It has been quite a long time since I have written. So much has happened since then that it would be difficult to write everything. I
For one thing we almost burned down our house. Appherently you can't fill it entirely with wood and let it burn overnight. So now the wall in our apartment has two black spots on it, and the two wood strips that used to be there now have a big ashy gap in the middle of them. Oops.
It's also been raining like crazy for the last week and a half. It's a little depressing, and several cities and towns have had problems with flooding. I think yesterday and today were the only two days within the last two weeks that is hasn't rained. It's kind of nice not to have to carry around an umbrella 24/7.
We've discovered that our roof leaks, and that the ceiling in our bathroom is falling down in flakes of plaster. As I may have mentioned earlier, our apartment is quite old and it seems everything I touch just crumbles. It's almost like having a superpower that enables me to turn things to dust, but not quite as cool.
I sold a painting to Waldo, the owner of one of our favorite cafes. It made me feel like a real artist or something. Plus I was really happy to have the money and to not have to take it back home with me (it was an awkward size... very wide but not so high).
I leave Tuscania on Saturday morning. I can't believe that's so soon, it's less than 24 hours. Then I'm going snowboarding in Torino I think on Sunday, then going back to Rome before flying home.
On a different note, Christmas is in a WEEK! I am incredibly excited to come home and see all my family and friends. I love it here and I know I will miss this place and a lot of the people here like crazy, but it will be wonderful to be home. I'm a little sad that I do have to leave in less than a week, because I have had such an amazing experience.
Some of my favorite memories from this past semester/things I enjoy about Tuscania:
-Walking around the city and just soaking in the beauty of everything
-Dinners with friends, eating delicious pasta, bruschetta with the best olive oil ever and drinking good wine
-Trying to stumble my way through speaking Italian
-Getting to paint, photograph, and sketch this beautiful city
-The small town atmoshpere
-Having Italian friends, and trying to communicate with them
-The Grape Harvest, Olive Harvest, Meeting Marco's family
-Fall break traveling: to Paris, Amsterdam, and Prague
-My weekend trip to Germany
-Mediterranean Cuisine class... so many memories... I cannot list them all
-Thanksgiving
-The basketball games
-Jetman wars in the computer lab
-Learning the Public Transportation System
-Playing Ultimate Frisbee in the Park
-The Beach Day... and trying to play soccer against the little kids (and getting our butts kicked)
-Running out our road, almost getting run over by a herd of sheep
-Going to our favorite cafes/bars and just hanging out
...and so many more
But right now I have to go take the canvas off of some frames so that I can bring my paintings home.
This will probably be my last post, although I may update a bit when I get back to the States, but we will see. Either way, Ciao everyone!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
This past week was a lot better than the one before (at least for me), except for the fact that I've been incredibly lazy with my homework, particularly painting.
But it was good. We had an American Thanksgiving dinner at the school on Thursday, which was absolutely delicious. It was also cool because we had several visitors from back home; Laurens boyfriend (well, fiance now) and Maggie's cousin. Also a lot of our Italian friends and professors came, so it was a lot of fun. Cory, Elizabeth, and April, three of our Three Cities friends also came and visited for the weekend, arriving just after we left the dinner at school. They got to eat some of the leftovers of our meal, but unfortunately did not make it there in time for the main meal. Later we went and watched the basketball game between Tuscania (which several of our Italian friends and our student advisor play on) and Tarquinia. Appherently it's a pretty big rivalry, although Tuscania never really had a chance and got creamed. After that we all went to the bar to hang out, and it was sort of like saying goodbye to everyone, as I was leaving the next day for...
Germany! Germany was absolutely wonderful! I kept in contact with a friend of a friend who lives there. I had actually met this guy, Patrick, over the summer because he was in PA visiting my friend Steve (they had met in Hawaii because they both helped at the YWAM base there). I had told him that I was going to be studying in Italy, and that I wanted to travel while I was there, so I might just have to take a weekend trip to Germany. And so I did. And he was incredibly kind! He picked me up at the airport at midnight Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on how you look at it) and dropped me off at 4:30am on Sunday morning! This wasn't just a 45 min. drive, either, as I guess I got the wrong airport for my flights; so I was flying to Frankfurt Hahn airport instead of the regular Frankfurt airport. And the Hahn one turned out to be at least an hour and a half drive for hime (with pretty much no traffic). So we arrived at his house at 2am Saturday and left around 3am Sunday, and he had a wonderful day planned for the day on Saturday. And not only did he do all of this excessive driving, he also wouldn't take any money for gas, and let me sleep in his bed while he slept on the floor (in a completely different room for those who are curious and/or just plain nosy, and there's absolutely nothing romantic between us). I decided I'm going to send him something for Christmas, just to say "thanks," as words never can really say "thank you" well enough.
