Il Mio Viaggio in Italia!

Video!

2010-01-27T21:11:00.000-08:00

Venice..

2010-01-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

I'm posting this way after the fact, but I just decided that I should put some closure on this trip and put up pictures from my last couple weeks in Italy...

Well, I went to Venice for a day, as planned... I wasn't sure whether to expect to love it or to hate it. (Well, maybe not to hate it, but maybe not to be impressed with it) I had gotten a lot of fairly mixed reviews about the city. Some said it was their favorite place in the whole world and that they would love to spend any time possible there. Some said that it was stinky and that it wasn't as charming as one might hope. Fortunately, I was impressed with Venice and would LOVE to go back someday. However...I would like to make that trip with someone else. By this point in my trip, I was tired of traveling alone and was ready to be with Allisa - just to have a travelling companion.

Oh, and one more thing...I ended up meeting a few girls from UVA while waiting in line to buy tickets for the boat to Murano!

Here are a few of the highlights:

The charming "streets" of Venice!

I got to go to Murano, a small island right near Venice, where they have glassblowing exhibits. I made it in time for the last show of the day, which was awesome to see! That was the ONE thing that I really wanted to see in Venice...

The glassblower and his shop

The beginnings of a vase

Firing the vase

Adding a swirly bit...

The finished vase! Held with tongs of course...it's really hot!

And here is a video of him making a horse:

Making a horse!

I don't know how he can do that...

Lots of beautiful glass!

A candid photo of a gondolier and a couple little girls skipping across one of the many bridges...

Only in Venice can guys be cool and wear ribbons on their hat!

pretty boats and buildings...

some of Venice's famous sites: the Rialto and a richly decorated gondola!

View from a bridge

A bunch of gondoliers killing time... Too bad it costs almost $100 to ride in a gondola!

Venetian masks for Carnivale!

Basilica di San Marco

there are so many pigeons in Piazza di San Marco!

More in Milano...and Lago Maggiore... (two more new updates below!)

2009-07-24T01:05:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday of the next week (after Florence and the DMB concert), I got an email from my dad saying that my brother was basically assaulted that weekend and had received a terrible concussion. I was really worried about him and couldn’t call my family or anything. It was hard to get news for a couple of days, so I couldn’t tell if he was really okay or not. But thankfully by Thursday or Friday I had gotten to talk with my parents and a little bit with Andrew, and I knew that he was in a lot of pain, on a lot of medications, was lucky to be alive after the kind of concussion he had received, but that he was okay(ish). Anyways, all of that really just made me want to be at home and to be able to be near my family and help out with anything that I could. But the only thing that I could do is to pray, so that’s what I did—along with my friends here too. I think that was the only eventful thing that week, but it was enough to fill up the whole week. That weekend I had planned to go to the countryside with the Serri family, but with everything that had happened and how tired I was from the previous weekend and the fact that I wouldn’t be able to talk to my family if I went to the countryside (but could use Skype at Samuel’s house if I stayed in Milan)…I decided to stay in Milan.

Saturday morning I just my Bible, a towel, a water bottle, and a book and went to the park and tanned and read and prayed. It was really nice to get a chance to do that…In the afternoon I went over to Samuel’s, talked to my mom for a long time on Skype then talked to Trey for a long time. Cassidy came over and the three of us talked for quite a while. Then Samuel’s roommate Mnquazi (pronounced like Nwa-zee, except with a click!!! on the “Nwa” part. Yay for cool Malawian names.) came and we chatted with her too. Then Kunda (his other roommate) made us all dinner and the five of us hung out. I spent the night at Cassidy’s, then we went to an Italian church Sunday morning with Samuel. His friends from the church, Alessio and Silvio, bought us lunch afterwards, and it was fun to just sit and visit for a while. After church, Cass and I headed over to International Church of Milan for their service. So it was church all day…I really enjoyed that church service (I love the pastor and his wife, as well as a lot of people in that church), then we all went and got Chinese food afterwards. Yum yummm…

Last week, there was basically nothing but work, work, work. I was working around 10-12 hours a day (plus a 30-45 minute trip to and from the school). I would usually leave around 7:15 or 7:30, start working around 8, finish up around 8 or 9 pm, then get home between 8:30 and 9:45. I was trying to finish up all the simulations we wanted to get done, so I was working really hard all day, without even really taking a break for lunch most days. Of course this week, once I was finally done with everything I had done, we found out that there were errors, which meant that everything I had done that week was completely useless. That is one thing that is really a bummer about research…you can go all-out in one direction and then find out (sometimes way more than a week later) that you were all wrong. Not a very good feeling. Without going into too much detail, research has been a bit discouraging and frustrating, often times because of things like this (among other things). I currently have only 4 days left next week and then I have to be done. So I don’t have any choice but to write my paper with the results I’ve got…and hope for the best.

Aside from work, in the last week, a few other things went on also. On Saturday, I met up with Cassidy, Amanda, and a girl from Cassidy’s school named Amy (who is staying in Torino for a few months). We went shopping for a bit (they had already been shopping most the day), then went to Amanda’s and got ready really quickly for a concert that we went to. The concert was at the church we went to before and we hung out with Alessio (Silvio couldn’t make it). We had a really good time.

Amy, Amanda and Cassidy at the concert

goofy pose

not-so-goofy pose...me, Amanda, Cassidy, Allessio, and a really sweet girl from his church (I'm awful I can't remember her name!)

Sunday morning we got up and donned our swimsuits—we had church at Lake Maggiore with ICM this week. We took the metro to a stop and were picked up by our respective rides, then we went and hung out at the lake all afternoon, grilled burgers, sang worship songs, read scripture, and just visited and fellowshipped (and tanned and swam a bit too). The water was quite cold though, as a big stream from melted Alps-snow was flowing into the lake right near where we were! The lake was beautiful and it was so nice to spend a day out there.

Amy, Cassidy, and Gamu at the lake!

I sure do like those mountains...

pretty swans :)

me, Pastor Jim and his wife Karen. I enjoy them a lot :)

Me and Cass, my best bud in Milano!

Pretty lake!

Tuesday was my last night at Bible study, as next week Cassidy, Amanda, and I are going to Mimo (Italy’s number one pizzeria apparently), which is about 45 minutes out of Milan I think, with Alessio, Silvio, and some of their friends. I move out of my dorm that day as well…so I’m really starting to feel things in Milan winding down to a close. Though I have really enjoyed it, I can’t say that I’m not happy to be finishing up my time here. That is, I am definitely okay with leaving if that makes sense. I am excited to go down to Rome and the Amalfi Coast, though, and meet up with Allisa for a week and a half. I think that it will be so nice to have a real vacation (once this research paper is over!) for a little while. Hopefully it will be a really enjoyable time, which I’m sure it will be! Then, right after, I leave to go home! Oh, forgot to mention, I’m planning to go to Venice on Saturday. Should be fun!

Lucca again! (DMB concert)

2009-07-24T01:04:00.000-07:00

"GAHHH! I'm so close to Dave!!" He may look far away...but he's not :)

After my busy two days in Florence, it was nice to go back to Lucca and visit Aniek. I really love that city, and definitely wouldn’t mind going back there someday. Aniek and I went to her apartment and put my things down, then we headed to a pizzeria with lots of yummy pizza flavors. The pizzas were pretty big, but with thin crust—so we each got one. One of us got a red pizza and one got a white. We split each pizza into two different flavors—so in the end we each had two pieces of four different types of pizza. It worked out quite well. We ate a lot and brought the leftovers back for the next day. Aniek and I had a nice time hanging out, and then we went back and went to bed. In the morning, we got up, had some breakfast, hung around a bit, and then headed for Viareggio—to the beach! It was a beautiful day, and it was so nice to lie out and get some sun. (And we had leftover pizza for lunch!) Our friend Sophie from New Zealand joined us for a little while as well. Unfortunately Aniek was sunburned from a few days before, so she couldn’t enjoy the sun as much. The water felt great, though we only went in for a few minutes, and afterwards wished we had gone in for more. Oh...one other thing...we rode past lots of pretty sunflower fields, one really cool thing about Tuscany:

pretty sunflowers

We got back to Lucca and I took a 20-minute nap, we showered, got ready, had a yummy dinner that Aniek made, and went off to the Dave Matthews Band concert! We got there about 20 or 30 minutes before they opened the gates and managed to get close to the front! The concert was “in piedi” which means that you have to (get to) stand. Which also means you can be super close…we were only a couple rows of people away from the stage, which was SO cool, especially compared to my seats at the venues where I’ve seen DMB before. They played for almost four hours and it was all really good.

The people near us would’ve made the concert quite…interesting…even if the music had been boring. There were these two American ladies (sisters) and their mom (who was celebrating her 70^th birthday by being at a DMB concert in Italy. AWESOME.) who were right near us. Before the concert started they were refusing to get closer to the stage as everyone else was scooting up and they kept making a fuss about how “in the US it’s all sitting and we have seats” to all the Italians nearby. They were blocking people from getting closer and being very rude. Because I was American, I started a friendly chat with them, then after a bit, I explained that “in piedi” means standing, and tried to tell them that it was really cool that we got to stand. Anyways, I made friends with these ladies, but also was making friends with all the Italians around—asking where they were from and such. Anyways, a few of us managed to scoot around these ladies who had a large space in front of them where they wouldn’t let anyone go. But they didn’t fuss too much. I won’t go into all the details of how these ladies stirred up drama, but for one thing, at different times during the concert, they each left to get a beer or go to the bathroom—and asked us to help them save the spot (which is rather impossible at a place like that). So we did our best, which worked the first time. Then the second time, the people behind wouldn’t let the sister through (probably because the one lady who was in the front was being so rude). She asked me to help, so I spoke to the people in Italian and asked them to let her through. They kindly refused, explaining that they wouldn’t be able to see…which I totally understood. But this lady just glared at me even though I tried, and didn’t say thanks for talking to them or anything….it was just very interesting and rather ridiculous. But by the end of the concert Aniek and I had a whole new group of Italian friends and these ladies had a whole group of Italian not-so-friends. Plus these women seemed miserable to me…but oh well. Oh yeah, one girl from Rome asked to take her picture with me—I think she thought it was really cool that I was from Virginia, the same state as the Dave Matthews Band haha.

