One week.

See you then.

Homestretch

I will be home in a month. This is a thought that occurs to me often. I have mixed emotions about this. Mostly, I am excited to return to real life. I know it sounds a little weird, but I have been living in a dream world where I have no worries, little work, and a lot of fun. I learned more about myself in the last 4 months then I did in years. Obviously, I had the free time to do so.

This weekend I was supposed to go to Ireland. We got all the way to the airport, I was excited to go to a country where they actually speak my native tongue, ENGLISH. I was walking into the check in line, pulling out my passport when Ryan turned around and broke the news, “Our flight was canceled”, I immediately put my passport back into my bag and zipped it up. He said our faces were priceless, and probably the most depressing thing he had ever seen. We waited in line with many other angry passengers to hear our fate. We wondered if we could just hop onto the next flight to anywhere, I was pushing for London. Unfortunately, things don’t work that way. We also wouldn’t be able to get on another flight until Tuesday when we all have school, and I leave for Venice Thursday. DISAPPOINTMENT. At least we get a refund.

We got back on the bus and headed back to the Termini station. I was bummed about the fact that I just spent 20- euro roundtrip to have my heart broken. We debated going to Florence on an overnight train, but I was kind over everything at that point and just decided to head back to Viterbo with half of the group.

I realized something this weekend though, I HAVE CHANGED.

I used to be so afraid of disappointment that I would expect the worst from every situation, just to avoid the awful feeling of nothing working out the exact way that I want it to. This weekend, I knew there was snow in Ireland. I knew that all of Northern Europe was covered with a white blanket, yet I didn’t even think that my flight would be canceled or that I wouldn’t actually ever get there in the year 2010. I was just caught up in thinking of how much fun I was going to have and how much language I was going to understand. And, when I did hear the disappointing news, yes, it did devastate me, but I handled it way better than I expected. I guess you can say that I am no longer a Negative Nancy. (Ignore the ending of my previous blog, it was all in good, positive humor).

So, I spent this weekend not hanging out with McConnelys and O’briens, but cleaning my apartment and working on homework. Yet I am in a good mood. I still thought of all the positives to my misadventure.

LA VITA É BELLA.

See you all in 3 weeks.

Basque'in

Unfortunately this blog is starting to feel more like a chore I went to San Sebastian, Spain with my travel buddy Kim, Kimothy. We were very excited to get out of Italy. She had been to Poland, but I hadn’t left this country in 3 months! I was excited to see new scenery. We had a long journey, 12 hours total. It was a lot of treno, autobus, e Aero. I had my first cheap airline experience. Ryanair, which has great deals, but be prepared to never leave on time.

We flew into Santandar, which is technically only an hour and a half out of San Sebastian, but the only bus you can take stops in every town on the way so it takes 3-4 hours. I had the worst headache I have ever had, and when I thought things weren’t that bad…a family of gypsies sat in front of us. The father played a NOT catchy Spanish song over and over again. This is the first time in my life where I felt like I could beat someone up out of pure anger. (just the man in me). But then It got even better. Him and his wife started fighting and yelling at each other. I don’t speak Spanish, but luckily my company did. “They are either fighting about him cheating on her, or its about food.” Then he smacked her. He straight up slapped her across the face. I saw the whole thing. I get really uncomfortable with tension and confrontation, so I went into shock mode. I kept trying to ignore it, but they were yelling loudly. Everyone else on the bus wasn’t even phased by it. They continued to spit on each other and insult each other. And then he hit her again! EVEN HARDER. At this point my head hurt so bad, and I was so uncomfortable that I wanted to cry. We finally arrived at the bus station and I just jumped off the bus. I have never been so happy to get off of a bus. Later on I was recounting the experience to Gaby, and she said that sometimes Gypsies put on these types of scenes to get money, and now that I think about it…that makes a lot more sense.

So we got into San Sebastian and we met up with Kevin. It was freezing. We took a taxi to the Sideria where we got all you can eat steak, fish, peanuts...etc. I just recently let myself start eating fish, and I haven’t been that disappointed, in fact, on the way home from the trip I had a craving for something that I couldn’t recognize, then I realized that I was having a craving for fish. WHATS HAPPENING? We met all of Kevin’s USAC friends. They definitely have a different kind of group then ours. It was good to meet new people. We went dancing for a little bit, but went home due to exhaustion.

