i'm doing really really well. feel very disconnected from home which is a surreal and liberating feeling. but my family comes on friday and i'm beyond excited. i need a little grounding and it will be so fun to show them around where i've been living for the past 3 months. i just got back from spring break in greece, wow soooo wonderful. i met up with my roommate leslie from school it was so good to see her and the islands were so beautiful i'm so lucky. can't believe i'm 21, dont think that will really hit me til i get home and it actually makes a difference. i just love rome so much and i will miss this city. i never imagined myself feeling so at home and comfortable in such a huge city, but i do. i love walking to class everyday and everything is blooming which makes a normal happy turn into and extraordinary happy. i'm going to monestary gardens today and a free concert tonight. pretty much going to be a perfect day.
i miss everyone and can't wait for mom and dad to give me the update on everyone!
love, hugs and quote
"treat yourself at least as well as you treat other people"
liz
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Long time no blog....SORRY!!
My quote of the day : The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.
After reading this I realized that I have left all those I love in the dark for too long! I sincerely apologize, and now I have an overwhelming amount of catching up to do! But first things first, I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!
Since my last post I have been made many weekend trips to various cities in Italy. I'll try to give a short synopsis of each of my visits!
Florence: Ended up staying with 3 boys in a really hotelish hostel. The company was great, never having a brother I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed immature boy humor! The most used joke involved Firenze (Florence in Italian), ex. I'm glad I'm here with my Firenzes!!! or We're about to have a feeding Firenze!! Cheesy, but entertaining for most of the trip until the train ride home by which the joke had been completely exhausted.
The highlights of this trip consisted of seeing the statue of David. There is nothing more perfect on this planet. We didn't have to wait and I think I did around 15 laps around his magnificently sculpted body. This is a must see for everyone. It's amazing that Michelangelo did this at the age of 19, how someone ever invisions and creates such masterpieces is beyond me, although I'm sure Lisa Wolff could give him a run for his money!
Our second night we hiked up to Piazza Michelangelo where we watched a beautiful sunset over the whole city! Sunset, good Firenzes, and wine could quite possibly be the best combination of wonderfulness. Needless to say this was maybe my favorite part of the trip.
We didn't go to the top of the Duomo although maybe we should have, but the line was long and the weather was beautiful so the thought of paying to walk up hundreds of stairs did not sound appealing. Instead we went to the leather market where I could have spend most if not all my money. Luckily I stuck to buying presents for the fam, leaving with nothing for myself....cry! But I did get to try on an orange leather jacket in rememberance of my home state!!! Would have bought it if only it had pockets and a hood. It just wasn't practical without those things.
We ate well as I have everywhere I've been in Italy. Of course my Italian is not so wonderful so for supper I was under the impression that I ordered scallops. This was not a horrible assumption seeing as I ordered Scallopine. When my plate came I was faced with thin thin white meat. Before my first bite I was still convinced that they had prepared the scallops in an "Italian" way. I had ordered veal. Quite the opposite of scallops, but luckily more delicious in my opinion!
Important tid bit for all of you who will probably meet my future husband whoever that will be, I know where my engagement ring is so you can let him know! Ponte Vecchio! Pretty much any ring from any of the 50 little shops would suffice!
The trip was very enjoyable and I would love to return at some point, but it was a small town that was perfect for a weekend excursion. I was glad to get back to bustling Rome!
Tivoli: This small mountainside town is just about an hour and a half outside of Rome. It is known for Hadrian's Villa and Villa Desta. I came away from this trip with several important realizations. 1) Never EVER think that it is necessary to be early to any happening lead by an Italian. Early is 10 minutes late plus time to grab a coffee and have one last cigerette. 2) Nora when you build my house, I must have multiple fountains inside and outside. Thank you. 3) Must eat gelato in every Italian city. 4) Hadrian's Villa was beautiful, but holy moly I'm glad I will never even have the money to live somewhere like that....too overwhelming for me. But the architecture was amazing and everything was so spectacular, even the turtles in the various pools looked noble!
Ariccia: This was just a supper about 45 minutes outside of Roma. I went with my friends and their Italian roommate in celebration of finishing exams! We met up with 3 other Italians, 2 French, and one Spanish girl! My ears were pleasantly overwhelmed and my mouth was only used for eating. Ariccia is known for it's cheap typical Italian cuisine as well as a bridge that has seen so many suicides there are now nets that will comfortably catch those who would like a taste of committing suicide. Although this was a good idea in theory it's very apparent that if one is determined to die jumping from this particular bridge they would just take a pit stop in the net and then push on. Though this was quite sad it was interesting that this particular bridge is known all over. I guess it's appealing for it's beautiful view of Roma. Anywho, the food was delicious! There are no menus, you get what is fresh and you get a lot! The spread consisted of 6 or 7 different cold cuts, the most famous being porchetta, green olives, fresh mozzerella, beef jerky type meat, stuffed tomatoes, another type of strong cheese, keesh, fresh bread, grilled eggplant, potatoes, all the wine you could drink, tiramisu, and good coffee (this is measured by how quickly the sugar drops to the bottom of the cup: slower drop=better coffee). The food was served in a tapas style which is always fun.
