After\nspending 4 months in the incredible, eternal city of Rome, I feel as though I\nneed to reintroduce myself to my family, friends, and acquaintances. Studying\nabroad was the best experience of my entire life, and I have grown more in these\n4 short months than all of my other years combined. Of course, there were growing\npains along the way: a difficult, complaining set of roommates, a school that\nwas a 30 minute uphill climb away, and an apartment that was always the same\ntemperature as outside (lacking central heating and air). However, this time\ntaught me to trust in myself, people around me who I had just met, and the beautiful\ncity itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rome never\nlet me down, even when I felt the ocean-wide separation from my family and\nRollins community. While in Rome, I learned to be Italian. By the second month,\nI could fluently order at osterias, shop at clothing and grocery stores, and\nconverse with locals on the streets. Many Italians asked where I was from, and\nwere surprised to hear that I was American. Until living here, I hadn\u2019t realized\nhow important being Italian was to me and my identity. While my roommates were\nannoyed with our lack of a clothes dryer, I laughed and enjoyed the chance to\nslow down. I gladly made pasta every night for 4 months while they went to\nMcDonalds frequently. And when I traveled to England, Switzerland, and France,\nI craved to be back in Italy. From the first day that I woke up in my apartment\non Viale di Trastevere, I knew that I never wanted to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Studying\nabroad is one of the best experiences you can have. I thought that I would miss\nRollins and America much more, but I was too captivated by Italy to even have second\nthoughts about home. I didn\u2019t realize how much I needed a break from the\nmundane, busy, and rigid schedule and routine I have. It\u2019s very important to me\nto take what I\u2019ve learned and who I\u2019ve become back to the states and to\nRollins. When I find myself slipping into my worries and cares of pre-studying\nabroad, I need to place myself back in Rome and recapture the lighthearted,\nexcited, curious, and joyful spirit I was infected with my entire time there. I\nleft Rome heartbroken and searching for every excuse to come back, but with a\ndozen new best friends, hundreds of polaroid pictures and memories from across Europe,\nand a suitcase overflowing with dried pasta and other goodies (seriously, it\nwas 75 pounds). Grazie per tutto, Roma, torner\u00f2 presto! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After spending 4 months in the incredible, eternal city of Rome, I feel as though I need to reintroduce myself to my family, friends, and acquaintances. Studying abroad was the best experience of my entire life, and I have grown more in these 4 short months than all of my other years combined. Of course,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-19355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isarome","tag-rollinsabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19356,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355\/revisions\/19356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}