Ciao a tutti!
Can't talk long but I just wanted to let everyone know that after a ridiculously difficult and emotional week, it's all over! Tonight, Carla's parents are taking us out to dinner and tomorrow at 6:15 am, we leave for Barcelona. Elisa is going to be nasty about us skipping class but she's going to have to deal with it because she's the one that made me need this vacation so badly. I'll be back Monday morning and then Paul comes Tuesday morning! I have a whirlwind week and a half ahead of me! I can't wait!
I will be back from Barcelona with a lot of stories!
Happy Halloween!
Elsa
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Weekend
So last night, we did something a little different, which was lots of fun. Carla's mom is here visiting from the States, and once they got out of dinner everyone who was in Florence for the weekend (not Maggie Wright or Andrea) went to their hotel to hang out. They are staying in a beautiful hotel right on the Arno, called Hotel Orafi. Carla's mom was able to get us up on the terrace for drinks and snacks (which she had brought from the States). It was so funny because we couldn't just bring the drinks and snacks, even though they were ours. We had to give them to the waitstaff, and then have them served. So, Mrs. Katigbak gave them our Fritoes and Cheetoes and bottles of wine. 5 minutes later, they brought everything out on a silver platter. It was hilarious to see the junk food come out in its original bag on this silver platter. And the waiter was taking it sooooo seriously! We laughed about that for a while. The terrace was beautiful, of course. It had a great view of the Duomo and the Piazza della Signoria. We had a really nice time, but unfortunately, I ended up paying 15 euro for a cab ride home. I hate the taxis here.
This morning, we got to the train station around 9:30 to head to Lucca for a day trip. The trip took about 1.5 hours, so it really wasn't that bad. As soon as we arrived, we got lunch at a cute little place. We were even able to sit outside because the weather was picture-perfect! After lunch, we walked around for a few hours and climbed the famous tower "Guinigi" for an amazing view. We were amused by the fact that there were trees planted all the way on top of this tower. We spent about 20 minutes up there, just checking out the mountains and breathing in the fresh air.
When we came down, we decided to walk around the outskirts of Lucca, along the famous Renaissance wall. It was really nice because they had a bike path and there were no cars, so we thoroughly enjoyed the stroll. There was actually a lot of grass in Lucca! I have yet to find any in Florence. Around 3, we became really tired and decided to cut through the city to get to the other side of the wall where we had entered. We caught the train right away and now, here I am!
I'm so glad we decided to do a little day trip. Florence drives me crazy during the week, with the terrible bus system and crazy people. It felt good to get to a quaint, old-fashioned town where I didn't have to rush anywhere. I hate rushing. And Lucca was just so cultural and cute!
Anyway, we have a busy week ahead of us. We'll all be preparing for Barcelona on Friday and then when I return, Paul's coming! There's so much to look forward to, but I will have soooo much work to catch up on. Ugh.
Buona serata!
This morning, we got to the train station around 9:30 to head to Lucca for a day trip. The trip took about 1.5 hours, so it really wasn't that bad. As soon as we arrived, we got lunch at a cute little place. We were even able to sit outside because the weather was picture-perfect! After lunch, we walked around for a few hours and climbed the famous tower "Guinigi" for an amazing view. We were amused by the fact that there were trees planted all the way on top of this tower. We spent about 20 minutes up there, just checking out the mountains and breathing in the fresh air.
When we came down, we decided to walk around the outskirts of Lucca, along the famous Renaissance wall. It was really nice because they had a bike path and there were no cars, so we thoroughly enjoyed the stroll. There was actually a lot of grass in Lucca! I have yet to find any in Florence. Around 3, we became really tired and decided to cut through the city to get to the other side of the wall where we had entered. We caught the train right away and now, here I am!
I'm so glad we decided to do a little day trip. Florence drives me crazy during the week, with the terrible bus system and crazy people. It felt good to get to a quaint, old-fashioned town where I didn't have to rush anywhere. I hate rushing. And Lucca was just so cultural and cute!
Anyway, we have a busy week ahead of us. We'll all be preparing for Barcelona on Friday and then when I return, Paul's coming! There's so much to look forward to, but I will have soooo much work to catch up on. Ugh.
Buona serata!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Pranzo with Aunt Gale and Uncle Ellis
This morning was ordinary. I sat in CLIDA class for 1.5 completely fed up with the Italian language. I didn't want to do anything, and couldn't understand any of the grammar points that we were learning. We had History of Costume at 11 and Elisa showed up late again, 30 minutes into class. Once class was over, I was happy to walk down along the Arno for lunch with Aunt Gale and Uncle Ellis.
They arrived from the States late Wednesday night and had called yesterday with a lunch invitation, which I was happy to accept. I made it to their house in about 20 minutes and Uncle Ellis was standing at the door waiting for me because apparently, I'm a slow walker. I already knew that, considering my 5'2" stature.
He brought me inside and I greeted Aunt Gale and their friend Dino who had come along for the ride. Then, I got a tour. Their house is completely incredible! It used to be an office building which they bought in 2001. It took them 4 years to get it completely renovated. Uncle Ellis had all the before and after pictures and I was shocked. I couldn't even figure out how it looked the way it did. During the renovation, they had discovered 4 fresco-ed ceilings which they also had uncovered and restored. They were absolutely magnificent and soooo colorful! Everything was state-of-the-art. The kitchen was beautiful tiled and just the right size. The bathrooms had those tiny mosaic tiles that started on the floor as dark blue and tapered off to white as you reached the ceiling. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I didn't want to be weird.
We had a really nice lunch. We started with cheesy parmesan pasta and zucchini, and the main course included a great fish in a light olive oil and tomato sauce. There was also awesome salted spinach. Dessert included an apple tart, berries with sugar, and espresso. It was all wonderful and we had a really nice time talking and catching up. I'll also be going there for Thanksgiving when they return in November. They have a tradition to have all their Italian friends over (about 30 people) for an American style Thanksgiving. Each year, they have a theme. This year, it will be NYC, so everyone has to wear black. Easy enough. I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyway, this week has been a rough one, so I'm excited to go out tonight. Not sure what we're doing yet, but we want to find a new bar and just hang out. We'll see what happens. I'm totally sleeping in tomorrow.
Ciao!
They arrived from the States late Wednesday night and had called yesterday with a lunch invitation, which I was happy to accept. I made it to their house in about 20 minutes and Uncle Ellis was standing at the door waiting for me because apparently, I'm a slow walker. I already knew that, considering my 5'2" stature.
He brought me inside and I greeted Aunt Gale and their friend Dino who had come along for the ride. Then, I got a tour. Their house is completely incredible! It used to be an office building which they bought in 2001. It took them 4 years to get it completely renovated. Uncle Ellis had all the before and after pictures and I was shocked. I couldn't even figure out how it looked the way it did. During the renovation, they had discovered 4 fresco-ed ceilings which they also had uncovered and restored. They were absolutely magnificent and soooo colorful! Everything was state-of-the-art. The kitchen was beautiful tiled and just the right size. The bathrooms had those tiny mosaic tiles that started on the floor as dark blue and tapered off to white as you reached the ceiling. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I didn't want to be weird.
We had a really nice lunch. We started with cheesy parmesan pasta and zucchini, and the main course included a great fish in a light olive oil and tomato sauce. There was also awesome salted spinach. Dessert included an apple tart, berries with sugar, and espresso. It was all wonderful and we had a really nice time talking and catching up. I'll also be going there for Thanksgiving when they return in November. They have a tradition to have all their Italian friends over (about 30 people) for an American style Thanksgiving. Each year, they have a theme. This year, it will be NYC, so everyone has to wear black. Easy enough. I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyway, this week has been a rough one, so I'm excited to go out tonight. Not sure what we're doing yet, but we want to find a new bar and just hang out. We'll see what happens. I'm totally sleeping in tomorrow.
Ciao!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Reese's PB Cups
I couldn't let this go unacknowledged...
I just gave Maria Pia one of the Reese's Peanut Butter Crunchy Cups that Mrs. Fanelli sent me. SHE WENT NUTS. "Squisito!!" she exclaimed. (That means exquisite). I have never seen her react that crazily before. It was hilarious. Thanks Mrs. Fanelli! Maria Pia says thanks too :)
Buona notte
I just gave Maria Pia one of the Reese's Peanut Butter Crunchy Cups that Mrs. Fanelli sent me. SHE WENT NUTS. "Squisito!!" she exclaimed. (That means exquisite). I have never seen her react that crazily before. It was hilarious. Thanks Mrs. Fanelli! Maria Pia says thanks too :)
Buona notte
Not terrible
I arose from my bed this morning, dreading the day. Elisa tutoring session day. Following a little grammar lesson at CLIDA, the five of us tutorees headed to Il Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Dobby was there to greet us, and we breathed a sigh of relief. When she soon informed us that she wasn't joining us on the tour, we frowned- it meant we had to be alone with Elisa! Elisa arrived and chatted with us for a while... yes, CHATTED. That was our first shocker.
We spent 2 hours going through the Bargello, which was an awesome museum. This time, she didn't fly through everything as much as she had last week. I was still tired, but very interested in what she had to say. We saw one of the largest and most famous ivory collections in the world, Donatello's David, sculptures by Michelangelo, and a bunch of really cool bronze statues. I definitely have to go back. At the end of the tutoring session, she gave us a quiz on our readings. We all failed miserably. I spent countless hours on those readings and still could not understand what was important and what wasn't. My problems were certainly evident in the quiz. We weren't graded; Elisa just wanted to show us how important it is to learn the dates (UGH) and minute details. This class is going to be ridiculously hard. At least I like museums!
To assess Elisa at that session, she was intense, but not mean. There were points at the end where she made some faces about how stupid our answers were, etc, but that was the extent of it. Following the session, we quickly grabbed lunch and booked it back to CLIDA. We didn't want to be late after last week's incident.