Other highlight of the night…I was wearing my VT shirt, in hopes that I basically would get invited up on the stage and get to play Boyd Tinsley’s electric violin…(For those of you unHokies, DMB played at our school after the shootings and they are from the town where our rival school is, so they are very familiar with Virginia Tech). Anyways, I didn’t get to play his violin this time. But when he was walking off the stage, Boyd definitely looked at me, gave me a nod and waved at me(!!), which in my opinion is a good start.

We went to bed and got up the next morning, had our coffee and breakfast, and said our goodbyes—Aniek went to our little language school and I went to the train station. I had hoped to catch the Regionale train to Florence, then the Intercity to Milan. However, of course…there was a train strike. I ended up waiting for almost an hour, then taking a bus to Florence. After arriving, the Intercity was no longer an option and the next two Eurostars were full. So I had to wait for 2 or 3 hours and pay the 40 Euro or whatever it is. Bummer. There was a girl who lived in Milano from somewhere in Africa who was in the same boat as me (the bus, waiting, and the other train), so we hung out all day. She was sweet, but there was a bit of a language barrier. When she spoke on the phone, I heard a mix of Italian, English and her African tongue all at once, which was rather interesting to hear. When I finally got back to Milan around 3 (I had left Aniek’s around 8:45), I was exhausted. But it was a Monday and I had work to do—so I went straight to the lab and got some things done before going home. All in all, it was a really fun, but definitely tiring, weekend.

Pictures from the concert:

The famous Andrea (aka Borat) "I'm super excited" pose

Dancing Dave...

Me and Aniek!

us at the concert...a little sweaty...

close-up of Boyd

close-up of Dave

Florence! (And Modena too)

2009-07-23T09:40:00.001-07:00

Me with the Ponte Vecchio in the background

So I am rather late in getting this entry out into cyberspace…if any of you are closely following, I’m sorry for the delay (though I’m sure no one lost sleep over it…at least I hope not). These last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy, so writing has been low on the priority list. Anyways, back to Florence and Lucca! (This was…2 ½ weeks ago—the first weekend in July.)

Well…I took work off on Friday (worked longer Thursday to get a little bit more stuff in), got up early Friday morning, and took the metro over to Milano Centrale (speaking of which, I really need to get a couple pictures of that building sometime - I heard it was built under Mussolini during World War II and is a really cool, huge building). I hopped onto an intercity train bound for Napoli. Don’t worry, I didn’t go all the way…I had decided to take this train and to hop off in Modena for a quick errand and just to explore briefly. This city in Emilia-Romagna is famous for its fast Italian cars (Ferrari’s and Masserati’s in particular) and its balsamic vinegar. I walked around the town for a bit, stepped into a pretty church, and just wandered until I found a cute little Enoteca, a shop for wine and – of course in Modena – aceto balsamico. I never knew much about vinegar, but like wine, the older the vinegar is, the better it is. At this little shop, they had bottles ranging from within the past year all the way up to bottles from over 100 years ago. When I came in, the man running the shop offered me a taste test. (I didn’t know people did that for vinegar!) I tried a cucchiaino (little spoon) of vinegar from an 8-year old bottle, a 12-year old bottle, and a 15-year old bottle. I think I also got to try a 30-year old kind, but I can’t remember for sure. The man was explaining to me (in Italian of course) about how the thicknesses varies over time and about how certain ones are better on certain dishes…some types are good on salad (the “younger” ones), some on cheeses, some on meats (the “older” ones I’m pretty sure), and some on gelato!! When he told me that some people eat balsamico on gelato I looked at him and definitely didn’t hide my surprise when I asked him about it. Personally, I think that sounds a little disgusting, no matter how old the balsamico is.

Cool church in Modena...

Me inside the Enoteca...the balsamico taste-testing station is right behind me to the left on the barrel thing

Just a quick fun fact…I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my ghetto, poor-college-kid way of saving money on maps or not…but if I go to a smaller city, I take a photo of the map on my camera and just look at my camera and use that instead of purchasing a map (I’ve done this for Modena, Pisa, and Cremona at least…maybe more too lol). Pretty sad, I know, but it works.

There were a couple of things in Modena that I had heard about that I thought would be cool to see—for instance the Biblioteca Estense, a library where they have a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy from 1481, as well as an early map of Colombus’s voyages from 1501. However, because I really wanted to spend a good portion of the day in Florence, I left Modena after wandering around for just an hour or so and didn’t go into any other buildings.

When I left Modena, I decided to take a train to Bologna (on the way to Florence), thinking that I would then be able to catch a cheap train to Florence. I thought about exploring Bologna as well, but decided against it. Unfortunately my guesstimations were off and I had to take the Eurostar train, which was somewhere around 30 Euro (I think?). It was basically enough so that I didn’t save me money by having gone on that Intercity train I first took…But I arrived quickly and without any problems.

My first stop in Florence was a church called San Lorenzo. Parts of this church (which was the Medici family’s parish church) were worked on by Brunelleschi and parts by Michelangelo. I was most excited about going into the Cappelle Medicee and the Cappella dei Principi, the Medici family mausoleum where (I believe) nine of Michelangelo’s statues are. It is supposed to be quite ornate and a neat place to see. However, upon arrival, I was disappointed to learn that entrance was 9 Euro. There was no student discount and there was a separate fee for going into the church. I couldn’t bring myself to pay 9 Euro for what looked like a 2-room museum. So I paid the slightly lower fee into the church and settled for that. I knew that there would be lots of things to see and that I would be spending a lot of money already on other places…

The side of San Lorenzo

After visiting San Lorenzo, I headed over to Florence’s famous Duomo: Santa Maria del Fiore. This building, along with its baptistery and tower, is absolutely beautiful. It’s busy, decorative marble patterns, along with its sheer size, make it quite a sight to see! The baptistery is one of Florence’s oldest buildings and the doors on its east side are quite famous. In the early 1400’s, there was a competition between the most famous artists of the time to design the doors. Ghiberti won the competition and made ten unique bronze reliefs representing scenes from the Bible—ranging from Adam and Eve’s exile to Moses’s receipt of the Ten Commandments to Joshua and the Battle of Jericho to Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. After seeing and looking closely at the Baptistry doors, I decided to climb to the top of the Duomo, even though it was expensive. I had been told by my friend that it was a necessary experience in Florence! I think it cost around 8 Euro, but I paid up and started climbing. As I got near the dome inside I was able to see the frescoes on the ceiling much more clearly. It is a scene from the Last Judgement and contains some pretty grotesque images. By the time I got to the tippy-top, I think I had climbed 462 stairs (or something like that). It was tiring, but much like the tower in Cremona, the view was well worth the hike up the stairs! From the top, it is possible to see all of Florence and beyond into the Tuscan countryside.

Florence's beautiful Duomo, with the Baptistry in the front

The famous East Doors of the Baptistry

Me at the top of the Duomo with pretty Florence and Tuscany in the background

After enjoying the view for a while, I climbed down all the steps and proceeded onward to the Bargello. One of Florence’s many famous museums, this building used to be a prison where executions would frequently take place in the courtyard. This museum in particular has an impressive collection of sculptures. In addition to some interesting statues (and a cannon with the head of Saint Paul sticking out of it!), old coats of arms of old Florentine families hang around the courtyard.

After seeing the sculptures and some other neat exhibits, I walked over to Piazza della Signora, a huge piazza full of (copies of) famous statues. It is quite the hang-out spot and is quite beautiful. In addition to Michelangelo’s David (the real one used to stand here, but it has since been taken to a museum and replaced with a copy), there is also the famous Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna, along with several others. The Fontana di Nettuno (over 400 years old) sits on the piazza as well.

Michelangelo's David

After seeing the piazza, I walked around for a little while, with intentions of heading towards the station to catch a bus and try to find my hostel before darkness got too close. I walked around a while, saw some interesting stores and some that I shouldn’t be anywhere near… : )

Throughout the day, I forgot to mention, I had done some shopping. I bought a Florentine leather purse(!) and a couple other things. I ended up buying a good priced, cute but casual brown purse. I had bartered with one man in a shop to the point where he offered me a 240-Euro purse for either somewhere around 60 Euro (I can’t remember if it was 40 or 60)…but I told him I was on a student budget and really couldn’t bring myself to even spend that much. So I kept looking and found something that I liked for only 25. I got something for Michael and for Trey from a vendor close to my age who said he would give me a little discount because he “liked my face,” even though he knew I was buying something for my boyfriend. After I paid him, he asked if I wanted to “change boyfriends” and was sad when I turned him down. Shopping in Florence kinda made me laugh.

Florentine leather! So many good-smelling leather stores everywhere...

Then I caught the bus and ended up meeting two girls going to the same hostel on the bus, which was very nice. The hostel (which Andrea had mentioned to me before as looking really nice) was in a beautiful location with camping available on the grounds as well. The rooms weren’t spectacular, and I had to use a sheet to dry off with after showering (shhh don’t tell haha), but for only 20 Euro, it was well worth it. There were two really sweet Brazilian girls (around 22 and 26 or something, I think) and their mom in the room with me. I was very thankful that the Lord provided kind people (and not too crazy) as roommates for the night. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention—there’s a funny thing going on with rooms for me…I keep getting 208’s! My hostel room was 208, my dorm room here is 208, and my room next year in my dorm is 208! Question mark?

The outside of my hostel!

The foyer of my hostel!

So many keys for 208's...

As this journal entry is getting quite long, I’m going try to be a bit more succinct describing Saturday’s travels. In the morning I made my way over to the Fiume Arno (Arno River), which splits Florence in half. My first stop (which I was…nerdily…really excited about) was the Museo di Storia della Scienza (Museum of the History of Science). Unfortunately it was under renovation, so the two main floors were closed. I got to see the entry level and the basement, though, which had some really neat science and astronomy-type things. They even had an Astrolabe that Galileo Galilei used—and some old books by him! It should be really cool when they finish the museum up—I saw a display thing about it…I think if I get married someday, I’ll make my husband take me back to that museum I think.

Cool telescopes and globey things at the museum...

