France | Bonjour Tout Le Monde!

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BY EILEEN KIM

Hello! Or should I say, Bonjour now that I have just landed in Paris.

My name is Eileen Kim, and welcome to my blog!

Picture of Eiffel Tower from Summer 2016

This blog will be a record of my time abroad at …. drum roll please…. Sciences Po, Paris, for the academic year of 2017-2018. As a part of Global Blogger Scholarship, I had received from UCLA IEO Office, I will be blogging throughout my first half of French year on this blog. (Yay! Get to brag, AND get paid to do so; what can be better than that?)

As a student majoring in Sciences Po and Global Studies, Sciences Po, Paris, has been a school of my dreams ever since I knew about it. Though this school’s name may be unfamiliar to many of you, it is one of the most recognized and celebrated college in France with the most impressive list of alumni (7 out of 8 most recent French presidents once studied here, including newly elected President Macron!!!).

To study abroad in and out itself was such a dream to me, but to study abroad at THE Sciences Po? Shut Up (Shout out to all my fellow Princess Diary fans <3) Just for this I chose to go 5th year and postponed my graduation by a year. And I do not regret this decision even a bit.

My blog will not be about how to start on UCEAP application and prep what when, etc. etc. We the Bruins already have access to the most considerate and informative staff at study abroad office, so I highly doubt I will ever be more helpful than those amazing people who helped me get here in Paris today. Instead, my blog will be more about my time at Sciences Po and at Paris in general.

Welcome Programme Catalogue from Sciences Po

Please stick through as I complete my journey in France, and I hope this blog finds you entertaining as well as informative. If you have any questions or concerns about going to/living in Paris feel free to hit me up! I will get back to you ASAP

I will be uploading my first real post in few minutes about Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, so please stick around!

Until I see you next, Au Revoir!

25.8.17

Eileen

Eileen Kim studied abroad in Paris, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/political_science_sciences_po.aspx

France | Back Home!

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BY NATASHA SZOMBATHY

I’m now back in California, and the past few days have passed so quickly between family Christmas celebrations, seeing old friends, going to doctor appointments, shopping for my new apartment in Los Angeles, and experiencing the strange sensation of reverse culture shock.  Through all the busyness and jet lag, Bordeaux has been one thing I cannot stop thinking about.

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On my final evening in Bordeaux, my host family invited my Californian friend Tracie over for dinner one last time.  That final week was so difficult because I felt like each daily activity involved with life in France was the “last time.”  “The last ride on the tram C,” the “last coffee date with friends,” the “last breakfast with my host dad.”  Even though I was sad because all of those things felt so final, I know now that it only felt that way because they were part of a new life I had established in a foreign country.  When I consider this fact now, I feel so happy!  Going abroad and being able to feel at home in France was such a personally transformative experience.  I have gained a sort of self-awareness and confidence in new situations that I didn’t have before, and for me that was a truly valuable adjustment.

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Best of all, I now speak French, which was my ultimate goal with this program.  Over the past few days I have been calling French friends and speaking on the phone with them!  It feels like such an accomplishment to be able to do that now, especially when I think back to when I first arrived in France and struggled to get out a proper sentence.  It is weird not to be speaking primarily in French anymore, and I am trying to take every opportunity I possibly can to keep in practice with it.