Capri and Naples: Possibly the best weekend ever!!! This was a very very last minute trip, which I'm always amazed worked out perfectly, somehow in Italy last minute is how things are meant to happen. Christian and I decided to go to Naples and Pompeii on Tuesday for just a Saturday and Sunday trip, but on Friday decided to go to Capri all day Saturday and spend Sunday in Naples. We left early early not being able to sleep on the 3 hour train ride due to a talkitive French woman sitting across from us. I don't think she stopped talking the whole trip...pretty impressive acutally. Arriving in Naples we had hopes of walking to our hostel seeing as we normally find our way fairly well, but with our ferry leaving soon we jumped in a taxi. Our driver was not the nicest and tried his damnest to rip us off but he did have a conscious seeing as by the time we got out the 20 euro ride (without turning on the meter) was only 10 euro, "just because of your beautiful smile" he told me. Pssh! Our hostel which was acutally a bed and breakfast was perfect!!! It's called Vicoletti and I highly reccommend it! After leaving our luggage with Melissa, we ran to the port to catch our ferry to Capri! The ferry was packed end to end with tourist, fully equipped with headphones and their round-the-neck radio as well as fanny packs and cameras at hand. Luckily we sat with the most entertaining passengers! Picture this: a typical Italian couple facing us (as in their seats were backwards) who made out constantly, but were very friendly offering food and gum to everyone, an Asian girl looking to be 12 but probably in her twenties, a stern, but o so sweet, incredibly attractive Italian grandfather holding his two year old grandson. So, as the Italian couple is graciously offering food the Asian girl is eagerly taking everything, which is funny seeing as I am used to someone taking one of something if anything that is offered by a complete stranger. Soon after the eating was finished the Italian girl begand to feel ill as did the rest of the ferry which was apparent to the thousands of plastic bags being handed to every other passenger. Although this was sad it was also a relief. The handing out of the plastic bags eliminated the tourists' collective "woooo" over every single wave. The Asian's head begins to bob as sleep sets in. This is something that has always amused me, the infamous head bob that we all hope doesn't happen when we drift on trips, but we know it happens, along with the open mouth and occasional drool. Sleep has also overtaken the 2 year old who is comfortably engulffed by his grandfather, if only I could have fit in his arms like that!! Funny thing is about 20 minutes into the hour long ferry ride the Asian's head bob becomes an intense leaning to the left which lead her head to a nice resting place on the grandfather's shoulder. HAHAHAHAHA I could not stop laughing mainly because the grandfather didn't even glance at her. He held that baby and let some random Asian nap on his shoulder like that was what he was put on this earth to do! I wish so badly that I could have taken a picture! And when the boat stopped and she woke up there was no eye contact, no sorry, no smile, no laught, just parting ways! O we humans are just the funniest things! And to top everything off the Asian was wearing a shirt that had absolutely no meaning at all: "The person which has hope for is the person with the personality." Hilarious and I have no clue what she was trying to communicate by wearing that!
Anyway we made it to Capri with soar stomachs from laughing. The view from the port was just a preview of all the beauty that our eyes would see throughout the day. We set off to find the city center which turned out to be up, just up and up and up and up and up. We walked up for about 30 minutes stopping randomly to catch the views of the sea and house covered mountains. The city center was quaint with expensive cafes, jewelry, and Prada nonetheless! So we continued up in hopes of finding some bread and cheese, but we stumbled upon the most magnificent view I've every laid eyes on!!! the back side of the island seeing only the Medditerrainean and coastline. We were on top of a cliff the went straight down, as down as you could go. I literally jumpped up and down when we looked out. It was one of those views that you didn't know really existed but you're so glad it does cause just looking your whole life seems to be refreshed. We then took a small bus to Anacapri on the other side of the island where all the buildings are white which creates the most beautiful contrast with the blue sky and green trees. All the houses and businesses are identified by matching painted tiles! I will make a collage when I get home, they were so cool! We decided to try to get to the water and watch the sunset, but soon realized that there was no way considering everything was a drop off. So we sat on a small wall on the side of the road and graciously accepted the setting sun's rays for several hours while taking hundreds of pictures thinking that at least one would capture the feeling we had inside.
Back in Naples our fuzzy warm feeling was replaced with a chilled chaotic rush caused by the frantic unorganized crowds on the street. There was a strong wind that night causing pieces of trash to blow down the street. Groups of middle school to high school aged kids ran through the streets chasing and hitting on each other. There was yelling and an eery feeling that everything could take a turn for the worst at any moment. It was starkly obvious that there is no structured control over the city and it's creept to think that the mafia has so much influence even today.