We arrived on time for our History of Costume tutoring session and Elisa actually said hello and greeted Carla (she doesn't take Museologia, so it was the first time they had seen each other for the week). Then, we got down to business. We had a lot of questions on the readings, but she seemed pretty open to answer them all and understood why we had those particular questions. At the end, she gave us a quiz, and we all did pretty well. There were a few I didn't know, but remembered once we went over it.
So, we left our second tutoring session a little confused. Elisa had been fairly normal all day. She didn't look approachable, but she certainly had a calm delivery and didn't make anyone cry. We're thinking that this change might have happened as a result of someone saying something. Gabriella was very upset by her behavior last week, so we think that she may have called Holy Cross. Either something was done, or it's just another reason to think that Elisa could be bi-polar. Anyway, the week is coming to a close and I am so glad. I am exhausted. Tomorrow, I have class from 9-1 and then I'm going to my Uncle Ellis' and Aunt Gale's for lunch. They just arrived from the US and have a house along the Arno. I'm really excited to see some American family members.
I'll update tomorrow after lunch.
Ciao
We spent 2 hours going through the Bargello, which was an awesome museum. This time, she didn't fly through everything as much as she had last week. I was still tired, but very interested in what she had to say. We saw one of the largest and most famous ivory collections in the world, Donatello's David, sculptures by Michelangelo, and a bunch of really cool bronze statues. I definitely have to go back. At the end of the tutoring session, she gave us a quiz on our readings. We all failed miserably. I spent countless hours on those readings and still could not understand what was important and what wasn't. My problems were certainly evident in the quiz. We weren't graded; Elisa just wanted to show us how important it is to learn the dates (UGH) and minute details. This class is going to be ridiculously hard. At least I like museums!
To assess Elisa at that session, she was intense, but not mean. There were points at the end where she made some faces about how stupid our answers were, etc, but that was the extent of it. Following the session, we quickly grabbed lunch and booked it back to CLIDA. We didn't want to be late after last week's incident.
We arrived on time for our History of Costume tutoring session and Elisa actually said hello and greeted Carla (she doesn't take Museologia, so it was the first time they had seen each other for the week). Then, we got down to business. We had a lot of questions on the readings, but she seemed pretty open to answer them all and understood why we had those particular questions. At the end, she gave us a quiz, and we all did pretty well. There were a few I didn't know, but remembered once we went over it.
So, we left our second tutoring session a little confused. Elisa had been fairly normal all day. She didn't look approachable, but she certainly had a calm delivery and didn't make anyone cry. We're thinking that this change might have happened as a result of someone saying something. Gabriella was very upset by her behavior last week, so we think that she may have called Holy Cross. Either something was done, or it's just another reason to think that Elisa could be bi-polar. Anyway, the week is coming to a close and I am so glad. I am exhausted. Tomorrow, I have class from 9-1 and then I'm going to my Uncle Ellis' and Aunt Gale's for lunch. They just arrived from the US and have a house along the Arno. I'm really excited to see some American family members.
I'll update tomorrow after lunch.
Ciao
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
La Questura and a family style dinner
Ciao,
So, I had my second week of my ICIP yesterday morning. I ended up taking the 5th grade English speakers into a smaller room and reading them "The Happy Prince." All of them liked the story, except for Oliver (the troubled kid), who was of course playing devil's advocate. But whatever. I'm not his teacher, so I challenged him a lot and definitely got him a little confused. Sometimes, kids like that need to hear the hard truth with a kind delivery. It makes them wake the heck up and listen. As for the 1st graders, I ended up staying in the classroom because they were out of control and Eleonora definitely needed help. I was pretty tired after that, but fairly happy about what we had done as a class.
After that, I headed straight to the Questura (immigration office) in hopes of getting my Permesso di Soggiorno (so that I don't get deported when they realize I'm not on vacation). All 8 of us went, got a number, and waited from 1:30 to 4:30 until our numbers were called. I got up to the window, gave them my passport and my appointment paper, and they told me that I was missing paperwork and couldn't have my Permesso. This happened to 5 out of the 8 of us and we were absolutely fuming. Kevin, Carla and Maggie Rossi happened to coincidentally have their extra papers with them. The rest of us had left them home in safekeeping. We were only told to bring our appointment papers. We weren't even told to bring our passports, but we had decided to just in case. We soon learned after waiting 3 hours that, yes indeed, we needed EVERYTHING. Fools. I must say that the Italian government and legal system is very poorly organized and an enormous pain in the neck. Was it too difficult to write on our appointment papers what we needed to bring?! Guess so.
Anyway, after that disaster, we hung around town until dinner. At 7:00, we met both of the Maggies' parents and the rest of our group of 8 in Piazza della Repubblica. Then, we walked to the restaurant where they had chosen to treat us to dinner. It was called "Il Latini," and when we arrived, there was already a big line outside. It was obviously very popular. Fortunately, we had a reservation for the 12 of us. The atmosphere was awesome and very family-style oriented. We had a nice table set for us in a little corner, with three 2 liter bottles of Chianti on it. Once we got settled in, the food appeared in masses. There was no menu to order from. Instead, the waiters just brought whatever was being made for the night.
First, let me point out that everything we ate was family style. The portions set on the table were enormous! We started with freshly sliced proscuitto, mozzarella balls, tomatoes, liver crostini (which was actually really good), buckwheat salad, stuffed peppers and bread. I think that was it for the first course. Regardless, everything was absolutely amazing. The first course included a soup with beans and barley, ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a red sauce, pasta with wild boar meat and red sauce, and ribollita (a typical Tuscan bread soup). Everything was incredible! The main course consisted of a huge plate of different meats (chicken, rabbit, steak, pork and lamb). I had the chicken and also tried the rabbit- which tasted just like chicken anyway. For the main course, there was also a plate of awesome beans, spinach, and rosemary potatoes. For dessert, our waiter brought out a plate of sweets including fruit tarts, panna cotta, caramel flan, profiteroles and some almond cake. With dessert, we had biscotti dipped in Vin Santo dessert wine, which is out of this world. They also brought us a dessert champagne that tasted soooo fresh and crisp- exactly like a perfect pear! Afterwards, the waiter decided that he liked us and brought us a bottle of limoncello (which the other tables didn't get).
At this point, we had been sitting, eating and talking for 3 hours, and were pretty full and drunk. We had such an amazing time getting to know the parents, and I think they were really happy with the solid group that we have here in Florence. Everyone is friends and takes good care of one another. We were all so grateful of the Rossi's and the Wright's for taking us out to such an amazing dinner. I'm sure it was incredibly expensive. I can't even imagine. Such wonderful parents. It was a little bit of a bummer for me though since my family is on the fence about visiting. It seems that this month has randomly become parents' month- all of the students' parents have come, and all at the same time!
Anyway, Andrea and I got home around 11 and just about went straight to bed. We were exhausted. Today, we re-visited the Questura to try again for our Permessos. We arrived earlier, got better numbers, and sat for about 2 hours. 20 numbers before ours, the power went out in the whole building. The computers stopped, and the numbers stopped moving. We couldn't believe that something so ridiculous was happening to us again. So, we sat in the dark for about 30 minutes, wondering what to do. Finally, one of the policemen made an announcement asking all those who had electronic work to go home because the computers weren't functioning. Thankfully, the permessos were not included in that large bunch. So, we waited another hour (in the dark) for our numbers to come up and FINALLY got our permessos after a completely wasted day. I am soooo glad that I will never have to go back to that stupid office. Italy really needs to get it's stuff together when it comes to legal business. Now, I have a ton of homework to do for Voldemort (Elisa) so that's all for now.
Ciao.
So, I had my second week of my ICIP yesterday morning. I ended up taking the 5th grade English speakers into a smaller room and reading them "The Happy Prince." All of them liked the story, except for Oliver (the troubled kid), who was of course playing devil's advocate. But whatever. I'm not his teacher, so I challenged him a lot and definitely got him a little confused. Sometimes, kids like that need to hear the hard truth with a kind delivery. It makes them wake the heck up and listen. As for the 1st graders, I ended up staying in the classroom because they were out of control and Eleonora definitely needed help. I was pretty tired after that, but fairly happy about what we had done as a class.
After that, I headed straight to the Questura (immigration office) in hopes of getting my Permesso di Soggiorno (so that I don't get deported when they realize I'm not on vacation). All 8 of us went, got a number, and waited from 1:30 to 4:30 until our numbers were called. I got up to the window, gave them my passport and my appointment paper, and they told me that I was missing paperwork and couldn't have my Permesso. This happened to 5 out of the 8 of us and we were absolutely fuming. Kevin, Carla and Maggie Rossi happened to coincidentally have their extra papers with them. The rest of us had left them home in safekeeping. We were only told to bring our appointment papers. We weren't even told to bring our passports, but we had decided to just in case. We soon learned after waiting 3 hours that, yes indeed, we needed EVERYTHING. Fools. I must say that the Italian government and legal system is very poorly organized and an enormous pain in the neck. Was it too difficult to write on our appointment papers what we needed to bring?! Guess so.
Anyway, after that disaster, we hung around town until dinner. At 7:00, we met both of the Maggies' parents and the rest of our group of 8 in Piazza della Repubblica. Then, we walked to the restaurant where they had chosen to treat us to dinner. It was called "Il Latini," and when we arrived, there was already a big line outside. It was obviously very popular. Fortunately, we had a reservation for the 12 of us. The atmosphere was awesome and very family-style oriented. We had a nice table set for us in a little corner, with three 2 liter bottles of Chianti on it. Once we got settled in, the food appeared in masses. There was no menu to order from. Instead, the waiters just brought whatever was being made for the night.