On Saturday we went to a Christmas Market in Heidelburg, hiked up to and walked around the castle there, and later played soccer with some of his friends, before going out to dinner at a nice little restuerant that had delicious German food. I got to meet his parents and grandmother, all of whom were very sweet. The Christmas Market was quite charming, too, with all sorts of souvineer stands and food stands, and lots of other lovely things. It was sort of like the Market in Tuscania, only much cleaner and much more charming. The castle was also very lovely, and there was a really nice view of the entire city, which was beautiful being illuminated by the bright sunshine. I also got some yummy chocolates at the grocery store to bring home to the US. Patrick definately has a sweet tooth (I think it must be a German thing), and knew all the best chocolatels to recommend. Then we went to his house, talked a bit with his parents, and left shortly to go play soccer. Soccer was incredibly fun, but I was not even close to being able to keep up. I was the only girl, and although I can keep up in the US at soccer with most guys, these people were obviously not Americans, and soccer is a much bigger deal to them. It was kind of embaressing (although still fun), and I felt bad for everyone else who got stuck on my team. I can't remember a time that I've felt more sore. As soon as we left I couldn't help but limping. You know it's going to be bad when even as soon as it's over you're already sore. So Sunday wasn't so bad since I was mostly sitting on public transportation all day. But today, today I feel like a grandma. I have to walk very slowly, and I go down stairs the slow way (you know, where you put two feet on each step) because it hurts so badly. It's fine, though, I am definately glad I played. Oh, and we went to dinner with some of his friends, and they were all so sweet. I felt bad because I was pretty tired from all the travelling and playing soccer, and wasn't so talkative or attentive. But they were all so kind and were just fun to be around. I would go back to Germany in a heartbeat; it was so much fun, and so beautiful, and had delicious food.
Today was our painting/drawing/photography class exhibition opening. It was kind of crazy trying to get everything ready, but we had a nice little opening with the Wines of Italy class professor (he brought wine and some yummy dessert). It was delicious and just nice to have people look at our artwork and tell us how wonderful we are. Haha. What's not to love about that?
But it was good. We had an American Thanksgiving dinner at the school on Thursday, which was absolutely delicious. It was also cool because we had several visitors from back home; Laurens boyfriend (well, fiance now) and Maggie's cousin. Also a lot of our Italian friends and professors came, so it was a lot of fun. Cory, Elizabeth, and April, three of our Three Cities friends also came and visited for the weekend, arriving just after we left the dinner at school. They got to eat some of the leftovers of our meal, but unfortunately did not make it there in time for the main meal. Later we went and watched the basketball game between Tuscania (which several of our Italian friends and our student advisor play on) and Tarquinia. Appherently it's a pretty big rivalry, although Tuscania never really had a chance and got creamed. After that we all went to the bar to hang out, and it was sort of like saying goodbye to everyone, as I was leaving the next day for...
Germany! Germany was absolutely wonderful! I kept in contact with a friend of a friend who lives there. I had actually met this guy, Patrick, over the summer because he was in PA visiting my friend Steve (they had met in Hawaii because they both helped at the YWAM base there). I had told him that I was going to be studying in Italy, and that I wanted to travel while I was there, so I might just have to take a weekend trip to Germany. And so I did. And he was incredibly kind! He picked me up at the airport at midnight Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on how you look at it) and dropped me off at 4:30am on Sunday morning! This wasn't just a 45 min. drive, either, as I guess I got the wrong airport for my flights; so I was flying to Frankfurt Hahn airport instead of the regular Frankfurt airport. And the Hahn one turned out to be at least an hour and a half drive for hime (with pretty much no traffic). So we arrived at his house at 2am Saturday and left around 3am Sunday, and he had a wonderful day planned for the day on Saturday. And not only did he do all of this excessive driving, he also wouldn't take any money for gas, and let me sleep in his bed while he slept on the floor (in a completely different room for those who are curious and/or just plain nosy, and there's absolutely nothing romantic between us). I decided I'm going to send him something for Christmas, just to say "thanks," as words never can really say "thank you" well enough.
On Saturday we went to a Christmas Market in Heidelburg, hiked up to and walked around the castle there, and later played soccer with some of his friends, before going out to dinner at a nice little restuerant that had delicious German food. I got to meet his parents and grandmother, all of whom were very sweet. The Christmas Market was quite charming, too, with all sorts of souvineer stands and food stands, and lots of other lovely things. It was sort of like the Market in Tuscania, only much cleaner and much more charming. The castle was also very lovely, and there was a really nice view of the entire city, which was beautiful being illuminated by the bright sunshine. I also got some yummy chocolates at the grocery store to bring home to the US. Patrick definately has a sweet tooth (I think it must be a German thing), and knew all the best chocolatels to recommend. Then we went to his house, talked a bit with his parents, and left shortly to go play soccer. Soccer was incredibly fun, but I was not even close to being able to keep up. I was the only girl, and although I can keep up in the US at soccer with most guys, these people were obviously not Americans, and soccer is a much bigger deal to them. It was kind of embaressing (although still fun), and I felt bad for everyone else who got stuck on my team. I can't remember a time that I've felt more sore. As soon as we left I couldn't help but limping. You know it's going to be bad when even as soon as it's over you're already sore. So Sunday wasn't so bad since I was mostly sitting on public transportation all day. But today, today I feel like a grandma. I have to walk very slowly, and I go down stairs the slow way (you know, where you put two feet on each step) because it hurts so badly. It's fine, though, I am definately glad I played. Oh, and we went to dinner with some of his friends, and they were all so sweet. I felt bad because I was pretty tired from all the travelling and playing soccer, and wasn't so talkative or attentive. But they were all so kind and were just fun to be around. I would go back to Germany in a heartbeat; it was so much fun, and so beautiful, and had delicious food.
