Hola España!

From Florence, we flew into Malaga and stayed for a couple nights before moving on to Granada, my study abroad city for the next 4 months. I had very mixed feelings about being in Granada and experiencing for the first time. Later, with my study abroad program, I found all the good places to dine, shop, and see, but my parents and I were clueless when we first arrived, so I got a skewed idea about Granada. We had really weird tapas, got overcharged, and a waiter even took money off our table. We were so frustrated that we began to eat food we could get from the grocery store because we knew it was cheap, good, and we wouldn't get ripped off! Fortunately, I am having a much better and much different experience, but I'm very disappointed that my parents weren't able to see the cute side streets, try the yummy (and reasonably priced) gelato, and find the place where the FREE TAPAS reign supreme. All I remember from that experience was anxiety about staying in such a hostile and unfriendly place and worried about spending those 5 days alone in Barcelona before my program started. (Don't worry, I will have much more entries later about all the good and enjoyable times I'm experiencing here in Granada).



One great highlight was the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a compilation of sorts; of a fort, of a palace, and of lush gardens. I am taking a class on Islamic Art & Architecture, and I'm hoping that soon I will be able to write more about the Alhambra. But nonetheless, it is beautiful. It was a hot sticky day when my parents and I visited, and I felt really annoyed and grumpy and cranky that I chose the worst location to study. So unfortunately that mood affected my first experience at the Alhambra, but I've since returned twice in much better spirits.

i left my heart in italia

We stayed in Rome, our first stop, for 4 days. Every day we were there was magic: I remember feeling intense emotion at seeing the Trevi Fountain, Patheon, and Colosseum for the first time, and the weather was hot which made the experience that much more intense. Our hotel, Hotel Nardizzi was a very cute bed and breakfast that consisted of one floor of a large building that included another hotel, private apartments, and a Vietnamese Evangelical Methodist church, I believe. It caught me by surprise when seeing Asian people speaking fluent Italian. Our location was great, and I felt it was a good home-base for all our tourist adventures and excursion into the city.

In Rome we saw: the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Palacio, Roman Forum, the Vatican, the Tiber, and the Bocca della Verita. My life felt like something out of a movie. I am so fortunate to have seen Rome, thank you Mom and Bill for the amazing trip!


Once our time in Rome was finished, we took the train out to the Cinque Terre, a beautiful series of 5 small villages/towns built into the mountainside on the Mediterranean coast. Our first day we were zonked from the intense exercises of lugging, throwing, rolling, dragging, lifting, shoving, and guarding our heavy luggage. But our hotel, Hotel Marina, made us feel at ease and comfortable. The hotel was probably our best buy when we were in Italy and Spain; the whole hotel was thoughtfully laid out with crafty (but not tacky) details on the walls, mirrors, windows etc. Our room was a bright but warm peach color, there were beach bags and beach towels waiting for us to take them to the sea and a whole selection of swim toys and floaties on the fourth level of the terrace to borrow as well. The hotel gave us an incredible breakfast with a wide selection of croissants, toasts, nutella and spreads, ready-order omelets and waffles, an array of juices and fruits to try, a cappuccino and espresso machine, the list is endless. We would fill up on breakfast to last us until the afternoon pasta meal with a large assortment of salads, pastas of all kinds with different sauces, ready-order pasta, breads, espresso machine and flat or fizzy water machine too! We were spending 3 or 5 euros on a bottles of water daily, and it was great to have access to crispy clean water that I could fill up for free!



I realize my conversation has been focused around food, but that is a large part of the Italian experience I would say. But the Cinque Terre is an incredible, hidden gem that has chosen to be tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the large city but also has better public transportation than all of California.

We did "the hike" of Cinque Terre in which we started in the village of our hotel, Monterosso, and hiked through the other four to Vernazza, Corniglia, Monarolo, and Riomaggiore Now, the term "hike" hardly describes our adventure in mountain climbing. Fortunately our hike started off hard and became easier, but the first leg was so difficult! The sun beat down on us while we were on the dusty trail, but the view of the seemingly endless cool Mediterranean before us kept us feeling a bit more comfortable. When we stopped in Vernazza, we got Cafe Zeros (frozen espresso flavored slushies) and relaxed and walked around on the little pier by the sunbathers and swimmers. After a nice break, we pushed on. Each town was very cute, but I were happy that we stayed in Monterosso. The last leg of the hike is called Via Dell Amore, which is a nice paved walk. Everywhere around the walk were locks. Locks of love. Any metal loop on a gate or fence was primed for two lovers to -click- lock their love.