First, let me point out that everything we ate was family style. The portions set on the table were enormous! We started with freshly sliced proscuitto, mozzarella balls, tomatoes, liver crostini (which was actually really good), buckwheat salad, stuffed peppers and bread. I think that was it for the first course. Regardless, everything was absolutely amazing. The first course included a soup with beans and barley, ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a red sauce, pasta with wild boar meat and red sauce, and ribollita (a typical Tuscan bread soup). Everything was incredible! The main course consisted of a huge plate of different meats (chicken, rabbit, steak, pork and lamb). I had the chicken and also tried the rabbit- which tasted just like chicken anyway. For the main course, there was also a plate of awesome beans, spinach, and rosemary potatoes. For dessert, our waiter brought out a plate of sweets including fruit tarts, panna cotta, caramel flan, profiteroles and some almond cake. With dessert, we had biscotti dipped in Vin Santo dessert wine, which is out of this world. They also brought us a dessert champagne that tasted soooo fresh and crisp- exactly like a perfect pear! Afterwards, the waiter decided that he liked us and brought us a bottle of limoncello (which the other tables didn't get).
At this point, we had been sitting, eating and talking for 3 hours, and were pretty full and drunk. We had such an amazing time getting to know the parents, and I think they were really happy with the solid group that we have here in Florence. Everyone is friends and takes good care of one another. We were all so grateful of the Rossi's and the Wright's for taking us out to such an amazing dinner. I'm sure it was incredibly expensive. I can't even imagine. Such wonderful parents. It was a little bit of a bummer for me though since my family is on the fence about visiting. It seems that this month has randomly become parents' month- all of the students' parents have come, and all at the same time!
Anyway, Andrea and I got home around 11 and just about went straight to bed. We were exhausted. Today, we re-visited the Questura to try again for our Permessos. We arrived earlier, got better numbers, and sat for about 2 hours. 20 numbers before ours, the power went out in the whole building. The computers stopped, and the numbers stopped moving. We couldn't believe that something so ridiculous was happening to us again. So, we sat in the dark for about 30 minutes, wondering what to do. Finally, one of the policemen made an announcement asking all those who had electronic work to go home because the computers weren't functioning. Thankfully, the permessos were not included in that large bunch. So, we waited another hour (in the dark) for our numbers to come up and FINALLY got our permessos after a completely wasted day. I am soooo glad that I will never have to go back to that stupid office. Italy really needs to get it's stuff together when it comes to legal business. Now, I have a ton of homework to do for Voldemort (Elisa) so that's all for now.
Ciao.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Eurochocolate 2009
Ciao!
This morning, Andrea and I woke up at 6:30am and took the 8:00 train to Perugia for the Eurochocolate 2009 festival. We arrived in Perugia around 11:15 and then crammed into a bus at the station to get to the actual festival. It was quite a hike. Anyway, we arrived at the festival and met up with Maggie Wright and her parents, who are visiting from Chicago for the week. As soon as we ran into them, Maggie's mom and dad gave us both huge hugs! We had never met them before! They were such nice people and really fun to hang around with. It's great to have some parent figures visiting. Everyone's been getting a little lonely and homesick.
The Wright's helped us purchase Chococards for 5 euro a piece. These cards were pretty cool because they allowed us to go to a bunch of stands for free chocolate, drinks, etc. Our first stop was the Grand Marnier stand, where we each tried a shot and a Sicilian orange peel covered in dark chocolate. Soooo good. Next, we hit the hot chocolate stand-- and it was NOTHING like Swiss Miss in the states. This was literally melted chocolate with cream added to it. It was so rich and amazing. Our next stop was another hot chocolate stand. I got hot chocolate with pepperoncini. It was so perfect because it was doubly warming- the temperature and the spice! I loved it.
Next, the Wright's took us out for a wonderful lunch. We shared scrambled egg and truffle mushrooms crostini for an appetizer. I ordered paparadelle with pumpkin and pecorino cheese for my main course. We all shared a chocolate cake for dessert. Mr. and Mrs. Wright were so genuine and warm to us. We really appreciated that they wanted so badly to treat us to lunch. We all had a really nice time and the atmosphere in the restaurant was awesome (like a warm basement den with a fireplace).
After lunch, we went to another stand and I bought some chocolate souvenirs for people. Then, I bought a piece of a cake covered in chocolate and hazelnuts for everyone to try. I had to find a way to pay the Wright's back, even if it was just a little. It was delicious. Next, we bought large chocolate covered Sicilian orange peels. Then, we stopped at the Toblerone Swiss chocolate stand for a small sample. Last, but not least, we all shared a double layer brownie filled with apricot jam and topped with melted chocolate and whipped cream. It was out of this world!
Needless to say, we all had stomach aches and were ready to get going around 4. It was starting to get cold anyway. There was of course a mad rush to find seats on the train, but we all managed to sit together and we just about napped the whole way.
All in all, it was a great experience for us. We were probably the only Americans, which was a shock considering how celebrated this festival is. All I heard was Italian, which was great practice! The Wright's were such a great family and I'm pretty sure we all left each other very happy. The Wright's (Maggie's parents- from Chicago) and the Rossi's (the other Maggie's parents- from New York) are going to take all of us kids out to dinner on Tuesday night. I can't wait! It will be fun to hang with everyone again.
I have a very busy week ahead of me with lots of reading, and my ICIP to work on. I'm going to try to go into this one prepared for anything. I know Elisa is going to give us a hard time again this week, but I'm going to try to look at the bigger picture. I don't want to let her ruin my day again.
Now, I'm putting my sugar-comotose self into bed.
Buona notte!
This morning, Andrea and I woke up at 6:30am and took the 8:00 train to Perugia for the Eurochocolate 2009 festival. We arrived in Perugia around 11:15 and then crammed into a bus at the station to get to the actual festival. It was quite a hike. Anyway, we arrived at the festival and met up with Maggie Wright and her parents, who are visiting from Chicago for the week. As soon as we ran into them, Maggie's mom and dad gave us both huge hugs! We had never met them before! They were such nice people and really fun to hang around with. It's great to have some parent figures visiting. Everyone's been getting a little lonely and homesick.
The Wright's helped us purchase Chococards for 5 euro a piece. These cards were pretty cool because they allowed us to go to a bunch of stands for free chocolate, drinks, etc. Our first stop was the Grand Marnier stand, where we each tried a shot and a Sicilian orange peel covered in dark chocolate. Soooo good. Next, we hit the hot chocolate stand-- and it was NOTHING like Swiss Miss in the states. This was literally melted chocolate with cream added to it. It was so rich and amazing. Our next stop was another hot chocolate stand. I got hot chocolate with pepperoncini. It was so perfect because it was doubly warming- the temperature and the spice! I loved it.
Next, the Wright's took us out for a wonderful lunch. We shared scrambled egg and truffle mushrooms crostini for an appetizer. I ordered paparadelle with pumpkin and pecorino cheese for my main course. We all shared a chocolate cake for dessert. Mr. and Mrs. Wright were so genuine and warm to us. We really appreciated that they wanted so badly to treat us to lunch. We all had a really nice time and the atmosphere in the restaurant was awesome (like a warm basement den with a fireplace).
After lunch, we went to another stand and I bought some chocolate souvenirs for people. Then, I bought a piece of a cake covered in chocolate and hazelnuts for everyone to try. I had to find a way to pay the Wright's back, even if it was just a little. It was delicious. Next, we bought large chocolate covered Sicilian orange peels. Then, we stopped at the Toblerone Swiss chocolate stand for a small sample. Last, but not least, we all shared a double layer brownie filled with apricot jam and topped with melted chocolate and whipped cream. It was out of this world!
Needless to say, we all had stomach aches and were ready to get going around 4. It was starting to get cold anyway. There was of course a mad rush to find seats on the train, but we all managed to sit together and we just about napped the whole way.
All in all, it was a great experience for us. We were probably the only Americans, which was a shock considering how celebrated this festival is. All I heard was Italian, which was great practice! The Wright's were such a great family and I'm pretty sure we all left each other very happy. The Wright's (Maggie's parents- from Chicago) and the Rossi's (the other Maggie's parents- from New York) are going to take all of us kids out to dinner on Tuesday night. I can't wait! It will be fun to hang with everyone again.
I have a very busy week ahead of me with lots of reading, and my ICIP to work on. I'm going to try to go into this one prepared for anything. I know Elisa is going to give us a hard time again this week, but I'm going to try to look at the bigger picture. I don't want to let her ruin my day again.
Now, I'm putting my sugar-comotose self into bed.
Buona notte!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Worst day thus far
I know not every day during my study abroad experience is going to be awesome. Yesterday (Thursday) was one of those awful days.
Thursdays are the days that we have our tutoring sessions with Elisa for both Museology and History of Costume. All of the students last year absolutely hated Elisa (she made girls cry, etc), but none of us could understand why. Since we've arrived, she has been taking us to all these cool places and being really nice. We thought she had turned over a new leaf... until we had to spend the whole day with her yesterday.
We started with our Museology tutoring session at Il Museo di San Marco, which is an old convent. It was really cool, except that Elisa flew through it. The entire time we followed her around the museum, scribbling furiously while she spoke 100 miles a minute in Italian. Needless to say, we didn't get all the information. A few times, some of us stopped her to repeat dates. She would repeat them, as fast as she could, and continue talking. That didn't help. When someone asked a question, she got angry because we had "interrupted" her. So, we followed her around like little slaves for 1 hour in Il Museo di San Marco (which I need to go back and really SEE on my own time), and then we went to L'Opificio Delle Pietre Dure. I thought this was a really cool museum too, but she did all the same things that she had done in San Marco, so I didn't get to examine much. At this point, my hand was about to fall off anyway, so I was ready to get the heck out. We ended our tutoring session 15 minutes late. That gave us 45 minutes to grab lunch and get back to CLIDA for our second tutoring session (History of Costume). Of course, she held me behind to talk to me about my ICIP. I was really excited, but her talking AT me completely stressed me out and made me soooo nervous. All she did was repeat herself for 15 minutes and tell me how she couldn't help me and didn't have the answers. At 1:30, I walked as quickly as I could to meet the rest of the students for lunch. Next thing I knew, I was lost. I finally made it to our usual sandwich place, got some lunch, and basically ran to CLIDA.
