Ciao! My name is Ruby and I am a current junior at the University of Pittsburgh. I am originally from Brooklyn, New York. I am majoring in marketing with minors in Italian and economics, and a certificate in international business. I am participating in the global business institute in Florence, Italy. I chose to come to Florence because I am an Italian minor, and really want to improve my language skills while abroad. My goals during my time here are to really integrate myself into Florence, get to know Italy even more, and to speak as much Italian as possible. Florence is very different from Pittsburgh. It is much more walkable, which I personally love, and the streets are filled with history. Things are also a lot cheaper here (which I am also loving). As stated before, I love how walkable my neighborhood is. It is so easy to get from class to class, and we are very well located. Here, I am living in an apartment with six roommates. We all go to Pitt so it has been so much fun getting to know everyone and making new friends. As well as taking classes, I am also doing an internship. I am an intern at Ostello Bello, a popular hostel chain with ten locations across Italy. This past week was the first week of the internship, and I really enjoyed it. I made some friends, practiced my Italian, and really felt that I was a part of the community. I am very interested in travel and international business, so being in a company where almost everyone is from a different area of the world is really cool. It is also nice to have the opportunity to explore and get to know the neighborhood that my internship is in. So far, I think I am adapting well to my new living situation. I am certainly busy, with class and my internship, but I feel that it is allowing me to adapt even faster, making me feel already like a part of the Florence community. As well as this, I do have family that live not too far from Florence. I was able to see them last weekend, and having them close makes all of the adjustments a lot easier. I have met so many great people after only being here for a few weeks, I cant wait to see what the rest of my time in Florence has in store for me. A dopo!