This trip has been totally amazing! If I stopped at Czechia, I could have gone home happy.  Going to Rome made it even better. I noticed UW Tacoma and UW Seattle have Rome study abroad programs.  I hope everyone that wishes to travel, has a chance to apply for those programs. There are no words that can describe my happiness for this opportunity. 

I am in love with art, but I never studied it much.  This trip gave me an opportunity to have an intimate look into artists such as Mucha, Warhol, Dahli, Da Vinci, Barberini, and so many more.  These artists gave me a look into the past in a completely different way.  They enriched this experience so much, even going to the Czechia National Museum and learning about some of their composers.  I can’t remember the names, but I can still hear some of the melodies.

Then, there is the history. Learning about the effects of communism can completely change a society. Learning about how being right in the middle of Nazi Germany’s attacks and manipulations can change and silence a whole generation. When in Italy, I learned more about famous war lords such as Hannibal, Scipio, and the Romans. I am not much of a history buff, but this experience of traveling through history was amazing. 

I was once asked why I wanted to travel because people are people no matter where a person goes and everything else can be found in books or online.  I wasn’t sure how to answer this and I still don’t know the answer, but now I can feel the answer stronger than ever. This was my first time leaving the US. I started traveling across the country a few years ago.  People are different everywhere.  Different people have pride in different things.  Some people naturally stand closer to each other. Some take pride in art, some in architecture, some in history.  To hear the emotion behind someone that saw the fall of the Iron Curtain, was living under communism, and was able to eat McDonalds, of all things, then watch them almost cry because they felt the relief of freedom in a cheeseburger, is the greatest gift. To hear someone, explain how Hannibal crossed the Alps with elephants to defeat the Romans many times and hear the pride in the voice of the storyteller because they were born in this country, is so amazing.  People are so strong and passionate. They are like us. They have pride in their country.  They make light of the strange and crazy and take pride in the magnificent. 

This was a trip of a lifetime.  I stood in a 2000-year-old building.  I walked over a site that had 2500-year-old artifacts from a place of worship from the original Tuscans. I drank wine from a family that has been making wine for over 500 years. I also drank 30-year-old wine that was directly from the barrel. I ate the food of communism. I ate the food that people take pride in.  I walked into buildings that were covered in gold trimming. I walked between two machines that incinerated people after they died. I walked in front of a building that housed the some of the children of the Jews in WW2. I bought their book.  I walked through a gate where many gladiators took their last stand. I sat where royalty and Ministers and Popes sat.  I walked where the remains of Saints and disciples’ bones were placed.  I learned about the beginning of amazing beer. I met Scottish, English, Roman, Italian, Venezuelan, Czechian, Slovakian, Czechoslovakian, Gypsy, Romanian, Polish, Other American, and Canadian people. 

I cannot explain how much this trip has changed my life.  I am eager to get home, but I also wish I could stay forever.