Cinque Terre

This past week has been my spring break. Not that I really needed a week off considering my weekends start on Wednesday anyway, but it's nice to have the whole week free. Believe it or not I have another break in a week for Easter. Have I mentioned how much I am loving it here!?! 

Anyway for my "Spring Break" I decided to head to the Mediterranean Coast. There is a place just south of the Italian Rivera called Cinque Terre (five lands). It's 5 beautiful little towns that literally sit on the coast. They are nestled in the mountains directly on the water. I only visited two of them as I stayed only two nights/three days, but I am going back and I think I will venture to the others. I spent the first night in Riomaggiore. It is supposed to be the first town of the 5 and if you hike through all of them, you'd start here. Needless to say I didn't do that, but I did find a nice spot on the cliffs to read in the sun :). That was the point of the whole trip, read, relax, and get some sun. Unfortunately it was just a little too chilly to actually lay out, but I definitely got some new freckles on my face lol. I stayed in a hostel that I shared with two boys from California. One of them had quit his job and been traveling Europe for the past 3 months and the other was his friend visiting him. They were interesting characters, but fun to talk to and keep me company. 

The next day I headed to Monterrosso al Mare. This is actually the last of the five towns, as I skipped Manarola, Corniglia, and Vernazza in between. But Monterrosso is the only town that had a decent sized beach so I was naturally drawn to it! I spent two days just laying in the sun, reading, and eating Caprese salads (fresh tomatoes, mozzerella, and basil). Who'd of thunk, I hate tomatoes at home but for some reason I like them in Italy. It's a good thing because it's used in everything here!

It was great being in Cinque Terre, but I was glad to get back to Verona. It really has become my home away from home, and I find comfort in returning after each of my trips. 

Next this upcoming week Mom and Lanie are coming to visit and we will travel down to Rome, the Amalfie Coast, Naples, and Pompeii. I can't wait as I've yet to make my way to Southern Italy. Should have some good stories coming up!

Ciao for now!

Dad and Alex Arrive!

After my wonderful weekend in Ireland, Dad and Alex arrived to spend the rest of the week with me. They go in on Tuesday and headed out Saturday with a trip to Lake Garda, Florence, and Venice in between.

At about 7:30 on Tuesday I headed to the train station to pick them up and we wasted no time. We dropped their bags off at their hotel and headed out to explore Verona. By noon I had showed them Juliet's Balcony, the Arena, Teatro Romano, Piazza Erbe, Piazza Bra, and Castle Vecchio. They were worn out after spending the last couple of days in Scotland, England, and France, so we had some lunch, I showed them my school and they went back to the hotel to rest. After class we decided to have pizza at the restaurant connected to their hotel and call it an early night.

The next morning after Art History class, I took them to Malcesine (a town on Lake Garda). It was a 2 hour bus trip either way, but we thought it'd be worth it since there was a lift we could take up into the mountains that would give us a 360 degree view of the lake. Lucky us we made it all the way there to find out the lift was closed for maintenance and the big castle in town was only open on the weekends. We made the most of it though and wandered through the cute medieval town, taking pictures of the lake and the alps. When we got back, I showed them my lovely apartment and we met a handful of the people from my program for dinner. We went to this great place that is an old church turned into a restaurant. Dad and Alex finally got to meet Kate, Jamie, the Annies, and my friend Dani. We had a great time, laughing and telling stories of our crazy adventures thus far. Luckily afterwards we realized the Annies and Dani could walk the boys back to their hotel because they lived in the same area, but I'm pretty sure they could have found their way back on their own. Verona is pretty easy to find your way around even after you are there only a day or two.

The next day we headed to Florence on a very early train. We arrived about 9 and decided to have a quick breakfast before we walked around. We made the mistake of sitting down to order our cappuccinos and ended up paying 5 euros for each of them. What made it worse was the guy was very rude to us and told us the prices were on the menu at our table (very hidden under numerous things). It was easier for dad and Alex to shrug it off than it was for me and they were the ones paying. But that is the second time I've been ripped off in Florence and was angry. It didn't spoil the day though as we made our way up to Michelangelo's piazza, to San Croce cathedral, the Duomo, and of course to the leather markets. After a long day we headed back home for another nice dinner and early to bed.

