Tales from Italy ch. 7: Rimini, Florence and Siena!

Since coming back from Sicily, I have spent my non-class days traveling to cities that are a bit closer (I’m still following my goal of traveling every weekend, be it nearby cities or far away places).

Last weekend some friends and I made a day trip to Rimini. Rimini is a beach town on the same coast as Urbino. It’s very pretty and I’m sure fantastic once it’s warm enough to go to the beach. While there, we visited the church of the Malatestas (a family who ruled Rimini from the 1200s-1500s).

Sunday we stayed in Urbino but took advantage of the sights in our hometown. Since we had already been in Urbino over a month, we figured it was about time we went on a tour of the Palazzo Ducale. After all, Urbino is one of the places listed in my favorite travel book: Schultz’s 1,000 Places To See Before You Die. The palace is Urbino’s pride and glory as it stands tall above the rest of the city:

The palace is divided up into many different sections and wings based on who lived there or who stayed where inside, but today it is mostly a museum of art from the 1200s-1500s. The majority of what was on display was art that depicted the Christian religion (the majority of which were of Mary and the baby Jesus) and beautiful ceramics- I even recognized a few from my Storia della Ceramica class (History of Ceramics)! One room also housed the bed chamber of Federico di Montefeltro (the orginial owner of the castle), and another had coins of that time period on display in a room that once housed the King of England on his visit to Urbino. On the main floor of the palace was this gigantic room that once held feasts (and theater shows before they built a room for theater in the basement). Today, it’s empty, but it became a perfect ballroom for our dancers because Monika and Ryan waltzed all through the room 🙂

Down in the palace basement we saw the wine cellar (it was HUGE), weaponry room (also huge), an old laundry room and bath, and a well that collected water from a hole in the roof.

(More pictures from Rimini and the Palazzo Ducale)

That night, I continued work on the wiki my friends and I are putting together. We’re hoping that in the end, the wiki will function as a collective memorabilia of our stay in Urbino. In it are links to blogs written by those of us writing them, and pages dedicated to the cities we’ve visited during our stay. The wiki isn’t complete yet and still lacks pictures, but it is a lovely work in progress.
Our Wiki, Erasmus Urbino 2010

During the week, I began work on my schedule for the fall semester at New Paltz. It’s so strange to think about planning next fall while I’m still here. Not only does it seem even further off than normal because I’m in a different country entirely, but also because I’m slowly adjusting to the Italian mentality where planning for next fall probably wouldn’t even begin happening until September, and here we are in March!

One thing I’m glad I don’t have to adjust to however, is the issue I have with sizes. Every time I attempt to do some shopping, I am reminded of the fact that I am several sizes bigger than the average Italian. If my 5’11” weren’t enough to make me seem like an Amazonian above a sea of average-sized Italians who generally come up to my shoulder, searching for sizes to fit my larger size is even harder to deal with. Recently I’ve been looking for a new pair of jeans since the one’s I’m currently wearing are wearing away and have holes. Unfortunately I’ve found that most stores here don’t carry my size in jeans, and if they do, the price is much higher than what I’d prefer to pay for a pair of pants. The same goes for shoes, although I’ve had slightly better luck since I have managed to buy one pair since coming here, which is one pair more than I’ve managed with pants. In Europe, I wear a size 41 shoe (about women’s size 9 1/2-10 in the US). Much to my dislike, most shoes aren’t available above a 38 (about a US size 7/8). In Rimini, some friends and I stopped at a shoe store that resembled DSW, meaning there were hundreds of shoes. Despite this, I couldn’t find any in my size (that were affordable). I was able to look in the men’s section (men and women’s shoes have the same sizes- why don’t we do that?), but I didn’t try very hard because I knew the men’s section wouldn’t have what I wanted (I was looking for dress flats). In the end, I found a size 41 pair of black mockasins in a small shop in Urbino. There was a rainbow selection to choose from, but unfortunately and not surprisingly, the only colors available in my size were tan, black, and gray. At least black manages to go with everything, right?

