Back to the Good Life

Ciao, 

Mandy and I on a gondola in Venice, Italy.

Ernest Hemingway, a great American novelist, once said, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” From the beginning of this adventure my story always ended back home in Nebraska, but now that I have been home for about five days I still find my soul back in the beauty of Europe. Within just five weeks I was lucky enough to be able to travel to 1 U.S. state (North Carolina), 2 continents, 4 countries, and 10 cities. My dreams were finally made a reality and it couldn’t have been any better. I saw places I’ve always dreamed about, I visited sites I never even knew existed and I made friends with people that I never would have if it weren’t for this experience. All it took for me to have the summer of a lifetime was a dream, just enough money to survive and a plane ticket. After being home I’ve been able to reminisce on all my crazy adventures with my family and friends. It’s truly been a summer to remember from almost missing our ferry to Croatia, to kayaking in the Adriatic Sea, to clubbing it up in Prague, to getting lost in the streets of Milan, to making a wish at the Trevi Fountain and finally cruising through Venice in a gondola. All of these memories make me even more travel hungry than I already am.

The beautiful Trevi Fountain in Rome. Hopefully my wish will come true!

The Colosseum in Roma. 

Although my soul wishes for more adventure my heart couldn’t be happier to be back in the good life of Nebraska. My trip couldn’t have ended at a better time because since I’ve arrived home I’ve been able to celebrate America with all of the 4^th of July festivities. As I speak with others about my time across the pond I have really been able to appreciate America and realize how blessed I am to live in such an amazing country and state. Here in America we have many things to be grateful for and I would like to touch on two major reasons why. First of all, in the United States we are lucky enough to feel safe everyday. Once you step off the plane in Europe you are subject to their military roaming the perimeters with their hefty military weapons. I know they are placed there to make you feel safe and protected but it makes you think of the reasons why they need to be there. Europe military have been stationed more heavily at all travel stations due to events like the Paris attacks. Also, in America we don’t need to be as cautious about pit pocketers as the citizens in Europe do. It is nice to not have to keep my luggage and purse in front of me at all times anymore now that I am home. Secondly, the many freedoms we receive as American citizens. You may not realize it but as Americans it is a lot easier to travel across the globe than it is for others. It was easy for me to travel to many different countries in Europe, but I became aware by the Italians how difficult it is to enter the United States. Also, water at American restaurants is free where that is nearly impossible to find in Europe. Not only that but it costs to go to the bathroom in public areas in Europe. These were just a few of the big differences I found that we should be thankful for as Americans. As beautiful as the languages, people, and countries were in Europe I don’t think I could live anywhere else but the United States. Both Europe and America are beautiful in their own ways but I can’t express how excited I am to get back to taking gravel roads, helping out on the farm, tanking down the river, and enjoying some good ole American football. Like a wise person once said, “I never realized how much I like being home until I’ve been somewhere different for a while.”

Missing Italian gelato already.

Pace fuori Europa,

Lindsey Jo

Summer school is out for Summer!

Ciao da Venezia,

I write to you as I sit in my hotel room in the extraordinary city of Venice, Italy. As I sit here I am completely and utterly shocked as to how fast my education at IULM has gone. It has been 3 weeks since I stepped onto the IULM campus excited and nervous to take on these courses and now I am sad that it has come and gone so quickly. I learned so much within just 3 weeks. In case some of you are unaware I took 3 courses from IULM University in Milano, Italy. The three courses were intro to Italian, economics, and fashion and design.

Pictured above: Ilaria (IULM tutor - left) & Lindsey (right).

My first week of school we took intro to Italian and I absolutely loved it! Our teachers Filippo and Massimo were amazing teachers and people. They taught us basically everything we needed to in order to survive in Italy. For example they taught me “Come ti chiami?” which means what is your name? A basic response to this would be to say my name is Lindsey, translated “Mi chiamo Lindsey”. Another phrase I often used was “pesso avere…” meaning can I have… This phrase is often used when ordering at a restaurant. I learned a lot more Italian than I ever thought possible in one week. When practicing my Italian with locals I usually got told “bene” meaning good, but other times they would laugh because it can be difficult pronouncing their words correctly. Not only did I love learning and listening to the Italian language we really got to know and interact with our professors. They were so friendly and were very surprised at how interested our class was in their language and culture. Now that I have spent almost 5 weeks in this beautiful country the Italian language has become a part of my daily routine. I hardly notice when others speak Italian to me, but I will say that whenever I hear English speakers my attention directly turns to them. I’m nervous that once I stand on U.S. soil that I will forget and lose the Italian that I did learn but maybe that will give me motivation to continually practice and learn it through online apps or programs. You could definitely say Italian was my favorite course out of all three.