Friday we went to Venice for all of about 3 hours! They were both very tired at this point, but I insisted on them seeing Venice since they were so close. We walked through the wonderful maze of houses, sat for a bit in St. Marco's Square, and then hit up the street vendors for some excellent blown glass souvenirs. We headed back early in the day so the boys could do some shopping in Verona, and so they could try an apertivo. Apertivi are before dinner drinks, usually a spritz, that the Italians are very fond of. We sat in Piazza Erbe for a bit, walked around, and then had a nice dinner of lasagna. They had to catch a flight very early the next morning so we had to say our goodbyes that evening. I had such a wonderful time with them as they are very easy-going travelers. It was so good to see my boys and I already miss them like crazy, but luckily Mom and Aunt Lanie are come to visit in under a week. Not long after that Kate and a few girls from home will be visiting and then I come home. Time is flying by!

Ciao for now!

St. Patty's Weekend Festival

It seemed only right to send St. Patty's Day weekend in Dublin, so that's what Kate, the Annie's and 3 of my other good friends did! It was a wonderful weekend. Ireland was beautiful, even though we didn't travel outside of Dublin. We had planned to make our way to Galway on Friday of that weekend, but it was rainy and we'd been told not to make the 3 hour train ride if it was rainy. Galway is supposed to be beautiful, but it is mostly known for it's gorgeous country-side. We would have been walking around in the rain, so I think I am going to have to make my way back to Ireland hopefully in the near future and see Galway and more of the Irish country-side.

All we did all weekend was eat delicious food and meet nice people. We got to Dublin about noon on Thursday and found a pub that served us delicious Guinness Beef Stew so we sat, ate, and sat some more laughing and unable to move because we were so full. Guinness seemed to be the theme of the weekend as we ate Guinness Stew, visited the Guinness Factory, and of course had a pint or two of Guinness. Can't really call yourself Irish if you don't have a pint of Guinness watching the Ireland vs. Scotland rugby match at a pub ;)

We visited the very touristy Temple Bar area like Rick Steve's told us to, but found it to be full of Americans. Believe it or not we did not come all the way to Ireland just to meet more Americans, so we asked the nice waiter what other pub he would suggest for us. He told us that all of the college age crowd was heading to Quinn's that night, so we made the half hour walk there. It was a big bar that was near empty when we got there, but by midnight it was so packed we could barely move. The Irish boys are true to their stereotype...cute with their accents and pretty blue eyes, but always ready for a fight!! I think we witnessed 3 big fights in a matter of about a half hour. The best on was when a boy was asked to leave the bar. He of course could not just walk out without saying a few words to the bouncer, and in no time was fighting off 3 huge men. The bartender joined in on the action and leapt over the counter to help throw the boy out. All in all, he was no match for the bouncers and he was practically carried out of the bar.

On Saturday, we found a great place that served a great Irish breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, hashbrowns etc. I have to mention all the delicious food we had because I haven't had a proper breakfast in months! We were all so excited, we made a plan right away that we would go back the next morning. Don't get me wrong, Italian breakfast is great....delicious croissant and cappuccino, but it felt so like home to be having proper breakfasts and stew and mashed potatoes for dinner!!!! Enough about the food. After breakfast we headed to Kilmainham Gaol. It is the second largest unoccupied jail in Europe, and was used during the Irish Rebellions. It was a really cool tour, somewhat sad, but still really cool. Our tour guide said it is used a lot for movies and the TV show the Tutors films all of it's beheadings and hangings at Kilmainham.

Afterwards we had a tour of the Guinness Storehouse/Factory. It was a self guided tour through 7/8 floors of how Guinness is made, the 200 year celebration, and all the advertising campaigns done for it. The whole storehouse is shaped like a pint glass, so when you reach the very top you are supposed to be at the top of the pint. It is one of the best views of Dublin from up there since it is glass all the way around. It was great, you get to relax and enjoy the view of Dublin while drinking a free pint of Guinness. 

We headed back to a pub near our hotel to watch the rugby match in which Ireland beat Scotland. It was so fun to watch even though I really don't understand it. My flatmate Jamie is going to try to explain it to me better. But the best part was after Ireland won, the pub played all these great Irish songs while the whole pub sang along. Everyone we met was so nice and we could have listened to them talk forever (my absolute favorite accents)! Ireland is definitely a place I will come back to in the future!

