As I sit on my couch in my new apartment in Denver, I can’t help but reminisce on my time in Florence. Just a month ago, I was beginning to study for my final exams and soaking up every “last” – last gelato, last walk along the river, last glass of Chianti wine. When I got home, I slipped right back into my routine and spent lots of time with my family celebrating the holidays. On the drive from Wisconsin to Denver, I wrote down some final scattered thoughts regarding my experience as a whole.
Initial Transition: Don’t try to force the same routine you had at home – you can keep some of the same elements that you previously had but allow for new experiences – they may be some of your favorites!
First Lessons: Just because you feel homesick, don’t solely look forward to going home. I definitely did this the first few weeks and regret it. You will have all sorts of feelings but being uncomfortable is a key component of growth!
Opportunity: I am typically a quiet person in class, but in Florence I wanted to be more engaged with the material I was learning, so I jumped in and spoke up more than I ever have! It helped me to gain confidence in the classroom that I have been able to translate into coming back to classes here at DU!
No FOMO: I am the self-proclaimed queen of FOMO. I have discussed this briefly before, but the abroad experience is so different from anything your friends back at home are doing, so just focus on yourself and all of the unique experiences you can have abroad!
Simple Things: My morning matcha, seeing the golden Tuscan sun hit the duomo on my walk home from class, the street performers playing music are all little parts of my day that really brought me joy and I didn’t realize how much I would miss. It truly is the little things in life.
Leaving Florence: Many of my friends were so sad to have to leave Florence, and although I was sad, I was very excited to go home. I think that although it is sad that your life will go back to “normal”, I always look forward to the good – seeing my friends at DU, getting to eat at some of my favorite local spots, and one of the most important to me: seeing my sister and dog when I got home!
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing these posts as a way of reflecting on my abroad experience, and I will repeat what I told everyone that inevitably asked about abroad when I went home “Florence was the best – it’s so hard to describe with words how amazing it was”.
Hi guys! Long time no see!! I am long overdue for an update, so settle in for a bit of a long one…
Paris!
I have wanted to go to Paris since I was 8 years old. I went through a Paris phase, complete with a 3 foot tall bejeweled Eiffel tower as the primary decor in my room for a few years. Needless to say, my expectations were high, but I was not disappointed. We landed in Paris early Friday morning and our first stop after dropping our bags was Chipotle. At DU, Kira and I venture to Chipotle 2-3 times a week and the absence has been felt in Florence to say the least. After filling ourselves with burritos, we went to Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower (complete with a cheesy photoshoot), and wandered along the Seine. Then we took the Metro to our Airbnb and got dressed for the main event of the night. One of my favorite bands, Mumford and Sons, happened to be in Paris that weekend, so when we booked our flights, I snagged tickets for the concert too! It was amazing and so much fun to hear them live! The next day, we hit up the Louvre and got lost among the Ancient Egyptian artifacts, eventually finding our way to the Mona Lisa and the Madonna of the Rocks. As a side note – I read the Da Vinci Code just a few weeks before this and if you will be abroad, I cannot recommend reading Dan Brown books corresponding with where you travel; it was so much fun to see the locations mentioned in the books and picture Robert Langdon in your very spot! We completed our trip with a Seine river cruise, where we got to see the Eiffel Tower light up at night and the Christmas market in the Tuileries. Before we knew it, our time had come to an end and we found ourselves back in Florence by Sunday morning.
Copenhagen (well, Trento)
“Copenhagen was a blur!” Kira posted on our abroad Instagram “diary”. Our Copenhagen trip was feeling perfect – cheap RyanAir flights out of Bologna and the coziest little pod hotel in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, our train from Florence to Bologna was delayed 30 minutes, and then another 45, and ultimately 2 hours. When we got to Bologna, our flight was actively taking off and there were no more flights to Copenhagen that were under $700. After a brief crash out in the Bologna Centrale, we hopped on the next train back to Florence and decided to make the most out of a weekend in Italy. The next day, we booked an Airbnb and train tickets to Trento, a city in the Dolomites famous for Christmas markets. Before we knew it, we had arrived and were greeted with flurries of snow and stunning mountain views. We spent the afternoon playing our favorite game – gin rummy – and sipping on warm lattes. We stayed in an adorable Airbnb, hosted by two expats who visited Trento and fell in love. We visited the Christmas market that night and then in the morning trained to Verona. We had an hour and a half before we had to be back at the train station, so we hurried to Juliet’s balcony and then made our way back past the “mini colosseum”. From there, we took the train to Desanzo del Garda. Nestled on Lake Garda, it was gorgeous, but had a deserted feeling as it was the off-season. We ended up sitting by the lake and just relaxing, chatting about our week to come before taking the train back to Florence.
London& Rome
London was by far our most anticipated trip. We booked it the first week that we were here, with the thought that London would be the closest thing to America we could have over Thanksgiving. We had 4 full days planned and ended up walking over 120,000 steps! On Thanksgiving day, we got breakfast at Joe & the Juice, wandered around London, and then went to a matinee of Hamilton on the West End! It was fantastic and felt apropos as Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. We ended the night with ramen at Wagamama, which was delicious!! Friday, we woke up and took the tube to Notting Hill, where we got coffee at Blank Street and bagel sandwiches at Kuro. The rest of the day, we looked through the Portobello Road Market and dreamed of living in one of the colorful houses typical of Notting Hill. That night, we got my all-time-favorite Indian food at Dishoom, which was so good!! Saturday, I decided to fly back to Florence a day early to go visit my childhood best friend who was in Rome! There, we went to the Capitoline Museum, which had an amazing collection and then I got to see the school that she went to when she studied abroad there! Rome is truly the perfect day trip from Florence and it feels like there is an endless amount of things to see and do there!
Barcelona & DU Friends
Due to the DU quarter system, I was lucky enough to have two friends come and visit while they were on break! We wanted to travel somewhere within Europe with them and decided (mostly due to cheap flights and Airbnbs) to go to Barcelona! I had never been but heard so much from friends who had been! We flew in Thursday evening and got amazing Mexican food at La Taqueria! Then, we caught up with another friend from DU and went to Opium, a famous dance club in Barcelona and had a blast! Friday, we got brunch, visited Sant Pau, an old hospital with gorgeous architecture, and hiked up to the top of Parc del Carmel for sunset. Then, we got pho and relaxed in our Airbnb, playing lots of cards and chatting! Saturday, we went to the Sagrada Familia to see it (only from the outside unfortunately) and then walked down La Rambla until we had to go to the airport and continue the fun back in Florence!!
I am writing this on the Sunday before my finals week and cannot believe that my time in Florence is about to come to an end. I will have plenty of time while I travel back to the United States on Thursday (already dreading leaving, ugh) to reflect on my abroad experience.
DU Abroad 