Vita en Italia

Every day is an adventure...

2012-02-28T05:03:00.002-08:00

Most of the time, I feel like everything I do here in an adventure, in a good way. Even walking to class is an experience some days hahah. But anyway, I've had some crazy, fun, interesting adventures lately...

The Laptop Adventure

Last Sunday, the 19th, my laptop decided to just stop working. It was working great all day the day before, but it changed it's mind on Sunday. I pretty much figured out that the hard drive had crashed. Such a great feeling seeing as I hadn't backed anything up since I had gotten out here. Somehow, I managed to get the hard drive to come back to life long enough for me to back up all my pictures from my time in Italy so far. I think if I hadn't I would have cried a lot more then I actually did. After trying basically everything I could find on the internet, I decided to take it in to a store about 30 minutes away by foot. I could get there by bus but I hadn't taken a bus yet and didn't want to try it alone.

So Monday after class I set off for the store. Naturally, I got lost on the way there. I even had directions written down and everything. But the best part of how much I walk around is that I actually knew where I was when I got lost! I found myself on a bus station map, found where I needed to be, and made myself a new route to get the store. Thankfully, the guy who helped me at the store spoke a lot of English. I explained the problem, he quoted me a time and price, I handed over my laptop, and he sent it off to get fixed. I could come back in a week to pick it up. A week, a full 7 days without my laptop. Not going to be fun. Thankfully my roommates were being awesome and let me use theirs when they weren't. We also found a deck of cards so I got really good at solitaire.

Fast forward to Wednesday and I check my phone on break from class. There's a text from the store in all Italian. Google Translate had no idea what it said (side note: Google Translate is great for homework and vocab, not so great for technology things). The only thing I could think to do was ask my professor to translate it for me. Thankfully, she was more then willing to help me out. I may or may not have looked a little desperate. As she translated it I got more and more excited; the text told me my laptop was fixed and in the store for pick up!!!!! 2 days early and 200 euros cheaper then they quoted me. After class, I ran home then basically ran the 3 miles to the store to pick up my laptop. The guy that helped me the first time wasn't there and no one there spoke enough English to tell me what was wrong with it originally but when I got it back everything, and I mean everything, was still on it! I got extremely lost on the way home because I decided to take a new way home. I knew where I was, just not how to get home from that area, oops. I did find a juice bar/ smoothie place though! The nice thing about Firenze is that Il Duomo is visible from basically everywhere and most streets will take you there somehow. So when I did get lost I just looked for Il Duomo and got myself home from there.

The Photo Adventure

I am taking a photo class called Landscape and Architecture. We had a field trip scheduled for the week before; however, it was so cold and crappy out that we didn't go. Instead we went last Wednesday. We took a public bus to this park about 15 minutes outside of the city called Cascine Park. This was my first time on a Firenze public bus. You have to buy your tickets from these stores called tabaccaris. When you get on the bus you have to validate it in this little machine. If you don't and the bus police catch you, there is a huge fine you have to pay. We saw about 4 people get caught on the way there because our bus was randomly chosen to have the bus police be on it. Anyway, we got to Cascine and it was beautiful. It was a perfect sunny day. There's a lot of green space, trees, and the Arno runs on one edge of it.

After we finished shooting, we all just laid in the grass by the Arno and relaxed in the sun. There are 8 girls in the class and our professor walked down to find us all laid out napping during class. We can't really understand what he says when he talks so we just hoped he was okay with it. I really want to go back to this park soon!

Pisa Adventure

Pisa, home of the Leaning Tower. Kait, my roommate, and I decided we wanted to go to spend half a day in Pisa to see the tower. So Friday afternoon, she, I, and her boyfriend Tim set off for the train station. It takes about 5 minutes to walk to the train from our apartment. We left about 20 minutes before our train, to give us time to buy tickets, validate them (like the bus), and find our train. Buying the tickets got interesting because my card doesn't work with the train company. So that set us back a bit. Thankfully Tim's card worked. Then we had to find our train. At this point we had about 3 minutes until our train left. Thankfully some train official saw the three Americans looking at the board beyond confused and helped us out. He told us the track number, pointed at the yellow box to validate our tickets, then told us to hurry! We validated and then took off running to the other side of the station. We just made it to our train!

As we were going we could see the Alps!

Once we got there we decided to walk to the Tower, not knowing how far it was or that there was a bus to get there. We just followed the brown signs there. It took us about 30 minutes but we walked with these 3 girls who are studying in Germany for a full year and on break right now. They are backpacking around for 2 months! It was cool to hear about what they've been up too. Then we found it. And took the required pictures.

And then we left hahah. We were going to go to Lucca, another small town near by, but were too tired to. So we hopped a train home where I got dinner with Hannah before going out with her for the night.

Bologna Adventure

On Sunday, Hannah and I went to Bologna. She had a class visit there that she was going to miss so we went this weekend instead. We bought tickets a few days beforehand so all we had to do was find our train. Of course, we were running late so we had to speed walk from my apartment and then run in the train station to get to our train. We just made it, again. I took a lovely nap on the train through snow as Bologna is farther north then Firenze. Once we got there we were a little lost as we had no idea where this museum she needed to see was. We ended up just walking some direction and asking for directions. Thankfully we had gone in the right directions and found it pretty easily. It was an interesting museum. It was only for one person, a permanent collection of this guy's art. It was kind of cool though. We ended up talking about photo most of the time while we were in there hahah.

We decided we wanted to have a really good lunch while in Bologna because they are known for their bolognese sauce. We wandered around for bit looking at menus and prices before finding this place that had an outdoor seating and was super busy. We figured that meant it was good, and it was! We ordered tortalini with bolognese sauce, eggplant with mozzarella cheese and tomato, and wine. We each had a different local wine to try them out. As usual with me and Hannah, we split our dishes. Both were super good! And so was the wine! It was great to finally eat out in Italy. They eat very slowly and relax through their meals so it was perfect for us. We just sat there and talked and enjoyed our wine and food. After we wanted to walk around for a while but the weather was starting to turn. There was about 6 hours until our train home so we decided to change our train home. After a bit of issues because we couldn't get a train back into the original station, we decided to take one to another station and walk home. It was supposedly right by Hannah's house. We went back to this coffee shop we had gone to earlier and got cafe lattes and hung out more.