Also this week I had my first student come in during my office hours! She and I are gonna work together on helping her with reoccurring issues she has with English in her thesis which she needs to graduate. While I will miss the hour I spend reading during my office hours, it’s nice to finally get to do what I planned on doing when I signed up for the job 🙂

That same evening, I had my Cinema e Fotografia (Cinema and Photography) class. As far as I or any of the other foreigners in that class had gathered, classes had been canceled for almost 2 weeks because of snow and then for unknown reasons, and this was the first we had been to in a while. That day we had arrived early (we got the class time wrong by an hour) and I took the time to talk to one of the other students. Thank goodness I did this because it was then that I learned that we also had class Monday. This had apparently been the case for the whole semester so far and none of the other foreign students or I had realized that. We had missed two more movies and were going to spend the class that day going over the latest, Nosferatu. Since we had no idea what would be going on, the other foreign students and I left and spent the class time watching the movies. We’re hoping Wikipedia will help us with the rest. Fortunately, the girl I spoke to in class that day also said she’d help us study the material for our final. Since most of us have no idea what’s going on in that class anyway (on top of the Mondays we’ve missed, the class is quite boring with a professor who teaches by reading from a book for 2 hours), it is really nice of her to help us out. We’ve decided we’re going to cook her dinners and give her presents and every other means possible as thanks 😛

My stress from the Cinema class ordeal only breifly lasted however because that night, Laura and I decided we want to go to Paris. Within 3 hours we had our flight booked for the first weekend of May. HOW SWEET IS THAT?? Thank you, Ryanair, for your really really cheap flights that make my travels budget-worthy!
PARIS PARIS PARIS PARIS PARIS PARIS PARIS PARIS PARIS!!!

When I’m not planning travels or in class, I spend my afternoons outside on the terrace with Laura and Monika. Thursday afternoon was no different- as usual, Monika laid out her blanket, provided tea, cookies, and music, Laura brought her chess set, and I brought some music as well. Combined with the warm sun and spectacular views over the rolling Italian hills of the Urbino countryside, these are some of my favorite times here. Nothing like sunny games of chess with the background sounds of soft music, the Puppini sisters, and Frank Sinatra. 🙂

Thursday night, Laura and I had our favorite class, Musica per lo Spettacolo (Music for the Show), with our favorite professor, Professor Festa (It’s a festa with Festa!!). As usual, Laura and I were the only 2 students, class was incredibly interesting, and time flew. Because there’s usually just the three of us, class is like a intelligent 2-hour conversation about the effects and meaning behind the music and symbology in films (specifically, The Matrix and Metropolis). Seriously, this guy is like our Socrates- we just want him to teach us as we go through our every day life; we’d rather replace all our other classes with just his if we could. Anyway, as usual, Laura and I were excited about class, were surprised when 2 hours had passed, and enjoyed the lesson. It was at this point however, that Professor Festa broke the news to us that this was our last class before the final- 20 hours were done. Much like this paragraph, our sense of self-control about how much we loved this class vanished. We were distraught and didn’t even try to hide it- the news had come as such a surprise! How could our favorite time of week be over? It didn’t even matter to us that the end of this class gives us both 3-day weekends (it would have been 4 had we not discovered that our Cinema class also meets on Mondays); this class was the best. We mourned the whole way home.

After our sorrow Thursday night, Friday turned out to be much better- we were on our way to Florence and Siena for the weekend! Our trip began early in the morning with a bus to Pesaro and then a train to Faenza. The train to Faenza was my first train with compartments- it was like we were on our way to Hogwarts, and I half expected a woman with a trolley full of candy to come down the aisle and say “Anything from the trolley, dears?” As if Laura read my mind, she responded aloud, “We’ll take the lot.” (< Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/ Philospher’s Stone reference for those who don’t know). After Faenza was another train to Florence. That day, I had 2 gelatos (they’re so good! How could I not?) and a kebab for dinner. Kebab places are as popular here as a fast-food burger chain in the US (and probably just as bad for you). I wish we had them back home though- they’re delicious. Unfortunately my kebab turned out too spicy (I asked for no spicy sauce, but he took it as ‘extra spicy sauce’) and I had to give the rest to Judith.
That afternoon, we went up to the famous Piazza Michelangelo that looks over all of Florence. We were sitting on the steps taking in the view when a band came and set up near us. Our wonderful views were suddenly given a lovely jazz accompaniment into the evening as the band, MC2, comprised of a bassist, guitarist/ vocalist, and flautist played for us.