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Reflecting on the UCEAP program, yes there were a few flaws, but in general I found it to be a really phenomenal program.  All of us California students took for granted the fact that we knew where we would be living before we arrived in Bordeaux (there was a housing crisis in Bordeaux this year, as there were so many students in the city and not enough rooms to house them!).  I can attest to the fact that Anaïs worked so hard to place all of the home stay students with families who truly matched well with them.  I love my family in Bordeaux, and having a small personal support system there was so nice.  Joelle and Anaïs also prepared many pamphlets of information on the city, and the ILP, even though sometimes filled with what many thought was busy work, was a good transition into university life in France before school officially started. Joelle was so helpful during the truthfully very stressful class registration period at the university, but everyone eventually found a class schedule that suited them well.  Most complaints by students from California stemmed from differences in French university classes and those of the UCs.  Yes, lectures can run two hours without pause. Yes, many professors don’t have PowerPoints to accompany their lectures.  Yes, grading can seem very arbitrary on oral examinations.  Yes, the class website system is very outdated in comparison to CCLE.  But, these are simply trivial problems when one accepts the fact that they are no longer home, and once you look past them university in France is much more enjoyable. I can certainly guarantee that you will feel accomplished by the time you get through an entire semester abroad! It is uncomfortable, confusing, and stressful at times, but you will learn so much about another country and yourself!

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I thought I’d just end this post with a few of my favorite things about Bordeaux that I will miss:  chocolatines, the Marché des Capucins, Saint Michel, biking or strolling the quays of the Garonne, soccer matches, my host family’s cat, shopping on Rue Sainte Catherine, visiting la Tour Pey Berland, the Cathédrale Saint-André, simply getting lost by strolling aimlessly, and, most of all, my host family and dear friends.  I could go on with this list forever, there is just so much I love about Bordeaux.  Merci, France, I know I will be back.

Natasha Szombathy studied abroad in Bordeaux, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/univ_of_bordeaux_coursework_french.aspx

France | Saying Goodbye!

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BY NATASHA SZOMBATHY

Wow, I cannot believe my time in Bordeaux is coming to an end in just a few days.  I have just completed my final oral exam for my medieval art history course, and I have to say that it was my hardest final.  The professor gave each California student in the course an image of an edifice studied in class, and we had to analyze it individually before him.  As I mentioned, it is just important to keep your cool in this type of exam, as it makes it much easier to find your words in French!  Since this was an art history course, we were given about 300 edifices throughout the semester to study, and the professor expected us to know the name and location of all of these pieces for the final exam, as all of our pieces we had to analyze for the final were from this bank.  So, just know this for future reference if you decide to take an art history course at Bordeaux Montaigne!  

Yesterday was not only the last day of my finals, but also my last day with all of the UCEAP students in the program.  We had a small cocktail evening at the university, with all of those involved in our program, even the host families.  We sadly said our goodbyes to each other and also to Joelle and Anaïs.  Our lovely methodology professor, Melanie, was also there, so it was really nice to speak with everyone who made our program special for the last time.   

I am leaving France on Christmas eve (warning: don’t be like me and purchase your return flight to California in October because it will be even more expensive than it already is!).  Now, as I wait out my final four days in Bordeaux, I will have some time to reflect on my time here.  I started that today, with my good friend Adam, from UC Riverside.  Every week we took one afternoon to go try a new patisserie in the city, and we had our final outing today.  We actually went to what was ranked in 2017 as the greatest boulangerie in France, Maison Lamour (157 Rue Judaïque, 33000 Bordeaux).  They are very well known in Bordeaux for their chocolatines, so you must try one.  I also had a royale, which is like a chocolate cream cake.   

Later in the afternoon, Adam and I joined our friends Amy and Tracie for a final coffee date all together.  This was another almost daily tradition for the four of us, and we all were definitely sad that we had to have our last one.  Everything now feels so bittersweet, but I suppose with all of the difficult goodbyes I am having to make I am realizing how many truly incredible friendships I made thanks to this program.   

Beyond friends, I feel like I have my own little family in Bordeaux.  I have absolutely loved my time with my host family, and I cannot recommend the experience enough.  The other evening, we enjoyed raclette, a popular dish in the wintertime here, composed of melted Swiss raclette cheese served with potatoes and cured meats.  My host parents invited my good friend from California, Tracie, and my host brother also invited his best friend.  It was such a wonderful time.  My goodness, how I will miss them and my little community I’ve gained here in Bordeaux.   