Today was our painting/drawing/photography class exhibition opening. It was kind of crazy trying to get everything ready, but we had a nice little opening with the Wines of Italy class professor (he brought wine and some yummy dessert). It was delicious and just nice to have people look at our artwork and tell us how wonderful we are. Haha. What's not to love about that?
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Oh, what a week.
It seems everything has just decided to break over the course of the last few days, and to make matters worse we've all been in pretty crappy moods.
So, here the list goes:
Monday night the kitchen sink drain broke. I think it's from just gradually tilting forward more and more, and I bumped into it and it just snapped. So all of the water that was in the sink ended up on our floor. The kitchen sink looks in even worse shape than ever before. Not to mention the fact that we have to do the dishes in the bathroom sink. Also, this affects our ability to do laundry, because the water that is used to rinse the clothing drains into our kitchen sink. This means no laundry until this gets fixed, either.
Tuesday the thing holding the shower head in place on the wall fell out. This is just annoying, because we never had a shower curtain to start with, and now we actually have to hold the shower head (or place it somewhere where it will not spray the entire bathroom... although that would be difficult too as the water pressure is quite low) the entire time we shower. Oh, and taking baths has been fun, too. First we have to let the hot water heater run for about 2 hours, then fill the tub with steaming hot water, then add cold water until it is a good temperature. And when it drains it has to drain slowly or else somehow (I still haven't figured out exactly why this happens, but it does) the drained water will come up this hole in our floor and flood the bathroom as well.
So of the 3 sinks/water spouts with drain systems in our apartment, only one is fully functional at this point. I feel like I'm living in low-income housing or something.
Also on Tuesday the hot water heater, or the heater, or something important broke at school, which happened to flood the entire kitchen. And this is really bad news because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we were going to use the kitchen to cook all of our delicious food. Hopefully it will be fixed and cleaned up by then. If not, I guess we'll find somewhere to cook and bake, but it just won't be as nice.
On the bright side, we do have heat now (as of about 3 weeks ago, I guess I forgot to write about this wonderful event earlier). In the form of two different woodstoves. They're great, but nothing like the heating systems at home. We still have about 5 thick blankets and wake up fairly cold, but it's better than it was.
On a different note, people lied when they said it would not be cold here. It is frigid! At orientation we were told that we wouldn't need a winter coat because it never really gets that cold. "Just bring lots of layers and sweaters," they said. Bull crap! It's not even December and it has already snowed in Florence, a mere 2 or 3 hours north of here.
Anyway, I have to go now, I have class in a bit. Ciao!
It seems everything has just decided to break over the course of the last few days, and to make matters worse we've all been in pretty crappy moods.
So, here the list goes:
Monday night the kitchen sink drain broke. I think it's from just gradually tilting forward more and more, and I bumped into it and it just snapped. So all of the water that was in the sink ended up on our floor. The kitchen sink looks in even worse shape than ever before. Not to mention the fact that we have to do the dishes in the bathroom sink. Also, this affects our ability to do laundry, because the water that is used to rinse the clothing drains into our kitchen sink. This means no laundry until this gets fixed, either.
Tuesday the thing holding the shower head in place on the wall fell out. This is just annoying, because we never had a shower curtain to start with, and now we actually have to hold the shower head (or place it somewhere where it will not spray the entire bathroom... although that would be difficult too as the water pressure is quite low) the entire time we shower. Oh, and taking baths has been fun, too. First we have to let the hot water heater run for about 2 hours, then fill the tub with steaming hot water, then add cold water until it is a good temperature. And when it drains it has to drain slowly or else somehow (I still haven't figured out exactly why this happens, but it does) the drained water will come up this hole in our floor and flood the bathroom as well.
So of the 3 sinks/water spouts with drain systems in our apartment, only one is fully functional at this point. I feel like I'm living in low-income housing or something.
Also on Tuesday the hot water heater, or the heater, or something important broke at school, which happened to flood the entire kitchen. And this is really bad news because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we were going to use the kitchen to cook all of our delicious food. Hopefully it will be fixed and cleaned up by then. If not, I guess we'll find somewhere to cook and bake, but it just won't be as nice.
On the bright side, we do have heat now (as of about 3 weeks ago, I guess I forgot to write about this wonderful event earlier). In the form of two different woodstoves. They're great, but nothing like the heating systems at home. We still have about 5 thick blankets and wake up fairly cold, but it's better than it was.
On a different note, people lied when they said it would not be cold here. It is frigid! At orientation we were told that we wouldn't need a winter coat because it never really gets that cold. "Just bring lots of layers and sweaters," they said. Bull crap! It's not even December and it has already snowed in Florence, a mere 2 or 3 hours north of here.
Anyway, I have to go now, I have class in a bit. Ciao!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Let me apolagize again for the lack of photos on this thing. One of these days I'll put some more up.
Not too much has been going on since the last post.
