Study Abroad at EM Strasbourg Business School : Last Minute Whirlwind European Adventures (Part deux)

First I should mention a little bit about school. So far I have finished four classes, French, Introduction to European Integration, Management of International Teams, and Luxury Brands Management. This leaves a couple exams for our final exam week. Those classes are International Marketing, and Principles of International Commerce. I know it may seem like school here is not a big part of my life in Europe, but that is not true. Classes here are just differently structured. One week I had one class for six hours in one day, but then I didn’t have that class for a couple of weeks. So some days are extremely course heavy, while other days have no courses at all. This will be one of the hardest adjustments once I get back to the United States. The consistency of BGSU’s course schedule will be very difficult for me once I return.

Also, school is fantastic, but it is much more fun to write about my trips and adventures outside of the classroom ;)

That being said, my most recent trip was a seven day spree in Italy for our Spring Break. I went on this adventure with Joe, Faith and Kate. Faith and Kate are two fellow Americans who came to Strasbourg the second semester. Our plan was for Joe and me to go with the girls to Venice and Florence, then we would break off from them and go to Rome for Easter Sunday.

First was Venice. We had spent the night in Frankfurt and flew out of that airport to Venice. Since it is so water-locked we had to take a water taxi to the city center. Then we went to find our hostel. We ended up getting a private four bedroom extremely close to the main parts of the city. We were about a ten minute walk from Rialto Bridge. This is the major bridge in Venice. It is filled with vendors and shops. We spent the rest of our time there just walking around and seeing sights such as the Piazza San Marco, Grand Canal, and the waterfront. It was nice to casually walk around and just enjoy the sun, and the gelatoJ. We also went on a gondola ride which was fun to do just like in all the movies and pictures you see about Italy.

Next was Florence, which as was about a two hour train ride from Venice. We got one of the last available trains which had two transfers. We were all very nervous, but knew we could make all the connections as long as we stayed focused and didn’t take our time. We made it and went to our hostels to relax for a little bit. Since we were leaving on different days Joe and I had a different hostel than Kate and Faith. They were only about a twenty minute walk apart so it wasn’t too bad. We spent our first night getting pizza and walking around taking pictures of the churches and sights at night. Then Joe and I went to Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze to see the Statue of David the next morning. We got up early enough that the line was not that long. Once we got inside there were several rooms of paintings before we got to the space where David was. It was one of those things where you really don’t know how great something is until you see it for yourself. I was shocked at the size of the statue, of course I knew it was big, but I had no clue. I loved that I got to see it during my short time in Venice. Unfortunately it started raining as soon we left the museum so we tried to do mostly indoor shopping and staying indoors for the rest of the day.

Later that night, Joe and I had to catch yet another train to Rome. We ended up getting to our hostel around 9pm (21:00). We looked up the best way to get to St. Peter’s Square and went to bed early knowing that we had to get up early the next morning. Unfortunately the rain continued Easter morning. We got to the square an hour before mass started. The square started filling up very quickly. But since it was raining everyone had umbrellas, and myself being vertically uninclined I was not able to see very well. I was able to snag glances at the big screen monitor. The rain continues all morning, so we did not stay the whole mass. It was still one of the top things on my European Bucket list, so I was so happy I was able to attend. The rest of the day we lounged around the room since it was far too rainy to do anything else outside. The next day we did a hop on hop off bus of Rome. We were able to see the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Parthenon, Trevi fountain, and we stopped by and took another look at St. Peters square. It was a super tiring day, but worth it to be able to see all the history and architecture of the city.

Sorry for the large post. So much to do with so little time. Thanks for sticking with me throughout this whole crazy adventure.

Until Next Time,

Your fellow falcon,

Carly