I have good news...sunset is getting later each night. By the time we leave, we may actually get to eat dinner while it's still light out! I'm particularly excited for this because, while I love Florence at night, especially when we go elsewhere I would rather have more hours in the day to explore.
Speaking of daytime, the Italians have so many convenient words that we don't have in English. For instance, un giorno is the entirety of a day, the 24 hours that it remains the 28th of January, for instance. However, una giornata is also the word for 'a day,' but it means daytime, as in daylight hours. It makes sense to have two different words for this. Italian is so logical, it makes my English worse. Once I get to thinking about all the things that don't make sense in English, I have trouble saying them the way they should be. I'm also having a ton of trouble spelling since I've got here, but learning a different language will do that to you. It's funny to observe.
So, I've been back from Innsbruck for a few days now but I've been trying to fight off a cold/flu/some sort of virus, so I've been sleeping early and slacking on my updates. Innsbruck was great though! We left last Thursday afternoon and made it there late Thursday night after an uneventful seven hour bus ride through Italy and the Alps to Austria. We stayed at a hostel a little bit out of the city center that was originally built as housing for athletes competing in the winter olympics, held there in the sixties and again in the seventies. It was my first hostel experience...the place itself was fairly nice, but the rooms were definitely just for sleeping. There were three sets of bunk beds, a bank of lockers, and a hallway just wide enough between them to fit one person comfortably. If all six of us girls staying in that room were in there at once, at least four of us had to be in bed. Pretty ridiculous. Also, there were two showers and two toilets for three rooms - that's 18 girls. It was definitely an interesting struggle, but it worked out just fine. I really liked my roommates and got to know them all quite a bit better, which was nice.
The next day, we went skiing! It was fairly inexpensive, especially compared to the states, though the ski mountain itself didn't have that many runs, so it made sense. It ended up being about seventy euro, which included lift ticket, boots, skis, helmet, goggles, snowpants, jacket, and gloves. The snow itself wasn't fabulous...they'd had a lot, but not recently, so it was pretty icy. I skiied for about half the day, then spent the other half in the lodge on top playing apples to apples with those who didn't or couldn't ski. Altogether a great day. When we got down we returned all our stuff and had the evening to ourselves, so Rob and I walked to the closest restaurant, a Tyrolean (traditional Austrian) place. The food was unexpectedly phenomenal (though so is all food after a day of intense workout). The waiter was really nice and chose food for us (a habit we're getting in to in Europe, as it's a lot easier than picking for yourself when you don't speak the language and usually a lot more delicious).
Saturday we spent wandering Innsbruck with some friends, mostly from our pensione (Lindsey, Allison, Thad, and David). We went to several sports stores looking for a hat for Lindsey, walked in to the Svarovski crystal factory and looked at their incredible statues, jewelry, and exhibitions, saw the golden roof (kind of a letdown, even if it is all gold, it's pretty tiny). We ate at a restaurant called the Piano Bar and once again had delicious Tyrolean food and really friendly help. Every place in town had the downhill skiing World Cup on, so we watched that intermittently as well. The actual races were in a town a few miles away, but we opted not to go so we could go exploring (plus it was 22 euro just to get in.) We attempted to take the tram up to a castle on the hill but accidentally missed our stop, so we spent about an hour riding in and back out again of rural Austria, which was actually a great epxerience -- it was so beautiful! We caught our stop on the way back to town but it dropped us in the middle of nowhere with no castle in sight. With me in my heeled leather boots with no traction, we hiked (well, I slid) down the hill to a road, hoping to find some directions, but we ended up bumping in to the castle itself within about ten minutes, so it all worked out. The castle itself was really fun -- we got to just wander the rooms and see the strange collections of stuff its owner had collected over the years, like old embroidered hymnals on cloth pages, stuffed sharks and blowfish, and treasures from all over the world. There were also peacocks there and a collection of exotic water birds like a gorgeous black swan, so we caught a few pictures of them.
That evening, the whole group of us Gonzaga students went out to a traditional meal a few towns away with traditional music and dancers (complete with lederhosen! you have to see the pictures). It was really delicious food - pancake soup (it's way better than it sounds), wienerschnitzel, and appel strudel. The beer in Innsbruck was also pretty phenomenal, so I look forward to going back to Austria to try more. The dancers were great, and totally hilarious. They didn't take themselves too seriously and had a great time, so it was a blast to watch them. They also did a bunch of stuff with different pitched cowbells, one of which was Eidelweiss complete with harmony on bells and singing in German. Really, really wonderful.
Sunday morning we got up bright and early and left, which I was disappointed about at first until I realized that the first three hours of the trip would be spent driving through the Alps, which was a sight I won't soon forget. So beautiful! My only regret was that it was difficult to get any good pictures out the window of the bus, so I can't share how gorgeous it really was. Because of it, Megan, Rob, and I decided to take over one of the mountains and build castles all over it that we can use skis and lifts to visit one another with. I've heard it's kind of difficult to buy a mountain though, so we'll have to see how well it works out. I'd seriously be happy to spend the rest of my life in a castle in the Alps though...what a way to live!
This week has, like all weeks have so far, completely flown by. When we got back from Innsbruck I wasn't feeling too hot but figured I was just tired, so I finished up my homework and went to bed early. Monday wasn't much better, and by yesterday I was royally sick. It was a shame too, because yesterday night they had a toga party in our pensione that would have been really fun had I felt better. I still put on a toga and went for about fifteen minutes just to say hi to everyone, but I went back to bed after that. Today I saw the doctor (who speaks only Italian, which was interesting) and he told me I have the flu, but he gave me some medicine that's supposed to kick it. Let's hope so...I was looking forward to doing some day tripping in Italy this weekend and don't want to spend it here in Florence, especially if I'm just going to sit in bed and be a lump.
I do, however, need to spend time taking care of myself and getting better or all sorts of plans will have to get put on hold. Yesterday afternoon I went exploring and ended up spending about an hour listening to monks chant mass at sunset an hour walk from my pensione, so by the time I got home I was very cold and much sicker. It's hard to keep yourself from going out and doing fun things when you're living somewhere like Florence, but after yesterday afternoon I realized I have got to have a little downtime or I'll never get better. The doctor told me today I need to quit my gallavanting for at least three days, so I'll try to stick to it.
This weekend's trips will probably be Assisi, maybe Parma (I'm dying to go for the cheese...parmesan!), or perhaps somewhere south, to try and get warmer. Next weekend we're going to try to head out of the country or somewhere we can at least spend more than one day, like maybe Milan. The weekend after we were trying for Prague since it's such a beautiful city and it'll be Valentine's Day, but it's really difficult to get there from Florence, so we're still trying to get it figured out. Planning travel is not my favorite thing, but if I don't get moving on it, we'll never go anywhere, which would be a shame because if I want to visit Prague from the states it's a lot more difficult than from Italy.
Anyway, it's getting to be time for me to be productive and do some homework, so I better go. Oh, but before I do! I've been working on getting caught up on pictures on facebook. They're all online now and mostly captioned, so you should check them out if you get a chance:
Florence/Fiesole
Siena
Rome
Innsbruck
Quick weekend update: finding tickets places is extremely difficult. This weekend we're just going to rest up, try to get better, and see more of Italy. We were going to try to head out of the country next weekend, but finding tickets is proving to be more difficult than we'd hoped. We'll see how it goes.
Until I next find time to write (and who knows how long that will be)... ciao!
28 January 2009
22 January 2009
The hills are alive
I'm writing to let everyone know that I'm off to Austria for the weekend! The week has been long and exhausting, so I'm actually almost looking forward to a long bus ride. The plan, I think, is to take the bus there tonight, stay in a hostel (my first hostel experience--should be interesting), ski tomorrow, explore Innsbruck the next day, and then driving home Sunday. The world cup of ski jumping is on Saturday, so supposedly all of Innsbruck turns in to a winter festival. I can't wait to see it!
In other news, I can't get in to my email account. I'm going to try to call tech support about it, but until then, if you want to get a hold of me, you should email me at saedens@gmail.com. I'm especially frustrated though because I emailed someone about a potential job this summer and am waiting to hear back. Hopefully I can get in to my account to find out!
