CEHD Students

Looking forward to next semester!

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 20:14:41 -0600

Coming back to Minnesota from Rome will be bitter-sweet. There is a part of me that is dreading the day that I have leave this magical place, but there is also another part of me that is excited to see all of the people and things I have missed over the past couple of months. Another reason why I'm looking forward to next semester is because I will be studying abroad for my 4th time in South Africa over winter break. A week and half after I get back from Rome, I will be headed towards Capte Town with 20 or so other students from the University of Minnesota. I am beyond excited for this program; as I have heard from past participants that it is a life changing global seminar.

Additionally, I will be taking my last couple of classes before I graduate this May.

Here are the classes that I will be taking:

-Women in Leadership

-Intro. to Project Management

-Intro. to Under-educated Adult

-Diversity in the Workplace

-Societies of the Future

CEA overnight trip to Pompeii, Sorrento, & Capri

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 06:00:00 -0600

This was our first stop once we got to Pompeii. It is a very important archaeological site in Pompeii. We had a very informative guided tour around the site and had a break to get some lunch before we headed to Sorrento for the night.

This was our beautiful hotel in Sorrento. After we checked in, we spent some time in the pool before we went to the center of Sorrento to explore the night-life.

This picture was taken in Capri- an Island on the south coast of Italy. After spending the night in Sorrento, we left the next day to explore Capri. We went on a boat just like the one you see on the left side of the picture to see the island.

After the boat ride, we had free-time to either go to the beach or take cable carts to the top to see the whole island; which is what we did.This is another picture taken after we took the cable carts to the top. This spot gave a really good panoramic view of the island.

After spending the whole day in Capri, we took the fairy to the port of Naples. We then had a choice of going back to Rome, or spending the night in Naples and coming back on our own. Myself along with other people in our program decided to stay a night in Naples. This picture is of me horseback riding on Mount Vesuvius.

This was the most beautiful view of Naples from Mount Vesuvius.

What better way to finish this amazing trip than to devour some Neapolitan pizza? After all, that is the place where it originated. This was by far the best pizza I have ever had, ever!

Slowly coming to an end...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:01:52 -0600

It's without a doubt that the past couple of months have been the best and most memorable in my college career. Living in Rome has been a phenomenal experience. It literally feels like a dream to finally be here learning about an amazing historical city, eating one of the most delicious types of cuisines in the world, meeting people, and building relationships that I know I will forever cherish.

Ever since I studied abroad in Spain and China, I knew that going to school outside of my home country would create a life changing experience and that every college student should partake in that. Spending one moth in both countries opened my eyes to many possibilities. I learned not just about the places that I visited, but also about myself. From my experience, I know that there is something significant that takes place when a student is pushed beyond their comfort zone in a different country. Although there are some challenges that students face when studying abroad, I feel that there is something significant that takes place when a student lives and experiences a different way of life. Through my own voyage to the United States, living in Ethiopia, and studying in Spain and China, I know that the best way to learn about another country is to be in the native environment that allows you to develop an understanding of the culture, the people, the language and their history.

I won an iPad :)

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:39:05 -0600

While studying in Rome, our program (CEA Global Education) opened up a new position for students to blog about their experiences abroad. The position is called CEA MOJO (Mobile Journalist). Anyone who wanted to enter the contest had to submit a video application, and from that they choose one lucky student. One of the main incentive to this position is that the winner gets the new ipad. I figured I had a fair shot, so I applied. Then, couple of days later I was notified that they have selected me and that for the reminder of my semester I would serve as a CEA MOJO . They also told me that I would receive the new iPad upon completion of this program.

Click here to see my Video Application on YouTube.

Cooking Class- Roman Style

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:34:08 -0600

In addition to the classes I am taking at CEA Global Education, I participate in various cultural excursions in order to get a better understanding of Roman culture and Italian overall. One of these activities is a cooking class. As you can see in the pictures below, we learned how to make pasta from scratch.

We used 10 eggs, and 100 grams of flour to make the pasta dough.

As you can see in the picture above, we made 3 types of pasta with the dough (Fettuccine, Tortellini, and Ravioli ) and we used mashed potatoes as a stuffing for the Tortellini and Ravioli.

And this is the final product. I took the Fettuccine I made and boiled it while I sautéed some garlic, onions, green peppers, and onions in a different pan. After it was done I mixed the sauteed vegetables with the pasta. To add some finishing touches, I added some red crushed peppers and basil.

Exploring Europe through food

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:24:16 -0600

Europe Travel

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:22:49 -0600

Hello readers, it has been quite sometime since I last blogged. I've been having way too much fun in Italy and Europe in general to keep up with writing, and I apologize for that. Since my last entry, I have traveled to 8 countries in Europe and 4 cities in Italy. With traveling just about every weekend, taking 5 classes, and trying to explore Rome as much as I can, I feel very busy here and time is cruising by. Here are some of the places that I've been to since my last blog entry:

Pompeii, Sorrento, Naples, & Capri, Italy

Prague, Czech Republic

Corfu, Greece

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Brussels, Belgium

Dublin, Ireland

London, England

Budapest, Hungary

Munich, Germany

Since I have less than a month here, I am only traveling for one more weekend to go to Florence and Venice. Beyond that, I am taking advantage of every second I have in Rome by continuing to explore. I truly can't believe that this adventure is coming to an end soon.

