.

Later in the week some girl friends and I searched for the Hello Kitty Cafe. We found it in some scary alley, but the cafe itself is soooo super cute.

Everything inside is pink and if there is some sort of Hello Kitty appliance or picture or anything, this place has it. You can buy coffee and snacks here and all of that has Hello Kitty on it too. Even my coffee!

Everyone else in the dorms thought the Hello Kitty Cafe was so cool that they arranged a group coffee date there on a Friday night! Kinda funny to see all the boys getting excited about anything Hello Kitty related. After we were at the Hello Kitty gathering, we walked around Seoul a little bit. The weather is getting really nice out now, and last week the Cherry Blossoms were blooming, so we decided to see them while they were out. While we were walking we stopped at a street vendor to get a real meal (kind of) and there’s this really popular street vendor who makes chicken and people make huge lines by his stand. Its basically a chicken kebab, but he puts all sorts of sauce and cheese and stuff on it.

I’m sure its absolutely terrible for you but people here love it. There are four different flavors you can get, and they’re measured by spicy-ness.

I tried the level 1 🙁 still a little bit spicy. But it was pretty good! Most of my friends got the level 3, but one of my friends asked for the level 4 (the hottest one they make). The guy who was making the food tried to talk her out of it, but she kept telling him it was okay and that she liked spicy foods. Well she tried it, and was in so much pain she had to take a taxi home. So if you come to Seoul and are looking to try some street food, stay away from the number 4.

The cherry blossoms in Seoul are so so pretty, but unfortunately they’re only out for about a week or so, then the trees just look sorta like normal trees. Some friends of mine went to Osaka for the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival – unfortunately I couldn’t go, but the trees in Seoul are just as pretty!

The cherry blossoms are everywhere, actually. I thought you’d have to go to one area to see them all, but they line the streets in some areas. Even my campus has them all over the place.

They’re so pretty, but like I said before they only last for about a week. They are already gone now, but at least that means summer is coming! The past week I spent a majority of my time studying and trying to get ready for mid-terms (starting Monday the 25th) and packing for my trip to Jeju Island – the Hawaii of Korea! 11 friends and I went to Jeju for the four day Easter break and we had such an amazing time. We left on Wednesday night and we got a flight to Jeju for only 17 dollars!!! Once we got there a little after 9pm, a friend of a friend met us at the airport and took us to the pension house we stayed at the first night. We had a good time talking and just relaxing that night. A couple of us walked around the island a little bit, but it was late and sorta chilly and it smelled pretty bad in some areas. We really wanted food, so we walked for at least two hours trying to find something to eat, and eventually we flagged down a cab to take us to a convenient store to get some things to take back to the house with us. We got in the cab and the driver asked where we were from, I told him America and he turned the light on and pointed to himself and said “Nelson Mandela”. He did look strangely like Mandela once he pointed it out.

The next day when it was nice out, we stopped at a small convenient store to get breakfast and it was right across the street from the ocean. Jeju Island is a volcanic island, so there’s lots of volcanic rock there. The north part doesn’t have very many beaches, but the coast still looks pretty!

We rented a 15 person van for the 12 people and all our luggage, and used that to drive around the island. So after breakfast we drove to the lava tunnels and on the way there we stopped at a small field of flowers. They were really pretty and there was nice white sand. I only got a couple pictures there, but it was just a place we stopped at on the way to the tunnel. Anyway once we got there we bought our tickets and went into the cave. The cave was formed by lava a long long long time ago, but its kinda hard to see anything inside, so I only got a few pictures. After the cave, we went to U-do, an island off the north coast of Jeju. We went there with the intention of riding scooters around the small island, but unfortunately a normal drivers license wasn’t enough to rent a scooter – you need an international drivers license – so instead we just rented bicycles and rode around the island. The weather was nice and the bikes were cheap, so it was a good way to get around the island. While we were riding bikes, we saw a group of older women sitting in the rocks on the coast, but we couldn’t figure out what they were doing.

We finally found out they were picking seaweed out of the rocks, and eventually they sell it in huge piles along the street. Sounds a little gross to me, but a lot of people do it so I guess its popular. It was really hard to take pictures while I was riding my bike, so most of the pictures look like this where they’re a little bit blurry, so most of them aren’t worth putting up. There’s another spot on the island that is a popular beach spot, but it was way too cold to swim. But the water there is so incredibly clear its hard to believe its ocean water.

