It's Official!

I officially got my acceptance letter for Apicius - International School of Hospitality! I could not be more excited to study abroad in the Fall! I decided to write this blog to keep everyone updated on my life in Italy. I am by no means a writer, so I'm interested to see how this turns out.

As soon as I tell people that I am studying abroad the reactions are usually the same. They usually are something like, "Oh wow that is so awesome!" and then "Isn't that going to be expensive?!?" and then some "Aren't you going to miss everyone! I couldn't be away from everything for 4 months!". And my answer is usually yes it is awesome, yes it is expensive, and I don't think I'll miss too much considering I'll be in ITALY and I know that I'll be back in 4 short months so I don't want to waste it missing everything in America.

So why did I decide to study abroad? My parents seem to think that I am crazy and don't understand why I want to live halfway across the world in a city where I don't know the language. My mom even asked me "whose child I was??" I have always loved to travel and see new things. I also wanted to push myself to grow and learn as much as I can. As much as I love America, I am completely fascinated in other cultures and I made a decision that I wanted to completely immerse myself in another culture and live there for a short period of time. Language and directions are probably my biggest weaknesses. So I figured that if I can move to a country that I don't know that language and don't know how to get anywhere and survive, that I can pretty much do anything. After semi-stalking some of my friends that have studied abroad, I realized how jealous I was that they were living in Europe. It wasn't just a "wow that looks like fun" jealously, it was more pure envy. I realized that I had to so something about it.

I have thought about studying abroad since freshman year but I didn't really make the decision until I made my bucket list over the summer. It sounds silly, but my friend Bethany and I were driving to Springfield early one morning and had to keep ourselves awake. We decided to make a bucket list of what we wanted to accomplish in our lives. As I made my list, I realized that I had a lot of things I wanted to do and I better get started! One thing on my list was to live in another country. After college I will start my career and start to build a life for myself in America, so I realized that living in another country was something I had to take care of now. Everything else on my list including- milk a cow, go to Mardi Gras, save someones life, learn a martial art, and get arrested- can wait. Italy was a choice that was influenced by Miss Shelley Santel. She is currently in Florence now and loving it. It also helped that there is a good Hospitality school in Florence where I can take classes that I can benefit from.

School-- the main reason I am going to Italy (besides the wine and ice cream). The first class I am required to take is Italian 1. This should be interesting considering I took 4 years of French and can't speak it to save my life. But I suppose this is necessary to live in Italy. I am also taking Wine Service and Bar Management. As a Hospitality major, this class may be the most beneficial and should be exceptional in Italy. I am also taking an Italian culture class in order to fulfill my last general education course. Learning about the culture of Italy in the classroom will enhance my experience and hopefully push me to be open to an Italian lifestyle. Sustainable Tourism is another course I signed up for to add the emphasis of Tourism to my major. This is something that is brought up in almost all of my classes and is sure to be a trend for the hospitality industry (spoken like a true HRA student, right Shelley). I'm curious to see how sustainability is different in Italy and learn more about tourism in Europe.  My last class is about the regional desserts in Italy. Yes, a class all about desserts in Italy. I could not be more excited for this class and I can only imagine how much more I will bake when I come back! :)

I applaud anyone who read this whole post. In short, I could not be more excited to move to Italy for 4 months. I have loads of paperwork  in the meantime. I get an email from the school almost daily telling me what else I need to do to get ready even though it is over 3 months away! And if ANYONE would like to come visit me I will be happy to sleep on the floor the entire time and you can have my bed. I'm sure I will just be soooo excited to see a familiar face. I believe Paige Brown and I already have some plans for the Christmas Markets in Germany!! I plan on making many trips while in Europe and I will be accepting any travel buddies!