Un Aggiornamento Buono

Hello I Miei Amici and La Mia Famiglia:

I am very unhappy to report that it has finally gotten cold in Firenze and that I am ill prepared for it. At the moment, I am fighting very strongly the urge to get sick. Many other students in the program are sick with colds but I refuse to get sick. As of now I have been having a dull nausea. Not fun. I am pretty sure it was the extreme differences from this past weekend till now in temperature. Unlike this past weekend, It is POURING rain. I had to walk from the duomo to my appartment in flip flops and let me say that cobblestones are impossible to walk on without getting wet. If I still had that boot I would be a gonner.

Last week, the Bing Family treated us Stanford students to a night at the opera. It was a great cultural experience but I do not think the opera is my form of high culture. The costumes were entertaining and the story line was funny but it was hard to pay attention for so long and try to translate things in my head the entire time! Other than that, it was a great time and I enjoyed getting dressed up and meeting up as a big group. At least now I can say I have been to an Italian Opera. Oh and we had amazing seats so that is another reason to thank Mr. and Mrs. Bing.

This past weekend I adventured to Cinque Terre with 5 other friends. We got up extremely early and met at the train station. The train ride is at most 3 hours and we got into Riomaggiore (the first of the 5 towns) at about 10 am. Just stepping off of the train you are hit with a vast body of water and beautiful scenery all around you. The weather had changed drastically from the morning about it had to be in the mid-70s. We got to our hostel but realized it was a bit of a walk to our hostel. To be exact: 166 steps that most were at a vertical angle. I think till that point it was the most exercise I have done in 2 months. Our hostel is what you would expect of a hostel – a pretty gross bathroom and very little but beds and a dining room table. But, the view from our hostel was incredible. It looked straight out over the town and onto the water. (Picture Below)



The first thing on our agenda was to go to the fifth land: Monterossa. This town is known for its beaches. We took the time to lay on the beach and play in the water but I was antsy to get moving and see what each town had to offer. After a couple hours and failing to find a good place to eat we took a train to the fourth land: Vernazza. Vernazza was possibly my favorite of the lands. There were a lot of people but the chance to just sit out at the dock and look around was worth it. We eventually had to move because a boat full of tourists were heading right towards us and needed to dock. We ended up taking a short hike up hill above the town to an incredible spot that allowed us the see the setting sun and the town below us. We took many pictures of course and just hung out and watched the sun go down. We then headed back to Riomaggiore to shower off and get ready for a dinner out. The fact that I do not really like fish put me in a bad position when eating out because Cinque Terre is known for its fish. I ended up having some pest gnocchi and was pleased with the outcome. Who knew I would like gnocchi so much? The rest basically consisted of us hanging out in our hostel/deck talking for a very long. It was a great bonding moment.



The next morning, we all woke up at 9 am. I was the person in charge of waking everyone up (lucky me) but for some reason I was unable to sleep. Riomaggiore is a pretty creepy place when everyone is asleep – very eerie and deserted. After everyone had woken up, we headed out on our first hike. We hiked from Riomaggiore to Manarola. It was a very easy walk but you walk along a path which they basically call the path of love. The walls are all filled with names like “James + Cindy = Love” and so on. Plus they had a guy on an accordian playing “Strangers in the night.” It was pretty romantic. We got to the second land which did not have much too it and A LOT of people so we just headed to the third land. We had to climb 400 steps to get to Corniglia but the pictures and views were entirely worth it. Corniglia was definitely the least touristy and the most Italian. It was beautiful and different from the previous 4 we had seen. It was the one that was talked about the least by Rick Steves but was one of our favorites. See? Rick Steves does not know all.

We then headed back to Florence but it was by far my favorite weekend so far in Italy. I actually don’t know how one could have a better time. The beautiful weather, scenery and good company made for the best time yet! I suggest to anyone going to Italy to spend about two days in Cinque Terre because it is breathtakingly beautiful. I would go back in the drop of a hat.

I have finally noticed this week that I am in the flow. I have a routine…in Italy. It is quite strange to think about. I know the people pretty well now and expect to see them everyday. We have the same bars/clubs that we go to every so often. I have my favorite sandwich shop, which they definitely recognize me at. I think they recognize me at this one gelato place – I should work on making sure they don’t recognize me anymore.

My classes are continuing to go well. I have to say that I am kind of disappointed in the classes as a whole though. I know I do not have the range of choices that I have at Stanford and maybe because I am taking a class out of my major but I am not that happy about them. Art History is very interesting of course but the teacher is a bit pretentious and plays big favorites. I don’t think she realizes that most people in that class have never taken art history in their lives. My other class (Sociology of Migration) is all in Italian and that means it is HARD. The teacher is Arab with a French accent but only speak Italian to us. This means it is very hard to understand what he is saying. The basic topic is interesting but I don’t think I can ever really like it since the teacher is very unorganized and always late (plus answers his phone during class). AND, the class is 3 hours! I am really testing my attention span here but so far I am doing pretty well at paying attention to the entire time. Finally, I am taking an Italian class and I love it. I get to improve my Italian even more and we talk about Italian culture a lot. I like the ability to have discussions about things that happen in our everyday life.

Tonight we are having a joint dinner with another host family and Stanford students. It should be fun. It is sort of like a family event. I am always pointed out as being really white. It is GREAT. Especially when I am with someone who is Mexican, a girl who is Filipino, and a girl who is Indian. OF COURSE I am white. I don’t feel like I look that different from them but I guess I do to them.

