This summer, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Europe for Spring Hill's Italy Center program. For five weeks, I was immersed in Italian culture and lifestyle within the food capital of Bologna, Italy. Bologna is a prime location to travel because it's only a train ride away from the beach, Rome, Venice, Cinque Terre, Verona, Parma, Austria and so much more!
I loved a lot of things about Italy, including the pizza, pasta, gelato, the walking, public transportation, the music and the night life. What I loved most was the simplicity of life there. Italians walk fast and with a purpose, but they sit at coffee shops and other places and talk for HOURS. They like to sit in the piazza, have a drink and just talk about any and everything.
Upon returning from Italy, I connected well with the people in my group. In the beginning of the semester, we had "Italian night," where we cooked chicken parmesan and relieved our memories abroad.
*Check out my experience abroad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_gvVaj_BQ&t=9s
The last week in Europe was our social justice trip to the Balkans, specifically Bosnia and Croatia. We took an overnight ferry to Croatia and stayed a few days in Makarska and then went to Sarajevo, Bosnia.
We learned in-depth about the Balkan War in the 1990s and the physical and mental devastation that still exists today. In Sarajevo, we talked to religious and political leaders about the current state of Bosnia and what's expected for the region for years to come. One of the religious leaders said that Bosnia could be the exemplary model of a country where people from different cultural and religious backgrounds can co-exist.
While in Bosnia, we visited a city called Srebrenica, and that day took an emotional toll on me. In 1995, thousands of Muslims were killed in just one week. We visited the memorials and met one of the survivors of the massacre. His brother and father were murdered at the same time during that horrific week, yet he survived.