Natasha Szombathy studied abroad in Bordeaux, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/univ_of_bordeaux_coursework_french.aspx

France | Choosing Classes

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[av_textblock size='' font_color='' color='' av-medium-font-size='' av-small-font-size='' av-mini-font-size='' admin_preview_bg=''] BY NATASHA SZOMBATHY School is in full swing now that we are in week four of the semester!! After three weeks of trying out many, many classes, I feel like I have finally solidified a schedule for myself.  As I mentioned before, it is so important to attend a section for any class you just might be interested in taking while you are here.  It can be really difficult to find a professor you feel comfortable understanding and communicating with.  And, of course, you should try to take advantage of the course offerings available in France that would be hard to find back at UCLA!  All students at Bordeaux Montaigne (the humanities campus) had to enroll in classes by the Friday of the second week of school.  Because I was not at all confident in my class choices by that date, Joëlle from the California office recommended that I just enroll in all of the classes I am potentially interested in taking.  So, with her guidance I enrolled in the four classes I was sure I wanted to take: gastronomy, methodology (the required course for French track students here with UCEAP), French journalism, and medieval art history.  In addition, I enrolled in antique history, history of modern France, and earth systems, a course in the geography department.   I had no problem enrolling in these seven courses, as they didn’t enforce any type of unit cap for the international students.  Throughout weeks three and four, I attended each of the three classes I was interested in potentially taking, and eventually I chose to take the course on earth systems.  I was finding, as a biology major, that I was missing the courses on the environment that I was used to taking back home at UCLA, and so the earth systems class ended up being a perfect fit for me.  As an added bonus, I’m hoping to be able to use this course for my major back home.  I have found that the professors in the geography department tend to teach by drawing diagrams and flowcharts on the blackboard, instead of using traditional PowerPoints or simply talking at the class (which unfortunately many of the history professors here tend to do).  This has made learning the material actually much easier for me, so if you’re more of a visual learner I would highly recommend checking out some classes in the geography department!   In order to drop the other two history classes I was trying out, all I had to do was go to the international student office and notify them of which classes I no longer wanted to take.  It only took five minutes, so if you find yourself unsure of what you want to take at Bordeaux Montaigne by the end of the second week of school, I would just recommend enrolling in a few courses you still want to try and just dropping a few later.   As far am my other courses go, I am loving them!  Our gastronomy class is going to go on a fieldtrip to an outdoor market and a winery together in November, and in just a few weeks our professor is going to host a cooking session for us where she will teach us to cook some French classics!    My class on French journalism is also wonderful, and its giving me a great reason to go pick up a French newspaper in the mornings.  Since the journalism class is instructed at the DEFLE (the department for French for foreigners), there are students from all over the world in it.  I’ve been really liking getting to know the other students, and discussing the news with such diverse perspectives is so interesting.   My medieval art course is a full immersion class with only French students, so that one has probably been the most difficult at this point.  I have learned that just writing down anything I think I hear the professor say has been the best way to take notes, even if my spelling is a little off.  I’ve been going back and retyping my notes on my computer after every class, and I just research the parts that I had trouble understanding.  This has actually been a great way for me to prepare for all of the upcoming lectures, as it reinforces the vocabulary.    My first exams are coming up in week six, so for now I am just trying to stay on top of all of the information! I have some fun day trips coming up, so I cannot wait to share those with you!  À bientôt!  [/av_textblock] [av_hr class='default' height='50' shadow='no-shadow' position='center' custom_border='av-border-thin' custom_width='50px' custom_border_color='' custom_margin_top='30px' custom_margin_bottom='30px' icon_select='yes' custom_icon_color='' icon='ue808' av-desktop-hide='' av-medium-hide='' av-small-hide='' av-mini-hide=''] [av_textblock size='' font_color='' color='' av-medium-font-size='' av-small-font-size='' av-mini-font-size='' admin_preview_bg=''] Natasha Szombathy studied abroad in Bordeaux, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/univ_of_bordeaux_coursework_french.aspx [/av_textblock]

BY NATASHA SZOMBATHY

School is in full swing now that we are in week four of the semester!! After three weeks of trying out many, many classes, I feel like I have finally solidified a schedule for myself.  As I mentioned before, it is so important to attend a section for any class you just might be interested in taking while you are here.  It can be really difficult to find a professor you feel comfortable understanding and communicating with.  And, of course, you should try to take advantage of the course offerings available in France that would be hard to find back at UCLA! 