The train back was a compartment. I felt like I was on the Hogwarts Express. It was so cool. I slept for a bit on the way home. We nearly got off at the wrong stop but we asked the conductor about it thankfully. Once we got off, we had to figure out where we were to get back home. It was near Hannah's place so we made it home quickly. I didn't take my digital camera, so I don't have any pictures from it, but trust me. It was beautiful and awesome there. Not many people speak English there so we really got to practice our Italian. It was great.

It's been back to the school grind since then with midterms in two weeks and going to Paris this weekend! Ciao!

2012-02-24T02:14:00.002-08:00

Oh! And a series of videos have been pretty popular lately are the "S*** _____ Say". Someone made a "Stuff Study Abroad Students Say" and it's almost a little too true. But that's what makes it so funny. It gets quoted almost daily now. Here it is, a little peek in the life of study abroad students...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhMucFYi4Hw

One Month

2012-02-24T01:56:00.002-08:00

Wednesday was the one month mark of me being in Italy. It's hard to believe that it's already been a month. I feel like I just got here! It still seems surreal that I am here too! I have spring break in 3 weeks. Time is flying by here. I miss my family and friends back home but I really do love it here. I wish time wasn't going so fast or that I had more time here. I could spend forever in Europe I decided; there are so many places I want to see or visit and things I want to do or experience. Here's a few of my observations from my first month here...

Things Different in Italy/Europe

the toilets: The flusher is so different. It's not like a push down lever thing but instead like a push button.
the lifestyle: People in Italy are a lot more laid back. They walk slower, eat slower, drink slower. The walking slower can make getting to class interesting if I leave my apartment even 3 minutes late.
the outlets: Some work, some don't. It's a lot of guessing in my apartment.
the store hours: A lot of stores, especially the ones away from City Center (aka tourist area) close for a few hours in the afternoon/evening. This is quite confusing and inconvenient sometimes.
the food: There is no "Italian" restaurant in American that could compare to the food here. Everything, even the super cheap food I buy from the supermarket, tastes better. Also, we found out Italians don't put meat in their pasta or pesto on their pizza (despite the fact that I just made store bought ravioli with homemade meat sauce, aka I took onions and garlic and sautéed them then threw in ground beef I cooked off the other day and added store bought sauce). So chicken parm and spaghetti and meatballs don't actually exist out here.

Things Similar In Italy/Europe

children: All children act exactly the same in every culture. It's too funny. And cute.
shopping: I'm pretty sure shopping is really similar in every culture too, minus the ones that barter a lot. I have noticed all girls shop the same though. Sometimes when I'm walking to class through the City Center, I see Italian girls walking together (I figure they are Italian by them talking in Italy) and gawking at the store windows and talking about the clothes.
girls: We all gang together, shop together, go to the bathroom together, walk down the street similar. It's actually kind of funny how if you couldn't hear the language you might think they were American girls.
traveling on the highway: Going to Switzerland I literally felt like I was just driving on a highway in America. The signs in another language was the only marker that I was in Europe.

Well, that's the general gist I've gotten from Italy in the month I've been here! As I said in my last post, I really start traveling next weekend with Paris. I also might be going to Greece and Morocco now too! As my friend Hannah said last night, "Cheap food, cheap wine, expensive airfare...we're living the life". And truly we are. I'm off to Pisa and Lucca now but I'll be back soon to write more about what's been going on here. Ciao!

2012-02-18T10:28:00.003-08:00

As we've all fallen into a routine with classes and homework, things have kind of settled down here, kind of. After being in Interlaken last weekend, I knew I wanted to take it easy this weekend. One of my roommates was going to Venice for a day for Carinval. One of my friends, Hannah, is going to Rome with her school and our friend who lives in Rome suggested I come to visit Rome this weekend so all three of us could be together. But I turned down both of those to stay home. But it doesn't mean I haven't had a fun weekend already, and it's only Saturday evening.

We decided to have a huge dinner party at our apartment Thursday night. I got home from class just in time for it. Two of my roommates cooked a really great meal of risotto and tortilla pizzas (my apartment doesn't have an oven but we do have a toaster oven so we take tortillas and put pasta sauce and whatever toppings we want on then, pop in the toaster over, and then eat them). There was about 9 people here, so crazy. Hannah came over after she had eaten at her house with her host mom, and then we all went out for the night...

On Friday, Hannah and I had planned to go get breakfast at this American diner called the Diner before going to this town in the countryside called Fiesole in the morning and then going on a photo shoot after. We ended up wandering around Firenze for like an hour unable to find the Diner despite looking up directions before we left. I had to call my roommate to have her find us on Google Maps and then get us to the Diner, which was about 2 blocks from where we were, typical. Seriously, we had never been so happy to find where we were eating. All they serve there is American food: omelets, burgers, milkshakes, cake, everything we could have wanted. We were starving so we contemplated what to order for a while. We ended up each getting a burger and then omelet to split. I have been craving fresh OJ since I've gotten out here so I had one those too, so happy.

When we finally rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and found our way back to my place (when you get lost going somewhere going home is a bit more difficult), we were exhausted. But it was a beautiful day out and we didn't want to waste it. After a quick 30 minute power nap, we headed out for the hour walk to Fiesole. You can take a bus there in like 15 minutes but it was too gorgeous out to walk. Plus Hannah and I love walking. Boy am I glad we ended up walking. It was a beautiful walk up, full of us singing and nearly getting hit by cars that zoomed past us.

Hey Dad, I can finally say restaurant in Italian! (side story: when I was little and we would go to Disney World I could never say the same of a restaurant in MGM Studios because I couldn't say restaurant in Italian right. Now, years later, I finally can).

Fiesole is a town located at the top of a huge hill that over looks the whole city. It's similar to the Piazza Michelangelo I went to last week but on the opposite side of the city. When we made it to the top we were a little under-impressed. The view walking up was so much prettier. We couldn't even figure out why we had walked up, besides to burn off all the calories we had eaten earlier. Back down we went, so much easier.

We were thinking of going to this Mexican restaurant for dinner because we were both seriously craving Mexican but we were both still full from lunch that we decided against it. Since her host mom was gone for the weekend and my roommates were all out, we stopped at a grocery store to get stuff to make guacamole at my apartment. Despite some hard avocados, we made some real good guac before taking naps at 9pm on my couches hahah. I ended up spending the night at her place because my apartment was so cold last night. And since I've been home today, I've cleaned and organized, planned out the last of my travel plans, and done absolutely nothing. I'm meeting up with my friend from high school and her friends later though; it'll be about 9pm before I actually change out of my PJs. Oh well, tomorrow is probably a homework day.

