this is it (ROME 15)

Today is the day! I am going back to the United States because it is May 16th, 2012. (I just had to state the date to remind myself that it is actually happening.)

As I just come back from having dinner in my favorite neighborhood, having drinks with friends, and walking around in the nice weather down the cobble stone streets, I have to look back on my previous semester. Clearly, there is no better way to do this, then to reflect on this blog!

beautiful tiber river, at night 

When I first got here, I expected to transition quickly, but as many of my friends and family know, it didn't happen with ease. Eventually though, just like everyone had comforted me, things did fall into place.

Between all my typical study abroad moves, traveling the world, going to major festivals, and seeking out all possible rated restaurants in every city, this experience was much more to me then just those things.

From barely surviving first semester freshman year, to living away for four months in Italy, is something I would have never deemed possible. Although, it just shows, with a little faith in yourself, a lot is possible!

Before I get too emotional, I know that this experience has brought me to become more independent then ever before. After looking back at my first post, I remember my goals, and this was certainly one of them. From being in a Rome hospital, to hiding out under cover on a train, and taking planes (a common fear of mine) almost every week, I can manage anything that is about to come my way.

I met great people, was put in situations that have taught me life lessons, and now have a want to travel to so many different and new places!

Now as I go to the airport, to board a flight back to AMERICA (?) I know a lot of exciting things are ahead of me. A majority of my friends from studying abroad, PLUS all my best friends from school and home will all be working in New York City this summer. I recently got an internship at Nickelodeon Integrated Marketing, and could not be more excited about that opportunity.

As sad as I am to leave, I just have to remember that I will be back! I already have discussions with my parents to come some time soon after graduation, because I can't be away from my new favorite city for too long. It is amazing how much there is to do, see, (EAT!), and be apart of here.

I would not trade this experience for anything, and I know that I will have the memories and experiences of this semester for a lifetime.

All aboard the flight to JFK international airport. Oh how it seems like yesterday I was hearing something completely different!!

I love ya ROMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first day!

The last night! 

The End

Faster than I could have ever imagined, the semester is over! Overall, it was a great few months, and I learned so much about myself and about the people around me! I knew going into this spring that I would really miss my best friends, but there were so many amazing things that happened this semester that I know I would have been so sad to miss.

SO...with one of my favorite things being to make lists of things, I will leave you (referring to all our readers- I know we have a lot...) with a list.

My Favorite Things About this Semester (in word and picture form)
1. Recruitment
Being the vice president of recruitment for AEPhi was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had! I am so happy to say that after getting to know our 49 new girls, I know that all my hard work paid off...they are amazing!!!

Jackie, Me, Elena and Steph! Could not have done it without them.

 2. Erica coming to visit!
Having my best friend from high school come visit was absolutely amazing! I loved showing her around Boston and introducing her to all my friends. Now i just need to book my plane ticket for the Fall to Michigan!

Erica and me!

3. Big Little Reveal
As one of the most fun sorority events of the Spring semester, I was SO glad I was in Boston for this! Marissa (my little) is one of my best friends, so I was so proud and happy to help her decorate the rooms of her TWO littles!

Marissa, Ariel, Suz and me

4. Pinning Suzanne at Initiation
It was such an amazing experience to pin my real sister, Suzanne, at her initiation with my sorority pin.

Such an exciting day!

5. Going to LA for Spring Break!
Such a fun week! 

Beautiful Hollywood sign hike!

6. Mike's 21st Birthday!
With almost all of my friends my age abroad, it was so exciting to finally have a 21st birthday I could partake in celebrating. Even though I wasn't invited to AC with Mike and all his friends (downfall of being younger than your boyfriend), I was so happy to be able to be with Mike on his birthday!

The nigh before the big 2-1

7. Family Surprising Suzanne for Her Birthday
I spent the whole semester coordinating with my mom for my parents and Melissa to surprise Suz the weekend of her birthday! I told Suzanne I had a whole day planned for the two of us, and then walked into a restaurant on Newbury where my family was waiting! It was so great to have them in Boston, even if it was just for a short two days.

Fam on Newbury

8. Marathon Monday
Best. Day. Ever. 

Celebrating!!

9. Working With a Real Client
One of my classes this semester allowed me to do a mini session in the clinic with a real client. It was so exciting (and scary) but it was an amazing experience that made me confident and excited to start graduate school in the fall!