All students at Bordeaux Montaigne (the humanities campus) had to enroll in classes by the Friday of the second week of school.  Because I was not at all confident in my class choices by that date, Joëlle from the California office recommended that I just enroll in all of the classes I am potentially interested in taking.  So, with her guidance I enrolled in the four classes I was sure I wanted to take: gastronomy, methodology (the required course for French track students here with UCEAP), French journalism, and medieval art history.  In addition, I enrolled in antique history, history of modern France, and earth systems, a course in the geography department.  

I had no problem enrolling in these seven courses, as they didn’t enforce any type of unit cap for the international students.  Throughout weeks three and four, I attended each of the three classes I was interested in potentially taking, and eventually I chose to take the course on earth systems.  I was finding, as a biology major, that I was missing the courses on the environment that I was used to taking back home at UCLA, and so the earth systems class ended up being a perfect fit for me.  As an added bonus, I’m hoping to be able to use this course for my major back home.  I have found that the professors in the geography department tend to teach by drawing diagrams and flowcharts on the blackboard, instead of using traditional PowerPoints or simply talking at the class (which unfortunately many of the history professors here tend to do).  This has made learning the material actually much easier for me, so if you’re more of a visual learner I would highly recommend checking out some classes in the geography department!  

In order to drop the other two history classes I was trying out, all I had to do was go to the international student office and notify them of which classes I no longer wanted to take.  It only took five minutes, so if you find yourself unsure of what you want to take at Bordeaux Montaigne by the end of the second week of school, I would just recommend enrolling in a few courses you still want to try and just dropping a few later.  

As far am my other courses go, I am loving them!  Our gastronomy class is going to go on a fieldtrip to an outdoor market and a winery together in November, and in just a few weeks our professor is going to host a cooking session for us where she will teach us to cook some French classics!   

My class on French journalism is also wonderful, and its giving me a great reason to go pick up a French newspaper in the mornings.  Since the journalism class is instructed at the DEFLE (the department for French for foreigners), there are students from all over the world in it.  I’ve been really liking getting to know the other students, and discussing the news with such diverse perspectives is so interesting.  

My medieval art course is a full immersion class with only French students, so that one has probably been the most difficult at this point.  I have learned that just writing down anything I think I hear the professor say has been the best way to take notes, even if my spelling is a little off.  I’ve been going back and retyping my notes on my computer after every class, and I just research the parts that I had trouble understanding.  This has actually been a great way for me to prepare for all of the upcoming lectures, as it reinforces the vocabulary.   

My first exams are coming up in week six, so for now I am just trying to stay on top of all of the information! I have some fun day trips coming up, so I cannot wait to share those with you!  À bientôt! 

Natasha Szombathy studied abroad in Bordeaux, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/univ_of_bordeaux_coursework_french.aspx

France | Finals Week!

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BY NATASHA SZOMBATHY

Finals season is in full swing!  This past week I had my first two finals.  For the majority of courses here in Bordeaux, your final grade will be based only upon a final exam, and from time to time a midterm and final exam.  For others, you will be graded based on what is called “contrôle continu,” which essentially means that your final grade is composed of multiple assignments or exams administered throughout the entire semester.  This is a little similar to what happens in most UC courses, except the final graded exam doesn’t have any significantly higher weight on your final grade than the previously administered assignments. 

