And it begins.

Hello everyone! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Julie Zeitz, and I'm a sophomore marketing major at Clemson University. In the spring of 2012 starting January 15th, I'll be studying abroad in Florence, Italy, at Lorenzo de'Medici (LdM) and I could not be more excited. While abroad I'll be taking fifteen hours, of which include: international marketing, fashion marketing, intro to Italian, art history (antiquity to early renaissance), and my personal favorite, wine and culture. I'm keeping this travel blog not only to share my upcoming, culture shocking experiences with you all, but to also keep some sort of personal record of my time abroad, as I know I won't be able to remember it all like my handy dandy Europadventures blog will. 


So, in preparing to study abroad, I just need to pack for four months, right? Wrong. For the last four months I've been a slave to study abroad paperwork, tasks, and errands, and now it's crunch time. While at school I chose the courses I wanted to take abroad, got the courses I was taking abroad approved by the respective college departments on campus, and applied for a student visa. While being home for the break the list only continues: transferring my funds from Wells Fargo to Bank of America (an international bank as to save money on future transactions), ordering a Go Phone through my school, making copies of all parts of my paperwork/credit cards/passport, buying adapter cords, obtaining a "vacation prescription" for medicine I'll need abroad, and of course, packing.

Sallie Turnbull, my wonderful study abroad advisor, suggested I only take one suitcase. How I'm going to make this happen, I have yet to figure out. One suitcase for four plus months? Sallie advised I take "lots of color neutral colors, and no heels," because American women "cannot walk on cobblestone in heels, as it's just not possible." Sound advice, I owe you one Sallie. 

To everyone reading this now, this is my first time blogging so just bear with me. Hopefully I'll get better at it for when it really counts, when I'm abroad! I thought I'd just start with a trial run before I go, give myself more time to improve on the art of blogging. More to come, so stay tuned! Next stop: Europe.

All my love,

Julie