10. Living With Amazing Roommates
This semester I lived with three amazing girls, and had the most amazing time. I will miss the time we spent together everyday, especially cooking dinners with Laura every night.

11. Formal
Formal is always the perfect end to great semesters! This year our formal was at the Hyatt in Cambridge, on the top floor overlooking the Charles River. BEAUTIFUL!

My handsome date!

12. Running a 5K!
I love running, and it was so fun to finally run a real race! Already signed up for my next one!

Before the run!!

Iguazu Falls

I wrote this blog post like a month ago and never uploaded it! Sorry!!

Last weekend my program took us on an excursion to Iguazu Falls, in the northeastern part of Argentina (on the boarder of Brazil and Paraguay).

It is newly added to the seven natural wonders of the world so I went to two world wonders in two weeks (along with Machu Picchu!).

It was such a beautiful place, if you ever go to Argentina, please go! I have heard it's better than Niagra Falls, although I have never visited there. It was also extremely beautiful because we walked through a jungle to get to the falls! Over rivers, through the woods to the falls!

We took a 14 hour bus Thursday night and got into Iguazu Friday morning. We spent Friday at an estancia (a ranch). This estancia is family run and it produces mate (the typical Argentine drink, kind of like green tea). We spent the day swimming, playing games, eating, and lounging around. First we toured the mate plantation, then they had an asado for us (an asado is a barbecue full of grilled meat where they roasted a whole pig, cow, etc). It was absolutely amazing meat, probably the best steak I have had here.

The Estancia

Mate Plantation

Where we had the asado

I then spent the rest of the day playing in a highly competitive volleyball game between 8 of us in the residensia, dominating with Team Skyball. Although half of the time was spent arguing over the rules of volleyball (which CLEARLY I know them all, thanks to my brothers gosh no one would listen to me). Although in the end team sky ball lost the match, we were clearly the winning team.

Roommies at the top of the falls

At the top of the falls

Devil's Throat

Cara, me, and Arielle at Devil's Throat

At the bottom of the falls on the boat ride

Boat ride

The next day we headed to the falls. I will let the pictures tell you how great it was. Although the day started out rainy and gray, it didn't matter. The falls were breathtaking and so powerful. I told me roommates "If I see an animal today, I'm going to freak out". Thank god the rain came, because it scared all of the animals away. It was my lucky day. The boat ride was by far the best part of the day and it was such a thrill. We all got soaking wet, actually it looked like we all showered in our clothes.

The next day we went to an indigenous community. We saw how the Guarani tribe lives and how they preserved their culture and traditions over the years. It was kind of a weird experience I kind of felt like an impostor on their lives, but I guess it was a good experience and put life in perspective.

Guarani children singing to us

My children (can you spot Cara?)  

It was a great weekend and was truly a once in a lifetime experience. It was so beautiful, although I do wish it would have been sunnier throughout the weekend. But it was amazing and I am so lucky to have been able to go!


Besos,
Ellen

officially seen it all (ROME 14)

Hey Hey Hey! I have waited way to long to blog, but this post will explain everything!

Last Friday, I was awoken early, and took a flight to Milan! I was excited to see a fast pace city and see the fashion capital of the world! The flight was actually more efficient and cheaper then the train, so we were there in about an hour.

We got to Milan and I didn't even feel like I was in Italy anymore! We settled into the hotel, and went to a famous Panini shop.  After this, we went to see the Duomo. I have realized that there is almost a famous Duomo in every Italian city, but this is one of the prettiest ones I have seen. When you climb to the top, instead of being in a dome, you are on the roof of the church! It was really nice out, so we spent some time up there.

After that, we went to one of the oldest shopping malls in the world. It is home of the original Prada and was so beautiful and fun to walk around. Everyone is dressed so nicely there, that it was even a tad intimidating!

That night, I ended up not feeling well at all. To not bore you all with those details, I ended up coming back to Rome early Saturday morning. I had my program take me to the hospital, and I was admitted later that afternoon for kidney stones!

Now, I usually get a variety of health problems, but this was a first! I almost made it through an entire semester without an urgent health issue, but of course one week before my body had to find something!