School has been ok. The work load is increasing even more, so it's getting a bit stressful. Or it should be more stressful. But for some reason I find myself being a bit apathetic about my grades. I know, it's bad, I should care more, but right now I just don't. I guess I'll just have to try to be more diligent.
I also realized how incnredibly out of shape I am. I run and lift maybe once a week, which is nowhere near enough. The combination of this laziness and the carb-loaded Italian diet isn't exactly ideal. I'm not really sure how I'm going to find a way to sprint and try to launch myself into the air with a 12 foot stick of fiberglass. But I guess I'll just have to try to be more disciplined.
But as for events of the past few weeks, this past Thursday my mom and one of my aunts came to visit me. I met them at the train station in Viterbo (after much wandering around the historical center of the city), and then went to Florence for the weekend.
Florence was wonderful. It's a very beautiful city, I enjoyed it very much. We saw the Ufizi gallery and the Accademia gallery, where Michelangelo's David is. I learned a lot about both of those places since we took a guided tour of both. The Accademia building was actually built just to house the David, so it's displayed very nicely. Nothing else in the gallery was really that notable, some nice sculptures and paintings, but not too much. We ate at some really good places, and had a lot of gelato. Mmmmm. We also went shopping a little bit, and I got some completely ridiculous sunglasses. I'm looking forward to when it's actually sunny and I can wear them.
We came back to Tuscania yesterday and ate lunch with our Italian friends and the people from the school. Dan was also in town for the weekend, so we got to see him before he headed back to Florence. Marco's mom (Marco is one of the Italian guys) made a delicious lunch of pasta, potatoes, and sausage. It was absolutely delicious and she is the sweetest woman ever. We helped them pick olives, and my aunt bought some of the oil that they make.
I'n starting to look forward to going back home. Don't get me wrong, this place is absolutely wonderful and amazing in so many ways, but it will be really good to see friends and family again. And I'm sure I'll be back here someday.
Not too much has been going on since the last post.
School has been ok. The work load is increasing even more, so it's getting a bit stressful. Or it should be more stressful. But for some reason I find myself being a bit apathetic about my grades. I know, it's bad, I should care more, but right now I just don't. I guess I'll just have to try to be more diligent.
I also realized how incnredibly out of shape I am. I run and lift maybe once a week, which is nowhere near enough. The combination of this laziness and the carb-loaded Italian diet isn't exactly ideal. I'm not really sure how I'm going to find a way to sprint and try to launch myself into the air with a 12 foot stick of fiberglass. But I guess I'll just have to try to be more disciplined.
But as for events of the past few weeks, this past Thursday my mom and one of my aunts came to visit me. I met them at the train station in Viterbo (after much wandering around the historical center of the city), and then went to Florence for the weekend.
Florence was wonderful. It's a very beautiful city, I enjoyed it very much. We saw the Ufizi gallery and the Accademia gallery, where Michelangelo's David is. I learned a lot about both of those places since we took a guided tour of both. The Accademia building was actually built just to house the David, so it's displayed very nicely. Nothing else in the gallery was really that notable, some nice sculptures and paintings, but not too much. We ate at some really good places, and had a lot of gelato. Mmmmm. We also went shopping a little bit, and I got some completely ridiculous sunglasses. I'm looking forward to when it's actually sunny and I can wear them.
We came back to Tuscania yesterday and ate lunch with our Italian friends and the people from the school. Dan was also in town for the weekend, so we got to see him before he headed back to Florence. Marco's mom (Marco is one of the Italian guys) made a delicious lunch of pasta, potatoes, and sausage. It was absolutely delicious and she is the sweetest woman ever. We helped them pick olives, and my aunt bought some of the oil that they make.
I'n starting to look forward to going back home. Don't get me wrong, this place is absolutely wonderful and amazing in so many ways, but it will be really good to see friends and family again. And I'm sure I'll be back here someday.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
I finally feel like I have a chance to relax! The day after our midterms were over (which I guess would be Friday the 24th), I went with our student advisor to a big art museum in Rome. Several other people were going to come, but backed out, and it was going to be just me. Except before we left we had to meet Amanda, one of the people in the Three Cities Program, in Viterbo (the city close to us) to do her Permit of Stay meeting. She decided to come along with us, which was nice because it was going to be kind of weird being just me and Marco. And when we got to Rome Dan and Gabrielle from the Three Cities Program also came to the museum, as well as Rich (in the Tuscania Program) and his friend Nick who had just flown in from Utah. So it ended up being quite the crew of people, which was a very welcome surprise. I decided to stay in Rome with Gabby and Amanda so that I didn't have to go back to Tuscania, only to return to Rome the next day.
On Saturday (the 25th), we left from Rome's Ciampino airport, which I discovered is significantlly smaller than Fuimicino. I found my way there all by myself. This probably isn't a big deal to anyone else, but I'm not really a city person, and now that I think about it, I've never really walked around a big city by myself. Ever. So for me to be in a foreign country in a big city full of thieves, pickpockets, and who knows what other kinds of criminals, it was a little scary. But I didn't feel all that uncomfortable. I made it to the place where the bus for the airport leaves from, asked (in Italian) if this is the bus going to Ciampino airport, and exlained to him that my ticket for two people would only be for one because the other person isn't here. Every time I manage to communicate with someone in Italian I feel very proud of myself. So I got on the bus and began my inward gloating. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long, which was just long enough for me to stop gloating and begin to second guess whether I had indeed boarded the correct bus. It turned out that I had, and was fine. I met up with the rest of the Tuscania group, as they were flying out of the same airport to a different destination.
