Happy April Fool's Day!

Just finished up my last classes. Exams next week and then we're done... and it's really weird. Time flys, but I really don't know where the last 3 months went. I can walking into the hostel at 5 in the morning on the very first day in Macerata like it was yesterday and now we have to pack up our apartments, clean the spaghetti off the kitchen walls, throw out the empty wine bottles, and leave in a week.

Since I last wrote, we went to Rome for our last excursion. We saw everything that Filiberto could pack into 3 days, of course and it was awesome. The weather was beautiful which was completely different than our luck in Florence. We did the Colosseum and walked around Palatine Hill, toured the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel, climbed St. Peter's, saw the Forum, Bernini's fountain, the Pantheon, etc...oh yeah, and found gelato. An essential. I don't know if I like Rome or Florence better, they are kind of like apples and oranges though. Rome is definitely more touristy, but we found a couple places in the few days we were there that most tourists don't know about like this park with orange trees and a great view of the city.

I met my tandem partner, Serena, for the last time on Tuesday night. We went to Pathos, a local cafe. She was leavin
g to go home for Easter Break. Italians get a whole week for Easter, kind of like our spring break. She isn't coming back until the 12th so I'll be gone before she gets back. I don't know if I'll ever see her again, but I'm glad I decided to get a partner because it was cool to have an Italian friend...I wish we had more time to hang out though. She was sweet and I didn't get to know her very well. She also made me speak Italian sometimes, so I would have learned a lot with her...

Tomorrow Molly, Alyson, and I leave on a 5 am train to Naples. The tentative schedule is to do Pompeii Friday, Capri and Visuvius Saturday, and Naples Sunday. We're staying in Sorrento and apparently there are a lot of Easter celebrations throughout all of Italy. So we'll see how southern Italy does Easter. I'm so excited..It's supposed to be warm and beautiful. We're gonna try to find the pizzeria in Naples that invented the Margerita pizza. So...hopefully, somewhere in there I'll get some studying done?

I need to go start cleaning out my apartment out...and packing.

Happy April Fools Day!
Buona Pasqua!

Keeping it classy in Siena

Teddi is engaged!

I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my best friend Teddi on her engagement-I'm so happy for you both and I miss you!!

Assisi

Saturday Alyson and I went to Assisi by ourselves just for the day. The program usually schedules it as one of the excursions, but this semester they didn't so we wanted to see it.

We decided we need to start praying to Saint Christoper. Apparently he is the saint of traveling and we have the worst luck with traveling. I should have known it wouldn't go smoothly when my alarm clock didn't wake me up and I woke up 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave. Oops. We took a later bus and didn't have a lot of time in Assisi because the only bus home was supposed to leave around 3pm. Well, the bus never came. Italian public transportation might be efficient, but it's a real pain in the ass....So we took a 4-hour train home (Assisi is like an hour and a half away).

Assisi itself was pretty. We went to San Francesco's Basilica and saw Cimabue and Giotto's frescos. We stalked other tour groups and listened to the guides so we knew what exactly we were looking at. That's definitely the way to do it because you can just walk away when you don't want to listen anymore. There was a voice over the loudspeakers telling everyone to be quiet in italian, a deep, man's voice..coming from somewhere above us, shouting "Silenzio" and "Non foto in Basilica" at random times. Of course God would be Italian.

We walked around the city the rest of the time...I found a wine glass outside the Albergo Giotto-a hotel, so I have a little souvenir now. Alyson said it was Karma that we missed our bus because I took the wine glass. Maybe, but I don't think Giotto would have cared too much.

That's pretty much it for now. My computer turned on last night and worked for a little...then died again. But I did back up some files in it's short life span, so that's the positive side. A few months ago, I'd be freaking out if my computer crashed like that. I think the Italians are rubbing off on me...that or all this pasta is affecting my brain. We asked our Italian teacher why Italians aren't obese from their food intake--3 course meals for lunch everyday, pastries and cappuchinos for breakfast, and pretty good size dinner. She didn't really know..

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I'm wearing green today, and I made my room mate change into something green too, I don't know how serious the Italians to St. Patrick's Day, but I'm guessing they don't dye their rivers..

One thing any college student will find at some point is that big old building where they keep books. You know, Italy has them too and I found Macerata's. It has computers with free internet access. Bingo.

Just got out of painting class, we're working on flowers now...everyone's doing the same one, but it's a technique excersize and I'm just happy I don't have to stare at my self-portrait anymore. Yesterday I smashed a bottle of wine while I was cleaning the kitchen. Not just any wine..My favorite red wine that I was saving for when Mom, Dad, and Kyle come. That's gotta be bad luck. I found out which way our kitchen floor is tilted..and that it's titled so far that it doesn't take more than a minute for the wine to soak the tile. While I was running around trying to find a mop and stepping over shattered glass, my abandoned pasta was boiling over. I'm glad no one else was there to see me..

There are professors here to review the AHA program this week. From Oregon, and Alma, and one from Ball State. They're sitting in our classes. It's kinda funny to see our professors change up our classes, sticking in more breaks than usual, etc..

We're going to Loreto and seeing caves tomorrow for our last excursion before Rome! Loreto is the third most holy city in Europe, following the Vatican and somewhere in France, I think. People make pilgrimages there. It should be pretty. Saturday, Alyson and I are taking a daytrip to Assisi, a city halfway between here and Florence. We've learned about a lot of art that's located there in class and usually it's one of the excursions, so we want to go see it while we have time.

For Easter weekend, we have Friday and Monday off so Molly, Alyson, and I are going down to Naples, Pompeii and Capri. I've heard it's beautiful, so I'm excited.

And yes, I'll be in church on Easter.

Italy killed my computer..

Our electronics over here drop dead right and left...and my poor computer was one of them right before we left for Florence last week. I think I just need a new charger, actually but I don't know where to get one. I can still use AHA computers, but it might be more difficult. We'll see..I'll get blogs up somehow.

Anyway, quick note. Florence was awesome, but the weather was rainy and cold the whole time. It was strange to be back four years later. The city itself hadn't changed, but I have I guess. I tried Tripe-the official Florentine food. Some of us went to Siena for the weekend and I fell in love. Siena was beautiful. We wandered around the huge market on the piazza all day Saturday. Sunday was just as pretty. We found gelato, got sunburnt, and ventured out of the city a little.

I'll write more when I can get my computer restored (hopefully). Cross your fingers!

