Study Abroad, Honors Program & Other Student Experiences

It doesn’t quite feel real to me that I’ve reached the “last week” of my study abroad experience.   Well, it’s not even a week anymore—it is days. Nor does it feel real that I’ll be starting my senior year in a scant few months.  I feel like everyone is very hyped to go home, but I’m looking forward to my extended trip with my mother—we’re staying an extra 10 days to tour Southern Italy. Then its home and summer classes and fall preparations. Fall preparations include grad school applications, JET applications, taking the GRE, and FYSAE mentoring. Summer classes have in fact, started for me this week. I’ve got an assignment due on Wednesday, and I’ll complete the first half of the class while on the road with my mother.

That’s right, I’m going to be a FYSAE mentor again! I’m very much looking forward to this year, because I can attend the Summer Orientation, where I’ll be able to meet my mentees before they head off to London.  Last summer, I was in Cape Town on another program, so I was only able to communicate via email prior to their departure.  It’s been nearly two years since my own Orientation—I wonder if it has changed much?

Senior year definitely conjures up mixed emotions in me. I’m excited to start my final year; I’m hesitant to actually finish my last year. I’m up for a new experience: staying in one campus for a full year; I’m a bit sad I won’t be studying abroad anymore. I’ll be taking only 4 classes my senior spring; I’ll be taking 8 classes my senior fall. I’m taking classes mostly outside my major this fall, which is new; I’ve finally come to enjoy my major this past spring. I’ll be able to dance in Puro Ritmo again, which is always a plus. I’ve figured out what my dream career is; I don’t know what my realistic one is in the meantime. I’ve got nine months to get my life together and head out into the working world—unless I, by some miracle, get into grad school or accepted to JET, and that’s a bit scary.

But hey, I signed up for this when I became a three year student—and whoever said that just because something is scary, it means you should give up?

What a week, what a week! I can’t say that I haven’t been outside enjoying the nice weather, but I haven’t been outside as much as I’d like. This past week, I forgot to post because I was engrossed in prepping for my end-of-term projects and exams. I had a presentation and a paper due on Monday, a project due on Tuesday, an exam on Thursday, and a paper due on Friday. I had another exam this Monday and I had my final test this morning. I still have another presentation on Thursday, and a presentation and a paper due for my internship. Thankfully, my internship paper has no “hard” deadline, so I’ve been doing it slowly over time, taking care of more pressing assignments as necessary.

Exams abroad are always doubly stressful. You realize that you need to suddenly prove that you’ve been paying attention all semester, while simultaneously realizing that you have to pack to ship out a few days after you drag yourself out of the exam room. All of a sudden, the list of things you need to do or see before leaving for home triples in size, and you wonder how you didn’t get it done before now. How on earth is one to study when there remains another church with another famous painting to be visited? The weather is finally perfect, all the big festivals have rolled into town, and your absolute favorite artist is having a concert the night before your Marketing final. What to do, what to do?

Pretty much, buckle down and study. Pray for terrible weather and transport strikes so events get canceled and you feel like you should be staying inside. (Not that you need to pray for a strike in Italy). As my non-Arcadian friends on this program are discovering, Arcadia doesn’t take finals lightly. Our professors are nice, understanding people. Still, they don’t want to hear why you failed your exam—after all, you should have been paying attention all semester, no? Find a study buddy if that’s what makes you happy, turn off Facebook and start quizzing each other. Or find a quiet part of the apartment where you can tune out the terrible five year old learning to play the piano below you.

Now that exams are done, a weight has been lifted off of my mind. Sure, I still have a paper and two presentations to finish, but that’s much less time consuming than studying. You at least know when you’re done with a paper or a presentation. Studying doesn’t stop until you sit down in front of the exam, really.  I’m going to go sit out on my bench, read a book, buy a birthday cake for my roommate, and then hammer out this paper. Wish me luck!

Today has been a relaxing day so far. Of course, it’s still early afternoon. However, this morning has been so fantastic, I figured I should share.

Today I went to the Rose Garden of Rome, just south of the Circus Maximus. What’s unusual about this garden is that it’s only open one month a year–May. That’s well known. It’s a pretty place. I’d have to say that it’s the first time since Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens that I’ve fallen in love with a botanical area. (Kirstenbosch is in Cape Town, btw: I highly recommend going!).

I whiled away an hour there, and while you could here the birds chirping, there was also Shakira reverbrating throughout the air. It turns out, today was Sports Day for some elementary schools in Rome. Where do you hold a sports day? Clearly, in the Circus Maximus.

Imagine: hundreds of cute little 11 year olds running around a 3,000 year old track, screaming their heads off, playing different games. They had some music going and the Palantine hill in the background for some ambiance.

Now, I’m very happy with my life, but dear lord, I would give anything to be an Italian 11-year-old right now.

Sports Day at the Circus? You just can’t beat that.

Since one of my end-of-year projects is done, I figured I’d share with you the results. For At Home in Rome, we had to write a paper that examined a sociological issue of contemporary Rome or Italy. One of our classes took us on a walking lecture to the Jewish ghetto, and my paper topic was generated from that trip.