As I mentioned before, travel plans, if you're interested...I think I'm going to Pisa for a day next weekend, then Paris the first weekend in March, Dublin and Barcelona for Spring Break March 16-24, Rome for Easter weekend, then hiking the Alps with my school the weekend after that, a day trip to Cinque Terra the next weekend, and finally Croatia for a weekend before my last weekend in Firenze then coming home. I want to try to find a time to get a trip to Venice in, even if its a day trip. Basically, starting next weekend I'm traveling out of the country every weekend. I've budgeted nearly all of my money to go to traveling rather than eating out all the time. I'm going to all the top places on my list: the Alps to snowboard and hike, Paris, Ireland, Spain, Croatia. I wish I could have found time to get to Greece or Budapest or Berlin, but I'm super lucky that I get to travel as much as I do. Ciao for now, more pictures on my Flickr like always.

Living the Dream

2012-02-14T04:48:00.000-08:00

I couldn't even come up with a title for this post because I seriously think I have the best weekend ever. Words can hardly describe how amazing this weekend was. I spent 2.5 glorious days in the Swiss Alps with some of the coolest people I've ever met.

As I left off in the last post, I booked a trip to Interlaken, Switzerland super last minute, as in 2 days before it left. There are a few travel groups that cater specifically to study abroad students that want to travel. They put together trips that include transportation, housing, and things to do while in the location. It's a pretty nice set up they have. So anyway...Thursday...

I had Italian class in the morning and was talking to my friend about how I was going. The girl sitting next to me overheard me talking about it and told me she was going too! Plus she didn't really know anyone going except a girl she met in another class. Since I only knew one other girl going it was perfect. After class I ran home to quickly pack, kind of. Then went to the first part of my photo class. The trip leaves at 7:30pm and I'm supposed to be in class until 8:30pm. I just left at the break, which my teacher was surprisingly okay with. Maybe it helps that I knew everything he was teaching that day and was helping kids too. I grabbed dinner at home, finished throwing things in the backpack my cousin lent me, and walked to the train station to meet up with the group to leave.

The drive from Firenze to Interlaken is 8 hours. And in Italy there is a driving restriction that bus drivers can't drive for more than 4 hours straight without a 45 minute break. So that makes it about a 9 hour drive. The way there we drive through the night. It was a normal long trip bus, basically a Greyhound bus. I knew that I wanted to get up early to start snowboarding right away so I tried to sleep most of the ride. This would have worked great if the movies our leader, Buck, picked had been conducive to sleeping. American Beauty and Boys in the Hood are not movies that are easy to sleep too, especially when the volume is on full blast right above everyone's seats. Whatever, I slept for a good portion of the ride.

A lot of countries in Europe are part of the Schengen Agreement which is basically an open doors policy creating one external border travel policy but no internal one. It's similar to how in the States, we can freely travel between States but to go in and out of the country you have to go through customs and all that stuff. I didn't really know about this until we drove into Switzerland. I was expecting it to be like when we cross in Canada, but it was literally like driving to Michigan, just roll past a sign that said "Welcome to Switzerland" or that's what I assume it said because it was in Italian or German or French. The highways in Europe are exactly the same as they are in America. If the signs hadn't all been in another language you could have told me I was back home and I would have believed you.

Anyway, I woke up with about 45 minutes left and looked out the window. Such a bad idea. We were driving down the mountain on these switchback turns, which were covered in a layer of snow. Okay so picture this, a huge bus full of kids driving down what was probably one of the Alps on a snow covered road turning back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. I looked out the window and all I saw was guard rail and death. I didn't sleep the rest of the ride. We finally pulled into our hotel, the Hotel Carlton-Europe, around 3am. Buck gave us our keys, told us if we wanted to be out on the mountain early there was a shuttle leaving at 7:30am and was any time before that, and sent us up to our rooms. I didn't request a specific roommate but I ended up rooming with a girl from my cooking class. It was nice to have it not be a total stranger. We had another girl supposed to be in our room but she wasn't there the first night.

I quickly changed into my snowboarding stuff and crashed into bed.

6:45 came super early. But knowing I was going snowboarding on the Alps got me out of bed pretty quick. I had smartly pulled a lot of my stuff together the night before so I just grabbed my stuff and was down for breakfast by 7:10. There were a few kids eating breakfast and so was Buck. That's when he told us. The bus wasn't until 7:50...such a great idea by him. I know had 40 minutes to relax and eat. They didn't really have a lot for us for breakfast so I had 2 cups of coffee (crazy right I drink coffee now), yogurt, granola, and toast. Between the coffee and the excitement I was ready to go when we got to the shop. I needed to rent boots, a board, and helmet and pick up my lift pass. I also booked paragliding for Saturday afternoon while I was here too!

We had to take a bus to the train station, then 2 trains to get the mountain we wanted to go. The ski area we were in is made up of 4 mountains and we wanted to go to the middle mountains. They were supposedly the best for beginners/intermediates. Kyla and I made a bunch of friends waiting for the bus and the train as everyone was confused and lost. We met a few cool guys from Rome and Barcelona and 2 girls from Canada but live in LA. We spent a lot of time talking to them because they were awesome. They were 25 and 26 I think and taking a 2 week vacation around Europe. They were way cool and super nice. Finally after asking about 5 different people (all of which were extremely nice about helping the lost Americans), we made it to the top. And were greeted with this view...

Speechless. No words. Just awe. And a lot of picture taking.

Quick photo opp...

And then it was off to the slopes.

We found this lovely chair lift and rode it up not knowing where we were going. This was kind of a common theme on the mountain for me. We get off and this is what we see...

Well not me but you know, the background...

Once again, no words, speechless. It felt like a dream. It still does. It was so surreal.

This is a view of part of the run. See that house building thing up at the top left? That's where the run started.

A later view of it...

It was such a gorgeous and perfect place to snowboard. The crappy pictures my point and shoot took don't even do it justice. I don't think I stopped smiling. Even when I fell I was smiling. I couldn't get over it. Kyla and I grabbed the most overpriced lunch ever before heading back out. This is where it got a little interesting. We decided we wanted to ski all the way down. But we got a little separated...and by a little I mean I lost her. For about 2 hours. I took the best, most amazing 2 hour run down the whole mountain. The view was amazing. The run was amazing. There were times when I didn't see anyone else. I think I saw more people at the ski-up bars on this run then I did while I was actually snowboarding the run.

