Alexa Burrows

I had a discussion with my friend Jess last night that really made an impression on me today. She was just reflecting with me how happy she is about her life right now, how blessed, how fortunate, how lucky she truly is.

Although things may happen that suck, that bring us down, we have to keep looking forward. We need to stop focusing on all the negative that happens during our day and start focusing on the positive.

Stop saying FML, stop saying you hate your life. It’s not true. 

Life after Roma

It’s been about a week and a half since I have left Rome. Despite the slight 5 day delay, I finally made it out. The plane ride was extremely long (11 1/2 hours to Georgia., then 3 1/2 hours to Boston.) Being home has reminded me why America is so great. Culture-shock has been a constant reminder. 

1. Whenever I go to plug in something I start looking for an adaptor

2. Everyone speaks English? bizzare.

3. I can no longer say rude things about people in front of there face because they will understand me. bummer.

4. Grocery shopping isn’t a nightmare

5. I can eat a plethera of different types of food, none of them being pasta or pizza.

6. Ciao, and grazie, mean nothing to people in America. Especially when you say them to people at your job. whoops.

7. The biggest culture shock however is not seeing all my roman friends everyday. It’s crazy how much I miss them already!

So this is probably my last post strictly about study abroad. I am so glad that I kept this blog so I can remember each little detail, and whenever I start to forget I can always look back to remind myself. Thank you everyone who took the time to read my blog, and experience this crazy experience with me.

Stranded in Rome

Every story has a beginning, every story has an end. What happens in the middle can be altered, rearranged, and determined by fate or by pure coincidence.
The beginning of my story started August 30th. The middle of my story is completely a whirlwind of experiences that cannot be described in words. The end of my story was supposed to be yesterday, December 17th. This is what happened instead.
While I was packing friday December 16th, I frantically began looking for my passport. I ran around, tearing apart the apartment for it to be no where to be found. My stomach dropped. I called the US embassy and said that I would be there in a half an hour to get my emergency passport. On a normal day half an hour would have been plenty of time to get there. But on this day of all days, there was a transportation strike. Meaning no trains, no trams, no buses, no cabs nothing. I sprinted to the US embassy which is located near the spanish steps. This is about an hour and a half away from my apartment. I make it there in 45 minutes and the door to the embassy is closed. I call the embassy and they apologize simply saying that I will have to come on monday…what they don’t know is that my flight back to america is indeed saturday morning. A million thoughts go through my head, how will I get home, where am I going to stay. I immediatly break down. I spend the rest of the day crying not only because I am stranded in italy for 4 days all alone, but also because this was the day I had to say goodbye to 30 of my closest friends.
I book a plane ticket for tuesday morning which costs me 175 euros. This means I would have to find a place to stay sat-mon night. Lovely.
After a farewell dinner, and traveling to the trevi and colosseum with the roma crew, we all said goodbye. I haven’t cried that hard in years. I didn’t think it would be that difficult to say goodbye. I was wrong.
At 4 that morning I said goodbye to my cali girls, and at 7am I said goodbye to brit and liz, and then I was alone. I was alone and wondering what would happen for the next 4 days.
2 hours went by and I went downstairs and talked to my landlord, I thought if there was a heaven above she would allow me to at least stay one more night in the apartment until I figure out what to do. After telling her what happened, she called the owners of the apartment who told her that I could stay in the apartment as long as I needed to. I cried into her arms, tears of happiness. It felt like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders.
The whole day Pat (his plane didn’t leave until sunday morning) and I walked around rome one last time. I said goodbye to him at 2am and then I amazingly slept for 12 hours in my very own bed, in my very own apartment.
Today I read, cleaned, and hung around. I have never ever felt so lonely in my life. Luckily jasmine is coming back to rome tomorrow, after my meeting with the us embassy to get my emergency passport.
My plane leaves tuesday morning at 9:30am.
Jack told me that I am one of the only people strong enough to have dealt with this whole stressful situation, and he is right. This whole ordeal taught me how strong I really am. Maybe things do happen for a reason.

The Final Countdown

5 days left in Italy. It feels like yesterday that I was getting on the plane in Boston to come here. I knew that time was going to fly, but I never knew how fast.

Blessed-It’s funny that while we are in the middle of a certain time in our life, we take everything for granted, because we are simply so focused on the next excitement, the next step, for the weekend to come, etc. That is exactly why time flies so fast, we don’t get the chance to appreciate each day for what it is, a new day.

Now that the end is near, I have had a lot of time to sit back and reflect upon the past 4 months. I have done and experienced things that some people can only dream of. I am lucky to say that each and every day I have never forgotten how blessed I am to be here.

Confidence-I know it sounds super corny, but I honestly feel as though I have finally grown into myself.  Everyone has always told me how confident I am and how lucky I am to be that confident. Although, I never believed them, I now realize how right they are. I look at the people around me so worried about what everyone thinks about them, and then I realize how different I am then them. Living here for these four months has reassured the fact that I frankly “Don’t give a fuck,” and I am proud of it.

Friends-studying abroad is such a bizzare experience. You come to a strange country knowing absolutely no one. You are put in an apartment with people you have never met before, hoping that you all get along. How is that normal?

While studying abroad I guarantee I have introduced myself to at least 200 people. Although I may not remember all 200 of those that I have met, I have built relationships with people as strong as people that I have known for most of my life. It’s unreal to think that the people I have spent every single day with for the past 4 months, I will realistically never see again.

Study abroad friends are different then any other type of friends. I have traveled, laughed, lived, cried, partied, and experienced more things with these people then I can even begin to describe. Everyone in “our group” always jokes around how we always “roll deep” I don’t think any of us realize how lucky we are to have eacother. The realtionship we all have with eachother is something unique and special. I know someday when we look back on this time of our lives we will realize it was not the country we were living in, the fun we were having, or the places we traveled, but the people we experienced it with. So for that I just wanted to say Thank You.