At last we were off to Paris! We finally arrived at our hostel around 11pm, and went right to sleep, as we were pretty exhausted from traveling for the day. The next day we decided to go to the Louvre Art Museum AND the Orsay Art Museum. Both were wonderful. A person could probably spend a week in the Louvre and not see everything. It's just so incredibly overwhelming! Orsay was wonderful as well, I really enjoyed the great collection of Impressionist art that they had there.
In between these two museums we stopped at a caffe and had lunch. I got a mediocre-tasting chicken sandwhich, and for dessert I had creme-brulle (and I'm proabaly completely butchering the spelling of that dish). But it's this delicious dessert they make, and I guess it's just caramelized cream. At least that's what the English description of it said on the menu.
After the museums we were exhausted and decided to head back to our hostel. Only we got a bit disoriented on the way there and ended up sitting down in some grassy park-like area. There were several children there attempting to juggle a soccer ball, and they were just so adorable. I had my sketchbook along, and decided it would be a good time to sketch. So we sat and sketched for a little while, then got oriented again and returned to our hostel for a much needed nap.
We met some cool peole at our hostel, and as a group decided we were going to go up the Eiffel tower, go on a boat tour, and then go out to eat. But we ended up skipping the boat tour for lack of time before the resteurant closed. The Eiffel Tower doesn't look that big until you have to climb up it. But it was well worth it. There was a beautiful view of the city from the top, although it was quite windy on the one side. We were all starving, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a big meal of steak. I think pretty much everyone had some form of steak, and everyone seemed to enjoy thier food. I got an open faced Sirloin sandwhich, and it was just delicious.
The next day we went to see the Arch di Triumph, which was really cool, but I was just so exhausted from all the walking we had done that it wasn't that impressive to me. We also say Notre Dame Cathedral, which was very cool, except for the fact that it started to pour as we were waiting in line to go in and go up the towers. So we abandoned that idea and settled for just taking several photos of the outside of the building.
We also went to the train station and were informed that the reciept I had for my train tickets was not adequate proof for them to print another ticket, so I had to buy a second pair of train tickets to go to Amsterdam. I think I'm going to write a nasty letter to Eurorail.
Amsterdam was definitely interesting. Since maijuana is tolerated (though technically not legal), there were "coffee shops" everywhere. Just to clarify, coffee shops are places that people go to smoke marijuana, although I've heard that they do actually sell coffee as well. I thought there would be several, but not nearly as many as there actually are. There are also bicycles everywhere, as my roomate unfortunately found out the hard way. She now has this really nasty bruise the size of a wallet on her hip. The lady that ran into her wasn't exactly the kindest, either. This woman started cursing (I presume) at her in Dutch, then realized she didn't speak Dutch so she began to curse at her in English instead. I keep reminding her that she'll have a really good story to tell about Amsterdam.
We stayed one night with a friend of a friend, whose name is Emily. She was really kind, and made us an incredible breakfast in the morning. We had these little pancakes cooked in butter and then coated with powdered sugar. She also made sausage and got these little chocolate-coated ginger cookies as well. We made bruschetta for her, which she really seemed to like. After we left her place we checked into our hostel and walked around the city some more. Amsterdam definitely doesn't seem like a place I would want to live. I'm very glad we visited there, however, as it gave me a taste of something other than old pituresque buildings. It was more this modern, liberal culture. Don't get me wrong, though, there are some very nice old areas of Amsterdam that are quite beautiful. We walked around the city some more, went to the Anne Frank house, and went out for dinner at this wonderful little restuerant in a quaint area of town. I'm glad we were so lucky with food, because in every city we had at least one meal or one dish that was just fantastic, and that's how our meal was here. We returned to our hostel and went to bed quite quickly, as we were once again exhausted. The next day we left early in the morning for Prague.
We got to Prague, and discovered that our hostel is in one of the shady parts of town. We had to walk accross this grafitti-covered foot bridge that went over this old run down train station that I'm not even sure is used any more. There was this train sitting there the entire time we were there, and I imagine quite a few homeless people sleep in it at night. We didn't really do anything the rest of the day, as Ashley was feeling absolutely terrible. I'm honestly surprised she didn't hack up a lung.
As we were just hanging out in our hostel (which by the way was very nice except for the fact that I felt like I was going to be mugged every time I stepped out of the door), the two other girls staying in our room came and the one girl was in tears. Appherently her purse had been stolen! I felt really bad for her, and we tried to think of solutions so that she could still enjoy her stay. In the end I think everything turned out ok, she was just short a lot of money. Which still isn't fun, but it could've been worse. It just helped to cement Prague as a shady city, though. I don't think I've ever held on to my purse as tightly as I did there (especialy considering it had been slashed with a boxcuter by a wanna-be pickpocket on a crowded metro in the same city almost a year ago).