After the museum, I walked across the famous Ponte Vecchio, which was built in the mid-1300’s! Apparently, it was the only bridge in Florence not destroyed during World War II. (This is random but speaking of WWII, the other night I had a dream that WWIII started—the US declared war on Asia. Bad call.) This bridge has two parts—the main part and the elevated part. The part that it elevated was added on after the main part and was used by the Medici family to cross the river to and from their palace. This way, they could avoid mingling with the “common folk.”

close-up of the Ponte Vecchio with an Italian flag in the foreground...

Palazzo Pitti and the Baboli Gardens were next on the list. Unfortunately there are two separate fees and each one is almost 10 Euro. Everywhere in Florence costs a big chunk of change, so I was trying to be selective about which places I went. I decided that I would choose one of the two, and I went with the gardens (which also included a visit to a couple smaller museums). I was very happy with my decision and really enjoyed walking around the garden. There were some gorgeous flowers which I took lots of pictures of—using my new camera : ) I got to go to a costume exhibit, where they went through the changes in dress over the centuries. It was the coolest seeing the really old dresses. They even had fragments which had been pieced together from one dress from sometime around the 1400’s (I think)!!

Palazzo Pitti from the back--check out that view of the city!

All I'm saying is that if that is the view from your garden...life can't be too bad...

I had fun taking flower pictures...

Pretty rose...

After the gardens, I walked around the city a little bit more, made another quick purchase or two from the market vendors, and headed to the train station to catch my train for Lucca—I was quite exhausted after those two full days, though being in the park was very nice and a bit rejuvenating. Once I hopped on the train, it was only another hour and a half and I was back in Lucca! The sun was starting to set as the train was traveling, which was quite a treat—getting to be rolling through the hills of Tuscany, in a not-crowded train car, watching the sunset. Mmmm…mi piace!

The sign for Lucca with sunset in the background :)

A few random things:

Apparently this is how we dress...

This gelateria probably had 30 or 40 flavors!

Florentine painter with Petrarch in the background

I bought this cool piece of art for my wall! It has French around the edge...but I didn't ask questions lol

I think there's some story about this boar...but I can't remember...

really pretty Tuscan hand-painted dishes. I wish I was rich enough to buy some for my mom...

If that wasn't enough pictures for you, feel free to look at more of them: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2397293&id=6234274&l=fb3bccae45

picture links

2009-07-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here are the picture album links for all the pictures....for those of you without facebook:

Milano and Lucca
Cinque Terra and the Apuan Alps
Cremona
Torino
Pretty Flowers (mostly from Italy)

Another update on last weekend (Florence and Lucca for the Dave Matthews Band concert!) to come soon!

June 29th-July 2nd: Goodbyes, Chocolat, Bible study, moving, and work.

2009-07-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that this was the week of goodbyes. My friend Yvonne from Zimbabwe left Tuesday, as did Alirio (who goes to University of Maryland—I’m sure I’ll see him again!). Johnny left Thursday. Amanda, Christine, and Charlotte (all au pairs for families) went to their respective places, mostly with “their” kids/families to the beach within the last week. Yvonne, Samuel, Cassidy, Christine and I all went to Chocolat (the best gelateria in Milano!) for a little mini goodbye party. Johnny and Alirio were supposed to come too, but their goodbyes/work ended up occupying them for the evening. So it was just a small group, but very fun. Chocolat has a little room up near the ceiling with a little staircase going up, so we sat up there.

Gelato from Chocolat, the best Gelateria in town! I got Nutellone, Cioccolato bianco, and stracciatella!

Cassidy and Yvonne! A good parting party :)

Me and Christine :)

Samuel and Yvonne

Here are a few other pictures from hanging out with my friends here in Milano:

Me and Yvonne! I will miss her...now I have an excuse to go to Zimbabwe though!

Alirio, me, and Johnny...We were the three college kids at the Bible study Tuesday nights. I think Johnny was threatening to stab me with his (literally) sharp new Italian haircut. That's what he gets for going to a barber and saying "corti!"

We went to the Duomo a couple weeks ago to watch the Brazil vs. Italy football...ahem...soccer game projected on a large screen in the Piazza!

Our group on the steps of the Duomo watching the game...

Tuesday night, we had a small crowd at Bible Study…I brought my guitar, so we sang a little bit of praise and worship music. It was only possible because their grumpy neighbor lady (who hates them having Bible Study) moved out!

Wednesday was a very busy day—a day of moving out and moving in. In addition to my suitcase, duffel bag, big bookbag and purse, I have acquired a stand up fan and a guitar (I think I mentioned those earlier…but not entirely sure). This definitely can complicate the whole moving process. Before I move out, I need to make sure I get those two things taken care of so I don’t have to lug them around too haha… Well, there are always different processes to doing these things in different countries, and this particular process took almost all day long. I arrived at Student Services at 9:00 to get a number. They opened at 9:30 and I was the first person to be called to the Residence desk. After communicating in some Italian, I received the information for the bank. I went to the bank, paid the money for rent plus a deposit, and went back to Student Services with my receipt so they knew I paid. After that, I walked to the dormitory (about a 35-45 minute walk), where I received my key and got a little tour. It’s not the nicest place, but I’m also paying a really good price, so I guess that’s the trade-off.

My tiny little dorm room :)

After checking in, I went back to work until Signora Serri could bring my things. For various reasons (daughter leaving for the States, another daughter taking the car for her exams that were all day, the other car being broken into during the night, taking the son to some appointment, etc), our plans kept not working out. She wasn’t going to have enough time to take me to my dorm, so she ended up dropping my things off where I work and I took a taxi to the dorm. When I got there, the lock on the gate was messed up and wouldn’t open, so I had to wait on the sidewalk with all my bags (and guitar and fan) for a few minutes until someone showed up and called someone else to let us in. Whew. By this time it was sometime around 5 pm, so I moved my things in, took a shower after all the heat/sweating, and starting getting settled in.

After I put a few things in their places, I took a much-needed hour-long nap, and then went out for an aperitif with Johnny and his friends from work. It was sort of a goodbye celebration for him since he was leaving in the morning. It was really fun and I liked his friends from work…I gave one of the girls my number, so I may hang out with them another time. We’ll see I suppose.

Thursday I worked a really long day—like 12 hours, because I took Friday off.

As far as my research goes, there are some frustrations with it in general…the communication has definitely been a challenge. And it’s hard because I know that I have to report to someone both in Italy and in the US…so I am dealing with two different cultures and sets of expectations and demands. It has been an interesting experience and one that is teaching me a great deal of patience. One thing that is also a bit frustrating (in addition to the communication barriers and frustrations) is that I am very dependent on other people in order to do my work. There are subtle things that I must change in the simulations I’m running…but no one thinks to tell me about some of them, so after working on something for a day or two, sometimes I’ll find out that I missed a small change and everything I’ve done is worthless! There is no way for me to know what these tiny alterations are because there are so many intricacies buried in the simulation models I’m working with. Definitely a challenge, but I suppose it’s all just part of the experience. Thankfully the boys who developed the simulation are here most of the time and are very helpful.

Torino!

2009-07-09T10:06:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago (Saturday and Sunday), I went to Turin and met up with Andrea and her roommate from her study abroad program in France! We had such a wonderful time adn I really enjoyed getting to know Renee (Andrea's friend) a bit...

On Friday, we wandered around, got a cappuccino, went to the market (which must not have been the big, famous Saturday Turin market, because we weren’t especially impressed…), and went to the Palazzo Reale—the royal palace in Torino which was commissioned by Carlo Emanuele I and was begun in the 17^th century. The palace was quite impressive and we enjoyed the tour. We purchased one audioguide because everything was in Italian, and we passed it around some and shared it for some of the time.

Renee and Andrea standing in front of the Palazzo Reale

After going to see the Palazzo Reale, we went to the church where the famous Shroud of Turin (the relic which is said to be the shroud of Christ) is kept. They have a copy of what the shroud looks like for tourists to see, along with a version with inverted colors (like the negative of a photo). This enables people to see more clearly the body and face pattern which are seen on the shroud. The real shroud is kept inside a container in the same church—I suppose for protection?

Image of the Turin shroud and its negative that makes it easier to see

Me and Andrea...listening to the audioguide at the museum...

We went over to the Palazzo Madama, but didn’t go inside, because we had already seen (and paid for) another palace. However, we did walk up the magnificent staircase inside—a beautiful piece of work completed in 1721.

Staircase at the Palazzo Madama!

Afterwards, we walked around the city for a little while and made our way to the Po River—so beautiful!

Renee and Andrea at the Po!

We had found a hotel that was really reasonable-only 79 Euro for a room for 3 people. We decided to walk there, check in, take showers, and get dinner after all that. By the time we walked to the neighborhood of our hotel (probably a good couple of miles I’m thinking…we decided we should’ve taken a bus) and found it (with slight difficulty), it was sometime around 8:30. We were starving and exhausted, but it felt really good to freshen up and put our bags down. So we finally made it to dinner around 9:30 I think. But of course…the restaurant had lots of people waiting to be seated. So we weren’t seated until after 10:00. We had a yummy Italian dinner, complete with dessert (and free shots of some kind of local dessert liquor, complements of our waiter). Our waiter and the chef loved us (of course…three young American girls will almost always get royal treatment in Italy) and we had a really fun night. We finally finished eating and visiting around 12:30 or 1 or something…and headed back to the hotel (only like 5 minutes away).

Andrea and me with my new shirt :)

Us and our waiter!

The next morning (Sunday morning), we walked around the city for a little while, stopped at a coffee shop, saw a few sights, and went to Turin’s renowned Egyptian Museum (the 3^rd most important Egyptian museum in the world, we were told). They have an impressive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, which was so cool! Ever since I was young, I have enjoyed hearing/reading about archeology and ancient history, especially in Egypt. (Of course, speaking of archeology, Pompeii is going to be really cool too…) So that was the one thing in particular I wanted to see while in Torino. We spent several hours there (used an audio guide for this museum as well) and got to see some mummies and statues and all sorts of exciting artifacts…It made me and Andrea think of Sam, because she wants to go to Egypt for her honeymoon : )

The judgement scene from the Book of the Dead...

I think this is Ramses II. That's his wife by his leg...