Ciao!

Time is flying..

So I'm sorry I've been leaving you hanging for the past couple weeks. I left for our spring break trip on one hour of sleep, packed the morning I left, and forgot my journal (and camera)! I didn't buy one until my second day in Dublin and didn't write in it until the flight back into Italy. So...it's not exactly finished or I would have copied the whole thing on here.

Today we were supposed to go to Macerato and see a castle for our Friday excursion, but they pushed it back to tomorrow because the weather is crappy today. We had a cold front come through and they were expecting snow. Dove sei, Sol? Anyway, I was desperate for a day to chill out and put my life back together, it seems like I have been running on empty since we got back from break.

Time is really flying, we only have a month left. I'm excited because I'm going to a lot of different places in the next few weeks, Florence, Rome, and somewhere for Easter I haven't decided on yet. But it's gone so fast, and I feel like I've known everyone in the program forever now. It's gonna be weird to leave.

I made meatballs last night :) They turned out pretty good too. I'm getting this Italian cuisine down, I think...Then I attempted to make crepes because I was doing a paper the night Alyson made crepes for everyone. The first of mine turned out pretty good, and then they turned into more like pancakes. I can't wait for French food.

Yesterday was Grace's birthday so we overloaded her on cioccolato


This is the cafe di cioccolato by our apartment. The hot chocolates here are like pudding.

15.02.10

Three days until spring break, six weeks of school left, and only ten until my flight home…

Today I lost myself in painting class...there’s something about painting that I love. I have my off days, but today I didn’t want to leave. Today I felt like I could stay in there all day. But I had to take my Art and Architecture midterm which ended up being all essays, which kind of destroyed my good mood, but I think I did pretty well. Grace’s Italian ragazzo (boyfriend) was at our apartment when I came back today and he was making fun of our food, so we got him to make us dinner…spaghetti of course. Nothing special, but it was good and probably had a couple cups of olive oil in it. They love their olive oil. I told him I have to make dinner Tuesday night for Carly and Alyson because they fed me last weekend, so he’s going to take me shopping and help me cook for them. I can’t tell if this is out of pity or if he really wants to teach us.

Grace, Hsuan Hsuan, Emily, and I met Francesco and some other Italian guys at a cinema tonight for a community production of Grease. In Italian. If I hadn’t seen Grease before I would have been lost, but it was cute. The cinema was packed so we stood and watched. I think you could kind of compare it to our spring musical at home. We knew a couple of the guys in the play, including Danny; Macerata is getting smaller…

11.02.10

So I’ve been sick since we got back from Venice…I think it’s just a cold from running around in the rain on Friday night when we first got to Venice and were too excited to care that it was freezing out and the rain soaked through our clothes. I can’t stop coughing and it echoes in our classroom in AHA because the ceilings are so high. I went to the farmacia today and bought cough syrup, and thanks to my Italian phrase book, I think I bought the non-drowsy kind. It’s like a 5 minute walk from my apartment, close to the grocery store I usually go to. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned what the shopping or stores are like. Walking back just a little bit ago from picking up some food for dinner, I noticed how weird it is to see a barber shop right next to a cheese and meat store next to a clothing store…and it goes on and on. And then you have your shops just for socks and tights. Sock shops. I wonder what a local would think if I took them to a Walmart. They’d probably be horrified.

When I go into a store and buy something and they ask me something, I usually say yes and hope I didn’t just agree to buy the whole store. That’s probably not the best way to respond…but usually they’re just asking if I want a plastic bag or something like that. I figure that out after I say yes. I went out with my tandem partner, Serena, Monday night. We ended up at the little café down the stairs next to AHA—not that you, reading this, know where that is…Anyway, she’s going to make me a certain kind of baked pasta and tiramisu. So I asked what kind of American food I could make her and she asked for chips…which I’ve never actually made. But she also asked for burritos-not really American, but they should be-so if you have a good recipe for burritos, please let me know!

09.02.10

Now I know why Italians do their shopping every day instead of stocking up like I’m used to doing at home—they have to lug everything they bought all the way back to their houses. And when you have to pay for grocery bags, you tend to overstuff your bag and pray it doesn’t burst before you reach home.

Italians love their umbrellas—or maybe they just hate getting wet. They even used them when it snowed a few days ago…ridiculous.

02.06.10

Grace is sick and needed a bathroom, so I figured I could write a little…

This morning we got up at 9 and are spending the whole morning trying to get to San Marco without a map….it’s fun really. We’re talking to random people we meet and getting lost in the winding, tourist-crawling streets of Venice. We made it across the Ponte Rialto (one of the main bridges that connects the two parts of the island together)..


…I know my way around part of Venice, and walked my feet off. I led the Olga and Ana – the Russians, Acha and Julia, the Israeli and the other American all the way to San Marco and back tonight. But by the time we got there no one was in San Marco-it’s amazing how so many people can clear out so quickly. Venice is different from what I remember, I saw it in a different way. And I passed by a few places I remember being in before…but this time I loved Venice for the people and for it’s deeper secrets. I loved seeing people from all over the world. And I loved just wandering the streets by myself, lost in the crowd. I was happy when I could speak a little Italian because it separated me from the thousands of other Americans there. Even hearing an Italian say “Prego” after I said “Scusi,” just made me feel like I blended in more. That and watching all the other tourists with their front backpacks, baseball caps, and maps stuck to their faces—that certainly helped.

I bought a black mask. You should have seen the costumes—gorgeous. The people dressed up in huge Renaissance ball gowns and walked around like royalty. The tourists followed them in a mob wherever they went and jumped over each other trying to snap pictures.

We went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum on Sunday-it was nice to escape the crowds. We paid 7 euro for student passes and stayed until the museum closed. It was a small museum but I saw pieces I’d thought I’d only ever see in my art history class. I saw Giacometti, Picasso, Pollock, Brancusi, Brunescelli…I was so excited. We all hypothetically chose a piece to take home and I found Brancusi’s Bird in Space. We found a pizzeria Sunday night before we had to leave. The pizzas here are big but the crust is paper thin. I miss Chicago pizza.

On the train back home, Grace and I didn’t know we had to switch trains in Bologna, so we got kicked out of our compartment, but one of the boys assigned to our seat was nice and we sat and talked with him and his friend in the aisle. We all huddled on the floor and tried to sleep the rest of the way. We got back at 6am Monday morning and had class at 8:30.

