Jackie Myers
Never in a million years did I think I was going to have an opportunity like this one. My blog will share the stories and memories I will be making during these next eight weeks. Hope you can keep up!
May 10-May 17
Which way do we go now?
The title says it all...
Getting here was just the beginning of the journey from Pittsburgh to Newark, Newark to Munich, and then Munich to Florence. With each step closer my excitement kept growing. As I learned, you have some flight delays and your plane may hit a bird when landing. That is all a part of the experience, right?
This first week has been filled with many adventures and constantly asking how to get to locations, but we are slowly catching on. I have had the opportunity to do my internship at Hotel Tournabuoni Beacci, and I could not have asked for a better place. Gino is the head of the front office, and he is who I have been shadowing. He is such a nice guy and on the first day he could tell I was not wide awake, so he took me to this little cafe for an espresso and chocolate filled croissant. I always thought that Italian people were very stingy with their money, but Gino buys me coffee everyday. He makes me feel so welcomed at the hotel while others tend to give the attitude of, 'why are you here?" Not knowing perfect Italian has also created a little bit of a barrier, so for anyone who plans on doing this in the future I advise you to learn as much Italian as you can.
As the week has gone on I have been able to meet so many people in the hotel as well as outside of the hotel. With the help of people we have met, I am scheduling a trip to Croatia and many other locations. You guys will get to see and read about those experiences. With week one coming to an end, I cannot wait to see what the rest of the weeks have to offer us!
May 25-May 31
We've Become Little Explorers!
Three weeks down, and four more to go.
It is crazy to think that we have already been here for three weeks. Everything is becoming so normal to me that I have started to not even realize that I am in Italy, except for the language barrier. The third week has had a lot of exciting things for all of us. We had a tour of Chiantiland on Friday. This tour was quite exhausting but well worth it in the end. We got to experience four cities; San Gimignano, Siena, Monteriggioni, and Chianti. The sun was out all day long and it was a perfect day to get to see all the sights. We even met a couple from Australia that were traveling to spoil themselves since they just finished paying for their son to go to school to become a Doctor! It only took him 3 years to get his degree. They kind of became our mom and dad for the trip because we were the youngest there, but it was really appreciated.
Saturday we went to the Milan Expo bright and early. I never thought I would get up at 5:30 am on this trip, but it happened and it was well worth it. We caught a train from Florence to Milan Centrale, then took the Metro Red Line from Centrale -> Cadorna -> Rho Fiera where we were led to the entrance of the Expo. We got there at 10:15 am and we had about 8 hours to get through 140 countries. WE MADE IT! We decided to start in the back and work our way to the front since everyone was in the front where it started. By 5:45 we all met back up by Pavillion Zero and we were more than ready to go home. Every exhibit was absolutely amazing. We even met interns from the U.S. that were working at the American Exhibit. The guy we talked to said he went through a lot to get the position, and he showed us that the side of the building had fresh grown herbs, like basil, which we picked right off the plant and ate! It was a once in a lifetime experience because the Expo only happens every 5 years and it is in a different city each time.
My internship at Tournabuoni Beacci has been incredible so far. I was nervous at first because I was not doing much, but now I am working with Silvia to create binders for each room that has pages in both Italian and English. Having to translate it all has been a little bit hard and time consuming. I also have become very close with Elizabeta who has a daughter my age. She said she sees a lot of her daughter in myself, so she feels blessed to get to work with me.
Week four has a lot in store for us. I have to finish the binder to present to the owner when Silvia gets back from holiday (vacation time), and we leave for the Amalfi Coast on Thursday! Check back next week to see what we all post and don't forget to check out the pictures and videos!
June 8 - June 14
Irish We Never Had to Leave Ireland.
When I looked out the window, what did I see? GRASS!
The beginning of the week seemed to go by really slow, and it was very hot. Each day went by so slow like a snail inching across the hot cement. Work has started to slow down because there is not much else to do and there are a lot of people working at the beginning of the week. I finally have finished the binder, and it made me so happy to hear that Gino and Silvia have been looking over it. They said they are very pleased with all the hard work I had put into it, and that I deserved the trip the Ireland.