The next day we met up with Kim’s Uncle who lives in San Sabby also. He is Mexican, like Kim, but he met a Basque woman and married her and then three years ago they moved back to beautiful Basque country, ya know, just your everyday boring love story. No but really, they were the nicest couple. They have a 6 year old son named Tinosh. He was cute. We sat around and talked about the different cultures, languages, and experiences. Their son knows Basque, Spanish, and English. He is a trilingual genius.

Her uncle took us in his car around a few towns in Basque country. It was seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I am a little jealous of Kevin because he lives in such a beautiful area. San Sebastian is right on the ocean, and it’s clean, and just…amazing. We got a tour of the area, I ate some good food, and good pictures. We came back into the city and met up with my friend Ariana. Ariana is studying in France and Kim also had a friend who is studying there too and they came up together. We met up with them and walked around and talked about Spanish, Italian, and French. Three languages that sound very different but also have similarities. We all spoke our languages to each other. I think we are all making progress. We went back to Kevin’s apartment where him and his room mates made us girls Paella, which is a Basque/Spanish specialty. It has rice, chicken, seafood, other things that are delicious. It was a buon feast. We met up again with Kevin’s friends and went dancing again. Did I mention that Kim and I love to dance? WE ARE ALWAYS DANCING.

The next day was really cold and rainy. I tried a kebab, and unfortunately it was better than my main man Hagen’s back in Viterbo, but I am a loyal customer. He knows my name, and always gives me free fries, so it’s the thought that makes it the best. We mostly just hung out on Sunday. It was good to hang out with Kevin, and his roommates are really nice. I got to watch some Modern Family too, which made me happy ☺ Kevin has a Basque roommate, Gotzon, who made us a tortilla which is similar to an omelet, but filled with potatoes and onions. It was really delicious. I was spoiled with food that weekend.

Kim and I headed back home on Monday. We had a four- hour bus ride to the airport, but I didn’t mind this time because I could see the AMAZING scenery, and this time there were no gypsies. We finally made it home at 11 that night, and I was exhausted and coughing up a lung. I am going to be dead in about 2 weeks. It was nice loving all of you.

Grategoodnessful

In no particular order

DRYERS
FAMILY
CHEAP FOOD
EXQUISITE FOOD
MAKING MONEY
HOMEMADE MEALS
GENUINE PEOPLE
OPPORTUNITIES
LEGS
ARMS
EYEBALLS
BRAINS
THE WAY ITALIAN MEN DRESS
FIAT PANDAS
HONDA CIVICS
ITALIAN FOOD
FALL COLORS
GELATO
MUSHROOMS
TOMATOES
TURKISH KEBABS
DRY WEATHER
LAUGHING
DANCING
WINTER COATS
CHEAP FLIGHTS
LIFE LONG FRIENDSHIPS
SHARING
READING
LONG TALKS
BUCKET LISTS
HOT SHOWERS
FOOD NETWORK
MOVIES
THE OFFICE, MODERN FAMILY, FRIENDS, BOY MEETS WORLD
WATCHING MYTH BUSTERS WITH DAD
SCENERY
BAD TIMES
GOOD TIMES
ACCESS TO INTERNET
50 MINUTE CLASSES
LANGUAGES
CULTURE
SLEEPING
SKYPE
GLOVES
SOCKS
NUTELLA
SMOOTHIES
COOKIES
MICROWAVES
SPANIARDS
MUSIC
PLAYING PIANO
PRAYERS
DISCOVERY
ITALY
HOME.

Blah Blah Bologna

Sorry I didn’t update last week, which was rude of me especially since I actually had things to update about.

ALLORA, (so) last weekend we went on a great adventure to BOLOGNA (Bolonya). There were 8 of us, and we rented two FIAT PANDAS. That was fun. The night before we left we had the car and we drove places that we usually have to walk. We drove to the TERME, which are a bunch of free hot springs in an open field a little bit outside of Viterbo. They are very nice, but smell like poop and rotten eggs.