Dead guy. Ew.

Pretty flowers :)

mmmm coffee!

Andrea and me...the map was so big!!

Afterwards, we made a last minute purchase of some yummy Italian focaccia, which was so rich it made Andrea feel a little sick…We went to the station and said our goodbyes, I caught my train and Andrea and Renee got on their bus to France right after I left. Era un weekend molto divertente!

Andrea and her focaccia

Funny Italian outfits! hehe...

Violins in Cremona!

2009-06-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

Cremona...the city of violins...

A typical luthier's shop window...

Last Saturday (a week ago), I had the privilege of going to an especially special little city in the southern part of Lombardy-Cremona! This city was home to the first modern violin-makers (luthiers)--the Amati family, the Guarneri family, and (perhaps most famous to the general public) the Stradivari family. Antonio Stradivari, who studied luthiery under Nicolò Amati in the late 1600's, produced such fine instruments that their quality is unrivaled even today. Curious scientists, luthiers, woodworkers, and various craftsmen over the years have tried to discovery Stradivari's "secret": there have been countless attempts to replicate conditions of the wood he used; the chemistry of his varnish; his exact ratios, proportions, and wood thicknesses. Yet no person has solved the mystery of why his violins are so perfect. Several hundred of his instruments remain (around 650 is the estimate I've heard most commonly) and they are scattered throughout the world in various hands--museums, private owners, and famous players. As for a price estimate (in case you're considering tracking one down and buying it for me!)...the most expensive publicly-sold Stradivarius violin (the Hammer) went for over $3.5 million!! Private sales have exceeded even that figure...

The town of Cremona, rich in musical history, is a still hub for the instrument-making world today. There is a school for luthiery (the school my friend Renèe was applying for) and on many street corners, one can see signs for various luthiers who work throughout the town. When I originally applied for the VT Honors Program Horton Scholarship (the way this whole Italy trip idea started), my initial project proposal involved performing a multiple case study comparison of hand-made and mass-produced violins--comparing and contrasting the manufacturing methods and examining the associated trade-offs. My original plan was to be based in Cremona for the hand-crafted-violin portion of my research. My plan ended up changing (obviously) for a variety of reasons, but needless to say, I was excited about going to Cremona for a visit while in Italy.

The train ride wasn’t bad at all—only an hour and a half from Milano. Before I went, I looked up the town map on my computer and took a picture with my camera (ghetto, I know, but when you don’t have to spend 5 Euro on a map for every city you go to, it’s definitely better). After arriving, I went to a museum with two separate parts—Museo Civico alla Ponzone and Museo Stradivariano. The former contained lots of paintings and items from Cremona from various time periods throughout the last thousand years or so. The latter was an exhibit focused on the craft of violin-making and it featured a display of tools, notes, and scraps from Antonio Stradivari’s workshop! Unfortunately the whole violin-making process was explained in Italian, so it was a bit difficult to understand the exact specifics. But it was still really cool to see everything!

violin-making exhibit!

Stradivari himself wrote (and made) that!

After the Museo Stradivariano, I walked over to the center part of town where I ran into Renèe and her mom! She was leaving the next day to fly back home and we had talked about possibly meeting up for coffee or something. So it was great to run into them! I enjoyed meeting her mom as well. We sat down at a little bar nearby, they ate lunch (I had already had a sandwich) and I got a gelato! Thinking that the “Nutella” was Nutella-flavored gelato, I got a scoop of that on my gelato. Oops…turns out it was a scoop of just straight Nutella hehe. The three of us had a nice visit, took some pictures and then parted ways.

Me and Renèe!

I went to the nearby exhibit where the Stradivarius violins are actually on display (the previous museum contained only the unfinished pieces of wood, along with his tools). In addition to three Stradivarius violins, there were two of Amati’s violins, a Stradivarius cello, and a Guarneri violin. I really wanted to take pictures, but we weren’t allowed. It was so incredible seeing these famous violins which I had read about in the past!

After seeing the violins (!), I went inside the baptistery and I climbed up the Torrazzo—302 steps to the very top of the tallest brick bell-tower in Italy (2nd biggest in Europe, I believe). There was a gorgeous view of all of Cremona and the area beyond.

The Torrazzo

The astrological clock

view from the top...

On the tower is also the world’s biggest astronomical clock. After descending from the tower, I located a few other violin-related locations within the city on the map (I had been given a free tourist map at the museum). I believe there were four places in particular: the house where Stradivari was born, his tombstone, a Cremonese luthier association with a display of violins made by members, and another museum of luthiery. As I walked over to where the map said that these places were, I saw lots of signs for different luthiers. I wandered down a couple streets, but none of the places were open (at least not to the general public). When I arrived at the park where the tombstone was supposed to be, I couldn’t find it. So I went on. Once I got to the place where the house was supposed to be, there was construction for a cinema. When I asked a lady who ran a coffee shop right around the corner if Stradivari’s house was nearby, she had no idea. So I went on. When I got to the luthier’s association, there was a sign up on the door, stating that they were in the process of moving. So I went on. Finally, when I arrived at the last museum I wanted to see, they were closed. So I walked back to the train station and caught my train to Milano after a 30 minute wait.

An overall summary of my visit…I was a little disappointed because Cremona wasn’t quite as quaint as I had pictured it. I think I had a picture in my mind and it wasn’t quite what it ended up being. Obviously, there was a bit of disappointment at the end because those things weren’t open. But I got to see some of Stradivari’s violins in the city where they were made and a really neat museum with some of his things. I loved the culture of classical music and instrument-making that can be felt around the city. Going to Cremona was definitely still a good experience and totally worth it!

A cool detailed sketch of a decorative violin scroll

Part of the sign from Stradivari's workshop!

Really cool luthier shop door!

nifty detail on a violin...

precursor of the electric violin?

Work and play...staying busy in Milano

2009-06-22T01:22:00.000-07:00

Well...It has been quite a while since I've posted an update, so I figured I probably should. Due to my brothers’ requests for a “cliff notes” version, each title and subtitle is a very brief summary of the part that follows.

Monday. Starting at Politecnico...
In a nutshell: overwhelming...

I camed to the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale (this title was the reason I didn't realize Politecnico had Industrial Engineering at first...) for a meeting with Marco, the PhD student I'm working with. He told me that I will primarily be working with one simulation (with some variations) during my time here. The Masters students who developed the simulation showed it to me. It was very overwhelming at first due to 1.) the fact that I never got a broad summary of exactly what I would be working with (the type of manufacturing), 2.) the level of complexity of the simulation, 3.) the many, many macros and the integration between Excel and Arena, 4.) the fact that everything on the computers is in Italian, and 5.) the fact that the grad student showing me wasn't speaking his primary language. I was just getting accustomed to the vocabulary for this research area in English, and now I have to know some of the Italian terms, which aren't necessarily a direct translation...

For the first few hours I was feeling like I would never catch on and understand what was going on, but towards the end of the day, some things had cleared up and I was feeling a bit more optimistic.

Tuesday. Bible Study...
In a nutshell: a blessing...

Tuesday, I went back to Politecnico and ran simulations on computers all day. It was a bit less overwhelming, but slightly boring and quiet. The two Masters students work at the Como campus and only come to Milano sometimes; also, Marco had stuff all day, so I was in the lab alone other than a couple of guys working on their Thesis. I talked with them briefly and introduced myself. They were very nice and are from Sicily.

Afterwards, I went to Bible study at the Kutnow's house (an American couple who pastor Milan Bible Church, an English-speaking church in the area). It was wonderful and a blessing to have fellowship with other people who know the Lord. The group was very welcoming (and are quite used to new faces and people coming and going) and they invited me to play Ultimate Frisbee on Saturday in the park. The group was fairly international--there were around 10 people--from African, the US, Canada, Ireland, and England. We just talked briefly about what we will be reading and discussing for the next few weeks.

Wednesday. A work update...
In a nutshell: alright...
I worked all week doing research...The project I'm working with has to do with pure flow shops in manufacturing. This particular manufacturing technique is utilized in different types of production. I'm basically taking a simulation which has been created and changing values of different variables to measure the impact on output performance and order due-date performance. It's a little boring at first, because I have to gather a fair amount of data--running simulations and performing analysis on it--it before I can start drawing conclusions about overall patterns. By the end of my time here, I'm supposed to have a research paper that could maybe be submitted to a journal or something of the sort. I have a professor at VT who will be receiving my progress that I send her as well. She is assigning the grade for this course.
Okay...enough about describing the technical details of the research. Just a few notes on my daily experiences there...

-different hours--In the U.S. the standard work day is 8-5 with a lunch break. Here, the first people typically arrive around 9:00 or 9:30 (I'm sure that maybe in some places it's earlier...). Where I'm working, Marco stays til 9 pm...most others stay until at least 6:30 or so. But here they don't eat dinner until around 8:30 or after, so it's a bit different.

-commuting--It's about 45 minutes from my door to the door of the university: about 20 walking and about 25 on the metro. The metro gets rather crowded, but it is very easy to use and understand. And, thanks to my argument with the "ATM" (company that runs the metro, buses, trains, etc in Milano) lady, I got a card which works for all aforementioned modes of transportation for 10 Euro that costs only 17 Euro to use per month.

-heat--there is a tiny little A/C unit in the lab. But so tiny that I didn't even realize it was there (definitely didn't feel its effects) until a week after I started. It is in the 90's every day and there is no air conditioning anywhere it seems. Plus the room where I work is filled with computers on which I run simulations all day long. Needless to say, it's a bit toasty. Call me a spoiled American if you want, ma mi manca aria condizionata.

-language--I knew that my research would be in English, so I thought communication wouldn't be a problem. However, I forgot about the fact that English is a second language for people and all of the files and computer programs would be in Italian. The computer and the files haven't given me too many problems. However...the whole second language thing has been very frustrating and difficult. Marco's English is quite good. However, when he explains technical things, it is very difficult to understand because of the atypical vocabulary and occasional strange sentence structure. I have to focus so much and kinda translate from one version of English to another version of English when we're talking...Whew, it’s tiring honestly rather frustrating at times.

Thursday: Italian Ice and...Bread?
In a nutshell: delicious and...question mark?