Lindsey posing with some Armani manikins.

After Italian we took economics with our professor Guido who was quite a funny guy! Guido took us on many little field trips throughout our course including the most popular fashion district in Milano that is home to the world’s most popular designers. During this little field trip I took enjoyment in examining the window displays and posing with some of the manikins. This fieldtrip was very helpful in becoming familiar with this area because in our fashion and design course we would need to visit one of these high-end retail stores. The last week of our studies at IULM we took fashion and design. This course was very interesting and relatable since I work with the buyers at Buckle Corporate Office. During this course we were assigned a popular designer to research and present on and mine was Valentino. Valentino is a worldwide brand with over 90 stores across the country. In our course we had to examine and study the stores of which we were assigned. My group had to go visit the Valentino flagship store, which was located in the same area that Guido took us during our field trip. When entering the store I immediately felt out of place. This is a store where the lowest price merchandise is worth thousands of dollars and I walked in with my Roo, flip-flops and a sundress. Luckily the staff at Valentino was very welcoming and loved sharing the history behind the man who built the Valentino empire. Hopefully my new found appreciation for haute couture will lend itself some help when returning back to the Buckle and my job.

Field trip with the entire class.

I just want to thank my classmates, our tutor Ilaria, and the staff at IULM for such a great experience. I didn’t expect for the locals to be so welcoming and friendly and without them my experience wouldn’t have been nearly as great as it was. With only two days left in this magical country I am going to take in and savor every moment because who knows if I will every get a chance to come back again. Until next week my friends, God bless!

Buona notte,

Lindsey Jo

Wake Up, It's Adventure & Coffee Time

Ciao,

Our Italian friend Matteo who we explored Prague with.

A wise individual once said, “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” Over the past year I have learned a lot about not only myself but also life in general. It has been almost a year since I lost a close friend of mine, Brady Wakefield. Ever since Brady’s passing I have realized how quickly life can pass you by and from that moment I promised myself to live life to the fullest and that included studying abroad. I hate that it took something like that to convince myself to follow my dreams and travel overseas but as I sit here embracing the Italian culture I couldn’t be more thankful for this experience. I have been overseas for almost 4 weeks now and have already traveled to 3 countries including Italy, Croatia, and the Czech Republic. It is so surreal that I only have a week left of this experience, but already looking back at what the past few weeks have entailed I have learned so much about traveling, languages, and the daily life of the locals.

Is Harry Potter in Italy?!

            Before my journey to Italy began I had my preconceived thoughts and opinions about the Italian people and their culture. After living here for 4 weeks I have learned more about the people and culture than I ever could have imagined. Like the U.S., Italians hold a special place for coffee in their hearts. Although we have this in common it is also so different all at the same time. For example, I have hardly seen anyone order anything else besides a cappuccino and espresso. They don’t have the blended coffee that we have at Starbucks or Scooters. Even though it isn’t illegal I learned that it is highly frowned upon to order anything but an espresso in the evening. In the US we are used to being able to order anything we want whenever we want, for example, McDonald’s breakfast at anytime of the day. This is one aspect that has stuck out to me here in Italy.

            Another part of daily life that exists in the Italian culture is the break during the middle of the day. I realized this when I tried to go get Pizza during the middle of the afternoon to find that the majority of businesses close for a few hours before opening back up again for the evening. Unlike Wal-Mart, hardly anything here is open for 24 hours. 

            This entire experience has made me fall even more in love with the Italian culture and way of life, but one aspect that consumes the lives of the Italians is something I despise. Smoking everywhere and anywhere is a habit over here. Although I have been exposed to smoking it has never been like this. The majority of the locals smoke anytime they have a few free minutes. When walking to class a large portion of the IULM students relax outside and have a smoke with their friends. Although I understand this is a part of their culture and lifestyle I personally don’t care for it at all. Besides this small difference I have had such a positive experience with the locals. I have made friends with the workers at a small bakery called Mama Cakes across the street from where we reside. They are some of the most sincere and caring people I have met, and it is always nice to get a free cookie or croissant every once in a while.

            As much as the architecture and country captivate me my experience wouldn’t be anything without my interactions with the locals. So my advice to you is to talk and get to know the locals, they are the only ones who can truly teach you the Italian way of life!

