Ciao a tutti!
I am writing this from the depths of week 8 of exam season. Week 8. Luckily my exam season is 9 weeks long so the end is in sight!
Having been chained to one desk or another for most of the last few weeks, my news is not up to its usual level of Exciting. However, I can now give you an insight into the study set up of La Sapienza university, in case you are planning on coming here for an Erasmus year. Continue reading
So with the end of January comes the end of my first semester at Heidelberg, which has been incredible – seriously though, what an absolutely mammoth semester, full of surprises and experiences that I will treasure for the rest of my life!
This post will be divided into two simple parts, both of which I hope have some practical (if a rather nostalgic) benefit: firstly, how to deal with the end of the semester academically, and secondly, how to deal with it emotionally… Continue reading
Yesterday (31st January) I went to the Vatican Museums because they have free entry on the last Sunday of the month.
Waking up at what felt like the crack of dawn (it was really 7am but STILL), I met up with my friends and travelled on the metro to Ottaviano, the stop closest to the Vatican. By the time we all got there and met up (Italians usually consider 40 minutes late as ‘still on time’) it was 9am and we were panicking at the length of the queue. The queue stretched all the way around the walls of the Museum and down towards the arches to St. Peter’s Square! All in all, it took us the best part of 2 hours to get to the front of the queue, including a heated argument with a couple who tried to queue jump after we’d spend 80 minutes waiting in line.
The wait was absolutely worth it though. We spent a good few hours wandering around the Museums and finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. Photos of the ceiling were banned, as was talking and standing still. There were security guards at the front who repeated into microphones “NO PHOTO. NO STOP. SILENCE PLEASE.” over and over again.
Rather than explain the trip in great detail, I think a few beautiful pictures of the statues will suffice.
View from one of the windows in the Museums over Rome
December has been a pretty full month, what with the end of Michaelmas term, Christmas preparation, and the Pope (see more below!).
A beautifully sunny December’s day
Hello there again 🙂
This update is coming to you a little later than I had intended – but more about that in the *next* post! – but here I’m going to tell you all about my birthday weekend!
My birthday was something that I had been worrying about before I came to Rome. This year I celebrate my 21st birthday, a universally accepted Big One. The thought of being away from my friends, away from my family, and in a new city really bothered me. What do they do in Italy for birthdays? Will there be anywhere fun to go and celebrate? Well, when 17th November rolled around, I got a chance to find out. Continue reading
Exams Schmams – No wait I mean study study study
Sorry it has been a while – I’ve been busy with my job, my exams, and party but not too much party because of job and exams. But just a little party.
This month I’ll try and make up for my recent lack of blogs with one that’s actually filled with useful information about studying in Aarhus. Information such as housing information, courses information and city information and not information about bees. Not even a single fact about the declining rate of bee population in Denmark (at 20.2% over winter), and that Denmark is actually home to 150,000 bee hives. Nothing like that. Continue reading
Ciao belli!
So much has happened in the last few weeks that I can see this taking up several blog posts! I’ve also got a few posts saved on my laptop, they’ve just all built up over the hectic last few weeks – they’re coming soon, never fear. I think it’s best to put everything under separate headings and dive right in… Continue reading
So, I ended my last post with the line:
‘On the 12th Oct, term begins, so I hope to make the post a bit more academically focused!’
Well, work has started and it’s pretty good, if not always plain sailing.
When I decided to write a blog about my Year abroad, I did so with the intention that I would write the blog that I would want to read, i.e. not a just funny, quirky anecdotes-stuffed, gap-yah style year abroad blog… Rather, I hope that this blog has been so far entertaining and funny, but for this post at least, we turn now towards the serious aspects of studying abroad…
Some fun & crazy pictures are interspersed throughout to make this article a bit more readable… Continue reading
“Seven weeks have flown faster than Smaug and I have already immersed myself in the life of a new university which is vastly different to Durham.”
This blog for me is a diary – a chance to document my adventures from the year in as much detail and embellished grandeur as they deserve. I would draw comparison to myself and Bilbo Baggins, though my feet are not hairy enough to be those of a hobbit, it certainly isn’t my 111th birthday, and I don’t possess a ring of immense power. Continue reading
This update is coming to you from an apartment WITH WIFI! Can you believe it?! We had the wifi installed bright and early one Thursday morning, a whole month after I first arrived here, and by that time I was desperate to have internet back. Not just for the social media and contact with the world, but also because it’s near on impossible to navigate around a city you’ve never been to if you’re a) without a map and b) without internet. Continue reading
Durham Students Abroad 