Also this week, I took an Italian cooking class, which was a blast. We got to go to a professional kitchen and learn how to make artichoke souffle, involtini di tacchio (a sort of turkey and cabbage wrap), and panna cotta. I can't wait to make them again when I get back home! Not that I love cooking for myself all that much, but I do miss being able to make whatever I want whenever I want. It's nice being fed twice a day, but when the weekends roll around and you've got the choice of eating out or, well, eating out, it gets a little bit frustrating. I'm finally getting to the point where I speak enough Italian that I can have them make me a sandwich at the grocery store, but so far I've been scared to try.
Anyway, I've got to go finish packing and grab a sandwich before I go. Arrivederci!
In other news, I can't get in to my email account. I'm going to try to call tech support about it, but until then, if you want to get a hold of me, you should email me at saedens@gmail.com. I'm especially frustrated though because I emailed someone about a potential job this summer and am waiting to hear back. Hopefully I can get in to my account to find out!
Also this week, I took an Italian cooking class, which was a blast. We got to go to a professional kitchen and learn how to make artichoke souffle, involtini di tacchio (a sort of turkey and cabbage wrap), and panna cotta. I can't wait to make them again when I get back home! Not that I love cooking for myself all that much, but I do miss being able to make whatever I want whenever I want. It's nice being fed twice a day, but when the weekends roll around and you've got the choice of eating out or, well, eating out, it gets a little bit frustrating. I'm finally getting to the point where I speak enough Italian that I can have them make me a sandwich at the grocery store, but so far I've been scared to try.
Anyway, I've got to go finish packing and grab a sandwich before I go. Arrivederci!
20 January 2009
Ho bisogno di...tea?
Ugh, I'm terrible at keeping up on this cursed blog. Lots has happened since I last wrote!
First off, I had my first full week of classes after the Siena trip, and I am pleased to say that for the most part, I love them all! It's actually too bad I like them all so much...I think I'm taking too many. Somehow I ended up taking 20 credit hours, which is more than I even take at home. Eek. It includes some really great classes though, and then some I need to graduate. I added the Italian Conversation class, which has already in one week improved my Italian immensely! I feel like I can actually at least some of the time get my point across, and I can speak more naturally every day. The only negative to this class is that the only one I could take is offered at 8:30 in the morning, so it makes for a much more painful morning on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I also still have to take Italian 101, so I'm taking two hours of Italian a day four days a week. It's nuts.
My three three-hour long classes have definitely been an experience. Each one is completely different. My music history class is a blast - the professor just babbles on and is so passionate about what she does, you can't help but be swept in to her love for these composers and the music. I'm seeing Beethoven in a whole new light. I can't wait to fall in love with music even more than I already have. Sociology of Italian Culture brings up some really interesting points, but it's a very convoluted class. It moves slowly, so after three hours it gets to be rather painful. I hope it picks up and we really start to learn soon, because it has the potential to be really interesting. My last three hour class is a writing class based on travelling, where we mostly do a ton of chatting trying to get ourselves inspired. This week's assignment was to write about a journey or to write about some aspect of American culture as if you're an extra-terrestrial, so I'm trying to combine both and write a short story about a journey, half real and half fictional, of a mother and father driving up the pacific coast to a family reunion with their three year old daughter, written from her perspective. Unfortunately I've only got the idea but haven't started writing yet, and it's due at 3:30 pm tomorrow, so I may have to simplify or just keep working on it after class. If it gets to be something I like, I'll post it for sure.
After the week's classes were over, we had about three hours to pack and then we were off to Rome! It was the opening tour for the Spring-only students, so about 33 of us with two student life coordinators took a four hour bus ride to Rome, in which Rob and I memorized about 150 Italian words to keep my mind off being carsick. We had some incredible three course meals each dinner, and really got the chance to know a lot more of the spring students. Friday morning we woke up early and went on a walking tour of one of the city museums, the ruins of the forum, and the Colloseum with a really great Italian tour guide. We found a really fabulous bar across from our hotel to have lunch in every day, where we got lightly fried calzones with mozzarella e prociutto cotto (just 2 euro!) and worked on our Italian. That afternoon was spent on a tour of some of the nearby piazzas and Jesuit churches with our chaplain Fr. Brian, who is currently studying Catechismal Law (gross) at the premier university for it in Rome. We got to see where he lives, a gorgeous villa with stunning views from the roof of the vatican and St. Ignatius church. He took us on a private tour of the rooms of St. Ignatius himself, and we saw where he worked, wrote, and died. We also saw some brilliant frescoes done by a Jesuit in the church that, next to St. Peter's Basillica, has to be my favorite. That night we crammed ourselves on public busses to get to a really cozy neighborhood for a fancy dinner. Unfortunately, the busses were a horrible experience. Many of the girls, myself included, got grabbed on the bus by a particularly unsavory gentelman who then quickly made his way off the bus before we could do anything about it. Then another Italian man wedged his way between me and Rob and proceeded to have a claustrophobic panic attack, which then set off my own panic attack. Miserable. Then, on our way off the bus, our tour guide had his wallet stolen, and the pickpocket was caught by two undercover caribineri (policemen) and interrogated in front of our whole group. It was very scary until we knew what was going on, but then a really interesting experience once we realized the undercover cops weren't holding us all up but instead protecting us. Italy is such an interesting place.
The next day we did the Vatican Museums, which are completely overwhelming. There is so much beautiful art! Rob was saying that they should alternate that art with some not-so-good art so you can tell the difference...after a while you start criticizing really incredible art just because it's next to the most beautiful art you've ever seen. Speaking of criticism, I'd like to point out one of my own: the Sistine Chapel. I had the chapel built up in my mind and couldn't wait to see it, but I was really let down. People weren't giving it the respect it deserved at all. First of all, it was packed, which was disappointing. I had hoped they would try to preserve it as looking like a chapel, but it was just a big empty room to leave space for all those people. Also, I was extremely frustrated with how loud everyone was. It's a chapel! I had hoped that people would be quiet so that the reverent attitude for the art and for the intention of the space would be preserved. Of course, Michelangelo did not disappoint. The art was phenomenal, regardless of how rude everyone else lookinng at it was.
After the Vatican Museums, we went inside the Sistine Chapel, which was an awesome experience, let me tell you. Everything in there is so much larger than life, and it's just an incredibly beautiful and inspriational space. I was so disappointed that I didn't get the chance to go to mass there, but I plan on going back to Rome before I leave Europe to do so. I also didn't get the chance to climb the cupola, since it was getting late and we were famished, but I will go back and do that as well.
That afternoon we took the opportunity to do some shopping. Both Rob and I have decided to devote the majority of our spending money in Europe not on touristy stuff that we're bound to lose or forget its meaning, but on art painted by locals depicting our favorite spots in Europe, at least one work from every place we visit. The work we bought from Rome we purchased in our favorite piazza, Piazza Navona, where there are three beautiful fountains, a bunch of outdoor cafes, a few living statues and incredible musical street performers, and a daily art market where local artists sell their works, both of the typical watercolors of monuments and their own oil paintings and more original contemporary works. It's really an amazing place, just full of life and color. We bought a watercolor from a really nice guy who put up with our broken Italian and horrible accents, and it depicts the piazza at sunset, which is just about when we bought it. It serves as both a beautiful piece of art and a great reminder of a wonderful memory. I can't wait to get a whole collection of these to frame and put in my living room when I get home.
Speaking of collections and things to bring home, if there's anyone who wants anything specific from Europe, let me know! I'm keeping my eye out for fun, original things that remind me of all the people I love in my life, but if you can think of something specific you'd just die to have, I'd be happy to pick it up. Florence especially is a great place to shop for almost anything, especially leather coats, purses, and boots, scarves, and art. I've been having a blast shopping around, though I'm taking my time looking for exactly what I want, since I'm in no hurry.
Anyway, I'll wrap up, since it's getting late and this has been a marathon post. We took the high speed train Sunday afternoon back to Florence, which was a very pleasant experience (if it weren't so expensive, I think I'd travel by high speed train everywhere!). The only unpleasant part is that one of my new friends, Georgina, got her phone stolen on the bus on the way there by a sleazy guy who seemed to be so nice and helpful, but then got caught with his hand in her purse and jumped off the bus before she could grab it back. Poor thing. We made it back just in time to do some quick homework and crash, and then the twenty hours of class thing started again! I have so little free time during the week, I've been fighting for a time to do laundry (it's a three hour process in which I take a whole suitcase of clothes about six blocks away and sit and watch them while they wash and dry) and just found one after a week of searching. This is the longest I've ever gone without doing laundry (three weeks! ugh) and it's such a relief to have all clean clothes again. I never thought I'd be so relieved by clean clothes in my life, haha.