Ciao for now!

Chocolate Festivals and BBQ

This weekend I ended up staying in Verona again. It was the most perfect weather, mid-upper 50s and sunshine....it couldn't have been more lovely. My favorite part of the weekend was the Chocolate Festival that went on from Thursday-Sunday. In the main Piazza of town, there were 50 booths set up of all different chocolate makers. Some made chocolate pastries, some had truffels and fruit covered in chocolate. There was a cute one that had chocolate formed to look like cheese wheels and little chocolate mice on them. Another one of my favorites was a man making big sculptures out of chocolate. Needless to say it was wonderful, and I had my fill of delicious chocolate for awhile!

My friend Dana and I went exploring yesterday around the area where we live. It was wonderful to just walk around and find new places. We were so inspired by the weather that we decided to have a BBQ for dinner last night! We made fresh corn salsa and hot dogs. The choices were a little limited on what we could buy for a BBQ, but it was delicious all the same. 

This week I have class until Wednesday and then Thursday morning we are leaving for Ireland! I'm really excited about the trip, and even more excited that when I get back, only have a day until I get to see my daddy and Alex! I'm so excited!!!!

Ciao for now!

New photos and NEW ROOMMATE!!!

I finally got around to posting all the pictures from the past month, so there are new pictures up from Venice, Florence again, Barcelona, and Lake Garda...just click on the link for the gmail albums called "first pictures of Verona". Enjoy!

So this past weekend Kate and I had a weekend of rest and relxation in Verona. The weather was beautiful so we just lounged in the sun, read books, and cooked great food. I read and finished both "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham and "Northern Lights" by Nora Roberts. Both really good if you have some free time. Playing for Pizza actually takes place in Italy so it was cool to have him talk about places I've already been!
The only bad part of the weekend is when we ventured out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town. It was delicious and Kate and I both got the nachos, but later on around 3 in the morning we both got food poisoning! That'll teach us for eating mexican in Italy!

So I woke up today to our crazy land lady barging into our apartment to tell us we're getting a roommate. We had no other notice and he actually moved in today. Yes I said he. His name is Jamie Priestley and he is studying abroad at the University in Verona. He's 22, from London, and goes to the University in Edinbourgh, Scotland. He's really nice and easy to get along with so I think he will be fun to have as a roommate. I will keep you updated on how it goes!

Ciao for now!

Barcelona

Well as I mentioned in my last note....my weekends start at noon on Wednesdays, so this past Wednesday I headed to Spain after class! It still amazes me that I can just hop on a plane for an hour and I am in another country. It's going to take some getting used to. So Kate and I made our way to Barcelona to visit my roommate from home (Ariana) and her boyfriend who are both studying there. Our plane got in at about 8:30 Wednesday night and we just crashed for the night since we were tired from traveling. The next day we met up with Ariana to do some walking and site-seeing. 

Barcelona is a huge huge city compared to Verona so it took some getting used to. I think that the difference in size of Champaign and Chicago would be a safe comparison. The weather was gorgeous the entire time we were there. Very much like spring when you can wear a cardigan and jeans out and the sun is shining all the time :) We stopped for lunch and Ariana and I split Patatas Bravas which are kind of similar to large hashbrowns in a spicy mayo sauce, and Paella. It was delicious and just the first of the amazing Spanish cuisine I would have that weekend. We walked around the entire rest of the afternoon and made our way to the beach. They have gorgeous beaches in Barcelona that sit right on the Mediterranean, so we went to bask in the sun for a little bit and relax. While we were sitting there we noticed a nudist woman doing yoga and some other work out on the beach!!! It was definitely the first time I'd seen anything like that, and the image of her doing yoga poses in the sand in probably going to be permanently burned in my brain lol. 

The weekend was wonderful overall. The weather stayed very nice the whole time and it was so great seeing someone I know and love so much from home. We spent a lot more time site-seeing and we made our way to Parc Guell and La Segrada Familia....2 of Gaudi's famous artworks in Barcelona. You should really look them up if you get the chance, I've never seen anything like it and pictures barely do it justice. We also did more authentic food tasting and I found the Croquettas to be my favorite tapas. 