I can officially say that I was admitted into a foreign hospital now though, so that really completes the abroad experience? The best thing is that, they are not that serious, and eventually they will pass. I have to drink a lot of water, but I am back to doing normal daily activities! My program took great care of me, and I am really proud of myself for getting through the whole process. Between the language barrier with the doctors, and a strange setting, it was scary in the very beginning. Right now, I am just thinking that I can enjoy my last weekend in Rome.

This week was the last week of classes! It was weird to leave school, because I remember sitting in class the very first day, months ago. 

           

I have been going to my favorite restaurants, and trying some new ones this week as well. I can't have dairy because of these stones, so it has been kind of limiting. Although, maybe I will shed some of this pasta weight off before I enter the USA?

This weekend, I plan on doing some Rome bucket list activities as well as studying! I forgot that finals are never fun, whether you are in Boston or Rome. There is a lot of studying, reading and writing to be done in the short span of four days. 

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, so tomorrow we are going to one of my favorite parks, Villa Borghese and having a picnic as a great study break!

I have been slowly packing up and getting presents for all my friends & family back at home.I can't believe that I return home THIS WEEK on Wednesday! I still can't completely grasp it.

One last blog post will be coming your way before I officially leave though, so no need to worry yet :) 

Ali 

l'inizio della fine (ROME 13)

Can this be? I will only have two blog posts left after this current recap of my weekend! I cannot believe it. My title of this post is the translated phrase of "the beginning of the end." Since I only have such little time left here, I thought that was appropriate! 

This past weekend, was an interesting, funny and typical one. Although, I haven’t had a mishap with traveling so far, this weekend definitely proved that you can’t go through abroad untouched.

Me and Sam decided to do a trip just us this weekend, since everyone else in Rome was traveling far places or staying here for one of their last weekends. We picked Lake Como, based on the fact that we could stay in Italy. Lake Como is a town north of Milan, which borders Switzerland. It is a common weekend destination for Italians, most similar to the Hamptons for New Yorkers. We got on the train in the morning and finally got to Como in the early afternoon. We got into the train station, and found a cab to our hostel. Our “hostel” was not much of a hostel to say the least. A older Italian women, who spoke zero English, greeted us at the cab. She brought us into her (pretty sure home) and showed us our room. It was very quaint and cute looking over the lake!

Our goal for the weekend was to go to three major towns on the lake. Bellagio being the prettiest, we wanted to get their as soon as possible. Although, one thing everyone should know is that the lake is not a round circle. I would consider it more of a river. We were told to get the bus to the ferry to bring us to Bellagio. After wandering the high way for about a half hour (almost considering hitch hiking), we gave up in finding the bus stop. We found a villa hotel, and asked them to call us a cab. The cab though, would take thirty minutes to get to us, due to our location. We officially realized our rooming accommodations were in the middle of NO WHERE! Although we could see the lake, they were definitely not ideal. We decided to get our stuff from our room, and take a cab to “Como.”  This is the main town, although not the most famous. We spent the rest of the day there and admired the beauty. We decided to go home that night instead, since staying was not practical.

One tiny problem, when we got to the train station, the train to Rome was SOLD OUT. What were the chances? In utter frustration to get back to Rome, we got on the train despite not having a ticket. After having the train fill up, we got on to find open seats. The only open seats that we found were in first class, so we sat there. The best part of this whole day is our nonexistent tickets were not checked, and we got back to Rome safe and sound for FREE! New tip for the jap guide: when it doubt, always just get on tren italia! 

Saturday I woke up and admired the 80 degree weather outside. I decided to go for a jog in one of my favorite parks, and then I had tickets to a soccer game! Soccer is a huge sport in Italy, and Rome fans take the game VERY seriously. We were sitting in the south side goal, which is designated as the Rome fan section. There were people leading cheers, and every time a goal happened, fireworks were set off in the stadium. Me and my friend Jenna loved the game, and it was such an experience. I could not be happier that we got to go!

My favorite part about Rome is a neighborhood called Trastevere. It has the best food, and the best piazzas. When it is nice out, there are so many people out and about, walking around with their families. On Sunday me and Sam went for brunch here, and sat outside and then walked to get smoothies along the river. I finally caught up on some homework, and then met back up with Sam and her roommate Raquel for dinner in Piazza Navona. Her sister was visiting, so we all wanted to get together! We ate at a new restaurant, (trying to go to as many before I have to go) where the original tartufo was created. It was so delicious!