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For me, the obligatory methodology course was graded as a “contrôle continu,” so on Monday I had my final in-class essay exam.  It went really well, and I am very satisfied with my score!  My other exam this week was for my Système Terre class in the geography department, for which my entire grade depended only on the final exam.  Lots of pressure!  I was sooo extremely nervous because this was an oral exam, meaning I was to meet with the professor in her office and she would give me one question on any subject discussed in the course and I would have 15 minutes to basically teach her everything I knew about it.  Most of the immersion courses with French students will be graded this way for you.  I studied so much because I had never had an exam like that in my life, and it ended up also going very well!  My advice is just to try to stay calm in that test setting, like any other!  

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All of my remaining finals are next week and the week after, so for now I will just be studying and taking in my last few weeks in Bordeaux.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Strasbourg last weekend for the Christmas markets!  I went with three other girls from UCEAP, and we had such a wonderful time exploring this city which serves both as the capital of Christmas but also of the EU!  It is certainly interesting to see the differences between France and America during Christmas time, and Strasbourg was definitely a winter wonderland.  Strasbourg is located very close to the German border in the French region of Alsace, so the local cuisine is quite influenced by German tradition.  We tried local specialties like choucroute, a sauerkraut dish served with sausages, cured meats, and potatoes, as well as jambonneau, a huge pork leg covered in Munster cheese!  It was a good thing we had all of that hearty food because it was freezing cold!! All of us California girls were bundled up in layers upon layers of thermal T-shirts beneath our coats, but it was so worth it!  The local craftsman ship put into all of the gifts being sold at the markets was beautiful and something like I had never seen before back in America.  The dusting of snow over the city on our final day was definitely the icing on the cake for such a Christmas-y little trip!  

Natasha Szombathy studied abroad in Bordeaux, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/univ_of_bordeaux_coursework_french.aspx

France | Bordeaux in the Winter!

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BY NATASHA SZOMBATHY

Before I came to Bordeaux, I talked with some students who had previously studied here, and “bring warm clothes” was in each of their top three pieces of advice.  I always thought “bone chill cold” was a bit of a dramatic over exaggeration of the fall weather here…but let me tell you, it is not a joke.  It is usually below freezing when I leave for school in the morning, and my trench coat and Patagonia fleece unfortunately do not suffice.  All of the California students have become frequent shoppers at UNIQLO near Rue Sainte Catherine, stocking up on all of their thermal shirts and leggings. 

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I was really reminded of this cold when I met the students and professors of our gastronomy class early last Saturday morning, as we headed out in an icy-windowed mini bus to a honey farm about an hour outside of Bordeaux.  All of the dewy fields along the way were so pretty, and the couple which runs the farm showed us all of the processes they use to produce honey.  Even better, we got to taste at least eight different varieties of honey, as well as many different types of candies made out of the honey!  It was so delicious. 

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We then hopped back in the bus which had fortunately thawed out during the visit, and we went to the old little village of La Réole, to visit the Saturday market and have a few hours to explore the quant and quiet streets.  A couple of students and I got quiches and éclairs, and we enjoyed them on the sunny riverbank.  

After that, we went on to an organic vineyard.  Once again owned by a small family, we walked through the vines and learned all about the techniques they use to make their wine.  I had a little “aha I’m in France moment” when we, twenty American college students and our two professors, were invited into the family’s home to have some snacks!  They were so incredibly hospitable and welcoming; they even let people use the bathroom in the master bedroom.  It was just something I could never imagine happening in the US, and it was truly just such a nice amicable environment.   

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I’m happy to say I feel that sense of friendliness a lot here in Bordeaux, and it was something evident again last night at the Bordeaux-USA Club’s Thanksgiving dinner.  Prepared at Le Chaudron, a small restaurant in the center of the city, all of the students from California and all of the members of the club had a Thanksgiving away from home together.  It was definitely interesting to taste a French version of thanksgiving, but it was great…. especially the mashed potatoes full of French butter.  Can’t get much better than that.  