The next day we did all the tourist stuff. We went to the Mucha Museum and I bought a book and several postcards of his work, as well as Old Town Square, the Astronomical clock, Prague Castle, St. Charles Bridge, and St. Vittes Cathedral. Our wonderful meal in Prague came at lunch time, where we sat down and had some traditional Czech food. We both got the same thing: bread with garlic butter to spread on it, then potatoe soup, then goulash with dumplings, and finally some amazing sort of sundae. All that for less than $20 (including drinks and tip). That might not sound very cheap, but the portions were gigantic and we definitely got our money's worth out of it. We returned to our hostel and relaxed again.
Then we had to begin our journey home. We took a metro to a bus station, then a bus to the airport. At the airport the oh-so-wonderful woman at the check-in desh decided to be the ONLY person on our entire trip to enforce the one and only one bag of carry-on luggage. This means no purses, appherently. She took a look at how big our bags already were, and laughed and said "good luck getting that all in one bag." Now if I were wealthy and not pressed for time I might have just opted to put it in checked luggage and not have to worry about it. But I'm a poor college student (and a cheap Mennonite as well) and really wanted to catch a particular train that would be leaving shortly after we arrived at the train station. So what did we do? There was no way I was going to fit anything else in my backpack without removing a good portion of it's contents, and Ashley was in a similar situation. We went to the bathroom and put on almost ALL of the clothing we had in our bag. By the time we left the bathroom, I looked about 40 lbs heavier and was wearing 3 bras, 11 shirts, a pair of jeans, a pair of basketball shorts, and a pair of sweatpants. Take THAT mean check-in lady!
So we took our flight to Milan, took the 5:40 bus to the train station (arrived at 6:30), then took the 7pm train to Rome, and then the metro to our friends house. We had arrived at Rome at 11:30pm, spent a few hours sleeping at Gabby and Amanda's, then caught the 6:09am train back to Viterbo, where we were greeted by Alessio, which was kind enough to drive us back to Tuscania. Exhausted again, we napped most of the day before going out for dinner with Rich and his friend Nick, who had also returned from their trip with some crazy stories as well.
This week has been nice, as nothing in any of my classes is too intense.
However, I do feel like I've forgotten every single word I ever learned in Italian. I spent about 4 hours last night just reviewing vocabulary and rules, and doing my homework for that class. I'm sure I'll get used to it, though, being surrounded by the beautiful language once again.
On Saturday (the 25th), we left from Rome's Ciampino airport, which I discovered is significantlly smaller than Fuimicino. I found my way there all by myself. This probably isn't a big deal to anyone else, but I'm not really a city person, and now that I think about it, I've never really walked around a big city by myself. Ever. So for me to be in a foreign country in a big city full of thieves, pickpockets, and who knows what other kinds of criminals, it was a little scary. But I didn't feel all that uncomfortable. I made it to the place where the bus for the airport leaves from, asked (in Italian) if this is the bus going to Ciampino airport, and exlained to him that my ticket for two people would only be for one because the other person isn't here. Every time I manage to communicate with someone in Italian I feel very proud of myself. So I got on the bus and began my inward gloating. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long, which was just long enough for me to stop gloating and begin to second guess whether I had indeed boarded the correct bus. It turned out that I had, and was fine. I met up with the rest of the Tuscania group, as they were flying out of the same airport to a different destination.
At last we were off to Paris! We finally arrived at our hostel around 11pm, and went right to sleep, as we were pretty exhausted from traveling for the day. The next day we decided to go to the Louvre Art Museum AND the Orsay Art Museum. Both were wonderful. A person could probably spend a week in the Louvre and not see everything. It's just so incredibly overwhelming! Orsay was wonderful as well, I really enjoyed the great collection of Impressionist art that they had there.
In between these two museums we stopped at a caffe and had lunch. I got a mediocre-tasting chicken sandwhich, and for dessert I had creme-brulle (and I'm proabaly completely butchering the spelling of that dish). But it's this delicious dessert they make, and I guess it's just caramelized cream. At least that's what the English description of it said on the menu.
After the museums we were exhausted and decided to head back to our hostel. Only we got a bit disoriented on the way there and ended up sitting down in some grassy park-like area. There were several children there attempting to juggle a soccer ball, and they were just so adorable. I had my sketchbook along, and decided it would be a good time to sketch. So we sat and sketched for a little while, then got oriented again and returned to our hostel for a much needed nap.
We met some cool peole at our hostel, and as a group decided we were going to go up the Eiffel tower, go on a boat tour, and then go out to eat. But we ended up skipping the boat tour for lack of time before the resteurant closed. The Eiffel Tower doesn't look that big until you have to climb up it. But it was well worth it. There was a beautiful view of the city from the top, although it was quite windy on the one side. We were all starving, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a big meal of steak. I think pretty much everyone had some form of steak, and everyone seemed to enjoy thier food. I got an open faced Sirloin sandwhich, and it was just delicious.