Sunday was a lowkey day consisting of sitting on huge rocks jutting out into the sea and watching a sailing regatta! The boats were so majestic and I couldn't help but get a little homesick wishing that I was at the lake in the sunfish with all my wonderful family. Luckily I was quickly distracted by delicious Napolean pizza! It is true that they have the best pizza. It's mainly the dough that makes it so good in my opinion. There is a perfect balance between the crust being undercooked and burnt creating the perfect consistancy and taste. We had coke out of the bottle to accompany our huge pizzas! Perfect!
I was pleasantly surprised at Christian and my ability to complete an entire weekend without any mishaps or spending too much money. I felt strangely mature but at the same time young enough to do all the fun crazy things that adults "aren't supposed to do." I came back glad to see Roma Termini, but with a relaxed refreshed and renewed sense of my experience here. I guess I have realized that each week I become more and more in tune with myself and where I fit, it's a wonderful process that I hope always continues.
I will stop now for the time being. I have studying to do and the beautiful outside is calling me! Hope all is well at the homefront! Muah Muah Muah!
Ciao amici!
After reading this I realized that I have left all those I love in the dark for too long! I sincerely apologize, and now I have an overwhelming amount of catching up to do! But first things first, I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!
Since my last post I have been made many weekend trips to various cities in Italy. I'll try to give a short synopsis of each of my visits!
Florence: Ended up staying with 3 boys in a really hotelish hostel. The company was great, never having a brother I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed immature boy humor! The most used joke involved Firenze (Florence in Italian), ex. I'm glad I'm here with my Firenzes!!! or We're about to have a feeding Firenze!! Cheesy, but entertaining for most of the trip until the train ride home by which the joke had been completely exhausted.
The highlights of this trip consisted of seeing the statue of David. There is nothing more perfect on this planet. We didn't have to wait and I think I did around 15 laps around his magnificently sculpted body. This is a must see for everyone. It's amazing that Michelangelo did this at the age of 19, how someone ever invisions and creates such masterpieces is beyond me, although I'm sure Lisa Wolff could give him a run for his money!
Our second night we hiked up to Piazza Michelangelo where we watched a beautiful sunset over the whole city! Sunset, good Firenzes, and wine could quite possibly be the best combination of wonderfulness. Needless to say this was maybe my favorite part of the trip.
We didn't go to the top of the Duomo although maybe we should have, but the line was long and the weather was beautiful so the thought of paying to walk up hundreds of stairs did not sound appealing. Instead we went to the leather market where I could have spend most if not all my money. Luckily I stuck to buying presents for the fam, leaving with nothing for myself....cry! But I did get to try on an orange leather jacket in rememberance of my home state!!! Would have bought it if only it had pockets and a hood. It just wasn't practical without those things.
We ate well as I have everywhere I've been in Italy. Of course my Italian is not so wonderful so for supper I was under the impression that I ordered scallops. This was not a horrible assumption seeing as I ordered Scallopine. When my plate came I was faced with thin thin white meat. Before my first bite I was still convinced that they had prepared the scallops in an "Italian" way. I had ordered veal. Quite the opposite of scallops, but luckily more delicious in my opinion!
Important tid bit for all of you who will probably meet my future husband whoever that will be, I know where my engagement ring is so you can let him know! Ponte Vecchio! Pretty much any ring from any of the 50 little shops would suffice!
The trip was very enjoyable and I would love to return at some point, but it was a small town that was perfect for a weekend excursion. I was glad to get back to bustling Rome!
Tivoli: This small mountainside town is just about an hour and a half outside of Rome. It is known for Hadrian's Villa and Villa Desta. I came away from this trip with several important realizations. 1) Never EVER think that it is necessary to be early to any happening lead by an Italian. Early is 10 minutes late plus time to grab a coffee and have one last cigerette. 2) Nora when you build my house, I must have multiple fountains inside and outside. Thank you. 3) Must eat gelato in every Italian city. 4) Hadrian's Villa was beautiful, but holy moly I'm glad I will never even have the money to live somewhere like that....too overwhelming for me. But the architecture was amazing and everything was so spectacular, even the turtles in the various pools looked noble!
Ariccia: This was just a supper about 45 minutes outside of Roma. I went with my friends and their Italian roommate in celebration of finishing exams! We met up with 3 other Italians, 2 French, and one Spanish girl! My ears were pleasantly overwhelmed and my mouth was only used for eating. Ariccia is known for it's cheap typical Italian cuisine as well as a bridge that has seen so many suicides there are now nets that will comfortably catch those who would like a taste of committing suicide. Although this was a good idea in theory it's very apparent that if one is determined to die jumping from this particular bridge they would just take a pit stop in the net and then push on. Though this was quite sad it was interesting that this particular bridge is known all over. I guess it's appealing for it's beautiful view of Roma. Anywho, the food was delicious! There are no menus, you get what is fresh and you get a lot! The spread consisted of 6 or 7 different cold cuts, the most famous being porchetta, green olives, fresh mozzerella, beef jerky type meat, stuffed tomatoes, another type of strong cheese, keesh, fresh bread, grilled eggplant, potatoes, all the wine you could drink, tiramisu, and good coffee (this is measured by how quickly the sugar drops to the bottom of the cup: slower drop=better coffee). The food was served in a tapas style which is always fun.