In other news, final exams are coming up in a few weeks, so I’m starting to prepare for those now.  Oooh!  And the Christmas markets have opened up in Bordeaux!!  I cannot wait to explore the little chalets selling gifts, and walk through all the streets of the city decorated with lights!  I will be going to Strasboug, the so called Capitale de Noël, in two weeks, so prepare for some Christmas-y posts!  

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Natasha Szombathy studied abroad in Bordeaux, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/univ_of_bordeaux_coursework_french.aspx

France | Fall Break!

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BY NATASHA SZOMBATHY

Fall break is upon us!  Unlike getting a short break from school at Thanksgiving as we have at UCLA, the Université de Bordeaux has a one week vacation from Saturday October 28 to Sunday November 5.  Since I don’t have classes on Fridays, I was lucky enough to get to start my vacation on Thursday evening, October 26!  

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Leaving after school on Thursday, I took a combination of the tram and a bus and got to the airport with all the transit fees included in my TBM card!  Don’t forget you can always take the Bus 1 from Gare Saint-Jean straight to the Bordeaux airport with your card as well, and it only takes about one hour!  EasyJet and RyanAir offer many inexpensive flights to destinations all around Europe from Bordeaux, and for the first leg of my trip I decided to go to London.  Since I was taking EasyJet, the flight was leaving from what is called the “Bili” terminal at the Bordeaux airport.  A word of advice: when flying out of here (all flights on EasyJet and RyanAir), arrive a little extra early.  There are border police that check all passenger’s passports before boarding all planes, so waiting in line can take quite a long time.  Also if you plan on going to London, I would recommend not flying into Luton if you are in a rush.  It is the only airport without a train direct from the airport to the city, and I ended up sitting on a bus for two hours just to get into town).   

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Anyways, one of the incredible gifts studying abroad has given me is new friends from other countries. Chris, a friend I made while traveling in Switzerland before coming to Bordeaux, met me in London!  Even though we were in an English-speaking country, which admittedly felt a little strange after a few months in France, Chris also speaks French so I got to keep in practice.  We had a packed three days of visiting the Harry Potter Studios, the London Eye, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, and so much more!   

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For only 17 Euros, we travelled from London to Nice for the remainder of the week.  There, Chris and I met my friend Tracie from Bordeaux!  I would highly recommend taking a trip here during your stay in France!  Nice was a great home base to visit all the highlights in the south of France, including Cannes, Monaco, and Èze.  We never paid more than 5 euros for train tickets, as France offers reduced train fares for all people under 26 years of age.   

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Even though we were having a very fun week of travelling, we still had a little schoolwork to do!  Tracie and I are both in the same méthodologie class required for all California students, and we each had a presentation scheduled for the Monday back to school after break.  A great thing about this course is that it prompts us California students to always learn more about Bordeaux.  We were simply tasked with creating a ten-minute exposé in the French style on a place that can be visited in Bordeaux, and to expand on the history of the location and its role in the city today.  Because I spend almost every Sunday morning going to the market with my host mother, I decided to do my project on the Marché des Capucins.  It was Bordeaux’s first open-air market, and the largest still to this day.  Full of local producers and small restaurant counters, the market is truly the stomach of Bordeaux and also something you must visit during your time here.  

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All in all, I had a fantastic week of traveling during the break.  My presentation went very well at the return to school, and now I am getting ready for some more midterm examinations and projects.  Many interesting things are coming up that I cannot wait to tell you about, such as a visit with my gastronomy class to a honey farm, wine producer, and another outdoor market outside of Bordeaux! 

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Natasha Szombathy studied abroad in Bordeaux, France in 2017: http://eap.ucop.edu/OurPrograms/france/Pages/univ_of_bordeaux_coursework_french.aspx

Italy | La Salumeria

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By Andrea Zachrich

La Salumeria Sandwich Shop

A little bit of background on this salumeria (Italian for butchery) shop: it’s about a block away from the education center where we went while in Rome for our orientation, midterm, and final. We discovered it after our orientation when we typed something along the lines of “close and cheap lunch” into google, and went back after our midterm and our final too.