Thursday morning came pretty fast when we were so excited that it was hard to sleep the night before. We had to be at the train station by 6 am so we could catch a ride to Pisa Airport. Once in the airport we had some time until our plane boarded, so Andrea and I decided to get some food. Bad idea because halfway through our sandwiches Andrea found a dead bug in hers. It ruined our appetite for the rest of the morning. The flight to Ireland finally boarded and we were off. When we were landing it was so weird to look out the window and see grass. It is hard to find an area in Florence that has a lot of grass, so it was a nice remembrance of home. The other thing that reminded us of home was how cold it was. It felt like we were getting off the plane in America because people actually spoke English!
After making it through customs we got bus tickets for a one way ride to our hostel and a two day on/off bus tour ticket. We got to the hostel and it was nothing like what we thought it would be. This hostel was actually amazing! If anyone wants to go to Dublin, I strongly recommend staying at the Generator Hostel. It is right next to the Jameson factory and the bus stop we needed. The first thing we did after getting settled in was go on a tour of the Guinness factory. We even became certified Guinness pourers at the end of our tour. Afterwards we asked where a worker would recommend for us to go and eat, but like always we could not figure out where to go. So we decided to go to this other place that we found and had their most popular dish; Guinness and Beef Stew. It was so good!
Friday morning Zach and I found a place that served breakfast, which they don’t have in Italy, so we ate a lot of food. The sausage was not like what we have in the states, but I liked it better. We all decided to go to the Jameson factory for a tour and then ate lunch at the restaurant there. The food was decent, for the location I thought it would have been a lot better. After we were full we used our on/off bus pass that we bought at the airport to take a tour of Dublin. Andrea and I stayed on the whole time while the guys got off at stop 11 because they were bored and falling asleep. We met back up with them where we got on, and went to see Jurassic World in 2D at one of the theaters in town. The theaters in Ireland are really interesting because you get to choose what assigned seat you want, the screen is much larger, and the sound is fantastic. It was a little loud at times for my liking.
Saturday we were going to go to Belfast, but it ended up not working out because we would have had to book our train/bus ticket by 5 pm on Friday, which of course we did not do. Instead we were going to wake up early to go to the train station and see what we could do, but we were pretty wiped out and none of us woke up to our alarms. Instead we got lucky because it was the Ireland vs Scotland qualifying soccer game for the championship. Andrea and Michael took a train towards the field to see if they could get tickets into the game that was sold out, so Zach and I decided to stay behind and get a taste of what Dublin was going to be like. We all had so much fun and I think it was better for us to split and get different experiences to share with each other. That night Zach and I ate at the oldest original pub in Ireland that is still standing. The food was traditional Irish food, and boy was it absolutely delicious.
Early Sunday morning came faster than we would have liked. The cab picked us up at 5 am and we were back on our journey to Florence, Italy. This upcoming week has a lot in store. It is the Pitti Fashion Week for Florence, Zach’s 21st birthday, and we leave for Croatia on Thursday. It’s sad that we only have a little over two weeks left before we head back home, but I can say that I am starting to get a little homesick. Check back next week for more tales on our crazy adventures.
June 22 - June 29
All By Myself...
Wanderlust - a strong desire to travel.
I have come to think that I suffer from wanderlust. This weekend I decided to take these journeys on my own to a bunch of different cities around Italy, and I could not have ended my experience over here in a better way. Pisa and Lucca were great locations with so much to see. I took the typical tourist photos with the leaning tower, ate some of the best pizza I have ever had, and got to walk along the walls of Lucca. The next day I took a trip to Cortona, Assisi, and Perugia. A day full of beautiful scenery and history. I was never one to enjoy history class, but when I get to hear stories and see where things took place, I cannot take my eyes away. I bought a rosary at one of the little shops in Assisi and had it blessed. Finally I ended my weekend with a trip to Verona and I got to see the opera, Aida. It was such a fantastic experience and I highly recommend anyone who loves performances to go to it. You get to watch it in one of the oldest and largest arenas that is still standing from the Roman period. No microphones are used at all but you can see and hear everything no matter where you are sitting!
Sadly, both of my trips that I tried to plan to Rome got cancelled so I did not get to go. I guess this just means I have to come back to Italy to see Rome and Venice! No big deal.
