Italy 2018

Three things I have learned this week: 1. Danish people are gorgeous. 2. Danish is a weird language that doesn't make any sense. 3. Denmark is truly "the happiest country on Earth". If you have never visited, I highly recommend it. This weekend I had the chance to visit the amazing city of Copenhagen, and it was worth every penny.  The travel to get there was crazy! My friend Ciara and I left Reggio after our morning Italian class. We literally ran to our apartment to do our last minute packing before boarding the first of many trains, planes, and busses. It took three trains, one airplane, and one bus, but we finally made it to Copenhagen.  The first thing we didn't think through or plan for, was the language barrier. By no means am I fluent in Italian or anything, but I can at least get by and kind of guess what people are saying. You can't do that with Danish. Danish is a mix of German and Swedish and has very few words that are similar to English. Some of ...

Ciao! Mi chiamo Ashley. Io sono Americana. Io sono studentessa di UNIMORE. Dove sei le toilette? Hi! My name is Ashley. I am American. I am a student at UNIMORE. Where is the bathroom? It has officially been two weeks since I moved to Reggio, and that's all the Italian I know. You would think I would have learned more in my 12+ hours of Italian class this week... but that is not the case. This week, was my first full week of classes in Italy. I am mostly taking Italian classes focusing on language, culture, and food. Fun fact: I learned that mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese are exactly the same cheeses. Made with the same ingredients, from the same animal, etc. The only difference is mozzarella is fresh and usually consumed within a couple of weeks of being made, while parmesan is preserved for 5-10 years before it's able to be consumed. Bet you didn't know that! This was one of our first weekends to travel outside Reggio. We took a class field trip to Bologna,...

Approximately three days ago, I jumped on a plane looking for an adventure. And well, I think I found it. This semester I am studying abroad in Reggio Emilia, Italy. "Reggio" as the locals call it, is a medium sized suburb of Bologna, Italy. It's a cute little town found in north central Italy between Florence and Milan. The region is known for their parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar, and luxury cars. You may have heard of a few of them... Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati... Anyway, Reggio is beautiful, everyone in my program is awesome, and my Italian is still nonexistent.  Our first stop in Reggio was to the local pizzaria, where we ate our weight in pizza, and finished the night with a traditional dessert consisting of sweet bread, cream, and melted chocolate. It was heavenly! We ended the night with a short tour of the city, and spent the night in the oldest hotel in the city.  The next morning we moved into our apartments; I am sharing a room with Emily, a ...