I caught up with the girls on their way there as well, and as soon as I saw them, I started to cry. I couldn't help it. Elisa had been so intense and insincere that I burst. The girls helped me as best as they could on our way to CLIDA. We all arrived at the same time (2:10). Elisa was already in the classroom and she did not greet us, she just began yelling at us as soon as we walked in the door. I'll make a little monologue here. It was half English, half Italian:
Elisa: "You girls need to start acting like adults. It's not right to show up late to class. I'm not late, and you shouldn't be either. That is very disrespectful and I will not tolerate this."
(we say nothing and sit down, Elisa turns to Grace)
Elisa: "You didn't go to class yesterday. That will never happen again. Everyone is to be in class every day. You are to arrive on time, sit down, listen to the professor and write the entire time. You cannot look at the ceiling, you cannot sleep. I don't care if you have to drink 10 espressos or eat 5 bars of chocolate to stay awake. You have to place complete focus on paying attention. I don't care what is wrong with you, you will come to class."
(one of us tells her that we have a really hard time understanding the teacher because she doesn't have a microphone, speaks quickly and has a Florentine accent)
Elisa: "I can hear her just fine. There is nothing wrong with the way she talks. She speaks very clearly. You all just have to listen!"
(Carla tells Elisa that she has to leave the tutoring session early to go to her ICIP with Elisa's assisstant, Maria Cristina)
Elisa: "Are you kidding me!? I sent you an email 10 days ago telling you about this tutoring session. You should have known about it. You can't miss something like this. This is very important! I can't believe you would be so careless! Don't ever do that again!"
(I take out my small box of chili. At this point, it's 2:30 and I haven't eaten since 7:30 in the morning and I am famished.)
Elisa: "Don't even think about eating in my class! That is rude and disrespectful. You never do something like that. You can eat when I'm finished. Put that away!"
(I put my head in my hands and start to cry right across the table from her. She ignores me and starts the lesson. 10 minutes later...)
Elisa: "Elsa, if you need a minute or something, just take a minute and go outside."
(I shake my head no)
Elisa: "Was it something I said? Was is about the food? Because you still can't eat in class. It's rude and disrespectful. Go outside if you need a minute."
Ok, so.... that was her rant that lasted about 15 minutes. I cried for the rest of the class and didn't hear a word she said. So much for that tutoring session.
Afterwards, all of us were a huge mess. Fortunately, Grace's mom was here visiting from Chicago and she did a very good job of being motherly and trying to calm us down. No one could understand her horrible, power-trip behavior. People are sometimes late, things happen, Elsa gets lost. So she yells?!?! Grace had missed class because her mother flew all the way from Chicago to visit with her! Carla had to miss because she was going to her ICIP with Elisa's assistant. Um, Hi, Elisa... Shouldn't YOU be the one communicating with YOUR assistant? Thought so. I was so hungry I had a headache, and she tells me I can't eat when everyone else had had the chance to. What if I was a diabetic or something!?
Anyway, we decided that this lady has ALOT of problems. She has a Ph D. And in Italy, a Ph D. in art history is like being God. She has absolutely no emotions, and all she ever tries to do is cover her ass. When Holy Cross called her out on her actions in the past, she made excuses and danced around the whole situation. I guess Holy Cross knows she's "fuori della testa" (out of her mind), but they keep her as an adviser because she has a ton of contacts within Florentine society and knows everything about the program.
Grace spoke with her sister, who studied here last year. She said that Elisa made her cry at least 10 times. She urged Grace to talk to us about trying not to let her bother us. She is going to attempt to guilt us into coming to class, because if we fail our classes, she fails and Holy Cross rips her a new one. Grace's sister wanted us to know that Elisa was not worth the tears, and that we should be traveling and enjoying ourselves, while also getting the education that we want. We are Holy Cross students. We already have a work ethic. Elisa does NOT need to treat us like we are in high school.
We've decided to construct an email to the head of the department at Holy Cross. They told the study abroad students last year that they wished something had been said sooner. So, that's what we're going to do.
Allow me to point out that today, Elisa showed up 20 minutes late to our History of Costume class. We stared her down as she walked through the door. Now, why aren't we allowed to yell at her? And, throughout the entire class, she watched us to make sure we were paying attention.
We had our CLIDA conversation in the afternoon and Gabriella (the owner whose house we went to for lunch on Sunday) felt soooo badly that she hugged me and kissed me and told us that she would make us dessert on Monday. Can we skip University and tutors and go to CLIDA forever?!
I can't wait for Elisa to get put in her place. Someone has to figure something out, because she is out of control. I guess it's funny to think of how stupid she sounds. But she also scares the hell out of me. I'm going to try to not be scared, but it's going to be hard.
I decided to stay in tonight because of yesterday. I'm way behind on my work because she assigned us 70 pages of reading (all in Italian of course) and there is absolutely no way that I can read this all before Thursday. Especially since she tells us to read it 5 times. This woman is a freaking robot.
Tomorrow, I'm doing a little organizing and then going downtown to walk around. I need it.
A domani.
Thursdays are the days that we have our tutoring sessions with Elisa for both Museology and History of Costume. All of the students last year absolutely hated Elisa (she made girls cry, etc), but none of us could understand why. Since we've arrived, she has been taking us to all these cool places and being really nice. We thought she had turned over a new leaf... until we had to spend the whole day with her yesterday.
We started with our Museology tutoring session at Il Museo di San Marco, which is an old convent. It was really cool, except that Elisa flew through it. The entire time we followed her around the museum, scribbling furiously while she spoke 100 miles a minute in Italian. Needless to say, we didn't get all the information. A few times, some of us stopped her to repeat dates. She would repeat them, as fast as she could, and continue talking. That didn't help. When someone asked a question, she got angry because we had "interrupted" her. So, we followed her around like little slaves for 1 hour in Il Museo di San Marco (which I need to go back and really SEE on my own time), and then we went to L'Opificio Delle Pietre Dure. I thought this was a really cool museum too, but she did all the same things that she had done in San Marco, so I didn't get to examine much. At this point, my hand was about to fall off anyway, so I was ready to get the heck out. We ended our tutoring session 15 minutes late. That gave us 45 minutes to grab lunch and get back to CLIDA for our second tutoring session (History of Costume). Of course, she held me behind to talk to me about my ICIP. I was really excited, but her talking AT me completely stressed me out and made me soooo nervous. All she did was repeat herself for 15 minutes and tell me how she couldn't help me and didn't have the answers. At 1:30, I walked as quickly as I could to meet the rest of the students for lunch. Next thing I knew, I was lost. I finally made it to our usual sandwich place, got some lunch, and basically ran to CLIDA.
I caught up with the girls on their way there as well, and as soon as I saw them, I started to cry. I couldn't help it. Elisa had been so intense and insincere that I burst. The girls helped me as best as they could on our way to CLIDA. We all arrived at the same time (2:10). Elisa was already in the classroom and she did not greet us, she just began yelling at us as soon as we walked in the door. I'll make a little monologue here. It was half English, half Italian:
Elisa: "You girls need to start acting like adults. It's not right to show up late to class. I'm not late, and you shouldn't be either. That is very disrespectful and I will not tolerate this."
(we say nothing and sit down, Elisa turns to Grace)
Elisa: "You didn't go to class yesterday. That will never happen again. Everyone is to be in class every day. You are to arrive on time, sit down, listen to the professor and write the entire time. You cannot look at the ceiling, you cannot sleep. I don't care if you have to drink 10 espressos or eat 5 bars of chocolate to stay awake. You have to place complete focus on paying attention. I don't care what is wrong with you, you will come to class."
(one of us tells her that we have a really hard time understanding the teacher because she doesn't have a microphone, speaks quickly and has a Florentine accent)
Elisa: "I can hear her just fine. There is nothing wrong with the way she talks. She speaks very clearly. You all just have to listen!"
(Carla tells Elisa that she has to leave the tutoring session early to go to her ICIP with Elisa's assisstant, Maria Cristina)
Elisa: "Are you kidding me!? I sent you an email 10 days ago telling you about this tutoring session. You should have known about it. You can't miss something like this. This is very important! I can't believe you would be so careless! Don't ever do that again!"
(I take out my small box of chili. At this point, it's 2:30 and I haven't eaten since 7:30 in the morning and I am famished.)
Elisa: "Don't even think about eating in my class! That is rude and disrespectful. You never do something like that. You can eat when I'm finished. Put that away!"
(I put my head in my hands and start to cry right across the table from her. She ignores me and starts the lesson. 10 minutes later...)
Elisa: "Elsa, if you need a minute or something, just take a minute and go outside."
(I shake my head no)
Elisa: "Was it something I said? Was is about the food? Because you still can't eat in class. It's rude and disrespectful. Go outside if you need a minute."
Ok, so.... that was her rant that lasted about 15 minutes. I cried for the rest of the class and didn't hear a word she said. So much for that tutoring session.
Afterwards, all of us were a huge mess. Fortunately, Grace's mom was here visiting from Chicago and she did a very good job of being motherly and trying to calm us down. No one could understand her horrible, power-trip behavior. People are sometimes late, things happen, Elsa gets lost. So she yells?!?! Grace had missed class because her mother flew all the way from Chicago to visit with her! Carla had to miss because she was going to her ICIP with Elisa's assistant. Um, Hi, Elisa... Shouldn't YOU be the one communicating with YOUR assistant? Thought so. I was so hungry I had a headache, and she tells me I can't eat when everyone else had had the chance to. What if I was a diabetic or something!?