Capri and Naples: Possibly the best weekend ever!!! This was a very very last minute trip, which I'm always amazed worked out perfectly, somehow in Italy last minute is how things are meant to happen. Christian and I decided to go to Naples and Pompeii on Tuesday for just a Saturday and Sunday trip, but on Friday decided to go to Capri all day Saturday and spend Sunday in Naples. We left early early not being able to sleep on the 3 hour train ride due to a talkitive French woman sitting across from us. I don't think she stopped talking the whole trip...pretty impressive acutally. Arriving in Naples we had hopes of walking to our hostel seeing as we normally find our way fairly well, but with our ferry leaving soon we jumped in a taxi. Our driver was not the nicest and tried his damnest to rip us off but he did have a conscious seeing as by the time we got out the 20 euro ride (without turning on the meter) was only 10 euro, "just because of your beautiful smile" he told me. Pssh! Our hostel which was acutally a bed and breakfast was perfect!!! It's called Vicoletti and I highly reccommend it! After leaving our luggage with Melissa, we ran to the port to catch our ferry to Capri! The ferry was packed end to end with tourist, fully equipped with headphones and their round-the-neck radio as well as fanny packs and cameras at hand. Luckily we sat with the most entertaining passengers! Picture this: a typical Italian couple facing us (as in their seats were backwards) who made out constantly, but were very friendly offering food and gum to everyone, an Asian girl looking to be 12 but probably in her twenties, a stern, but o so sweet, incredibly attractive Italian grandfather holding his two year old grandson. So, as the Italian couple is graciously offering food the Asian girl is eagerly taking everything, which is funny seeing as I am used to someone taking one of something if anything that is offered by a complete stranger. Soon after the eating was finished the Italian girl begand to feel ill as did the rest of the ferry which was apparent to the thousands of plastic bags being handed to every other passenger. Although this was sad it was also a relief. The handing out of the plastic bags eliminated the tourists' collective "woooo" over every single wave. The Asian's head begins to bob as sleep sets in. This is something that has always amused me, the infamous head bob that we all hope doesn't happen when we drift on trips, but we know it happens, along with the open mouth and occasional drool. Sleep has also overtaken the 2 year old who is comfortably engulffed by his grandfather, if only I could have fit in his arms like that!! Funny thing is about 20 minutes into the hour long ferry ride the Asian's head bob becomes an intense leaning to the left which lead her head to a nice resting place on the grandfather's shoulder. HAHAHAHAHA I could not stop laughing mainly because the grandfather didn't even glance at her. He held that baby and let some random Asian nap on his shoulder like that was what he was put on this earth to do! I wish so badly that I could have taken a picture! And when the boat stopped and she woke up there was no eye contact, no sorry, no smile, no laught, just parting ways! O we humans are just the funniest things! And to top everything off the Asian was wearing a shirt that had absolutely no meaning at all: "The person which has hope for is the person with the personality." Hilarious and I have no clue what she was trying to communicate by wearing that!
Anyway we made it to Capri with soar stomachs from laughing. The view from the port was just a preview of all the beauty that our eyes would see throughout the day. We set off to find the city center which turned out to be up, just up and up and up and up and up. We walked up for about 30 minutes stopping randomly to catch the views of the sea and house covered mountains. The city center was quaint with expensive cafes, jewelry, and Prada nonetheless! So we continued up in hopes of finding some bread and cheese, but we stumbled upon the most magnificent view I've every laid eyes on!!! the back side of the island seeing only the Medditerrainean and coastline. We were on top of a cliff the went straight down, as down as you could go. I literally jumpped up and down when we looked out. It was one of those views that you didn't know really existed but you're so glad it does cause just looking your whole life seems to be refreshed. We then took a small bus to Anacapri on the other side of the island where all the buildings are white which creates the most beautiful contrast with the blue sky and green trees. All the houses and businesses are identified by matching painted tiles! I will make a collage when I get home, they were so cool! We decided to try to get to the water and watch the sunset, but soon realized that there was no way considering everything was a drop off. So we sat on a small wall on the side of the road and graciously accepted the setting sun's rays for several hours while taking hundreds of pictures thinking that at least one would capture the feeling we had inside.
Back in Naples our fuzzy warm feeling was replaced with a chilled chaotic rush caused by the frantic unorganized crowds on the street. There was a strong wind that night causing pieces of trash to blow down the street. Groups of middle school to high school aged kids ran through the streets chasing and hitting on each other. There was yelling and an eery feeling that everything could take a turn for the worst at any moment. It was starkly obvious that there is no structured control over the city and it's creept to think that the mafia has so much influence even today.
