It's amazing just how much information one brain can hold and how much excitement one heart can contain...

Salve!
This is yet another way to greet people informally in Italian. Since my last post we have had our final meeting with our group before we all meet in Rome on May 28th. Laura Moix is our program coordinator/director. She is so awesome and has lots of great advice about Rome and traveling in general. A great tip that I have learned is that when we do all our traveling by train, we need to make sure we validate our tickets so that we won't get a 150 euro fine!

I have also finally gone shopping for the clothes and shoes that I am going to take to Rome. I bought several shirts that are made of linen so that they will dry quickly because there aren't any dryers. I also bought a great yoga-type skirt that covers my knees for churches, is very comfortable, and is solid black so it goes with several of my shirts. I am going to bring 2-3 pairs of jean shorts because they will take awhile to dry but I am also bringing 2 other pairs of shorts because it will be hot! I also found several dresses to bring that go with all the shoes I am bringing, including wedges for going out that will be easy to walk in (don't forget all the cobblestone streets!). I am also bringing one sweater to cover up in for churches because my art history professor, Dr. Lynn Jacobs, said we will go to lots of churches during class to see art!

Speaking of class, I am taking two three hour classes and we received our schedules for the four weeks we will be there. On Mondays and Wednesdays I will have art history from 9-12 and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will have World Civ 1 from 9-12. So I will have all my afternoons free to do homework and explore the city! Both professors also said there will be some reading, a few papers, and some outside assignments to see certain things so I am going to bring my laptop to do work on and to blog on of course :). The professors are both very nice and really excited to be able to have their classes be more interactive out in the city!

A few other things that are important to remember to bring are converters for charging your electronics.

• Don't bring a hair dryer or straightener, I have tried and they do not work because the voltage is not the same. But your laptop, and phone should be fine. 
• Definitely bring a raincoat because who knows what the weather could do. 
• Also, I have checked with my professors and I have to buy two books for my World Civ class and bring those myself. My art class does not have a book, however we will read some things that she will post online. Glad I don't have to lug around too many books!  
• If you are like me and get eaten alive by mosquitoes in the summer, bring bugspray! I HIGHLY recommend "Cactus Juice Outdoor Spray" (http://www.cactusjuicetm.com/products.php#ValuePacks ). It is the best bugspray I have ever used. It's not sticky or corrosive, it smells good, and I have never gotten a single bit when I have used it. You do need to reapply it but any spray requires that.
• Bring any medicines you need in your carry on! You do not want these to get lost. I am going to bring tylenol and allergy medicine as well just so I don't have to look for it while I am there.
• And of course, because we will be living in apartments, shower shoes are a must.

There are other things that you may or may not require but those are some things that I think are pretty universally needed while traveling abroad.

Things are finally beginning to wrap up on the planning side of this trip and soon we will be on the plane to Munich! Anne, Mark, and I are chomping at the bit for some new scenery and adventures.

Pre-Trip by Trains

While everyone is stressing over tests and the last two weeks of school, all I can think about is that our trip through Europe starts in exactly one month! On the 18th of May, Mark, Anne, and I are all going to get on a flight from XNA to Chicago. Then from Chicago we will arrive in Dusseldorf on the 19th and we will fly from Dusseldorf to Munich. A whole day of flying and a seven hour time difference! We will be begin our pre-trip in Munich for three days and we have roughly planned out some things we want to see such as the Neuwachstein castle (about 2 euros for a ticket), the Dachau Concentration Camp (free), and a famous market called Viktualienmarkt. We will probably do a lot more exploring too. I think German food is going to be really good! Next we will take a train from Munich to Salzburg, Vienna. This is the birthplace of Mozart and I've heard it is gorgeous. We are planning on going to a Mozart museum and possibly going to see an old fortress called Hohensalzburg. We will be there for two days and one night. Then we will take another train from Salzburg to Vienna, Austria. This is going to be my favorite! We are going to see the famous Spanish Riding School which is home to the Lipizzaner stallions which perform amazing tricks.  We will be here for three days and two nights and will probably take lots of walks around the town and see the gorgeous mountains. This is also the city where they filmed the Sound of Music. From Vienna we will take our longest day of train travel to Venice, Italy. We will probably only get to see Venice for about a day but I've heard you mostly just walk around, eat delicious food, and get lost. So that will be an adventure in "the city of water". We will definitely go see Saint Mark's Square and the Grande Canal. Then we will take a train to Verona and spend the night there. We would like to see place that is said to be Juliet's balcony from Romeo and Juliet. After ten days, on the 28th we will take a train from Verona, through Milan, to Rome where we will meet our study abroad group and move into our apartments for our month of study! It is going to be a lot of traveling and sitting on trains but I know it is going to be gorgeous. I would rather get to see the amazing views by train than take small flights to each city. I even had a dream about the train rides last night. I have been on one other train from Monaco to Cannes in France and it was beautiful. On a side note, we bought Eurail passes to get through three countries by train for a total of five travel days and it was about 300 euros for each student pass.