Thursday morning, one of the two boys from Sicily comes running up to me at the front of the lab. In a very rushed manner, he explains that he has made Italian Ice. I wasn’t entirely sure if he was making an offer or not though. Then he urgently motions for me to follow him, saying in English, “Hurry! It’s a race against time!” Thankfully, it doesn’t take long to walk 15 feet, so we made it before the ice melted. Whew. I had a bite of the lemon Italian Ice, which was quite good, and all of a sudden, he pulled out a bag of bread—more like rolls (they were sweet, kind of like potato rolls or something)—and he gave me one. I looked at him, rather confused, and asked if I was supposed to eat them together. He responded with something to the effect of “Yes, of course.” The two boys proceeded to tell me I could take a bite of each, or put the ice on the bread…they said sometimes Sicilians have this for breakfast. Hmmm…interesting. It wasn’t bad, but bread with Italian ice is just a bit strange to me.

One funny thing I forgot to mention previously is that these boys kept feeding me the first week. The first day, one boy had a packet of cookies and offered me one from the packet. The following day, he brought a whole packet for me (the cookies were quite good, by the way). Then the next day, I think he offered something else. I felt bad and said something like, “I don’t want you to think you have to feed me!” Aside from the Italian ice, neither has offered me any more food...I hope they understood and weren’t offended by my halfway request for no more food.

Saturday: Frisbee, sun, people, ‘soccer mom,’ and Monopoly…
In a nutshell: funnn…

During Bible study on Tuesday, Samuel (one of the people in the study) had invited us to all come to the park and play ultimate Frisbee on Saturday. So after waking up, talking online with Renee for a bit (she was getting ready to leave for Cremona for her admission/language test to the school for luthiers!), I headed over to Parco Sempione, the huge park by the castle. We played and hung out from about 12 until 4:30. It was extremely hot and sunny, so it was quite exhausting. But it was really fun...I met lots of people (mostly foreigners working or studying here) who were all great! One girl named Cassidy went to school in Ohio and we seemed to hit it off pretty well.

Ultimate!

On Tuesday, the guy from Ireland who’s my age, Johnny, had said something about “soccer moms”...and for some reason on Saturday he decided that he would start calling me that. He said that he meant a mom who shows up in all of the team colors and yells for her kids and is really into the game...I tried to tell him that that wasn’t what came to mind when I thought “soccer mom”, and that it was more about being the middle-upper class mom driving her kids everywhere in an SUV. But he still thought my reaction to calling me “soccer mom” was funny, so that’s what he’s been calling me if I see him...

Standing around during one of our many breaks...

Most of the people who came to play/watch

After Frisbee on Saturday, I was rather “knackered” as the Irish say. I went back to the apartment and showered, then went over to Samuel, Evon, and Kunda’s flat to play Monopoly. It ended up being a party of sorts and there were probably 15 people over. Some of us played an intense game of Monopoly, which lasted 4 or 5 hours. We had some good conversation and we left just in time to catch the last metro home.

The field where we played frisbee...in the distance you can see the Arco della Pace (Milan's Arch of Peace which was started by Napoleon and finished years later).

Sunday: Another picnic in another park...
In a nutshell: more fun…
During Frisbee Saturday, Adam (a guy from Canada who works with the International Church of Milan) invited us all to come to a church picnic/talent show the following day. So Sunday afternoon, I met up with Cassidy, Charlotte and Amanda. The latter two are both au pairs for families in Milano. The picnic was fun, and they ended up having me play guitar for the talent show hehe...I met some more great people, and even met a guy who graduated with a degree in Industrial Engineering...

Me playing a song for the talent show...

After the picnic, 5 other girls (Cassidy, Charlotte, Amanda, Alonka, and Christine—from the US, New Zealand, Ukraine, and Germany) and a guy named Chan went out for an aperitivo near the canals. We had a nice time here as well. I enjoyed the girls, and it was nice hanging out with some people my age who can speak English very well. As a side note, I was very sore from playing frisbee...

The younger crowd at the picnic (the girls in purple, pink and white in the front are Cassidy, Charlotte, and Amanda)

Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday: Busy busy busy!!
In a nutshell: crazy week!

Monday evening, I went for a ride on the back of Beatrice’s motorbike to Parco Sempione, where I went running with her, Camilla, and Beatrice’s friend Marta. We had a nice time and probably ran around 4 miles.

Tuesday, I went to Bible study again, which was good. Most of the same people from the previous week were there.

Wednesday, Cassidy, Amanda, Charlotte, and I went to see A Midsummer Nights’s at Teatro alla Scalla. It was my first opera...it was slightly funny to see an opera in Italy that was in English! I don’t think opera will really ever be my favorite form of entertainment by any means. But definitely a necessary experience for being in Italy. We had a bit of drama trying to get the tickets, but it finally all worked out—12 Euro tickets for the nosebleed section. We had to stand the whole time to see...but it was still good. Afterwards, we went to McDonalds near the Duomo (the one in between Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, and Louis Vuitton of course) for a little food. I ordered an Italian McDonalds specialty—a McBacon. Unfortunately though, they forgot the bacon. Oh, they also have curly fries at McDonalds here.

After work on Thursday, I took the metro a few stops and met up with some people from ICM for a little end-of-the-year Bible Study/going away party for one of the girls who’s leaving. We had an aperitivo, pizza and snacks, hung out and visited. At the end of the night, I ended up acquiring two things—a guitar and a fan! Adam and Heather brought one of the church’s guitars that no one was using. Adam used it to lead worship and then told me that he had brought that one instead of his so I could take it home. So I’ll have a guitar to borrow while I’m in Milano! Then...since Becky (the girl whose going-away party it was) is getting ready to move, her apartment was mostly empty, with the exception of some furniture and a few...fans! I’ve been so incredibly hot at night that I haven’t been sleeping well. So I asked her if I could buy one of them from her when she leaves, since it’s a bit difficult bringing standing fans with you between countries. She said yes, that I could pay her 5 Euro, and that I could take it home with me that night. Thank the Lord! I was super excited...Of course then there was the issue of taking the fan and guitar across Milan on the metro. I managed it fine, though I looked hilariously ridiculous—people were looking (some were laughing) at me the whole way. Hehe :)

Let see... Friday night, I ate dinner with Beatrice and her friend, then I met up with Evon, Christine, Cassidy, and Amanda to go to a Latin dance club! We did some salsa-ing and danced the night away. I ended up accidentally missing the last metro, so I went over to Evon’s and spent the night there.

Sorry this was so long! I’ll try to update a little more often so that this doesn’t happen again!!

2009-06-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

The typical leaning tower pose of course...

Friday, June 5^th

Last day of classes in Lucca…this past week we had a different teacher (Stefono--the one who led the wine-tasting last week--instead of Christina). He is more fast-paced and doesn’t allow us to speak English in class. He’s tough, but I learn a lot from him My Italian has definitely improved while here – I’m getting more accustomed to listening to it and a bit more comfortable with speaking it also. I’m getting used to the trains and how they work, a bit more used to ordering food also…It was a bit weird saying goodbye at the school because it seemed like such a short time to be there.

Renee, Stefono, me, and Aniek

After school, I went to Pisa because I couldn’t let myself be 30 minutes at 5 Euro away from the famous Leaning Tower and not see it. It was pretty sweet seeing it in person. At the Campo dei Miracoli, there is a beautiful baptistery, duomo, and the tower. Though it is possible to climb it, I didn’t because the tickets are 15 Euro. Troppo caro! I did go inside the cathedral, though, because it was only 2 Euro. It was very beautiful inside. It started to rain, so I headed back to the station and caught the train to Lucca. (Also met a girl who goes to Cedarville University and her friends who live in Austin on the way to the station!) I was back by 5:30 or so…Oh, and one exciting thing happened—when I was in Pisa, I was looking at some really cool jewelry a man was selling—he started to say something in English, but when I responded in Italian, he spoke in Italian the rest of the time (often times, people assume you don’t know anything so they’ll still speak in English, even if you spoke in Italian). He seemed a bit surprised (and pleased) and said something about my Italian being good! Success.

River in Pisa...so pretty!

Campo dei Miracoli, Pisa

Different saints go all the way around the baptistry

Aniek invited me and Renee over to her apartment for dinner for my last night in Lucca. It was fun to hang out with them…They went dancing somewhere afterwards, but it was outside the city walls (meaning that they had to take a car there). Since they didn’t leave til almost 11, we would’ve been getting back too late for me (my train left at 8:30 Saturday morning). So I said goodbye and just went back and did a little more packing before bed. I don’t know if I’ll get to see Renee again on this trip, but I will get to see Aniek—we’re going to the DMB concert July 5^th together.

Aniek, Renee, and me

Just a few random thoughts/things of interest…
1. Communist party! I think that in the US, if someone ran a communist campaign, it might not work so well. (Of course in my high school government class, for the mock election, my friends and I ran a successful Fascist campaign…so I suppose anything is possible) I’m not entirely sure what the country’s response would be to communists running for office…but here, there is a communist party booth where they were handing out pamphlets in one of the piazzas in Lucca:
2. Bidets. I've been places where they have little faucet/shower head thingies to spray after you go to the bathroom…but here they have actual little sink things at the height of the toilet. I thought that it was possible that that’s what they were…but wasn’t quite sure. I finally decided to go ahead and ask: bath for feet, babies or butts? Just an interesting difference lol
3. Mass transportation is cool. I wish we had more efficient systems of transportation in the US, especially for long distances. I suppose it’s so much easier here because everything is so close, but it would be so nice to be able to hop a train and go wherever for the weekend, or to take a plane pretty much anywhere for less than 75 bucks…On a side note, at the moment, I’m on a train which is running over 2 hours late. So mass transit actually kinda sucks right now…
4. Subtleties. In other countries, it seems to me that there are certain small and subtle mannerisms that can make a person stick out or seem to belong. In Italy, there are a couple of things that I can do to make me not stand out completely as a tourist (other than not hold my map up in front of my face all the time). When talking to a salesperson and hearing the spiel, there’s a certain “mmhm” sound, an occasional, quiet “si” and perhaps a slight head nod—and not too smiley. When answering the phone, it’s not “Ciao!”…it’s “Pronto” with just the right length of “r”-roll and the voice turning up slightly at the end. And it’s always being ready to say “Va bene”…in lots of situations. And saying “Allora” quite frequently. And using hands a lot when talking (though I really haven’t mastered that one yet). Just a few examples.

