Dear Reader,
Well here we are. T-minus 2 months and 7 days until I get on airplane and start this amazing opportunity to study in TUSCANY. I have already started creating a Pinterest board for just for Tuscany, but it doesn’t have a lot of pins so I should probably get back too that… I have also begun reading Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes but I haven’t put much of a dent in it. My goal is to be done with it by the time I set foot in Italy, so I will probably read the whole novel while I am on the airplane like I did when I read The Time Traveler’s Wife flying to France. If you’re not into books though that’s cool, both movies are two of my favorite movies ever!
I also started using the Pimsleur app to teach myself some basic Italian before I get to Italy. The app is pretty good, I am learning how to say things like “I don’t understand English!” and “But no! You speak English very well!” (both I must admit are very ironic things to be learning since I speak and understand English as if it were my native language or something). Either way, I think the app is great, especially in addition to the Rosetta Stone program that IES offers you. If you haven’t started on that and don’t know how to speak the language of the country you intend to go to, I recommend getting started ASAP. Also side note: Pimsleur is great but they teach you how to address everyone formally so when you’re walking around addressing people like your friends in a formal manner and they start laughing at you that’s why. My Italian professor warned me about this so I thought I would spread the word. Thanks Dr. Ferraro!
For those of you who do not know me, I am Cat. I am a 20-year-old student as Santa Clara University. I am starting off my Junior year in Siena, Italy and I have a dog here at home that I am going to miss very dearly when I study abroad. Maui is a five month of Lab-Pit Mix who loves kids and other dogs. He knows tricks like sit, lay down, and shake, but is not so good when it comes to fetch, stay, and stop-giving-me-the-puppy-dog-eyes-while-I-eat-my-dinner-slash-head-off-to-work-because-I-cannot-bring-you-with-me-and-this-chocolate-cake-is-not-good-for-you-also-you-already-ate-dinner-you-crazy-needy-adorable-animal. You can usually find pictures/videos of Maui on my Instagram @catie__belle if you want to give me/my dog a follow and some love!
More about me: I do photography as a free-lancer. Need some headshots? Hit me up! Want to take cute photos at the beach? I’m your girl. Want to chill and not have your photo taken? That’s cool too, but you’ll have to deal with me taking photos of everything else that’s around us so please be patient with me as I take three times the amount of time it takes to walk somewhere because I am stopping every five minutes to capture the perfect image. I also am a die hard coffee drinker. I drink coffee multiple times a day – a habit that isn’t great for me but what’s a girl to do? I was raised on coffee and a coffee drinker I will always be. In addition to my dog, I have a cat, a little sister, and a not-so-little brother who is going to be starting his freshman year at Santa Clara while I am away in Italy. There is a pretty cute picture of the three of us siblings from my brother’s graduation that you can grace your eyes with.
(Left to right: Tyler, Evelyn, Cat)
ON A LESS PEPPY NOTE: I also suffer from crippling migraines and awful anxiety. The two can be and are often linked together, but having just one of the two can be a hard endeavor to take on. If you have either or both of these chronic disabilities, I feel for you. Truly. You are a true fighter. When I was first considering traveling abroad, I almost did not apply in fear that these disabilities would keep me from experiencing Siena the way I want to experience it. And honestly, it will do just that. There will be days that I will have planned on doing something that a migraine will keep me from going and doing. There will be times where my anxiety is going to keep me curled up in bed unable to go hang out with the friends I said I would hang out with. Classes are going to be hard because I am going to miss important information and I am going to fall behind. These are struggles I have here at Santa Clara and struggles I am going to have while I am studying under the Tuscan sun. However, I am choosing to use my resources here at SCU and there with IES so that I can experience Siena and not miss out on an adventure of a lifetime just because I have my disabilities. I am a firm believer that I am meant to study abroad. It is something I have always wanted to do. It will be difficult but it is by no means impossible. If you are reading this and you have any kind of disability that you think keeps you from studying abroad, reconsider. Look at all your options and don’t give up just based on a feeling that it might be too hard. If you need advice or just someone to talk to who understands, please get in contact with someone at your university or feel free to shoot me an email! I would be happy to offer some advice and share with you how I got in touch with the people who have made my experience at school a lot more manageable with my disabilities.
On that note, I just wanted to say thank you for checking in and reading up on my introductory blog post! I plan on doing this a lot more in the future. I also wanted to ask that if you have every been to Siena, the Tuscan area, or anywhere in Italy/Europe for that matter that you send in places to go, restaurants to try, or just some plain ‘ole advice for a young woman who’s only experience in Italy happened when she was two years old! My next few blog posts are going to include these pieces of advice and I am going to building a Tuscany Bucket List, so please please please contribute and interact with me! Tell me your stories too! I would love to get to know my readers! Whether its about a fun time floating in gondola or maybe you want to share about how you work through/struggle with a personal disability, I would love to know all about it! Thanks everyone!
Ciao for now!
Cat
Grandpa Harry and Cat in front of Basilica di San Marco