One of Tedd's roommates is in culinary school in Spain right now and we were fortunate enough to have him cook for us the last night we were there. He went to the market first thing in the morning and got us fresh tuna and salmon to make us sushi and it was amazing!!! Besides it tasting amazing, it was plated so beautiful that I didn't want to touch it. He is going to be a great chef someday!

Spain's culture is so different from Italy or the US. They wake up early, eat late lunches, take siesta naps at 7-9pm, eat dinner at 10, and go out dancing from 2-7am! It is something my body is not used to and I barely slept the entire weekend I was there. Needless to say I am still trying to recover from no sleep, but it was fun and worth the experience. I think my favorite place we went was a night club called Sutton (not the english pronunciation, it's French) where they had a kind of mock Studio 54 set up with cool costumed dancers on stage. I think next time we go we are going to venture out to the clubs along the beach. They are supposed to be fantastic, but they are kind of far away.

I am fortunate enough to be spending one of my spring breaks in Barcelona, so I will be back in a few weeks to soak up some major sun and see more of the city. It is very big and kind of overwhelming city at times. Especially since I had to forget all the Spanish I learned in high school because it confused me when learning Italian. One the other hand it was nice to be in a place that kind of reminded me of home. I am very excited to go back!

Ciao for now!

New classes=weekends start on Wednesday at noon!

I've started my new classes and I absolutely love them!! Mondays are a little long because I have Theater in the morning and Italian in the afternoon. I think that Theater is going to be my most challenging class, but I do still enjoy it. We are learning about Greek and Roman theater and we get to watch different plays. A lot of the class is in Italian though, so it is very difficult. We are not allowed to just say single vocab words as answers either, Georgia makes us try to put together full sentences before she will answer us. It is great practice, but it is very frustrating and it is the only class I have where I find myself looking at the clock at all. 

Italian 2 is with Maurizio again and I'm thrilled. All the girls that were in Italian 1 with me are also in 2, along with about 5 or 6 other girls. It is a strictly conversational class, so it is more frustration, but Maurizio is patient with us and we laugh a lot!!

On Tuesdays I don't have photography class until 2pm so I get to sleep in! My teacher's name is Mauro Fiorese and he's actually a famous photographer. You can google him and find his website, and it's actually very impressive. The first day or two we watched videos and learned about the history of photography, but now we are learning new picture taking techniques on our digital cameras. He always teaches us a new technique then we go out in town and try them out. It's always super interesting and he is a really laid back teacher so it's nice. 

My last class is Wednesday morning and it's Art History. It is by far the most fascinating class I am taking! We are learning so much from roman mythology to history of ancient Rome. Our teacher Andrea is the cutest little guy. He has his nose pierced and I've noticed he is a little nervous when teaching and says "Va bene" a lot which means ok or it's good. This class only goes until 12 pr 12:30, so after that I am done for the week! It is so nice to be able to relax for the rest of the weekend or travel somewhere for a long weekend. The other nice thing is that we don't really get homework for any of our classes. This is the way it should be in America.....it's so not stressful and I think it is conducive to great artistic abilities!!!

Ciao for now!

Carnevale!!!

So as you may know.....it's time for Mardi Gras!!! In Italy, and I think pretty much everywhere else in Europe they call it Carnevale (which means without meat). Venice has a two week celebration for Carnevale that consists of wearing beautiful or exotic masks, and dancing at concerts in St. Mark's square. I think it would be correct to say it is like a mix of Halloween and Fourth of July, because it's a time that everyone can dress up and look silly and because of the celebration of a countries traditions. Also because of the fireworks lol. We most of the people on my group, myself included, went to Carnevale the first weekend it started. This also happened to be Valentine's Day. I don't think it get more cliche than to be in Venice, the most romantic city in Italy, on Valentine's Day. To make it even worse, I took a gondola ride! It wasn't a romantic one though....it was with 3 of my girlfriends and it was more of a wonderful insider's tour of the city. It was not very expensive since there were 4 of us to split the cost, and our gondolier was great! He told us he had been doing this for 35 years and that his family had been gondoliers for 3 generations before him. He gave us a great little history lesson as we went through the city, and I can honestly say I have yet to enjoy something more! If you make it to Venice, take a gondola ride.....just make sure you find one that speaks a little English and is away from the main touristy areas. Usually he won't try to scam you then and you will get a free history lesson :)

