Study Abroad: The Italian Dream

Sabah Osmani is currently a sophomore in the 2014 cohort. She was kind enough to share about her adventures from when she studied abroad her freshman summer.

Pizza, gelato, gondolas, Ancient Rome, and the Pope! Well actually I didn’t get to see the Pope, but I hung out in his front yard, so that’s cool too.

I had always wanted to go to Italy, and this summer, I made my dream a reality. It was my first time leaving the country on my own, and the journey didn’t start out very smoothly. I had planned on flying from my hometown Roswell to Dallas, Dallas to Chicago, and then Chicago to Rome. I would have arrived early on a Saturday morning, and the school that I was going to be studying at was sending a shuttle to pick me and a few other students up. What ended up happening though was the flight from Roswell got cancelled, my mom drove me to Lubbock to catch a different flight, the flight in Lubbock got delayed which made me miss two different connections in Dallas, I finally got to Dallas, I missed my flight to Chicago, waited, got on another flight to Chicago, missed the flight to Rome, waited some more, got put on a flight to Germany, got to Germany, and arrived in the Rome airport almost 40 hours after I had left my house in Roswell. The other students were already in Perugia, the city about 100 miles north of Rome where I would be studying for the summer. Meanwhile, I was exhausted and alone in a hotel room in a foreign country. I could have gone to sleep early that night. A few hours later, though, another girl that would be studying in Perugia arrived in Rome from New York City. The university put us in a room together, and the shuttle was to pick both of us up in the morning. I could have gotten on the shuttle the school was sending for us early the next morning well rested and ready to go. I had been traveling for over almost 2 days, and I was exhausted, but my new friend was full of energy and ready to go. I could have gone to sleep early, but I was in Italy! And when in Rome…

And so began my Italian adventure.  Perugia is a small town filled with tight streets lined with shops, restaurants, and gelatarias. Over the next five weeks I experienced Perugia during the day and at

The view from my apartment in Perugia

night. I tried many different restaurants, ate dozens of flavors of gelato, and shopped at numerous Italian clothes boutiques. Twice a week, I attended a class from 3-6 called Italian Food and Culture. I, along with 10 other UNM students, read about the history of Italian culture and the origin of its food, while writing about our own personal experiences of it. We went to pastry shops, ate at restaurants, saw how cheese was made, and we even went horseback riding through a vineyard and did a wine tasting as one of our classes. I learned how to take these experiences and write them down with as much detail as I could. I described the flavors, sights, smells, sounds, and tastes. As my final project, I wrote a 12-
page paper about pizza. I wrote about where it came from, how it evolved, where it got its name, and how it ended up in America. It was the most fun exciting class I’ve ever taken. What made my experience this summer great, though, was not just my time in Perugia, but also all the weekend excursions.

I went somewhere each weekend. Since we only had class on Mondays and Wednesdays, there were four days each week for me to go wherever I wanted.

The first weekend, a friend and I went to Paris.  We stayed at her cousin’s apartment and met her cousin’s French boyfriend. He looked like your stereotypical French guy. He had black scruffy hair, wide eyes, and black thick-framed glasses. He said “zee” instead of “the” when he spoke English, and looked up and threw his head back when he laughed. He was so sophisticated; I thought for sure he and my friend’s cousin had met at the Louvre. They actually met on Tinder. 

I did end up going to the Louvre, though. I saw the Mona Lisa, went up the Eiffel Tower, visited the Palace of Versailles, and learned to hang on to my subway ticket to avoid being charged the equivalent of almost $50. Paris was enchanting.

The next week, I met up with my sister in Germany. I walked down alongside the Berlin Wall and went up the Television Tower overlooking the entire city. I then met up with my classmates from Perugia and we travelled to Southern Italy. I saw the ancient Ruins of Pompeii, ate at the first pizzeria in the world in Naples, and saw Bill Gate’s summer home at “the playground of the rich and famous”—Capri Island. I took a boat ride, tried Limoncello, and sat out in the sun for an entire day.

On the third weekend, I went to Geneva, Switzerland. I have an aunt and cousin who live there, so they took me out and showed me the green countryside of Gruyere, and the bustling streets of downtown Geneva. I had Swiss chocolate, cheese, and I got to see family that I haven’t seen in four years. I then got on a flight and flew from Geneva to Venice. My friend and I went on gondola rides, visited churches and museums, ate amazing food, and met some Italians! Venice was magical.

On the fourth weekend, my friend and I took a train up to the Cinque Terre in Northern Italy. We hiked along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and stopped at the quaint little towns along the way. We swam, sun bathed, and ate gelato.

Time flew by. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow between all the missed trains, stressful situations involving language barriers, and enjoying every minute of being that American tourist who takes a picture of everything she sees, I found myself in the final week of my Italian adventure. During the last week, my friend and I took a trip to Florence. We saw the David, climbed to the top of the Santa Maria Cathedral overlooking the entire city, and we walked along the river. That weekend, I packed my things, turned in my final paper, and said goodbye to Perugia. Hopefully not for the last time, though.

My last few days in Italy were spent in Rome. I visited the coliseum, the Roman Forum, and Vatican City. I went inside St. Peter’s Basilica, and saw where the Pope gives mass on Sundays.  I even stood in the same spot where Mark Antony gave his famous speech “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…”

           

I will always remember my time in Italy as one of the best times of my life. I learned so much about different cultures, foods, and people, but the most important thing I learned was to be independent. I learned how to communicate, how to navigate, and most importantly, not to panic when I missed flights and trains because stuff like that just happens sometimes.

If you ever get the chance, I hope you study abroad! And if you pick Italy, I promise you won’t regret it.  If anything do it for the gelato! I would go to Italy just for the gelato.

If you have any questions, you can contact Sabah at sosmani@unm.edu