We are off from school tomorrow due to May Day, which is the Europe equivalent of Labor Day. Everything will be closed, so if it is nice, I plan on going to the beach about a half hour from Rome!

Tonight Julie and Hannah are back in Rome for one last night before they go back to the United States. We have to celebrate with a delicious meal and then a fun club or bar night, and I am very excited to hear about their past week in Portugal.

The week should go by fast with one less day of school, and my upcoming trip to Milan/Cinque Terre. The next time I get on a plane after this, I will be on my way to New York! It doesn’t even seem real.

I want to also do a special shout out to other five member,Jenna, to completing a 5K this weekend in Boston!!!! I wish I was there to see her run, but I will be celebrating her 21 birthday in just a couple of weeks in the city, and I cannot wait!

Before I know it, all five of us will be reuniting in no time. I am making Ellen (our token California girl) come to the east coast before school in the fall! It would be impossible to not see her before then!

Here is to the final two weeks abroad! I will be writing again soon!

Ali 

fruhlingsfest (ROME 12)

Hey fellow readers! I apologize for the delay in this post, Rome has been super crazy!

I just want to preface this particular blog post by explaining that I grew up in long island, went to a sleep away camp in Pennsylvania and am in AEPHI at an east coast school. Therefore, I knew 80% of the people attending spring fest, in Munich Germany. (the other 20% are the native Germans who went)

           

It is almost ironic that every Jewish friend I ever met (or friends of friends) congregated in Germany. Although, this as a huge weekend for study abroad students, such as myself.

Although I didn't know what spring fest or (Fruhlingsfest in German) was, I got a pretty accurate idea when we went to it on last friday afternoon. We first went to the famous English beer gardens when we got there. There is a famous Chinese statue and an outside area with pretzels and beer. Everyone got huge mugs of different kinds of beers and chatted outside. We then came back to the hotel and went to the metro to go to the spring fest carnival !!

The festival was nothing like I imagined, it had rides, tents filled with people and tons of food stands. Once we went into the first tent though, we knew we were in the right place. Everyone was standing on tables, there were beer contests and I ran into a million people I knew! First we saw a ton of people from my camp, and we all ran up to each other. Some people I haven't seen since we were campers! I then saw my roommate from school and a ton of mutual friends! It was really overwhelming at first, but so fun at the same time. We hung out there and towards the end we walked outside as we viewed rides and got chocolate covered strawberries, bananas, corn on the cob and marsh-mellows.. (just to name a few things)

We then headed home and all went to sleep. When I woke up the next morning (either from beer digestion or something I ate) my stomach did not feel right. I ended up staying back a little later and then met up with people after!

I decided to wake up super early on Sunday and have breakfast with my friends from Rome. My flight was at 3PM but I wanted to be able to do some tourist things before I left. We ate breakfast, while Hannah left to go to Portugal and Lauren left to go to Prague. As we ate breakfast, we passed the glockenspiel. This is when the main tower in Munich city centre that plays music and a bunch of toy-like puppets come out of the tower around noon and eleven every day. It wasn't as climatic as it was written about, but still enjoyable!

This week in Rome has already been a busy one! Since we had no school today, (it is the version of Italian Labour Day), I did the Spanish Steps pub crawl last night. Today, I wanted to check some things off my Rome Bucket List, so I went to the Key Hole view of Rome! This is where you look into a keyhole, and have a perfect view of three countries, the Vatican, and gardens. It was really cool, and I am so glad I went. After that, I went to the Orange Bar in Trastevere, a neighbourhood near school, where the best blood orange juice is served. It was so delicious!

the view once you have focused in through the keyhole!

A lot of my friends from the temple university program have ended finals and school abroad. We all went to dinner on Thursday night and I could not believe I had to say good-bye to some people! I have three more weekends and I am only travelling within Italy, which is really exciting. I want to be immersed in as much Italian food and culture before I head home to the United States! 

I land in the JFK airport exactly three weeks from now, even at this time! 

I am going to Lake Como on Friday, which is a resort and lake town in northern Italy. Although, it borders switzerland, so I am going to be in both countries. You get to see the lake, and the Swiss Alps at the same time. The weather has been nicer, and I can't wait to lay by the lake and eat a home cooked breakfast at our inn! I will fill you in on that soon as always!

Ciao,
Ali