Anyway, we decided that this lady has ALOT of problems. She has a Ph D. And in Italy, a Ph D. in art history is like being God. She has absolutely no emotions, and all she ever tries to do is cover her ass. When Holy Cross called her out on her actions in the past, she made excuses and danced around the whole situation. I guess Holy Cross knows she's "fuori della testa" (out of her mind), but they keep her as an adviser because she has a ton of contacts within Florentine society and knows everything about the program.
Grace spoke with her sister, who studied here last year. She said that Elisa made her cry at least 10 times. She urged Grace to talk to us about trying not to let her bother us. She is going to attempt to guilt us into coming to class, because if we fail our classes, she fails and Holy Cross rips her a new one. Grace's sister wanted us to know that Elisa was not worth the tears, and that we should be traveling and enjoying ourselves, while also getting the education that we want. We are Holy Cross students. We already have a work ethic. Elisa does NOT need to treat us like we are in high school.
We've decided to construct an email to the head of the department at Holy Cross. They told the study abroad students last year that they wished something had been said sooner. So, that's what we're going to do.
Allow me to point out that today, Elisa showed up 20 minutes late to our History of Costume class. We stared her down as she walked through the door. Now, why aren't we allowed to yell at her? And, throughout the entire class, she watched us to make sure we were paying attention.
We had our CLIDA conversation in the afternoon and Gabriella (the owner whose house we went to for lunch on Sunday) felt soooo badly that she hugged me and kissed me and told us that she would make us dessert on Monday. Can we skip University and tutors and go to CLIDA forever?!
I can't wait for Elisa to get put in her place. Someone has to figure something out, because she is out of control. I guess it's funny to think of how stupid she sounds. But she also scares the hell out of me. I'm going to try to not be scared, but it's going to be hard.
I decided to stay in tonight because of yesterday. I'm way behind on my work because she assigned us 70 pages of reading (all in Italian of course) and there is absolutely no way that I can read this all before Thursday. Especially since she tells us to read it 5 times. This woman is a freaking robot.
Tomorrow, I'm doing a little organizing and then going downtown to walk around. I need it.
A domani.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Week 1 at Sacro Cuore
Today was my first official day at the site of my Independent Cultural Immersion Project. I left Museologia a little early to get the bus but of course, it was late. So, I was late. No one seemed to care though. After all, this is Italy, and 10 minutes late means on time (which I refuse to adapt to). Madre Carol showed me to the 5th grade English classroom, introduced me to Eleonora (the English teacher) and said "Have fun."
I had NO CLUE what I was supposed to be doing. Eleonora quickly said, "You can go and help the kids write their stories." That meant almost nothing to me, and I was really confused, so I just walked around the classroom a little bit to get an idea of what they were doing. Some kids were working with Eleonora from a workbook, and a smaller handful of kids were writing personal stories in English. Eleonora had me lead one exercise in the workbook which was totally weird. I guess I did fine, except for the fact that these kids are learning BRITISH English, not American. So there's nothing I can do about that.
I started getting a little more comfortable and settled in checking the kids' grammar in their stories. One of the boys was very cute, but a huge pain. He was always insulting the poor boy next to him, telling him that he sucked, and that his own work was better. Allow me to point out that the jerk had A LOT more spelling mistakes than the boy he was giving a hard time to. The kid even said something nasty to me. I don't remember what it was, except that he didn't want me to read his story because I wasn't good enough for it.. or something like that. I finally got him to let me read it and discovered why he was such a disturbance- his past seemed very traumatic, according to his story. Or, he just has a huge imagination and feels like being an asshole to get some attention. Though terribly misspelled, he started off by writing "I'm not supposed to talk about this but..." He continued to write about how his parents used to be married and happy together, and then his Dad and Mom fought. His Dad went from "sympathetic to mean" and doesn't sound like he treated his son very well. One day, he explained, he watched his Dad get into a fight with another woman and a bunch of cops came. Now, he's living in Italy with his Mom. I almost teared up when I read that. It was also hard to correct him because I didn't want to risk hurting his self esteem even more! But, I used constructive criticism and told him that it was well-written and easy to understand.
After that class, I followed Eleonora to a first grade English class (more my idea of what I was going to be doing). They too, were ridiculously un-controlled. I stood in the back and kept the kids seated while she stood up front and taught them colors and the weather. One little girl seemed to take a liking to me after I told her that I had a teddy, just like hers. All she did the whole time was hug her teddy and smile at me. There was also the cutest little boy (with glasses- my favorite!) sitting in the back, kind of slower in the exercises than the other kids. I helped him one on one so that he could keep up with the rest of the class. It took him a while to color his triangle ORANGE and the square PURPLE. I think he was still having trouble understanding what the translations were. Such a sweet kid, though.
I could tell that Eleonora was getting very frustrated with the kids because no one would listen or stay in their seats. She had to raise her voice a few times. I came to find out (through Elisa) that this is her first year. That explained a lot. Anyway, I got a little time to talk to Eleonora and her plan (which was really no plan at all) was to have me take the native English speakers to a separate room and teach them at a more advanced level. In the 5th grade class, there are 5 English speakers and in the 1st grade class, there are 2. I asked her, "Ok, but what do you want me to do with them?" She said "I don't know. Just help them." You have to be kidding me. I just said "OK" and that I'd start that next week. I don't know what Eleonora was thinking. I don't have a teaching degree. These kids get graded and there's no way that I want to be responsible for their grades.
So, I talked to Elisa after Storia del Costume about the morning. She completely agreed with me that they were leaving the class too open-ended and that, for a person coming just once a week, I shouldn't be doing something so serious. She too thought that I would really just be a teacher's aid, and help the kids with words here and there. She also didn't like that Eleonora expected me to plan a lesson for kids. Sure, they're English speaking, but I still don't know the proper, structured way to teach English grammar! Elisa is going to get in touch with Eleonora. We think that she might have been nervous and unsure of what to do with me. I really don't mind helping out, as long as I interact with kids and speak a little Italian (which I did today). To clarify, I really do like the project, and I'm really excited. I just can't wait for a little more structure. That will be good. The Italian school system is certainly a lot different that the American school system...
And good news! Elisa said that this program can certainly go on my resume as an internship. PERFECT! I needed one really badly, and I was getting a little nervous about it. This will be soooo great because I'm doing it all the way through March, so I'll get a lot of experience. Great resume booster for sure! And a good way to secure another internship for this summer!
Anyway, after this long day, I decided to skip out on my 5:00 class. I have wayyyy to much to do and not enough time to do it with these long class hours. So, I'm going now.
More later. Ciao!
I had NO CLUE what I was supposed to be doing. Eleonora quickly said, "You can go and help the kids write their stories." That meant almost nothing to me, and I was really confused, so I just walked around the classroom a little bit to get an idea of what they were doing. Some kids were working with Eleonora from a workbook, and a smaller handful of kids were writing personal stories in English. Eleonora had me lead one exercise in the workbook which was totally weird. I guess I did fine, except for the fact that these kids are learning BRITISH English, not American. So there's nothing I can do about that.
I started getting a little more comfortable and settled in checking the kids' grammar in their stories. One of the boys was very cute, but a huge pain. He was always insulting the poor boy next to him, telling him that he sucked, and that his own work was better. Allow me to point out that the jerk had A LOT more spelling mistakes than the boy he was giving a hard time to. The kid even said something nasty to me. I don't remember what it was, except that he didn't want me to read his story because I wasn't good enough for it.. or something like that. I finally got him to let me read it and discovered why he was such a disturbance- his past seemed very traumatic, according to his story. Or, he just has a huge imagination and feels like being an asshole to get some attention. Though terribly misspelled, he started off by writing "I'm not supposed to talk about this but..." He continued to write about how his parents used to be married and happy together, and then his Dad and Mom fought. His Dad went from "sympathetic to mean" and doesn't sound like he treated his son very well. One day, he explained, he watched his Dad get into a fight with another woman and a bunch of cops came. Now, he's living in Italy with his Mom. I almost teared up when I read that. It was also hard to correct him because I didn't want to risk hurting his self esteem even more! But, I used constructive criticism and told him that it was well-written and easy to understand.
After that class, I followed Eleonora to a first grade English class (more my idea of what I was going to be doing). They too, were ridiculously un-controlled. I stood in the back and kept the kids seated while she stood up front and taught them colors and the weather. One little girl seemed to take a liking to me after I told her that I had a teddy, just like hers. All she did the whole time was hug her teddy and smile at me. There was also the cutest little boy (with glasses- my favorite!) sitting in the back, kind of slower in the exercises than the other kids. I helped him one on one so that he could keep up with the rest of the class. It took him a while to color his triangle ORANGE and the square PURPLE. I think he was still having trouble understanding what the translations were. Such a sweet kid, though.
I could tell that Eleonora was getting very frustrated with the kids because no one would listen or stay in their seats. She had to raise her voice a few times. I came to find out (through Elisa) that this is her first year. That explained a lot. Anyway, I got a little time to talk to Eleonora and her plan (which was really no plan at all) was to have me take the native English speakers to a separate room and teach them at a more advanced level. In the 5th grade class, there are 5 English speakers and in the 1st grade class, there are 2. I asked her, "Ok, but what do you want me to do with them?" She said "I don't know. Just help them." You have to be kidding me. I just said "OK" and that I'd start that next week. I don't know what Eleonora was thinking. I don't have a teaching degree. These kids get graded and there's no way that I want to be responsible for their grades.