This weekend I am heading on a day trip to Perugia. There is a chocolate festival and this is the last weekend. I expect the chocolate to be plenty and expensive. At least I will be eating well☺ I plan to have a laid back weekend and prepare for midterms since they are in two weeks and we have our Bing trip the week after next. We are going to Pompeii, Napoli and the Amalfi Coast. It will be SO fun. We are being put up in a nice hotel and we get a big lunch and dinner while there. I am also excited to all be living together for once.

I will update in a week or so! I miss and love you all!

PS: I am putting up a Snapfish album of my adventures so far. More to come later.

Another Week of Italian Goodness

Ciao!

It has been awhile since my last post but time has been slipping by so quickly and I have finally realized that I am here to STUDY in Italy. This would mean that I actually have homework, papers, and tests. I have to be honest that these classes are less than thrilling and confirms that I would never be an Art History major. It is interesting information since I know very little about Art or its History but to me it does not seem to be important information. I have to kick that ‘tude if I am to do well in the class though☺

Since my last post, I said I was going to go to Viareggio (a beach town in Italy). However, in a tragic incidence I slept through my alarm and woke up 10 minutes before the train left. I rushed to the train station and missed the train about when I arrived. I could not figure this out for the longest time though and ended up having a mental breakdown of sorts in the train station because the people who speak even a little bit of English or understood my fragmented Italian were no where to be seen. On the Brightside, I went home and slept and ended up going to the wireless café and working on homework with some friends and having a relaxed Saturday. Plus, the beach was overcast so no big loss.

That night, we attended an “Aperitivi” party. This was a bring your own beverage of choice and enjoy appetizers. A previous student (my Italy Student Advisor) hosted the party. He is doing something unknown/nothing in Italy. It was a nice time to see my trip-mates outside of the center since we never hang out all together. However, there is still a bit of a divide but I think it is breaking down a little more? Who knows, it might last all trip but to be realistic we probably never be a close knit group!

The following day my friends and I attended an Italian soccer game! Whoop-dee-doo. It was fun to say I did it and it was fun to see the other Italian fans and how involved they get in the game but I was pretty bored since it is just a lot of kicking of a ball rather than a fast paced game like basketball, volleyball or football.

That night Amanda, my roommate, and I went to church at Santa Croce. This is the church I see from my window that has the tombs of Galileo and Michaelangelo (Just to name a couple). There is a lot of construction that is occurring so it was not as impressive as it would be without. There is very little emotion in the mass and I can’t understand the homilies. Someday…Someday.

This past week is a bit of a blur. I have had a lot of class and have been going to watch the MLB playoffs at an American bar. Two of my closest friends here are avid fans of the Oakland A’s. Therefore, I am supporting the A’s because of them and because of West Coast, AL pride. This week we had our Bing Dinner out and we had a great time but rushed out at the end so we could catch the end of the A’s game.

Recently, I have been feeling in a bit of a slump. I realize that it is not just a 2-week vacation that I am on but that I will be here for a couple more months. So, if I speak with you and I sound less than completely happy than it is just my second round of getting accustomed to living in a new place. I think I broke out of this slump a bit last Thursday. My good friend from Stanford, Ryan Williams, came to visit his girlfriend that is in my program as a surprise. I met with him before the surprising and went to lunch with him and took him to some Florence sights. I think I needed this piece of home/Stanford since I am without any close or even historical friends. Even though this was the only time I would see him, it was very refreshing to hang out with someone who wasn’t the same ole same ole. Also, that night we got all of our friends to go out (which is hard considering people live so far away from each other) and go dancing. It was a ridiculously fun time where we could dance to some American music, Italian music and some classics like “grease lightening”, “YMCA”, “We will Rock You”, “I will Survive”. I felt like I was at a really bad wedding or karaoke session but it is so much more exciting to hear those songs in Italy. Because we all know how bad “YMCA” is.

The next morning, my roomie and I had to wake up really early so we could go to the U of Florence to attend an American History lecture with our Language partners. Let me say that history professors can be boring everywhere. This guy just read off a piece of paper and mumbled everything in Italian! I wrote down everything I understoof and my language partner helped me fill in the blanks. But, I knew most everything that he was talking about. Yah Woodrow Wilson, Trust-Busters and Economic Crisis!

Following that Thursday/Friday Morning, we watched the A’s game on Friday night and then on Saturday we took the train to Bologna. Bologna has a different feel from Florence and has A LOT less tourists. It was such a good time! The main reason for going to Bologna was to see the Morandi exhibit at the museum. I really need to read more about him because he sure painted a lot of bottles and vases and then call it abstract art. We ending up shopping a lot (mostly at H&M) and went around to different Piazzas and we climbed at 500-step tower that had the most breathtaking view of Bologna. I have many pictures of this and will attach them to this posting. The stairs were frightening and definitely didn’t look stable. Looking down made me feel faint but I knew the end result would be great. By the time we got to the top we were all sweating profusely☺ But, it was so fun! Definitely the highlight of the weekend.



This week school will not be fun because I have so much reading and a quiz in Italian tomorrow (by the time I post this…the quiz will be TODAY) and I have a feeling it will be hard. Alas, now I must get back to the books! In my next post I will talk of great adventures like the Bing Opera (tomorrow night) and my weekend trip to Cinque Terre. Every weekend gets better!

I MISS AND LOVE YOU ALL!