That's the guy I had to ask for directions to find my Kyla who had texted me at this point. We had managed to both find out way to the same lift at the bottom. But by time I got there she had taken a gondola back up to the top. She was going to wait there for me. So I jumped on one and took a cold but relaxing ride all the way back up.

Turns out we then had to take a cable car back down. Then another 2 trains and bus to go back to the shop where we left our shoes and then a shuttle back to our hotel. I've never been more happy to see a bed as I was after there. We cleaned up, ran out to an overpriced dinner, then I crashed into bed. Another early morning awaited me...

Once again 6:45 is super early. This time my third roommate was here and she was skiing so we went down to breakfast together. The train station is across the street from our hotel so we just walked over after breakfast. I was on the mountain by about 9am. And it was gourgous, again.

I only snowboarded for about 4 hours this morning because I was scheduled to paraglide this afternoon! But it ended up being fine, my legs were killing me and I was exhausted. I grabbed a snack on my way down, an amazing apple strudel, then hopped on the trains to get back.

I got picked up for paragliding at my hotel and met these 2 really awesome girls who were studying in Madrid! We drove up a mountain and then walked for a bit up a road and then into a field a bit before getting to our take off point.

To take off in paragliding, you just run until your sail catches you and pulls you up. Don't worry, I didn't do this alone, I had a tandem guide.

Literally one of the coolest things I've ever done in my whole life. I couldn't stop smiling when we landed. I can't even really explain it. It was so cold up there but so peaceful. I loved every minute of it.

The rest of Saturday I hung out in my room, sleeping on and off, until I met up with the kids I had met before to go out to the only club/bar in Interlaken. It was a lot of fun and I'll hopefully get to see them again when I go to Barcelona for spring break!

Sunday I slept in, which was much needed. I hung around the hotel before going out to see the lake and the town with Kyla and her roommate Missy. It was beautiful.

Such a cute town as well.

We got back just in time for the bus. I was exhausted so I slept most of the bus ride home. Our driver was crazy and somehow made the drive back in 7 and a half hours! Being back in my apartment in Firenze never felt better despite it being the best weekend ever.

Like usual, more picture on my Flickr if you follow the link from the post before it...

A Hike to the Top

2012-02-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

Before I get to my awesome story about my amazing hike to the Piazza de Michelangelo to oversee all of Firenze, I need to tell you about my cooking class. Every Monday I have Foods of Italy. I am learning to cook the most amazing foods. This week was risotto with bacon and peas, homemade pasta in a bean and potato soup, fritata, and teramisu (the first two have Italian names but my book is too far away for me to look them up). Even though my group burnt the fritata a little. The risotto is my favorite thing ever. I'm looking forward to cooking for my family (and friends if I love you enough ;) ) when I get back. Anyway, I literally died into bed Monday night after class since I had stayed up so late with the Super Bowl and then went for a run the next morning (side note: Italians think I'm crazy as I was running through the streets in shorts and tee as they were super bundled up).

Tuesdays I only have Italian class for an hour and fifteen minutes. It was great because I actually started understanding what my teacher was teaching! I actually just finished helping my roommate with our homework and explaining her the concept. If you know me at all I'm horrible with languages. Sometimes I can hardly speak English hahah! After class my roommate Brittany and I had decided to hike to the top of this hill to go to the Piazza Michelangelo to look over all of Firenze. Her friend Kyla came with us too. We ran to Kyla's apartment quickly because it was on the way and then started our journey. This is important because of the first hill we had to conquer. This is what we hiked up.

Somehow cars drive up and down this. And people ride bikes on it. And run on it. All three of which we saw. I have no idea. We were dying just walking up. Finally we got to a flat-ish area which was a fork in the road. Cue the map. Kyla and Brittany consulted the map because I'm not that great with a map...

We basically just tried to get the top of the hill so we could find our way from there. We ended up walking along with crazy narrow one way road that cars would come zooooming up on through this town. See how narrow it is? And check out that car, yes it is plugged into the wall, it's electric!

Such a cute area.

Finally we made it to the top of the hill. Somehow we decided to walk to the right, maybe the map, I don't remember. But anyway, the buildings suddenly cleared and we had this view

So beautiful.

We ended up having to ask for directions and kept walking. and kept walking. and kept walking. I randomly saw these stairs that led up to somewhere. We thought we had found it but it turns out it was this church.

But it had an awesome view!

And an interesting grave...

We thought that was what we were looking for but wanted to walk a different way down. So we went the opposite direction. And it was a good thing we did! We finally found Piazza de Michelangelo! As we looked out over the city I couldn't believe I actually live down there.

That big church with the dome on the left is the Duomo. I live by that, kind of behind it and to the right. You can climb to the top of it and supposedly the view is amazing. I think I'm doing that in a few weeks when my friends Sarah and Victoria come in from Rome.

The Ponte Vecchio, the Arno, and the Basilica of the the Duomo. I have no idea what a Basilica is but its where the Golden Doors are (art history reference and it's too late at night for me to remember the artist's name because its nearly 11pm for me) and that's what the map calls it.

We walked down the easy way, down a bunch of stairs and along the Arno (aka the river...). It was exhausting and my legs were burning since I had ran the day before. But it was so worth it! Now that I know the easy way I want to take everyone! It was awesome.

Me and my apartment mate Brittany (crappy download from Kyla's Facebook)

The rest of the day continued to be great as we ordered delivery pizza in (we being me, Brittany, and Kait). That was an adventure. Somehow I got to call in. I speak the least Italian of the three of us. And the first person I talked to spoke no English. The second person spoke a little bit more. The third a bit more. And the fourth a bit more. But still not enough to understand that I wanted to pizzas. So I gave the phone to Brittany, who speaks the most. And she got it through to them that we wanted 2 pizzas. It was 4 euro a person and we had a lot of pizza hahah. Can you tell I was super excited about it?