Anyways, it was really weird being in a car, but nice to get a break from walking. The next day we headed to Bologna in our little blue Pandas. The tolls for the roads are RIDICULOUS. It cost 20 euros just to drive on the road from Viterbo to Bologna, pretty CARO (expensive). We stopped in Florence on the way up and got gelato, and then walked literally 2 blocks and got a gelato shake, or a “frappe”. This is an example of why I am suddenly five pounds heavier. We went and stopped at Ponte Vecchio because Mary had never seen it before. I didn’t mind at all because Florence is definitely one of my favorite places in Italy.

Oh, side note. On this special weekend trip we had some special visitors from Hungary. Mary and Julia are sisters that were friends of our friend Jeff. They study in Hungary and made a nice trip to Italy that weekend and decided to grace us with their presence. They were really fun and I was glad to meet some more new friends.

After we made our gelato pit stop in Florence we headed up to Bologna. It took us quite a while to find our hostel, but eventually we found it. Good thing we had our cars because it was definitely out of the way. After we were settled we headed out to dinner. We went to a place recommended by the New York Times. We showed up and they were booked, but then the owner felt bad and set up a table outside. Welcome to the longest most expensive dinner I have ever had. Five hours later, I was full from a three- course meal plus dessert and a cookie. He kept bringing us food and kept us there for quite some time. He was a very interesting guy, he had served our good friend ARNOLD GOVERNATOR, before. I had lasagna, and boy was it delightful lasagna, and one of Bologna’s famous dishes. We also shared an AHUMAZING steak. I don’t know what was in the sauce but it made my stomach smile. So after the owner man kept us at his restaurant for a REAL Italian meal and stole 30 euro from all of us, we got roses and went back to our hostel exhausted.

The next day we went back into the city just to check it out for a little while. There was amazing band of instrument players in the main square. I liked them so much I gave them a EURO. So generous. We walked around, I liked what I saw, but we had other places to be so we got back into our Pandas and headed to San Marino.

San Marino is an independent country within Italy. So technically this could have been another stamp on my passport had they not charged 5 euro for it. So I will just remember it in my heart and not have anything to show for it. This place was absolutely beautiful. They have seven castles on a giant hill. The pictures sort of speak for themselves. We wandered all day around there, and then went to our hostel. It reminded me of the dorms except with 12 bunks in a room. We went to dinner back up on the hill; I had some good gnocchi, but nothing in comparison to the night before. After the hearty meal and a game of ninja in the streets, we went back to the our dorm hostel and played ping pong in the common room. We happened to notice an intense couple fight on the street below us and a few of my travel mates spent the rest of the night narrating the dramatic scene. And Kim and Cara went to comfort her when she was left on the side of the street. It was quite the relaxed day.

The driving was good; I wasn’t the intense backseat driver that I usually am. Ricardo was impressive. He even Tokyo drifted, and I made it home alive. I wanted to drive, since all the cars here are sticks. But I was too scared so I just drove in parking lots…which was fun enough.

We made it back to Viterbo by lunch time that day, (only because of Daylight Savings Time). We enjoyed a pizza. By pizza, I mean the Viterbese way by having one gigantic pizza to yourself; so huge that it is served on two plates. I had two of those this week. Did I mention I have gained some weight?

We went to a lovely Halloween party that night with some Italians. They don’t really celebrate Halloween here, but the Italian students that showed up did a great job dressing up. I met a guy dressed like Indiana Jones, Holy Grail and all. I went as a lion, because I figured that is the closest thing I resemble. Everyone just thought I was Jena with whiskers on my face. I guess I look like a lion everyday.

Chocolates and Catholics

This weekend was yet another eventful one. On Friday the USAC group went to Assisi for a tour of the beautiful limestone town and gigantic cathedral. After a quick lunch and gelato we went to Perugia for a short tour and CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL. I felt inclined to eat as much chocolate as I possibly could, and lets just say I did my part. I can die.

We walked around and looked at the many stands, there were plenty to choose from. I kept my eye out for certain things and made note to return to certain booths. We stopped inside a café and Marco suggested we try a chocolate cake. We tried a hazelnut/chocolate cupcake thing that was quite delicious. We also tried a white chocolate one, but I was not as much of a fan of that one. My first purchase was chocolate pasta with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar. The actual pasta wasn’t that flavorful, but the combination of the strawberries and chocolate made me happy. Ricardo got chocolate pasta with white chocolate sauce. I wish I bought that one; it was like heaven in the mouth.