After we went to U-do, we went back to the main island and got dinner. Black pig is a Jeju Island specialty (one of the only Jeju-foods that aren’t fish) and we ate it Korean bbq style. It was really really really good, and it was nice to have a full meal finally. Later that night we went to a place called Love Land. It was one of those things thats really difficult to explain, but it was definitely shocking. If you’re really interested, you can google it, but I think its best if I don’t post any of the pictures I have from there. After that, we were all exhausted so we went to our pension for the night and crashed. The next morning I made breakfast for everyone. We took our time getting ready because it rained all day so Friday turned into museum day. We went to a Teddy Bear Museum (cute, but not cute enough for $7.00) and Chocolate Land (has nothing on Hershey) and we also went to Jeongbong waterfall and Cheonjiyong waterfall. These were definitely my favorite parts of the trip.

At Jeongbong waterfall, trying not to slip and fall on the wet rocks.

Cheonjiyoung Waterfall. So so so pretty. This was definitely my favorite spot on the whole island. The area around the waterfall was so nice too. Just a beautiful place all around. Something you can see all around the island are these tiki-like statues. I’m not sure what they are called in Korean or what exactly they represent, but they’re all made out of volcanic rock from Jeju. I bought a tiny little one as a souvenir for my desk when I get home 🙂

Got a group picture at the waterfalls too!

As a finale to our museum day, we ended things at the OSulloc Jeju Green Tea Garden. It was raining and cold at this point, so we stayed outside long enough to take a picture of the tea field and then we ran inside to buy some hot tea to warm up.

After a really long day of sightseeing, we spent the night at a friend of a friend’s house in Jeju City. It was so nice of them to offer their house to 12 college students for the night and we had a really great time with them. Couldn’t have seen as much as we did without them!! The next day they took us to the Samyang Blacksand beach. The beach itself was really pretty, and the sand wasn’t actually black, but it was pretty dark (volcanic island). The boys all swam, but it was way way too cold to even think about swimming, so we sat in the sand and watched the boys freeze.

The day started late since we finally got to sleep at a house, so after the beach, we grabbed a quick lunch then went back to the house and slept for a little bit. We ended the day and the trip with a walk to the top of a mountain in Jeju City to watch the sunset. Sitting at the top of the mountain to see the coast and the ocean was so nice and relaxing. However I think we were some of the only people who were there to enjoy the sunset. At the top of the mountain there are all sorts of exercise machines… monkey bars and stretching posts and benches for crunches… its basically an outdoor gym. Anyway, we sat on a bench and just watched the sunset. Perfect end to a busy but exciting and fun trip!

Now I’m back in my dorm in Seoul – I keep calling it home! I know its not, but at least its starting to get more comfortable 🙂 I have midterms tomorrow, and I’ve done about as much as I possibly can to prolong studying, so now I’ll start studying for political development. Midterms done on Wednesday, then another long weekend 🙂 Hope this enormously long post makes up for the lack of posts the past few weeks!!! Miss and love all my family and friends! <3

Location: Jeju-do, South Korea

So much has happened in the past couple weeks!

So, once again its been a while since I’ve written anything. I’ve been busy with school work and trying to stay healthy. Last week, right after the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, foreigners in Korea really started freaking out about the radiation coming here. Despite what all the news said, people still were under the impression that the radiation was going to somehow make its way to Korea. So after a couple of city-wide sirens as practice for the city, a couple of students from my school decided they didn’t want to risk the chance of getting any sort of radiation poisoning and they went back home. As far as I know, the people who went home have gone home for good and won’t be coming back for any of the time they were supposed to be studying abroad (kind of a waste!).

After the radiation scare, things have pretty much fallen back into the normal routine (as much of a routine as an exchange student can have here, at least). Last weekend we took one of our French friends out for his last night in Korea, and then he left the next day. After he left, the exchange students went on a field trip to a performance called “Nanta”. I wish I could have taken pictures or videos, because just saying it’s a cooking show really doesn’t give the whole story. It’s a cooking show that has dance in it and comedy and gives the audience the opportunity to participate in the show… it’s a lot of things, but the amount of cooking they actually did was basically zero. Here’s the best video I could find on youtube. The banging sounds are all knives and they’re chopping vegetables, but thats basically all they do with the food. Cut up a lot of food, then throw it away. Too bad, really. It’s kind of a waste. But anyway, the performance was fun and it was something I think almost all tourists who come to Seoul, do. However, Nanta does perform in over 250 cities internationally so maybe some of you can hunt one down near you sometime 🙂 After Nanta, we walked around and saw the oldest Catholic Church is Seoul.