And then! To top the day off, I booked a trip for THIS WEEKEND to go the Swiss Alps to snowboard! Kyla is going too so I have a snowboarding buddy for the weekend! I had some issues with my debit card so I Skyped home and I got to talk to my parents and Trev too. Double win. I leave tomorrow (on Thursday). I might might might (aka really want to and probably will end up) go hang gliding. I could go sky diving or canyon jumping but I'm too scared to do either really lol. Or I could go snow showing, or night sledding. It's like a winter wonderland there! I'm so excited to go!

Today was a boring day: landscape and architecture class during which I was again too advanced for and just sat around and helped the other students and then contemporary art which I had an awesome discussion in. I love that class a lot.

Oh! I had my first Italian "coffee" this morning. When you order coffee here, its actually expresso. So I ordered a cafe latte. And it was awesome. I had so much energy all day. Well I leave for Switzerland tomorrow evening and I have yet to pack so ciao!

As always: http://flickr.com/gp/michellejay/WZV104

And new is some work from my classes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michellejay/sets/72157629235907157/

An American Night

2012-02-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

While Professional American football is not my favorite sport, there was something drawing about watching the Super Bowl in Italy. I figured it was an experience. Luckily my friend Hannah agreed so we bought tickets for a table at this restaurant/bar basically across the street from me. For 6 euro each we were guaranteed entrance, a table, and a drink. The funny thing about the Super Bowl here is that with the time difference the game doesn't start until Monday. So Super Bowl Monday morning!

Before that though one of my friends from high school was in Firenze for the weekend. I met up with her and her friends from her program in Rome on Friday and then again Sunday for lunch. It worked perfectly because I had gone out the night before to my favorite pub Finnegans with Hannah and her friends and woke up just in time for lunch. I took this to this little place by my school that has 3.50 euro paninis that are great. I love it there.

After that I got some homework done, Skyped home, made dinner, etc while waiting for Hannah. We got to the restaurant at like 10pm probably. We always get really engrossed in talking to each other that we didn't even realize the placed suddenly was packed. My second beer it took me at least 10 minutes to get because it was so crowded (as opposed to the first I had gotten an hour and a half ago in like 10 seconds). We just hung out and talked and people watched while waiting for the game to start. We freaked out when we saw that Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert were signing God Bless America. Gotta love my country singers :) We were disappointed to see that Kelly Clarkson was singing the National Anthem but it didn't totally matter considering we couldn't exactly here it. Apparently someone could though because the entire bar starting singing along at the end. I was waiting for the USA! USA! cheer to start. Needless to say, most of the bar was drunk before the game even started (don't worry we weren't). We had prime seats right in front of TV. Game yay! It was a pretty mixed crowd between Patriots and Giants fans. Nearly everyone was an American student though and there were a few very confused Italians not understanding the rules. It took us until half time to realize why there were no commercials...We weren't watching on NBC but ESPN America. I kid you not that thats what the channel was called. That was a bit of a let down. But not as a big of a let as how bad my burger I ordered at half time was...

Doesn't that look delish...?

We ended up lasting until the third quarter ended and then leaving. It was around 3am at this point and we were both super tired. And so ended my Super Bowl in Italy experience. Glad to say I got to watch though!

Two photo majors suck at taking pictures of themselves together. :)

Ciao!

New Experiences

2012-02-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

All day I've been procrastinating on doing my homework (I know it's only been the first week but I just don't feel like it today hahah) and since its way too cold to go outside (plus I don't want to chance getting sick because it seems like half the city is sick right now) I decided to get stuff done around the apartment. I needed to do laundry, run the dishwasher, and get organized. First stop was the dollar store. It's probably my favorite place ever. I needed a few more notebooks for classes. They are amazing here! I love them. I want to buy like fifteen million to bring back home with me. See?

I also needed laundry detergent and dish soap. Conveniently they were located next to each other. Not so conveniently they were located next to each other. Yes both a convenience and a confusion. I couldn't figure out what was! But this store must have a lot of American shoppers because after about 5 minutes of standing there in confusion I saw this sign...

Did I ever feel stupid after seeing that.

Back in my apartment I threw laundry in, ran the dishwasher and got organized. Yay me! However, we don't have a dryer here. Apparently no one uses them in Italy. But, it's too cold to hang your clothes outside right now (think about 10degrees C here today plus the wind). So we are stuck doing this.

It will literally take days for jeans to dry this way. Our apartment is so cold nothing is drying. We even have it next to a heater too. Things in Italy are funny sometimes.

Ciao!

Classes and Spring Break

2012-02-03T12:14:00.000-08:00

So I've finished my first full of week of classes. This week was add/drop week so basically like try outs for our classes. Unlike at school in Boston all of the classes were like legit full classes. I'm used to first week being read the syllabus then leave.

Tuesdays I only have Italian 1 from noon until 1:15pm. I got lost on the way to class and was a few minutes late. Opps. This city is kind of confusing. My teacher is the adorable little Italian woman. Her English is not so good and the classes Italian is even worse making for an interesting first class. We learned how to introduce ourselves and some "survival" Italian. So far, none of it has helped. But you can tell all the kids in Italian 1 when we go out because we are all trying to use our random phrases as much as possible. The hard part about that is when they answer you Italian. Cue the blank stare back. My professor basically speaks only Italian at us so there are a lot of blank stares in class too.

After class I ran a few errands, bought my Italian 1 book, and some other random stuff. I started planning out a few trips with my friends from Boston who are in Rome this semester. Then it was off to the place where Hannah works to hang out with her. She works in a print shop studio for her school. But no one ever is there to do work. So I took a bottle of wine over and we sat around drinking that and playing Bannangrams. That was probably the most surreal day ever. We were making plans for trips to Ireland and the Alps and Greece while drinking red wine straight from the bottle listening to Italian radio in Firenze, Italy. Like really, what is my life right now. I went out with my roommate Brittany after that for a while, typical night out...

Wednesday I had my two art history classes: Hidden Meanings in Ren Art and Contemporary Art. I really did not enjoy Hidden Meanings. It was extremely religious based and I was lost half the class. I ended up dropping it the next day and picking up Landscape and Architecture Photo. Contemporary Art on the other hand was awesome. I'm super excited for it. My professor is a working professional who deals with artist so she knows what's she talking about. Between classes I had to turn in paperwork for this "permit of stay" thing. Apparently Italy is one of the only countries that does this but in order for me to be legal in Italy I have to this piece of paper thing.

