Beach and studies - little vacation in the middle of exchange

Ciao again!

It has been quite some time since I last posted something but now the post will be a little bit more thorough. After one whole week the flu is finally getting away. The weather is still nice and warm during the daytime but in the evenings and mornings it is beginning to be quite cold. Last weekend was spent partying and after that laying on the beach in a very nice resort called Sperlonga, some 90 km South of Rome. The beach was really the culmination of my week because as a open space-loving person it was very good to get out of the fuss and chaos of Rome for a while.

For studying I am getting the routine already. I have bought all the books already and started to consider different presentation possibilities in some courses.

I have also spent some time planning my future travels, particurarly a trip to Istanbul on November. There is also a trip to Sicily in the vicinity on November as well so the next couple of months are going to be very hectic for me.

One thing that I am still little irritated about is the fact that we still don't have any working wifi in our apartment. Because here I really have learnt that the student life is very much based on the possibility to access the internet for study materials and enrolment of courses. At least there is a possibility to take care of every issue at the university.

The stereotypical Erasmus- life has become very clear to me. It really includes partying a lot and neglecting your studies in order to have a good time. For me I really want to enjoy the possibility to study in a different university and completely different topics than what we have at the University of Jyväskylä.

All that said, here are some photos of my journey to the beach and kingdom of relaxation!
At least in Finland it has snowed a little, I have heard so don't get too jealous!

Ci vediamo!

Roman flu and sounds from Vivaldi

I have begun to cope to the routines of studying and living in Rome. The weather still tends to be pretty hot but the forecast says that Autumn is soon falling upon Rome as well. One of the most interesting events I had was an evening in a Scottish pub on the day of the Referendum of Scotland. The atmosphere was very welcoming and we even managed to get a Scottish traveller to join our entourage for the evening – spontaneus cross-cultural get-together at best.

I don’t know if people usually wonder what kind of food exchange students make during their time abroad but for me, I have to say pasta. Every day I have tried to make different kind of pasta for dinner for I have to say, the variety of pasta at the Italian grocery stores is something so un heard of. The fact is that the Italians themselves eat pasta almost every day, but who can blame them.

Last Saturday, one of my dreams came true when I went to a concert where they played music of Vivaldi. It was very nice to spend an hour in an Anglican chruch and listen to this small orchestra playing extremely great violin music. 

After that, on Sunday I got a flu like most of the other students at LUISS. At the moment I am trying to get through with it but the thought of being sick on exchange is just so frustrating.

I hope I will get better before big ESN party which will be held in a villa next Friday. 

Sunny and stuffy greetings from the Eternal City!

PS. below some very bad quality photos of a statue in the middle of Piazza Barberini and a small picture from the concert.

 

Courses and coping to the fact that you have to buy most study books yourself

Blogging again...

Hello everybody! So my courses have started at last. I have a couple very interesting sessions concerning international relations and security. In a way, the syllabi here seem to concern much more practical matters than what we have in the University of Jyväskylä. The lecturers seem to be very "high-ranking" persons in the field of political action. For example, in my Security Studies- course the main lecturer is a former NATO- admiral and a former minister in the Italian parliament.

The ways of evaluating a student's progression in the course are way different than what we have in Finland. We have to participate in oral exams and sometimes do mid-term exams as well as simulations and cooperative workings. The courses last for the whole semester so the schedule is the same every week.

The activities that were held by the local ESN organization included a movie night last Monday, featuring A Roman Vacation in Rome (surprisingly), starring an Italian speaking Audrey Hepburn with subtitles. On Tuesday we had a lovely dinner in Alban hills just outside of Rome, and there was wine, a lot of wine...

My mind has now set to looking forward for the upcoming lectures and trips I am going to participate in the weeks to come. From now on, after the dust has settled following the ESN's welcoming week, I try to write here a little more regurarly.

Until next time!

PS.

Below a couple of highlights from the town of Ariccia and the district of Trasrevere (with a flavour of local ice cream called gelato).

Awaiting for the school to start and upcoming trips

Ciao tutti!

So the Italian language crash course has ended at last. The only thing yet to be completed is the exam on the coming Monday. The second week has been very tough because of the intensive schedule we had with the language course. We have at last received a wifi connection to our apartment but the landlord isn’t willing to participate in the costs. I have to say that internet connection is way more expensive compared to Finnish prices. At the same time we have had a couple of parties with the Erasmus folk but despite this I am more looking forward to the Rome tour on Saturday and the trip to Bomarzo Monsters park (whatever that is) on Sunday. And then on Monday the classes are going to start at last with courses containing matters of international relations and comparative public law.