My next stop was for a chocolate banana, which was my favorite. I have a new thing for banana and chocolate. I don’t know what it is. It was just love at first taste. Ricardo tried a chocolate kebab, which I tried a lot of, and afterwards I thought I was defeated by chocolate, but no, not yet. I tried small pieces of other chocolates, Ricardo had to get some Venezuelan chocolate, and that stuff was dark and rich…I also tried a Bracio, with some sort of nut in it, and dark hazlenut chocolate from Torino. That one tasted like nutella and was delicious! At this point my stomach was mad at me. I still had wanted hot chocolate, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle it. I tried some other hot chocolates, and they were THICK, like chocolate soup. I wasn’t going to go through with it, but Jeff bought me a mint hot chocolate with whipped cream and I just had to do it. It was really thick and rich. Like eating chocolate clam chowder thick. I almost finished it but I couldn’t push myself to do it.

That night was the first night in FOREVER that I felt like I was actually going to vomit.


On Saturday Gaby, one of my roommates that I am in love with, and I went to the Vatican! We made a reservation for 1pm and we were able to walk past the long line and straight into the museum. The museum was amazing; there was so much to take in. After twenty-minutes I felt exhausted. We got to see the Sistine Chapel and we just sat and stared up for 10 minutes. I love Michelangelo.

Gaby wanted to go to the Hard Rock Café in Rome for American like food, and I had never been to a Hard Rock before so I decided I would let her take me on a date there.
I didn’t realize how caught up I had been in certain aspects of Italian culture until I entered that restaurant. It was a typical American restaurant, and the smell of fries and the English-speaking tourists threw me off. It made me actually miss those typical restaurants that I was so sick of before I left. It’s difficult to explain exactly how I felt while I was there, but I know that the first week or two when I return things are going to feel weird. Not saying “grazie” and “ciao”, just silly, basic things that I do everyday now and that have become habit that will be irrelevant in just two short months.



pictures to come!

Heart Of Italy, and possibly the longest post ever.