After classes Wednesday I think I was so tired I just hung out at the apartment after classes. I bet I had pasta for dinner...or tortilla pizza. Those are my new speciality. I take dollar store tortillas and make pizzas with mozzarella cheese and whatever else I feel like putting on it (aka whatever I feel like cooking or cutting up).

Thursday I had Italian in the afternoon again. Once again so beyond lost half the time in class. I try to speak Spanish in there and surprise myself with the amount of Spanish I know (Thank you HCHS!) After that I had like an hour and half break before my photo class. I did something productive but at this point (aka the next day exhausted) I can't remember what. I had Fashion Photography from 3-5:30 then 6-8:30. That half an hour break is for us to get dinner in. I love the class. However, I'm overly advanced for it. There were a few kids in there that had no clue how to use a camera on anything but automatic. Some kids had never used photoshop before. And I had taken commercial photography last semester at AIB so I knew a lot of the stuff we would be learning. I really want to take the class though so I am. Despite one of the prerequs being Intro to Photo, after spending the first hour doing usual stuff as well as a skills test, we spent the next hour going over photo basics such as exposure, how to take a picture, stupid stuff like that. I slept through it. And occasionally answered a question. We did 30 minutes of history of photo which I also slept through thanks to Christine's class last spring. On break I had this super good pannii for super cheap from this place down the street. And they had free bruschetta! I filled up on that then went back to class where I basically TA-ed as we were in the studio going over lights and how to actually take a picture. The professor apologized to me after class for the low skill level in the class and how bored I looked all class and thanked me for helping out. Afterwards I ended up going out for the night with my friends.

Beyond classes, the weather has been crazy. It's so cold here and thats coming from someone who lives in Chicago and Boston! It's been like 5degrees C! And with the wind chill it has to be almost 0 or below 0. It's been flurrying for a while too though nothing sticks because the ground is too warm. We were hoping for a snow day on Wednesday because when even a tiny bit sticks the city doesn't know how to react so they shut down. Rome got like a tiny bit today and my friends there said everything shut down. Rumor is Firenze doesn't even have snow plows! What a theory....

Andddd beyond all that.....I booked spring break yesterday/today! My friends Sarah and Victoria go to school with me in Boston. They go to the same program as I do but in Rome. So the three of us have the same spring break and are going to Dublin and Barcelona!!!!! It took a long Skype talk and two days but we got everything booked (minus my trains to and from Roma since we are flying in and out of there). I'm so freaking excited! My first big trip is planned and booked! We are trying to plan Greece for that next weekend and then I'm going to Roma for Easter. Hopefully Hannah and I can get to the Alps to snowboard in the next few weeks. And then I want to go to Roma when its not Easter as well as Prague and Venice. Plus a bunch of day trips like Pisa, Siena, Assiss.

Today has been a lazy day. Kait, Tim (her boyfriend), and I were craving American food so we went to this placed called Astor this morning. It's a cafe by day and a night club by night. They serve American food there so we went over there for breakfast this morning. I forgot how much I loved pancakes (though they are nothing like my dads!) and fresh fruit and OJ. After that I went home and did nothing until my friend from high school texted me to say she was in Firenze. I showed her and her friends around for a while and brought them back to my place to hang out for a bit. They left to go out, I made dinner, and am now procrastinating on the homework I have to get done. I keep forgetting it's only Friday though... Ciao!

A Little Taste of Ireland, Italy, and Home

2012-01-30T10:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day with my friend Hannah. She went to AIB last year then transferred to Syracuse. And then decided to study abroad through Syracuse in Florence too! I was so beyond excited to find out that she was as I missed her so much this semester. She had come over Thursday to go out with my friends and I. I was so happy to see her that night.

But anyway, Sunday, we decided to hang out together for a while. I walked over to her place which is like maybe 7 minutes from where I live. She has a home stay so its in more of a residential area. I met her host mom who is an adorable little Italian woman! She only really speaks Italian so talking to her was a little mixed but she did the whole kiss on each check when we left. My first "real" Italian experience. We were starved so Hannah and I decided to go find a place to eat. Because it's not a touristy area she lives in a lot of places were closed because it was Sunday. Finally we found a sandwich place and had the biggest and most delish sandwiches. I don't even know what was on mine but for 5 euro (I had a bottle of water too) it was perfffeccct. We just wandered around for a while, shopped, looked for some leather goods to buy, before deciding we wanted to just hang out and have a drink. I had found this Irish pub in between our places. We ended up going there and finding our new favorite place. It was this small little pub that was opened by a guy that's from Ireland. He's got an Irish accent. Being the two American girls we are, we had no clue what beer to order so he helped us pick something out. We started with two Irish lagers, Kilkennys. He had two different kinds on tap so we had a pint of each.

They ended up being our favorites. We had a pint of Italian beer and Austrian beer too before having anther pint of the Kilkennys. Don't worry; we were there for nearly 4 hours talking and catching up and just enjoying our beers. We parted ways for dinner after that as it was about 8pm by this point (yes that means we started drinking at like 4...). I spent the rest of the night in with my roommates relaxing.

Today I had my first class at 3pm, Foods of Italy. Before that, I went to the supermarketi down the street. I needed groceries like no other. For 15 euro, I grabbed cereal, milk, yogurt, bread, mozzarella cheese, pasta, two types of sauce, and tomatoes. I got the cheapest of everything lol. The supermarketi is an experience that is the same as at home. Besides, you know, everything being in Italian, measurements in the metric system, and prices in euros. :) I made myself a quick breakfast/lunch of bread with pesto and mozzarella cheese when I got back. Super yummy!

Crappy photobooth quality, sorry!

Then it was off to class! My professor for this class is a self taught cook who's main job is a captain in the Italian Army. He's very into order and the like but is pretty funny. We already started cooking today! I learned how to make a basic tomato sauce from scratch and basic chicken to pair with it. He said we can bring our own wine to drink in class and he'll show us how to pair wine too. I think it might be my favorite class (Granted I've had one class so far). I've got a welcome dinner tonight that I should probably go get ready for! Ciao!