Saturday

I ate breakfast in Lucca and said goodbye to Signora Cerri. Then I walked to the station—I’m glad I allowed a lot of extra time, because it was raining and I had my luggage. It took quite a bit longer to get to the station with a heavy bag than without. Too many steps…

I dozed a little bit on the hour-and-a-half train ride to Firenze. When I got there, I called Danielle, a girl from my Italian class at Tech. She’s studying in Florence and we had decided that we would meet up for coffee. It was nice to see a familiar face and good to chat with someone from home. I went back to the station and got on the train at 11:10. It was supposed to leave at 11:19. Now, it is 1:40 p.m. (10 minutes after we were supposed to arrive in Milano) and we are just pulling out of the station. I was taking the train back so that I could go to a wedding with the Colombo-Serri family, but now I won’t be able to since it’s so late. It would’ve been nice, but I think it’ll be okay to relax after my busy week. Hopefully the metro won’t be too difficult with my luggage and all…

Tomorrow I’ll probably go to church and after that, I’m not sure. I start research on Monday, and I have some more reading to finish before that. That’s it for now!

Whew…a few hours later…I’m in Milano in the apartment where I’m staying. We ended up arriving in Milano 2 hours and 45 minutes late. Just one thing I have to mention because it’s kinda a big deal J I argued with someone in Italian today and got what I wanted! I had been told by Politecnico di Milano that as a student, I could get a metro pass for the whole month for 17 Euro (plus 10 Euro for the card)—not bad since a single pass is around 2 Euro I think. At the station today, I tried to buy it and the lady told me that such a thing wasn’t available. Then when I told her that it is available and that they said I could purchase it, she told me it wasn’t possible because school is closed for the summer. I continued insisting (all of this in Italian), and I told her that I was a student for the summer doing research. She didn’t believe me, and then I told her I had the piece of paper to prove that I was a student. When I took it out, she read it and handed me the form that I had to fill out. She got very friendly after she realized that I knew what I was talking about with the metro pass, and the man she was working with helped me finish getting my pass all finished. When they heard that I was an American (!!! They couldn’t tell from my accent!), they both proceeded to talk about how much they like Barack Obama. He’s rather popular over here. It was quite a success…and during the interaction, there was only a couple words that I couldn’t think of. Yayyy! I think 2 weeks ago, I would’ve had to let Signora Serri fight that battle for me…but I got to do it by myself today!

More photos, if you want to see them in album form:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2375692&id=6234274&l=9845b5aa3e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2378613&id=6234274&l=01e136d47b

mostly cooking and beautiful hikes...

2009-06-04T05:53:00.000-07:00

Giovedì (Thursday)

Cornelia and Roger (the other two students in the Pane, Vino, e Lingua class—both Swiss) and I made another meal together Thursday evening…This time, we made Ravioli di Pesce conditi con salmon affumicato (basically fish-stuffed ravioli with a salmon sauce), seppie in umido ripiene di carciofi e pinoli (cuttle fish stuffed with artichoke and pine nuts), and sgroppino (lemon sorbet with a little splash of lemon vodka and prosecco). It was good, even if there were squishy legs on the cuttle fish. We got to make the pasta from scratch, which was really cool!

Here are some [lots of] pictures:

Roger and me, making dough for the pasta

Corniglia and me, stuffing the squishy little cuttle fish

Rolling dough for pasta…

Putting the filling in…

Stamping the pasta out—it’s like using a cookie cutter!

And there you have it—ravioli!

Finished ravioli (after cooking it, of course) with salmon sauce

Bread, salad, and the stuffed cuttle fish dish

Venerdì (Friday)

Friday, we went out to a very nice lunch where I ordered a spaghetti dish with fresh tomatoes and basil for il primo piatto, a pork chop roasted with onions and an apple sauce for il secondo piatto, a mixed salad for a side dish, and crème brulee (along with some good Italian coffee) for dessert. It was all very delicious, though I must say that I think the crème brulee at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans is better…

After lunch, I went back to the school and checked my email and some train schedules. After walking around town for a while, I returned to the apartment, where I read for a while and rested. Needless to say, after that huge lunch, I didn’t need to eat dinner. Around 9:00, I went out with Aniek and Renée (two Dutch girls from my class) and Steph (their Scottish friend who is living in Lucca). We hung out for quite a while and had a good time. I went back to my apartment and went to bed around midnight, because of my plans to visit Cinque Terra the next day…I had invited them to come along, but they wanted to stay in Lucca and also didn’t want to get up early Saturday morning.

Sabato (Saturday)

In the morning, I got up bright and early (around 5:30) to go to the train station. I bought my tickets and hopped on the train…I went first to Viareggio (a beach town about 20 minutes from Lucca), changed trains, went to La Spezia (another town about an hour or so further), changed trains, and finally went to Monterosso (the furthest of the 5 villages which form the Cinque Terra). The trip was originally supposed to take 2 ½ hours-ish, but due to the fact that I arrived in La Spezia 5 minutes after the previous train departed, I had a 1 ½-hour wait, which lengthened my trip a bit. I don’t know exactly when I arrived, but it was still with plenty of time left in the day.

Cinque Terra is a section of land where the mountains meet the sea. There are five (cinque) quaint little fishing villages along this piece of land (terra). These villages are precariously placed on the side of the mountains, with terraced vineyards climbing the slopes behind them. The multicolored houses contrasted against the green mountains and the blue sea offer quite a sight. Between the towns, there are paths which people can hike. (It is also possible to take boats or the train between towns.) Altogether, I think the hike is between 6 and 7 miles long. Some parts are more difficult and some aren’t so bad. But there are plenty of perfect photo spots. This area has become quite a tourist attraction in the last 10 years or so, but it is still incredibly gorgeous. I saw more Americans at Cinque Terra than I have seen my entire stay. While waiting for the train, I hung out with 3 girls from Penn State. While hiking, I met some girls from University of Georgia and visited with them for a while. I also met and hiked with a guy from Clemson for a pretty long stretch of the way. Also, a momentous occurrence happened—first Hokie spotting! I met a group of grad students from Virginia Tech who had been in Milano a week before. Altogether, it was a great day—and incredibly beautiful!

Photos:

A cool little building in Monterosso

Pretty flowers and the sea. Mi piace…

Pretty view…

Me, after hiking up the first mountain…Vineyards, mountains, sea, and sky—pretty much sums it up…

Overlooking Vernazza…

Pretty flowers and Corniglia in the background

Really cool flower! (My Clemson friend, who is a horticulture major, told me that it is a passion flower)

Gorgeous blue sea and a little stone building…If you click on the photo, you can see it in higher resolution...

Domenica (Sunday)

After the busy day of hiking and riding trains, I took Sunday easy…I went to mass in the morning with Signora Cerri, which was nice. I couldn’t understand the majority of what was being said. The interior of the church was incredibly beautiful though. Afterwards, I got a cup of coffee with her and her friend. It was raining—a very cozy day to stay indoors. So I did just that. I took a nap for a while, read for quite a while, watched a little bit of TV, etc. It was very relaxed and nice. Oh, one more thing…checked my email and facebook messages very briefly at an internet point and found out something crazy—our family friend Jared was in Florence when I was the other weekend! I had seen someone who looked just like him, but I didn’t think it could possibly be him…so I didn’t say anything. (When I finally got the courage to say hello, this person was leaving the station.) I sent him a facebook message and it turns out that it was him!!! I can’t believe I didn’t say hello…

Lunedì (Monday)

Nothing too exciting Monday. It was still raining Monday as well. After school, I got lunch with my friend Renee (from the Netherlands), bought a Dave Matthews Band ticket(!!!), and headed back to the apartment. Regarding Dave Matthews Band…don’t think I mentioned it, but he’s playing in Lucca July 5^th!! I’m planning on coming back for the concert—I’m hoping to spend a couple of days in Florence that weekend, then proceed onto Lucca—maybe go to the beach that afternoon and then onto the concert Sunday night! I’m staying with Aniek, my other Dutch friend.

Also, today, Signora Cerri’s four-and-a-half-year-old grandson (Giacomo) was at the house. He had been feeling sick, so she’s been taking care of him during the days. However, with his energy level, it was clear he was feeling better. He is SO cute! I played around with him—running around/romping on the floor and such—for an hour or two.

Here’s a picture of Signora Cerri and Giacomo:

Martedì (Tuesday)—la Festa della Republica!!

Tuesday was Italy’s...birthday, I guess. The birthday of Italy as a republic anyways. No school or anything. Our language school arranged an outing, however, to Equi Terme, a little village in the heart of the Apuan Alps. It was possible to swim in the pool, visit the spas there, see the caves, or go hiking. Renee, Aniek, five other people from the school, and I went on the hike. Originally we were told it wasn’t very hard. And we thought we had been told that it was a two-and-a-half-hour hike. However, it ended up being around five hours (maybe a little more). In all, we hiked about 10 miles. Though we were all tired at the end, it was definitely well worth it. The Alps(!) were gorgeous…There were some parts where the scenery (wildflowers, mountains, etc) reminded me of The Sound of Music. Also, it was wonderful being able to drink cool, fresh, crystal clear water from the mountains at a couple of points along the way. I think that in the last few days, I have seen some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life.

Much like Cinque Terra, pictures really don’t do justice…but here’s a feeble attempt:

little village in the mountains...

It was a perfectly beautiful day for a hike :)

I'm in the ALPS!!

Beautiful view

Me, Renee, and Aniek (my two Dutch friends)

an especially cool looking moutain...

panoramic...

Mercoledì (Wednesday)

Renee, Aniek and I went to the beach after school on Wednesday, and it was absolutely gorgeous! I've never been somewhere where it's possible to see huge mountains surrounded by clouds from the beach! It was so nice being at the beach and getting some sun. We took the bus to Viareggio (a little beach/resort town about 20 or 30 minutes away), had a nice little lunch, then we walked for about 30 minutes to get to the free beach. (The beach is really close to the bus stop, but it's 20 Euro for a spot there...walking is okay when the beach is free!) It was a very relaxing, enjoyable afternoon. I wish Milano was closer to the coast...