I loved Venice even though it was so crowded for Carnevale. It kind of reminded me of a labyrinth. As soon as you get out of the train station you are practically on the water. We decided to walk instead of take the water taxi, and I'm glad we did! As you cross the bridge and head into the city, you wind through beautiful apartments and pass through one small piazza after another. There are signs with arrows directing you to St. Mark's Square the whole way. It seems like you are never going to make it there, and then it opens up into a huge square with St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. Even though it was really crowded for the celebration, we managed to walk through St. Mark's Basilica. It was the most incredibly artwork I've seen inside a church thus far. I've heard the Doge's Palace is incredible too, but we didn't make it inside this trip. Since Venice is only an hour and a half train ride away, I will be visiting there again

Firenze Part Due

So I am very fortunate to only be a about 2 hours away from the beautiful region of Toscane (Tuscany) and I have been able to visit Florence twice now. It is a beautiful city, really. When I say you should visit it at some point in your life, I am not exaggerating! It has more of a big city feel than Verona does, but it is just as picturesque. I still have not visited all of the wonderful historical sites there are to visit there, but then again I am going 2 more times while I'm here. 

This last visit was even better than the first, mostly because of the weather. It was probably about 60 degrees and mostly sunny....perfect for exploring the city. We ventured towards the famous bridge "Ponte Vecchio" which literally means old bridge. Our main adventure for the day was making it up to Michelangelo's Piazza. It is about a 20 minute hike from the Uffizi Art Gallery,  but totally worth it! The walk itself is beautiful, but when you get to the top you have a breathtaking view of the entire city. The piazza is well known and there are a lot of tourists, but you can still get lost in the incredible scenery as if there was no one there but you. In the center of the piazza is a replica statue of the David, and if you are standing with your back to him, you have a perfect view of the Duomo and many other famous landmarks. To his left, there is beautiful green farm land on the hillside, which was actually my favorite part to look at. To his right was more gorgeous Tuscan countryside with villas dotting the mountains. I think that if you can visit nothing else in Florence, just being at the top of this hill and taking in the beauty of the city on a sunny day would be enough to satisfy!

I feel like the best way to find things are to just wander in a city and get lost. It's amazing what you can find! We did this all day Saturday and ended up in a Monastery that has a hidden leather school. Of course it was all much to expensive to buy, but it was a really cool place to stumble upon. It wouldn't be a trip to Florence without haggling with the vendors in the street markets, so we spent a good part of our day arguing prices. I've gotten to be very good at it and I think I'll be really sad when I get back to the US and can't knock off a couple dollars from prices. I don't think cashiers would care if I said, "That's too expensive, I'm not paying that much". I'm pretty sure they'd just let me walk away empty handed and think I was crazy :)

We also stumbled on a Mexican restaurant called Tijuana that was really good! The Italian cuisine has been incredible so far, but sometimes you just crave a pile of nachos instead of pasta and in this case it hit the spot!

That's all for Florence for now. I'm sure I will have more when I visit again :)

Ciao for now!

Palaces and Witch Doctors

My blog is much in need of an update!!! I apologize that I haven't been keeping this up-to-date but I have been a busy traveler! In the past 3 weekends I have been to Montova, Montanagna, and Florence! Montova was a group trip where we visited 2 palaces names Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale (the 3rd biggest in Europe). Mantanagna is a little town that is completely surrounded by walls. We shopped a little in the antique street markets and then headed to this place called Castle Belivacqua. It was a beautiful castle where we got to write in calligraphy and shoot archery. I could bore you with tons information about the art history of these places, but I'll be nice. This is going to be a long post anyway. If you'd like hear more about the palaces or castles just ask me!

So I've been having some problems with my knees and the walking, and I figured it was time to get them checked out. Me and my roomie Kate went to this doctor who is an Osteoparta. Basically I thought of him as some sort of witch doctor lol. I'm only joking, he has a legitement practice, it was just really different. He told us (in very broken English) that doctors in the US only look at patients bones to figure out what is wrong with them if they complain of aches and pains. In Europe, they look at the organs and how they affect the rest of the body. For instance, Kate told him she was having neck and back pains. He had her lay on a table like at the chiropractor, walked from where her head was to her feet, and in that short time he located the problem to be in her colon. The cramping in her colon was causing her right side to be a little more hunched and therefore causing the neck and back problems. She had not told him that she is constantly having stomach and colon problems. It was crazy how he knew that from just looking at her. It was crazy how he knew that just from walking the length of the table! He figured out that the problems with my knee was that I had no rotation on the inside of my right knee and that was causing a lot of pain on the outside of my knee. He used now medicine, he just simple stretched, prodded, and popped bones back into place. I felt so relaxed afterwards and the pain in my knee was gone! I still get a little bit of aching when I walk around for 2 days straight, but that's nothing a little ibuprofen and Dr. Scholl's can't fix!