Since it’s the oldest Catholic Church in Seoul, it makes me think its probably the oldest one in Korea too, but I’m not certain about that. Anyway, there was a wedding going on while we were trying to look at it which made things a little weird, but the church was pretty and the stained glass was pretty, as always. We didn’t stay too long because it felt a little weird just standing in the back of someone’s wedding without knowing them. After the church, we went to the Korea National Museum. The Museum is huge. It’s really amazing how big it actually is. The museum itself is divided up into different sections, but for being such a big museum, it doesn’t seem to have a ton of stuff in it really. We had already done a lot of walking that day which made it hard to be too interested in seeing all the museum had inside, but even still, it was cool to go and see some of the things they have inside. We always go out for dinner on Saturdays because the dorm doesn’t provide dinner for us that day, so this time after all the walking we did, we went to a small Korean restaurant near the campus. We had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor and everything. At the beginning they bring out all sorts of little side dishes that you’re supposed to share, but they aren’t really big enough for more than one person, so most of the time when we come with such a big group, they bring a couple of those “side” dishes per table. In addition to those side dishes they brought us something called “Makgulli”.

Its traditional Korean rice wine, and to be honest, I hate it. It’s milky and has way more alcohol in it than regular wine. I think its one of those drinks that’s just supposed to be a compliment to the meal, but of course a lot of the kids from my school were drinking cup-fulls of it at a time and quickly started getting drunk off of it. Anyway, its not something I’d order for myself. Oh and by the way, the toilet paper on the table has been questioned a couple times. As far as I know, it was what we were supposed to use for napkins. There weren’t any other napkins on the table, and thats what everyone else in the restaurant was using it for. Really, really strange. The dinner itself was really good. I’m not sure what its called or even what all is in it, but the Koreans always tell us it’s a Korean pancake.

Its not a pancake because its much much thicker and there’s tons of stuff inside of it, so maybe its more like a Korean pizza. Either way, there’s potato and onion and squid inside. Its really really good. But it comes straight off the grill and its really hot at first. I think my picture even got some of the steam coming off of it.

That all happened on Saturday, and Sunday was the day I took to do my homework and catch up on sleep, unfortunately it didn’t really help. I’ve been fighting some sickness that everyone else in the dorms seems to have also. It hasn’t been fun and I haven’t had my voice for a majority of the week, but I’ve been sleeping as much as possible (which is why there aren’t many pictures from this week, sorry!). However, last night I decided to finally go out and do something to make myself feel better. My friends and I went to a soccer game at the Seoul World Cup Stadium which was pretty cool. Korea vs. Honduras.

I’m not usually a huge soccer fan, but the atmosphere is really cool. We had seats, but if you don’t want to sit down to watch the game, most people just walk up to the front part of the stadium and stand up to cheer and dance and swear and yell at the other team. As soon as we got there, we all bought shirts for the Korean team, and we also got scarves and the girls all bought these headbands with devil horns on them (the Korean team is the Red Devils).

Once we all had our Korean stuff on, we were all way more excited about the game itself. It was cold outside and there wasn’t really much to warm us up other than to stand up and be part of the big crowd towards the field, but it was fun to be in the middle of all the people who are really serious about soccer. Oh, and Korea won!

Today I’m planning on going to Bukchon Hanok Village. It’s a traditional Korean village that has been preserved in the middle of Seoul. After we go there, we’re going to go for a bike ride along the Han River. Lots of pictures to come after today!

Hope everything is going well at home. I heard about the snow! It sounds terrible. It’s cold here, but at least we don’t have any snow! As for the people who don’t live in State College or in an area where there was snow, consider yourself lucky! I’ll try to write more this week once I have some more pictures to post! Lots of love to all.

Location: Seoul, South Korea

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.

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.

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!).

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.

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.

The Trevi Fountian.

The Spanish Steps.

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!

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

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

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