Anyway, I better go -- it's pouring rain here and the water pouring off the roof is lulling me to sleep. Tomorrow I have my first voice lesson, which should be very interesting, and then the day after I leave to go skiing in the Austrian Alps and watch the World Cup of ski jumping in Innsbruck. Wish me luck. Ciao!
P.S. I promise I'll get pictures up... I have about five hundred as of tonight, and it takes a while to get them all organized and captioned. I'll post a link as soon as I can to the recent ones, but the trip over and the first few days can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010770&l=7a187&id=1019640054
First off, I had my first full week of classes after the Siena trip, and I am pleased to say that for the most part, I love them all! It's actually too bad I like them all so much...I think I'm taking too many. Somehow I ended up taking 20 credit hours, which is more than I even take at home. Eek. It includes some really great classes though, and then some I need to graduate. I added the Italian Conversation class, which has already in one week improved my Italian immensely! I feel like I can actually at least some of the time get my point across, and I can speak more naturally every day. The only negative to this class is that the only one I could take is offered at 8:30 in the morning, so it makes for a much more painful morning on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I also still have to take Italian 101, so I'm taking two hours of Italian a day four days a week. It's nuts.
My three three-hour long classes have definitely been an experience. Each one is completely different. My music history class is a blast - the professor just babbles on and is so passionate about what she does, you can't help but be swept in to her love for these composers and the music. I'm seeing Beethoven in a whole new light. I can't wait to fall in love with music even more than I already have. Sociology of Italian Culture brings up some really interesting points, but it's a very convoluted class. It moves slowly, so after three hours it gets to be rather painful. I hope it picks up and we really start to learn soon, because it has the potential to be really interesting. My last three hour class is a writing class based on travelling, where we mostly do a ton of chatting trying to get ourselves inspired. This week's assignment was to write about a journey or to write about some aspect of American culture as if you're an extra-terrestrial, so I'm trying to combine both and write a short story about a journey, half real and half fictional, of a mother and father driving up the pacific coast to a family reunion with their three year old daughter, written from her perspective. Unfortunately I've only got the idea but haven't started writing yet, and it's due at 3:30 pm tomorrow, so I may have to simplify or just keep working on it after class. If it gets to be something I like, I'll post it for sure.
After the week's classes were over, we had about three hours to pack and then we were off to Rome! It was the opening tour for the Spring-only students, so about 33 of us with two student life coordinators took a four hour bus ride to Rome, in which Rob and I memorized about 150 Italian words to keep my mind off being carsick. We had some incredible three course meals each dinner, and really got the chance to know a lot more of the spring students. Friday morning we woke up early and went on a walking tour of one of the city museums, the ruins of the forum, and the Colloseum with a really great Italian tour guide. We found a really fabulous bar across from our hotel to have lunch in every day, where we got lightly fried calzones with mozzarella e prociutto cotto (just 2 euro!) and worked on our Italian. That afternoon was spent on a tour of some of the nearby piazzas and Jesuit churches with our chaplain Fr. Brian, who is currently studying Catechismal Law (gross) at the premier university for it in Rome. We got to see where he lives, a gorgeous villa with stunning views from the roof of the vatican and St. Ignatius church. He took us on a private tour of the rooms of St. Ignatius himself, and we saw where he worked, wrote, and died. We also saw some brilliant frescoes done by a Jesuit in the church that, next to St. Peter's Basillica, has to be my favorite. That night we crammed ourselves on public busses to get to a really cozy neighborhood for a fancy dinner. Unfortunately, the busses were a horrible experience. Many of the girls, myself included, got grabbed on the bus by a particularly unsavory gentelman who then quickly made his way off the bus before we could do anything about it. Then another Italian man wedged his way between me and Rob and proceeded to have a claustrophobic panic attack, which then set off my own panic attack. Miserable. Then, on our way off the bus, our tour guide had his wallet stolen, and the pickpocket was caught by two undercover caribineri (policemen) and interrogated in front of our whole group. It was very scary until we knew what was going on, but then a really interesting experience once we realized the undercover cops weren't holding us all up but instead protecting us. Italy is such an interesting place.
The next day we did the Vatican Museums, which are completely overwhelming. There is so much beautiful art! Rob was saying that they should alternate that art with some not-so-good art so you can tell the difference...after a while you start criticizing really incredible art just because it's next to the most beautiful art you've ever seen. Speaking of criticism, I'd like to point out one of my own: the Sistine Chapel. I had the chapel built up in my mind and couldn't wait to see it, but I was really let down. People weren't giving it the respect it deserved at all. First of all, it was packed, which was disappointing. I had hoped they would try to preserve it as looking like a chapel, but it was just a big empty room to leave space for all those people. Also, I was extremely frustrated with how loud everyone was. It's a chapel! I had hoped that people would be quiet so that the reverent attitude for the art and for the intention of the space would be preserved. Of course, Michelangelo did not disappoint. The art was phenomenal, regardless of how rude everyone else lookinng at it was.
After the Vatican Museums, we went inside the Sistine Chapel, which was an awesome experience, let me tell you. Everything in there is so much larger than life, and it's just an incredibly beautiful and inspriational space. I was so disappointed that I didn't get the chance to go to mass there, but I plan on going back to Rome before I leave Europe to do so. I also didn't get the chance to climb the cupola, since it was getting late and we were famished, but I will go back and do that as well.
That afternoon we took the opportunity to do some shopping. Both Rob and I have decided to devote the majority of our spending money in Europe not on touristy stuff that we're bound to lose or forget its meaning, but on art painted by locals depicting our favorite spots in Europe, at least one work from every place we visit. The work we bought from Rome we purchased in our favorite piazza, Piazza Navona, where there are three beautiful fountains, a bunch of outdoor cafes, a few living statues and incredible musical street performers, and a daily art market where local artists sell their works, both of the typical watercolors of monuments and their own oil paintings and more original contemporary works. It's really an amazing place, just full of life and color. We bought a watercolor from a really nice guy who put up with our broken Italian and horrible accents, and it depicts the piazza at sunset, which is just about when we bought it. It serves as both a beautiful piece of art and a great reminder of a wonderful memory. I can't wait to get a whole collection of these to frame and put in my living room when I get home.
Speaking of collections and things to bring home, if there's anyone who wants anything specific from Europe, let me know! I'm keeping my eye out for fun, original things that remind me of all the people I love in my life, but if you can think of something specific you'd just die to have, I'd be happy to pick it up. Florence especially is a great place to shop for almost anything, especially leather coats, purses, and boots, scarves, and art. I've been having a blast shopping around, though I'm taking my time looking for exactly what I want, since I'm in no hurry.
Anyway, I'll wrap up, since it's getting late and this has been a marathon post. We took the high speed train Sunday afternoon back to Florence, which was a very pleasant experience (if it weren't so expensive, I think I'd travel by high speed train everywhere!). The only unpleasant part is that one of my new friends, Georgina, got her phone stolen on the bus on the way there by a sleazy guy who seemed to be so nice and helpful, but then got caught with his hand in her purse and jumped off the bus before she could grab it back. Poor thing. We made it back just in time to do some quick homework and crash, and then the twenty hours of class thing started again! I have so little free time during the week, I've been fighting for a time to do laundry (it's a three hour process in which I take a whole suitcase of clothes about six blocks away and sit and watch them while they wash and dry) and just found one after a week of searching. This is the longest I've ever gone without doing laundry (three weeks! ugh) and it's such a relief to have all clean clothes again. I never thought I'd be so relieved by clean clothes in my life, haha.
Anyway, I better go -- it's pouring rain here and the water pouring off the roof is lulling me to sleep. Tomorrow I have my first voice lesson, which should be very interesting, and then the day after I leave to go skiing in the Austrian Alps and watch the World Cup of ski jumping in Innsbruck. Wish me luck. Ciao!
P.S. I promise I'll get pictures up... I have about five hundred as of tonight, and it takes a while to get them all organized and captioned. I'll post a link as soon as I can to the recent ones, but the trip over and the first few days can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010770&l=7a187&id=1019640054
12 January 2009
Italian Bus Drivers: someone should really suspend their licenses
Let me first tell you that I am writing to you in what I not-so-affectionately term the longest hour of the day. The time between noon and 1pm is infinite. I get out of class most days at 11:45 and walk back to Savonarola, and when I walk in the door the fabulous smells of Italian food waft in from the kitchen. I must then suffer through the next hour while I wait, very impatiently, for lunch to be served. I've just always been kind of an early eater anyway, so this 1pm lunch and 7pm dinner thing is kind of difficult, but I'm dealing. The food is, at least so far, never a letdown though, so it's worth the wait.