Sunday was a lowkey day consisting of sitting on huge rocks jutting out into the sea and watching a sailing regatta! The boats were so majestic and I couldn't help but get a little homesick wishing that I was at the lake in the sunfish with all my wonderful family. Luckily I was quickly distracted by delicious Napolean pizza! It is true that they have the best pizza. It's mainly the dough that makes it so good in my opinion. There is a perfect balance between the crust being undercooked and burnt creating the perfect consistancy and taste. We had coke out of the bottle to accompany our huge pizzas! Perfect!
I was pleasantly surprised at Christian and my ability to complete an entire weekend without any mishaps or spending too much money. I felt strangely mature but at the same time young enough to do all the fun crazy things that adults "aren't supposed to do." I came back glad to see Roma Termini, but with a relaxed refreshed and renewed sense of my experience here. I guess I have realized that each week I become more and more in tune with myself and where I fit, it's a wonderful process that I hope always continues.
I will stop now for the time being. I have studying to do and the beautiful outside is calling me! Hope all is well at the homefront! Muah Muah Muah!
Ciao amici!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sun
It's been absolutely beautiful the past couple of days. Chilly but beautiful. I've been walking to and from class cause apparently at some point I lost my bus ticket and I don't want to buy another one yet ha. I've been taking full advantage of the park next door and watching little kids feed the swans lettuce and crackers....soooo wonderful!
We went to Piazza del Popolo for carnavale last Sunday! It was so cool! First the piazza is beautiful and has the coolest fountains that are lit up at night. Then there were hundreds and hundreds of people there most with little kids dressed up in the cutest most elaborate and stylish costumes I've ever seen. Then there was a really cool horse show with people like going underneath the horse while it was galloping or doing flips off the side and then getting back on. Pretty amazing. But the main reason we went was because there were suposed to be fireworks and I had wanted to see them since 2 weeks before. But there was just all this horse stuff and we were hungry so we decided to go eat. Which is fine, but as I'm finishing the most delicious pizza I've ever had, I begin to hear fireworks. Of course my friends say "O no those are just drums." Not true. We missed them! But I've decided to be okay with it cause I got tiramesu to make up for the missed fireworks....might have been even better!
My classes are wonderful so far. At first I thought the reading was going to be too much, but it's really interesting and I have field studies in both of them which is wonderful! I start my film class tomorrow which is really exciting, but we had to watch Rome an Open City, soooo sad, as was Bicycle Thieves so I'm afraid that we are going to be forced to make a depressing movie which I really don't want to do. Hopefully that won't be the case. Italian is going well, although I don't quite understand her method of teaching. We usually get a page of lyrics with blank spots and then listen to the song about 6 or 7 times and try to fill in the blank. Either that or we go around and tell her things that we want to learn to say in Italian. But we've yet to go through specific grammar points like all language classes I've ever taken. Maybe this is the Italian way or maybe I'm learning more than I think. We'll see.
I'm going to Florence this weekend with Courtney, Christian, Tyler, Andrew, Melissa, Becky, Jes, and I think two other girls. Courtney and I are going to stay with her best friend so I don't have to pay for a hostel!!! Yahoo! Courtney and I also booked a ticket to Sicily for the last weekened in March! Only 59 dollars round trip! Can't wait. But my goal for the next week is to find a cheap playable ukulele. In my advising meeting we were talking about culture shock and the importance of keeping some things that you did at home. Immediately I realized that the thing that I was missing was playing music! So I need to fix that.
O funny story, yesterday I was walking home from school and I saw a car pull over and a man got out who was obviously flustered and frustrated. He walked around the car and pulled out a 3 or 4 year old girl, I'm assuming his daughter. He takes her behind a tree, but behind this tree was only if you were directly on the opposite side of them, otherwise you could see abosolutely everything. He pulls down her pants and panties and for a minute I thought that I was going to have to say something cause I was getting really nervous as to what was going to happen. Then he lifts her in a seated position and I begin to see the sparkling reflection of pee hahahahaha! All the while she is talking to him in Italian like this is no new way of going to the bathroom. Then he gives her a shake or two pulls up her pants and puts her back in the car. I immediately imagined having to pee while you're driving in the car and I just know that dad could not handler her complaining anymore so ha just pulled over hahaha. Then tonight I had to pee so bad and had a long bus ride ahead of me and wanted so badly for someone to lift me to pee....no one did.
"No human being can really understsand another, and ho one can arrange another's happiness"
I'm so glad I made these quotes of the day!!!
Miss and love you!
We went to Piazza del Popolo for carnavale last Sunday! It was so cool! First the piazza is beautiful and has the coolest fountains that are lit up at night. Then there were hundreds and hundreds of people there most with little kids dressed up in the cutest most elaborate and stylish costumes I've ever seen. Then there was a really cool horse show with people like going underneath the horse while it was galloping or doing flips off the side and then getting back on. Pretty amazing. But the main reason we went was because there were suposed to be fireworks and I had wanted to see them since 2 weeks before. But there was just all this horse stuff and we were hungry so we decided to go eat. Which is fine, but as I'm finishing the most delicious pizza I've ever had, I begin to hear fireworks. Of course my friends say "O no those are just drums." Not true. We missed them! But I've decided to be okay with it cause I got tiramesu to make up for the missed fireworks....might have been even better!
