My life in 8 slices

Hallo/Hi/Ciao!

1. I’m Elena and, as you probably can tell from the title and from word 3 of this post, I’m from Italy.
2. After looking for inspiration from other fellow students’ introduction posts, I’ve read several interesting things about people’s names – mine is not so special, unfortunately.
   My friends call me Ele – again, I am afraid there is no funny story behind my nickname either. I guess people just use it out of laziness! My parents have another one they use, though: Bombo, Italian for bumblebee. If you can’t guess the reason behind it, here it is: my face is as round as a specimen of this species. The fact that I love carbs probably does not help!
3. So, something about myself: I am 24, I was born and raised in Milan until I moved to Bologna for my Bachelor in Translation and Interpreting. Here I studied English, German and some Portuguese. Fun fact about Bologna: its university, founded in 1088, is the oldest one in the western world! Other than this, Bologna is a wonderful, friendly, and vibrant city I would recommend to everyone – especially as a student! I had a wonderful time there and also a lot of delicious food: typical Italian specialities such as tortellini, lasagne, and tagliatelle al ragù (aka Bolognese sauce, and yes, it goes with tagliatelle, not spaghetti!) are actually from this city.
4. During those years I had the chance to spend my first Erasmus semester abroad, and guess where? Ja, genau, Deutschland! More precisely Würzburg, Bayern. It was a truly amazing experience, and I had the privilege to get to know a wide range of interesting people from all over the world (and to improve my German, of course! Shame I forgot it all already, after a couple of years).
5. On to the next slice: after coming back from Germany, experiencing the post-Erasmus depression and graduating, I moved back to Milan, where I worked for one year before starting my Master’s degree in Marketing Management. And at this point Fernweh kicked in again and I applied for another Erasmus semester!
6. I chose Munich because I loved my previous experience in Bayern, and everyone recommended LMU as a university as well. Plus, it is a great chance to practice my German again, have a different approach to lectures, meet new people and broaden my perspective! However, Corona made it difficult to stick to my plan so…
7. I decided to spend some months in the UK instead, to experience life in a country I have not lived in yet. I guess weather-wise Birmingham is quite similar to Munich anyway…My perspective for the next 3 months is to stay here, finish this online semester and then…we’ll see! If I had to sum myself up in a sentence, I would say that I go with the flow. I am excited to see where it will lead me!
8. The last slice of this pizz-about me (please, appreciate this pun!) is just to give some context to the picture I chose and to tell you something about my personal interests. As you can see, I love the Alps and mountains in general, both in summer and in winter – skiing is probably the only sport I am not a complete failure at. I have a soft spot for dogs, horses, cats, and every other animal (except insects): in the picture I am hopelessly trying to tame my family’s dog, Lila. I enjoy playing the piano, drawing, and reading, and I am currently trying to find the time and motivation to learn a bit of painting and French.
   

If you have read up to here, thank you very much for your time – you deserve a real pizza as a reward!