Rome

It was finally time to say goodbye to Spain and take advantage of the relatively cheap international travel in western Europe.  With the fact that I chose Spain for my study abroad program because I knew some Spanish prior, I was a little worried about going to countries where I did not know any of the language!  However, it really wasn't too bad.  Luckily, Lindsay had taken some Italian courses before so she knew the basics so that was extremely helpful.  She actually was able to hold an impressive conversation with the taxi driver when we got to Rome!

Our route of choice to Rome from Barcelona was by Ryan Air.  A word of advice too, they really are STRICT on their baggage weights!  No more than 55cm x 40cm x 20cm (21.6 in X 15.7 in x 7.8) and can only weigh 10 kilograms (or 22 pounds).  So, if you're taking a lengthy trip, as we were, that's a hard standard to meet!  Of course, people find all sorts of ways around this rule...

1) Wearing a pocket-vest and stuffing your pockets,
2) LAYERING (which is what we ended up doing...photos to come)
3) Simply just buy a stowaway, so you don't get charged a ridiculous amount if you are over 10 kilo (I'm taking a crazy fee, like more than the price of your plane ticket...)

So plan ahead if you're taking RyanAir!  Don't ruin your day by getting charged by not meeting the requirements.  Another thought:

If you're not a broke college student like us, and you would rather pay a little extra to have a more comfortable flight without so many restrictions, just go for a different airlines than RyanAir.

Anyways, this is what we ended up looking like on the plane to Rome:

Left:  Lindsay rocking 7 shirts
Right:  Jacque sporting 5 skirts and 2 shirts

Once we finally got our stowaway luggage to the exact kilo amount, our trip went quite smoothly after that.  The airport we flew into was about 50 minutes away from the heart of Rome, where we were staying: "Campo di Fiori".  I would recommend anyone to stay in Campo--it is within walking distance to all of the main tourist sites in Rome including:

-The Colosseum
-The Roman Forum
-The Trevi Fountain
-The Pantheon
-The Spanish Steps
-The Vatican (which is its own entity--so you can easily visit another country in walking distance!)
       Which includes:
        -The Sistine Chapel
        -St. Peter's Basilica
        -Vatican Musem
        -Services held by the Pope (every Wednesday)

From the airport, we took a bus (which is a pretty good deal as compared to taxi) to get to the Roma Termini station (main train station of Rome) and from there, we took a taxi to our Airbnb stay in Campo di Fiori.

We stayed in Rome for about a week, which was more than enough time to get all of the sight seeing done, so you could stay for less.  I would recommend at least 3 or 4 days so you're not exhausted from all of the navigating, walking, etc...

Firstly, we hit up the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.  You will notice that there are scads of tour guides (or Guidas in Italian).  Some are honestly just overpriced... but the closer you get to the colloseum, you will find tour guides that are registered to give tours of the Colosseum and Roman Forum that are decently priced (~25 EUR).  Having a tour guide who spoke English was a great idea.  It really enhanced by experience in visiting these infamous places.  The tour guides had great senses of humor and told very interesting stories about the sites.  I would definitely reccommend getting a tour guide for these two attractions.

The Colosseum

The Gladiator Stage inside the Colosseum

Part of the ruins of the Roman Empire Palace

Statue in the Forum

The Roman Forum

Preparation for Spain

I figured I would go ahead and start my first blog for my upcoming trip to Spain to study abroad.  Here I will include my research, to do lists, photographs, and entries for all things related to my trip.  I am hoping this will keep me organized for my trip as well as sharing with friends and family what I am doing in Spain.

I am studying in Madrid, Spain with an Affiliated Study Abroad program that has been doing academic abroad programs since 1950.  I will follow up with a review on the program after my trip.  My best friend, Lindsay, will be my roommate and we are hoping to take at least one class together (probably a Culture class).  She is majoring in International Relations so she has been taking far more languages than myself and her Spanish is at a more advanced level so we will most likely be in different Spanish classes.  She is planning on staying in Europe longer than I am but I'm glad to have her with me during the Summer!  I'm definitely anticipating this trip to be one of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. 

Up until now, I have applied to study abroad through my university in the states, renewed my passport, purchased a plane ticket (with much appreciated help from my and Lindsay's parents), and started this blog to start planning.  I am currently working on the Affiliate program's application as well as scheduling trips/activities do to while we are there.  I will be departing on Sunday May 19th and I am not sure when I will be flying back just yet--most likely early August.  The actual dates for the 2 classes I will be taking are from May 29th - June 29th I believe. 

[Note: This is also my first blog ever, so I am new to this whole blogging thing]