JFRC and Schedule

The John Felice Rome Center is a fully equipped American campus that sits atop a city right outside of Rome, and the city center and Vatican is about a 15 minutes bus ride or 30 minute walk away. The campus is fairly small, 5 acres, and from what I've gathered the dorms, dining hall, and classrooms are all in one building, so that is very convenient. It is located in a somewhat upscale neighborhood, and is 5 minutes from the former Olympic village. About 220 students attend the Rome Center. Normally, Marquette only sends two students a year, but this year there are 11 of us going, and the overall numbers accepted by them have burgeoned so suddenly that administration had to rent out a floor of a nearby hotel to act as a residence hall for a select group of students. Another Marquette program in Rome, John Cabot University, is directly in downtown Rome, and more people elect for that over JFRC. I chose JFRC because I heard it was more organized and offered more administrative help, and I wanted some type of comfort zone during this transition that already is going to be very tough. Also, I simply pay Marquette tuition and all financial aid directly transfers, so while I dont have a fantastic financial aid package and probably could have found something cheaper, I went with convenience and ease. Also, I had the feeling that JFRC would be much more like Marquette and Cabot would be more similar to a public university, and I'm very much adapted to Marquette's helpful hand in alot of matters.

All my classes are taught in Italian and I'll be studying with new semester kids and whole year kids that are studying abroad in Rome. I was hoping only 2 Marquette students were accepted so I could meet new people, but in the end I think its better that more are going so I can have more people to relate to originally but still reach out to many others.

Many of the classes are on sight, and the others are taught in the same complex as where I'll be living. There are no classes on Fridays and all of my classes are pass/fail! How wonderful is that? I already didnt need to kill myself over work because my prerequisites for PA are done so these are all basically electives, but now its even less so. I'm very interested in most of my classes, and I cant see myself blowing them off anyway, so it'll be nice to still work hard and get work done but without the overarching stress of it all. I'm taking five classes:

I missed out on alot of the awesome classes like Food and Wines of Italy because my registration time was when I was driving to a Phish concert (I'll take that trade off). Topography and Art are on-site, so we walk around the city and the professor points various things out. The literature class is the only one that I needed to take to fill one last prerequisite at Marquette, and aesthetics is the philosophy of beauty which sounds interesting. The film class I might drop, but as of now I think I'll try it out, mostly because I feel guilty only taking 12 credits. I only have one class on Monday and Wednesday and its not till afternoon, nice! Tuesdays and Thursdays start early but those are my two favorite classes, and then my literature class later, and if I hang onto it the film one at night. Looks like a pretty decent schedule to me.

This post has been long enough, I'll update you on the study abroad orientation that was held last week some other time!
Peace

First Post

So this is the blog that I'll be utilizing starting in January when I begin my adventure in Rome, and I'll be updating it fairly constantly throughout the semester and into May. I'm going to post it on my Facebook and email it out to my family members, however if you know of anyone that would be interested in following my posts, please send this link to them; I would like to share with as many people as possible. The slideshow at the bottom is inactive as of now, but once I start taking pictures I can upload them right onto an online album which will feed directly to this slideshow. Also, my pictures will be available online.

I've never created and updated my own blog before, so I hope that it is fairly organized and user friendly. I'll be keeping everyone up to date on my studies, my trips, my stories, and my trials, and I would always love to hear your comments.

Once again, I thank everyone for taking a genuine interest in this blog as well as my travels, and hopefully through this medium we can feel a little more connected during our long span apart. I'll be posting some information later about the school I'll be attending and what the study abroad process has looked like so far during my preparation stage! See ya!

Zach