Such a common little phrase. You hear it for so many different occasions - weddings, graduations, trips, etc, etc...the list can go on and on. For the past year, this has become a common phrase for my upcoming study abroad trip this Fall to ITALY!! and it's finally here!
Let me tell ya, this past week has been pretty crazy trying to get all sorts of things together...but now all I have left to do (I think!) is make sure that I have all my belongings packed and documents copied and I will be good to go! Ahh so crazy! It is really hard to describe all the different feelings I have at the moment, but I am way excited and just so grateful to have this opportunity. It has been quite the roller coaster mainly with finances but it has been so, so good just to see the Lords hand in all of this and being reminded of His faithfulness and just how He provides :)
So I have created this blog to keep everyone posted about life while I am in Italy! Hence the blog title "La Vita e Bella" which means "life is beautiful," because it is and I cannot wait to live life out abroad! I won't promise that I will be extremely great at constantly updating or that my grammar is going to be fantastic...but I will definitely try :) and not to mention, post some awesome pictures! I have gotten alot of questions about what I will be doing there so I figured I would include a question and answer section for this first blog post :)
Q: where are you going and for how long?
A: I am going to a small town in the Tuscany region of Italy called Castiglion Fiorentino (about an hour and a half south of Florence - by train!) and I will be there for about 3 months.
Q: what will you be doing there?
A: I will be participating in a faculty-led study abroad program with Texas A&M University..WHOOP! My major is University Studies, where it is basically a design your own degree with a focus and two minors and those are....focus/concentration: architecture, minor 1: tourism management, minor 2: anthropology/archaeology.
So I think Italy is the perfect place to do study abroad since I love art and architecture history and there will be tons of that there! I will be taking 13hrs. and of course in free time I will try to see as much as I can of surrounding European and maybe other countries.
Q: what classes are you taking?
A: I am taking: Arts & Civilization, History of Science, Beginning Italian, and Black and White Photography!
Q: what is the layout of the program?
A: We have class Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and sometimes on Friday. Wednesdays are field trip days where we will travel to surrounding towns/cities and most of the time we will have 3 day weekends. We have a week trip to Rome and another week trip to Venice and following that we will have fall break! We will be staying at the Santa Chiara study center will be like dorm life but with two other schools.
Q: what will the weather be like?
A: when we first arrive it will be hot/warm and then it will cool down. By the end of the program it will more than likely be cold and wet (packing has been pretty interesting haha)
Q: How can we contact you?
A: well, I will not have a phone...not that I know of anyways! So your best bet is going to be either through Facebook, skype or shooting me an e-mail!
Add me on skype! -> cha-cha810
and here is my e-mail: chantel.zap@gmail.com
For now that is all the questions I can remember, but if I forgot any let me know and I will address those as well! If you could pray for me and my group as we leave on Monday for safe travels and that things would go smoothly in transitioning...also for opportunities to serve and love people while I'm abroad! I love comments so let me know what you think and keep me updated on what is going on in your lives and how I can be praying for ya...also if you have been in this area before and have any great tips on places to go, sights to see and food to try let me know :)
Ciao,
Chantel