From The Cinque Terrre, we moved on to Florence in which we saw the Ponte Vecchio and Michelangelo's David and along the way, we stopped in Pisa. This was my second time to the Cinque Terre, Pisa, and to Florence. And I was having nostalgic memories of what it was like to be at Pisa, when I was 7 years old. But as I reflect back on it now, I realize that my childhood memory of Pisa has been erased and written over by my most recent memory when I visited Pisa just weeks ago.

Once I stepped out of our hotel after cleaning up and rinsing off the dirt of the day of traveling, I felt like I was back in Rome. The two cities are very similar in the sense of the layout and feeling on the streets, yet Rome has far more historical sites of interest. I was really glad that we ended our Italian part of our trip in Florence. We got to see Il Duomo and just generally soak in the sights. I'm sure this blog entry about Florence would be more exciting had I not been in Italy for a few weeks. Seeing Michelangelo's David was a very emotional experience, similar to seeing the Trevi Fountain. I have had on my vanity for over 10 years a little marble statue of David that I would see on a regular basis; and I feel like Florence and Italy in itself is such a large part of my childhood because they are some of the most vivid memories I have.

I look forward to going back to Italy soon.

and so it begins...

Wow! It has been a whirlwind adventure traveling through Italy and Spain these past two and a half weeks. My mom, Bill, and I flew into Rome on August 14th. I had intense culture shock when I got off the plane; I was panicking in my head. Had I been only scheduled to be in Europe for 2 weeks, like my parents with me, I'm sure my reaction would have been very different. Though since I knew I was in for the long haul of 4 months in Spain, I was hit hard. I kept trying to find some sort of familiarity, I would see young guys wearing Abercrombie or some tee shirt that was written in English, and I would feel more at ease knowing that there were Americans here too, but I just as soon as I walked past them, they were clearing speaking Italian. That was crushing to have a sense of security only to have it taken away.



Once we lugged my 85 lb. bag along with 2 carry-ons to last me through 3 seasons in Spain through the airplane terminals and train station, we took an (overpriced) taxi and arrived tired at Hotel Nardizzi but we were excited to see Rome. We powered through that day; my body hurt more than ever. I didn't get enough sleep on the plane - I was just too excited to sleep.
Any street was a sightseeing attraction in itself, we would wiggle through tight alleyways hoping we were going in the right direction, and as soon as we lost hope and we assumed we were lost, there it would be rising before us, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon. Our first day in Rome we set out to find the Trevi Fountain, and when I arrived, I had a warm sense of youthful nostalgia although this was my first time being in Rome. One of my favorite movies as a child was the Lizzie McGuire Movie in which an American girl goes on a high school graduation trip to Rome and is mistaken for an Italian superstar in which she must impersonate to save this Italian superstar’s reputation. I distinctly remember the scenes that took place in front of the Trevi. In my mind as a 9 year old, I thought that one day something magical and wondrous would happen to me too if only I was in Rome, and when I was at the Trevi Fountain that day, all that emotion of hope, youth, excitement, possibility and wonder flooded back to me. All the loud tourists, souvenir salesmen, and over priced gelato stands began to fade into a blurry back ground, and it was just me and Rome.



I had an overwhelming sense of “I have arrived”. I have arrived to Europe about to begin a study abroad experience that was a culmination of almost one year of detailed planning and decision making, I have arrived at the conclusion that medicine and becoming a doctor is my life’s passion after a 5 week intensive internship in an OB/GYN clinic in the inner city of San Jose that ended just before my abroad experience, I have arrived at the pinnacle of student success after almost 2 decades of hard work; I was about to embark on one of the most exciting adventures a young person can experience – studying in a foreign country, I have arrived at the capital of my Italian roots feeling more connected to my Italian heritage than ever, I have arrived.