Thursday, June 4th, 2009-Day 16

Well, finally I’m caught up to date. Nothing too exciting has happened so far today. I've been quite busy lately, as is obvious...Today I'm going shopping with Renee and Aniek for a little bit, then I might just go for a walk around the town. I'm hoping I can go for a little run afterwards, and then relax. Tomorrow, since it's my last day in the area, I think I might go to Pisa for an hour or two to see the Campo dei Miracoli (the square with Pisa's famous leaning tower and the beautiful duomo). I definitely want to see it in person since it's so close (maybe a 30 minute train ride from here).

Oh, just one more though, regarding health. My cough is less frequent, though I am quite congested. This cold thing certainly doesn't want to go away. Maybe I should get medicine for congestion now, I don't know...

another update with more pictures...

2009-05-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

Martedì

On Tuesday, after I last wrote, we had our cooking class! We made a wonderful (if I do say so myself) Italian meal…Per l'antipasto, abbiamo fatto crostini di salsiccia e stracchino; per il primo piatto, abbiamo fatto insalata di farro estiva; per il secondo piatto, abbiamo fatto verdure ripiene; e per il dolce, abbiamo fatto tiramisu. I thought it was all great...l’aceto balsamico e l'olio d'oliva toscana (the balsamic vinegar and Tuscan olive oil), as well as the fresh basil and other spices definitely make the meal very fresh and delicious.

The table while we were preparing the food…

The wine we had with dinner and the balsamic vinegar we used…

The appetizer (crostini di salsiccia e stracchino)

L'antipasto and il primo piatto (insalata di farro estiva)…

The stuffed vegatables…

Tiramisú! (which means “pick-me-up” in Italian)

Mercoledì

The view from Monte Carlo

On Wednesday afternoon, we went as planned to the farm. We took a passegiata around the piccolo paese (small town) of Monte Carlo. It’s about 20 kilometers away from Lucca. This little town is at a higher elevation than Lucca and there were a couple great overlooks. After strolling the streets for a few minutes, we went inside la Chiesa di Sant’Andrea, a pretty little church with several paintings, including Madonna in Trono Col bambino, painted in the 1400’s by Francesco Anguilla.

After seeing Monte Carlo, we went over to la Fattoria il Poggio. We had a look at one of their vineyards and saw some of the older machines they used to use to make olive oil. There were lots of pretty flowers around as well. After having a tour of the surrounding area, we went to the sitting area and spent the afternoon there, chatting, eating and drinking. We sampled several different types of wine which they make there, and we ate a lot—bread, salami, prosciutto, pecorino cheese, bruschetta (made with fresh olive oil and garlic! Mmmmm…), olives (yuck), sundried tomatoes, etc. Afterwards, we had biscotti with a very sweet, caramel-colored Tuscan dessert wine called Vino Santo. After a couple hours, we left to go back to Lucca. There was a tremendous storm—it was raining and hailing!

Afterwards, I went to a coffee bar and had a cappuccino with the two other students in the class. Then I headed back to my apartment. I had a nice visit with Signora Cerri and then studied, read, and put pictures on my computer.

Thankfully, I slept well both last night and the night before. I think that is all for now…In a little while, I will be cooking another meal…I think fish is on the menu today! Ciao!

Tuscan Countryside

Tuscan Vineyard

A street in Monte Carlo

Fattoria il Poggio

Chiesa di Sant'Andrea

Adesso sono in Lucca!

2009-05-26T05:37:00.001-07:00

A view from one side of Lucca...click on the pictures to see the full size...

Lucca, the town which was home to the famous composer Puccini, é una bellissima paese…It is exactly the way one would picture a small Italian town. Tall buildings housing restaurants, gelaterias, and various other shops line the narrow cobblestone streets. The lofty towers in the city are accents among the beautiful chiese (churches) and the old monuments scattered throughout the city. Pedestrians and bicyclists travel throughout the picturesque city; within the city walls (le mure di città), automobile traffic is limited and sometimes not allowed at all, aside from the occasional taxi.

On Sunday, I took a taxi from the railroad station to my home for the next few weeks and I met my hostess here, Signora Cerri (not my hostess in Milano, Signora Serri). She is a sweet Italian lady who speaks not a bit of English. She rents one room in her house out to students for the language program in which I am participating. Parts of her house remind me of my Great-Great-Aunt Ruth’s house with lots of old furniture and decorations--except this house has a touch of Italy. The room in which I am staying is beautiful. The ceilings are probably 20 feet tall and there is a queen sized bed and a single bed—way more room and bed space than I need! Anyways, on Sunday, I got settled in here and went for una passaggiata (an evening walk) along a small part of the walls just to explore a bit. I got to see the sun start to set over gli Alpi Apuane (Apuan Alps), which was a beautiful sight…

Yesterday I started my language program in the morning. I hadn’t slept very well, so when my alarm went off, I apparently decided (in my sleep, of course) that it wasn’t necessary for me to get up yet. I had a dream that I was telling someone I didn’t have to get up...I forced myself to wake up for two reasons: (1) there was probably a reason I was having that dream and (2) I had a feeling that was not a good dream to be having. It was over 30 minutes past when I meant to wake up…I took a very fast shower and ate a rushed collazione with the Signora (very limited conversation, of course). I asked her to show me the best way to get to the school on my map which I had purchased on Sunday, and then I headed out. Thankfully, it’s a less than a 15-minute walk to the school and I had already gotten my things together the night before. So I got there in time.

After arriving, I had a short conversation/test with one of the teachers, and then was told which class to attend. Several other new students came as well…Most of the students are adults, but there are a few who are my age. In my class, there are about 10 students; two of the new students are a married Dutch couple of retired age who are the cutest and nicest people ever and there are also two Dutch girls my age (no relation to each other or to the aforementioned couple). One of the Dutch girls, I found out today, is a violinist and is taking these language classes because she wants to get into a violin-making school in Cremona! It’s amazing how many people one can meet with similar interests… (I don’t think I mentioned it…but one of the ladies I met at the church in Milano is from England and plays violin. She offered for me to come and play her violin if I miss mine!)

The class was good—it’s around the level where my class at school left off, the primary difference being that this class is completely in Italian. I think that it is good because I am forced to understand the language much better. The biggest problem is that I can’t quite formulate my questions very well. I can understand most things we cover in the class, but when I want to ask a grammar question, it is very difficult to form my question and to ask it properly. I end up feeling like a bumbling idiot who can’t speak…but this is the way we get better at a language apparently? And I am…I think. I realize how much I don’t know, but I think that I am reviewing most things that I do know and learning new things.

After the class, I went out to lunch with some other students. Then I rested at the apartment for a bit, went to the school to use the internet, went back to the apartment to drop off my computer, and finally returned to the school for my afternoon class—part of the “vino” portion of the Pane, Vino, e Lingua class which I am taking this first week. I, along with two other students, met the teacher at the school and we walked to a local wine shop for a wine tasting. We sat outside for 2 or 3 hours, learning about three particular Tuscan red wines. Again, it was all in Italian. I think that my Italian was the poorest among the group, but I still followed along as much as I could. Though it made me wish my Italian was better, it was still very interesting. We had formaggio pecorino, prosciutto, and salame with the wine.

Afterwards, I headed back to the apartment. I read for a little while and started making some plans for travel around Italy. I don’t have internet there (there’s wifi at the language school), so I looked through an Italy travel book that I brought…I still don’t know exactly when I will go to different places, but I looked at possible dates. While in Italy, I’m hoping to go to Cinque Terra, Pisa, Firenze, Venezia, Roma, Cremona, and possibly Pompei, Amalfi, and/or Torino. Some of those will have to be in the same trip because of their locations…I’m getting ready to look up all the train ticket prices.

Unfortunately, I am having a very difficult time sleeping at night. Last night, though I was tired, I ended up lying in bed for at least an hour and a half, coughing. I keep waking up really early too (though usually I can go back to sleep after a little while). I ended up only getting about 5 or 6 hours of sleep, which isn’t enough to help me to actually heal. Regarding my health...thankfully my pink eye seems to be getting better. I have faithfully been putting my eye drops in 4 times a day. My cough is still quite bad though.

I’ve finished the language classes for today. Around 4:00 there is a tour of the walls with a guide. I will probably go on that tour for a little while, and then I have to head back to the school at 5:00 for a cooking lesson. I don’t know what we are cooking today…I’m sure I’ll let you know next time! After lessons tomorrow, the two other students and I who are taking the Pane, Vino, e Lingua classes will be going to a vineyard and una fattoria dei vini, so I will probably not write for a couple more days. I think that that is all the news so far…

Chiesa di San Michele. I pass this piazza on my walk to school...

A close-up of the painting above the door of la chiesa in Piazza San Giusto

Chiesa di San Giovanni. There are concerts here each evening for those who wish to buy tickets...I might go to one next week when my evenings are free...

Torre di Guinigi...this tower has trees on top, as you can see! From the top, there is a nice view of the city...

The clock at the top of Il Torre delle Ore. Tourists can pay a few Euro to climb the tower...

this one is going to be long...

2009-05-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

When I wrote this I was on the train on the way to Lucca...I've since arrived and had my first day of classes. More on that later.

Domenica (Sunday)

I am currently on a train on my way to Lucca. This small Tuscan town is about 30 minutes from Pisa, so hopefully I will see the famous leaning tower of Pisa sometime in the next couple of weeks. One special thing about this city is that it still has the original city walls around the perimeter. I have heard that the top is now a nice jogging/walking path (about 2 ½ miles, I think). I hope that I will be feeling better soon so that I can take advantage of it.

Just a thought…if planes were more like these Italian trains, traveling wouldn’t be half as bad. There is a decent amount of room on these trains and there are little tables and outlets so that people can do work—and this is in 2^nd class. The Regionale or Regional trains aren’t as nice, I’ve heard, but these ones are not so bad.

Well, I suppose that I should give an update from the last few days…It seems like a lot has happened since I wrote last.

