Boungiorno! I am Caroline Bielen, a junior at Pitt Business. I am studying Finance and Accounting with Certificates in Leadership & Ethics and International Business. This semester, I am studying abroad in Florence, Italy, through the Global Business Institute. I have dreamed of studying abroad in Italy since middle school. I am not Italian, but I decided to study Italian for four years in high school because of my love of Italian food, culture, music, and art. I studied Italian in the hopes of being able to go there one day, and now it has come true!
I have a couple of goals for my time in Italy: (1) I want to practice my Italian. I am taking Italian 4 while I am here, but I have not been able to use my Italian as much as I had hoped. I am good at reading and writing Italian, but listening to and speaking Italian is harder for me. (2) I want to get outside of my comfort zone. Living in a new country and traveling in my free time will help me gain new skills such as adaptability, confidence, and independence.
I chose this particular program because I can take business classes and earn credits that directly contribute to my majors and certificates at Pitt. In Italy, I am attending CEA CAPA, which is a study abroad school here in Florence. I am taking Global Workforce Management, International Finance, Exploring and Analyzing the Global City: Florence, Italian 4: Firenze Popolare, and International Economics. The school has American students from different schools, such as CU Boulder, Purdue University, and the University of Michigan.
The are not many differences between the classes here and the classes at Pitt. All of my classes are in English, and my professors are Italians who speak English very well. The main difference is that most of my classes meet once a week for a 3-hour period, while at Pitt, my classes would always meet twice or three times a week for shorter periods of time.
I live in a neighborhood called Santa Croce, named after the Basilica di Santa Croce, which is about a 3-minute walk from my apartment. I live in a beautiful apartment that truly encapsulates Tuscany. We have frescoes on the ceilings in each room, hand-painted plates and bowls, a painting easel, a TV, a pool table, tall ceilings, and artwork all over the walls. I did some research on our building, and I discovered that it used to be a convent for the nuns of St. Jerome.
I am living with four other Pitt Business students. We all were acquainted with each other before coming to Italy, but we are excited to get closer to each other while abroad. So far, I have been adjusting to Florence well. It is so beautiful here that it’s hard not to fall in love. Also, being with other Americans gives me a sense of home.