Today we're back to school, after a very long weekend. I'm afraid to get used to this short week long weekend business, because next year will be nothing of the sort, but it's nice for now. I'm really liking my Renaissance History class, since the Renaissance has always been interesting to me and it was really born in Florence, so it's fun to be at the epicenter of it all, able to see exactly what he's talking about in terms of art and architecture. Today, unfortunately, Italian was canceled, as our professor is ill. I am excited for Italian but also really nervous, because I really want to learn, and it looks like everyone else in our class so far has been really slacking. I hope she holds them to her pace and doesn't slow down to theirs, but we'll see. I'm still thinking about trying to get in to Italian conversation as well, which I've heard is difficult.
Yesterday we went to Siena, a little town about an hour and fifteen minutes north of here. We took the bus, which was a ridiculous experience. On the way there it was pretty much freeway the whole way, but if I haven't mentioned it before, Italy is REALLY hilly, so even the main thoroughfares are pretty windy. I got pretty carsick on the way there, but it wasn't too awful. The town was adorable! It had a great park on top of an old fortress that we spent a lot of our day in practicing our Italian, and a great old Gothic church I really wanted to sing in for its acoustics, but didn't dare because it was so quiet. The town square is really interestingly laid out and is huge, and apparently they use it for horse races twice a year where each neighborhood competes against the others. It's a very cozy town and doesn't feel touristy at all, but there were tons of American students wandering around. We also tried to go to a music academy, but it was closed. We did, however, climb the second tallest tower in Italy and got some gorgeous views of Tuscany. We also got the best gelato we've had yet there! Banana flavored. I would probably go back to Siena just for the gelato if I could, and the shopping wasn't half bad either. I finally got a pair of flat black boots! In Florence you can't find them for less than 100 euro, but I got mine for 25. A steal. Overall it was quite a successful day, and we got to meet some really great new girls from our pensione, as they were going as well. On our way out of town we grabbed some ciabatta bread (DELICIOUS - the only unsalted bread I can stand to eat so far) and some brie and ate it on the bus for dinner. The bus ride home, however, was a mess and a half. Thank goodness I never got carsick, but I did feel pretty nervous for my life most of the time. The traffic was bad, the bus driver was in a hurry, the roads were curvy and bad, and overall I think I'll never get on an Italian bus again, thank you very much. From now on, it's the train for me.
Other than that, as of late we've just really been enjoying Florence. The weather is finally getting warmer (or maybe we're just getting used to it), and we found some beautiful gardens where there are lots of benches in the sun to sit and read. Because they're attached to the Pitti Palace, it would cost us to get in, but thanks to the Uffizi pass we can go in whenever we want. A few days ago we bought Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in Italian) and equipped with an Italian-English dictionary and a verb conjugation book, we've been slowly but surely reading it. It's been a really great way to learn Italian, and while we aren't getting any better at speaking, I feel like we're getting a better sense of how Italian is constructed, and learning some really fun words, like sciocchezze (nonsense) and gufo (owl). If we read three pages a day, we'll be able to finish the book by the time we leave. So far it's been very slow going, but fun, so hopefully we'll be able to do it. It's so weird for me to read that slowly, but it's a humbling experience, for sure.
I'm excited because in an hour, I have my first Romanticism class today, which I'm excited for. The more I can know about music, the better! Speaking of music, this weekend we're going to Rome (yay!) but I'll be out of town for another ballet at the Maggio, which I'm disappointed about. Such is life. Rome should be great though! It's just spring students, which is kind of nice because we'll all really get to know each other, but kind of a bummer because I'd like to bond with the yearlong students as well. It's supposed to be a pretty nice trip, so I'm looking forward to it. Then next weekend, Innsbruck! We've heard that the alps have been getting some pretty decent snow - some students just got back from Torino and said the skiing was great and not that expensive, so I may ski after all! We may also decide to go to Salzburg, since it's not too far away. No matter what, I'm sure it'll be fun.
I'm going to take a quick nap before we head out to three hour evening classes. I've never had to sit in class that long...ugh. Not looking forward to that part. I'm definitely going to need the nap. Ciao!
Today we're back to school, after a very long weekend. I'm afraid to get used to this short week long weekend business, because next year will be nothing of the sort, but it's nice for now. I'm really liking my Renaissance History class, since the Renaissance has always been interesting to me and it was really born in Florence, so it's fun to be at the epicenter of it all, able to see exactly what he's talking about in terms of art and architecture. Today, unfortunately, Italian was canceled, as our professor is ill. I am excited for Italian but also really nervous, because I really want to learn, and it looks like everyone else in our class so far has been really slacking. I hope she holds them to her pace and doesn't slow down to theirs, but we'll see. I'm still thinking about trying to get in to Italian conversation as well, which I've heard is difficult.
Yesterday we went to Siena, a little town about an hour and fifteen minutes north of here. We took the bus, which was a ridiculous experience. On the way there it was pretty much freeway the whole way, but if I haven't mentioned it before, Italy is REALLY hilly, so even the main thoroughfares are pretty windy. I got pretty carsick on the way there, but it wasn't too awful. The town was adorable! It had a great park on top of an old fortress that we spent a lot of our day in practicing our Italian, and a great old Gothic church I really wanted to sing in for its acoustics, but didn't dare because it was so quiet. The town square is really interestingly laid out and is huge, and apparently they use it for horse races twice a year where each neighborhood competes against the others. It's a very cozy town and doesn't feel touristy at all, but there were tons of American students wandering around. We also tried to go to a music academy, but it was closed. We did, however, climb the second tallest tower in Italy and got some gorgeous views of Tuscany. We also got the best gelato we've had yet there! Banana flavored. I would probably go back to Siena just for the gelato if I could, and the shopping wasn't half bad either. I finally got a pair of flat black boots! In Florence you can't find them for less than 100 euro, but I got mine for 25. A steal. Overall it was quite a successful day, and we got to meet some really great new girls from our pensione, as they were going as well. On our way out of town we grabbed some ciabatta bread (DELICIOUS - the only unsalted bread I can stand to eat so far) and some brie and ate it on the bus for dinner. The bus ride home, however, was a mess and a half. Thank goodness I never got carsick, but I did feel pretty nervous for my life most of the time. The traffic was bad, the bus driver was in a hurry, the roads were curvy and bad, and overall I think I'll never get on an Italian bus again, thank you very much. From now on, it's the train for me.
Other than that, as of late we've just really been enjoying Florence. The weather is finally getting warmer (or maybe we're just getting used to it), and we found some beautiful gardens where there are lots of benches in the sun to sit and read. Because they're attached to the Pitti Palace, it would cost us to get in, but thanks to the Uffizi pass we can go in whenever we want. A few days ago we bought Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in Italian) and equipped with an Italian-English dictionary and a verb conjugation book, we've been slowly but surely reading it. It's been a really great way to learn Italian, and while we aren't getting any better at speaking, I feel like we're getting a better sense of how Italian is constructed, and learning some really fun words, like sciocchezze (nonsense) and gufo (owl). If we read three pages a day, we'll be able to finish the book by the time we leave. So far it's been very slow going, but fun, so hopefully we'll be able to do it. It's so weird for me to read that slowly, but it's a humbling experience, for sure.
I'm excited because in an hour, I have my first Romanticism class today, which I'm excited for. The more I can know about music, the better! Speaking of music, this weekend we're going to Rome (yay!) but I'll be out of town for another ballet at the Maggio, which I'm disappointed about. Such is life. Rome should be great though! It's just spring students, which is kind of nice because we'll all really get to know each other, but kind of a bummer because I'd like to bond with the yearlong students as well. It's supposed to be a pretty nice trip, so I'm looking forward to it. Then next weekend, Innsbruck! We've heard that the alps have been getting some pretty decent snow - some students just got back from Torino and said the skiing was great and not that expensive, so I may ski after all! We may also decide to go to Salzburg, since it's not too far away. No matter what, I'm sure it'll be fun.
I'm going to take a quick nap before we head out to three hour evening classes. I've never had to sit in class that long...ugh. Not looking forward to that part. I'm definitely going to need the nap. Ciao!
09 January 2009
"I hate Americans" and other European madness
Let me just tell you that life has been crazy for the last few days. If the next four months go at this pace, I'm going to have to sleep all summer to make up for it. Actually, it's not so much that I haven't been sleeping enough, but just that the days have been so full. There's really nowhere to take a break and get your bearings, but I'm going to have to find a way to try, I suppose.
