My First Published Article!

I have some exciting news! Recently, my article was published on BizCEOs.com. I did a little segment on travel and tourism marketing, and I’m very happy to report that it got picked up.

I was inspired to write an article about travel marketing for my Integrated Marketing Communications course after visiting some of my AFS friends’ hometowns after our exchange year in Norway. During these trips, I realized,
1. What different worlds and lives we come from (and yet we all came together and got along for a year), and
2. They lived in beautiful places!

It was truly an incredible experience to see their original lives–who they hang out with, where they go, what they do for fun. I can call myself privileged to have seen so much with a local (and more importantly–a friend) by my side. I saw these cities in ways normal tourists could never see.

I guess perhaps my favorite thing about these visits was getting to see their “home life.” For some reason it makes me really excited, like when I realized that Jessica used gas burners in her house which she had to ignite with a match…or learning all the different names of Italian crackers and biscuits from Francesco’s mother. (I’ve forgotten all of them, unfortunately…) Or getting to meet Xenia’s dog (which I am convinced is a toddler trapped in a dog’s body). Or even something as simple as going to get morning bread with Balázs in Hungary. Isn’t it strange how these little insignificant moments are often the ones you remember the most?

So I guess I’m starting to realize the sense behind the saying, “once an exchange student, always an exchange student.” Odd to think that my decision to study abroad a one year would still be relevant to my life two years later. None of this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been an exchange student. I wonder what kind of an article I would’ve written then…

Ensom Kveld

Nu sitter jeg her i min nye leilighet aleine og kjenner meg litt syk. (Jeg har hent hva som helst René hadde i flere dager.) Men i kveld finnes ingen her å trøste og ta vare på meg. Etter en koselig helg sammen måtte kjæresten dra tilbake i dag. Det var trist–jeg har vanet meg til å ha ham i mitt hverdagsliv. Det blir skikkelig annerledes å ikke se hans smiler, å holde ham i armene mine, å kysse “velkommen hjem,” å spise sammen og se på TV sammen lenger. Jeg har gledet meg så mye til å flytte tilbake til Lugano, men nu at jeg er her og han–ikke, jeg vil heller være opp hos han. Men jeg antar at det er en naturlig følelse…

Vi har gjort ganske mye denne hælga. På fredag tok vi toget hit og jeg hentet opp mine nøkkler til Alba. Etter på dro vi til IKEA for å få noe “nødvendigheter”: dyne, puter, osv. På kvelden kjørte vi opp til Monte Brè etter å ha spisi på Giardino. (Vi hadde reservert en bil til hele hælga ved Mobility.) Det var ingen der oppe på fjellet, og atmosfæren var veldig romantisk dog samtidig litt skummelt.

Lördag tok vi en kjøretur til Italia, hvor vi besøkte en Armani Outlet no sted mellom Como og Milano. Jeg kjøpte meg en business-formal skjorte. René kjøpte seg en ny wardrobe–nesten €2000 i skjorter og drakter. Han var klart fornøyd og var glad resten av dagen. Da dro vi hjem–René tok en lur mens jeg besøkte no gamle venner. På kvelden laget vi pizza og så på Black Swan: herregud, for en film!

Og i dag: etter Renés avgang gikk jeg opp til Panera for å besøke mine gode venninner. Koste meg–det var hyggelig å se at ting ikke har forandra seg for mye.

Nu går jeg til sengs. Forhåpentligvis blir jeg friskere i morra…ellers!

Here I am again, back in the Bay! Life has been busy for me in the past few weeks, and I haven’t had the motivation to blog.

Thanksgiving is now past and faraways, but memories of Vailate are still fresh in my mind: seeing Jessica’s vibrant smile, not to mention new slim figure; meeting her adorable mother; having a San Francisco cocktail at a local lounge courtesy of her sister Sunta; stuffing my stomach with everything Italian–seriously, everything (pizza, pasta, turkey, lasagna, you name it, I ate it); experiencing a legit discoteca in Bergamo; freezing outside in Crema at 5am in the morning for the first café to open because we had no ride home…
It was an amazing weekend, and I can’t wait for my first trip down to Italy when I go back next semester!

Finals took place shortly after that. And I don’t know how I did it, with a History research paper due mid finals-week, but I did it. Pulled a couple of all-nighters, not surprisingly, but in the end everything turned out okay and I’m fornøyd with my grades. (A’s in French and Italian, B’s in everything else.) I’ve also made it off the waitlist for the travel that I really wanted, so it looks like I’ll be going to Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia in the spring!

After my last final on Thursday, I hurriedly packed my things and got on the train from Lugano to Basel, where I proceeded to spend the night and have the best sex of my life. The following day I border-hopped over to France, where a jolly with Marie la Française et sa famille awaited.

