Florence, Day 1

The flight from Zurich to Florence was less smooth than the Chicago-Zurich leg, but thankfully, uneventful. The flight was delayed due to mechanical difficulties, but we made it without a problem. Plus we got to board and deplane on the tarmac — exciting. Other good news: the flight attendants kept giving us real Swiss chocolate. Yum. (Swiss airlines, people. The seats were nice and the chocolate was amazing.

The Florence airport is maybe as big as Green Bay's "international" airport (and less pleasant-looking), but I managed to collect all my baggage and go through customs (a hallway marked "nothing to declare" and NO ITALY STAMP IN MY PASSPORT! *upset face*). I hailed a taxi (in very broken Italian, but Italian nonetheless!), rode into town and go to Hotel Duca D'Aosta. After figuring out the elevator (which is like those really old fashioned elevators in the movies, with two sets of doors to close), I finally got my stuff to my room on the 4th floor and proceeded to nap for 2 hours. Hurray for jet-lag. 

After my nap, I hunted down the other 5 ACM students in the hotel and the 6 of us hung out for the rest of the night. We went to dinner at a "Grillo Ristorante Pizzeria" and had margherita pizza and split a bottle of wine, toasting Italy and the semester. 

After dinner, we walked to the Duomo and took pictures, walked around the square and back to the hotel, drooling over gelato all the way.

Now to bed! But here's a stock picture of the Duomo, until such a time when I can add my own.

Update from Zurich!

It is August 31 and I am currently sitting in the waiting area for my terminal at “Flughafen Zuirch” (the Zurich Airport) and feeling pretty worldly-wise for using my “Visit Oslo” pen in Switzerland en route to Italy. Ah, the perks of traveling.

Zurich’s airport is slightly overwhelming — I got off the plane and went through security, an airport train, customs, and then a bit of a hike to get to my current seat in the waiting area. They’ve got it set up so that all passengers for gates 50-60 (or so) are corralled in one waiting area and when their flight is ready to board, you’re supposed to head downstairs to the actual gate. Thankfully, my layover is long enough that I had no problem getting all the way across the airport. The plan was to email Mom and Dad now and let them now I had made it safely to Zurich, however the internet is not free… guess that means people will have to wait to find out if I make it to Florence in one piece.

It was still dark when my flight landed in Zurich, but it’s lightening up now. I can see mountains a little way off, though they’re probably just considered hills (since none are very big).

On the flight here, I was moved from my original seat at the request of a dad traveling with two young kids). Weird story: the seat assignment on my ticket put me next to the dad and separated him from one of his kids. I switched with the kid so that their family could sit together (a no-brainer, in my mind). However the dad decided once I sat down that he was entitled to all four seats in the middle of the plane so that his kids could stretch out and sleep. While that’s fine, I would think that one would then purchase all four seats rather than try to kick someone else out of their rightful seat. But clearly that’s thinking things through too much. So he asked one of the flight attendants if I could switch to a different seat (which I was a little confused about, but if it got me farther away from the crazy, I was willing to go). Thankfully there was a window seat open one row back. I ended up next to a very talkative man on his way to a conference. He wanted to know anything and everything about me (while I was only willing to share a little) and then told me all about himself. Apparently he does bio-medical research at the University of Chicago. I ended up turning my seat’s TV on just to avoid more talking! But that turned out well, since I watched “Brave” and “Hysteria” (which was really quite funny).

Q & A Session!

You asked, I answered. Well, tried to answer.

So what exactly are you doing?

In about twelve days, I’ll be flying to Italy for three months for a study abroad program called “Florence: Arts, Humanities, & Culture.” Study abroad has been a dream of mine for a quite a while (just ask my parents, who patiently sat through many meetings with college admissions counselors where I grilled said counselors on study abroad options).

Is this a Coe program?

Nope! The semester I’m doing is through the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, a consortium of liberal arts colleges that collaborate mostly for study abroad programs, like the one I’m attending in Florence.

Are you the only one going?

No I am not! There are plenty of other people who have also signed up for the ACM Florence program — I believe it’s about 29 people total, including one other girl from Coe.

Where are the other people coming from?

Other ACM schools! I’m not sure of the breakdown yet (mostly because I haven’t met anyone face to face), but the majority of the students I’ll be with this semester are from other smaller, liberal arts colleges located in the Midwest. 

What exactly are you doing there?

Well, studying. And eating. And traveling. I’m there to learn and to soak up the culture. I plan on traveling as much as I can, so that I can see as much as I can, but I will have classes and a full semester’s workload. Also, I plan to eat my weight in pasta.

