Hello! My name is Gianna and I am officially an international student. I arrived in Milan Italy a week ago but it feels like I have been here for a lifetime. In the past week there has been so many challenges and pleasant surprises that I never thought would occur. 

I was very nervous about making new friends and finding people with the same interests as me, I am so happy I did not have that problem once I arrived. Our little traveling friend group has been together everyday for days and it seems like I have been friends with them forever. Other than the really amazing food, my favorite part of Italy so far is talking to so many new and different people. So far, I have met a lot of people from the states but I have also spoken with some people from Canada, France, Australia, Germany and Norway. It is slightly difficult to speak with other Italians because regular classes have not started yet. Hopefully that will change, and more Italian students will be staying in my residence hall. Everything is so beautiful, the buildings, statues, churches and even the little water fountains with fresh water for the public. 

I thought everything was going so smoothly until last night. Some of my new friends decided to make a nice potluck dinner and drink some wine. The entire night we were switching back and forth between apartments so naturally I lost my key. Where is the key? Still not found. I am currently writing while waiting for the custodian to wake up. I was lucky enough to have a friend let me stay with them but otherwise I am not sure what would’ve happened.  I came on this trip as an absolute beginner in Italian which has proven to be slightly difficult. Yet, I have been able to get by just fine with a smile, the word ciao and google translate. Hopefully, the custodian will be willing to work with me. I know he does not speak English very well. 

With all that said I have already faced many difficulties that have proven themselves to be minor inconveniences. I have been struggling when trying to use the metro. Although I have been getting better at it with time, it is very similar to New York City except all of the signs are in Italian. Or that it is seen as impolite to be loud at any restaurant, even if it is outside. 

I can not wait to see what the rest of the semester has yet to bring! For now here are some pictures of orientation and the potluck dinner made by all of my international friends. 

Ciao 

Gianna <3

What I love about where I live, is that there are so many secret passageways that only a true Londoner would be able to point out. Every day on my way to class I pass through a long twisted alleyway that is covered with ivy and slate stone. If you look up you see a lonesome window that unfortunately does not have much of a view. You have to walk fast because all of the locals on their way to work use this passage to cut through the street just as I do!

There were definitely a lot of things I wasn’t aware of when I came to London. I honestly didn’t think it would be that different from New York City… and in a few ways I wasn’t wrong. In London, everyone uses contactless cards. That means rather than MetroCards you can just tap your cards or phone against the reader and it will automatically go through. There isn’t that pesky chip card that you have to insert everywhere you go. You also aren’t really supposed to tip in London, a kind tip is maybe one or two pounds as opposed to the standard 15-20% that we leave in New York. The waiter brings the credit card reader to you when you are ready to pay for the check, rather than you giving them your card and they do it for you. So cool! Everything is so much easier here and already thought out. There is no wait, no underdevelopment. It is as if everything is just made for the people. The humor here is also different. I went to see Matilda on Broadway and it was so interesting, there were certain jokes that were made that everyone else in the audience laughed at, while I was sitting there so confused… Another thing about London is that the cars never stop for pedestrians, that’s just not “the norm” there. I’m being serious when I say that they will literally run you over if you’re not careful. People also are pretty aggressive when walking on the street and not mindful of others. Everyone is just going so fast all the time. 

People immediately flock to the pubs after work and they are usually crowded from around 6-11 which is when almost every establishment shuts down for the night. Almost all bars or pubs close at 11 and when they are closing they ring a bell. I’ve never seen that done in America! Drinks are pretty expensive but also, everything is really expensive. It’s hard to find good deals because everything is just expensive wherever you go which has definitely taken a toll on my bank account. I really like grocery shopping and they have all these cool deals at the local grocery stores such as “Tesco”, “Sainsbury” and “Waitrose”. I really like grocery shopping for myself here and I’ve cooked up some really great meals. 

I AM BACK AT NEW PALTZ! I am excited to be back but I definitely miss Colombia. I am surprised because I did not think that I would miss Colombia like I do.

While I was in Colombia, I had a great time learning about the culture and conducting research. I did have minor problems that I blew out of proportion when I was in Colombia. I was homesick for the most part. Not homesick that I missed the United States or New York or Queens but I missed the people I had left at home. I was seeing my family and friends and talking to them but it was not the same. Every day that I was there I wished that I had my friends in Colombia. In hindsight, I realized that I should not have focused on that and should have enjoyed being where I was. However, something good came out of missing my friends. My friends and I have decided that within the next two years we will be visiting Colombia. I am excited because I will get to show them the culture and the places I was shown!