So, I talked to Elisa after Storia del Costume about the morning. She completely agreed with me that they were leaving the class too open-ended and that, for a person coming just once a week, I shouldn't be doing something so serious. She too thought that I would really just be a teacher's aid, and help the kids with words here and there. She also didn't like that Eleonora expected me to plan a lesson for kids. Sure, they're English speaking, but I still don't know the proper, structured way to teach English grammar! Elisa is going to get in touch with Eleonora. We think that she might have been nervous and unsure of what to do with me. I really don't mind helping out, as long as I interact with kids and speak a little Italian (which I did today). To clarify, I really do like the project, and I'm really excited. I just can't wait for a little more structure. That will be good. The Italian school system is certainly a lot different that the American school system...
And good news! Elisa said that this program can certainly go on my resume as an internship. PERFECT! I needed one really badly, and I was getting a little nervous about it. This will be soooo great because I'm doing it all the way through March, so I'll get a lot of experience. Great resume booster for sure! And a good way to secure another internship for this summer!
Anyway, after this long day, I decided to skip out on my 5:00 class. I have wayyyy to much to do and not enough time to do it with these long class hours. So, I'm going now.
More later. Ciao!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Pranzo in compagna
Today was one of the best days I've had since my arrival here in Italy. The owners of CLIDA (Gabriella and Alberto Materassi) invited us to their villa in the countryside (a village called San Donato in Collina) for a relaxing day of eating and drinking. This couple is the one that I spent my first afternoon with when I arrived in August (because Maria Pia hadn't returned from Canada yet).
In order to get there, we took the bus from the train station for about a half hour. Then, Gabriella and Alberto picked us up at the bus stop and drove us up, up, up a windy road for another half hour. On our way up the hill, we saw the most breathtaking views of the city/countryside below us. When we finally made it to their villa, the air was crisp and much cooler than in Florence. I actually felt that I could breathe better as well. The air didn't feel as heavy. It was amazing.
Since I had been to their house before, Alberto and Gabriella asked me to show the rest of the gang around while she got lunch ready. Before we sat down, they had us try a pairing of cold sausage, peppered pecorino cheese, and sparkling red wine. The wine was awesome! It tasted just like sparkling grape juice. Allow me to also mention that in the kitchen, there was a huge metal barrel of olive oil for Gabriella's cooking. It just sat there like one of those huge water jugs that people have in their houses and offices! Unbelievable. They swear by their olive oil.
Once everything was set for pranzo, we sat down at a long table and the 2.5 hour eating and drinking process began. First, she brought out an antipasto with homemade crispy pasta, ricotta cheese, tomatoes and basil. AWESOME. The second antipasto was mozzarella burrata (buttered mozzarella), which was amazing. The soft outer shell seemed to taste like the mozzarella everyone knows here in Italy, but the inside was much softer and creamier and had a very buttery taste. The next dish, which I guess was a main dish, was lasagna bolognese made completely from scratch (pasta and all). I liked that the pasta was a little tough, and much thinner than the stuff that comes in the packages. Of course, the meat was unexplainably delicious and naturally, there was a good selection of cheeses in the center. After the lasagna came Italian sausages soaked in red wine and freshly crushed grapes (and their juices) with onions. Also served with that course was a potato puree which is soooo much better than the mashed potatoes in the states! After the lunch part, she brought out homemade Sicilian marzipan cookies (she had spent 3 days making the marzipan), homemade chocolate mousse with fresh pear and strawberry topping, and a raisin cake. She topped it all with homemade panna (whipped cream).
And that was the end of lunch. Yep, only 6 courses! No big deal. And all of it was indescribably amazing. After cleanup, we went inside, played some foosball in the basement (they love their soccer in all forms), and then migrated into the living room for some Wii Mario Kart in Italian. Almost all 8 of us kids managed to smoosh on their one couch. At that point, we were totally in a food coma and nearly dead, so Gabriella made us some incredibly strong espresso shots. Grace, Kevin, Carla and Maggie Wright all fell asleep after a few rounds of Mario Kart, but I wanted to go out an explore. So, Alberto took Maggie Rossi and me on a little nature walk. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I felt perfectly happy. I wasn't worrying about anything and it felt awesome! We trekked a little ways into the woods and the path started disappearing and getting steep, so we asked Alberto to go back. We weren't exactly dressed for a legitimate hike, but we definitely had fun. I had collected some chestnuts along the way, so when we returned, Gabriella started a fire and roasted them for us. They weren't that great because chestnut season doesn't start for another month. So, they were a little premature. Oh well, it was still fun!
After a little more Wii, Gabriella and Alberto announced that they had to bring us back to the city. :( :( They invited us back for another pranzo before Christmas though!
Being up in the countryside had such a great affect on me. Living in the city has created so many stresses (some that I didn't even realize), so a day in the hills really helped to calm me down. I am happy that something so simple could make me feel so alive. It helped to remind me why I wanted to study abroad in the first place. I am seeing so many things that a lot of people in the world will never get to enjoy. I'll enjoy it for them! :) That was the most perfect way to spend a Sunday in Italy.
We came back home around 7:30 and Maria Pia had dinner ready for us... UGH. We had caprese salad, toasted bread, and proscuitto. We had asked her to make something light because we knew she would never allow us to just skip out on dinner. So, we attempted to eat what we could, and now I'm in my room just doing some homework.
And, I have a terrible stomach ache.
A domani, or maybe a few days later!
Ciao :)
In order to get there, we took the bus from the train station for about a half hour. Then, Gabriella and Alberto picked us up at the bus stop and drove us up, up, up a windy road for another half hour. On our way up the hill, we saw the most breathtaking views of the city/countryside below us. When we finally made it to their villa, the air was crisp and much cooler than in Florence. I actually felt that I could breathe better as well. The air didn't feel as heavy. It was amazing.
Since I had been to their house before, Alberto and Gabriella asked me to show the rest of the gang around while she got lunch ready. Before we sat down, they had us try a pairing of cold sausage, peppered pecorino cheese, and sparkling red wine. The wine was awesome! It tasted just like sparkling grape juice. Allow me to also mention that in the kitchen, there was a huge metal barrel of olive oil for Gabriella's cooking. It just sat there like one of those huge water jugs that people have in their houses and offices! Unbelievable. They swear by their olive oil.
Once everything was set for pranzo, we sat down at a long table and the 2.5 hour eating and drinking process began. First, she brought out an antipasto with homemade crispy pasta, ricotta cheese, tomatoes and basil. AWESOME. The second antipasto was mozzarella burrata (buttered mozzarella), which was amazing. The soft outer shell seemed to taste like the mozzarella everyone knows here in Italy, but the inside was much softer and creamier and had a very buttery taste. The next dish, which I guess was a main dish, was lasagna bolognese made completely from scratch (pasta and all). I liked that the pasta was a little tough, and much thinner than the stuff that comes in the packages. Of course, the meat was unexplainably delicious and naturally, there was a good selection of cheeses in the center. After the lasagna came Italian sausages soaked in red wine and freshly crushed grapes (and their juices) with onions. Also served with that course was a potato puree which is soooo much better than the mashed potatoes in the states! After the lunch part, she brought out homemade Sicilian marzipan cookies (she had spent 3 days making the marzipan), homemade chocolate mousse with fresh pear and strawberry topping, and a raisin cake. She topped it all with homemade panna (whipped cream).
And that was the end of lunch. Yep, only 6 courses! No big deal. And all of it was indescribably amazing. After cleanup, we went inside, played some foosball in the basement (they love their soccer in all forms), and then migrated into the living room for some Wii Mario Kart in Italian. Almost all 8 of us kids managed to smoosh on their one couch. At that point, we were totally in a food coma and nearly dead, so Gabriella made us some incredibly strong espresso shots. Grace, Kevin, Carla and Maggie Wright all fell asleep after a few rounds of Mario Kart, but I wanted to go out an explore. So, Alberto took Maggie Rossi and me on a little nature walk. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I felt perfectly happy. I wasn't worrying about anything and it felt awesome! We trekked a little ways into the woods and the path started disappearing and getting steep, so we asked Alberto to go back. We weren't exactly dressed for a legitimate hike, but we definitely had fun. I had collected some chestnuts along the way, so when we returned, Gabriella started a fire and roasted them for us. They weren't that great because chestnut season doesn't start for another month. So, they were a little premature. Oh well, it was still fun!
After a little more Wii, Gabriella and Alberto announced that they had to bring us back to the city. :( :( They invited us back for another pranzo before Christmas though!
Being up in the countryside had such a great affect on me. Living in the city has created so many stresses (some that I didn't even realize), so a day in the hills really helped to calm me down. I am happy that something so simple could make me feel so alive. It helped to remind me why I wanted to study abroad in the first place. I am seeing so many things that a lot of people in the world will never get to enjoy. I'll enjoy it for them! :) That was the most perfect way to spend a Sunday in Italy.
We came back home around 7:30 and Maria Pia had dinner ready for us... UGH. We had caprese salad, toasted bread, and proscuitto. We had asked her to make something light because we knew she would never allow us to just skip out on dinner. So, we attempted to eat what we could, and now I'm in my room just doing some homework.
And, I have a terrible stomach ache.
A domani, or maybe a few days later!
Ciao :)
Friday, October 9, 2009
Sciopero
Ciao!
Today was an odd day. Rainy, and odd. Andrea and I decided to skip the morning session of language classes since our real teacher is still sick and we were looking for some extra sleep. So, instead of leaving the house at 8:20, we left at 10:20. Our university class (museologia) was at 11. The bus picked us up on schedule and we headed downtown. We didn't get very far when we hit a ridiculous amount of traffic. Flash forward and we ended up being on the bus for an hour. It usually takes 20 minutes to get downtown, but we crawled the whole way. As we were melting in the bus, we remembered that we had heard that there was supposed to be a strike (sciopero). So, that's what the holdup was. Needless to say, we never were able to make it to class and had to get out of the bus and walk downtown. We arrived in the center around 11:45 and there was a huge parade of protesters. It was pouring and there was no chance at getting to the university. We walked around until lunch and also bought a hairdryer.