05.02.10

So we left the house 30 minutes ago and we’re sitting at the train station after we watched our train leave us…why does that sound familiar? Oh yes, because it’s happened before. We sort of left on time though, but a bunch of little things happened this morning that slowed us down, like Carly accidentally unzipping Grace’s bottom zipper on her backpack making everything fall out onto the sidewalk. We practically touched the doors when the train rolled out-the woman sitting inside just shook her head at us. Thanks for your help.
On the positive side, it’s that that cold out and our train is at 10:30, and we only validated one ticket. Alora…we’re catching a train to Civitanova and then waiting there for another hour. It’s funny how I don’t care.

Last night I back-packed through Macerata to Grace’s house on University night-when all the students are out. I got some funny looks. This pack might weigh more than I do…it’s giving my leg cramps.

The train rushes past the Adriatic coast, water as grey as the sky above it, its depth only given away by the subtlest movement, rolling, breathing like a wild beast. Frothy waves crash against rocks and caress the damp sand. Again and again.

Every place we see is different. Coastal apartments springing up in pastel colors, palm trees, rolling green hills in the mountains shadows, covered in snow. I can’t wait to see southern Italy.

We just passed through Padua. It’s dark and rainy now and probably cold out. Whenever we pass another train it sounds like a rock hit the window and we all jump. The train speeds by an inch away from us.

Well, where do I begin? I didn’t quite know what to expect, blindly following Grace on her crazy couch surfing adventure. We’re staying with a 40 year old bachelor, Luca, in almost the heart of Venice with 7 other girls. Luca’s an architect and restored his flat in Venice, which originally belonged to his grandparents. I think he said he usually rents out his flat to tourists and lives with his family in Verona. Anyway, the place was beautiful and clean. He was so meticulous, I felt like a slob. He made us pasta and risotto while we were there. There were three girls from Turkey, 2 Russians, a girl from Israel and a girl from California. On the day Grace and I left, two more girls came from Australia. His house was like a small melting pot. The Turkish girls made us Turkish coffee and brought Turkish delights. That Friday night Grace and I ran around the streets taking pictures. It was pouring and cold, but so beautiful.

Mi piaccono i vini rossi.
Nutella è una droga.

04.02.10

Allora...I'm on three hours of sleep. But getting used to it. Last night all of us went out to 4Porte, the bar down the street, again, with our amici italiani. Let's just say in the states, it would never get that that rowdy (people dancing on tables, that kind of rowdy)...Everyone called us the "exchange students." And we made the stupidest mistake of taking on our italian friends in a soccer match next week...it'll be ugly.

It's beginning to get warmer...and sunny! I went for a short run yesterday, all ramps and stairs. I'm so out of shape.

We leave for Venice tomorrow morning, so I'll probably write again on Sunday to tell all about it. Carnivale is the equivalent to our Mardi Gras in Italy. We're staying in a house right in the city!

Now I need to finish homework...Italy is so distracting.

Ciao for now.

02.02.10

This is the view from our window in the morning...the sunsets are pretty sweet too.

I made banana bread tonight. Pane di banana in italiano…or something like that. Some people can eat spaghetti for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I’m not one of those people...I love Italian food, but I wanted something comforting.

Last night after taking a trip to Cityper, basically a mall with a supermarket attached, I didn’t get home until late and my apartment was crowded, and there was no room in the kitchen for the dinner I was going to cook so I made a sandwich and tried to do some homework…until a few Italian guys came over and I realized homework was pointless…we ended up going to 4Port-the bar down the street. Weekdays aren’t really any different than weekends for Italians but most go out Wednesdays and Thursdays. Anyway, it was worth being dead tired today..

How long have we been here now? Three weeks? I think the initial euphoria has worn off and sometimes I forget I’m even in Italy.

Random fact: It’s bad luck to have a dinner party for 13 people because the Last Supper only included 12. Italians take this very seriously…there are 13 of us in the program. So I guess we shouldn’t plan a dinner for just us.

After the program’s over, I’m headed to France with Alyson. She has family there. Bonjour Paris.

02/01/10

Grace and I just bought our train tickets for Venezia this weekend. I think we made the clerk kind of mad, because first Grace accidentally bought a ticket to Florence and then I had to ask for regional tickets because the cost for the regular ones came out to like 72 euro for the two of us. Regionale tickets are cheaper, but are slower I think. I think the train station in Venice is on the mainland, so we’ll have to take the ferry. I guess we’ll see where we end up when we get there…

Grace said there are other girls staying at the house we’re at..two from Russia and two from Turkey I think? Crazy weekend…I saw pictures of Carnivale online. Some people go all out and dress head to toe, in ball gowns and masks--Renaissance style. I just want a mask, but I heard some of the masks there were worth thousands of dollars…

I tried to make espresso with the little stove top kettle in our apartment…it came out like water. Hot chocolate for me.

Italians always talk like they’re arguing. They might only be telling each other what they ate for breakfast, but you think something more is happening because they’re practically yelling at each other…They know this too. And they think you’re French if you talk quietly.

She symbolizes a season..I think summer. I found her outside in a courtyard at the Abbey we visited this last weekend.

01/30/10

Yesterday Filiberto took us on our second excursion: to San Ginesio, Abbazio di Chiaravalle di Fiastra, and the Castello della Rancia.

San Ginesio: small, scenic town medival town in the mountains
Abbazio di Fisatra: Abbey founded in 1142
Castello dell Rancia: Castle originally belonging to the Fiastra Abbey, turned to a defense fortress in 1350's

I wish Macerata was closer to the mountains, they were beautiful and covered in snow. San Ginesio got some snow, which made it feel more like home. We got on the bus in the morning at 8am...andI guess Filiberto didn't think it was too early to bring along a microphone on the bus ride and be our 24/7 tour guide. We passed the remains of an ancient Roman town (piles of stones stacked randomly, the remains of the town's walls, and coleseum) called Urbs-Salvia. The Romanesque architecture in San Ginesio and in the Abbazio used the marble from this roman town because it was so close.


We visited a 10th century church in San G. Beautiful. There was a crypt under the alter with Gothic frescoes so we got to see those too.
Medieval churches were always covered in pictures of stories of Christ because the mass was in Latin, so they couldn't understand it, and most people were illiterate. Apparently, the Litanies (what you say after the Hail Marys, in Catholicism) were created in Loreto..a town close to us. What's weird is that even though Italy is known for Catholicism, a lot of people now don't practice it regularly. We also stopped in to see a restoration studio for architecture--friend of Filiberto's. It's more expensive to restore old buildings than to just start over like we do in the States, usually--but Italy likes it's history. So do I.

