Wether you are studying abroad, moving for work, or just wanting to travel the word, finding accomodation can be quite a challenge no matter where you go. Take it from me, after moving to Italy, it was nearly impossible for me to find the right kind of appartment. Luckily I had several friends to help me along and give me some very good tips that I will now pass on.
Find out the best tips to find a great apartment in Rome on Kappa Language School’s website.
Dear me,
I know right now that you are probably feeling a huge range of emotions that make you both want to cry, vomit, and also giggle. You cant wait to start anew, reluctant to leave the life you already have, and hesitant to even try getting down that god forsaken language. But trust me the emotional roller coaster hasn’t even begun yet.
There are things you need to think about before you step on that plane, things that we both know you haven’t quite considered yet. You don’t want to admit it but you are really only thinking about the positives, and you need to know that despite how happy your daydreams are, reality is rarely so kind.
You haven’t considered that you will be alone. You don’t even know how much you are going to miss your friends. I mean, come on, this isn’t like moving to a different state. You will try to chat constantly and you will wait impatiently for them to wake up, and every time you have to hang up because you need sleep, your heart is going to break a little more. You aren’t going to see your best friend and despite how much you guys swear to stay in touch, you mostly only talk through Facebook posts now. You’ll probably see some of your family at Christmas, but not all of them. Basically, prepare to be lonely. For a while.
You don’t even understand how hard a language barrier is until you’re the one trying to break through it. Everything seems so much easier when everyone you know speaks the same language you do. You think “Oh everyone says I’ll pick it up quickly, I’ll be fine!” NO. You are going to wish that you had studied a lot more, and even now I am still tripping over sentences, and forgetting words that I have been taught a hundred times. And those looks, those annoyed eye rolls and the exasperated sighs of store clerks will make you feel terrible. You chose this path; now put effort into the language.
Yes, there are going to be days when you want to just drop everything and run onto a plane that will take you back. Yes, there are going to be hard days when you feel like nothing you do is going right and moving here was a terrible, terrible mistake. You can’t do it though. You can’t fly home and take the easy route. We both know that you are coming here, taking the hard way, because you know that the benefits are worth so much more then those horrible times. Here, I’ll even give you a little sneak peek for what to expect.
You are going to be fine. You are going to a university here and you will have wonderful friends who care about you. You’ll work somewhere you love, doing what you love, and that it self is fantastic. You’ll find that new friends are easier to make now then when you were in college. Yes your brothers and sisters aren’t exactly going to be able to visit you every holiday, but you’ll soon find that family doesn’t mean you share the same blood. Yes you do drift apart from the friends you had back home, but once you go back to visit, everyone will welcome you with open arms, because real friendship doesn’t end at the shore. What I’m basically trying to say is, take a breathe and calm down. Yes its hard to be away from the people you love, but if that love is real, then you have nothing to worry about.
So stop anxiously pacing about near your folded up clothes and your new suite case. This journey may have its downs (like seriously you will be so down, you’ll basically be underground) but those ups are so worth it, you just might touch the sky. And seriously, start studying Italian. I’m not kidding about that.
Sincerely,
Future Andrea.
Read the original article on Kappa Language School’s website.
For those who are (understandably) upset by the show offered by the latest “Family Day” held in Rome this last Saturday, well, we have good news! It is a fact that Rome has been for centuries the capital of a multicultural and socially advanced empire, in which tolerance and peaceful coexistence were the hallmark of its greatness. And if you look close enough, you can find that it’s still true.
Read our short guide to the Gay Friendly Eternal City on Kappa Language School’s website.
Brace yourselves, winter is coming! Or, we should say, it’s already here. Temperatures dropped so dramatically during last week that Romans are experiencing somenthing very unusual: a real winter!
Poor Romans! Without having had the chance to recover from the 2000 Jubilee, they now have to face a new, extraordinary one, 10 years in advance. Needless to say, out of the ordinary is also the tense and alarmist atmosphere in which this event is about to be held.
Keep on reading the original article on Kappa Language School’s website.
When you think about Rome in movies, you suddenly face a bunch of titles that brutally take the scene, leaving little space to a whole genre which we could boldly call “romexploitation”.
Keep on reading the original article on Kappa Language School’s website.
In Italian, the rich and well documented history of its predecessor, Latin, allows us to track down the origin of many commonly used idioms. Of course you need to know at least the basics of roman history to be aware of what you’re talking about when you name Tizio, Caio e Sempronio or you accuse someone to rest on his laurels (dormire sugli allori) but, hey, that’s why we are here!
There has been a lot of fuss these days about an article that appeared in the New York Times, which revealed a disturbing truth about Rome. For Roman readers, the article may have sounded something like: “Good morning American friends! Here is a revolutionary fact about the discovery of hot water!”; the second reaction was surely a combination of shame, sadness and embarrassment.
On Saturday June 20th, we had the pleasure of hosting the Grand Opening of our new HQ located in the wonderful area of Monti, Via del Boschetto, 32. On the occasion, we also exhibited the winning photograph of the #WeAreTheGreatBeauty photo contest: Livia Hengel with “All eyes on Italy”, Stefania Marchini with “Roma no problem” and Valentina Iosco with “Piazza San Pietro”.
Thank you to all of the members of the community that attended the event, it was a great success! Also, we would like to give a special thanks to Biblioteche di Roma, Rome Municipality (Assessorato Cultura e Turismo), Dante Alighieri Society and Radio Roma Capitale (in the person of Paolo Cento) for their sponsorship. We hope all those in attendance had a great time, and we have posted photos of the event!
Another chapter of our From students to students! Today Mariko, a Japanese Rome enthusiast, describes the Eternal City in her own, very poetic, words.
Kappa Language School Blog 