The rest of the day was normal. I came home, took a nap, had dinner, and now I'm here. We're debating whether or not to go out tonight because it's absolutely pouring and there is thunder and lightening. We'll see what we decide.
A domani!
Today was an odd day. Rainy, and odd. Andrea and I decided to skip the morning session of language classes since our real teacher is still sick and we were looking for some extra sleep. So, instead of leaving the house at 8:20, we left at 10:20. Our university class (museologia) was at 11. The bus picked us up on schedule and we headed downtown. We didn't get very far when we hit a ridiculous amount of traffic. Flash forward and we ended up being on the bus for an hour. It usually takes 20 minutes to get downtown, but we crawled the whole way. As we were melting in the bus, we remembered that we had heard that there was supposed to be a strike (sciopero). So, that's what the holdup was. Needless to say, we never were able to make it to class and had to get out of the bus and walk downtown. We arrived in the center around 11:45 and there was a huge parade of protesters. It was pouring and there was no chance at getting to the university. We walked around until lunch and also bought a hairdryer.
The rest of the day was normal. I came home, took a nap, had dinner, and now I'm here. We're debating whether or not to go out tonight because it's absolutely pouring and there is thunder and lightening. We'll see what we decide.
A domani!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Aperitivo, ICIP, tutors
Ciao ragazzi,
Last night, Christiana (our 5:15 teacher at CLIDA) took us to this amazing pasticceria, called Pasticceria Giorgio, for some treats and conversation. The place was adorable and had some awesome pastries! It was also in a part of Florence that we had never seen before, so we were pretty excited about that. I had a pastry that looked like a chocolate covered cream puff. I forget the Italian name though. Either way, it was awesome!
After the pasticceria, we met up with a former Holy Cross teacher (she was there for everyone's freshman year- before I got there) for aperitivo. It was pretty funny because we ended up going to the place right next to the place that Elia took us a few weeks ago. The food was great and we had a nice time. I was exhausted though, so I had to leave early. I wasn't fun to be around anyway.
This morning, Dobby took me to the site of my Independent Cultural Immersion Project (ICIP). It's across the river at a little Catholic school, run by nuns. The director, Madre Carol was soooo nice and spoke perfect English. I'm pretty sure she's American, but she also spoke beautifully in Italian. Her plan is to make me a teacher's assistant to Eleonora. The class is a 5th grade level and I will be helping 6 kids learn English. I talked to them today and they are already amazing at it anyway. The scary part is that Dobby for some reason told Madre Carol that I was qualified in English literature and grammar!?!?! Sure, I know some things, but the US has a terrible way of not teaching English grammar to kids. Therefore, I know how to use my grammar, but not to explain it very well. I can do a little bit of sentence structure, but I have no idea what the terms are! This should be interesting... I'm also a little disappointed because the kids are so old. I had told Elisa that I wanted to work with kids ages 3-5, because that's the focus of my studies at Holy Cross. I'm also upset that I am not able to speak Italian to the kids. I was hoping to do a little bit of both English and Italian. I'm going to go to the first session and see how I like it. If I don't feel that it's right, I'm going to try to convince Elisa to set me up with something else. She's tough to deal with when it comes to changing things, though.
After that little session, we met Elisa at a museum called La Specola for our tutoring session. I had a really nice time walking through the museum. In the beginning, I thought she would be explaining all the pieces, but instead, she wanted us to look at the overall organization of a museum, placement, etc. It was pretty cool though. After the walk-through, we sat down and got some readings, etc. It's going to be pretty intense, I think. There are lots of Italian works that we are going to have to read which will take me 3x longer to get through than English readings. She is very thorough though and has a great reputation for her tutoring. A girl from HC actually got a perfect score on her Museology exam last year because Elisa was her tutor. Hopefully, she's just trying to scare us with all this work because it seems like they did less than expected last year.
After tutoring, we all met for lunch at our usual spot, Antica Noe. From the beginning, Carla had had an interest in the boy (Andrea) that works there. Everything changed last night when he called her and took her out on his Vespa!!! So now they have a little thing going on. So exciting and fun to hear about!
We're going out tonight and hopefully meeting up with Andrea. He said he's going to take us to some Italian places. I'm excited! I think I'm skipping out on the homework tonight. It's not due for a while.
A dopo!
Last night, Christiana (our 5:15 teacher at CLIDA) took us to this amazing pasticceria, called Pasticceria Giorgio, for some treats and conversation. The place was adorable and had some awesome pastries! It was also in a part of Florence that we had never seen before, so we were pretty excited about that. I had a pastry that looked like a chocolate covered cream puff. I forget the Italian name though. Either way, it was awesome!
After the pasticceria, we met up with a former Holy Cross teacher (she was there for everyone's freshman year- before I got there) for aperitivo. It was pretty funny because we ended up going to the place right next to the place that Elia took us a few weeks ago. The food was great and we had a nice time. I was exhausted though, so I had to leave early. I wasn't fun to be around anyway.
This morning, Dobby took me to the site of my Independent Cultural Immersion Project (ICIP). It's across the river at a little Catholic school, run by nuns. The director, Madre Carol was soooo nice and spoke perfect English. I'm pretty sure she's American, but she also spoke beautifully in Italian. Her plan is to make me a teacher's assistant to Eleonora. The class is a 5th grade level and I will be helping 6 kids learn English. I talked to them today and they are already amazing at it anyway. The scary part is that Dobby for some reason told Madre Carol that I was qualified in English literature and grammar!?!?! Sure, I know some things, but the US has a terrible way of not teaching English grammar to kids. Therefore, I know how to use my grammar, but not to explain it very well. I can do a little bit of sentence structure, but I have no idea what the terms are! This should be interesting... I'm also a little disappointed because the kids are so old. I had told Elisa that I wanted to work with kids ages 3-5, because that's the focus of my studies at Holy Cross. I'm also upset that I am not able to speak Italian to the kids. I was hoping to do a little bit of both English and Italian. I'm going to go to the first session and see how I like it. If I don't feel that it's right, I'm going to try to convince Elisa to set me up with something else. She's tough to deal with when it comes to changing things, though.
After that little session, we met Elisa at a museum called La Specola for our tutoring session. I had a really nice time walking through the museum. In the beginning, I thought she would be explaining all the pieces, but instead, she wanted us to look at the overall organization of a museum, placement, etc. It was pretty cool though. After the walk-through, we sat down and got some readings, etc. It's going to be pretty intense, I think. There are lots of Italian works that we are going to have to read which will take me 3x longer to get through than English readings. She is very thorough though and has a great reputation for her tutoring. A girl from HC actually got a perfect score on her Museology exam last year because Elisa was her tutor. Hopefully, she's just trying to scare us with all this work because it seems like they did less than expected last year.
After tutoring, we all met for lunch at our usual spot, Antica Noe. From the beginning, Carla had had an interest in the boy (Andrea) that works there. Everything changed last night when he called her and took her out on his Vespa!!! So now they have a little thing going on. So exciting and fun to hear about!
We're going out tonight and hopefully meeting up with Andrea. He said he's going to take us to some Italian places. I'm excited! I think I'm skipping out on the homework tonight. It's not due for a while.
A dopo!
Monday, October 5, 2009
OKTOBERFEST!!!
I have been dying to write all weekend! So, Oktoberfest. I'll start at the beginning.
After dinner on Thursday, Andrea and I headed down to the station to meet Kevin and Maggie. We had a little red wine in Piazza Santa Maria Novella to get ourselves to sleep during the 8 hour bus ride. Franco (student from HC studying in Bologna) met us at the station and we all boarded the bus. Of course, the completely American crew on the bus was very tough for us to handle, considering the fact that we are really trying to only be friends with Italians, speak Italian, etc. They were actually pretty obnoxious. I wasn't surprised based on the appearances of the girls and the boys, and all of their possessions. We even named one guy Princess Meathead. It was an appropriate title because Andrea was stuck sitting next to him and all he did was mush his big pillow on her shoulder and sleep the whole time. When he was awake, he complained about his discomfort. I sat all the way in the front with Kevin. I felt so badly for him because his legs were too big to fit on the floor so he had trouble sleeping. Meanwhile, I was able to curl up into a ball and fit my whole body on my seat. The wine helped us sleep for about 2 hours, but that wore off and I dozed in and out for the rest of the 6. It was most certainly the worst night sleep that I had had in a while.
We arrived at the hostel around 8 am. It was located about an hour outside of Munich in a beautiful location in the mountains. The air was so crisp and perfect- I felt like I was seeing scenes from the Sound of Music (especially when we drove through Austria). We weren't able to check in that early, but we did get to use the bathrooms and freshen up. An hour later, we headed into Munich for Oktoberfest!
As we approached the grounds, the German police inspected the bus for weapons, etc. They were of course very intimidating, as I expected. We pulled into the lot, received our instructions from Anna (our leader), and then headed into the fair! I was so amazed by the cleanliness of the park! The stands were all cute and perfect and everyone ready for the festivities. There were countless stands with candies, roasted nuts, pretzels, bratwurst, etc. Not many game stands though, which was different than the US. We made a bee-line for the pretzel stand because we hadn't eaten since 7:30 the night before, the pretzels were enormous, and we had to have something heavy before drinking. We finished our pretzels and headed into the Hofbrauhaus tent (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly) right away because they fill up around 12 and once you're in, you're in. If you want to leave, you don't come back. It's impossible.
