Unsolicited Advice

It has now been a year since I was studying abroad in Italy and younger students have been asking me questions about my time abroad. So here is my unsolicited advice to everyone thinking about studying abroad anywhere: 

-Reflect on our own life before you decide to go abroad. Decide if it's a good idea for you as an individual (don't just do it because everyone studies abroad their junior year).

-Read about the culture of the place where you will be living.

-Do a beginners course on the language—Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur, just to get your footing

-Set goals for your trip and know that you won’t be able to complete all of them.

-Try to have as few expectations as possible

-When you’re packing, don’t forget things that will help you feel comfortable. Bring a pair of sweatpants, that stuffed animal that reminds you of your sister

-Make a budget!

-Research travelling prices ahead of time

Most of all...have fun. You'll probably only get to have an experience like this once so take advantage of everything.

An Adventure Through Music

Music is life. Some of you may have noticed that all of my blog titles were also song titles. Generally, either the song lyrics, mood or the title or both corresponded to an aspect of what I was writing about.
So in case any of you were wondering, here are the songs that I used at blog titles...all sixty-five of them.

Blog Song Title Playlist:

1. Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring – Traffic
2. Something Sort of Grandish – Finian's Rainbow
3. Old Man Waltz – Calexico
4. Walk It Out – Unk
5. Circles in the Sand – Fly By Night
6. Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head – Gorillaz
7. Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
8. A New Way To Say Hooray – Shpongle
9. Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell – The Flaming Lips
10. Love & Some Verses – Iron & Wine
11. Just Another Night – Cat Stevens
12. Down By The Water – The Decemberists
13. Walking Far From Home – Iron & Wine
14. Bridge Over Troubles Water – Simon & Garfunkel
15. Words – Train
16. Denglisch – Wise Guys
17. Es Fliegt Gleich Alles In Die Luft – Wise Guys
18. Mechanical Breakdown – Tripping Daisy
19. We Speak No Americano – Yolanda Be Cool and Dcup
20. Do, Make, Say, Think – Do, Make, Say, Think
21. Beautiful City – Godspell
22. Quando Quando, Quando – Fergie
23. London Calling – The Clash
24. Too Marvelous for Words – Billie Holiday
25. London Telecommunicating – The Polish Ambassadors
26. Postcards from Italy – Beirut
27. Play That Funky Music – John Brown
28. A Medly: For Sentimental Reasons, Tenderly, Autumn Leaves – Natalie Cole
29. November Has Come – Gorillaz
30. Old Friends/Bookends – Simon & Garfunkel
31. Hurly/Burly – Man Man
32. Float On – Modest Mouse
33. Art Is Hard – Cursive
34. A Call From The Vatican – Nine
35. Off To The Races – The Mystery of Edwin Drood
36. Don't Get Lost in Heaven – Gorillaz
37. Cosmik Debris – Frank Zappa
38. Naked As We Came – Iron & Wine
39. Long Way From Home – The Heavy
40. Mambo Italiano – Dean Martin
41. Musetta's Waltz – La Boheme
42. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Johnny Mathis
43. Academia – Sia
44. My Head Feels Like A Frisbee – Shpongle
45. Che Finalone – Cirque Du Soleil's Corteo
46. All We Have Is Now – The Flaming Lips
47. Pressure Zone – Beck
48. Two Thousand Places – The Polyphonic Spree
49. Paris Holds The Key To Your Heart – Anastasia
50. Main Title: An American In Paris, 'S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm – George Gershwin
51. Holland – Sufjan Stevens
52. God Bless The Child – Billie Holiday
53. Vincent (Starry Starry Night) – Don Mclean
54. Train Song – Tom Waits
55. Dickes B – Seeed
56. Deutschland – Die Prinzen
57. Hallo Berlin! – Wise Guys
58. Feed Me! – Little Shop of Horrors
59. You're My Excuse To Travel – Baths
60. La Vie Boheme – Rent
61. I Hear My Train A Comin' – Jimmi Hendrix
62. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland
63. Monkeys Uptown – Iron & Wine
64. Fasten Your Seatbelt – Pendulum
65. Homecoming – Kanye West

28: December 2011: Homecoming

My last day in Florence was a lot of running around. Martha went to the Uffizi and then boarded a train back home--it was a great short and sweet visit. Joe and I ran around town, seeing the last of the sights and buying the last few buys. All that running around yesterday broke my body down a little more than I could handle so today was a fair amount of gritting my teeth and bearing it. Needless to say, I will be grateful to be back in the states and sleep for several hours, or days. 

