Another month has come and gone by far too quickly. So far October has gone by the fastest for me while being abroad and seemed extremely busy. I did not travel as much this month has I did in September, however, I was able to explore Rome a great deal which was just as enjoyable. This month involved midterm exams for all of the students in the program and I spent a lot of time in either the library or a small café close to the hotel I live in studying for my exams. Trinity is a very studious and demanding program and it shows through the students because all of us are very hard workers and take our grades seriously.
Even though I stressed a lot about midterms, I was still able to find time to explore and enjoy my time abroad. I only traveled for fall break this month, October 21-October 29, and I finally branched outside of Italy. I flew over to Lisbon, Portugal and Madrid, Spain to meet my lovely mother who I had not seen since leaving for Italy. Lisbon and Madrid are both beautiful countries, but very different from both each other and Italy. Because they do share a border there are similarities between Portugal and Spain in culture, landscape, food, and language. However, these two countries are so unique from each other; Portugal is very coastal and covered in colorful buildings while Spain is much more modern, developed, and populated. I visited many museums in both countries, ate a lot of food that was not pasta or pizza, and walked around until my feet were sore. I think going to both of these countries, ones my mother and I had never been to before, were great first places to travel to outside of Italy. Also seeing my mother was the cherry on top to traveling because she is my favorite travel companion.
Looking ahead to my last month and a half abroad, I will be traveling to Budapest, Bologna, and Amsterdam. I also have a typical Thanksgiving dinner to look forward to that the program is providing for us. I have spent Thanksgiving abroad twice already before in different countries and I like to see the different ways other countries view Thanksgiving food since they do not celebrate it. I also will have research papers to write and final exams in December… But I honestly cannot complain because I am lucky enough to study abroad in a program and country that will only greatly benefit me as a student and global citizen. Until next month, ciao!