Pre-Italia

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Ciao bella gente!

To begin this blog, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Jacqueline Noell, but my friends call me Jaci (pronounced Jay-See). I am a senior in college and eager to see the world outside of the United States! Going to another country has always been a dream of mine but going to Italy is THE dream. My family loves to travel so when this opportunity came around, they were eager for me to explore the world and have been nothing but encouraging. I have never left the United States before so this is definitely a little nerve-racking, but in the best way possible! I cannot even put into words how truly excited I am about this study abroad opportunity.

The past few months have been full of research, blog reading, late-night Pinterest boards, advice from family, and plenty of online shopping (Amazon Prime all day...every day). This Christmas was all about Italy for me with comfortable walking shoes, new luggage and a camera on my list to Santa. I have been packing in my head for weeks but realistically my room just looks like a few tornadoes have hit it. With that being said, I am physically almost packed and ready to go!

I have been working on walking around more in hopes that I will not get too tired to do everything that I can fit into 3 weeks. I track my steps with my Apple Watch on a daily basis (with an average of about 6,000 steps a day) so I am eager to see how my step counts will look in Florence. Something that I found interesting during my many late-night Pinterest journeys is different ways to work out while on a long plane ride. I am a frequent flyer between Kentucky and Florida because my dad lives there, but I have never been on a plane for more than 3 hours. I have also attempted to learn some Italian with the Duolingo app as well. While my Italian is not perfect, I have learned the important things like where to find a bathroom and how to order wine and coffee!

Mentally, I have prepared for this trip by talking to people who have been to Italy before. My Nana and Memom (great grandma) pulled out their old scrapbooks today to show me all of the places that I needed to go, which was really cool to see. I have also been praying about this trip and our safety while we are there, frequently. It may sound silly but in the last few weeks, I have tried to cut down on my time with social media in preparation for not being on it very often during my time in Italy. Social media withdrawals are real but I do not want to miss one second of Italy and all of its beauty by being on my phone!

I am SO ready to go on this adventure and experience a completely different culture. I am also more than a little nervous about being that far away from home but I know that the moment we land, all of those nerves will disappear. I was actually talking to my mom tonight and she started to get a little panicky about me leaving because my departure date is coming up faster than she thought! To her delight, I have successfully prepared for this trip by getting my passport early, calling my bank, doing research on exchange rates, and getting an international phone plan. My grandpa actually did most of the research on currency because he loves to watch videos by Clark Howard.

I am most excited about seeing the architecture and art of Italy. I have always heard that movies and pictures do not do such a beautiful place justice. I am also excited to experience the real Italian pasta, pizza, and wine! These are definitely my top 3 favorite things and I have always heard that all 3 of those are even better in Italy…we will see.

While I am most excited about Italy, I am nervous about the possibility of getting lost. I have the worst sense of direction and religiously use Google Maps around Richmond even though I have lived there for 4 years. I have also seen my fair share of movies like “Taken”, which makes me very nervous but mostly I think it gives me a healthy amount of caution.

Ciao for now! These 3 weeks are going to be amazing.

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