Do you know what classes you’ll be taking?

Right off the bat, I’ll be taking an Italian language class. That class will continue for the whole semester (at which point I hope to be able to stumble through a conversation with random people on the street). In October, I’ll start three other classes (so I’ll have four classes total). I’m taking “The Early Medici as Patrons of the Arts,” “Power, Protection, and Commerce: Divine Figures in Early Renaissance Florence,” and “Patronage, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Florence.” Yes, I’m a little too excited.

Are you only studying with those people or is this through a larger university in Florence?

I’m sure I’ll run into other students studying abroad in Florence, but the only people in my classes will be the other ACM students (those other 28 people I talked about before). Our school is an ACM site, not a larger college or university in Florence, and we’ll be spending our class time there and “in the field” — getting the full Florence experience.

How did you decide on Florence?

For as long as I can remember I have loved classical civilizations; in college, my “specialty” has become ancient Rome. Where better to study the Romans than in Italy? Plus, let’s be honest, think about all that food… why wouldn’t I choose Florence? Kidding, of course (but not completely). I am excited to go though; the artwork, the architecture, the history, the culture, and, yes, the food — what’s not to like?

What was the process of actually getting into the Florence program?

First I had to discuss things with the study abroad coordinator at Coe. Then I had to apply at Coe for approval to study abroad (with a December deadline). After being approved to study abroad, I then had to apply to the actual ACM program. After I was accepted to that, I began the paperwork for both Coe and the ACM — logistical work, mostly — and now here I am! Twelve days away from living the dream. (If you’d like to hear more about this process, please contact me and I’d be happy to share more details with you.)

Are you going to be staying just in Florence?

I’ll be staying with a host family in Florence, so, yes I’ll be living there and spending most of my time there. However, we’re taking some groups trips (to Rome and places like that) and a number of us students are talking about traveling around Italy together. It promises to be an adventure-filled semester!

Are your parents coming to visit you?

No. They don’t love me that much.

But seriously, I’ve asked them not to visit — this is still school for me. While it’d be really cool to share some of this experience with them, this is 100% for me. Thankfully, I have great parents who respect me and (most of) my wishes, and they’ve told me that they’re happy to let me have this adventure all to myself.

Do you plan on snagging an Italian guy while you’re there?

For the sake of my dad, I’ll say ‘no’ to this one. You’re welcome, Dad. Honestly though, I’m more excited about the food than I am the men. This should come as no surprise to those of you who have met me.

What Italian phrases are you going to learn to keep Italian men away from you?

Thanks to my Free Kindle Italian Phrasebook, I’ve already learned to say “leave me alone” (“mi lasci sola”), “don’t touch me” (“non mi tocchi”), and, in case things get really bad, “I’ll call the police” (“chiamo la polizia”). Best free download I’ve gotten yet.

How are you going to pack three months worth of stuff into one suitcase? Is that even possible?

The short answer: I’m not sure. At all. The long answer: my inimitable packing skills will be put to the test. The plan is to pack a suitcase within a suitcase so that I might be free to shop (it’s a rough life I lead). My family keeps pushing for this plan, but I think it may be because I’m coming home right before Christmas…. Jury’s still out.

I’m getting down to the wire. Twelve days! The next post will probably deal with my packing extravaganza, but if you have questions that I haven’t addressed here, put them in a comment and I’ll do my best to fill you in.

Calling All Questions!

It's now only 27 days until I leave for Florence. WOW. I can hardly believe it. In looking through my blog, I realized that I haven't exactly been very clear on what I'll be doing in Florence this coming semester.

So here's what I'm going to do about that. 

Send me your questions. Put them in a comment below or (if you have my contact information), send me an email or shoot me a text. My next post will be a sort of Q&A session, where I'll answer all the questions I've gotten about my upcoming semester. I've already got some but I'm looking for more, so put your thinking caps on!

Until then, check out this picture of Florence. Use it as inspiration. Drool over it. Do your thing.

Homeward Bound

*originally written 7/5*


I woke up at 3:00 this morning. Uff da.

We took the 4:10 Flybussen to the Oslo airport, where I outmaneuvered all of the crowds and got us a good spot in the bag check line. The line for security, however, is a mile long (at 5am? WHY?!), but I maintain my perfect record for never having gone through the body scan machines or being pulled for a search. We have a while to wait before our flight at 7:30, so Mom and I hunt down a Norwegian-French bakery for pain au chocolat and a chai latte. The flight from Oslo to Stockholm is uneventful - except for when my left eardrum seems to pop and I go temporarily deaf. Also, fully erupted wisdom teeth and a bad cold plus flying do not appear to mix well, as the entire left side of my face is in intense pain.