I must now get to packing--well, unpacking and then repacking. 

To any prospective ACM-ers or anyone interesting in traveling or studying abroad, please feel free to ask me any questions at all! My email address (at least for the next two years) is fmayer@knox.edu

Ciao everyone and thank you for reading about my adventures. 

And thus, the whirligig of time brings in his revenges...

27. December 2011: Fasten Your Seatbelts

Today was incredibly busy in the best of ways. We got an early start when my alarm didn't go off and I woke up at 7:15 am to realize that my darling friend Martha had arrived in Florence exactly an hour ago. I pulled on a pair of pants and a coat and ran across the street to the train station, wandered around to no avail, returned to the hotel, then ran back to the station and finally found her. Luckily, I had a hotel bed I could give her for a couple of hours while I ate breakfast and felt guilty and then continued to have an amazing day.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember that Martha was a German exchange student during my senior year of high school. She's only here in Florence for a day and a half but we certainly fit the optimum amount of Italy in the first day. After we woke Martha back up (overnight trains are never restful) we climbed to the top of the Duomo and saw an amazing view of the city.

It was absolutely incredible and the day was perfect. From there, we headed to the Boboli Gardens where we wandered and had some fun.

Then we saw the Galleria dell'Costume in the Palazzo Pitti, wandered through the Gallera dell'Academia and debated the facial expression of the David. I have been convinced that Michelangelo's statue depicts David before he has slain Goliath because of his determined and slightly scared facial expression. We talked about the history of the statue and I was excited to pass on my recently learned art history knowledge. Then I got to give my final presentation again when we saw the Chapel of the Magi in the Palazzo de' Medici--Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes are just as powerful as ever for me.
We checked Martha into a hostel, then headed (exhausted) to apertifo at a local bar. Apertifo is a great invention--you pay for a cocktail or a glass of wine and then get an all-you-can-eat buffet of gourmet Italian food. It was delicious. We lost track of time talking, catching up and having a great time. Tomorrow, we will show Martha the Uffizi and then...well...who knows what tomorrow may bring? My last day in Italy...we've come full circle, eh? Buone sera.

26. December 2011: Monkeys Uptown

I hope all of my beautiful readers had a wonderful Christmas or at least celebrated the winter solstice to your satisfaction. We ended up following a bit of a different tradition than I am used to because the Chinese restaurant was pretty much the only one open that you didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for. We were sitting next to another American couple--one of which was wearing an Appalachian State football shirt which prompted me to start a conversation (one of my most beautiful cousins is an App State alum).
Anyways, today is another holiday in Italy so once again, we didn't get to do too much. The Uffizi, to our surprise, was open so we sneaked in to see some Botticelli. I acted as tour guide with my one-person tour group. It was a lot of fun.
Then, a glorious (almost apocalyptic) sunset...this photo is unedited

We wandered through the city and had a delicious gnocchi-filled meal before heading to bed to get rid of this sicky sicky bug once and for all.

25. December 2011: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Buon Natale!

Joyeux Noël!

Gelukkig kerstfeest!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Veselé Vánoce!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

And God bless us, everyone.

24. December 2011: Hear My Train A Comin'

We awoke this morning still very sick but determined to make it through some more of Prague before boarding the train again. We made it halfway up Petrin Hill to see a beautiful view of the city before realizing that our time in Prague was nearly up.

On our way back to the station, we stumbled upon the John Lennon Wall. It doesn't have any historical significance, it's just a wall that people continuously color with Lennon and Beatles-inspired graffiti. Today, it is a symbol of peace and love. It was a cool sight to stumble upon, for sure.

Finally, we boarded the train to Vienna and watched the sun set over the Czech countryside on Christmas Eve--one of those images that a photo can never capture.

We changed trains in Vienna and found a Halal market still open on Christmas Eve (possibly the only business in all of Austria that was still open) and rode overnight to Florence.