Venerdì. Il 22 di maggio

My tasks for Friday were to go to Politecnico again to get registered completely and to apply for my residence permit (il permesso di sogiorno). I also was hoping to look into buying a cell phone and some cough syrup. Signora Serri and Sofia came with me to do this shopping—this was nice because as I found on Thursday, I am not very good at buying things (and understanding) in Italian. I will get more practice, but things like medicine and cell phones are good things to get right. We found and purchased a cell phone and some minutes for around 70 Euro and we also bought some cough syrup.

After shopping, we went back to the house and I rested for a bit. I practiced my Italian a little bit with Sofia. She is coming to the U.S. next month…I told her (mostly in Italian) about the log cabin that our mutual friend with whom she will be staying owns. My appointment at Politecnico was at 3:30. I went to the metro station around 3:00 and purchased a 2-day metro ticket. I got to the university quite easily—the metro isn’t hard to figure out. I went to the University and got everything with them taken care of. They explained to me that I had to obtain my residence permit within 8 days of arriving…because of my trip to Lucca, I had to get it done by the following day (Saturday). Very few things are even open on Friday evening or Saturday, so I had a feeling that obtaining it would not be easy. After leaving campus, something monumental happened—an Italian asked me for directions to the metro. I have been leaving my camera at home, keeping my chin up and my map in my purse (until I need it) so that everyone doesn’t know I’m a foreigner. Apparently it’s working. (Until I try to order a sandwich, that is)

I went to l’ufficio postale centrale (the central post office), which is near Milano’s famous Duomo. At Politecnico, they had told me that that was the only place I could go to get the residence permit application packet that wouldn’t be closed. The man at the post office told me to go somewhere in fast Italian. I didn’t understand, so he repeated it and then said it in English. Unfortunately, even when translated, his directions were a bit vague: “out the door, left, four”. I didn’t know if I was supposed to go to the 4^th building to the left along the Piazza, go down the 4^th street to the left off the Piazza, take the next street to the left then go 4 streets down, or take the street to the left and go to the fourth building. I left and looked around for a while, then had to go back in and ask again. Thankfully a kind Italian lady came and walked with me. We finally figured out which building he meant and I went in. Here I asked (in Italian) at a service window where to go to get the application packet. She told me a window number, so I went there. I waited behind a family for a while until a man came up to me and said that I needed “un biglietto” (a ticket). He took me over to a little thing where he pushed a button and got a number for me and gave it to me. When my number was called, I went up to the window…and asked for the packet. In very fast Italian, the lady responded shaking her head. The words that I caught were “finito finito.” A lady nearby said that she had said they were all gone. So I couldn’t get the packet. The lady at the window said to return in the morning and that there might be an application then. I was a bit concerned by this answer, but left as there was nothing I could do.

I went back to the apartment for a little while before leaving again to go to a church service on the south east side of town. The Fiore family are American missionaries that live in Milano—some of our friends in the U.S. gave me their contact information and they had invited me to a hear an American guest speaker at their church. I really enjoyed getting to go and see their church—it is so neat to worship with believers in Christ in another country, because though they speak another language, they worship the same God. The church was very welcoming and Mrs. Fiore and her daughter Nina both gave me their phone numbers. After the service, I took the metro and met Beatrice and some of her friends. We went downtown for a while, which was fun. I got a chance to keep practicing my Italian with her friends and with a few of her friends’ friends we met. I am getting better as I practice…

We got back pretty late (around 2:30 or 3:00)…this probably was not the best decision considering my illness and the fact that I needed to try to work out my residence permit issue around 8:30…

Sabato. Il 23 di Maggio

On Saturday, I woke up bright and early to get the Permesso figured out. Thankfully Signora Serri was in the house (I was hoping that she hadn’t left for the countryside yet), so she could help me. We spoke with Lorna, the housekeeper, to find out where she got her permesso di sogiorno, and she told us. She also told us that she had an extra application, which she gave me! I started to fill out the application at the house. Signora Serri said that we would finish it at the place because there would be a long line. I made copies of everything I needed. Signora Serri kept telling me that she thought I wouldn’t need the residence permit since I am here for such a short time. But since the university said that I would need it, we decided to go. When we went to the place where we could submit the application, they finally told me that I didn’t need to have the document after all. I only had to fill out 1 piece of paper and then I would be all done. I did so, they stamped it and made a copy, and I was on my way. They said it should have gotten taken care of at the airport already. So I wasted quite a bit of time and 15 Euro (on un marco da bollo, a stamp required for the application). But at least I am all taken care of now and it is okay for me to be in Italy :)

After attending to that business, I went back to the house and went back to bed for a few hours. When I woke up, my eyes were very, very irritated and had lots of…stuff…in them. I washed them off and realized that I now have pink eye. I think that perhaps one of the worst things to be in a foreign country is sick. Well, there are a few things that are bad to be in a foreign country: sick, lost, illiterate, and naïve. I was very upset because I can’t see a regular doctor without being registered in the Italian health care system and I thought le farmacie (the pharmacies) were all closed by Saturday afternoon. I talked to my parents online for a while. After I said goodbye to them, I called Mrs. Fiore to ask her what she thought I should do. She told me the name of two medicines to get—one type of eye drops and some powder to put in water to feel better all around. I went to la farmacia (which was thankfully still open) and got these two medicines. Having conjunctivitis is no fun, especially in another country when I have to travel and be around another family. I have consistently been washing my eyes and hands and putting the drops in since I got them. I went to bed after dinner (which we didn’t have until 9:00 or 9:30) and after talking to Trey for a bit...

il Duomo in Milano:

Il castello in Milano:

The fountain in front of the castle

Discovering Milano

2009-05-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

The awards ceremony was interesting last night. Mostly just because it was the atmosphere of a nice picnic, which of course involves lots of socializing. Since my Italian is not very good, I definitely felt a bit out of place, but I was glad to get to go last night. I figure that if I wasn't staying with a family I wouldn't have opportunities like that. The family also invited me to come to a wedding with them in two weeks if I make it back from Lucca in time. It could be really interesting seeing a wedding in another country! I don't know much about Italian weddings...

Today i slept in until 9:00, then took my time getting ready this morning. Signora Serri went to their home in the countryside today (they run a Bed & Breakfast in Emiglia-Romana, about an hour and a half out of Milano). Sofia and Giacomo were at school and Beatrice was riding Sofia's horse at the Centro Ippico, so aside from the lady who helps keep the house (Lorna), I was the only one there when I got up. I ate la mia colazione (my breakfast) and showered, then looked online and at maps to figure out how to get around Milano. Camilla (the oldest daughter) stopped by this morning also, so I've now met all the kids in the family (I met Giacomo last night).

My goals for today were: to meet and fill out some paperwork for the graduate student with whom I'll be working at Politecnico di Milano, to take care of some paperwork for my University ID, to visit the Police Station to obtain my Permesso di Sogiorno (residence permit), and to get acquainted with the city and its Metro system a bit. Unfortunately, the person with whom I had to do the paperwork wasn't available today, so I will have to do that tomorrow afternoon and obtain my Permesso di Sogiorno after that. I did meet Marco, though. He was very friendly and helpful. There were a few forms for me to fill out and after a bit, I was on my way. I headed back to the main campus (I will be working a few blocks down a street from the primary campus which is located at Piazza Leonardo da Vinci). I walked around campus for a bit, and after finding out that I wouldn't be able to get the necessary paperwork done until Friday, I left. I walked around for a while, stopped by una gelateria and had una coppa del gelato con fragoli, and passed by local vendors putting their clothes and various goods away. The strawberry gelato was molto delicioso. I walked around for a while more and took the Metro back to near the apartment. I stopped at una caffetteria and had a late lunch (a crepe with grilled vegetables and cheese). Trying to order in Italian was definitely humbling and slightly comical, though perhaps not so much to the people trying to understand me. In the end we got it figured out though.

That's it so far...Now I think I'm going to lie down for a little while and read. I've been walking around a lot today and I think I need to rest some for my body to get better. Ciao!

Ciao, Italia...

2009-05-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sono in italia adesso!

Yesterday evening, my parents dropped me off at BWI and I flew into Heathrow overnight and then into Linate in Milano today. Thankfully, the trip was not as long as my trip to India last summer. The rather unfortunate part of this trip is that I am sick--not quite what I had hoped for. I went to the doctor Monday about my lingering cough that I've been having. They said that it was just allergies. But unfortunately, now I have a sore throat and a fever and an achy body :-\ I'm hoping and praying that it can clear up before I go to Tuscany on Sunday.

My parents and I at the airport

Right now, I'm in Milano at the Colombo-Serri's apartment (the family I am staying with until the end of June--friends of a family friend). They picked me up from the airport today around 3:30. They have been so kind and have welcomed me and made me feel very much at home. I am staying in their oldest daughter's room. She has her own apartment in Milano with a couple of friends. I've gotten most of my things unpacked and arranged (though I will have to bring a fair amount to Tuscany with me, I suppose).

The family I'm staying with has 4 children--3 girls and a boy. The daughters are 13, 20, and 22, and the son is almost 18. So far I've only met Signora Serri and Beatrice and Sophia, her two younger daughters. Their apartment is really neat. There is the cutest veranda along the back of it. More later, but I am getting ready to leave with the family to go to an awards ceremony. Sophia rides horses and will be getting a prize tonight, I believe.

"my" bed

the view down from the balcony into their little interior parking lot which they share with the other apartment owners

the beautiful greenery covering the railings!

The view out "my" windows

High ceilings and french doors that open onto the veranda

The other aparments above

Apartments above on the other side...pretty roses too :)

Getting Ready...

2009-05-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

After all these months of applying for funding and planning a trip, it is finally going to be a reality! The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful opportunity to travel to Italy to take language classes, assist with Industrial and Systems Engineering research, and hopefully to travel. This is my first trip to Europe (unless sitting in Heathrow Airport in London counts). I am excited about what this summer will bring, though a bit hesitant to be gone for 12 weeks.

I should hopefully have a much better internet connection than when I was in India, so I hope to post pictures along with blog entries. This one was brief, but there will be more to follow as time gets closer...For now, I've got some sleep to catch, and then lots of packing tomorrow...

Arrivederci!