My classes are wonderful so far. At first I thought the reading was going to be too much, but it's really interesting and I have field studies in both of them which is wonderful! I start my film class tomorrow which is really exciting, but we had to watch Rome an Open City, soooo sad, as was Bicycle Thieves so I'm afraid that we are going to be forced to make a depressing movie which I really don't want to do. Hopefully that won't be the case. Italian is going well, although I don't quite understand her method of teaching. We usually get a page of lyrics with blank spots and then listen to the song about 6 or 7 times and try to fill in the blank. Either that or we go around and tell her things that we want to learn to say in Italian. But we've yet to go through specific grammar points like all language classes I've ever taken. Maybe this is the Italian way or maybe I'm learning more than I think. We'll see.
I'm going to Florence this weekend with Courtney, Christian, Tyler, Andrew, Melissa, Becky, Jes, and I think two other girls. Courtney and I are going to stay with her best friend so I don't have to pay for a hostel!!! Yahoo! Courtney and I also booked a ticket to Sicily for the last weekened in March! Only 59 dollars round trip! Can't wait. But my goal for the next week is to find a cheap playable ukulele. In my advising meeting we were talking about culture shock and the importance of keeping some things that you did at home. Immediately I realized that the thing that I was missing was playing music! So I need to fix that.
O funny story, yesterday I was walking home from school and I saw a car pull over and a man got out who was obviously flustered and frustrated. He walked around the car and pulled out a 3 or 4 year old girl, I'm assuming his daughter. He takes her behind a tree, but behind this tree was only if you were directly on the opposite side of them, otherwise you could see abosolutely everything. He pulls down her pants and panties and for a minute I thought that I was going to have to say something cause I was getting really nervous as to what was going to happen. Then he lifts her in a seated position and I begin to see the sparkling reflection of pee hahahahaha! All the while she is talking to him in Italian like this is no new way of going to the bathroom. Then he gives her a shake or two pulls up her pants and puts her back in the car. I immediately imagined having to pee while you're driving in the car and I just know that dad could not handler her complaining anymore so ha just pulled over hahaha. Then tonight I had to pee so bad and had a long bus ride ahead of me and wanted so badly for someone to lift me to pee....no one did.
"No human being can really understsand another, and ho one can arrange another's happiness"
I'm so glad I made these quotes of the day!!!
Miss and love you!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A day in Liz's life, kind of...
okay typical day for liz in rome since classes started this week= walk
35 minutes to school (the most beautiful walk ever!! i'm going to put
up pictures soon), have class at 9 30 on monday tuesday friday. first
class is italy in the 20th century with prof moro. he doesn't have
english down very well so i think there was a total of 20 minutes of
silence if you added up all the time he spent thinking about how to
say something in english. this kind of sucks cause it's a history
class and it's hard to understand if things are not explained properly
but he'really nice and i think the subject is really interesting and
we have a book so hopefully i won't get too lost. second class is
ancient rome history and myth with prof nocera. very smart lady...a
young archaeologist. wow i know nothing about ancient rome...i should
right? i kind of felt like an idiot, but this will be really good for
me and i think it will be cool to have ancient rome info combined with
rome in the 20th century info. we'll see. and both of these count
toward my minor which is awesome. then i have italian 2 hours 3 tims a
week with daria who is adorable and just so happy all the time. which
is good cause i really really want to learn the language and i think
i'll learn a lot from her! but i made a B plus on my first
quiz...french really messes me up but o well it will get better i'm
sure. i havent had my film class yet cause my prof is in india
shooting a documentary!! how cool is that?! i'm thinking about adding
another class just cause i guess i will have the time but as of now i
don't have class on wednesday which could be really nice to explore so
i might just keep it like that! i was gonigt o do a community service
internship, but i just erally don't know italian and i think i would
just feel stupid and useless if i did that plus it is 10 hours a week
which would take up a lot of time.
last night christian came over and i made us supper! it was good but
cold by the time he got here so i felt bad haha. then we started
watching ellen until some girls from downstairs came over. then he
wanted to buy me gelato so we went out in search of some but
everything was closed. so we went to the trevi fountain cause the
gelato places are opened really late there. we saw a couple get
engaged!!! it was sooooo cute. and we just talked and then we threw
3 coins in the fountain. 1=you will return safely to rome 2=you will
fall in love 3=you will be happily married! then this crazy guy trying to
sell us stuff would not leave us alone and made me kiss him on the
cheek it was sooo awkward and i didn't know what to do. they're so pushy!
i need to figure out where all i want to travel. i might be going to
berlin in the middle of march and iàm hoping to go to florence at the
end of march. iàm definitely going to greece to see leslie over my
spring break yahoo!!! but itàs just so expensive!! so we'll see how
much i can do. the food is amazing ahhh and you know how much i love pasta!!! this is heaven!! i havenàt shopped much at all
mainly cause iàve realized that i didn't bring many spring clothes so
i think i will save shopping money for when the temperature warms up.
it's been quite chilly but that's okay i dont' mind.
