Hello, and welcome to my corner of the woods! I'm Lauren, a '27 from Munger, Michigan. On campus, I enjoy writing sports for The Dartmouth, going on as many DOC trips as I can, and hanging out with my friends. I also love Woccoming, doing the daily NYT mini crossword, and paddling!
I took this class as part of Dartmouth's first year writing requirement. We read a pro cyclist's life narrative, discussed research papers on controversial topics in sports, and wrote our own papers on a contentious sports technology of our choice. I really enjoyed this course's emphasis on discussion, and the small class size!
This was my first class in the classics department, which was super exciting as a classical studies major! We learned about the ancient Olympics and the connections between athletics and other aspects of ancient Greek society. I loved the final project in this class, which involved creating an argument about how the ancient pentathlon was scored!
To conclude my language requirement, I took Latin 3! This class was super exciting because we began to read ancient texts and poetry. We also took a class trip to the Rauner Special Collections library so we could physically handle and read some manuscripts. And as an added bonus, Latin counts as a prerequisite for my classical studies major!
I can't believe it's already time for me to write this post—and honestly, I've been dreading it. I don't want to say goodbye to the memories I've made and the experiences I've had here in Italy, but I'm also excited to get back to campus.
Following (my own) tradition, I'll go through everything I was looking forward to back in early spring about this program (which I wrote here), and share my experiences!
The first thing I mentioned was the monuments and museums of Rome—and I wish I had time to visit more of them, but I loved the ones I did have the opportunity to see. Some of the highlights of my last couple of weeks in Rome included the Galleria Borghese, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. I still can't believe that's a sentence I can write!
As my cohort and I became more "acclimated" (as much as one can become acclimated to living in Rome), I think we began to take these beautiful places for granted. As I walked past the Pantheon on the way to my professor's apartment for dinner or watched the sunset over the Colosseum, I tried to take a moment just to soak it all in.
I was in a state of constant amazement this summer as a Classics major, and my academic interest also expanded after I began learning Italian!
I wrote in my "Looking Forward" that I was looking forward to learning a spoken language for the first time (sorry, Latin), and the experience did not disappoint. Even though my Italian is not amazing, I often find myself slipping into it—even at the airport, in the customs line for travelers with U.S. passports.
Everything just seems more exciting when you're speaking about it in a foreign language. Putting together a sentence becomes a challenge, but not an unwelcome one. I am incredibly proud of the progress that everyone in my cohort made this summer. In June, the language seemed impossible. Now, I know that we all can spend hours around a dinner table talking about just about everything under the sun (with help from our professors and director's assistant, of course).
Speaking of meals, I wrote about my excitement for the chance to cook on the program. I'll be the first to admit it—I didn't end up spending too much time in the kitchen this summer. Going to restaurants with my friends for dinner gave us the chance to dedicate a few hours each night to immersing ourselves in the Italian language and culture. In the back booths of little restaurants across the city, we could fully focus our attention on conversation, something I cherished.
I have more to say about this experience than I could ever possibly put into words—trust me, I've tried and filled up multiple journals in the process. If learning Italian in Rome for the summer sounds like something you'd enjoy, please reach out! I can talk for hours about the program. I also encourage you, once again, to check out all of Dartmouth's amazing study abroad programs on the Guarini Institute website!
I'll miss icons of Italian culture (like calcio) more than anything else from this summer.
This past summer, I studied abroad in the Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia—with the government department and Irving Institute. Read on to learn more about my first study abroad experience!
I recently completed a language-pledge homestay week in the village of Orvinio, Italy as a part of the Dartmouth F.I.R.E. Italian study abroad program!
How do Dartmouth students balance their classes and social life in a reasonable way? Somehow, we manage to get good grades and prioritize our academics while also making life-long friendships and memories.