The Abbey was really cool. It preserved a whole collection of local ancient artifacts from the roman town. It's an active abbey, but we didn't run into any monks. In the church was a painting of St. Ignatius - founder of the Jesuits (the abbey became a Jesuit college in 1581-1773). St. Ignatius was from Loyola, so Loyola college in Chicago is named after him.
...so I thought that was pretty cool.

We ate lunch there - I tried gnocci ragu (creamy potatoes in a meat sauce); amazing. And got an espresso. They always ask you if you want a caffe at the end of a meal in a restaurant. I like them because they keep me buzzing the rest of the day. Some Italians drink up to 7 a day...I have no idea how.

The castle was in Tolentino. We climbed the Mastio=tower (the dungeon is also on the lowest level of it). There was a bridge in front that used to be a drawbridge, when there was a moat.

Then we went to a winery. Il Pollenza, I think. The guy who owns it (is married--damn) also owns thousands of gas stations in Italy. We got to taste three kinds. Two reds and a white. I bought you (Mom and Dad) a bottle of the red because it's the first red wine I've ever really liked. I'll save it until you come over here and we'll celebrate! :)

Hsuan Hsuan and I stopped in the little bakery we love so much on the way back home last night and Adrianna was closing up and had to throw out some of the food. We ended up taking a bag home of pizza and croissants. How lucky was that?

Alyson came over and we spent 4 hours planning our spring break trip--more like tour. We got the cheapest flights we could and did pretty well. I think the exchange rate might have gone up...?
Anyway, we have from February 19th until the 28th. So here goes....
Friday 19/02
Rome(Ciampino) to Barcelona(Girona)
21:30 - 23:10

Wednesday 24/02
Madrid to Dublin
11:30 - 13:05

Friday 26/02
Dublin to Brussels (Chareloi)
20:20 - 22:55

Sunday 28/02
Brussels to Ancona
16:35 - 18:30


...Yeah, I'm making a budget right now so I have money to eat. Still I booked these flights altogether for about 100 euro. Plane tickets are really cheap.

01/27/10

Allora…I know my posts have dropped dramatically since I first left, but it happened that I actually am here to study, which means I’ve been loaded down with the usual: syllabi, textbooks, busywork, and long reading assignments. Honestly, I’ve forgotten I’m in Italy a few days--until I try to buy notebooks and I have to get out my Italian dictionary in the middle of the store…

So since Saturday, I’ve done a bunch of homework, and boring stuff like that. Grace and I went to Tigre to pick some more food up…I made dinner last night for Hsuan Hsuan and I. Nothing Italian, but even though I technically can eat pasta every night, I don’t really want to, believe it or not. So Dad, be proud—I cut up red potatoes, carrots, and onions, seasoned them a bit and wrapped them in foil and put them on a skillet and cooked some prosciutto—(kind of like ham). I just sort of winged the whole thing, but it was really good…and Hsuan Hsuan liked it so much she wrote my recipe down. If we have time, I want to take a cooking class here so I can learn how to make the nutella pizza I saw on the pizzeria menu tonight.

Today I met my tandem partner, Serena. She’s really cool and we have a lot in common—I don’t know how much they take into consideration when pairing us up. But she’s 25 and an English Literature major, and also speaks Spanish. She was bogged down with exams this week, so we’re not meeting again until next Thursday at the chocolate shop just down the street from me. I haven’t been there yet, but she said it’s really good. She likes to travel—she’s going to London in a couple weeks and going to New York at the end of February just to visit people I think. So she gave me some tips on cheap flights in Europe. She said she went to London in November for only 15 Euros. I love Europe.

So I cracked and bought a wireless card so I can supposedly get a connection anywhere for 100 hours a month. So hopefully this will help my dwindling blogs out…

Oh, and Serena at the AHA center set up a cheese tasting table for us for our Cross Culture class. The cheeses here are different than in America. Provolone is sharper and richer, when we’re used to a softer, more like mozzarella cheese. Mozzarella is very bland and soft, and had to be stuck with baby tomatoes to give it some flavor. I bought some at the market and it came out in a puddle of water…Gouda is less creamy. They eat fig jam with a couple different cheeses...I can’t remember the names, but one was from a goat and one, from a cow. Gorgonzola is really popular and rich. It made me think of the Ohio county fairs we used to go to when I tried it…no idea why. That’s just what I thought of. Parmigiano is regional I think and pretty good…

So we ate our weight in cheese. I heard this weekend we’re doing wine tasting in San Ginesio.

Mi piace vino biancho.

01/23/10

Today I went swimming in the Adriatic Sea. Well, sort of.

We all took a 20 minute train ride to Civitanova-Marche, which is right on the coast. There was something about the town that reminded me of home, probably just that it was on a body of water. My roommates and I figured out-at a dead run-we could get to the train station in 5 minutes if we were running late. So that was kind of a rush. Especially down the piaggias (I don't know if I spelled that right--but they are really steep, not-quite stairs in the city. Piaggia means steep). Anyway...every Saturday morning Civitanova has a huge market in the streets kind of like the one in Macerata on Wednesday mornings, but larger. Rows and rows of booths of bags and boots and clothes and fruit and plants and dishes...anything really. You can bargain too, if you know enough Italian to.

For lunch we met at a seafood restaurant. They served the same white wine that I bought, so I must have good instincts on wine because everyone liked it...a little too much maybe. The first course was pasta (it's always pasta) with clams, and for the second course, calamari, shrimp, and fish. We stick out as Americans when we travel in a group anywhere we go, but we must have looked pretty ridiculous taking pictures with our fishy friends, aka our food because they still had eyes. What can I say? We got some weird looks, but I did have to endure exploding shrimp brains onto my thumb just trying to eat my food.

After lunch, we all played on the beach like little kids...so much fun! I stole a bunch of beach glass. We took off our boots and rolled up our jeans and ran into the water...just so I could say I swam in the Adriatic Sea in January.

01/22/10

Excursion #1: Macerata
At the end of the day my room mates and I came back to apartment, filled our bathtub up with hot water and soaked our feet and passed out. After walking nonstop from 9am to 6:30pm, that's all we wanted to do.

