Art photography major Shelby Jacobs likes taking pictures of food. Spending a semester in Italy, the junior has four cameras with her and is constantly snapping shots for her blog.

At 3 a.m. the morning she was set to leave, Jacobs decided to set up a Tumblr page, “Adventures in Eataly,” for herself.

“It’s a travel blog told completely through food,” Jacobs said.

The Internet is diminishing the miles between friends and family of students as they explore and study in foreign countries. With applications to study abroad due this past Wednesday, students looking forward to foreign travel can keep in mind the ability to stay connected while overseas.

Wi-Fi is largely free, which makes Skype video and phone calls, and picture uploads to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, appealing for students like Jacobs.

She plans to keep up with her blog for the duration of her trip and likes being able to tell people about her experiences. At the same time, Jacobs likes being able to apply her interest of food photography online.

Using Facebook, Jacobs connects with students thousands of miles away in ways she otherwise couldn’t while in Italy. She lives in an apartment in the Northeast side of Florence and cooks often. Though she is always thinking about new blog posts she can write up, Jacobs sometimes feels like the blog has become a chore.

“I know I’ll get around to them,” Jacobs said. “I’m not going in any sort of chronological order.”

She also thought food blogging was a good way to apply her interest in food photography while studying in Italy.

“Plus, I feel like it would be good for people who are either going abroad eventually or just in the mood for some Italian food,” she said.

Social media has changed since Briana Rinaldo’s trip to Florence three years ago. Social media tools like Foursquare and Instagram did not even exist. Instead, she relied on email to stay connected.

Rinaldo and 21 others were part of the Discovery Florence group, a program now in its fifth year.

She didn’t have a smartphone or a blog at the time of her trip to Italy. Instead, she sent one or two weekly emails to upward of 40 people. The list covered everyone: her parents, stepparents, some of her 11 siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, immediate friends and anyone else who asked to be part of the group.

The now junior international relations major said it was essentially a blog, but not in typical blog format. If she were to type out her letters in Microsoft Word, she’d have “probably a solid two pages” per email.

To go along with the emails, she uploaded large batches of pictures once or twice a week to Facebook.

Rinaldo remembers the trip as being both the scariest and best thing she had ever done. She said that adding the extra challenge of being abroad forced her to grow up faster.

Last week, Rinaldo was accepted into the AMIDEAST Area and Arabic Language Studies program in Rabat, Morocco, an SU World Partners program.

She plans to do things differently this time around, including setting up a blog. That way she is not responsible for updating everyone in her life week after week. She also plans to decrease her amount of time on Facebook in general.

Rinaldo explained that this particular trip is, structurally, a lot more independent than her semester in Florence.

Said Rinaldo: “I want to be where I am and not elsewhere in the world.”

Published on October 10, 2012 at 11:20 pm

Contact Allie: ajcaren@syr.edu