The next day we went to see the Arch di Triumph, which was really cool, but I was just so exhausted from all the walking we had done that it wasn't that impressive to me. We also say Notre Dame Cathedral, which was very cool, except for the fact that it started to pour as we were waiting in line to go in and go up the towers. So we abandoned that idea and settled for just taking several photos of the outside of the building.
We also went to the train station and were informed that the reciept I had for my train tickets was not adequate proof for them to print another ticket, so I had to buy a second pair of train tickets to go to Amsterdam. I think I'm going to write a nasty letter to Eurorail.
Amsterdam was definitely interesting. Since maijuana is tolerated (though technically not legal), there were "coffee shops" everywhere. Just to clarify, coffee shops are places that people go to smoke marijuana, although I've heard that they do actually sell coffee as well. I thought there would be several, but not nearly as many as there actually are. There are also bicycles everywhere, as my roomate unfortunately found out the hard way. She now has this really nasty bruise the size of a wallet on her hip. The lady that ran into her wasn't exactly the kindest, either. This woman started cursing (I presume) at her in Dutch, then realized she didn't speak Dutch so she began to curse at her in English instead. I keep reminding her that she'll have a really good story to tell about Amsterdam.
We stayed one night with a friend of a friend, whose name is Emily. She was really kind, and made us an incredible breakfast in the morning. We had these little pancakes cooked in butter and then coated with powdered sugar. She also made sausage and got these little chocolate-coated ginger cookies as well. We made bruschetta for her, which she really seemed to like. After we left her place we checked into our hostel and walked around the city some more. Amsterdam definitely doesn't seem like a place I would want to live. I'm very glad we visited there, however, as it gave me a taste of something other than old pituresque buildings. It was more this modern, liberal culture. Don't get me wrong, though, there are some very nice old areas of Amsterdam that are quite beautiful. We walked around the city some more, went to the Anne Frank house, and went out for dinner at this wonderful little restuerant in a quaint area of town. I'm glad we were so lucky with food, because in every city we had at least one meal or one dish that was just fantastic, and that's how our meal was here. We returned to our hostel and went to bed quite quickly, as we were once again exhausted. The next day we left early in the morning for Prague.
We got to Prague, and discovered that our hostel is in one of the shady parts of town. We had to walk accross this grafitti-covered foot bridge that went over this old run down train station that I'm not even sure is used any more. There was this train sitting there the entire time we were there, and I imagine quite a few homeless people sleep in it at night. We didn't really do anything the rest of the day, as Ashley was feeling absolutely terrible. I'm honestly surprised she didn't hack up a lung.
As we were just hanging out in our hostel (which by the way was very nice except for the fact that I felt like I was going to be mugged every time I stepped out of the door), the two other girls staying in our room came and the one girl was in tears. Appherently her purse had been stolen! I felt really bad for her, and we tried to think of solutions so that she could still enjoy her stay. In the end I think everything turned out ok, she was just short a lot of money. Which still isn't fun, but it could've been worse. It just helped to cement Prague as a shady city, though. I don't think I've ever held on to my purse as tightly as I did there (especialy considering it had been slashed with a boxcuter by a wanna-be pickpocket on a crowded metro in the same city almost a year ago).
The next day we did all the tourist stuff. We went to the Mucha Museum and I bought a book and several postcards of his work, as well as Old Town Square, the Astronomical clock, Prague Castle, St. Charles Bridge, and St. Vittes Cathedral. Our wonderful meal in Prague came at lunch time, where we sat down and had some traditional Czech food. We both got the same thing: bread with garlic butter to spread on it, then potatoe soup, then goulash with dumplings, and finally some amazing sort of sundae. All that for less than $20 (including drinks and tip). That might not sound very cheap, but the portions were gigantic and we definitely got our money's worth out of it. We returned to our hostel and relaxed again.
Then we had to begin our journey home. We took a metro to a bus station, then a bus to the airport. At the airport the oh-so-wonderful woman at the check-in desh decided to be the ONLY person on our entire trip to enforce the one and only one bag of carry-on luggage. This means no purses, appherently. She took a look at how big our bags already were, and laughed and said "good luck getting that all in one bag." Now if I were wealthy and not pressed for time I might have just opted to put it in checked luggage and not have to worry about it. But I'm a poor college student (and a cheap Mennonite as well) and really wanted to catch a particular train that would be leaving shortly after we arrived at the train station. So what did we do? There was no way I was going to fit anything else in my backpack without removing a good portion of it's contents, and Ashley was in a similar situation. We went to the bathroom and put on almost ALL of the clothing we had in our bag. By the time we left the bathroom, I looked about 40 lbs heavier and was wearing 3 bras, 11 shirts, a pair of jeans, a pair of basketball shorts, and a pair of sweatpants. Take THAT mean check-in lady!
So we took our flight to Milan, took the 5:40 bus to the train station (arrived at 6:30), then took the 7pm train to Rome, and then the metro to our friends house. We had arrived at Rome at 11:30pm, spent a few hours sleeping at Gabby and Amanda's, then caught the 6:09am train back to Viterbo, where we were greeted by Alessio, which was kind enough to drive us back to Tuscania. Exhausted again, we napped most of the day before going out for dinner with Rich and his friend Nick, who had also returned from their trip with some crazy stories as well.
