By mid-June in Bologna the air is hot and stagnant. The heat hangs low in the porticoes and by midday it feels too hot to go outside. Italians walk even slower to keep from sweating …
year abroad
Bella, Act 2
Note: What follows is a work of fiction. While the characters in the story- including I, Pier, the narrator- are inspired by real life, their existence remains limited to the confines of the author’s imagination. …
Hungry for More
I spent the week of Easter with Giovanni’s family in Pescara. His parents live up the street from his grandma and his cousins are around the corner. He’s got an uncle with a restaurant on …
Hamerica’s
It was 1am and we had closed an hour ago but still the dining room was full of customers, sitting and talking like they had no plans to leave. My coworkers were tired. It was …
Not a Tourist
I returned to Bologna with Future’s new album rattling through my earbuds, feeling like a boss. The plane made its last decent and I coasted along the city’s red roofs and medieval towers framed by …
The End of the Beginning
By mid-December in Bologna the air is grey and wet and cold. The humid wind digs into my bones and I cannot escape the chill of the coming winter. The rain turned cold and falls …
Snow Falls on Éire
In Wisconsin, we are well acquainted with the snow. However, in Ireland, snow isn’t a big part of life in the winter. The area around the west of Ireland sees less then ten days of …
A Weekend Adventure
The best part of being a history and archaeology buff in Ireland, is the opportunity to explore its past through the landscape. One weekend, my housemates, my sister, and I jumped in a car and …
New School, New Challenges
Here I am, the start of a new schoolyear… and a new school. Finding your way in a new place can be riveting if not a little terrifying. The first week in Galway, I found …
Summer Adventures: Part III
On a very rainy day my last few days on Achill Island, my mom and sister met me at my little home on the edge of the world. They were tired, but had the same …