Now, I miss all the beautiful places I visited and the people I met. I also miss the daily life of Colombians and their great food. My advice for those studying abroad that miss family and/or friends is to remember that they will be there when you get back but this opportunity won’t be. Take advantage as much as you can. I am extremely glad that although I was home sick I pushed myself to meet new people and explore new places.

I find myself talking about Colombia any chance I get. I have become the study abroad that only talks about their study abroad experience. I can’t stop talking about it because Colombia made me realize what I am capable of and made me so much more interested in research around the world. Lastly, for anyone considering studying abroad please do so and consider Colombia. It’s a great choice!

So far, this trip has already taught me how to be okay with being alone.

I have always liked meeting new people and making new friends. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been that easy for me to do that here. It’s not because the people are rude or anything. Everyone here is really friendly. I just can’t seem to find people that I can relate to. I feel like I keep having the same small talk conversation over and over, just with different people.

“Hey my name is Angelina, I am from New York. Where are you from? Awesome. What are you studying?” ..it gets repetitive and tiring.

I feel like this has caused me to become more introverted but that’s okay. I have been spending a lot of time alone and I am learning more about myself. It’s okay to enjoy your own company.

I actually pushed myself to go out on a hike with a few people from my hall to the Wind Turbine in Brooklyn. Yes, there’s a Brooklyn in New Zealand!

…but it didn’t go so well. They were walking up really fast and it was hard for me to catch up. I often felt left out which caused my anxiety to kick in. I ended up leaving the group and having to find my way back down and to my hall. It took about an hour but I made it back safely!

Honestly, I enjoyed myself a lot more by taking that adventure alone! I was able to go at my own pace and really appreciate the views. I don’t need friends in order to have a good time here and I am finally accepting that. 🙂

Today marks my third week here in New Zealand. Time is flying!

I have yet to make the amount of friends that I imagined I would have by now, but that’s okay! Although, it does make me miss my friends back home.

They warn you about getting homesick and you don’t really worry about it until it starts to happen. I find myself spending a whole lot of time in my room watching Instagram stories of my friends back home in New York enjoying their hot summers. Meanwhile, I am here in “Windy Wellington” with random rain.

As much as I would like to be in a pool somewhere soaking up the sun with my best friends, I have to remind myself that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am on the other side of the world! I am blessed to be here!

By shifting this mindset, I was able to go on my first hike up Te Ahumairangi Hill!

By doing so, I was able to meet three sweet young women who are also studying abroad. I now have some friends to go on random hikes with! 🙂

Also, the hall that I live in has a dog named Millie that you are able to go on walks or hikes with whenever! She is the cutest hiking buddy.

I am hoping next week I can push myself past my comfort zone and meet more people who I can go on more adventures. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I want to make the most out of it!

Since I have been in Colombia, I have not stopped traveling. The more I travel, the more I realize there is so much more to see! I’m always shocked when I think of all the beautiful places I have yet to visit.

On a friday, my roommates, my parcera, her friend and I decided to go to Rio (river) Pance. Caleños (people who live in Cali, Colombia) frequently visit Rio Pance during the weekends, so my parcera thought it was a spot that I had to go to. At first, I didn’t think it would that impressive given that it is only a river. I was shocked!

To get to Rio Pance, we stop a bus called “Recreativos,” which is a bus that takes you to fun places and that you can take at any point along it’s route. The Receativo took us to the town of Pance and from the town we hiked up to Rio Pance. We hiked for like two hours. (We later realized that the Recreativo could have taken us to a spot closer to Rio Pance) The hike up to a good spot to bathe in was beautiful. There were so many mini-waterfall, bridges, small towns, and scenic nature spots. When we finally got to Rio Pance, I was more impressed. The water was freezing but once you got in, you didn’t want to get out. I spent most of the time playing in the water and also laying down on rocks and admiring the sky and the view of the river. The water was so clear and it felt so refreshing to bathe in such a scenic area. The river looked straight out of movie!

My roommates and I also got the chance to go another city in Colombia: Medellin. Since we didn’t have much time (only three days), we decided to do tours of the city, Guatape and La Piedra del Peñol to be able to see most of Medellin. During the city tour we got to see many parks and important places of the city. The places that stuck out to me the most were Plaza Botero, Pueblito Paisa and Comuna 13. Plaza Botero is a park where the statues of the famous artist and sculptor, Fernando Botero, displays his statues of fat people and shows them in a beautiful light. I really liked Plaza Botero because it made me think of the body positive movement. Fernando Botero was ahead of the game with this movement. I am also very glad that Botero decided to depict fat people as beautiful as they are to remove the sigma against them and show that they can be just as beautiful as someone who is skinny.