In Stockholm, we sailed through Customs and then checked in for our flight to Chicago (at which point the guy at the desk annoys me by giving me directions for a form we didn't know existed, but is only required for American citizens, entirely in Swedish. Really? I look that Scandinavian?). Then the lady who checked me in asked if I'd voluntarily defer to a later flight, since ours was apparently overbooked, in exchange for which they'd give me $675. While the idea of $675 sounds great, I was tired and confused and still in a good bit of pain, so I told her I'm wasn't sure. I then talked it over with my parents and we decided that $675 plus a short layover in Munich doesn't sound so bad. Mom and I go up to the desk and volunteer all four of us. They ended up not needing us to switch flights, but as a thank you they told us they've changed our seat assignments... from God knows where in Economy to 1A, 1B, 1D, and 1E... first class! That's right. Free upgrade to row 1 of first class and Holy Olav was it amazing. We collectively spent the first hour of the flight in hysterics, taking pictures of everything, and repeating "we're in first class!" Total kid in the candy shop experience.

The moment we sat down, the stewardess arrived with a tray of orange juice, water, and what I thought was apple juice. My mistake - it turned out to be a 2005 Henriot Champagne. Oh well. About an hour and a half into the flight, the stewardess came by again, this time with linen tray table clothes, a hot towel, and our snack (our choice of elk sausage or cashews). Next came our first course: a green leaf salad with Italian balsamic vinegar and oil dressing, organic bread (still hot), and a plate of Swedish bleak roe (caviar), crème fraîche, dill, Caprin and Ädla cheeses, and cloudberry preserves. Once the food was down, the wine came around. I opted for a glass of 2010 Falanghina Beneventano IGT, a white wine made from a grape that was apparently a favorite of the ancient Romans (how could I resist?).

Next came our main course: I chose a pork filet (so tender!) with roasted potato wedges and sugar snap peas, in a barbecue sauce. Mom and Dad had turkey breast, mashed potatoes, and asparagus in a cream sauce, while Peter had fried cod (the best, outside of Alaska, he says), rice pilaf with mushrooms and vegetables, gremolata, and garlic butter. We're still not entirely sure what gremolata is.

After we were already fit to burst, they brought us dessert: Torta di Mele (an apple tart), ice cream, fruit salad, and the accompanying drinks (Port and Cognac). Every last bit of it was delicious. Dad asked the chef wheeling the tray if she had baked the tart herself and she replied, "of course! Just this morning!" Ok then. I think my favorite moment of the flight came when Mom leaned over to me, halfway through dessert, and said, with this mixture of glee and disbelief, "we're getting buzzed. Over Greenland." Yes, 37,000 feet above Greenland, we Heglands were having a once in a lifetime experience.

Now came the time for a nap. I pulled out the sleep mask from my "comfort kit" (which they given us pre-hot towel), hit the recline and massage buttons on my chair and proceeded to have the best three hour nap of my life. On a plane. Not only is this mind-boggling, but it made me realize that flying to Florence next month is going to suck.

When I woke up, I journaled and read for a while (all with that nice massage feature going) then listened to music until the flight attendants brought our pre-landing meal around. This time we were served venison with a mushroom, carrot, and beetroot salad, crème fraîche, and a fruit salad. Oi vey. I felt mildly under-dressed and under-cultured the entire time, but oh was it worth it.

All in all, best flight I have ever had. It also allowed me to cross an item off my bucket-list: to sit first class on an international flight. Try not to hate me too much.

Update from Sweden!

*originally written 6/25*

I'm currently sitting at gate 10A in the Stockholm airport. The flight from Chicago was uneventful (a good thing methinks), hopefully the flight to Bergen in three hours will be just as uneventful! I only slept for about an hour - try as I might, my brain wouldn't shut down, plus the kid behind me was determined to poke his video screen into submission. I managed to hunt down a Starbucks in the airport here and bought some iced iced chai for mom and me (99 SEK, so about $14.... still worth it). The caffeine has helped or at least being in a relatively airy, well-lit airport terminal is keeping me awake (for now!).

Sweden, from what I can see, is pretty - although it's currently raining (read: it's a downpour). Everything is still very green and fresh looking. Swedish is also a very pretty language; however if I'm not careful it might put me to sleep!

Sweden from the airport!

