I am now about halfway through my time abroad. It’s proving to be a lot easier than I thought it would be: in terms of missing my family, friends and the good ol’ U S of A. It seems like I have been here for years while at the same time feeling like I just arrived yesterday.
This past week was my spring break. It came just after my birthday, as it usually does at this point in the semester. Brandon and Kristen arrived on Thursday night and stayed until Monday afternoon. It was so nice to see familiar faces and have someone to catch up with. We explored the city, ate delicious food and talked just like we were sitting in our suite back home. Ryan came on Sunday morning, after much confusion with airlines/airports and of course jet lag. Ryan didn’t have as much trouble as I suppose he could have, but traveling internationally isn’t always a piece of cake, and now I realize how lucky I was to be traveling with an entire program of people. Once Ryan made it safely to his hotel, we spent the day taking it easy. We walked around a little bit that night and met Brandon and Kris for dinner. Monday I took him to the Vatican and we walked downtown. Even though he was exhausted, we got almost everything done in one day.
Tuesday morning, we caught an early train to Venice. Our hotel room was adorable, as was the entire establishment. Our room was adorned with old Venetian décor, almost characteristic of the rococo era. The pattern on the bedspread matched the walls, which were covered in the same material. The terrace attached to our room overlooked a cute little Italian side street, and breakfast was served in the morning in a little dining room overlooking the Grand Canal. It was in Venice that we found a quaint pizzeria with the best pizza we’ve had. We explored the city, I showed him around a few specialty Carnivale mask stores, and we made it around just in time to see the sunset over St. Marks. The most important aspect about Venice for me this time around was discovering the best wrap I’ve ever tasted. It consisted of a chicken cutlet, rolled up within a tortilla/pita hybrid, lined with a thin red sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and a special sauce with just a little kick. Essentially, it tasted like a pizza & Caesar wrap, and chicken cutlet. Amazing.
Next, we headed to Florence. When we got there it was rainy and cold so we opted to eat at a small restaurant close to our hotel and just watch TV for the remainder of the night. It was nice to have a second to relax while hopping around the country. The hotel was located in an older building right off the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, but the rooms were modern and beautiful. We slept on a bed that was absolutely massive, and could both spread out without bothering the other. Everything was so simple and the whole atmosphere made me want to lay in bed all day. Though we didn’t do the typical museum hopping while there, we saw the Duomo and St. Lorenzo market. We frequented a few small leather shops and did a decent amount of window-shopping. We ate dinner at an absolutely awful place, that destroyed the pizza Ryan had ordered, as well as his appetite. We left only 10 minutes after getting our food. We were both pretty disappointed, though Ryan had gelato not long before, so it wasn’t all bad.
Ryan took his gelato game very seriously and tried almost every vanilla based flavour in each of the three cities. Once we made it back to Rome on Friday morning, we spent a good part of the day eating food and exploring VIGAMUS, which was the video game museum in Rome. Let me start by saying that I have never even heard of a video game museum, anywhere; and I don’t think he had either. It was a short walk from out hotel and even though it was the tiniest museum I’ve been to, it was certainly worth my while. I wasn’t a kid who grew up on video games, and I didn’t have a ton of friends that did either. To say I am educated or even have a basic knowledge of video games is a massive stretch, so it was hard for me to get into it. However, Ryan was really interested in everything and loved it; he enjoyed explaining things to me and flexing his gamer knowledge; I learned a lot and had even more fun learning a little more about the history of something that my significant other really enjoys. At the end of the museum tour, there was some sort of virtual reality room where you got to try out this Oculus game thing. Basically, it turns everything around you into the world in which the game is being played, placing the player in a virtual reality, and enhancing the relationship to the game. While it was interesting, and definitely something I had never done before, I didn’t enjoy myself much because even playing the easiest game (I didn’t even have a controller) I was still awful and just got frustrated. However, Ryan loved it. He played Alien based on the movie (a movie even I’ve seen) and said it was so real and slightly terrifying. For someone like him this was a highlight of the trip for sure.
Though my spring break may not have been as adventurous as others (I didn’t leave the country, do anything extreme and had no crazy late nights) I feel like I learned a really important lesson about being in a relationship. This is really the first time I’ve been on a vacation with my significant other and it was both beautiful and challenging at times. When you have two people that have pretty strong personalities, you’re bound to butt heads at some point. What proved even harder was that we are bothered by different things; what ticks one off, the other usually just shrugged off. I learned that being with someone all the time every second of the day is difficult, but incredibly rewarding once you begin to get into a rhythm. Fortunately for us, we are good at communicating with one another, and I certainly have no problem expressing myself if I’m bothered by something (lol). We may have irritated one another just a little, but it the end it was a rewarding and beautiful experience. It made us appreciate each other all the more and made being separated for four months a hell of a lot easier.
One of the highlights of the trip was witnessing a rescue mission in Florence. On our way to find something to eat for lunch, we came across a small fire truck and some bystanders crowding around a (normal sized) car. They were all tapping on the glass and peering in at something. We approached the car and realized that a small Asian baby had been locked inside with the keys. When the mother could not get the child out on her own; the firemen entered through the trunk of the car, and using a metal rod, managed to push the unlock button from the inside. The part that makes this the highlight of our trip was that when the car door was opened, “Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go” by Wham! was blasting from the car, accompanied by the cheering of Italian pedestrians.