It was an awesome day though, we climbed to the top of the clock tower, and got to see the arena where the city holds the Opera festivals in the summer. We toured the cathedral and basilica, the underground catacombs (creepy but warm, so we were happy to be down there), and the rest of the medieval city. Apparently, Macerata was founded on ancient Roman territory but it's not a Roman town-it's Medieval because of it's shape and it's on a hill the surroundings were built around it like in layers like an onion. Also, Roman towns did not have churches-Medieval towns do. They don't separate life and death so the dead were usually buried underneath the churches, instead of in a necropolis (as in Roman towns-outside of the walls).
...So there's a little knowledge for ya.

We were supposed to get tandem partners tonight. Italian students to partner up with us and help us learn Italian. My partner wasn't there, but her name is Serena and I'll meet her Wednesday morning. Most of the other tandem partners were older than we thought-some upper 20's.


Random Facts:
Saint Giuliano is the patron saint of Macerata.
My hands permanently stink of garlic.
They don't refrigerate their milk.

01/21/10

I'm having a rough time getting pictures up on this blog, so sorry for that. For some reason I can't connect to the wireless network in AHA...yes, I tried everything you will tell me to try, so don't bother. I don't know why. I can go to the library I guess, or to a cafe. Today I'll just write again because I don't have much time and because I didn't write yesterday...or the day before. I've been busy. Our toilet broke again. This time the flusher completely came out of the ceiling. I don't mind the bucket method really, but we had to tell Serena because we'd get charged for damages. Anyway...

Did I tell you I bought a bottle of white wine? It was pretty cheap I think, but here that doesn't mean it's bad. It's hard to find bad wine here, Filiberto said. You can buy a liter for like £.60 I think. It's like water. Anyway, I made myself some spaghetti the other night and I wanted to open my wine bottle, but I guess I never carefully watched Mom and Dad do it because it's sitting on our table right now with the opener still stuck in the cork.

We're going to Civitanova-Marche on Saturday. Apparently it's a city on the beach (Adriatic Sea) and has good shopping and seafood (yay!). Friday Filiberto's leading us on another tour around Macerata. I've seen all the other apartments now and am starting to sort of get my groundings. Wednesday morning after painting we all walked around the market (basically a huge street sale that takes place inside the whole city center every Wednesday morning, with everything from fresh fruit-the oranges here come from Sicily-to housewares to shoes) and, after I wandered off from the other students I was with somehow found my way back home. Most of the vendors didn't speak any English at all so it was fun trying to communicate. I've been depending on, "Sto provando imparare italiano," alot or "I'm trying to learn Italian." Other than that, I rely on Spanish sometimes. Just trying to speak their italian with them usually has gone a long way. We're getting tandem partners soon (italian students) to practice language with and learn the culture. So that's exciting...
In Cross-Cultural Communication we take excursions on Fridays, sometimes lasting through the weekend, like to Firenze and Roma. But on Wednesday, Angelica taught us some italian ways to cook and gave us little recipe books with things like Pesto and Tiramisu and ethnic dishes. Yum.


Random fact: Marche, the region Macerata is in, means "the end of the territory." So it was named because the expansion of the Roman Empire in Italy ended in Urbino, the region below Marche. So Marche was the "end" of the Empire's territory.


Tiramisu = "pick me up" or "cheer me up"

01/18/10

Some of the door ways are barely six feet tall.

Last night was the first time I got a little homesick.

I like my Italian teacher. We learned the alphabet, greetings, and nationalities. The class moves fast. She said after the midterm she’d only speak in Italian, but she taught us phrases to ask, like “Como se dice…?” How do you say…? Grace, Hsuan Hsuan, and I are the closest to school and we were the last ones there this morning. We ran. Haha. How does that happen? I need to get breakfast food and get more cash out. I came back for lunch and made tea and fried a tortilla with burro (butter), rosemary and basil. They call tortillas piadinas I think. Cheap lunch. I found a banana in the fridge I think my mom gave me before I left. So I’ll take that for a snack. Thanks, mom. 

Painting is at 13:00. We use military time here. I think a lot of the girls are switching into the class. I hope it’s more of an independent study because most of the girls aren’t art majors.

….I stopped by my apartment from painting class. We just drew today to warm-up, which was fine because I’m rusty. Our professor speaks a little English but has translators helping her. She’s really nice. We have the class in the fine arts academy. Some other students (graduate, probably, or maybe seniors) came in and watched us draw. No pressure. We’re only in the birth country of Raphael and Michelangelo. Ugh. I wanted to stay longer and at the same time I couldn’t wait to get out of there. We just did timed still life drawings the whole time. Nothing new, but I hadn’t felt that out of place in a drawing class for a long time.

01/17/10

Today, I woke up at 11. I got the most sleep last night since I left for Italy. So that was nice. Filiberto and Angelica came over and fixed our light in our bathroom. They also tried to fix the toilet but said they’d have to find someone else to come back tomorrow and fix it because there was a part that needed replacing…I don’t know. We met Molly at Pathos (a café with free Wi-Fi) and walked around awhile, got kebobs for lunch, and went to her apartment to see the other girls; Lydia, Emily, and Diana all live with her. Their apartment is pretty nice and big, but it’s also an killer uphill walk to school.

Sidenote: we’ve been earning our carbs here. I wish I knew how far I’ve walked in the last week.


We hung out at their apartment awhile and waited for Pathos to open again because everything closes in the afternoon for a few hours. Then we all crammed into the upstairs café of Pathos, ordered hot drinks, and talked to the owner, Ervin, who had to register all of us and give us login names. He spoke some English and told me that there were girls studying abroad last year from Michigan that came to Pathos all the time. He called me by my full name, but pronounced it with a heavy accent so it sounded beautiful. Like “kat-ar-een” or something…anyway, the café got really crowded later and I got fed up trying to load pictures on facebook, so I left.
There’s a chocolate café/bar maybe three doors down from our apartment. YUM.