That night, before heading to back to our hostel for bed, we stopped at a kareoke bar. The atmosphere was fun, but there was this very annoying group of American girls. Proud to flaunt their foreigness, these girls were loud and obnoxious above everyone else in the bar. After seeing them, it’s easy to see why Americans get that reputation of being loud and gaudy (as our several European friends we were traveling with confirmed). And these American girls weren’t the only ones- this happened several times over the course of our stay when we’d pass groups of young Americans: they talk louder than everyone else and act crazy in ways to get attention. Here’s a heads up if any of them were to ever read this: you’re not foreign in Florence; everyone there speaks English. You look just as ridiculous -if not more- as you do in the US, and you make the rest of us look bad. Stop that.

Our second day in Florence, I met up with MY SISTER 😀

My sister is currently studying for 2 weeks in Italy on the same program I did when I was her age in high school, and I got the chance to meet up with her in Florence. I bought her a bracelet handmade in Urbino, and the reunion was a bittersweet reminder of home (sweet because I miss home, bitter because I would have to say goodbye all too soon). I saw her, my old teachers, and some friends. We spent the day shopping and I got a free ticket up to the top of the tower at the Duomo!

The view was amazing!:

Before I knew it, it was time for her to go and I was a sad. I distracted myself with cous-cous for dinner at a restaurant Monika recommended (it was near here that Laura was offered a job at a carpet dealer when she asked for places to get dinner LOL) and followed it up with views of the Florence skyline at night from the Piazza Michelangelo- once again, it was beautiful:

The following morning we woke up at 6:55 to go to Siena. When we got there, we lounged in the sun in the Piazza del Campo where they hold the Palio di Siena every year (a famous medieval horse race). Here, we played chess in the sun and were surrounded by hundreds of soccer fans since there was a game that afternoon. Apparently on game days, the opposing team comes to visit the local team’s city for the day (that’s who we saw) and then both sides of fans come out later for the game.
After about an hour of lounging, Ryan and I went up to the Torre di Mangia and the others headed over to the bridge. Much like the tower in Florence, we had spectacular views. However, this one was about 400 steps higher and I was a bit terrified of how high up we were. At one point, we got a phone call from the others who had gone to the bridge -we could see them! We both waved.

After the tower, we headed over to the Siena Cathedral. Like many cathedrals in Italy, it was very ornate. On the inside the walls and pillars are horizontally striped to give the illusion of appearing taller. It was all so beautiful.

(More pictures from Florence and Siena)

On our way home, we had to take a train back to Florence and then follow the same way home that we came. On our train from Florence to Faenza (a 2-hour trip), the train had run out of seats -by A LOT. We didn’t expect this because we had arrived early, but about 4 minutes before our train left, we realized we were waiting at the wrong platform. By the time we got there, all the seats were taken. There were maybe 10 people standing in the aisle in our car alone (most of which were me and my friends). I eventually gave up on standing and just sat on the floor, put my feet between two chairs, and read my book with Janelle reading over my shoulder (what else could we do?). Occasionally the door would open to our car, and a group of people who were stuck sitting and standing in the connector  between the two cars (yes there were that many people without seats that they couldn’t even fit in the CAR) would make us laugh. What could have been a very uncomfortable train ride became a fun experience.
From Faenza we took the train to Pesaro where we were going to catch the last bus back to Urbino. This is when we learned that you can’t really rely on Italian bus schedules (didn’t I learn this in Sicily and my last Pesaro trip?) because the last bus listed on the schedule didn’t actually exist. So here we were, 8 foreigners trapped at a bus station at 10 at night on a Sunday. We ended up having to pay 15 euro a person for taxis for the 1 hour ride back to Urbino. If this extra 12 euro wasn’t enough (the bus, had it existed, would’ve been 3 euro), the taxi ride was so uncomfortable. I was nauseous within 5 minutes of being in the cab. By the time we arrived to Urbino I was sick, yet relieved to be out of vehicles and transportation of all sorts.

Monday, we were supposed to go to Arezzo after Siena, but because of recently learning that our Cinema class actually met on Mondays, we cut it short (hence leaving on Sunday and going through those train rides). Despite this, I was the only one of my friends who even attempted to go to this class. When I got there however, I learned that the class was canceled to allow students the ability to exercise their right to vote. Apparently it was election day. Oh well.