"time is the most important coin you have. only you can choose how
you spend it. be careful lest you let others spend it for you."
i'm still reading a quote per day! it's really been nice having them. love you and miss you!
35 minutes to school (the most beautiful walk ever!! i'm going to put
up pictures soon), have class at 9 30 on monday tuesday friday. first
class is italy in the 20th century with prof moro. he doesn't have
english down very well so i think there was a total of 20 minutes of
silence if you added up all the time he spent thinking about how to
say something in english. this kind of sucks cause it's a history
class and it's hard to understand if things are not explained properly
but he'really nice and i think the subject is really interesting and
we have a book so hopefully i won't get too lost. second class is
ancient rome history and myth with prof nocera. very smart lady...a
young archaeologist. wow i know nothing about ancient rome...i should
right? i kind of felt like an idiot, but this will be really good for
me and i think it will be cool to have ancient rome info combined with
rome in the 20th century info. we'll see. and both of these count
toward my minor which is awesome. then i have italian 2 hours 3 tims a
week with daria who is adorable and just so happy all the time. which
is good cause i really really want to learn the language and i think
i'll learn a lot from her! but i made a B plus on my first
quiz...french really messes me up but o well it will get better i'm
sure. i havent had my film class yet cause my prof is in india
shooting a documentary!! how cool is that?! i'm thinking about adding
another class just cause i guess i will have the time but as of now i
don't have class on wednesday which could be really nice to explore so
i might just keep it like that! i was gonigt o do a community service
internship, but i just erally don't know italian and i think i would
just feel stupid and useless if i did that plus it is 10 hours a week
which would take up a lot of time.
last night christian came over and i made us supper! it was good but
cold by the time he got here so i felt bad haha. then we started
watching ellen until some girls from downstairs came over. then he
wanted to buy me gelato so we went out in search of some but
everything was closed. so we went to the trevi fountain cause the
gelato places are opened really late there. we saw a couple get
engaged!!! it was sooooo cute. and we just talked and then we threw
3 coins in the fountain. 1=you will return safely to rome 2=you will
fall in love 3=you will be happily married! then this crazy guy trying to
sell us stuff would not leave us alone and made me kiss him on the
cheek it was sooo awkward and i didn't know what to do. they're so pushy!
i need to figure out where all i want to travel. i might be going to
berlin in the middle of march and iàm hoping to go to florence at the
end of march. iàm definitely going to greece to see leslie over my
spring break yahoo!!! but itàs just so expensive!! so we'll see how
much i can do. the food is amazing ahhh and you know how much i love pasta!!! this is heaven!! i havenàt shopped much at all
mainly cause iàve realized that i didn't bring many spring clothes so
i think i will save shopping money for when the temperature warms up.
it's been quite chilly but that's okay i dont' mind.
"time is the most important coin you have. only you can choose how
you spend it. be careful lest you let others spend it for you."
i'm still reading a quote per day! it's really been nice having them. love you and miss you!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Valentine's Day
I like Valentine's Day in Rome. It's actually not a big deal at all! I forgot it was Valentine's Day five different times yesterday which would have never happened at home. So as opposed to trying to avoid the dreaded question..."What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" I carelessly wandered through Rome and treated myself to gelato. We were hoping to walk through the botanical gardens, but you have to pay so I'm going to wait until spring time when the weather is nicer and the flowers are in bloom.
Last night we had a delicious meal of which I suggest to Mom! It's easy and delicious and all depends on making the pasta correctly! So here's the deal....put the water in the pot, before it starts boiling put a ton of salt in it (to taste, it should be salty but not too salty) this is to avoid having to salt the pasta when it has already been served, when the water boils put in the pasta. As the water is boiling put extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan with 3 to 4 cloves of garlic (not minced), as the oil heats up lean the pan on it side toward the pan making a puddle of oil for allowing the garlic to fry to a light gold color, then turn off that burner. finish the pasta, but don't overcook! tear up fresh spinach and place on plates. remove garlic cloves from oil and pour pasta into frying pan with the oil in it. pour pasta and oil back into pot then add pesto...a generous amount. plate the pesto pasta over the spinach then put chunks of mozzarella on top with a little oil on top. yum yum yum yum!!!
Last night we had a delicious meal of which I suggest to Mom! It's easy and delicious and all depends on making the pasta correctly! So here's the deal....put the water in the pot, before it starts boiling put a ton of salt in it (to taste, it should be salty but not too salty) this is to avoid having to salt the pasta when it has already been served, when the water boils put in the pasta. As the water is boiling put extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan with 3 to 4 cloves of garlic (not minced), as the oil heats up lean the pan on it side toward the pan making a puddle of oil for allowing the garlic to fry to a light gold color, then turn off that burner. finish the pasta, but don't overcook! tear up fresh spinach and place on plates. remove garlic cloves from oil and pour pasta into frying pan with the oil in it. pour pasta and oil back into pot then add pesto...a generous amount. plate the pesto pasta over the spinach then put chunks of mozzarella on top with a little oil on top. yum yum yum yum!!!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Honeymoon Phase...