On the same city tour with Sercoltour, we got to see Pueblito Paisa. In Medellin, they say if you go to Medellin and you don’t visit Pueblito Paisa, then you haven’t been to Medellin. Pueblito Paisa is a small town on top of a hill. It is a very colorful and pretty pueblito. It is also filled with a lot of places to eat. I enjoyed Pueblito Paisa a lot!

Next, we went to la Comuna 13. La Comuna 13 used to be a very dangerous town that became a tourist attraction. This happened through massive transformation because la Comuna 13 used to be a very dangerous town. The town was full of drugs, violence and gang activity. It was such a dangerous town that even the cops refused to go there! After a two battle between the gang members in the community and the government, the gang members surrendered. They agreed to stop causing havoc on the civilians and in return became a very touristic spot. Comuna 13 is filled with many beautiful murals painted by famous Colombian and other international artists. These artists painted their murals to applaud the communities transformation and to help them continue to be a very touristic town. La Comuna 13 has a very good spot to get hand made crafts, naturally flavored ice creams. Doña Alba has tons of flavors and since I’m very brave I decided to try the cheese flavored- ice cream. To my surprise it tasted great! It tasted like sweet cheese with guava inside.

The next day we took a tour of Guatape and El Peñol. Guatape is a very colorful town in Medellin. It is right next to El Peñol. El Peñol is a gigantic rock that seems to just appeared near Guatape. It is a touristic place because people go to see the rock and climb its 740 steps. Trust me, I was just as worried of climbing that many steps to see the beautiful view from the top! But, I was way more determined than worried. I believed I could do it. While I was going up the steps, I quickly realized why not everyone climbs. You easily loose your breath and it is very straining to climb that many steps. I definitely used my water bottle! After a whole lot of sweat, drinking all the water in my water bottle and my trembling legs, I finally reached the top. The view was worth all those steps! I felt so accomplished and happy that I got to see such beauty first-hand.

So far, my favorite place so far has been Cristo Rey which is the second largest Christ of King statue in the world. I went at midday, so I was able to see it light up. I was also able to see the amazing view of Cali from Cristo Rey. I saw the sunset on the city. It was an indescribable view! The Cristo Rey area is also known for its delicious pizzas. I got to try the famous Cristo Rey pizzas. I tried a Samba (sweet plantain, corn and bacon) flavored pizza. I fell in love with that pizza flavor! I do

Lastly, I have enjoyed traveling around Colombia so much. I am surprised that there is still so much more to explore. I have made good friends here who want me to return. So, I can’t wait to return and explore more places in Colombia!

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity that I have to do research with the group Virus Emergentes y Enfermedad (VIREM) in Universidad del Valle sede San Fernando! My mentor Dr. Beatriz Parra Patriño, a virologist, and other mentors have been so helpful and open to teaching and showing me new techniques and knowledge.

I chose Universidad del Valle because I wanted to learn more about public health and the different aspects involved in research. VIREM prides themselves in investigating diseases that affect the Colombian community and that piqued my interest. Specifically, the research being conducted about diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, and zika interested me. Dr. Parra Patiño is conducting researching that involves establishing and confirming the epidemiological trend of people with the aforementioned diseases having neurological health issues after being infected.

I have been very lucky because Dr. Parra Patiño is allowing me to participate and see various aspects of the research. I have been learning the ins and outs of having your own research team and the many aspects of research that are not talked about. I am so glad that I am because I am getting the complete picture of what it’s like to be a researcher conducting their own experiment! I have gone to meetings that discuss the research project. It was eye-opening to see the amount of people that work on one research project and their different specialties. I also packaged kits to send out to the areas in Colombia that have been affected by these diseases. I helped the VIREM group make kits for a control group, an experimental (affected) group, and follow up kits for old and new patients. Lastly, I had to read and setup a summarized procedure for the laboratory and for my future work with enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent (ELISA) kits. I did not know that when kits came, the instructions were not as clear as I am used to in my laboratory manuals.