I didn't realize that when the pensione stopped feeding us for the weekend, that really meant that you basically have to go out for EVERY meal, because they won't let us in the kitchen, and there's not really much of a refrigerator available. I'm not sick of Italian food, but I am sick of eating out. The having to find somewhere, the waiting, the paying for water and trying to ration it out through your meal, the non-refillable soda that's 4 euro for a glass (that's five dollars!). Yeah, I just wish I could make my own one dollar spaghetti every now and again. Or that I could make a sandwich or something. I'll have to find a way, because this is getting old.
In other news though, school started! Well, kind of. Thursday we had class, but we don't have it again until Monday. I had Renaissance Europe, a history class which looks like it's going to be pretty interesting, and Italian, which also looks like it will be fun. Our Italian professor looks a bit like a female Yoda, and she talks just about as strangely and as convoluted. It's going to be a very interesting semester, but I feel like I'll be learning, at least. My other classes are each in three hour blocks on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and they are 18th Century Romanticism (a music history class), Sociology of Italian Culture (which I am very excited for), and either The Writing Traveller or Painting (I can't decide which yet). I'm really looking forward to them. I'll also be taking voice lessons, when the professor gets back. We called her the other day, and she's in Miami until the 17th. Strange. Everyone keeps saying that here class is a joke and basically all you have to do is mostly show up and you get an A, but I hope they're at least challenging and interesting enough that I learn something. I won't complain about the padded GPA though.
Today we went up to Fiesole with Peter, our student life travel coordinator from Austria, and Dr. Burke, the dean of Gonzaga-in-Florence, as well as a bunch of the other spring only students. It was so beautiful! It's up in the northern hills above Florence, and so we got lovely views as well as a bit of history as well. We walked around and saw ancient Etruscan temple ruins, as well as a Roman ampitheater and the ruins of one of their bath houses. We also saw the villa that houses the Georgetown Florence study abroad program, which is the old Medici villa inn Fiesole and is BEAUTIFUL. I was so jealous, although Rob pointed out that we are lucky in that we are walking distance from everything. They get the views and the cozy little-town feeling, but do they have the David within walking distance? A million restaurants? Rude Italians pushing you off sidewalks? No. I guess we're both lucky in our own way.
Last night was the first night Rob and I felt up to actually going out and experiencing the Italian night life, and it was a really fun but crazy experience. It was one of the guys in our pensione's birthday, so we all went out to eat at, so far, my favorite restaurant - Il Gato e la Volpe (I think I've mentioned it before -- wonderful because of the salted bread, decent prices, hilarious staff, and cozy atmosphere). We then came back and mingled around at our pensione for a while, then went to Finnegan (the Irish pub) and met some of the other GIF (Gonzaga-in-Florence) students we hadn't met before. We shared a beer and just talked to some of the other students there, so we stayed mostly sober, while most of the other students did not though :P. From there, we walked with the very large, mostly drunk group of students to Twenty-One, an Italian club in downtown Florence. On the way there, an Italian man walked by us going the other way, looked straight at Rob, and yelled "I hate Americans." We were both so shocked. So far people here haven't been particularly friendly, but no one has been that outright rude. Rob said, "Well, I'm sorry," and I apologized as well in both Italian and Spanish. Luckily he walked away and nothing else happened, but it was still a ridiculous situation. Speaking of ridiculous situations, so was the club. It was packed and crazy and full of creepy Italian men and strobe lights, but it was really fun to be out dancing. There were a lot of GIF students there as well, so all the guys kept all the girls safe, and nothing bad happened. I don't really go out much at home, but I think if all the nights were as safe and fun as that one, I could see myself going dancing more often.
Tonight, I think we're going to cave and go to McDonalds. Both Rob and I have been really sick because of all the rich food, and not like McDonalds will really be much better for us, but hopefully at least it will be familiar. Then we'll probably go to bed early, get up early, and the plan is to head to Siena, a little town about an hour outside of Florence. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing a little bit more of Tuscany. I also wouldn't complain if I found some cute leather boots - everyone seems to have a pair, and lots of girls got theirs in Siena earlier this year.
Well, I'm going to go drag Rob out before all the restaurants close (though I doubt McDonalds does, but I'd hate to go hungry). Sorry again for such a long post. Also, if anyone wants to leave a comment/question/whatever, I'm pretty sure it's open to the public, whether you have an account or not. I'd love to see who's reading. Hope you all are well. Ciao!
I didn't realize that when the pensione stopped feeding us for the weekend, that really meant that you basically have to go out for EVERY meal, because they won't let us in the kitchen, and there's not really much of a refrigerator available. I'm not sick of Italian food, but I am sick of eating out. The having to find somewhere, the waiting, the paying for water and trying to ration it out through your meal, the non-refillable soda that's 4 euro for a glass (that's five dollars!). Yeah, I just wish I could make my own one dollar spaghetti every now and again. Or that I could make a sandwich or something. I'll have to find a way, because this is getting old.
In other news though, school started! Well, kind of. Thursday we had class, but we don't have it again until Monday. I had Renaissance Europe, a history class which looks like it's going to be pretty interesting, and Italian, which also looks like it will be fun. Our Italian professor looks a bit like a female Yoda, and she talks just about as strangely and as convoluted. It's going to be a very interesting semester, but I feel like I'll be learning, at least. My other classes are each in three hour blocks on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and they are 18th Century Romanticism (a music history class), Sociology of Italian Culture (which I am very excited for), and either The Writing Traveller or Painting (I can't decide which yet). I'm really looking forward to them. I'll also be taking voice lessons, when the professor gets back. We called her the other day, and she's in Miami until the 17th. Strange. Everyone keeps saying that here class is a joke and basically all you have to do is mostly show up and you get an A, but I hope they're at least challenging and interesting enough that I learn something. I won't complain about the padded GPA though.
Today we went up to Fiesole with Peter, our student life travel coordinator from Austria, and Dr. Burke, the dean of Gonzaga-in-Florence, as well as a bunch of the other spring only students. It was so beautiful! It's up in the northern hills above Florence, and so we got lovely views as well as a bit of history as well. We walked around and saw ancient Etruscan temple ruins, as well as a Roman ampitheater and the ruins of one of their bath houses. We also saw the villa that houses the Georgetown Florence study abroad program, which is the old Medici villa inn Fiesole and is BEAUTIFUL. I was so jealous, although Rob pointed out that we are lucky in that we are walking distance from everything. They get the views and the cozy little-town feeling, but do they have the David within walking distance? A million restaurants? Rude Italians pushing you off sidewalks? No. I guess we're both lucky in our own way.
Last night was the first night Rob and I felt up to actually going out and experiencing the Italian night life, and it was a really fun but crazy experience. It was one of the guys in our pensione's birthday, so we all went out to eat at, so far, my favorite restaurant - Il Gato e la Volpe (I think I've mentioned it before -- wonderful because of the salted bread, decent prices, hilarious staff, and cozy atmosphere). We then came back and mingled around at our pensione for a while, then went to Finnegan (the Irish pub) and met some of the other GIF (Gonzaga-in-Florence) students we hadn't met before. We shared a beer and just talked to some of the other students there, so we stayed mostly sober, while most of the other students did not though :P. From there, we walked with the very large, mostly drunk group of students to Twenty-One, an Italian club in downtown Florence. On the way there, an Italian man walked by us going the other way, looked straight at Rob, and yelled "I hate Americans." We were both so shocked. So far people here haven't been particularly friendly, but no one has been that outright rude. Rob said, "Well, I'm sorry," and I apologized as well in both Italian and Spanish. Luckily he walked away and nothing else happened, but it was still a ridiculous situation. Speaking of ridiculous situations, so was the club. It was packed and crazy and full of creepy Italian men and strobe lights, but it was really fun to be out dancing. There were a lot of GIF students there as well, so all the guys kept all the girls safe, and nothing bad happened. I don't really go out much at home, but I think if all the nights were as safe and fun as that one, I could see myself going dancing more often.
Tonight, I think we're going to cave and go to McDonalds. Both Rob and I have been really sick because of all the rich food, and not like McDonalds will really be much better for us, but hopefully at least it will be familiar. Then we'll probably go to bed early, get up early, and the plan is to head to Siena, a little town about an hour outside of Florence. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing a little bit more of Tuscany. I also wouldn't complain if I found some cute leather boots - everyone seems to have a pair, and lots of girls got theirs in Siena earlier this year.