We made dinner tonight.  No, not pasta. Well Hsuan Hsuan made some for herself. And Grace and I steamed broccoli and made chiliburgers. I know. American food. But we were just proud we cooked it ourselves and it turned out alright. I think I like cooking. We’re going to the market (called Tigre) soon this week to get some more shopping done. I’m craving fruit. We’re out of dish soap, we don’t have any paper towels or napkins, we need bread, milk, yada yada yada…Hopefully they take Visa.
Noelle and Rai dropped by while we were making dinner and ended up staying until almost 11, which was really cool because we just sat around and talked the whole time. All the girls get along really well, but it’s fun to see our different personalities mesh and get to know each other. There’s definitely already different dynamics.
So five girls sitting around for hours—what do we talk about? Boys. Don’t worry, I just listened. They had enough stories to fill the night. Haha.
Classes start tomorrow. Italian, Painting, and Modern Italy. Each for a couple hours. I’m not signed up for Modern Italy, but I might go just to see what it’s like. We’re allowed to do that for the first 10 days I think. I’m so excited to learn some Italian. I feel so helpless. I can’t even walk into a store and buy what I need because I can’t communicate with them.

I saw a German Shepherd today. An Italian German Shepherd. I wonder if it would understand English.


No parlo Italiano molto bene. (I don’t speak Italian very well)

01/16/10

“Me scusa, una demanda.”
Translation(roughly)=”Excuse me, I have a question.”
Used=when you’re lost.

Today has been about 2 weeks since I last got a migraine. I guess that’s better than one. Still, I’m in the centrale commerciale (mall) waiting outside for girls grocery shopping-which I was excited for, but my stomach was still doing back flips at the time-so we could go back to the apartments. I think it might have been food poisoning because I ordered proshuitto (like ham) on a panini and I don’t think it was cooked all the way. Lydia passed out earlier in the tour of the biblioteca (library) and Angelica (Filiberto’s wife and coordinator of the apartments) took her back to her apartment. I think the culture shock is catching up to us.
This is the first time I’ve been completely alone in Italy since I got here. It’s kind of peaceful. I’m getting some curious looks, but not like when we’re in big groups. This semester might be the hardest I will ever do—even if I’m only taking 13/14 credits. I didn’t realize that until actually getting here, how stressful and how much energy goes into living in a foreign country where hardly anyone speaks your language. One of our professors, Doctor Jamie Smith (Alma College) said that some students were learning English, but choose not to speak it. It’s frustrating. Maybe this will get better but it’s more difficult to adjust than I ever imagined. Coming to Italy with the band and orchestra in 10th grade was amazing, but a completely different experience- I almost feel like I’m in a whole different country.
I can already tell I’m picking up a lot. Just from being here 3 days. I figured I could get by speaking English, but when you’re forced to learn a language to survive, you learn fast—so much faster than I learned Spanish in school. But Spanish is helping me, mostly with pronunciation. Some of the words are the same or similar. Italians talk slower than Spanish speakers do, so that helps. Apparently, almost every region in Italy has a different dialect. We’re in Marche and the nearest region to us is Umbria. So it’s similar to Marche. But in southern Italian Dr. Smith said that the c’s are silent and sound like h’s. So they say, for example, “Vorrei un hoca-hola” = “I want a coca-cola.”
The locals dress nice. They all wear the same trends. All the girls in the program thought we were smart by bringing our classy pea coats so we’d fit in here...These Italians are always going to be one step ahead of us in the fashion world. Puffy, plastic coats are huge right now. Everyone wears them. Mostly black, but I’ve seen other colors too (purple, red, blue, white). All the women wear boots and dark jeans. The guys wear dark jeans and nice shoes and scarves (which I absolutely love-men should wear scarves more). Everyone looks Italian, to put it simply. Dark hair, dark eyes, nice clothes. I’ve seen two redheads maybe and I think only one was actually naturally red. So yes, I stick out a bit.
It’s colder today than it was yesterday. I don’t know how that’s possible. I guess the Adriatic Sea is like 20 miles away and we’re supposed to be able to see it on a clear day (we’re still waiting for that). Italians voted against building nuclear power plants in Italy so they pay a ton more to import power from France…hmm. We can only have our heat on in the apartment for 10 hours a day. We have to turn it off when we leave. Hsuan Hsuan blew a circuit just by trying to blow dry her hair while the heat was on. We’re basically camping out in a 19th century Italian penthouse. So weird. I sleep in two pairs of socks, sweats, layered shirts, my fleece. I even pulled out the throw I stole from one of the flights over here. You would think, being from Michigan, I could stand the cold, but this is 24/7.

We found our breakfast nook. Il Laboratorio del Grano. It has dolces (pastries), pizzas, and pane (bread). The woman that works there is from Croatia and has only been in Italy for 3 years. She can speak Italian well and a little English. She’s really nice and doesn’t mind a bunch of confused girls packed into her bakery. I got a proschuitto crescent for breakfast. It was amazing and only .80 euro.

I am writing soooo much. It hasn’t even been a week yet.

My parents just called for the first time.  I thought I was going to cry.

On the bus on the way back from the mall, a woman sitting across from all the Macerata girls (I guess that’s what I’ll call us) eyed us and then crossed herself. I tried so hard not to laugh.

6:00pm:
So I’m at the point where someone has to come get me because I’m so lost—well ½ way lost. At least I’m not alone. Hsuan Hsuan is with me and it’s true, that saying, about living only being in happiness when shared or something. We’re only ½ way lost because we’re trying to find Noelle and Rai’s apartment, two other Macerata girls. We asked two Italian women for help. They were really nice and tried to help. I heard them call us English and they knew the words “left” and “down” so those little words helped to a point. Before we got out of the walled city (where we live) we passed a lot of people out for the traditional evening “strolling time” where young people and couples come out and walk around and socialize. Hsuan Hsuan smiled at a group of boys and I guess that was an invitation to them because they pointed at us and yelled and one started following us, but we just kept walking. I don’t know enough Italian to even make a fool of myself yet.
Noelle, Rai, Hsuan Hsuan and I all went to Pizzeria del Corso which was a favorite spot of students in the past. I tried calling ahead to ask the hours and tried asking in Italian, but all I got out of what the man said was “pronto” which I guess meant “now.” So we went. The pizza was pretty good and everything’s been pretty cheap. I got a bottle of water and a slice of pizza for less than 2 euro. The owner was really nice, though. He speaks a little English and was really patient with us. I talked to him a little and asked him to help me translate my phone (I keep getting text messages in Italian). He said his name is Gigi. And those are the moments that all the stress pays off. I just ordered food, introduced myself, and met a local, all speaking Italian. I needed that confidence boost.