On another note: mom, dad, and I came up with a new tongue twister after seeing a specialty product in the airport store... "Swedish fish sauce." Its much more difficult than it would at first seem.
More once we reach Bergen!

Two More Days!

In forty-eight hours, I will be on a plane on my way to Norway. The immediacy hasn’t really sunk in yet. On the one hand, I’m totally aware that I’m two days away from the family reunion trip of a lifetime; on the other hand, it doesn’t seem real yet. I’ve been talking to my brother about packing (I’m almost done, he hasn’t started), to my dad about passports, hiking, and the location of the only Starbucks in Oslo, and to my mom about what clothes we should bring, but it all seems very detached. I’m talking about it, but I’m not living it yet. Well, in two days I will be and the more I remind myself of that, the more excited I get.

Look out, Norway: we’re coming at you.

Food for Thought

It’s now seven days until I leave for Norway and I’m thinking about food. Living on campus for part of this summer, having my own apartment (with a kitchen!), and being responsible for my own meals has made me look at food differently. I’ve always really liked food. I enjoy cooking with my mom, I like sitting down at a table and eating with my family — I just really like food. Food was a central part of my childhood; my parents never had any problem inviting people over for dinner, bringing meals to those in need, or swapping favorite recipes with those around us. Rather than buying overly processed foods, my mom makes her own soups, spaghetti sauce, baked goods, and desserts. My dad makes the best from-scratch hamburgers I’ve ever eaten. It’s important to my family to have set times where we know we’ll be sitting down and eating a full meal together. The process of cooking food and bringing meals to the table has always been equated to love. Food brings people together and one of the ways we show our love for others is through food.

Feeding myself has reminded me how important food really is. More than showing love for others through the act of cooking or giving food, eating good food is a way to love yourself. The past month and a half have shown me just how critical it is to love yourself. Other people may come and go in your life, but you must always love, value, and respect yourself. No one can do that for you. Eating food that fills, comforts, and nourishes you is one way to love your body. Your body is something that you’re stuck with for your whole life, so you might as well treat it the right way. Give it the fuel it needs in order to get through the day. Give it the food that you love when you are in need of comfort. And give it the healthy food that will help you be the strongest “you” that you can be.

But that’s enough, for now, about loving yourself.

When I have traveled abroad in the past, it has been in a class setting. I’ve had professors telling me what to expect when we get there, for everything from what the hotel will be like, to what parts of the city we should see, to what museums we will be visiting. When we’ve reached our destination, I’ve made it a point to try as many “native” foods as possible, whether I like them or not. In London, this meant eating fish and chips, despite the fact that I really don’t like breaded, fried fish. In Paris, I savored fresh crepes and choked down steak tartare (a memory my parents still tease me about and they weren’t even there). In Puerto Rico (though it’s not exactly “abroad”), I lived off of rice, chicken, and plantains. In Serbia, I ate as much palacinke, pljeskavica, and kajmak as humanly possible. But in Norway, I don’t know quite what to expect. I don’t really feel unprepared (it’s impossible to feel unprepared when you travel with my dad, the king of travel itineraries), but it’s a very different kind of preparation from the May Term traveling I’ve done. I know what we’re doing, but not what to expect. Recently, my thoughts about what to expect have shifted to what foods to expect and what foods I’m going to try. I’m really curious about what foods we’ll get to eat at our family reunion, since I know relatively little about the food in Norway. Traditional Norwegian foods like kringla and lefse were a staple of my childhood (kringla more so than lefse, since it’s ridiculously difficult to make your own lefse) but I’m excited that I get to experience these foods the way they’re meant to be experienced. (Sorry Mom: your kringla’s good, but I’m ready to try it the real Norwegian way.) In seven days, I’m going to get off that plane and hunt down some lefse.  It’s going to be awesome.

Dreams

I’ve been thinking about dreams a lot lately. Dreams are, in my mind, the fuel that feeds the fire inside you. Without dreams, we would wander aimlessly. We would be lost and without purpose. I really like a quote I found recently, from Anais Nin, a French author: “dreams are necessary to life.” I have plenty of dreams and I know I’ll have plenty more, but for now I feel incredibly lucky to be so close to living one of them. It’s also a very humbling experience; I had to put a lot of work in to make this dream come true and I had a lot of help along the way. I feel like I can never thank my parents, my professors, or my friends enough, for reading countless drafts of application essays, for talking to me about what I really wanted out of a study abroad experience, for giving me as many letters of recommendations as I asked for, without a second thought. I have thanked them all in person many times, but somehow that’s never seemed sufficient to me. So, if you helped me on this journey to living my dream of studying abroad I will say it once again: thank you. I greatly appreciate everything you have done for me and the only way I can think to thank you any more is to let you read this and hope that through reading it, you’ll live my dream too. But your dreams are not my dreams and my dreams are not your dreams. They never will be. Yet dreams can be shared. They will not mean the same thing to everyone (they can’t!), but they can —and should! — be shared with those you care about. The people you care about (and who care about you) can support you along your journey, through the rough patches, through the smooth sailing; they can comfort you when things don’t go exactly right and rejoice with you when you reach your goal. Dreams are meant to be shared. If you don’t share them, I don’t think you can ever hope to fully achieve them or truly enjoy them.