Home away from home

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:30:24 -0600

It's funny how every single time I travel outside of the U.S., one of the first things that I miss is Ethiopian/Eritrean food. Luckily, I found a couple of Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants close to where I live in Rome. Once I told all of my roommates that I really missed my food, they all suggested that we make a trip to a near by restaurant. So I took my 7 roommates for what ended up being an amazing cultural adventure. We went to an Eritrean restaurant called Sahara. Everything in the restaurant was decorated in a traditional manner including the uniforms of the waiters. They played traditional Eritrean music and even talked to me in my primary language: Amharic. It was simply delightful.

Cinque Terre- Five villages on the coast of Italy

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 23:47:48 -0600

I just got back to Rome after spending the weekend hiking through the 5 beautiful villages on the coast of Italy. Cinque Terre is composed of 5 towns (Montweosso al Mare, Vernazza, Cornglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore) that are located in a city called La Spezia.

The villages have a walking trail called Sentiero Azzurro (light blue trail) that connects all of the 5 towns. From my pictures above, you can see that one of the main attraction of the villages are their unique landscape.

Beautiful Weekend in France

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:37:21 -0600

Oh France! Where do I even begin? I took a train with one of my roommates from Rome to Nice, France for a weekend. It felt like the vacation of a life-time, even though being in Rome is already a vacation itself.

I stayed with an American that has lived in France for 21 years, which was very beneficial because she also served as our tour-guide as we went from the city of Nice to Marseille.

It would be an understatement to say that this trip was phenomenal. Both Marseille and Nice were very diverse, so I took advantage of that and tried Tunisian, Moroccan, and Turkish food. I also had an opportunity to have my first, second, and third Crepes which were absolutely delicious.

In both cities I got to see some of the major historical sites, eat delicious food, enjoy the beaches, and make new friends from the other side of the world.

This trip overall set a great tone for all my following weekend trips in and out of Italy.

Travel plans solidified!

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:28:04 -0600

When I decided to study abroad in Italy, I also made the decision to travel around Europe and see as much as I possibly can within the semester that I am here.

In attempt to be efficient in my planing process, I created a calendar with all my weekend trips written in it. Here are some of the places I have already planned and booked my flights for in Europe:

Nice, France

Munich, Germany

Budapest, Hungary

London, England

Dublin, Ireland

Brussels, Belgium

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Here are some cities I will be visiting in Italy

Florence

Venice

Pisa

Cinque Terre

Capri

Pompeii

Sorento

Luca

One of the best perks of studying in Europe is having access to very cheap flights. For instance, one of my flights only cost me 20 Euros.

As I am continuing to plan more trips on the weekends that I am free, I keep thinking of how lucky I am to be in this amazing place. It's only been two weeks, but I already know that this will be the best semester of my life!

Some of the historical sites in Rome!

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:44:46 -0600

This past weekend I had an opportunity to visit some of the popular sites in Rome. Some of them include, but not limited to the following:

-Colosseum

-Pantheon

-Piazza Navona

-Trevi Fountain

Here are some of the pictures

My new home. Roma, Italia

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:14:43 -0600

After months of planning and much anticipation, I am here in Rome, Italy studying abroad for my third time. I arrived here almost two weeks ago and have been adjusting pretty well. The picture on the left is of my condo that I share with 7 other girls in my program. We have one whole side of the second floor, and lucky for me, I have a spacious single room. My roommates are all from different states (California, Arizona, Indiana, and Pennsylvania).

The is a picture of Global Campus CEA- where all my classes are held. It's a beautiful villa that is located two minutes from my condo. Although my study abroad program is considered to be an outside program, all of my credits transfer and fulfill my major and liberal education requirements.

This is a beautiful garden right next to school where I like to study for classes. Like I mentioned above all of my classes are relevant to all of my courses. Here is a list of what I'm taking:

Beginning Italian

International Marketing

Business Ethics and Global Management

Social History of Italian Mafia

The Culture of Food and Wine in Italian Society

Mill City Farmers Market

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:16:37 -0600

My friends and I went to the Mill City Farmers Market (which is located across the Stone Arch Bridge next to The Guthrie). It was amazing! We arrived a little after ten and the place was packed with a diverse crowd. I had the best gluten free blueberry muffin and an iced coffee but unfortunately, I left my camera at home that day so I don't have any pictures to show you guys. There were many gluten free and dairy free options at the market too, which was awesome. My friends and I decided we are going to make this an every Saturday morning thing. Being able to bike with friends and get a cheap breakfast is something I look forward to every Saturday! I highly recommend attending this farmers market if you have the opportunity. There is great food, produce and live music. And if you don't have money to spend on breakfast go and people watch, it really is fascinating to see the different crowds of people that show up.

Here is the website with more information:
http://millcityfarmersmarket.org/

Just an update

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:12:26 -0600

So this summer has been almost as busy as the school year! I have been applying for a second job and had an interview for a childcare worker at a domestic abuse non-profit organization. I really hope I get the job so I can start working at a job that is relevant to my field. I have still been working for parking- which is nice on these hot days because there is air conditioning. So far I have spent the summer at the beach, biking, going to Duluth, seeing live music and exploring the city. I also plan to apply for a few study abroad options for the upcoming school year! There are so many options that it is hard to choose which program would be the best. All in all, everything is going well and it is wonderful to have a break from homework!