Home is now behind you, the world is ahead.

            I’ve read a lot of blogs from students traveling abroad, and the most common way to start is to write an entire post about how stressful packing is. But I can do you one better: I’m less than a week away from flying off to Italy, and I haven’t started packing at all. Really. My suitcases are completely empty. This might have something to do with the fact that even though by this time next week I’ll already be lulled to sleep by the sound of mopeds screaming past my window, it still doesn’t seem real to me. Studying abroad for a semester has been such a distant dream for so long that I can barely wrap my mind around the fact that it’s finally here.

             For those of you who don’t already know (or for those of you who haven’t been asking me repetitively if I’ll be having a fun time in BALONEY this semester), I am currently a completely unpacked student about to embark on a study abroad adventure to Bologna, Italy (“Bo-low-nya,” for you Americans out there). And despite the fact that this southern girl has discovered that Bologna has about the same weather climate as Boston, Massachusetts, I am so. crazily. excited.

            From this upcoming Monday until the beginning of June, I’ll be studying at the Università di Bologna through the Eastern College Consortium program. The ECCO program (as I’ll probably be calling it from now on) is hosted by three other American colleges: Wesleyan University, Vassar College, and Wellesley College. The program is fully-immersive, so all of my classes will be instructed in Italian. I’ll also be living in an apartment with an Italian roommate, just a few minutes from the city center.

            Of the twenty-one other Americans in my program embarking on this adventure with me, most of them will be from New England or even farther North, so when the first snows begin to fall and cover Bologna’s red rooftops in a blanket of white, I will probably be the only one staring up at the sky, completely nonplussed. You may have guessed that the impending cold weather is a big issue for me and to be honest, packing for two seasons—winter and spring—is a daunting task, especially since winter requires a lot of layers and I’ll be in one of the most fashionable countries in the world. How do you balance warmth and comfort with Italian fashion sense? Just to reiterate this: I haven’t started packing yet and my departure date is less than a week away. My mom might call this procrastinating, but I like to think of it as grace under pressure.

            Although my empty suitcases may say differently, I’ve been preparing for this semester for years. It started around the age of eight, when my family moved to Gaeta, Italy and I was forced against my will into an Italian elementary school. Three years later, I was crying on the plane back to the States, begging to stay, and I was almost completely fluent in Italian. I’m not quite as good as I used to be, but I’ve been trying to keep up with my language skills through my Italian Studies major at UMW, sporadic emails with old friends from Gaeta, and the wonderful foreign exchange students I’ve met at school. And even though I’ll be probably be able to get around relatively well during my first few days in Bologna, the classes at the Università will definitely be a challenge and I can’t wait to improve my fluency throughout the whole semester.

            But this is my moment of truth: Yes, I want the ability to speak Italian fluently. Of course I’m excited for the challenge of studying in a foreign classroom. But the most exciting part of this amazing opportunity? The chance to be an Italian again. The last time I was living in Italy, I was in fifth grade and my perception of that peninsula across the pond was shaped by the rose-tinted lens of childhood. This is my chance to not only experience Italy’s culture as a young adult, but to go home. Because ever since I left Gaeta, sobbing in my seat as the plane rolled down the runway, I’ve been dreaming of ways to make it “home” again. Bologna is a city still dressed in medieval attire, with its high walls and centuries-old university, and it is so very different from Gaeta’s streets lined with palm trees and turquoise waters. But I know that pretty soon, Bologna will also start to feel like the home that I left almost ten years ago.

            Of course, I’m leaving behind a whole crowd of wonderful friends and family here at my homes in Virginia Beach and UMW. It’s the people in my life that are making it so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I’m leaving, and no matter how grand the adventure will be, I will miss each and every one of you. But I hope you’ll swing by this blog from time to time (I’ll be trying to write every week) and keep up with my travels. Keep an eye out for an update next week, when I’m all settled in! For now, I guess I should probably start packing!

Ci vediamo!

Danielle

© Copyright Danielle DeSimone. 2013.