Now on to Florence.......a truly amazing city!

It was a much bigger and more touristy place, but it was incredibly beautiful. Florence is located in Toscane (Tuscany) so the train rides were gorgeous as well. It was so picturesque with the little towns way up in the mountains. The city itself is a wealth of history and art, and shopping of course. It has some of the best and cheapest leather goods offered as well. They have these open-air markets in the middle of the city with tons of purses, wallets, belts, scarves, and much much more. I spent the weekend haggling with vendors to bring the prices down on my purchases, and I must say that I was rather good at it. I ended up saving 20 euros just by being stubborn with the vendors about prices....it was so fun! 

The girls I traveled with are fun, and our hostel was very clean and well located!The only part that disappointed me about the trip was that the girls I went with had already seen all of the historical points and didn't want to pay to see them again. The one historical place I did spend quite a bit of time at was the Duomo, which is a huge cathedral that we could see from our hostel window! The good news is that I am going back to Florence this upcoming weekend to hit all of the historic sites, because I can't come to Italy and not see the Statue of David....that just seems wrong!!! I will have more pictures after this next weekend's trip. I love how I can just hop on a train for 2 hours and end up in Florence. It's a place that I would definitely put on my "Bucket List".

Classes are going smoothly. I started my theater class this past Monday. I have this adorably little teacher named Georgia who has blond curly crazy hair and wears hot pink Armani glasses! It should be fun. We went all over Verona to the different theaters, and picked up brochures at all of them because we are required to see about 2 or 3 plays while we're here. I am definitely fine with that! There are only 4 students in that class so it's a lot like my Italian 1 class. Each Monday we will learn about the history of Italian theater for about an hour, then watch a film, then talk about modern theater, and practice Italian. It should be interesting to say the least. 

I am still loving my Italian 1 class with Maurizio, our adorable gay teacher :) He is very proper and his Italian is the most perfect sounding Italian ever. He still laughs at me most of the time I try to put together sentences. His favorite thing to say to our class when we attempt speaking is "Forse No" which means "maybe not or I think not!" It's become our classes little inside joke. We also have another little joke which is from one of my speaking mistakes. We were playing a board game in class that was to practice the verbs and verb tenses. My verb that I had to make a sentence out of was "chiudere" which means to close. The past tense of this verb is "chuiso" and "i vestidi" means dresses. Well I always forget what this verb meant, and the past tense makes it look like it means to choose, so I put together a sentence "Abbiamo chuiso i vestidi" which I didn't realize meant "All of you close your dresses"!!!!!!!!! When I finished my sentence my teacher looked at me in shock, as the rest of my class died laughing of course. We all get a good kick out of it now. Anytime someone gets chiudere for verb conjugation, they finish it up with i vestidi. Needless to say, no one in our class will never forget what that verbs means! 

I hope we get to have Maurizio as our teacher for Italian 2 as well. He is a very good teacher and we all love having class with him. Even though I say he laughs at me a lot because I am horrible at putting together sentences, it's not in a way that makes me feel put down or unwilling to try again. I think he honestly laughs more at my face animation as a try so earnestly to speak the beautiful language. 

I've made some very close friends on this trip already. There are two girls in particular that I absolutely love. They are from the South Side of Chicago, and extremely Irish. We have very very similar personalities and get along so well. The funniest part is that we all have almost the exact same names. One is Anne Marie Coghlan, and the other is Anne Marie Ragen! How funny is it that the two girls that I love hanging out with the most share almost my identical first and middle names! I am traveling with them to Florence this weekend along with some others. The trip I'm looking forward to the most is with them as well. In March, the week before St. Patrick's day, me and the Annie's are spending a 4 day weekend in Ireland!!! I can tell these girls will be ones that I will be friends with long after the trip is over!