This week I have much to look forward to since I’M LEAVING FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM ON THURSDAY! So yes, it looks like it will be about 2 weeks before my next update since I’ll be gone from April 1-13th. My trip will involve:
-flying into Edinburgh, Scotland
-busing it down to New Castle, England where I will stay with my ‘sister,’ “Cheese”
-busing it over to Manchester/ Liverpool/ Chester and seeing my friends Nicola, “Bumblebee” and “Mersey”
-flying to Dublin for 3 days
-flying into Bristol, England to go to Cardiff, Wales where I’ll see my friend Elinor, “the Hoff”
-and ending my trip with the Reading/London area and my friend Toni.

NON VEDO L’ORA!! (I can’t wait!!)

A PIU` TARDI! (Until later!)

CIAO!

Krakow!

Ah, so I finally got to go to Poland over this past weekend!  It was a blast.  I don’t think I have ever eaten so much food in a 72 hour period in my life.  I almost thought I had a child inside of me when I woke up on Sunday morning.  Friday morning we woke up just outside of Auschwitz and it was a beautiful foggy morning.

The trip through the camp itself was quite depressing but definitely worth the experience.  I took a few pictures but I feel that I should keep them off the web.  After the camp, we went straight to Krakow and began to gorge on the delicious Polish cuisine.

On Saturday, it was finally shorts weather!  We walked around the castle and saw other medieval structures around town.  Then we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves.  This included even more food.  The restaurant we went to, every plate could have served at the very least 2 or 3 people.  I tried to eat as much as possible, but after about 2 Kilos of food, I was done.  It was a rather odd experience being intoxicated from food.

After that disenchanting experience, we were off to the salt mines Sunday morning.  It was a rather interesting place, and it was pretty cool to see the deepest underground chapel in the world.  Overall, I would have to say I would have preferred another full day in Krakow to explore rather than trudge an hour and a half out of the way, then tack that onto the return trip.

If you are ever in the area, I definitely recommend the city.

The trickiest part of an interview

After days upon days of hot, arid heat, the sky finally released a shower of water and wind in a powerful thunderstorm. Unfortunately, not all of the tension for the moment was released. My anxieties still lingered that I was to encounter the following day. A part time job at Sizzler Restaurant didn’t seem so fierce, should the interview that preceded it; however, there was still a small detail in this chance for work that caused the knot in my stomach: I didn’t know the location of the interview meeting!
I received a phonecall Friday afternoon, in regards to the application that I had submitted a little more than a week before. The conversation was short and sweet, but too brief. As the gentleman on the other side of the line arranged the date and time for my interview session, there wasn’t any time for any other thoughts. So, after quickly agreeing to a 3pm appointment for the following Tuesday, the conversation was almost immediately haulted and brought to an end. With a spinning mind, I was overjoyed that I had gotten a bite.
It quickly occurred to me at that point that I had no idea where I was to go for the interview. It seemed that for some reason, that small detail was left out of the conversation. And as the number of the incoming call had not posted on my caller ID, I had to wait to find out that vital information until I was able to find a contact number. And this I did. When I finally had access to a computer, I found a 1800 number on the Sizzler website. Unfortunately, after countless unsuccessful phonecalls to Sizzler human resources, which is based on the other side of Australia in Brisbane, I had no other choice, but wait for human resources to return my call. Of course, if I didn’t plan ahead and make alternative arrangements, that waiting around would have rendered me helpless. So, I had to take my chances and google directions to the various Sizzler Restaurants around Perth and plan my trip so that I arrived early at one of them. In this way, at least if I arrived early enough, having face to face contact with an actual person, i could have been pointed in the right direction.
After having mapped out all of my potential destinations, I finally received a phone call from one of the Sizzler representatives, who finally gave me the information that I needed. Unfortunately, that shortly before I needed to leave, and not to mention, it also happened to be one of the furthest restaurant branches to get to.
Hopeful enough, and with no time to spare, I ran to the bus station…where I thought I was boarding the right bus. Unfortunately, the bus system can be quite confusing here in Perth. After having mastered the train system, I still find myself intangles when it comes to which bus line to choose. However, the bus I boarded had the correct number and location posted on its forescreen, as according to my googled directions. Unfortunately, things are never as they seem. Regardless of the fact that the bus posting matched my directions, it was an alternate route, and took me in the opposite direction of where I needed to be. This set me about forty five minutes behind schedule, but after contacting the manager of the particular restaurant that I was headed, with his understanding and generosity of time, it bought me some more time. Finally making it to a familiar place, the train station in the center of downtown Perth, I hopped on the Armadale line and headed Southwest of the city.
After roughly half hour ride, I finally reached Kelmscott, the final public transport destination. Now only having to depend of my eyes and feet to get me to my true final destination, this was much easier. And so, after a five minute walk, I reached the cool airconditioned Sizzler premise. Fortunatley, at mid-afternoon, the place was half empty. After a brief and fairly easy-going interview, I was back on the train, headed back towards the city. As the return journey proved to be much simpler, I had time to ponder over my potential to once again be employed. Trying to be optimistic, I looked over the other sets of directions that I had brought with, for much simpler and seemingly more successful alternative routes, and hoped that I would have a chance to use them on a return trip to the restaurant. The virtue of patience calls for my attention, and now must wait for that potential phone call…