UNK students explore the Navigli (canal district) in Milano.

Conta le tue benedizioni,

Lindsey Jo

I said, "Welcome to Italy, It's been waiting for me!"

Ciao,

Someone once said, "It's better to see something once, than to hear about it a thousand times!" This quote completely sums up my study abroad experience thus far. Throughout my lifetime I have known those who have taken the amazing journey of traveling abroad as well as seeing it through the movie screens, but to experience it first hand is unexplainable. My study abroad adventure began quite a while ago on May 24th, 19 days ago to be exact. The plane rides went very smoothly and I got to meet and talk with a lot of interesting people. My journey began in Omaha where me and my close friend from freshmen year, Mandy Cormaci, took off for Milan, Italy. From Omaha we landed in Charlotte, North Carolina where we hopped on our connecting flight to London, England. Once arriving in England it didn't feel much different until I entered the bathrooms. Never in my life had I seen such odd toilets. This was the biggest surprise for me! To flush I had to press a big round button on the wall. Isn't that weird? Mandy and I were quite drained from our 8 hour flight, but to find such strange toilets gave us a little comic relief and energy before getting on our next plane ride to Milan, Italy. I can't tell you what a relief it was to get to our destination safely and on time.

Since Mandy and I decided to come to Europe almost 2 weeks before our actual program began we had booked a hostel to stay at for our first night. The hostel provided us with very detailed directions on how to get from the Linate Airport to Koala Hostel. This was my first time in a hostel so I was a little suspicious and had no idea what to expect but it went great! We met so many interesting people from all around the world including the U.S., England, Australia, and Germany. I was so intrigued by their lifestyles, their culture, their food, their language, but most importantly their accents! We stayed up late discussing our very own lifestyles as well as the places we have visited and planned on visiting. Many of the individuals we met introduced us to useful apps we would need during our time abroad as well as shared their Facebook pages, Instagrams, and Snapchats. The next day Mandy and I decided to just go roam around the streets of Milan and get use to the place we would soon be calling our home. We had no idea what we were doing or what we had gotten ourselves into but we were thrilled to see what this trip had in store for us! While walking around we finally realized the difficulty of having a language barrier. We wouldn't always know if we were heading in the right direction so we would stop to ask somebody but hardly anyone spoke English. This was a huge learning curve but it definitely made us better at following directions and navigating ourselves with just a paper map! Yes Mom and Dad, I used an actual map to get from point A to point B! Are you proud? Haha! After spending a day in Milan, accidentally ending up in the town center, and eating our first Italian Pizza from the popular restaurant Spontini we headed to Croatia for our first Dreamtrips experience.

Croatia may have been the highlight of my trip thus far! We traveled to the Island of Korcula where we stayed in a 4-star hotel right on the water. The Adriatic Sea was the bluest and most clear water I have seen in my life and it really got me excited for this whole study abroad experience. In Korcula we were lucky enough to be able to lay out by the sea, go kayaking in the Adriatic Sea, take a walking tour through the old city of Korcula (Where supposedly Marco Polo was born), go on a semi-submarine (And no it wasn't yellow it was red), as well as take a half-day river boat cruise around 20 islands off of Croatia. Although all these events were amazing my most favorite part of our trip was making some new very close friends from Romania. Within just 5 days we became so close to our Romanian friends Coman, André, and Cristian. We did absolutely everything together and they taught us so much about their way of life and their language. I am proud to say not only have I learned some Italian but also some Romanian! These friends became so close that we still talk to them everyday and sometimes facetime. They are hoping to come visit us in America very soon. Thank you Croatia for the beautiful views, scenery, and activities but most importantly for introducing me to new friends.

Before leaving for Italy and my whole study abroad excursion people kept telling me to keep to myself and not talk to anyone, which I completely understand why but how are you suppose to immerse yourself into this lifestyle and culture by not talking to any of the locals? That is the biggest thing I have learned so far, don't be afraid to talk to the locals! That is exactly how I made such great friends in Croatia and how I found out where I needed to go sometimes. Although you need to be careful about who you talk to don't let it hold you back either because you never know who you could meet!

With that said I don't want anyone to get bored or annoyed by my long blog but I do have one piece of advice before I head off on my next adventure!
Advice #1: Keep your cellphone in a safe place and always right in front of you! Because if you set it somewhere for a second or if you keep it in a cardigan pocket there are some terrible people who will pit pocket you and steal your new cellphone. I'm talking from experience here people!

Until next time!

Arrivederci,
Lindsey Jo