I will try to do my best at keeping this updated more often!

Love America!!!

Ciao for now :)

New Pictures

P.S. I added a few new pictures to the end of the Verona album.

Almost a Week!

I can't believe I've been here only a week tomorrow. It seems like I have been here for months already! Time passes by so slowly each day. I don't know how to describe it, but it definitely isn't a bad thing. Normally at home if I were to wake up early, the day would feel long, but not like this. Each day I wake up around 7 or 7:30, go to school for about 4 hours, eat lunch, take a nap, get together with friends from our group for the night, and go to bed about 1. I think the reason every day goes by so slowly, is because we're not in a rush for anything. We don't have any obligations after class is over at 1, and it's wonderful. The best part of Italy is that naps are an essential part of the day for everyone! Back at home, if I took a nap, I always felt like I was wasting a big portion of the day. Here, naps are part of the culture. Shops close from 1-3:30 so people can go home and enjoy lunch with their families and then take a nap to rejuvenate before they head back to work for the evening. It is the same for students, and it's definitely a way of life that I'm really going to enjoy for the next 4 months!!! 

I'm am enjoying my class soooo much so far. We are not allowed to speak in English the whole time unless we say '"Come si dice...."whatever English word we need to know".....in Italiano."' That simply means how do you say something in Italian. Other than that, there is no English spoken in our classroom by teacher or student. We have a blast though learning how to say things that are relevant to our every day life here. I don't think I've laughed in a classroom this much ever. I have been asking how to say almost every word, because I am set on learning how to really speak the language. I had my class and my teacher all laughing the other day as I attempted to put together the sentence I wanted to say. I am slowly getting better though, and today I was able to ask almost all of my questions in Italian without needing my teacher's help. I have a long way to go, but after only 5 days of this kind of learning, I am already improving my Italian immensely!

This weekend we have trips planned on Saturday to Montova and Sunday to Soave. In Montova I think we are visiting an old Castle, having lunch there, and then doing some discount shopping! I'm in search of the perfect (yet inexpensive) pair of leather boots and a wallet, so I'm hoping to get an idea this weekend of what the prices are. Soave is a city known for it's white wine. We are also going to a castle there and doing archery after lunch (strange, but should be fun). I think Soave has the most popular white wines all over the world, so you can by it at home if you are curious. 

I am planning to take lots of pictures, and will hopefully have a lot more to talk about on here after this weekend. I'm hoping the weather holds out for us because it is supposed to rain on Sunday. Either way I am excited to see these places and let you know all about them!

Ciao for now!

I'm an old Woman

My advice to anyone traveling in a city with cobblestone streets is to get amazing walking shoes. I walk 45 mins to class every day, walk around all day, and then walk 45 mins back home. My knees feel like they are broken after two days of this type of walking! 

Alright enough complaining......I'm in Italy!!!! Everyday on our walk to school me and my girlfriends have to remind ourselves that we are really in Italy because it seems so surreal to actually be living here. I am truly loving it so far. Beautiful scenery, beautiful people, beautiful language.......bellissimi!!!! The food is incredible, especially the fresh produce. We have a little market right across the street from us that sells fresh fruit and veggies everyday. Yesterday we bought 2 apples, 3 bananas, 1 pineapple, 5 clementines, 1 clove of garlic, 1 zucchini, 3 lbs. of tomatoes, 1 onion, 8 mushrooms, and a bag of peanuts for only 6 euros!!!!! We also bought a loaf of fresh bread, some home-made tortellini, and a brick of fresh cheese for about 5 euros. We made some awesome tortellini with stewed vegetables (our version of ratatouille) and is was delicious for 4 of us girls. Delicious food on a budget...picnic meals are saving us a lot of money so far! 

We went shopping today in the Piazza Bra'. It's the center of Verona, and pretty close to our school, so we just stayed after classes and walked along all the side streets. We ended up finding a really cute cafe' that we stopped at midday for a croissant and espresso. Then we went on a shopping adventure to find the cheapest leather boots. Everyone has them here!!

Class was better today. I have a new teacher and the higher level italian students got moved to a different class. I feel more comfortable now that I can ask questions about what the teacher is saying and he explains it to me much more thoroughly. We are in class for about 3 and a half hours in the morning but it flies by. There are only 5 of us in my class and we basically are just sitting around the table with the teacher, attempting to speak in italian, and laughing. It's how school should be!!!!