Some of the girls from the other apartments came over and brought some wine. Then we went to a Beatles cover band concert for a little tonight because it was free. One of the ushers was an English teacher at the local high school and wanted some of us to come and talk to her class. The band members were middle aged-like the crowd. I love the Beatles, don’t get me wrong, but we didn’t stay too long. Some of the girls went out to find bars and Hsuan Hsuan and I went back to find our beds.

Oh yeah. To flush our toilet we have to pull a string from the ceiling. It broke today. Ciao.

01/15/10

I feel dead. And it’s not a hangover. Walking tour w/ Filiberto. Haha. It’s 0 degrees out. Celsius.
But still-it’s cold.
We passed a fresh fish store. And a coffin maker’s shop. It just got colder.

8:21pm:
I am unpacking in my apartment. My gorgeous 200 year-old apartment. The floor is terra-cotta. The ceilings are really high and in some rooms are covered with frescoes. There is a chandelier in the foyer and living room. The walls are covered top to bottom in satiny, intricate, rosy, wallpaper. The view from the bedroom Hsuan Hsuan and I are sharing is breathtaking (we’re on the 2nd floor, but also on a hill). It’s really cloudy today, but on a clear day it will be amazing. The best thing is we’re a minutes walk away from shops, food, the AHA center, cafes, anything we need. You could say I got lucky. The two other girls I live with, Grace and Hsuan Hsuan are really nice.
The downside is the kitchen is tiny and the washing machine is next to the stove; there is no dryer (no one has them because they use so much energy). There is no counter space except for a lid you pull down on top of the burners and the dinner table is in the middle of the kitchen. There is a small fridge and freezer. It’s kind of fairy tale-esque.
The windows are very tall and we don’t have curtains, screens, or blinds-just inside shutters we can close. Outside, the window ledges are covered in little sharp stakes, so pigeons don’t land there…It’s kind of brutal but I guess it works.
As soon as we moved in, I threw my stuff down and crashed for a couple hours. Grace and Hsuan Hsuan went to get food and brought me back a little pizza. They got gelato too…I haven’t had any yet surprisingly. I guess it’s seasonal here so only some gelaterias have it right now. I did have my first cappuccino today though. Sorry, Starbucks, I have new standards.
I’m determined to go to bed early tonight. Jet lag’s still got me. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have some time to post pictures.

Arrivederci.

1/14/10

FACTS
-The University of Macerata was built in 1290 AD.
-Within the city walls: less than 3,000 people
-Manufacturer of Prada is here
-Locals are courteous, but skeptical of foreigners until they meet you at least a couple times
-Italy is a country of immigrants – 4.8 million


NOTES
Filiberto (our director) gave us a list of essentials (food, pharmacies, shops, etc) – the night life places to go was put together by students from Kalamazoo College. How ironic.

I feel like I’m dreaming and I should wake up at any moment. It’s the weirdest feeling. I also had 2 cups of coffee this morning…bad idea.

Apparently, at discoes (clubs), girls get in free because we attract boys and confused Americans get freebies because we’re hilarious to watch.

I guess we should get used to being cold; doesn’t get hot until June-August. Spring is “nice” says Filiberto. I don’t know what that means.

I heard the hostel used to be a building for children, and I think it was an orphanage.

Pietro Belusci (spell check?)
-born in Ancona (nearby city)
-architect
- Sears Tower, Bank of America in California, and others…

Sono strainera (spell check?) = “I’m a foreigner” in Italian.

This whole day was a big blur of walking and more walking and trying to learn our way around the city. I can’t say I know my way yet. I was always following someone, but I do recognize places and landmarks. I ache all over and don’t even want to think about the knots in my shoulders from my pack and the cold.
It’s about 2:30am here and I’m nodding off but I need to finish summing up this day or I’m afraid I will forget and the days will start to blur together. The main things were the one and only guy arrived this morning, without his luggage, and met up with us and a tour. He’s outnumbered 12:1 I think, but handles it well so far and is from Paw-Paw, Michigan and goes to Alma along with 2 of the girls here. There are a lot of us from Michigan. The other thing was we found out where are apartments are that we’re moving into tomorrow (Friday). I’m living with 2 other girls, Grace and Hsuan Hsuan (you pronounce it like “shin shin”). We actually walked by our apartment today and we are really close everything, and we were told our apartment is very old, but beautiful and even has frescoes on the walls. It’s overwhelming being so exhausted and excited at the same time. I was sitting there listening to them describe our apartment today, and I wanted to jump up and down one moment and then was nodding off the next. The third thing I need to write about before I crash is we went out tonight to a mum and pop restaurant. The one Dr. Caristi was telling me all about at Ball State. An older Italian couple own it and the wife hand makes all of the pasta. They are the sweetest people you will meet and the food, the very best probably in the city. All the meals are about 4 courses: Pasta, Meat, Vegetable, Salad, Desert/Fruit. And then Coffee. They served wine at the tables. I tried the white and liked it a lot better than red because it’s sweeter. The pasta was amazing. We had tiramisu for desert and they served it with a desert wine which they cooked. It kind of tasted like whiskey and was very sweet and really good. Then they made espresso.
I had three. I couldn’t help it, they were amazing.
Sugar. Buzz.

After everyone wanted to go out and find a bar or the discoe. We found a bar and ordered beers or pesca lemon (which is what I got) which was like an iced peach vodka. It was pretty crowded, even outside. So we hung around there for awhile, there was music inside. It’s funny how we don’t fit in at all here. Macerata is a pretty small town and everyone knows everyone. So people stare. So we walked around a lot after that. And it’s a work out. The whole city is up and down, with stairs everywhere. We have to move out of the hostel tomorrow by 9.
Buona notte.

01/13/10

I feel like an orphan. There are cots lined up on the walls, blankets strewn over metal bed frames and ½ way open suitcases piled at the end of beds. I can’t remember the last day and I can’t fall asleep either…

So when we got to Milan we picked up a straggler-Kevin (28 yrs. old), he was going to Rome to stay with a friend and break dance for a month-so he would ride the bus w/ us to Centrale Stazionale in Milano. Our baggage didn’t come out at the baggage claim, and in the midst of waiting around and trying to find our bags, somehow Kevin and I ended up exiting the area, ended up on the other side with no one that spoke English and couldn’t figure out how to get back in to where the rest of the group was, we found out his bank card didn’t work here, and I had to go back through security for the 5th time. We took a bus to Milan..


