Last Updated on June 4, 2013 by
Hello everyone! My name is Kara and I am going to be blogging about my trip to Florence this summer. A little bit about me: I go to a tiny school in Boston where I am majoring in Diagnostic Medical Sonography which is a super fancy way of saying Ultrasound Technician (don’t worry my dad still can’t pronounce it either). Before I transferred to my current college I was at Fairfield University where I started as a Business major, switched to a Communications major for about a month or two, and even an English major for a few weeks. Everyone changes their major a couple times right?
I had always planned to study abroad for a semester, but when I transferred from Fairfield to a school for health sciences, I thought I had to give up that dream. My major is an accelerated program in a medical field, so unless Florence was offering Abdominal Sonography and Sonographic Physics, I couldn’t go. This summer is the last time I will not be in school and I don’t exactly have a serious job yet so it’s the absolute perfect time.
When I was considering locations, I wanted somewhere I might not have another opportunity to go, while staying in Europe since it is so easy to travel to nearby countries. I was initially torn between Florence and Barcelona, but since my best friend is moving to Spain next year I figured I would be able to visit Barca soon enough. So that left me with Florence!
The program offers a three day stay in London at the beginning, a few days in Rome and a weekend in Venice so I will be able to visit a few other places in the short month that I am abroad.
There is usually a big Florence v. Rome debate and if you’re curious why I chose Florence over Rome it’s because the Rome trip runs in July and I have tickets to the Taylor Swift concert at Gillette Stadium and there is no way I could miss that.
But additionally, the liberal arts courses in Florence courses appealed to me and give me a break from all of the science classes I normally take. Since all of the my courses for my major are based on the American Health System and I don’t need any more transfer credits, I wanted to take something fun and interesting; so of course I am taking Culture and Style of Italy! Can you think of a better class to take while studying abroad? Me neither. Like most of the classes, every Friday is a field trip to learn about different aspects of Italian culture. Choosing a course was not an easy decision since some of the other classes offered were History of the Italian Mafia, History and Sociology of Italian Soccer, Italian Fashion and Painting. I challenge you to think of a more perfect place to paint a scene than Italy.
Hopefully this first post gives you a good idea of myself and why I am so excited to be going to Florence this summer!
Ciao, Kara