This week has been nice, as nothing in any of my classes is too intense.
However, I do feel like I've forgotten every single word I ever learned in Italian. I spent about 4 hours last night just reviewing vocabulary and rules, and doing my homework for that class. I'm sure I'll get used to it, though, being surrounded by the beautiful language once again.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The photos are of Cinque Terre
This past week hasn't been incredibly eventful, but we did go to Rome for a night to celebrate Cory's birthday this past Thursday. Cory is one of the three cities people that I mentioned in my last post, so now that whole group is in Rome. It was a lot of fun, just getting to see the rest of the group and meet new people as well. Getting locked out of the apartment that we were going to stay at for about half an hour wasn't too great, but other than that I had an incredible time.
Then on Saturday Cory came back to Tuscania to visit, and we had a frisbee playing reunion, which was something we had all felt deprived of since the three cities people left.
On Sunday we took a day trip with the API students to Assissi and Perugia. It was really cool to see such a famous church being used. I really wish I knew more about the history of the place, because I definitely would've appreciated it more, but it was still really awesome. Perugia was really neat as well, but we just went in order to go to the chocolate festival. It was incredible, there were stands selling every type of chocolate you could possibly imagine (except with peanut butter, because I don't think peanut butter exists in Italy). I bought a cup of cioccolata fondente calda (dark hot chocolate). However, it's not like hot chocolate in the states. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but hot chocolate here is like drinking a melted hershey's bar. It's so rich. My friend Rich always refers to it as diabetes in a cup, and I'm inclined to agree with him. But anyway, also at this chocolate festival were these tents with gates around them with people making these 5 ft cubes into sculptures on this 3 ft. high platform. Then there were these people inside the gates who would pick up all the chocolate carvings and put them in plastic bags and give them to people in the audience. They gave first priority to children, but I waited for about half an hour or 45 minutes and finally got a bag of Perugina chocolate shavings. It was so crowded, though, and some people were kind of rude a pushy. It definitely would've been a lot more fun if it there weren't so many people there. I guess it is understandable, though. This city is pretty famous for it's chocolate, and it would only make sense that a bazilllion people would want to go.
Midterms started on Monday, so we've been rushing around trying to get art projects finished and everything. It's been a little stressful, but I'm so glad that I'm taking 3 art classes and only had one midterm that I actually needed to study for (which would be Italian). Our cooking class final is this evening, and I'm making a mocha creme roll, which I'm really excited about. I made it before at home, and it was just delicious, so I figured why not try it again.
I also realized that I need to register for classes back in Kutztown on the 30th, but I've been having trouble getting in contact with my advisor, and I also realized that 2 of the classes that I absolutely have to take this coming semester are either not offered or are not listed in the online course catalog. So that should be fun.
On Saturday we leave for our Fall break trip, which will include Paris, Amsterdam, and Prague, in that order. I'm really excited about all three, but I wish we could have more time in each place. Maybe cramming it all into one week wasn't such a good idea, but we'll see. I'm sure it will be great no matter what.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The photos above are from Lake Bolsena, The grape picking, painting class, Rome (colosseum), and Venice at night,.
So much has been going on since the last time I posted, so I'm going to try to keep it brief.
The Friday after I posted, the Three Cities students left, so now there are only seven of us. Maybe we should call ourselves the magnificent seven, since we are pretty awesome peopple. Haha, ok, maybe not, but seven's a good nmber, I guess. I do miss the larger group, though, the people were a lot of fun, and it just isn't the same without them.
Not this past weekend, but the weekend before we went and visited Rome. We did the student/tourist thing, got a hostel, and went to see the sights. The Vatican was by far my favorite part, because we took a tour and learned so much about the place. It's incredible how much famous artwork is in that one place! Our tour guide was very interesting, and it made me think, "hm, this could be a really incredible summer job." So who knows, maybe this summer I'll be somewhere giving tours and talking about artwork. Of course, the Sistine Chapel was so incredible to see, even though it was terribly crowded. We also saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Colloseum, Pantheon, and many other things. Saint Peter's was also really cool.
Then we had a week of school. Blah. Classes are cool, but I'm starting to get loaded down with homework, and it's not so fun. But my homework is to go and sketch and paint the city, so I guess I shouldn't complain (although I still will).
This past weekend we left Saturday morning for Cinque Terre, and hiked 3/4 of it Saturday, and finished the hike on Sunday. What a workout! I haven't been running as much as I should be, but I thought I was in decent shape until Saturday! That much hiking kicked my butt! But it was definitely worth it. The views of the cities and the sea were gorgeous. On Sunday as soon as we were done with our hike we took a swim in the sea at the last town. The water was surprisingly not too frigid, and it was quite an enjoyable time. I wish we could have spent more than two days there, but I'll take what I can get. Maybe someday I'll be able to return for a more extended period of time.
Overall, I'm still having a wonderful time. Every once in a while I miss things like peanut butter and my friends and family, but for the most part I'm in love with this place. I've decided that when I am rich from my super-high-paying teaching job, I will buy a summer home here and live here over the summer. I guess maybe that's a little delusional, but who knows, haha.
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