Saying I love Charlotte is an understatement. It has to be one of my favorite cities ever, and every time I visit I find myself loving it more. My family has been going to one Carolina Panthers game a year for almost 15 years now, and we have become fans of the team and the city. This year’s trip to Charlotte was for a different team. Our favorite UTK Volunteers played West Virginia in the Belk College Kickoff in the Panthers stadium.Read more
Signature Souvenirs in Italy
When I was getting ready to leave for Italy, one thing I could not get off my mind was souvenirs! I was so anxious about finding the perfect gifts and trinkets for all my friends and family. I kind of figured out what to get as I went from city to city, but I kept thinking how helpful it would have been if someone had told me what to keep an eye out for in each city. So today I am going to put together a list of the best souvenirs in most of the major Italian cities!Read more
Rowing around Rome
It’s here- my final post from my six-week trip around Italy! We ended the trip with three days in Rome, and it was a great ending to the program. I am going to share some photos and a few details about some of my favorite things we did!Read more
A Magical Time in Venice
For years I have been told that Venice is dirty, smells bad, there isn’t much to see, and you only need to spend a few hours there. Coming from someone who only had three hours to spend there, I can confidently say, a few hours isn’t enough!!Read more
It’s Palio Time in Siena!
Ciao friends!! I am writing this on July 2nd, the night after the first Palio of the year. I have never seen anything like this event, and I had definitely never heard of it before coming to Siena for the summer. I wanted to do a blog post about this race in case anyone loves learning about historical things as much as I do! I also don’t want to forget anything that happened today, because it was honestly one of the neatest experiences I have ever had.Read more
How to pack for six weeks abroad without checking a bag
A little background- I packed for six weeks in a Tuscany summer in a carry on sized suitcase and a backpack! I am staying in a bed and breakfast, so I have access to towels, hair dryers, etc. which helped me bring less!Read more
Cinque Terre
One day in Pisa
My Top 5 Goals for Studying Abroad
I am on my way to Siena, Italy as I am typing this! I have been thinking about this since before I started college in 2016, and I can’t believe it’s finally time for me to go. I heard about the specific program I am going with in one of my first classes at UT, but I never believed I would get accepted and end up going! I hope to update weekly, but for now I wanted to have a list of “goals” written down so I can look back on them afterwards and see what I was thinking before I left. Some of these are more expectations than goals, but I thought goal was a good blanket term!Read more