I have also been thinking about how I am going to pack for this seven week long trip and it has been difficult. I'm going to have to take one suitcase, a backpack as my carry on (with my laptop and purse), and my personal item will be my camera bag. It's going to be interesting traveling with all this stuff but it is difficult to avoid it. Fortunately, it will be summer so I will pack shorts and shirts that can be washed easily. I found a nice packing list on this site: www.herpackinglist.com. If you go to it and find the country you are traveling to, she has some really good and concise advice. I remembered that since I will be living there for a month it will be important to blend in, so I need to throw out anything with English words on it or American brand names. I'm going to try to pack light colored solids that will mix and match. In Rome as well, I will have to pack scarves and long pants to wear in churches.

Lots of things to think about but it's getting closer!
Ciao!

Class Schedule Changes

Buon Giorno! Ironically, I have decided not to take Elementary Italian I at the Rome Center this summer. What do you first think of when you think about people studying abroad? I think of a group of American students walking around museums while a teacher talks to them about the real world applications of what they have learned in the classroom. Even though taking Italian would have its real world applications, the class itself would be taught in a classroom. Mr. McCoy teaches Honors World Civilizations here at the University and highly recommends taking his World Civ I class in Rome because it will be mostly outside in the city and less classroom based like it is here in Fayetteville. I can't wait to take this history class and art history class (both requirements I need to graduate with honors) in a city like Rome that is rich in art, history, and culture. I will take Italian when I return to campus because Fulbright Honors students must study a language up to the Intermediate I level (aka three semesters of a langauage). Currently, the University of Arkansas only offers Elementary Italian I in the fall and then Elementary Italian II in the spring. Therefore, it makes sense to take the classes consecutively instead of beginning Italian in the summer and then waiting to continue in the spring of my sophomore year. Since I have chosen to take the classes in this order and I don't want to be completely new to the Italian language while I live there for four weeks, I purchased Rosetta Stone for Italian Level 1. This has been a very good investment because it teaches you speech, vocabulary, and grammar in a way that is different than having a teacher give you the information. I definitely recommend it to people who are going abroad but can't take a language class before they go. It is not time consuming and is very interactive. I am still working on the massive amounts of planning for the pre-trip that is almost a month away! I'll be posting about that information soon, when it's more concise. :) Arrivederci!

Introduction

Hi! My name is Stephanie Long and I am creating this travel blog to document my time studying abroad in Rome this summer. I am planning to graduate in 2016 with a double major in Biology and Psychology from the University of Arkansas. This blog will include, my pre-trip to Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Venice, and Verona, then my month in Rome, and finally a week trip to London. I would love for future students to use this as a reference through the University of Arkansas's Study Abroad Office to plan their trip to study in Italy at the Rome Center. YOLO has been a popular phrase in our culture lately however, in this blog I'm going to convert it to YOGTRO (You only go to Rome once). I love to plan trips and it is important when planning a trip to Europe to experience everything as if you will never see it again. I have a little over a month to finish up all my preparations and will post my tips throughout (even during finals week)!