This place is delicious. It’s everything a sandwich shop should be: tasty bread, wide selection of meats and cheese, inexpensive, and fast. Everything I tried there was delicious, from the meat platter I accidentally once thought would serve as an appetizer and then completely filled me up to all the different sandwiches. If you’re over near the Pont S’Angelo or the Pantheon, you should stop by for a fast and yummy lunch.

I snagged a couple of photos of their menu from the business’s website. As you can see, they translate everything into English which, while unnecessary, is always nice (especially after we took our midterm and final and our brains were fried). Side note: I’ve noticed that any other country where I spend a decent amount of time, I get really good at translating menus (mostly because I love to eat), and I’m sure you will too with Italian. Anyways, here’s La Salumeria’s menus:

A fan favorite among our group was the “Pork in Progress”. I really liked “Thanksgiving Day”, “Il Fico”, and “Williams” (clearly, I like fruit in my sandwiches). I also really enjoyed the chopping board “De Salumerie”. But, I feel like you really can’t go wrong with sandwiches or meat platters here. Below, I included some photos of some of our orders. On a side note: they have vegetarian items here but they have meat hanging from the ceiling right above your head when you order, so it’s not exactly the most vegetarian friendly place.

I also liked the inside of the shop a lot too. There’s meat hanging from the ceiling, bottles all along the walls, and fun decor on the walls. It’s also very casual. You walk in, order at the counter, grab a seat and a drink, and then they call your name when your food is ready and you go and pick it up. As with most places in Italy, you pay after you eat (they really trust people not to be idiots here).

If you’re in Rome, and you’re feeling a sandwich, this is the place for you.

Italy | Hostaria Antica Roma

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By Andrea Zachrich

Hostaria Antica Roma is an awesome restaurant we went to as a group after we visited the Catacombs de Domitilla on the outskirts of Rome, and I have a lot of good things to say about it. All of the food was delicious and it was definitely the best service we had while in Rome (also, it has air conditioning). I would for sure go again the next time I’m in Rome.

The Location

The restaurant is actually in a very cool location. It’s right across the street from and in the shadow of the tomb of Cecelia Metella, which is a large cylindrical tomb along the Via Appia (one of the largest roads leading into and out of the city of ancient Rome). It was a tomb built by a wealthy woman for herself in the 1st century BC, probably during the time of Augustus. She was the daughter of a consul and married quaestor (both very high positions in the Roman government), but she built this tomb all for herself without her family. Some of the original decorations around the outside still survive. In the middle ages, the tomb was turned into a fort and used as a toll station by the family who owned it. Nowadays, it’s a museum and you can go inside of the tomb. Below I’ve included some pictures of the tomb.

The Food

The food here was absolutely amazing. We did a group lunch, so it came with appetizers and dessert. I cannot say enough good things about the appetizers. First off, there was a ton of food. There was a meat platter and grilled veggies and an amazing garlic cheese spread and bread and fish and olives – literally so much food. I was nearly full by the time our entrees came.

One of the appetizers – the meat platter

We got to pick from about 10 selections for our main dish. Personally, I was really excited because the food was based off of ancient recipes from a cook named Apicius. During the spring quarter right before this class, I had actually taken a class about ancient food and medicine and had made some recipes from the same cookbook as part of a final project. I immediately emailed my professor about it because I was stoked. I got a lasagna based on an Apicius recipe, and it was very unique because it did not have any red sauce. Even though tomatoes are a staple of Italian cooking now, the ancient Romans did not have them because they are a crop from the new world. As such, this lasagna was made of noodles, cheese, meat, and had some fennel in it. It was tasty.

The Lasagna! I know it’s kind of funky looking but it was delicious

For dessert, we also go to pick from a limited menu. Our table got tiramisu and chocolate mousse, and both were delicious. I would recommend either (or both if you’re feeling ambitious).

Tiramisu!