I can bet you will never guess the first place we headed for in Milan. Really. Don’t judge, we were desperately trying to find free Wi-Fi, so we sat outside to test it out. The only time I went into this place was for the bathroom. But if I did go in I could have ordered a beer with my happy meal. Kevin ended up using the Internet café next door, but they charged you 3.50 euro by the half hour, I think. He had to message his friend to call his dad to phone his bank…or who knows what he was trying to do. He apparently only had 20 euros on him and no cell phone. Loco.
We bought train tickets for 11pm that night to leave for Macerata…and found a sandwich bar in the train station. We also met Juan, from Brazil. He was leaving for home in the morning after traveling all throughout Europe with a couple friends for a few months. We hung out at the café for awhile but by that time had lost track of Kevin. Juan helped us drag our luggage to the station and find the train when it wasn’t on any of the schedule boards and we were all freaking out. Grace gave him her blanket she stole from 1st class on one of the planes because he was spending the night in the train station. He was so nice to us.

Our compartment was full, bags stuffed to the ceiling overhead. There were 6 of us…Us 3 girls, an older Italian couple, and a man from Morocco. They didn’t speak English, but they helped us with our luggage and Grace, who knew more Italian than we did, talked a little with the Italian woman, who was very sweet. The train ride was 5 hours…but it felt like 10. We switched trains twice, once in Ancona and once in Citvitanova-Marche. I hardly slept. I had no idea what time it was or when we were supposed to switch so every time the train stopped, I’d jerk awake and strain to read signs.

We got on a train in Ancona and met 3 girls from Poland going to Macerata to the University to take their exams, they told us. Between the 3 of them, they could speak like 5 different languages…I just feel like a dumb American, but they said most Italians in Macerata only speak Italian. I guess that’s no different.
Anywho, they led us as far as they could on the way to their apartments and showed us which direction the hostel was...there were no taxis at 5:30am there. And we’re probably too cheap to get one anyway. They said it was hilly. They’re weren’t joking. So we get to the top of this cobblestone hill, panting after pushing and carrying 70 pounds of luggage up these hills before 6 in the morning, in the dark. And then the girls are like “Okay, you go straight and then left and through gate and wind through streets, okay?”
Haha.
We found the first piazza and literally collapsed on the ground with all our bags. There were a few locals around setting up the market later that morning. We must have looked crazy. I took a video of us wandering around through the streets trying to find the hostel. We got lost and by then it was just really funny. There were cars zipping around the alleys and we’d smash ourselves against the wall, trying not to get run over. I don’t know how exactly we finally found it, we had a map, but it wasn’t the best. There was a wall and a buzzer. A man opened this tiny door and led us up some stairs and took our passports…it was like 7am, I think when we got there. We didn’t wake up until 2pm.
The buildings are freezing because the are so old and not insulated well. We took a tour of the city and Filiberto brought us to the AHA center where we talked, went out for hot drinks. I had some really good hot chocolate.
The girls are all really nice. We had dinner at the hostel and then used the internet downstairs, of course everyone was online. I should have written on the computer instead of in my notebook on the way here so I could copy and paste. Sorry if I don’t get pictures up quickly everyone! The internet is slow in the hostel and it takes forever to load them, so when I can find a café with internet I’ll post some.
I feel pretty good about it all so far-I just feel calm right now. Maybe it’s the jet lag. But I think I’ll love it here.
Buona notte, Macerata.

01/12/10

Sitting in an airport guarding my gang’s crap. Oh yeah, in London, by the way. We got off in terminal 3 and couldn’t find the flight connecting to Milan, no wonder. We had to take a bus to terminal 5. So we hopped on a bus with a bunch of Italians and drove a couple miles to terminal 5. Wouldn’t have made for a fun walk. Maybe we’ll end up in Italy today. God only knows…We lost our fellow Milan travelers, we might meet up again when we find the gate. Grace got facebook names from a couple Italian boys who also tried to catch the plane that left us in New York. They were in Orlando for waterskiing national championships, I think-hoping to go pro, the older one said.
On the way to Milan:
Had a Guiness in airport pub in London: first legal drink ever. Tasted really good, but I couldn’t finish it on an empty stomach and no sleep. We met a couple boys traveling and asked to sit with them because the bar was crowded. One was going home after couch surfing for 5 months by himself. I think he said he spent the last 3 weeks in Denmark. The other was leaving for Brussels for 6 months, after being already over here for 6 months and had gotten into a world of trouble of trouble by accidentally crashing his car. I wished him better luck. They were both from the States. Anyway, I hope my dad’s not disappointed he didn’t get to be there for my first pint. I think we’re planning on finding on overnight train ride to Milan to save money.
I don’t know what time it is maybe 5 am? The flight to Milan didn’t take too long. Lydia and I sat next to a British woman and Grace sat next to a Scot. My head was spinning from the pint and I dozed most of the flight.

01/11/10

Well , we’re off to a bumpy start. The flight from Chicago to New York was “out of service” so they had to find a new plane and sent us to a different gate to catch a flight an hour later. By the time we got to New York, the gate was closed for our flight to Milan, even thought we could all see our plane, sitting there outside the window. Grace waved to the pilot and he waved back..and then they moved the walkway out toward the plane and I thought we had a chance to make it. Nope. Just teasing us. There were about ten of us, they must have sold our tickets.
We had to rebook and six of us were sent to the ticket lines, where we found a flight through London to Milan leaving at 9:35pm tonight. We met a couple traveling to Milan to work for a church . They’ve going to live there. Another woman was from Milan, in the United States for holiday to see her son, who was from Argentina…or something like that? Anyway, I talked to her a bit and she practiced her English with me and I used some Spanish when I could…that was pretty cool.
Now Grace, Lydia, and I are sitting, waiting for out flight out of NYC, exhausted already. It’s amazing how much language barriers affect you just traveling between 2 airports in the States. Grace is hilarious. She vomits conversations. There’s no other way to put it.

esausto

It means exhausted. In English. Which is really hard to find in Macerata!

I'm going to post some pictures later and blog later, but for now I just want to let everyone know I've arrived after 48 hours of non-stop traveling-missed flights, an added connection to London, lost baggage, oh yes, the whole nine yards. This morning, Lydia, Grace, got to Macerata around 5:30am and walked to the hostel from the train station..we got there at 7am and passed at until 2pm.

For now though, Buona notte.