In the laboratoy, I have also gotten to work with Liliana, an immunologist, who taught me to extract mononuclear cells from peripheral blood samples. I have gotten to use a pipette filler and serological 5ml pipettes. The pipette filler was very hard to use and took practice. I’m glad that I got the experience to work with a new machine! These mononuclear then go through the process of RNA extraction and PCR amplification. I have worked with Yhensy Zuluaga, a bacteriologist, extracting RNA and conducting RT(reverse transcript)-PCR in real time from two blood samples that were received from various hospitals.

My mentor noticed that I am really good at laboratory work and wanted me to get more theory behind the laboratory techniques that I have been doing. She also wanted to prepare me for the ELISA technique I will be doing this coming week. My mentor is allowing me to audit the immunodiagnostics class. I was surprised that I understand the experiments and the reasons for each step of the reactions being realized. I realized that I have a very strong laboratory basis and biochemical understanding of each of the reactions! I just need to learn a lot more of the immunological aspect of research conducted in public health. This class has made me more confident in my ability and has confirmed that I do want to study diseases in the future. I realized that instead of epidemiological work, I want to do research and laboratory work involving public health. 

Isn’t it amazing how..

Around this time, last year, I was preparing myself to go to SUNY New Paltz as a transfer student. I had never been to a college away from home and I was nervous about being away from my family.

..and here I am.. in New Zealand! *mindblown emoji*

I wrote this the night arrived in Wellington:

” Today was quite an eventful day. Or shall I say, weekend. I left my house on Friday but here I am in New Zealand on Sunday. It feels like it’s all been a part of the same day. It’s almost as if I time traveled. Thankfully, I was asleep for most of the 16 hour flight from Los Angeles to Australia. I think that made the rest of the traveling a lot easier. The disappointing part was that my luggage did not arrive with me and surprisingly, I wasn’t even mad about it. I was just glad that I made it here safely.

To be honest, the hall that I have been placed in is beautiful but my flat is not what I expected. Neither was the hall I lived in at SUNY New Paltz but I ended up living with amazing people. So I know that everything happens for a reason so I am going to make the most out of it. Also, my room is huge! It’s really nice actually but a little plain and boring so I want to get some LED lights to make it feel more cozy.” – 30/06/19

Since that day, I have been able to explore the city a bit and meet a few other international students. I start my classes next week and I am looking forward to meeting ‘Kiwi’ people and hearing their accent. I have been told that it may be difficult to understand. In that case, I hope my professors don’t speak fast.

Before I start talking about the small trips I made so far in Colombia, I want to mention all the delicious food I’ve tried so far. I have tried a marranito, lulado, champu, arrequipe, empanada colombiana, papa rellena, dedo de queso, and chicken flavored chips. A marranito is is a plantain snack stuffed with chicharron, pork rinds. A lulado is is a drink that mixes lulo, a fruit, with water, ice and sugar. A champú is a drink made out of a mix of corn and fruits. The only thing I did not really like was the champú . There was too many different flavors in that one drink for my liking.

We went to so many place in the span of two weeks. I’m impressed and glad that we got the opportunity! We went to Las tres cruces, El museo la terutlia, El gato del río y sus gatas and el zoologico de cali.

My housemates and I have traveled and explored Colombia a lot. we hiked to Las Tres Cruces. It was a long hiking route that lasted two hours. I was completely exhausted and pushed to hike under the sun. I had hiked before, but this was a lot more stamina based. It was necessary to stay hydrated at all times. I did find it interesting that whoever we encountered on the hike would say hello to us. Once again, the people are very friendly and respectful in Cali, Colombia. 

We went to el Museo La Tertulia, a well-known museum in Cali. In the museum, we saw a lot of Colombian art and one of the curators gave us more information about the art pieces. My favorite artist was Hernando Tejada because he created very controversial art pieces that went against the beliefs of the church. You can see one of his paintings below.  

We also went to see el gato del río y sus gatas. It was really cool to see so many cats. I found it cool that there was one cat at first (el gato del río) and then there was Cali competition where they chose the other cats (las gatas). The big brown cat is el gato del río. The yellow cat is one of my favorite cats. All the cats have a biography describing their personalities. Specifically, this cat represents the culture and folklore of the Colombian people with pre-Columbian designs.  

I was also able to visit the zoo this week. I saw a lot of animals that I had not seen before. Honestly, I cannot rename them because they had weird names. I also saw flamingos pictured below. I noticed the zoo had its own cat too. I found it awesome that the zoo was not only about seeing the animals. The zoo has a lot of displays that explained global warming and the destruction of animal habitats in a fun and informative manner. I also went into a place where they had all the butterflies and they were all so beautiful and colorful. It was an amazing experience.