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!