And so as I begin to live one of my dreams, I wanted to take a moment to stop and think about the people, near and far, who have helped me on this path to studying abroad, who have believed in me even as I stressed out and was convinced I’d never be accepted to the ACM program, and who are now just as excited as I am. I love each and every one of you in very different, very special ways and I am so blessed to have you in my life. Now go live your dreams. If you share them with me, I will support you the whole way there, just as you have supported me. Remember, dreams are necessary to life.

The Countdown Begins!

In eleven short days, I’ll be leaving for Norway. Then I come back home for my summer internship. Then, in an agonizing 80 days, I head off for a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. Traveling has always been a dream of mine. When I was visiting colleges and talking with admissions counselors, study abroad was a big priority. Now, four years later, I’m finally getting to live that dream.

First up, the unexpected trip: Norway. I had never ever thought I’d go to Norway. Not that I was or am opposed to the idea, it just hadn’t ever crossed my mind. But now that I’m going (with my family, nonetheless), I’m very excited. Norway represents a lot of untapped family history, a whole big section of my heritage with which I am unfamiliar. I’m hoping that this trip will expose me to a wealth of knowledge about my ancestors pre-migration to the fabled Land of Opportunity. I think Norway also represents a chance for me to center myself. A lot has happened in my life in the past two months — good and not so good — so I’m hoping that disappearing into the Norwegian countryside with my family will help get me back on track. I’m feeling the need for some fresh air, sunshine, and the unfamiliar. While there’s comfort in going home and being around the things you’ve always known, it’s also good to go and spend some time in a new place. It makes you think and assess and reassess and appreciate things.

Then it’s back to the familiar, which I also need. I want nothing more right now than to go home and cuddle with my cats. Honestly. That’s the top item on my priority list. I’m also getting excited for my internship. As far as I know, I’ll be interning in the education and programming department at my local public museum. While I’m not sure what exactly I want to do when I graduate in May, I do know that I love museums and that I am passionate about non-classroom education. As someone who was home-schooled up til college, I spent many a field trip in a museum, which shaped me as a student and as a person. But this is bigger than just home-schooling. I believe that children learn A LOT from out of classroom experiences — experiences that museums can give them. Museums allow kids to explore their interests in ways that are both entertaining and easily accessible to all learning types. However, I also think a lot of people ignore the role that museums have the potential to play. Since learning in a museum setting was such a big part of my upbringing, it’s important to me to give kids similar experiences, no matter what their educational background. I’m thankful that, as important as this is to me, I get to spend part of my summer learning more about museum education and actually applying that information in a real-world setting.

Finally, at the end of August, I jet set off to Florence, where I’ll be living and studying until mid-December. I’ll be learning Italian, doing a home-stay with a host family, eating everything I can get my hands on, taking three other elective courses, and traveling as much as I can. More will be posted about the Florence trip once I have more information. At this point, I’ve done just about everything that I can: I’ve submitted all my paperwork, applied for my student visa from the Italian Consulate, sent in my housing form so that I can be matched with a host family… there’s nothing else I can do! So for now, I just have to sit and wait. This is the hardest part about the whole process for me. I have always disliked not knowing what’s going on and being unable to control things, so the waiting game kills me. I like to have everything planned out and know what’s going on, so when I’m completely out of control, I tend to get a little antsy. This summer, I’m trying to get myself used to the fact that I cannot control everything. Obviously. However, this is really difficult for me. So I have to work really hard to not attempt to fix every little perceived problem in my life. If you know me, you’ll know that I’m very driven and pretty darn efficient, so when I set my mind to something, it’ll usually happen. But I’m realizing that I can’t fix everything. Like I said, this is very difficult for me. It’s not a fun process. So in a way, playing the waiting game with all this information on Florence is good for me. It’s a stepping-stone — a small problem that I’m actually totally ok with not being able to fix or rush. This is one small step for mankind, one giant leap for me.