Me dispiace

2012-01-29T01:53:00.000-08:00

Not only is that one of my key phrases in Italian, it's also what I am about not updating beyond my travels here (it means I'm sorry by the way). My roommates and I have been doing so much and sleeping so late that I haven't had a lot of time. But they are awesome. I live in an apartment with 3 other girls. We have 2 rooms: my roommate is Kait and Brittany and Mylan live in the other room. Kait and I get along really well. We both are on tight budgets out here so we live similarly. It's great because we can share food and other things to cut down on costs. Brittany and Mylan have gone out to eat every night we are here; Kait and I have been living on .50 euro packs of pasta and 1.5 euro cans of sauce. We drink 2-4euro wine too (side note: the exchange rate is like 1 euro = 1.3 American dollars). I got so lucky to get really awesome roommates!

So let's see...the first day we had orientation kind of early in the morning (aka 9am). That was adventure number 5 of my trip (after this I've lost count mostly....lol). Getting ready was fine, but then we had to try to figure out how to get to where we needed to be. We have about 7 maps from the school but only one map of Firenze. After consulting all of them, we headed out to attempt to make it on time. Oh but we had to stop by Kait's boyfriend's place to pick him up on our way. And no one had anything for breakfast. Long story short: we never found Tim's place (Kait's boyfriend) but we did find this awesome bakery that had 1 euro crescents that were amazing. Armed with food, and coffee for one of my roommates, we found our way to the right place! Yay! Go us! Blah blah blah boring orientation meetings. In between, however, we went out for pizza and gelato! I actually had a calzone but same difference. It was from this tiny place by the Duomo. It was a little overpriced but we were so hungry we had to eat. The gelato was delish though! So worth the 2euro I paid for it. Maybe I'll go have gelato for lunch now (it's 11am and I'm the only one awake and have no food...). More boring meetings blah blah blah...

All of the days are starting to blend together but I think after we went back to our place to make dinner. Or that was the plan. Yes yes, the plan was apartment dinner. But then Mylan and Brittany decided to go out to eat with someone Mylan knew so Kait and I stayed back to eat pasta and pesta. Looks good right?

We had decided we were going to go out that night with Kait and Tim's friends from school. One of my good friend's from Boston who transferred this year is in Firenze for the semester too so she came out with us tonight too. Going out is a little weird for me because I'm not used to being able to get into clubs and buy drinks. All of my friend's here are of legal drinking age back home. I'm still 20 so this is a whole new thing for me. I think we got home around 4am hahah. And then slept until about 1pm :)

We were supposed to have some meet and greet thing but I'm pretty sure we slept through that. I know we didn't leave the apartment until about 3 or 4. Brittany, Mylan, and I did some wandering to try to find these places to eat. They were on the other side of the river so it was a beautiful walk, not too long.

So here in Italy, everyone eats dinner really late, like 8 or 9pm. It's taken some getting used to but I actually kind of like it. But anyway, because of that or something, a lot of places close around 5pm for a few hours. It's called siesta time, or thats what I call it at least. It's not so big in the tourist areas but it is in the residential. We found this out the hard way as the places we went to eat where all siesta-ing. By this time, we had to be back at our school to sign up for any excursions we wanted to go on. Originally, my home university told us all they were paying for 2 of them. Super excited I signed up to go to Nice, Monte Carlo, and the French Rivera the second weekend and then Hiking in the Alps in April. Well, the first day out here my university decided to change that. If I wanted go I would have to pay. And my school out here only takes cash euros to pay for the trips. After going back and forth with one of my apartment mates who goes to the same school as me in Boston, we decided to just go on one. Coincidentally we had both signed up for Nice. But she ended up choosing that one and I chose to go hiking instead. I'll live the trip through her :) I think everyone ate at the apartment this night; oh yeah, we did, Kait cooked this really good chicken and we had pasta again too. And garlic bread! Such a good dinner. We went out again tonight too. I ran into a girl I know from school in Boston there. In the smallest of worlds, she and her roommate were talking to one of the guys we had been hanging out with so everyone came back to our apartment for a bit to chill and talk. After everyone left I think the apartment stayed up just talking until we all were passing out at the table. More sleeping in...

We really needed to go to the market to get food for our apartment so we decided to walk over to this fresh market I knew. Because it was all so fresh it was more expensive then I wanted it to be but it was still really cool. It's open every day but Sundays so I'll probably go every couple of weeks to get something special. I'll actually probably go every few days to photograph in there. I'm super rusty after not touching my camera at all over break, but it felt so good to start shooting again today. I'm warning you, they kind of suck, but here are a few...

After that we went home to make lunch. Super delish open faced mozzarella, pesto, and tomato sandwiches (and a glass of wine of course too).

I Skyped home after lunch then went out with my friends to shop a bit. There's like fifteen million sales right now but I didn't get anything too crazy: 1 pair of flats and 2 shirts. I'm still trying to get used to thinking of things in euros and then converting in my head to American dollars. They all seemed pretty good deals though. Dinner at the apartment with Kait again having really good conversations. Back out again at night. This is the last night of this trend of every night going out until late and then sleep in. I'm the only one up and it's nearly noon now! Classes start tomorrow so things should settle down.

More pictures on my Flickr: http://flickr.com/gp/michellejay/WZV104/

The time difference makes talking to people back home hard but if you want to chat, drop me an email or a Facebook message or try to catch me on there or on Skype. Much love!

Ciao!

2012-01-26T08:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, I'm safely in Italy! And for those of you who are now even more confused, I'm spending my spring semester in Florence, Italy!! I've been remembering things in terms of "adventures" so I can keep it all straight. So I'll tell my tale of life here so far by my "adventures"...

Adventure 1 - Packing/Leaving

This was the bag I got from TJ Max before leaving

For my airline (Swiss Air) I only had 1 free checked bag and 1 carry on plus a purse. So that was my plan. And it was all going great, until I went to weight my carry on. I had an 8kg (aka 17 pounds) allowance. I was at 30 pounds, on my carry on. We figured out it was my cameras and laptop that was most of the weight. After going back and forth about what to do, we decided I just needed a bigger purse to put my laptop in. Leaving my house this was my bag situation

It was great that I had a late night flight (leaving OHare at 7:30pm) because it gave me and my dad all day to deal with this packing stuff. Getting to the airport was no problem, minus my dad not knowing where to park because we never fly international. And then we got to the counter to check my bag. My carry on was 2kg over weight. Plus the bag I was using was too big for the overhead compartments. When we weighted my checked bag, that was overweight by 4kg too! Back to the drawing board my dad and I went. Thankfully the guy at the counter was super nice and told us it would be cheaper to check a second bag rather than pay the overweight charge. So, I ended up pulling my school backpack out of my checked bag, putting my cameras in that, and putting shoes from my big bag into my smaller one and checking that too. With that adventure behind me, my dad hung out with me before security for a while and then it was time for goodbye. I'm pretty used to saying bye to my family with going to Boston usually but it's still hard and sucks. Security and the gate were pretty average.

