I Can't Believe I'm Really Going

Hello, my name is Rachel. I'm a 20-year old American student of architecture.
Welcome to my account of my travels abroad.

Hopefully this blog will allow me to tell (and show) my friends and family what I'm doing, what I'm seeing, what I'm experiencing as I spend the next four months in Italy. Here goes nothing.

My study-abroad program is run by my school, a small private university in upstate New York. The program consists of 22 architecture students, in third and fourth years of study, and several professors. For reference, I'm a third-year, and it's a five-year program. Through school, the 22 of us are meeting up in Venice at the end of August, spending a week traveling throughout northern Italy, settling down for three weeks in Turin to participate in a seminar with students at the politecnico there, and then heading to Rome for about the next three months. At some point during the Rome stay, there's going to be a southern Italy tour in there. We've been given time before and after the program, as well as most weekends, during which we can travel to our hearts' content.

I'm starting out with three friends in Munich, Germany. We leave tomorrow. I don't speak a word of German. Well, that's a lie. I do know how to say "snail". My bags are nearly packed. This should be fun.