Welcome to the blog for our 2019 January trip to the beautiful country or Italy! We are super excited to be your blog boys for this trip. We have some big shoes to fill from last time but, as your resident, and only three, seniors on the trip we are going to give you are best content we can, so you can follow us on our trip through Italy. This blog will be your one shop stop for all things Italy during our trip but, be on the lookout for a few different types of content we are hoping to post while on our trip (hint, it’s going to be a podcast). We are excited to do the podcast because it is something that will not only be fun for us but, let us have some great conversation with our classmates as well as talk  about what we are experiencing. Just before we get going, we wanted to do our best to introduce all three of ourselves to you along with a little introduction to our class. The three of us will be contributing to the editing of each blog but, as a class we will be working to write each and every blog so you get a chance to hear everyone’s voice. As a group we are made up of 3 seniors, 8 juniors, 7 sophomores, and 1 freshman. Once we get going into December, expect the posts to pick back up again as we prepare to head out. As our trip starts, each one of us is excited to introduce ourselves to you and give you our thoughts on Italy.

 

Hello everyone! My Name is Grant Theodore Gunderson. I am a senior Mechanical Engineering Major from the beautiful and scenic Lakeville Minnesota, Go Panthers. I am the Oldest of two kids and my family still lives in Lakeville with our two yellow labs. I am the esteemed Commissioner of our student professor engineering fantasy football league, and proud to post that on my resumé. I’m a huge fan of food and wine and for those reasons I can’t wait to experience everything Italy has to offer. Seeing that my mother is an English major, I’m doing my best to make her proud with my writing skills. Still, I have a feeling I will be getting regular texts about both my grammar and writing style. Expect improvements to come. Like I mentioned above, we are looking to start a podcast while overseas to give you our somewhat funny takes on wine, things we don’t understand, our daily activities, interviews with our classmates and more. As the brains of this operation, a self-given title, I appreciate any immediate feedback you guys can give and feel free to let us know what you think of the coverage. I am excited to be part of our squad we dubbed the “Blog Boiz” this January and hope we can give you a glimpse into our fun abroad. I hope that we can give you different ways to keep up with us and our classmates and a peak into the fun we will be having.
-Grant T. Gunderson (Right)

 

Howdy y’all, it’s your lone Kansan representative on the trip, and as far as I know, at the school. I’m Luke Rachwal, and a product of Shawnee, Kansas. I’m from a family of two siblings, a brother and a sister, as well as the most adorable Maltese-poodle mix you’ll find west of the Mississippi. I’m a senior, as mentioned by Grant, and will be graduating in May. I have a job lined up too, so senioritis has been a chronic illness thus far in my semester, and I don’t expect improvements to be made in the near future. I have a real knack for poorly and quickly photoshopped pictures, which is basically just me cropping heads onto existing pictures, nothing requiring any real skill. I’m a baseball player at UST, and probably am the required “weird lefty” that every baseball team needs. My goal as a part of the “Blog Boiz” is for Grant’s grammar and spelling to improve but I must say, the outlook is exceptionally bleak, so apologies in advance. I’m very much looking forward to this trip and have been ever since I came across Professor Besser in Anderson Student Center during the Study Abroad Fair last year and couldn’t ask for a better group to make my first visit to Europe with! Please let me know if I can help anyone with anything, or if you just want to be my friend, that works too.
P.S. My dog is not named Toto, and I have no friends named Dorothy. Though if I were a character from the cult classic film Wizard of Oz, I would probably liken myself to the Tin Man because my knees are similar to those of a 60-year old.
-Luke J. Rachwal (Center)

 

Hey everyone, I want to start by saying thanks for choosing the “Blog Boiz” as your travel companions on this adventure of a lifetime! I am a senior mechanical engineering student and will be graduating this upcoming May. My home stomping grounds is the always classy St. Cloud, MN. I am the youngest in my family. I have two older brothers who are 27 and 28 and an older sister who is 31. My sister is married and has two daughters who are currently 2 and 5. And yeah, they are the cutest kids you’ll ever see and I’m more than happy to share some pics and adorable, funny stories about them. I have had a couple of internships over the last couple of years, and I am currently working as a Tech-Aide at 3M in the Abrasives System Division. I have always been an avid outdoorsman. If it’s nice and warm out, you can find me on a motorcycle either on the street or some off-road trails. If it’s too cold for that, it’s a safe bet to assume I’m out sending it and shredding some gnar on the ski slopes. I’ll do my best to assist Luke in his goal to help Grant’s grammar and spelling, but keep in mind that I can only do so much. If you happen to find yourself tuning in to our podcast, I’ll probably be the guy going on rants about crazy, interesting, or completely random things we find and experience along our journey. I have always had an immense love for Roman history, so I can’t wait to get going on this trip and to get to know everyone!
-Nathan D. Hahn (Left)