Tucked Away in Tuscanny

As I step out of the train station in Pisa, my eyes find my Aunt Barbara. She is smiling and embraces me as if she’s known me my entire life, rather than via the e-mails we’ve sent over the past few months. My trip to Tuscanny was planned quickly. I had booked the train ride just two days prior to my scheduled departure. A need to go out and explore a different area of Italy had taken hold of me quickly, and I was anxious to meet my Italian relatives.

For the entire four hours I watched country side and sea go by, butterflies dancing around in my stomach. What if I couldn’t communicate with them? My speaking skills didn’t go far beyond ‘Where’s the bathroom’ and a few Roman slang words. To my complete relief, my worries melted away as my aunt drove out of Pisa and towards Lucca and Capannori. She had made us reservations at a traditional Tuscanny trattoria that her and my uncle Vittorio frequented.

The meal we had set the tone for the entire weekend. My aunt spared no time in ordering prosciutto and meatballs and cheese and bread and red wine to wash it all down with. Part of me sank when I realized I forgot to tell her that I hadn’t eaten pig or cow meat in nearly four years..BUT carpe diem rushed through me and I tried everything that was brought to the table. I’m abroad for new experiences, not to safely hide behind the culinary preferences I’ve endured throughout my college career.

The weekend was filled with love, family and food, making it one of the best three day periods I’ve spent thus far in Italy. I had the pleasure of visiting La Scuola di MADE, a culinary business management school tucked away in the little village of San Gennaro. There, my cousin Eduardo and his culinary teammates, Arianna and Francesca, spend the duration of their program competing with other teams while learning about marketing, cooking, and many other practical skills necessary in the field.

Apart from the school having delicious food, the building was absolutely stunning. The view from my cousin’s dorm room window overlooks all of Tuscanny. By night, you could see scattered lights of towns and villages in the valley, while by day you could follow the winding roads with your eyes and see the reddish roofs far below.

Gone were the towering buildings I had climbed in Rome. No more sirens of constant car disputes and ambulances could be heard. Instead, Tuscanny replaced the eternal city with a relaxing atmosphere that can only be described as homey. Everything about it was different: the food, the scenery, the dialect. And it was absolutely amazing. I’m already making plans to do a second and third trip back to Tuscanny.

When I applied for the schools that are part of the IB program, Italy filled my top two choices. The promise of exploration and education far exceeded my worries about the language or culture barrier. This weekend opened my eyes to a whole subculture of Italy that begs to be explored further. For those of you just starting the application process for your schools, I encourage you to not simply pick a school based on its regional location or class offerings. Think about why you are studying abroad and what you hope to achieve and accomplish during that time. For me, part of it had to do with getting to know my family’s history, something I could not have done anywhere else in the world. For you, it could be something that is completely different, but let it motivate and lead your school selection. It will be the most amazing experience you’ve encountered yet at USC.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have in the comments section below. I love sharing my stories and experiences with you all! 

Learning Lessons from Fast Friendships

A Dutch girl. An Italian man. A German girl. A Finnish girl. A Swedish boy. And me. That’s just the breakdown of the people living in my apartment, let alone the many different nationalities of the people I’ve met within my Erasmus Student Network, affectionately known here at LUISS as ESN.

I never knew how popular studying abroad (in Europe called, going on exchange) is! Many of the students I’ve met from Lithuania and Holland are on their second, sometimes third exchange in their college careers. It’s amazing to me how they are able to simply leave everything behind from one school to another in the name of experiencing new cultures, classes and people wherever they go. Can you imagine missing Gamecock football or baseball three out of your four years at USC? I couldn’t.

It took me so long to figure out how these friends I’ve made can be so seemingly adventurous as they conquer one country after another. For one thing, the United States is almost two and a half times bigger than Europe itself. So for comparison’s sake, a Lithuanian student studying in Holland but going on an exchange in Italy is essentially equivalent to say, a student from New Jersey studying at the University of South Carolina and doing a semester in Washington, D.C.

So what’s the difference between being a New Jersey girl studying down in South Carolina and a European studying in another European country? Can you imagine travelling to North Carolina and having to change language, customs and sometimes currency? Imagine going to Florida for Spring Break and going through two entirely different cultures to get there. While I love the United States with all my heart, it seems sad that many of the students at USC won’t get to experience the culture change I’ve been able to here in Europe. The people I’ve met here have challenged my way of thinking, of my future plans and goals even.

Being one of the youngest students in ESN (most are here studying for a Master’s degree) it’s been so exciting to pick each person’s brain about their undergraduate studies and what they did after their first four years at university (uni). Some of these students have mastered between three and five languages, have already finished one Master’s degree and have seen more of the world than I’ve even dreamt about.

It’s absolutely inspiring to see the way these European students live. As an IB student, I never would have expected to learn just as much (if not more) from my fellow students than my professors. Some have worked directly for their country’s parliament (and no I don’t mean being a page at the State building). Some have been published in major economics and business magazines, held internships with major international business companies, all in the name of continuous learning. I only hope that in my few short months here I will be able to acquire some of their knowledge and bring back my experiences to USC.

Being abroad isn’t just about learning inside the classroom. It’s the people you meet and the places you visit and the challenges you encounter that have made this study abroad possibly the best semester I’ve ever had. I’ve been instilled with a sense of passion and wanderlust, to learn from not just my international professors, but my international friends. I can’t possibly put into words just how much I’ve learned about cultural awareness, the similarities and differences between Europe and America, but I can’t wait to discover even more.