Well, I'm going to go drag Rob out before all the restaurants close (though I doubt McDonalds does, but I'd hate to go hungry). Sorry again for such a long post. Also, if anyone wants to leave a comment/question/whatever, I'm pretty sure it's open to the public, whether you have an account or not. I'd love to see who's reading. Hope you all are well. Ciao!
06 January 2009
It's amazing what you can find accidentally
Well, I'm just finishing up my sixth day in Florence, and let me tell you it feels in some ways like I've been here forever and in others, I can't believe it's been almost a week. Some things already seem totally normal that scared me at first, and others that seemed totally normal are starting to be a little weird. For instance, it's weird to have been here for a week but have had little to no direction about school or what we are supposed to be doing. It's weird that many of the letters on this Italian keyboard have been shifted around, so especially when looking for punctuation, I have lots of trouble typing. It's weird to think about what time it is in the states, since I'm finally getting settled on this time zone. It's strange to try and think about what I'd be doing back home if I never decided to go to Italy.
What is fun, however, is wandering. I have felt for the last few days that I am wasting my life if I'm not out seeing all of the sights and soaking it up completely, because it has always seemed on Europe trips in the past that if you don't see it all and run yourself ragged and see it fast, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. I've just realized today that I don't need to get myself in such a hurry. It's okay that I haven't been in any of the museums yet because the place to get the pass to see them all hasn't been open. It's okay to just go for a walk without having an intention of ending up at a certain place at a certain time. It's even okay to spend an afternoon in the pensione reading if I'm wiped out from the days before. Thus, though I've had tons of fun seeing everything and walking everywhere, I'm now having a lot more fun just aimlessly wandering and seeing where my feet take me.
Today was a holiday in Florence. I think it's Epiphany, or the Annunciation, we've heard both. We haven't gotten too much information except to expect that (a) everything will be closed, and (b) children are delivered presents by a witch who brings them either a lump of coal or a block of sugar disguised as a lump of coal. This appears to be separate from Christmas, as they still do the Santa Claus thing as well. Lucky ducks. They seem to exchange presents either today instead or today also, because I've seen lots of Italians walking around and waiting to be let in to apartment buildings with bags of presents. Anyway, we decided to take the day off as well and just be lazy, sleep in, stay in bed, read, etc., since there was bound to be nothing to do. At about three though we got a little stir crazy and decided to get out and walk around a bit. I'm so glad we did!! There were festivals and parades, lots of things were open, and the crowd that was out was distinctly more Italian and less touristy. It was a warmer day, less sunny, but very ... cozy. I think I'm really starting to feel more comfortable here, and it feels really nice.
Tomorrow, we're going to get our Uffizi passes that get us in to all the museums in town for €40 for a whole year, and with the exception of a meeting at school in the afternoon, I plan on wandering through them all and seeing what I can see. It will be nice to know that I can come back whenever I want, so if something is busy, I don't have to wait in line but can move on. It will also be nice to have several indoor places in the city to stop and rest while you're out -- Florence is rather short on free resting points with heat. Actually, Florence is rather short on heat in general. ALSO, tomorrow the after-Christmas sales start! I'm in the market for some leather boots, so we'll see how that goes.
Thursday, finally, school starts. I can't wait! Friday the dean is leading a trip up to Fiesole, now a suburb of Florence up on the hill but it used to be its own little town, so it's supposedly got its own flavor. Then this weekend, I think we'll hop on the train and take some day trips through Tuscany. I've heard Sienna is beautiful. We'll see! I'm just glad to finally be getting acclimated and feeling good about where I'm at and where we're going. It will be nice to have a routine soon so that we can start making plans for travel too!
Anyway, I've got to make it home for dinner. The food at the pensione is delicious (we really lucked out, since supposedly our food is the best out of all the pensione. It makes up for how spartan and cold it is there. Plus, the owners are wonderful.). Anyway, I don't want to miss it, so for now, ciao!
What is fun, however, is wandering. I have felt for the last few days that I am wasting my life if I'm not out seeing all of the sights and soaking it up completely, because it has always seemed on Europe trips in the past that if you don't see it all and run yourself ragged and see it fast, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. I've just realized today that I don't need to get myself in such a hurry. It's okay that I haven't been in any of the museums yet because the place to get the pass to see them all hasn't been open. It's okay to just go for a walk without having an intention of ending up at a certain place at a certain time. It's even okay to spend an afternoon in the pensione reading if I'm wiped out from the days before. Thus, though I've had tons of fun seeing everything and walking everywhere, I'm now having a lot more fun just aimlessly wandering and seeing where my feet take me.
Today was a holiday in Florence. I think it's Epiphany, or the Annunciation, we've heard both. We haven't gotten too much information except to expect that (a) everything will be closed, and (b) children are delivered presents by a witch who brings them either a lump of coal or a block of sugar disguised as a lump of coal. This appears to be separate from Christmas, as they still do the Santa Claus thing as well. Lucky ducks. They seem to exchange presents either today instead or today also, because I've seen lots of Italians walking around and waiting to be let in to apartment buildings with bags of presents. Anyway, we decided to take the day off as well and just be lazy, sleep in, stay in bed, read, etc., since there was bound to be nothing to do. At about three though we got a little stir crazy and decided to get out and walk around a bit. I'm so glad we did!! There were festivals and parades, lots of things were open, and the crowd that was out was distinctly more Italian and less touristy. It was a warmer day, less sunny, but very ... cozy. I think I'm really starting to feel more comfortable here, and it feels really nice.
Tomorrow, we're going to get our Uffizi passes that get us in to all the museums in town for €40 for a whole year, and with the exception of a meeting at school in the afternoon, I plan on wandering through them all and seeing what I can see. It will be nice to know that I can come back whenever I want, so if something is busy, I don't have to wait in line but can move on. It will also be nice to have several indoor places in the city to stop and rest while you're out -- Florence is rather short on free resting points with heat. Actually, Florence is rather short on heat in general. ALSO, tomorrow the after-Christmas sales start! I'm in the market for some leather boots, so we'll see how that goes.
Thursday, finally, school starts. I can't wait! Friday the dean is leading a trip up to Fiesole, now a suburb of Florence up on the hill but it used to be its own little town, so it's supposedly got its own flavor. Then this weekend, I think we'll hop on the train and take some day trips through Tuscany. I've heard Sienna is beautiful. We'll see! I'm just glad to finally be getting acclimated and feeling good about where I'm at and where we're going. It will be nice to have a routine soon so that we can start making plans for travel too!
Anyway, I've got to make it home for dinner. The food at the pensione is delicious (we really lucked out, since supposedly our food is the best out of all the pensione. It makes up for how spartan and cold it is there. Plus, the owners are wonderful.). Anyway, I don't want to miss it, so for now, ciao!
03 January 2009
First Days in Florence.
Hello everyone! If you're here, someone has pointed you to my account of my explorations of Europe and my studies in Florence. I can only say that I hope you enjoy reading as much as I'm enjoying being here! I'll try to do them justice, but I can already tell that it will be extremely difficult. Nonetheless, here goes nothing. (P.S. this first entry will be long, so if you skim, I won't be offended. My posts won't always be this detailed.)
The journey began December 30, when I left Kalispell in the afternoon for Seattle. I met Rob there and we spent an eight and a half hour layover catching up, reading, writing, playing cards, and generally just being excited to get to Florence. We boarded a very full red-eye flight to Chicago at eleven and tried to sleep, though it was a bumpy and unpleasant ride. We got there about five fifteen, looked for the shuttle to the hotel for about a half hour, and finally made our way to the Hyatt, where Uncle Rob and Aunt Dawn were graciously waiting to take us to breakfast. They'd stayed there the night before, so after we ate they gave us their room keys so we could nap and shower, and around noon we headed back to the airport for round three of flying. We boarded about 2:30 and slept most of the way to Germany, thanks to some wonderfuls sleeping pills Uncle Rob gave us. In Frankfurt we had a little trouble finding our connecting flight and getting boarding passes but eventually figured it out and boarded a shuttle to get out to our very small plane. Unfortunately, when we got to the plane we waited for about fifteen minutes in the shuttle and then they took us back to the terminal, where they informed us of mechanical problems and made us wait an extra hour for another plane. They then drove us out to a plane that looked mysteriously like the old one and we boarded. After a mostly uneventful flight, we began a very bumpy descent in to Florence. With the landing gears engaged and about fifty feet from the ground, we very suddenly and violently changed gears and headed very quickly back in to the air. With no explanation for several minutes, Rob and I were sure that something had gone horribly wrong and we were going to die. Figuring I'd rather die in my sleep and feeling rather exhausted anyway, I willed myself to sleep and slept through the next hour of rapid circling, ascending, and descending. Eventually they gave up the effort, citing "rare weather conditions," and landed in Pisa, about an hour west of Florence. After getting our bags, they bussed us back. While making the already long trip even longer, it was very nice to get to see the Tuscan countryside firsthand.
