Joyful Traveling

5 days later: Rachel finally writes about going to Venice. I could say that I've been super busy this week trying new restaurants and exploring the streets of Florence nonstop, but in all honesty I've been sick. So I've spent most of this week in my apartment drinking all the tea hoping that it helps. But on Sunday I went with my roommates to Carnevale di Venezia! After taking a long scenic bus ride and a short little train ride, we were in the heart of Venice. Instantly outside the train station was craziness, and it was amazing. I don't know too much about Carnival, but to me it seemed like a wonderful combination of Halloween and Tulip Festival. Most people just wear masks, and there were plenty of options of masks to choose from! But the premise of Carnival is to be someone you're not, so a lot of people were actually fully dressed up, whether that was zombies, Elsa, pirates, buildings, or anything you could possibly imagine. Mom reminded me beforehand ...

Ciao people who are interested in what I have to write! As you may or may not know, I have had the wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Florence (or Firenze), Italy for this spring semester. Even though I’ve been mentally planning studying abroad for years, actually applying and preparing for months, and now physically being in another country for a couple weeks, it still doesn’t feel real. It’s hard for me to fully imagine the fact that I am going to be living here for a full semester. And in order to help me come to terms with the fact that I am living here, I will attempt to keep up a blog to let you see what goes down in Italy and things that I am learning. I am a big believer in living in the moment, but I feel that I too often live in the moment then move past it without taking any pause to commit to my memory how amazing an experience is. Remembering things is not one of my strong suits, so thankfully words are a thing I can use to help me. I’ve had a full wee...