This week has been one of my favorites. I got to relax, show my friends and boyfriend the aspects of this country that I love, and learning a bit about their experiences too. These next 7 weeks are about to fly by, and I can’t wait to see where they take me.
This past week was my spring break. It came just after my birthday, as it usually does at this point in the semester. Brandon and Kristen arrived on Thursday night and stayed until Monday afternoon. It was so nice to see familiar faces and have someone to catch up with. We explored the city, ate delicious food and talked just like we were sitting in our suite back home. Ryan came on Sunday morning, after much confusion with airlines/airports and of course jet lag. Ryan didn’t have as much trouble as I suppose he could have, but traveling internationally isn’t always a piece of cake, and now I realize how lucky I was to be traveling with an entire program of people. Once Ryan made it safely to his hotel, we spent the day taking it easy. We walked around a little bit that night and met Brandon and Kris for dinner. Monday I took him to the Vatican and we walked downtown. Even though he was exhausted, we got almost everything done in one day.
Tuesday morning, we caught an early train to Venice. Our hotel room was adorable, as was the entire establishment. Our room was adorned with old Venetian décor, almost characteristic of the rococo era. The pattern on the bedspread matched the walls, which were covered in the same material. The terrace attached to our room overlooked a cute little Italian side street, and breakfast was served in the morning in a little dining room overlooking the Grand Canal. It was in Venice that we found a quaint pizzeria with the best pizza we’ve had. We explored the city, I showed him around a few specialty Carnivale mask stores, and we made it around just in time to see the sunset over St. Marks. The most important aspect about Venice for me this time around was discovering the best wrap I’ve ever tasted. It consisted of a chicken cutlet, rolled up within a tortilla/pita hybrid, lined with a thin red sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and a special sauce with just a little kick. Essentially, it tasted like a pizza & Caesar wrap, and chicken cutlet. Amazing.
Next, we headed to Florence. When we got there it was rainy and cold so we opted to eat at a small restaurant close to our hotel and just watch TV for the remainder of the night. It was nice to have a second to relax while hopping around the country. The hotel was located in an older building right off the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, but the rooms were modern and beautiful. We slept on a bed that was absolutely massive, and could both spread out without bothering the other. Everything was so simple and the whole atmosphere made me want to lay in bed all day. Though we didn’t do the typical museum hopping while there, we saw the Duomo and St. Lorenzo market. We frequented a few small leather shops and did a decent amount of window-shopping. We ate dinner at an absolutely awful place, that destroyed the pizza Ryan had ordered, as well as his appetite. We left only 10 minutes after getting our food. We were both pretty disappointed, though Ryan had gelato not long before, so it wasn’t all bad.
Ryan took his gelato game very seriously and tried almost every vanilla based flavour in each of the three cities. Once we made it back to Rome on Friday morning, we spent a good part of the day eating food and exploring VIGAMUS, which was the video game museum in Rome. Let me start by saying that I have never even heard of a video game museum, anywhere; and I don’t think he had either. It was a short walk from out hotel and even though it was the tiniest museum I’ve been to, it was certainly worth my while. I wasn’t a kid who grew up on video games, and I didn’t have a ton of friends that did either. To say I am educated or even have a basic knowledge of video games is a massive stretch, so it was hard for me to get into it. However, Ryan was really interested in everything and loved it; he enjoyed explaining things to me and flexing his gamer knowledge; I learned a lot and had even more fun learning a little more about the history of something that my significant other really enjoys. At the end of the museum tour, there was some sort of virtual reality room where you got to try out this Oculus game thing. Basically, it turns everything around you into the world in which the game is being played, placing the player in a virtual reality, and enhancing the relationship to the game. While it was interesting, and definitely something I had never done before, I didn’t enjoy myself much because even playing the easiest game (I didn’t even have a controller) I was still awful and just got frustrated. However, Ryan loved it. He played Alien based on the movie (a movie even I’ve seen) and said it was so real and slightly terrifying. For someone like him this was a highlight of the trip for sure.
Though my spring break may not have been as adventurous as others (I didn’t leave the country, do anything extreme and had no crazy late nights) I feel like I learned a really important lesson about being in a relationship. This is really the first time I’ve been on a vacation with my significant other and it was both beautiful and challenging at times. When you have two people that have pretty strong personalities, you’re bound to butt heads at some point. What proved even harder was that we are bothered by different things; what ticks one off, the other usually just shrugged off. I learned that being with someone all the time every second of the day is difficult, but incredibly rewarding once you begin to get into a rhythm. Fortunately for us, we are good at communicating with one another, and I certainly have no problem expressing myself if I’m bothered by something (lol). We may have irritated one another just a little, but it the end it was a rewarding and beautiful experience. It made us appreciate each other all the more and made being separated for four months a hell of a lot easier.
One of the highlights of the trip was witnessing a rescue mission in Florence. On our way to find something to eat for lunch, we came across a small fire truck and some bystanders crowding around a (normal sized) car. They were all tapping on the glass and peering in at something. We approached the car and realized that a small Asian baby had been locked inside with the keys. When the mother could not get the child out on her own; the firemen entered through the trunk of the car, and using a metal rod, managed to push the unlock button from the inside. The part that makes this the highlight of our trip was that when the car door was opened, “Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go” by Wham! was blasting from the car, accompanied by the cheering of Italian pedestrians.
This week has been one of my favorites. I got to relax, show my friends and boyfriend the aspects of this country that I love, and learning a bit about their experiences too. These next 7 weeks are about to fly by, and I can’t wait to see where they take me.