Well it's about 1 am here and I have to wake up at 7:30 again, so I need to go to bed. 

Ciao for now!

Getting Settled

Ciao!

Today is my second full day in Verona, and I've finally found some time to sit down and write about my trip thus far. Italy is so beautiful, which I'm sure is not a surprise at all. It was a bit of an adventure getting over here. Our flight just barely made it out of O'Hare before it was canceled due to snow. I sat next to a woman who only spoke German, so I felt bad getting up from my seat much to go to the bathroom or anything like that because she didn't understand a word I was saying. Every time I said something to her she just gave me a smile (that was missing a couple of teeth) and nodded her head--even if it wasn't a yes or  no question. I think I caught myself with my head nearly on her should a couple times through the night...I'm kind of hoping she didn't notice! The plane ride was smooth for the most part, except for about 4 am when we were directly over the center of the Atlantic Ocean. I was sleeping up until then when the plane hit some horrible turbulence. Now I've felt turbulence before, but this was worse than any I ever felt. I was sure the plane was going down right in the middle of the ocean. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep after that, but we obviously made it safely.

When we arrived in Munich we were already supposed to be boarding our connecting flight. If we hadn't had a guide waiting for our group, we would have never found our way. We all had to check through security again so they had to hold the plane almost a half hour for us. I, of course, practically got strip searched! The metal on my boots kept making the detector go off..so I held up the line a little. No wonder Europeans aren't very fond of us...they must have thought I was an idiot. When we finally got all 24 of us through and were taking out to this tiny jet that was going to take us to Italy. Other than the plane being a little small...it was a beautiful plane ride. We were directly over the Alps almost the entire flight. I don't think I've ever seen anything so amazing. 

We were all so excited to finally be in Italy when we landed. That soon wore off when we realized half of our luggage was left in Munich because it couldn't fit on our little plane. One of those suitcases was mine and it just happened to be the one with all of my clothing! Luckily it was delivered to us yesterday morning, so I had packed just enough in  my carry on to last me. I also had my other suitcase with toiletries and bedding, so it wasn't unbearable. 

Our apartment is interesting. If you've ever been to a hostel, that's kind of the feel ours has. It is surprisingly big with two bedrooms, one and a half baths, a nice size dining room, and a tiny kitchen. Overall, it's not too bad. I live with my friend Kate, so we are trying to get used to it. We hated it the first night, but it's starting to grow on us and we are getting a washer installed soon so that will help. The other drawback of our apartment is that it is the furthest one outside the city. We walked almost an hour, one way, to school today. The weather is about 40-45 degrees, sunny, and mild here so the walk is actually really nice. Plus it is a beautiful view all the way. It's just taking some getting used to, especially since almost everyone lives on the completely other side of the city.

We started our first day of classes today. We will only be taking Italian for the first 2 weeks of class. I am in second level language from 9:30-1:30 Monday-Friday. Our teacher didn't speak any English today, so it was a little more difficult than I was hoping. I was doing better by the end of class though, and I think I will be learning a lot! After our first 2 weeks, I will be taking History of Italian Theater on Monday mornings, Photography on Tuesday mornings, Art History Wednesday mornings, and Business Thursday mornings. I only have Business class about every other Thursday, but when I do will always be done by 1 pm, so I will be able to travel a lot more! I think I've decided to spend my whole 10 days of spring break in Ireland, and make it over to England and Scotland too. I plan on using most of my weekends to make short trips to Florence, Cinque Terre, The Amalfie Coast, Capri, Spain, and other places through Italy.  It will be fun to stay and explore Verona more too! 

The food has been incredible so far. It's hard getting used to eating so late at night, because Italians usually sit down for a big dinner around 8 or 9 pm. We'll get used to it. Kate and I are cooking tonight. We went and got some fresh pasta on our walk home from school today, and we have a fresh fruit and vegetable stand right outside our front door. It makes for an easy breakfast! I will be taking a cooking class next week, so I will know how to make sauces from scratch and I can't wait. 

Overall, my first couple of days here have been incredible! I'm a little jet-lagged, but other than that I have no complaints. I will try to keep this updated more often so the posts won't be a million pages long. 

Ciao Ciao!