Some 40 hours later, finally arriving at the Florence airport, we took a taxi to our hotel and desperately looked for food before the eventual crash. We tried to stay awake as long as possible, thinking a journey around the city on foot looking for food and getting acclimated would be a good idea. Unfortunately, it was mid-afternoon, a time at which apparently, Florence shuts down completely, especially for food. It was also the first of January, a huge holiday in Italy, so many shops were closed. The first directions we got to the touristy Duomo district where there was bound to be food open were bad, so we set off in what felt like a sketchy part of town on a very grey day. After half an hour of getting nowhere, we headed back to the hotel, got new directions, and found both the Duomo and a half-decent restaurant to have a quick, not that great bite of food before heading back to the hotel. About fifteen minutes of phone calls later, we gave up and crashed. Bad idea, because come 1am we were wide awake. It was kind of fun, because we just studied Italian all morninng until breakfast, but we were not set up well for the rest of the day at all.
After breakfast, we set out in search of school. Our hope was to find school and our pensione, come back to the hotel, fetch our bags, leave them in the pensione, and go exploring, but it didn't work out quite like that. While we found both school and the pensione with little issue, neither were open, which was scary. We had a checkout time of 11am that we had to adhere to at the Hotel Arizona, and a not that friendly staff that was more than likely unwilling to find a place to leave our bags for a while, so we walked a few times back and forth between school and the pensione, ringing bells and trying to find people. Our last-ditch effort at school found us a few employees in student life who were conveniently right outside the gate waiting to get in. They assured us that they would keep our bags until the pensione opened at 2pm, so we dropped them off via taxi after walking back and checking out and set off to explore. We pulled out our map and tried to acclimate ourselves and walk by all the big sights, namely the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, and the markets at the Piazza di San Lorenzo. We also got some gelato, a trademark thing of Italy, but unfortunately we got it (a) rather early in the morning, and (b) too close to the Ponte Vecchio, so it was touristy (which means not that delicious, way too large, no prices displayed, and overpriced overally - 8 Euro a piece! Ugh.). We did tons of walking that first day, basically from eight in the morning to one in the afternoon, after almost no sleep, so when we finally found a restaurant near the open air food market by San Lorenzo, it was a relief to sit down and eat. The food was refreshingly inexpensive and very delicious, though they were a bit grouchy at us for splitting only an appetizer and a main course. It came to just 12 euro after service charge and a bit extra for tip, though we know now that the tip is not expected and is in fact not that much appreciated. Oops. After lunch we took our bags to the pensione, unpacked, and fell asleep way too early once again. I woke up at midnight, but took some sleep stuff and slept (thankfully) until morning. I couldn't be jetlagged forever! Overall yesterday was a very interesting and fun but completely overwhelming day, mostly because we were so tired, but also because while things are fun, everything is just a little bit different over here. It's interesting, for sure.
Today was a completely different day altogether, and was so far the best one we've had. It was another gorgeous day, though equally cold as the last two and a little blustery. I met Rob for a rather sparse but decent continental breakfast at the pensione around nine and then bundled up for a day of exploring. Because we had seen most of the touristy stuff yesterday and been overwhelmed by the crowds, we headed in the complete opposite direction today, hoping to get a better taste for the real Florence. We wandered through residential areas and little markets and shops, eventually finding a park near the river and stopping for a while to work on our Italian. It got chilly though, so we kept walking, crossing the river and heading out of the historical city center and up the hill to get a better comprehensive view of Florence. We found a very cool old guard tower that, try as we may, we couldn't find a way to climb up, but behind it was a fun set of gravel paths winding up a hill to a palazzo overlooking the city. It had beautiful views, and surprisingly, a group of about ten Asian brides and grooms! It was a crazy situation. They were all taking pictures and videos...I guess today must have been a group wedding day in Florence or something. From there we headed up the hill further and stumbled upon an old monastary, church, and cemetery, which was very beautiful. The frescos were incredible, which makes me excited to see the rest of the more famous ones, as they must be truly stunning. There was an organist inside the church playing Bach fugues, which of course made me happy as well. By the time we got done at the church it was close to lunch, so we headed back down the hill and found a cute place with four or five tables and really, really delicious fresh spaghetti with basil and tomatoes. I would definitely go back there, in an instant. After we wound back up the hill along a different path and found all the giant houses of the wealthy people of Florence, which was also really interesting to see. The views weren't bad either. We wound our way back to Florence following an ancient city wall which had been left up and built around in modern times. We made it back to the pensione around five and met up with some students from school at about six thirty, heading to a really fun dinner with sixteen people in the students' favorite restaurant, whose name in English is The Cat and the Wolf. The food was giant, so Rob and I shared, and the wine and champagne was plentiful, as it was our first night there and many students' last, so there was lots to celebrate. After, we headed back to the pensione and I made some phone calls via Skype back to the states and we just relaxed. And that brings us up to now!
Let me make a note now and say that not every journal entry will be this long and complicated. For sure it won't. I just wanted to recount the first few days, since the accliimation process has lots of crazy parts, and it's been such a long journey. From now on I will keep it much shorter (hopefully), just commenting on those things that are particularly interesting or frustrating or different from back home.
For instance, I have a few stories/comments now I want to make before I sign off. First, the pensione. Let me tell you that while it is not any colder in Florence than it is in Spokane, the pensione is FREEZING. They don't really turn on the heat at all. I thought maybe this was a Florence problem, but in fact it is just a Savonarola problem (this is the name of my pensione). I hate to moan and groan, but today as we were picking people up on our way to the restaurant, we stopped by Laura's House, another pensione, and it was SO NICE! They had a television, a really nice dining room, well decorated rooms, and best of all, HEAT. I felt a little bit shafted, ending up in Savonarola. The room is spartan at best. It looks mostly like a dorm room, except that the only place the two twin sized beds fit are right next to one another. Very awkward. My roommate isn't here yet, but I assume it will be very, very weird. And cold. Maybe I've just been spoiled, but I just feel like especially for the price and for the quality of the school, the quality of the housing could be much better. Even more frustrating, I hear that Laura's House is not even the best of the pensione. Gr. I guess this will be a learning experience. I just hope I find somewhere warm and comfortable to study. Maybe somewhere at school, we'll see.
Another frustrating thing is being pegged as American. Though I try to speak all the Italian I know, often the people in the streets or people in restaurants don't even try to speak Italian to me, but instead switch directly to English. Especially in the markets, I feel as though they think I'm stupid and they're trying to trick me in to paying higher prices. I guess I just know how much people get frustrated with Americans abroad, and so I try not to propagate the stereotype and blend in as much as possible. It's really hard though, when people don't give you the chance.
The other thing I'm a little worried about is that many of the Gonzaga students don't seem to be immersing themselves very much in to the Italian culture. Their favorite bar is Finnigan, the only Irish pub in the city. They go to McDonalds on a regular basis. Maybe it's just the group I met this evening, but it seems that while they're really nice, they're just pretending like this is Gonzaga with some cool sights and close travel. I hope that in my four months I can manage to integrate myself a little better, or at the very least learn the language.
Other than that, I'm really excited to see what the next few months bring. I'm going in with as open a mind as possible, and I look forward to the things I discover and the ways that I grow. I'll keep you all posted! Until then, ciao!