It was strange to academically research the topic, because I was raised Jewish, got bat mitzvahed, and went to Holocaust museums yearly. American public schools focus heavily on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism when covering WWII in history classes.  The fact that anti-Semtism = bad is nearly a given. I wasn’t really expecting to find a lot of modern research. My paper was meant to originally examine antisemitism during the Fascist period, and go from there.

It turns out, antisemitism is still very much alive today, and it’s a significant problem in Italy. My paper morphed into an examination of why antisemitism is so prevalent in Italy specifically, and how to counteract it.

Here are some sobering statistics:

44% of Italians express dislike of Jews

12% of those Italians are pure anti-Semites

70% of the Italian population has never had direct contact with a Jewish person.

25% of Italian youth held a negative opinion of sitting at the same dinner table as a Jew.

My research turned up some other statistics, reports and anecdotes that made me wonder how thsi report could have been issued in 2011 rather than `1939. Even worse, Italy is seen to be  on the “more tolerant end of the scale.

The paper I wrote was horrifying in and of itself, but to me, it is doubly scary because I’ve been learning how Italy treats other minorities as well. Minorities, immigrants, and refugees get some of the shoddiest treatment in Italy. Throughout the course of this semester, I’ve come to know Italy as a rather xenophobic nation, with  laws that make it nearly impossible for non-Italians to get by. Reconciling myself to the fact that I live in the capital of such a country has been a long and difficult process, but I’m glad I know what I do. I’d much rather see the ugly sides of a country that blindly assume that they are being fair. Any possibility of living in Italy for a duration of my life is officially on hold until they make some drastic policy changes.

April is finally over and done with, and May Day is finally a distant memory. In Italy, the first of May is their Labor Day, which means shops close early, a limited amount of museums go free or reduced price, and there’s a GIANT concert in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano. The concert is a huge event, with several famous Italian artists, going from 3-11 PM. Also, by some miracle, the metro stays open until 1:30 AM, which is usually reserved for Fridays and Saturdays.

Sadly, I did not attend the concert. I chose to laze about, see some museums, hit up Pincio park (adjacent to the villa Borghese), and have dinner with a friend.  In typical Italian style, the meal took over two hours, and I couldn’t get to the concert before it ended. Still, I enjoyed my labor day, and that’s what counts.

Since Sunday, the sky has been overcast, with the threat of rain ever-present. Today is the first properly sunny day we’ve had in a while, and I’m taking full advantage by soaking up some UV rays on my front balcony. It’s strange to look at the trees across the road and realize that a few short months ago, they were barren and unsightly looking. Spring has most certainly arrived in Rome, and I hope it will remain as pleasant as it has been.

I especially hope so because I’ll be done with Arcadia in 18 days. I’m staying in Italy for an extra 8 days with my family (we’re doing a tracing-our-roots type journey) and then I’ll be flying over to Brussels for a few days. I’m mostly heading there to check out a grad program I’m interested in, but I’ve heard great things about Belgium too! Still, it’s less than a month until I touch back down onto US soil. Time flies, no? Even though I should expect it by this point in my travels, every time I’m confronted by the thought of leaving, all of the things I still haven’t done rush to the forefront of my mind. I’ll be working hard to fit them all in–after I finish finals, of course.

That’s right! My finals start next week, with papers, projects, presentations, and exams following one after another until the 17th. Despite the nice weather, I absolutely have to buckle down and finish it all.  Perhaps I’ll block Facebook for the next few days.

My best advice for finally sitting down and finishing your work while abroad? Don’t wait until the night before. Even the ones who prefer to work under pressure. Start two nights before, that way you can sleep on it, and work like mad on the day before it is actually due. Of course, I’m totally describing worst-case scenarios, and not the typical methodologies of study abroad students.

Well, I’ve got a 6 page paper due tomorrow afternoon, a project due next Tuesday, an internship paper due before I fly out,  and a presentation to put together. Wish me luck!

To all those heading to Rome before the 29th–hurry, it’s ending soon! MACRO Testaccio, the modern art museum of Rome in Testaccio, is finishing up it’s Steve McCurry exhibition.

Who is Steve McCurry? One of my favorite photographers. Need another hint? He took the picture of the Afghan girl for National Geographic. He still goes around the world, taking war photos and stunning photographs.

For the past few months, MACRO has had his exhibition up, and I went to see it yesterday. It was probably one of the best-put-together exhibitions I have had the pleasure of seeing. The photos weren’t the originals, but the presentation and the content were simply amazing. I nearly cried at a few of them. He manages to capture both human joy and suffering in equal measure, and ever photograph is incredibly vivid. To think that this exhibition has been in my neighborhood and I’ve only seen it once is a shame.

I encourage you all to go look at some of his photographs if you can’t fly out to Rome tomorrow. I’d post some of the pictures I took, but I think that falls under copy right infringement.

Steve McCurry is one of my favorite photographers not only because of the beauty of his works, but because of the stories behind them. He is probably one of the reasons that I love travelling so much; the stories I’d read about his photos–stunning landscapes and portraits–made me think that they were beautiful, and the stories made me realize I had to see it for myself.

Even though I couldn’t make it to the museum for Cutura della Settimana, it was worth it.  One MACRO ticket: 10 euro. One photobook: 10 euro. The experience: priceless.