So, according to my guide from IES I am in the honeymoon phase of my study abroad experience. And although I have a hard time believing that that this wonderful feeling is going to end, I'm am definitely enjoying it now! Villa Pamphili is right across the street from my apartment. It was the home of a very very rich roman family back in the day. Now it's a park. Not just a normal park that we are used to, but one with huge old fountains and walls with carvings and maze hedges, ponds, and beautiful used-to-be homes. It is just absolutely beautiful!!! The coolest part is that my piazza is quite busy with cars and buses, but just going through a small arch I was transported into a beautiful land where everyone was smiling and enjoying the chilled sunny day! The perfect way to start a day!
Yesterday I walked home from school for the first time! I didn't even use a map! We have the perfect walk consisting of a view of the entire city!!! I'm soooo lucky to be here and hoping that I will soak everything in! Last night Daria took us to a delicious restaurant, Roma Sparta. I had pasta with bacon, I don't know what it was in Italian but it definitely made my tummy happily full. Afterwards we headed to find a fun bar in Trastevere. It was freezing so we skipped most the way....my idea hahaha. We stopped and got nutella pizza....quite possibly the most satisfying dessert ever. Then we went into a bar and there was a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing! Mostly in Italian but some English songs too so that was fun. I ordered Lemoncello, which is a drink Italians have after their coffee after their meal. It was toooooo sweet for me. Think of lemon drop candies in liquid form with oh I don't know 10 pounds of sugar mixed in a very strong liquor. But I drank it don't worry. I haven't wasted a euro since I've been here! I bought flowers for myself yesterday too! Ooooo and they love their flowers. I picked out 2 different kinds and he made a bouquet for me. It took like 15 minutes but it was definitely worth it. I smile every time I look at them!
Miss you all and I've found some cheap places to stay if anyone decides to visit....which you all should!!!! Happy Valentine's Day! Love you!!
Yesterday I walked home from school for the first time! I didn't even use a map! We have the perfect walk consisting of a view of the entire city!!! I'm soooo lucky to be here and hoping that I will soak everything in! Last night Daria took us to a delicious restaurant, Roma Sparta. I had pasta with bacon, I don't know what it was in Italian but it definitely made my tummy happily full. Afterwards we headed to find a fun bar in Trastevere. It was freezing so we skipped most the way....my idea hahaha. We stopped and got nutella pizza....quite possibly the most satisfying dessert ever. Then we went into a bar and there was a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing! Mostly in Italian but some English songs too so that was fun. I ordered Lemoncello, which is a drink Italians have after their coffee after their meal. It was toooooo sweet for me. Think of lemon drop candies in liquid form with oh I don't know 10 pounds of sugar mixed in a very strong liquor. But I drank it don't worry. I haven't wasted a euro since I've been here! I bought flowers for myself yesterday too! Ooooo and they love their flowers. I picked out 2 different kinds and he made a bouquet for me. It took like 15 minutes but it was definitely worth it. I smile every time I look at them!
Miss you all and I've found some cheap places to stay if anyone decides to visit....which you all should!!!! Happy Valentine's Day! Love you!!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Bella Roma!
I'm here I'm here!!! It's wonderful!! My apartment is so bit and cute. My roommates are very very nice, Courtney is sharing a room with me. She is from Albany, NY and super nice and cute as a button. My Italian roommate is just adorable and full of spunk! She has been our lifeline and I'm so so lucky that she's living with us!! I still have one roommate missing, I think she is still stuck in London due to a horrible snow storm!
The plane ride was long, but uneventful. The televisions were broken so I guess I'm going to get some kind of compensation which will probably just be a bag of peanuts. I was the first person to my apartment cause Daria (my Italian roommate) was taking an exam. After three of my other roommates arrived we sat around and talked then went to the grocer which is just around the corner! I got shampoo that was like 7 bucks for a third of the amount that I get at home. O well. Last night Daria and Michela (another Italian roommate from downstairs) made us a wonderful meal of pasta, potaoes and risotto! And they said they would teach us how to cook some things!! Going out now, but will write more later!!
The plane ride was long, but uneventful. The televisions were broken so I guess I'm going to get some kind of compensation which will probably just be a bag of peanuts. I was the first person to my apartment cause Daria (my Italian roommate) was taking an exam. After three of my other roommates arrived we sat around and talked then went to the grocer which is just around the corner! I got shampoo that was like 7 bucks for a third of the amount that I get at home. O well. Last night Daria and Michela (another Italian roommate from downstairs) made us a wonderful meal of pasta, potaoes and risotto! And they said they would teach us how to cook some things!! Going out now, but will write more later!!
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