The journey began December 30, when I left Kalispell in the afternoon for Seattle. I met Rob there and we spent an eight and a half hour layover catching up, reading, writing, playing cards, and generally just being excited to get to Florence. We boarded a very full red-eye flight to Chicago at eleven and tried to sleep, though it was a bumpy and unpleasant ride. We got there about five fifteen, looked for the shuttle to the hotel for about a half hour, and finally made our way to the Hyatt, where Uncle Rob and Aunt Dawn were graciously waiting to take us to breakfast. They'd stayed there the night before, so after we ate they gave us their room keys so we could nap and shower, and around noon we headed back to the airport for round three of flying. We boarded about 2:30 and slept most of the way to Germany, thanks to some wonderfuls sleeping pills Uncle Rob gave us. In Frankfurt we had a little trouble finding our connecting flight and getting boarding passes but eventually figured it out and boarded a shuttle to get out to our very small plane. Unfortunately, when we got to the plane we waited for about fifteen minutes in the shuttle and then they took us back to the terminal, where they informed us of mechanical problems and made us wait an extra hour for another plane. They then drove us out to a plane that looked mysteriously like the old one and we boarded. After a mostly uneventful flight, we began a very bumpy descent in to Florence. With the landing gears engaged and about fifty feet from the ground, we very suddenly and violently changed gears and headed very quickly back in to the air. With no explanation for several minutes, Rob and I were sure that something had gone horribly wrong and we were going to die. Figuring I'd rather die in my sleep and feeling rather exhausted anyway, I willed myself to sleep and slept through the next hour of rapid circling, ascending, and descending. Eventually they gave up the effort, citing "rare weather conditions," and landed in Pisa, about an hour west of Florence. After getting our bags, they bussed us back. While making the already long trip even longer, it was very nice to get to see the Tuscan countryside firsthand.
Some 40 hours later, finally arriving at the Florence airport, we took a taxi to our hotel and desperately looked for food before the eventual crash. We tried to stay awake as long as possible, thinking a journey around the city on foot looking for food and getting acclimated would be a good idea. Unfortunately, it was mid-afternoon, a time at which apparently, Florence shuts down completely, especially for food. It was also the first of January, a huge holiday in Italy, so many shops were closed. The first directions we got to the touristy Duomo district where there was bound to be food open were bad, so we set off in what felt like a sketchy part of town on a very grey day. After half an hour of getting nowhere, we headed back to the hotel, got new directions, and found both the Duomo and a half-decent restaurant to have a quick, not that great bite of food before heading back to the hotel. About fifteen minutes of phone calls later, we gave up and crashed. Bad idea, because come 1am we were wide awake. It was kind of fun, because we just studied Italian all morninng until breakfast, but we were not set up well for the rest of the day at all.
After breakfast, we set out in search of school. Our hope was to find school and our pensione, come back to the hotel, fetch our bags, leave them in the pensione, and go exploring, but it didn't work out quite like that. While we found both school and the pensione with little issue, neither were open, which was scary. We had a checkout time of 11am that we had to adhere to at the Hotel Arizona, and a not that friendly staff that was more than likely unwilling to find a place to leave our bags for a while, so we walked a few times back and forth between school and the pensione, ringing bells and trying to find people. Our last-ditch effort at school found us a few employees in student life who were conveniently right outside the gate waiting to get in. They assured us that they would keep our bags until the pensione opened at 2pm, so we dropped them off via taxi after walking back and checking out and set off to explore. We pulled out our map and tried to acclimate ourselves and walk by all the big sights, namely the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, and the markets at the Piazza di San Lorenzo. We also got some gelato, a trademark thing of Italy, but unfortunately we got it (a) rather early in the morning, and (b) too close to the Ponte Vecchio, so it was touristy (which means not that delicious, way too large, no prices displayed, and overpriced overally - 8 Euro a piece! Ugh.). We did tons of walking that first day, basically from eight in the morning to one in the afternoon, after almost no sleep, so when we finally found a restaurant near the open air food market by San Lorenzo, it was a relief to sit down and eat. The food was refreshingly inexpensive and very delicious, though they were a bit grouchy at us for splitting only an appetizer and a main course. It came to just 12 euro after service charge and a bit extra for tip, though we know now that the tip is not expected and is in fact not that much appreciated. Oops. After lunch we took our bags to the pensione, unpacked, and fell asleep way too early once again. I woke up at midnight, but took some sleep stuff and slept (thankfully) until morning. I couldn't be jetlagged forever! Overall yesterday was a very interesting and fun but completely overwhelming day, mostly because we were so tired, but also because while things are fun, everything is just a little bit different over here. It's interesting, for sure.
Today was a completely different day altogether, and was so far the best one we've had. It was another gorgeous day, though equally cold as the last two and a little blustery. I met Rob for a rather sparse but decent continental breakfast at the pensione around nine and then bundled up for a day of exploring. Because we had seen most of the touristy stuff yesterday and been overwhelmed by the crowds, we headed in the complete opposite direction today, hoping to get a better taste for the real Florence. We wandered through residential areas and little markets and shops, eventually finding a park near the river and stopping for a while to work on our Italian. It got chilly though, so we kept walking, crossing the river and heading out of the historical city center and up the hill to get a better comprehensive view of Florence. We found a very cool old guard tower that, try as we may, we couldn't find a way to climb up, but behind it was a fun set of gravel paths winding up a hill to a palazzo overlooking the city. It had beautiful views, and surprisingly, a group of about ten Asian brides and grooms! It was a crazy situation. They were all taking pictures and videos...I guess today must have been a group wedding day in Florence or something. From there we headed up the hill further and stumbled upon an old monastary, church, and cemetery, which was very beautiful. The frescos were incredible, which makes me excited to see the rest of the more famous ones, as they must be truly stunning. There was an organist inside the church playing Bach fugues, which of course made me happy as well. By the time we got done at the church it was close to lunch, so we headed back down the hill and found a cute place with four or five tables and really, really delicious fresh spaghetti with basil and tomatoes. I would definitely go back there, in an instant. After we wound back up the hill along a different path and found all the giant houses of the wealthy people of Florence, which was also really interesting to see. The views weren't bad either. We wound our way back to Florence following an ancient city wall which had been left up and built around in modern times. We made it back to the pensione around five and met up with some students from school at about six thirty, heading to a really fun dinner with sixteen people in the students' favorite restaurant, whose name in English is The Cat and the Wolf. The food was giant, so Rob and I shared, and the wine and champagne was plentiful, as it was our first night there and many students' last, so there was lots to celebrate. After, we headed back to the pensione and I made some phone calls via Skype back to the states and we just relaxed. And that brings us up to now!
Let me make a note now and say that not every journal entry will be this long and complicated. For sure it won't. I just wanted to recount the first few days, since the accliimation process has lots of crazy parts, and it's been such a long journey. From now on I will keep it much shorter (hopefully), just commenting on those things that are particularly interesting or frustrating or different from back home.
For instance, I have a few stories/comments now I want to make before I sign off. First, the pensione. Let me tell you that while it is not any colder in Florence than it is in Spokane, the pensione is FREEZING. They don't really turn on the heat at all. I thought maybe this was a Florence problem, but in fact it is just a Savonarola problem (this is the name of my pensione). I hate to moan and groan, but today as we were picking people up on our way to the restaurant, we stopped by Laura's House, another pensione, and it was SO NICE! They had a television, a really nice dining room, well decorated rooms, and best of all, HEAT. I felt a little bit shafted, ending up in Savonarola. The room is spartan at best. It looks mostly like a dorm room, except that the only place the two twin sized beds fit are right next to one another. Very awkward. My roommate isn't here yet, but I assume it will be very, very weird. And cold. Maybe I've just been spoiled, but I just feel like especially for the price and for the quality of the school, the quality of the housing could be much better. Even more frustrating, I hear that Laura's House is not even the best of the pensione. Gr. I guess this will be a learning experience. I just hope I find somewhere warm and comfortable to study. Maybe somewhere at school, we'll see.
Another frustrating thing is being pegged as American. Though I try to speak all the Italian I know, often the people in the streets or people in restaurants don't even try to speak Italian to me, but instead switch directly to English. Especially in the markets, I feel as though they think I'm stupid and they're trying to trick me in to paying higher prices. I guess I just know how much people get frustrated with Americans abroad, and so I try not to propagate the stereotype and blend in as much as possible. It's really hard though, when people don't give you the chance.
The other thing I'm a little worried about is that many of the Gonzaga students don't seem to be immersing themselves very much in to the Italian culture. Their favorite bar is Finnigan, the only Irish pub in the city. They go to McDonalds on a regular basis. Maybe it's just the group I met this evening, but it seems that while they're really nice, they're just pretending like this is Gonzaga with some cool sights and close travel. I hope that in my four months I can manage to integrate myself a little better, or at the very least learn the language.
Other than that, I'm really excited to see what the next few months bring. I'm going in with as open a mind as possible, and I look forward to the things I discover and the ways that I grow. I'll keep you all posted! Until then, ciao!
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