I am incredibly excited to arrive in Siena, meet everyone in my program and start classes at the Dante Alighieri school. I believe this immersive study abroad experience will be vastly different from my studies so far and I have many goals for myself this summer. The biggest difference I expect is that I will have so much more time to explore places I am passionate about inside and outside of the classroom. While it was fun to tour around South Bend when I first started at Notre Dame, in Italy, I plan to go see something new everyday. Whether it is a new museum, view, walking trail, or even restaurant, I hope to discover new information about Italian culture and life every single day. On the weekends, I am excited to take adventures to other Italian cities. My top three cities on my bucket list right now are Cinque Terre, Milan, and Como.
During this exploration, I expect to use my Italian language skills and intercultural competences at almost all times. My main goal of this experience is to meet as many people as I possibly can and to speak to them in Italian. I look forward to forming new friendships and truly learning about life in Italy by conversing with the Italians I meet. I am specifically fascinated by Italian food and would be thrilled to take a cooking class or two while abroad. Another goal of mine is to learn more about Italian business, as I may be working either in Italy or with Italians after graduation.
I hope that after this experience I will be more confident in my Italian skills, better culturally versed, more independent, and better at adapting to what life may throw my way. After being in Europe for two weeks already, I believe I am already growing in these areas. I spent a week in Sicily with my family and have been in Paris for the last 5 days with my siblings. Staying in Sicily has already provided me with the opportunity to practice Italian as many Sicilians do not speak English. Talking with the people at the grocery store, restaurants, and rental shops was honestly one of my favorite things I have done so far. Traveling around Paris made me extremely appreciative of the Italian language skills I have as it was frustrating to not be able to converse with the Parisians. Sicily and Paris were extremely different, yet, I learned so much from both. Now I am on to London for a few days and will finally arrive in Siena. I cannot wait for this adventure to continue.