The Experience

A big part of the reason this was one of my favorite meals in Rome was because the waiter, Paulo, really did a great job. I’ve worked as a server, and I know how hard it can be to interact with tables. He told us all about the history of the restaurant (which is owned by his father) and knew a lot about the history of the tomb across the street. He was also very knowledgeable about the recipes from Apicius. He told a lot of cheesy jokes and put everyone in a good mood, which I can appreciate. Plus, the food came out incredibly fast. The entrees were ready for a table of around 20 almost immediately after we had finished our appetizers. This place is really a smoothly run restaurant with great service.

The only bad thing I could possibly say about this meal was that it was one of the more expensive I had in Rome, but I think it was worth it. If I remember correctly, it was just under 30 euros, which isn’t horrible considering the massive amounts of food we got. If you’re an adult with a real job and not a broke college student, the price would be super fine for a vacation lunch or dinner.

Overall, this place was amazing. It has unique entrees, good appetizers, great service, and is in a really cool location.

Italy | Giolitti

/in /by

By Andrea Zachrich

Giolitti

This is hands down the best gelato I’ve gotten in Italy thus far, and I’ve been here for almost 2 weeks! They have a million flavors and it’s not very expensive.

Where is this place??

This place is near the Piazza Navona, which actually used to be a racetrack in antiquity (but more on this later when we talk about the Stadium of Domitian). Now, it’s an open public space with a lot of street performers and food places along the outside. When we were there on a Tuesday evening, there were singers and a man blowing giant bubbles using a homemade contraption. It was very entertaining. In the center of the Piazza is the famous “Fountain of the Four Rivers” topped with an Egyptian obelisk called “The Obelisk of Domitian”. The fountain (minus the obelisk) is by Bernini – a famous Baroque era artist. Each of the four men represent one of the four continents (Asia, Africa, Americas, and Europe). They’re not labeled, but they are identified by items they are holding and what clothes they are wearing. I’ll leave it up to you to identify which statue represents which continent (I had to google it). There’s also two more fountains in the Piazza that are interesting to wander around and look at.

This is where the place is! The Piazza Navona is the oblong rounded area in the middle of the map.

What should I order?

So back to the important information: THE GELATO. One important thing to know about this particular place is that you pay first and then you go and pick your flavors. I got a small (piccolo in Italian), which included 2 flavors for 3 euros. I believe the next sizes went up by a euro each, and it was the same price for a cone (cono in Italian) as it was for a cup, so I got a cone.

This place had an absurd amount of flavors. I was with 5 people and we each got 2 different flavors from one another and I don’t think we even tried 1/3 of the flavors there. If you’re lactose intolerant, this would be a great place to go because they have a ton of flavors without milk (latte in Italian) and they label them as such. They also have really interesting fruit flavors I haven’t seen anywhere such as blackberry, limoncello, and pink grapefruit. I really don’t think you can go wrong with any flavors here, but our group collectively decided that the limoncello flavor was the best. If you don’t know, limoncello is a popular after dinner liquor in Italy. I don’t think the gelato had any alcohol in it, but it still tasted similar to the drink.

I know, not a great photo. Even so, I still think it looks delicious.

Embarrassing story time: I walked up to the counter, and I was asking all what all of the flavors were (many of the names are in Italian, and I didn’t know what they meant). I ended up getting Giada, which is a chocolate-hazelnut flavor (would recommend if you like Nutella) and Stracciatella, which is chocolate chip gelato with a vanilla-y base. I went to order by pointing at the flavors, and the guy working the counter wouldn’t let me order until I had failed miserably at saying the flavors and then wouldn’t start scooping the gelato until I repeated the correct pronunciation after him (Giada is a surprisingly hard word to pronounce). Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll mess up those flavors again.

I would definitely go to this place if you find yourself over by the Piazza Navona. We got our conos and went over into the Piazza to people-watch, and it was a great way to spend an evening!

That’s me in front of the fountain that’s on the side closest to the Gelato shop!