So, we got into the tent around 10:30 and found some people in our bus group, including Anna. We ordered some beers and I was of course shocked by their size and strength. In fact, the filled beer mugs were so heavy that I have a bruise on my hand as a souvenir from the weekend. Anyway, the beer was delicious and effective. We had a great time watching the crazy Germans dance around in their lederhosen and drindl. In my opinion, some were way too young to be drinking. I met a kid that was 14!!! Are you kidding me!? There were also a bunch of Italians there and they were of course the most obnoxious crowd in the whole place. The security guards were not very happy. I was also amazed at how many beers the beer maids were able to carry. I counted 10 as the most! Absolutely crazy. I could barely hold my one. We spent a few hours in there and had about 2 beers each, ordered some awesome rotisserie chickens, and then left around 2 something when it was time for lunch.
Lunch was much cheaper outside of the beer tents and I really wanted to try a bratwurst so we found a good stand and made that our lunch. It was soooooo unbelievably good. I think I put onions on this one. Around 4, we left the grounds to walk around Munich and find a Starbucks. We found one in the train station and got some coffees and took a little rest. We returned to Oktoberfest sober and while we were gone, people had really taken a turn for the worse. We spent the rest of the evening walking around, drunk-people watching, and dodging puke piles on the ground. It was crazy to watch the policemen take down rowdy party people. They are really scary when they are angry! We got back to the hostel around 12:30 am and went to bed. Friday was a very long day.
We headed into Oktoberfest again on Saturday and decided to take Mike's Bike Tours for a tour of Munich. WE HAD A BLAST. And of course, the entire city was spotless. I felt as if I could eat off the ground-- that's how clean it was. I also didn't realize that Munich had so much to see! We saw castles and churches and some beautiful parks and monuments. Munich's famous park boasts being much bigger than both Central Park in NYC and Hyde Park in London. It was certainly huge! We had so much fun riding the bikes through the park. There was so much to see (including nude men sunbathing- ew). In the middle of the mega-park was the Biergarten where we ate lunch. Everyone ordered a beer, of course. In addition, I got a big sausage, sauerkraut, and scalloped potatoes. Everything was delicious! We returned from the bike tour around 4 and then followed some of our trip leaders to one of the most famous beer halls in the world- Hofbrauhaus. We couldn't find seats for the whole hour that we searched, so we went to a beer hall across the street for a beer. We returned to Hofbrauhaus after that because Andrea's friends from high school had found a little space for us. Partying in Hofbrauhaus was absolutely insane. There was a German folk band and lots of food and activity. I actually caught a man being tossed in the air while I was taking a video of Andrea and Kevin dancing. The video is priceless. After a few hours at the Hofbrauhaus, we returned to the Oktoberfest grounds and had some monster pretzels and beer at another biergarten. Then, we people watched again because everyone else was so hammered. They put on a great show. We got home around 12:30 on Saturday as well.
Sunday morning, we were pretty much over the Oktoberfest scene and decided to go visit Dauchau, the Nazi Concentration Camp. It wasn't fun, of course, but it was very interesting. I walked through the barracks and the gas chambers and it was all a little eerie. I was glad to be able to see one of those camps though. I have learned so much about the Holocaust that seeing the place helped me to understand the torture and inhumanity that happened to the Jews. It was a huge place and very open and barren- perfect for keeping prisoners from escaping.
After the concentration camp, we got some lunch and headed back on the bus to Florence. I left with an awesome sweatshirt that I bought, and 2 stolen beer mugs (one for me and one for Paul). Even though I'm absolutely exhausted right now, I am so glad that I went. We had a ton of fun and I learned a lot. Munich was an amazing city and I would recommend for everyone to go. It was so clean and easy to navigate, and there was so much to see! I'm really happy that we didn't only stay in Oktoberfest as some other kids did. I was glad to be able to get out and have a history lesson and see some other fun things that didn't necessarily have to do with beer. I really hope I can go back.
Pictures to come!
Auf Wiedersehen!
After dinner on Thursday, Andrea and I headed down to the station to meet Kevin and Maggie. We had a little red wine in Piazza Santa Maria Novella to get ourselves to sleep during the 8 hour bus ride. Franco (student from HC studying in Bologna) met us at the station and we all boarded the bus. Of course, the completely American crew on the bus was very tough for us to handle, considering the fact that we are really trying to only be friends with Italians, speak Italian, etc. They were actually pretty obnoxious. I wasn't surprised based on the appearances of the girls and the boys, and all of their possessions. We even named one guy Princess Meathead. It was an appropriate title because Andrea was stuck sitting next to him and all he did was mush his big pillow on her shoulder and sleep the whole time. When he was awake, he complained about his discomfort. I sat all the way in the front with Kevin. I felt so badly for him because his legs were too big to fit on the floor so he had trouble sleeping. Meanwhile, I was able to curl up into a ball and fit my whole body on my seat. The wine helped us sleep for about 2 hours, but that wore off and I dozed in and out for the rest of the 6. It was most certainly the worst night sleep that I had had in a while.
We arrived at the hostel around 8 am. It was located about an hour outside of Munich in a beautiful location in the mountains. The air was so crisp and perfect- I felt like I was seeing scenes from the Sound of Music (especially when we drove through Austria). We weren't able to check in that early, but we did get to use the bathrooms and freshen up. An hour later, we headed into Munich for Oktoberfest!
As we approached the grounds, the German police inspected the bus for weapons, etc. They were of course very intimidating, as I expected. We pulled into the lot, received our instructions from Anna (our leader), and then headed into the fair! I was so amazed by the cleanliness of the park! The stands were all cute and perfect and everyone ready for the festivities. There were countless stands with candies, roasted nuts, pretzels, bratwurst, etc. Not many game stands though, which was different than the US. We made a bee-line for the pretzel stand because we hadn't eaten since 7:30 the night before, the pretzels were enormous, and we had to have something heavy before drinking. We finished our pretzels and headed into the Hofbrauhaus tent (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly) right away because they fill up around 12 and once you're in, you're in. If you want to leave, you don't come back. It's impossible.
So, we got into the tent around 10:30 and found some people in our bus group, including Anna. We ordered some beers and I was of course shocked by their size and strength. In fact, the filled beer mugs were so heavy that I have a bruise on my hand as a souvenir from the weekend. Anyway, the beer was delicious and effective. We had a great time watching the crazy Germans dance around in their lederhosen and drindl. In my opinion, some were way too young to be drinking. I met a kid that was 14!!! Are you kidding me!? There were also a bunch of Italians there and they were of course the most obnoxious crowd in the whole place. The security guards were not very happy. I was also amazed at how many beers the beer maids were able to carry. I counted 10 as the most! Absolutely crazy. I could barely hold my one. We spent a few hours in there and had about 2 beers each, ordered some awesome rotisserie chickens, and then left around 2 something when it was time for lunch.
Lunch was much cheaper outside of the beer tents and I really wanted to try a bratwurst so we found a good stand and made that our lunch. It was soooooo unbelievably good. I think I put onions on this one. Around 4, we left the grounds to walk around Munich and find a Starbucks. We found one in the train station and got some coffees and took a little rest. We returned to Oktoberfest sober and while we were gone, people had really taken a turn for the worse. We spent the rest of the evening walking around, drunk-people watching, and dodging puke piles on the ground. It was crazy to watch the policemen take down rowdy party people. They are really scary when they are angry! We got back to the hostel around 12:30 am and went to bed. Friday was a very long day.
We headed into Oktoberfest again on Saturday and decided to take Mike's Bike Tours for a tour of Munich. WE HAD A BLAST. And of course, the entire city was spotless. I felt as if I could eat off the ground-- that's how clean it was. I also didn't realize that Munich had so much to see! We saw castles and churches and some beautiful parks and monuments. Munich's famous park boasts being much bigger than both Central Park in NYC and Hyde Park in London. It was certainly huge! We had so much fun riding the bikes through the park. There was so much to see (including nude men sunbathing- ew). In the middle of the mega-park was the Biergarten where we ate lunch. Everyone ordered a beer, of course. In addition, I got a big sausage, sauerkraut, and scalloped potatoes. Everything was delicious! We returned from the bike tour around 4 and then followed some of our trip leaders to one of the most famous beer halls in the world- Hofbrauhaus. We couldn't find seats for the whole hour that we searched, so we went to a beer hall across the street for a beer. We returned to Hofbrauhaus after that because Andrea's friends from high school had found a little space for us. Partying in Hofbrauhaus was absolutely insane. There was a German folk band and lots of food and activity. I actually caught a man being tossed in the air while I was taking a video of Andrea and Kevin dancing. The video is priceless. After a few hours at the Hofbrauhaus, we returned to the Oktoberfest grounds and had some monster pretzels and beer at another biergarten. Then, we people watched again because everyone else was so hammered. They put on a great show. We got home around 12:30 on Saturday as well.
Sunday morning, we were pretty much over the Oktoberfest scene and decided to go visit Dauchau, the Nazi Concentration Camp. It wasn't fun, of course, but it was very interesting. I walked through the barracks and the gas chambers and it was all a little eerie. I was glad to be able to see one of those camps though. I have learned so much about the Holocaust that seeing the place helped me to understand the torture and inhumanity that happened to the Jews. It was a huge place and very open and barren- perfect for keeping prisoners from escaping.
After the concentration camp, we got some lunch and headed back on the bus to Florence. I left with an awesome sweatshirt that I bought, and 2 stolen beer mugs (one for me and one for Paul). Even though I'm absolutely exhausted right now, I am so glad that I went. We had a ton of fun and I learned a lot. Munich was an amazing city and I would recommend for everyone to go. It was so clean and easy to navigate, and there was so much to see! I'm really happy that we didn't only stay in Oktoberfest as some other kids did. I was glad to be able to get out and have a history lesson and see some other fun things that didn't necessarily have to do with beer. I really hope I can go back.
Pictures to come!
Auf Wiedersehen!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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