Adventure 2 - Flying International

This isn't the usual adventure because it was more of a new experience. But, I love flying internationally I've decided. My plane was huge! It was on of those 2 seats, aisle, 4 seats, aisle, 2 seats kind of planes. And the seats, the seats were the most comfortable airplane seats I've ever sat in. I've never had that much leg room either. I could easily stretch out. Basically, I was in airplane heaven! Plus there was that screen in the seat in front of me which I love. (Side note: I usually fly Southwest when I fly domestically). And, to make things even better, my plane was only 1/3 full and I didn't have anyone sitting next to me (I was on the 2 seat section). Anyway, I fell asleep before we even left the ground and woke up somewhere over Michigan. It ended up being perfect because I woke up just in time for dinner! It was either chicken and rice or veggie lasagna. Guess what I chose?

It was actually really good! We got free drinks as well. I wasn't sure of that at first so I didn't order the wine I was offered; instead I had water and Sprite. After dinner I took a NyQuill and woke up for good as we were flying over Paris! Of course, I missed breakfast and was super hungry. I landed in Zurich, Switzerland about 40 minutes after I woke up. As I was going through security in the Zurich Airport I met two other girls who were on my flight from Chicago that were going to Florence with LdM (my program name btw)! And then I met a girl I knew from my school in Boston as we were walking to our next gate! We had about an 1.5 hour layover in which we just sat around. The whole gate was American students traveling for study abroad. Our next plane was this small plane that we had to take a bus from the gate to the tarmac to, so weird. The view from the plane flying to Florence was gorgeous! I wish I wasn't sitting next to the engine so I could have taken pictures. We flew over the Alps, and it was just breathtaking. It was a quick flight and suddenly we were in Florence! I found my friends from the other flight and we fought the crowd to grab our bags off the bag thingy. I nearly took some little kid out with my big bag! It was quite a scene to see a bunch of girls trying to grab their huge bags off, but I was pretty good at it.

Adventure 3 - Getting Around Florence

I went to Italy knowing all of 3 useful phrases in Italian: hi, thanks, how are you. Real useful when you are trying to get somewhere...not. Thankfully one of the girls I met at the airport speaks Italian so she helped me, the other girl I met on the plane, and the girl I knew from school catch a cab to where we needed to be for school. She then took a bus there because it would be cheaper. The cab driver was super nice and taught us a few good phrases in Italian, all of which I forget in about 5 seconds! I couldn't stop looking out the window as we drove. Everything was so beautiful. We had a quick pre-orientation at my school, getting our keys and our apartment. They called us a cab to our apartments and off we went again.

Adventure 4 - My Apartment

My cab driver dropped my off in front of my place, unloaded my bags, and drove away. And there I was, in front of my apartment, time for the biggest adventure. My keys had 3 keys on it.

Process of elimination told me, the American looking key was the one for the front door. I struggled getting my bags in the door but finally did. Then it was time to figure out which apartment was actually mine. There was a name on each door that corresponded to some random name we were given. But before I could do that, I needed to be able to see! It was about 5pm at this point so it was dark. And I had no clue where the light switch was. I knew I was on floor 2 which was actually the third floor in Italy. So I dragged my bags up a flight of stairs, which sucked. My bags were about 20 and 55 pounds each. Then up another. Finally, I found a light switch! What a difference that makes! I was exhausted at that point so I decided to find my door. I hoped it was that floor but my second key, the one with the black handle didn't work in any of the doors. I left my bags and went up another flight. The first door I saw at a sign about a dog on it (which I only knew because of the picture of the dog on it). So I figured it wasn't my apartment. It was only after trying every other door that I figured out it was my door. This next part was like an adventure inside of an adventure. I couldn't get my door to unlock. I could hear the tumblers for the lock moving but I couldn't get the door to open! I knocked and rang the bell until I realized my roommates weren't home. After about 20 minutes of frustration I ended up going up a flight and knocking on a random door. The man that answered was super nice and got my door open in about 5 seconds. Apparently you have to turn the key farther than I thought to get the last tumbler to open. I dragged my bags up the last flight and brought them in my apartment. There was a note on the table from my roommates saying that they had run to the market to grab stuff and would be back soon. I checked out the room situation and found the one with the girl I was arranged to live with, Kait. It couldn't have been about 5 more minutes before her and one of my other roommates were walking in. They had gotten really lost and ended up walking around for about 3 hours! I got settled in a bit, they ate, and we went out to explore for a little bit.

My bedroom

My roommate's bathroom

My living room

View from my bedroom

The river at night!

I have so many pictures I want to share with you guys that rather than post them all here, I'm putting them in their own 'set' on my Flickr page. They are set to private so in order to see them you have to follow this link and only this link! You can see my other photos from Italy on there too, the ones that aren't private, if you go to my main Flickr page (you won't be able to see the private ones from my blog on there though, its a little confusing).

http://flickr.com/gp/michellejay/WZV104/

l'inizio

2012-01-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, you may be able to learn Italian just by reading my blog. Or just random phrases. Like, the beginning (cough cough what the title says in Italian).

Anyway, so first post...uh...well, it's been a long journey to just get to this point so far, lots of paperwork and making sure everything is in order. But, now I'm just under 2 weeks out. I'm nearly done packing, just a few last minute things to throw together. My cousin sent me his backpacking backpack, and I finally opened the boxes today (you know, only about 2 weeks after he sent it). He left me a little note in the pack with some advice as he's a huge traveler. It just made me even more excited to get over there and start my adventure. My definite travel plans thus far: my second weekend out there (aka in 3 weeks!) I'm going to Nice, Monte Carlo, and the French Rivera with my school; Spring Break in Ireland and maybe Greece with my friends from Boston and anyone else we pick up along the way; and mid-April I'm going to hike the Alps with my school. Other tentative plans include Rome to see my friends there, somewhere in the Alps to snowboard, Paris, Venice, Croatia. The biggest two reaches are Spain and Prague. Yeah it's a lot of places, but go big or go home. Ciao until I get to Italy!