SO much to update! Since I have the memory of a 90-year-old man, the details of all the details I need to share will be somewhat vague. So sorry.
Last weekend I met up with Kevin in Roma. It was very good to see someone from home. We were pretty excited to see each other. I showed him Ancient Rome and my favorite buildings. We watched the sun set at the Coliseum. We then headed to the Trevi Fountain…since I hadn’t made my wish yet. I wanted to see it at night, and I was so excited when we found it. It’s beautiful. We made our wishes, but I don’t remember what mine was. Probably to come back to Italy.
The next day we met up with Kevin’s cousin Dara and her husband Adam. Adam does tricks on dirt bikes. Skillllllzzzzz. It was a lot of fun to see, and even more exciting to see in ROMA.
It was really good to see Kevin, but it made me miss home, a lot. I almost cried. Almost. When the family called on Sunday, I almost cried again when I heard Bret’s voice. I love you guys.
On Monday we headed out for our Field Study in Tuscany. Our first stop was in Cortona, where the “Under The Tuscan Sun” took place. It was such a cute town. It reminded me of Carmel by the Sea. We saw a monastery, and got a short tour from a local professor. We got lunch and gelato. Gelato. Gelato. Gelato. I tried to stay away from it for the first month because I knew I would be completely hooked. Now I am addicted and need a daily fix.
Tuscany is very beautiful. It is very touristy though, which takes away from the beauty…just a little. It has a name to live up to. I understand why so many people want to visit the region, but I wish I didn’t hear everyone around me speaking English.
After an afternoon in Cortona, we headed to Florence, which is where we would be staying the entire week. I didn’t really know what I expected, but it was nothing like I had pictured it. It is very flat in comparison to many of the towns I have visited. It was much smaller than I had pictured also. I loved it though. We checked into our hotel and then had a group dinner. We hung out on the Old Bridge and looked at the river. We walked around Florence, and tried to find more Gelato.
On Tuesday we headed to Lucca, another small town in Toscana, its city walls are perfectly intact. The town was a base for the German’s during the war, so the walls weren’t damaged. The wall is huge, and until recently people could drive on top of them. Now you can ride bikes around the entire thing. Lucca has hundreds of churches within the city walls. All of them are extravagant. During the Renaissance, Napolean Bonaparte’s sister came to Lucca. She didn’t like how dark and boring the town was, so she added trees and made the buildings brighter. We had a tour around Lucca, and then we had lunch at a little restaurant. The food was delish. We didn’t have much time after lunch so we didn’t get to explore much, but I liked what I saw.
We headed to Pisa afterwards. LEANING TOWER! We went inside the baptistery and the cathedral next to the tower. The field of miracles, as it is called, is really pretty, but Pisa wasn’t the prettiest. You can still climb the tower, for 15 euro. Looking at it was good enough for me. I am glad I was able to see it. Its amazing that there are so many different cultures out there, but everybody does the exact same picture when they come to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We went back to Florence that evening, and had another amazing meal and probably more Gelato.
The next day we got to go to the Uffizi gallery. The Medici family, had a huge art collection, when their reign came to an end, the last daughter made the gallery open to the public. They have Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, Boticelli and EVERYTHING. It was exhausting, but I love art museums (another thing we have in common, dad). After the Uffizi gallery we went to a self serve lunch. As I was eating I started to realize that my nose was extra runny and my body was extra exhausted. My room mate Gaby had been struggling with a cold at the beginning of the week, and I knew it was inevitable that I would be by the end of the week. After lunch it was time for SHOPPING. Florence is famous for street markets and leather. I needed a purse to hold my secrets, and new sunglasses to protect my soul. I wanted to try bargaining a little bit, also. I found a new pair of sunglasses, but paid the 5-euro for them because I didn’t really know how to go about that one. Jessica, Cara, and I found a purse stand that we liked. The guy wasn’t extra pushy, so we hung out a while and looked at leather purses. He told us to take our time, and that if we all got purses he would give us a “friend discount” I ended up getting a small bag for 15 euro, 3 euro less than it originally was. I bargained with him on one purse a little bit…it was pretty funny. Jessica is good at it; I was glad that I was with her. We went back to the hotel happy campers. At this point though, my body was aching and screaming at me. We went shopping a little more, and then right before dinner I was really feeling sick so I went back to the hotel to take a quick nap. A quick nap turned into bedtime.
The next day I didn’t feel any better. I was not excited. We went to Academia, where we saw Michelangelo’s DAVID. It was by far the most amazing pieces of art I have ever seen. I just stared at it for a long time. The detail is incredible.
While I was sick, I could not taste anything. That is probably the worst thing that could happen to anyone while they are in ITALY. There are so many tasteful foods to be had! I bought small paninis with bland ingredients because I didn’t want to waste my money on food that can’t be appreciated.
We climbed the Duomo. 457 steps up to the most amazing view of Florence. It was worth it. So worth it. Kim, whose photos I am using, since I am still without camera, went at sunset, and watched it…amazing. We walked down the steps and everyone got gelato. Ryan accidentally got black licorice gelato. Since I couldn’t taste it I ate some…the whole time thinking how much I would be throwing up if I could actually taste it.
That night we went out to dinner, and I was on a mission to get minestrone. I found some good stuff at the restaurant we ate at. I couldn’t taste it at all, but it was magical, because I felt amazing afterwards. It cured me! We went dancing that night, and I only got 4 and half hours of sleep, and I felt great the next day! Did I just find the cure for the common cold? Probably not.

On Friday Morning we checked out of the hotel early and headed to Siena. Siena was probably my favorite town. The giant piazza is amazing. We had a short tour, and we visited the most amazing Church I have ever seen. It was almost entirely marble inside. Afterwards we went to lunch and I had the most amazing appetizer. Marco, the program assistant and food expert suggested we try it. It was ewe’s cheese with pear sauce. It looked interesting, but tasted EXQUISITE.
We went and lied down in the piazza, and I pretty much fell asleep. It was quite the relaxing day. We made it home safely, and now I just have a lot of sniffles and a small cough…but I am alive and happy!

Well, sorry this one is so long…its kind of hard to pack all the details into one posting. MISS YOU GUYS!