This coming week is our last one over here and it is bittersweet. I cannot wait to get home. I miss my family and friends so much, but I will miss all the people I have met over here this semester. I plan on keeping in touch with everyone, and one day coming back. It is also going to be very hard to say goodbye to Nicoletta. She has literally become our mother in Italy. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect professor and mother figure while we spent our time over here. Our final week includes a private never before done tour of a gelato factory and Cinque Terra with Nicoletta so we are glad we will get to spend our last few days with her. Check back soon because Friday, July 3rd we will be leaving this beautiful place and heading back for our homes!
May 18-May 24
How do you say....?
Ciao! Mi chiamo Jackie. Sono Americana di Kent in Ohio. Sono Studentessa di Business, Entrepreneurship, e Hospitality Management. How ventidue anni, e abito in Via Monalda quattro viccino a Via Tornabuoni. Arrivederci!
The second week has definitely been a lot easier
than the first week but this is expected no matter where you go. I have found that it is a lot easier to get around the city and to understand more of what people are saying to us. Nicoletta did a great job at teaching us a lot of the basics in Italian that we should know (as shown above). Learning the numbers has made it easier to know exactly what a guest is saying to me when they are asking for their room key upon return. This week went by extremely fast but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are still getting used to the time change so we nap quite often. As I write this post all of my roommates are sleeping!
We learned that an internship over here is not like internships back home. Because of the rules and regulations that the hotels have to abide by we are here to observe what they do, not participate. Because we cannot take part in reservations, room service, concierge, or checking guests in or out, we have to come up with other things for us to do. Patrizia gave me the idea of having me help them update their Facebook page, and I am also working side by side with Silvia to put together a binder full of information for each of the rooms so guests can read it. The hard part about this is translating it from Italian to English, or vice versa. This may take me a week or so to do, but I am excited to help them with this project. They have never done anything like this before!
With week three starting tomorrow, I cannot wait to keep working on this binder, our tour of Chiantiland, the Milan Expo, and hopefully a visit to either Venice or Rome. Come back next weekend to read about these adventures!
June 1-June 7
Can Time Stop Flying By?
Can you believe that half of our time over here in Florence is officially up? I can't...
This adventure just keeps getting better and better. Every week seems to give us another chapter to our books so I hope you have been keeping up! This week began our weekend explorations and boy was Amalfi a great way to start. The week seemed to go by really fast because Monday and Tuesday were a holiday for Italy, so the hotel was quiet on Monday and I did not have to go in on Tuesday. When we met with Nicoletta on Wednesday we got to go a visit the oldest volunteer and emergency location in Florence. We went through the museum and got to see a bunch of cool things like the very first ambulance and the outfits they had to wear.
Thursday was a crazy day full of getting last minute things for our trip to meeting with the group to head off to Amalfi. The bus ride was not that bad but I will never sit in the far back seat again. It was very bumpy, and our bus driver definitely had a lead foot for speeding. We arrived at the Bleu Village hostel around 2 am on Friday, and everyone went straight to bed. 7 am came a lot faster than we would have liked but the breakfast was a typical European breakfast of cereal, yogurt, and a croissant. From there we went to the ferry and took a ride to the island of Capri. The day was filled with an amazing boat tour and a cable car ride to the top of the city. The nightlife in Sorrento is one that everyone should experience at some point. Andrea and I met some really amazing guys from the United States at a bar, they are gay, but we had so much fun laughing with them and they were so impressed with the fact that we were here for an Internship.
Saturday was the trip to Positano where we got to relax on the beach all day, and we got a group together to rent a boat for 2 hours. That was probably the best experience we could have had. Our driver was so much fun and took us to amazing places. We went cliff jumping and into a cave that was just like the Blue Grotto we saw in Capri. On the ride back into the beach our driver showed us a family of dolphins that were freely swimming around. It was absolutely amazing to get to see them free and loving life. Everyone on the boat was in awe of what we were seeing. That night was a relaxing night for everyone because of the amount of sun everyone had been getting. It was nice to get to just sit around and talk with people from all over the place.