The weekend with Marie was the last before I had to return to the US. We spent the afternoons in France and the evenings in Germany, where we caught up on our separate lives after exchange at the koselig Gästehaus Jäger.
The Christmas markets in Alsace were festive and full of people. I purchased myself a jar of Terrine Strasbourgeoise (which I am currently enjoying very much here in the US) and tried some terrific French food, including a croque monsieur and rosti. I also learned proper wine-tasting etiquette, and discovered that I prefer sweet white wines the most. On our last day together we decided to instead explore the German town of Freiburg: less Christmasy, but just as neat–and just as cold. (I think the temperature up there was around -5°C! I was not well kledd, to say the least.)

The next 48 hours were rather uneventful: I overnighted at Zurich International Airport, which apparently closes at night. (There was nothing after 11pm. They even turn off the lights.) And the 20 hours of flight weren’t any more exciting. Not even a good looking steward. Well, that’s not entirely true; he just served first class.

And then I arrived in the United States.
A suivre…

Benvenuto a InterRail Italia!

It’s been a week since my train débâcle, and after some time and distance from it…I can still stand by my original opinion of TrenItalia. Det suger, liksom!
So what happened was this: after an amazing day walking through and getting lost in Venice (which, if I may digress for a bit, is the most beautiful city I have ever visited. I don’t care if people say it’s overtouristy–perhaps it is, but I like it that way; it’s romantic, picturesque, and it’s exceeded my expectations in every way.), I decided to take an earlier train home so I could get back to Lugano by 7PM in order to finish my schoolwork. And here begin my grievances:

They charge me €8 for riding on a different train than I had purchased tickets for. Well, I thought, “Va bene, at least now you know.” However, I didn’t have any Euros on me and asked if I could pay in Swiss Francs. He charged me 30CHF. Only after paying him 20CHF did I realize that he was bullshitting me. (For those who don’t know, €8 is roughly the equivilant of 13CHF.) Trying to stay positive, I had managed to convince myself that paying a little extra was necessary to ensure that I got home early. Little did I know…

My journey courtesy of TrenItalia!

The train that I was on, from Venezia Santa Lucia to Milano Centrale, unexpectedly stopped in Verona. After half an hour of waiting in silence, the conductor announced over the intercom that a man had killed himself sulla ferrovia. (Whether he jumped overboard or hopped in front of the tracks is unbeknownst to me.) So instead of continuing to Milano Centrale, we took a detour–to Bologna.

From Bologna, we slowly chugged our way up towards Milan, with stops in Modena and Piacenza. After six productive hours, we finally reached Milano Centrale. Ironically, I reached Milan even later than I would have if I had taken the train I originally purchased the ticket for. Needless to say, I missed my connection from Milan to Lugano, but was lucky enough not to have missed the last train from Milan to Bellinzona. With almost two hours to kill, I took the time to eat my apple and explore the outside of Milano Centrale and the metro.

In the end, I made it home at around 2AM in the morning. But considering how I did most of my homework on the train, I guess it wasn’t so bad after all.

These next couple of days are very exciting and eventful. Right now I’m still debating whether or not to go to Zürich today. (It’s currently 3:40AM and I would have to get to the train station by 8AM.) Will have a handful of midterms next week, closely followed by the arrival of my Norwegian family on Thursday. Unfortunately, I won’t have the opportunity to be with them for so long because on Monday, I leave for the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Academic Travel.
I’ve also finalized my plans for Thanksgiving! I will be spending the long weekend down in Vailate with Jessica! There are tentative plans to make turkey, which I’m very excited for.
And as for Christmas, hopefully I will be able spend a week over at Marie’s place in either Normandy or Paris before flying home to California.

Wow, I hope all this talk of traveling doesn’t make me sound spoiled rotten. The truth is, I am grateful for every moment of it and am loving life right now. La vita è bella. Ma adesso–devo dormire.

A Day in the Life: Italy

Ciao a tutti!

I am writing from Oderzo, Italy. (Look up its location on Wikipedia. It’s mindblowing realizing where in the world I am right now. In fact, all of today has been so surreal.) With a little help from Sandro, I successfully took the train from Lugano to Venice. Although the connection in Milan was hellish. (Note to self: Italian trains are not like Norwegian trains. And by that I mean they don’t always arrive on time. In fact, I have a theory that they rarely arrive on time.)

I had planned on exploring Oderzo in the morning, but alas, the luxury of having my own bed (as opposed to a bunk bed) in my own private room prevented me from getting out of bed until well past 11. Comunque, after breakfast with the rest of Francesco’s family (who are all very accommodating), I took the bus from Oderzo to Treviso.

Spent the day in Treviso with Francesco, Faustina, and some of his friends. Call me cheesy, or weird, or retardedly sentimental, but I feel lucky and amazed to have experienced today. I mean, how many people can say they have really witnessed the life of an Italian teenager? It was so interesting just to be with them, walking around town, chilling on the playground, making fun of passerbys.

We took the bus home late afternoon and saw the majority of Mannen som Elsket Yngve, which is a surprisingly (or not…if you’re me) good film, before being treated to a delicious dinner of roast beef, potatoes, salad with oil and vinegar, and breadcrumbs-stuffed paprika.

Tomorrow I hope to see a good deal of Venice before taking the train back to Lugano. A suivre…