During these couple of weeks I have met dozens of new people from all over the world. This will be a shorter post this time because my time has mostly been concentrated on the crash course so in that field there is not so much to tell at this point. I believe that next week will be more colorful with the lessons starting and maybe some trips to the area around Rome.

Ci vediamo!

Misfortuna e cucina italiana

Last weekend, which was my first as well, turned out to be hell of a time for misfortune. It turned out that I couldn’t stay in the apartment because I needed to sign a 12 month contract. I found a place to stay afterwards (with no wifi) but I still wonder why it turned out to be so. My Italian room mates in the first apartment should have told me this at the time I asked about it, not when I had already moved in...

Either way I found a room nearby my old apartment which way more ghetto-like than any other apartment I have lived in before. The landlord is very nice but the apartment itself is a mess. There is also another Finnish guy living here with me but that doesn’t help the feeling of living in a messed up apartment.

A trip to Ikea helped a little bit in making the room a little cosier but I am still choking on dust when trying to sleep. In Ikea I had a little bit of Scandinavian cuisine which made me feel like home again – that is Swedish meatballs! And on Sunday I also had a very tasty pizza near the Spanish steps. I have to say that when approaching the centre it feels like another world there with the masses of tourists. Anyway the coming week is going to be very busy as was the first one, due to Erasmus events and the ongoing intensive Italian language course. 

Mostly the beginning of the week has been a time of get-to-know and surviving the culture shock. But I still have my hopes full. The courses that I have managed to pick are very interesting mix of international relations and global mindedness. The courses are going to start next week and the ESN (Erasmus Student Network) activities will begin next thursday. A busy week overall!

Below in the pictures are some glimpses of the meals I have enjoyed in Rome so far. And also a picture of the largest lecture room we have in LUISS.

Italian, italian, italian and a little bit of Irish

In the end of the first week of my exchange I have managed to meet different kinds of people from all over the world. Some of the stereotypes have been proven right about different cultures and some more or less so. My Italian language crash course started with the basics and sometimes I find it very difficult to study it because the teachers have decided to speak only Dante's dialect (Italian) during the classes. The weather has continued to be sunny and warm and there has been no sign of it from ending.

I have to admit that when having a discussion about one's home country it is very difficult to promote for example a tiny country such as Finland. People seem to know pretty little about the nordic countries and it seems that most of the modern Europeans are quite Middle- and South Europe centered by their way of thinking.

The language course will continue next week with classes from 10am to 5pm every day. In the end of the week the Erasmus student organization will reward our hard work with trips to the countryside near Rome - I am really looking forward to get to a more fresh atmosphere. At the moment I cannot really say yet that I like living in a metropolis due to the chaotic way of life and extreme tightness but I will get used to it in time.

On 5.9. we and a couple other exchange students went strolling in the beautiful Rome in the darkness and lightness of the evening. And I must say, if you want to experience the best side of Rome go and walk around when its dark! Along with this we went to an Irish style pub near the Pantheon and had a very good time enjoying quality beers and very good whiskies as well.

On the bottom you can see some highlights of Rome in the evening. Until next time! Ciao!

First days of the exchange and coping with Roman lifestyle

 So at last I have enough time to write! These couple of days since my arrival have been very busy and exhausting. On 1.9. I arrived to Rome and stayed the night in a hostel searching for a suitable apartment. I managed to find one on the next day, went to see it and moved there on the same day. I stay with two Italian guys who study political science in the same Roman university where I am as an exchange student. On Tuesday I strolled around the main sights of the Roman center including the Coliseum, Forum Romanum and Santa Maria Maggiore. My student life in Rome started with the introduction of the University staff and the local Erasmus organization. In the end, there are only three Finnish exchange students present at the LUISS University, for example the Swedes are way numerous...

4.9. was the beginning of an Italian language crash course which started with an Italian test in the morning. Actually the test was about distributing the exchange students in to groups according their knowledge of Italian language. I had studied a little Italian back in Jyväskylä, however I managed to remember only a couple of words. Well most of the other students performed as well as me so its straight to the basics for the most of us.

During the week we have learned about our future trips to Tuscany and Naples, and to see some sights in Rome which are quite unknown to the majority of the tourists. We'll see what the future holds!

As a last remark, the picture on the low right corner of the page is from the street I live in. It is very calm and quiet neighborhood in the north-east corner of the park Villa Ada. And one of the best experiences so far has been enjoying a genuine Vespa ride in the Eternal city - benefit of having Italians as room mates!

More texts coming when I am able to write. Arrivederci per ora!