Sunday morning we woke up for breakfast and then were on our way to the bus for our trip back to Florence which included a stop in Pompeii and climbing Mount Vesuvius. Getting to walk around Pompeii and see what had been recovered, including bodies, was astonishing. You could feel the sense of sadness that happened when the volcano had lashed out on the city. The people who did not leave had no reason to because it was their life. It sent chills down my spine knowing that people laid on the ground and waited for the lava to get to take their life. They have worked so hard to preserve so much of that area and it really shows. Because I got extremely burnt from the weekend I decided not to climb to the top of Mount Vesuvius, but the bus took us up to the highest location it could. The view was still breath taking, but I was ready to get back to the apartment.
This next week is going to include finishing up the binders for the room and then our trip to Ireland. Our tickets have been purchased, and we are so excited! I'll let you know how things go in my next post!
June 15 - June 21
Fun in the Sun Croatia Style
Two days in Croatia does not give you enough time to get to see and explore all of the amazing things Split has to offer, and I definitely could have gone without the twelve hour bus ride.
Obviously that long of a bus ride is not ideal for anyone, especially when there is no Wi-Fi and the TV does not work. We pretty much had to force ourselves to either sleep or find some kind of game that we could play. Once we arrived on Friday everyone was so excited to finally be there. It was gorgeous from the second we stepped off the bus in front of one of the most famous theaters. We headed down to breakfast, got our apartments, and then took a little tour around the city. After the tour we had time to get lunch on our own and we found this place that had fresh seafood. I had fresh shrimp in a white wine and garlic sauce. It was so good, but trying to pull the heads off while it’s extremely hard is not so easy.
After the tour and lunch we all went White Water Rafting down the Cetina River. It was a level two adventure so we had some pretty bumpy parts. Andrea fell into the boat when we hit a rock at one point and pulled my bottoms down. Let’s just say that was quite embarrassing. Then when she tried to get back up on the side, she wacked me in the head with her paddle. Lesson learned to stay far away from Andrea when you go rafting! Haha. Later that night we got dinner at this amazing and fresh sushi place. It was some of the best sushi I have ever had. Andrea and I walked around for a bit until we stumbled upon the group of everyone who went out for the Pub Crawl. We decided to keep going after stopping by to say hi because I really wanted a fresh made crepe and Andrea wanted gelato.
Friday was an early morning and then we were off to our seven hour boat cruise. We got to see Trogir, Solta, and Brac. We also stopped at the boat owner’s house located on an island since his wife had made lunch for all of us. At this point I had pretty much become a professional at cleaning a fish. When we stopped at one of the private islands I went into the water and found a starfish! Everyone started coming in just so they could get a picture with the little guy. According to one of our tour guides his name was Carlos.
On Saturday we left our apartments and started our journey to Krka National Park. These waterfalls were so majestic and sound of the water was very easily putting me to sleep. We ate lunch at the park but the food was not what we expected. I kind of wish we would not have ate there. After a few hours at Krka we got back on the bus and started our long journey back to Florence. This bus ride was quite interesting and it was nice because we got to know quite a few Kent State students who are studying abroad here. It's nice to know that no matter where you are Golden Flashes always stick together.
Since this is the week before we prepare for the end of our journey we have all decided to take different travels for the weekend. Andrea and Michael will be going to Amsterdam, Netherlands, Zach is going to the French Riviera, and I am traveling all over Italy.
As of right now my schedule goes:
Thursday: Pisa and Lucca
Friday: Cortona, Assisi, and Perugia
Saturday: Verona and I will get to see an Opera performed in the original Opera House
Sunday: Rome
Check back next week to see about all of our trips, and prepare with us as we begin to pack our bags and say goodbye to Florence. Next Friday we will all make our journey back home.
Here is the Room Binder I Created for Hotel Tornabuoni Beacci
July 3, 2015
Home Sweet Home
Well, it's official. We are all back in the States and our time in Florence, Italy is over. We had the most amazing two months we could have ever imagined and it would not have been possible if it was not for Swathi, NIcoletta, and everyone else behind the scenes. If you have the chance to go on this opportunity next year, please go! It will be the time of your life and how often can you say you had an internship in another country?
Thank you everyone who made this opportunity happen, and thank you to those who made it worth every second. Until next time Italy!