Ciao from Firenze, Italia!
My name is MaryKate, and I’ll be a junior this coming
year. I am currently studying here at
the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute in Florence (a.k.a Firenze), Italy, with my
boyfriend, Nick, and my dragon, Farfy, and I just finished up my third week of classes. The big news here right now is that it just
rained for the second time since I’ve been here, which is amazing considering
Florence is having a VERY hot summer.
As I come to the end of my study abroad experience, it’s a
little hard to sum up into words my thoughts and feelings throughout this
experience. Frankly, it’s a little weird
to jump from spending months planning this adventure, feeling that it was always
far off, to suddenly watching the United States disappear far beneath my feet. (Although if we are being honest, it’ll most
likely take me several months to fully process this experience.) But, with that being said, here’s my best
shot at trying to collect my thoughts and observations:
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| The view from my apartment |
Currently, I’m sitting at my apartment kitchen table with my
dragon, Farfy. It’s afternoon here,
which is crazy because it is only morning back at home. Not going to lie, it’s kind of hard to write
this since my life back in the United States seems so far away. That’s probably one of the hardest things
about study abroad (with the exception of going home, which I haven’t
experienced yet). One moment you are
living your every day life in the States, going to work, eating American food,
like Chick-fil-A (gosh, that sounds nice), and sleeping in your bed, and the
next moment, you are thrown into a different culture with a foreign language,
really no fast food (although the food is amazing), and sitting in class for
five hours a day. In other words, the
word I’m looking for here is surreal.
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| Farfy at St. Peter's Piazza in Rome |
Anyways, enough of me talking about the surrealism of it, my
favorite thing here is, of course, the food, especially the pizza. Anyone who knows me well knows that my
favorite food is pizza. And the pizza here
in Florence does not disappoint! Even
the frozen pizza is incredible. If you
don’t believe me, buy a plane ticket and come try it! The best part about here is that you can walk
into almost any restaurant and order anything off the menu, even if you have no
idea what it is, and it’s fantastic.
This includes foods you don’t like back in the States. For example, I am not a fan of spaghetti, but
I tried some spaghetti here and as far as spaghetti goes, I couldn’t complain. I could go on about the food for days, so
I’ll spare you the rant.
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| Pizza! |
For those of you who have never studied abroad, I encourage
you to get excited. This is like no
other trip you will go on. For those of
you studying abroad currently or about to go, enjoy the moments. It goes so fast. I know that seems cliché, but it’s so
true. The experience flies by so make
the most of it, even when you are tired or homesick.
For those of you who aren’t studying abroad this fall, I’ll
see you August! It’s about time for
dinner for me, and yes, I’m going to eat pizza!
Ciao!
MaryKate Rogers
Lorenzo de Medici
Firenze, Italia
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