Ciao! It is hard to believe that my time abroad is more than halfway over, and I will be leaving in just a month! Studying abroad is an incredible experience, as it offers a unique blend of studying and adventuring. While both are great opportunities, it can sometimes be difficult to establish a good routine that allows you to do both successfully. Although finding a rhythm may be challenging, as it took me a few weeks to find mine, it is very rewarding. The challenge comes with the strong desire to spend most of my time exploring the incredible city of Rome: visiting landmarks, trying new restaurants, and traveling around the city, country, and Europe as a whole, while also having assignments to complete and exams to study for.

I am taking 15 hours here at John Cabot University which is around the maximum that UT and the SAI programs recommend. Nine of those hours go towards my International Business concentration in Haslam, three go towards my Economics major, and the last three go towards my Ethics requirement. With that being said, there can at times be a lot of work, studying, and preparation that must be done. But the professors are very willing to help you out, as my classes at JCU are much smaller than mine at UT. How I have managed to stay on top of my studies here while still being able to enjoy my time in Europe and travel, is to plan ahead. Each class that I take usually has the same amount of work each week, so after a few weeks I was able to get a schedule set of when to do my assignments. I typically will get all of my work done on Monday and Tuesday nights because those days usually do not have much going on that I may be missing. If I have a bigger assignment or project to complete, I tend to block off part of my day on my phone’s calendar to focus on that.

What is true for my program as well as many other programs that I have heard about and had friends experience, you will likely not have classes on Fridays which gives you a three day weekend each week. Since my classes only meet twice a week, there is not a large workload and it is very manageable. With that extra day off, it gives me plenty of time to explore Europe: I have never had to miss out on something here to do schoolwork. If that is something that you are concerned about, I assure you that you will have more than enough time. With all of that time I have been able to explore places in Rome such as Trastevere, Ostiense, and see all of the monuments. I have also been able to explore places in Italy such as the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, and Santa Severa. And I have also been able to visit other European cities such as Barcelona, Munich, and Prague.While the academics here are very important, I believe that it is just as important (maybe more important) to experience life and travel the continent!

As the semester winds down, I will have to put a lot of focus towards my final exams, which will make up 25-35% of my final grade for each respective class. Since there is not much, or in some cases, any homework in some of my classes, the exams are very important. It is hard to believe that my time in Rome is almost over, but I look forward to finishing strong! Ciao!

You can find this blog on UTK’s Abroad Page here

Written by: Braden, Fall 2024 Rome student from University of Tennessee, Knoxville