Tales from Italy ch. 6: SICILIA!

Being sick away from home is such an uncomfortable and hopeless feeling. That’s how I felt earlier this week when I woke up with a fever of 100.4 on Sunday. Being bed-ridden is enough to ruin anyone’s day, but despite my illness, I had a reason to be thankful. After all, I would much rather be ill in my dorm room in Urbino than on my vacation in Sicily which had just ended the day before.

And what a spectacular vacation that was! We visited Palermo (the Capital), Monreale (a stunning mountain town famous for its golden Santa Maria Nuova cathedral), and Cefalù (the most beautiful beach town ever to exist). The best part is that all this happened spontaneously too- the whole trip was thought up and organized less than week before our departure (yes, these sort of things are apparently possible while in Europe). To make our travels even easier and less expensive we chose to fly Ryanair, an Irish flight company that flies solely around Europe. Our tickets were so cheap I almost cried, and all our flights ended up being on time or arriving early- best ever.

Our trip began last Sunday with a bus to Pesaro and then a train to Bologna. In Bologna, Laura, Judith, Janelle, and I met up with our friend, Monika, who had been visiting her boyfriend and friend and who would be traveling with us to Sicily. The five of us spent the day in Bologna before getting a hotel room since our flight was at 6:30am the next day. Bologna was great- we ate kebab, got at least 20 little boxes of free cereal that were being handed out to promote Nestle (yay to saving money on breakfast groceries for the whole week!), saw the beautiful city-center, heard an organ concert at the San Petronio church, and had appertivi (buffet appetizers) for dinner.

I would just like to add to this list that the kebabs were delicious. Oh my goodness they were so good. And Laura really wanted to pay for her kebab with the hundreds of coins she had accumulated in her wallet. As she began counting them out, the chef behind the counter (we nicknamed him Ali) kept trying to convince her to not worry about it and that she could have it for free at this point, but Laura insisted- she really wanted to get rid of all her coins. So, the chef cupped Laura’s hands and led her away from the counter  and to a seat to eat before she could finish her penny-counting. While we all ate, we were given 2 free plates of french fries and a tall bottle of iced tea. With all the food the only sounds that we made to communicate were “mmm’s,” “oh’s,” and “ah’s.” We were quite the symphony and left a great tip.
On our way out, the chef called Laura back to the counter. We all thought she was going to have to pay after all, but the chef just asked her to hold out her hands. Into them, he dropped a small napkin-pouch filled with all her coins, and all Laura could say was, “No! But I wanted to get rid of them!” as he led her out the door with a smile.

The next morning, we got up at 3:30am to get a taxi by 4. Our flight was at 6:30, and I wanted to make sure we had enough time to do everything at the airport, including visiting an additional desk since Janelle, Laura, and I are Americans and not part of the E.U. Despite this extra stop, we made it through security and were at our gate by 4:45. I should believe Monika and Judith next time when they say it really doesn’t take such a long time at the airports in Europe. Why does it seem to take so much more time in America?
While killing time at our gate, I had an interesting thought. Sitting there looking around at all the people, I found it funny how by tonight all these people will be on different ends of the Earth, but for these brief hours, we’re all clustered together in the same building. Philosophical maybe? I don’t know. It wasn’t even 5am after all.

Once our plane arrived in Trapani, we then had to take a bus to Palermo where we had rented an apartment. The bus ride was crazy though- I mean, Italian drivers are crazier than American drivers by a lot, but this guy was driving a full-sized coach bus! We were passing cars and stopping within inches of the bumpers of cars in front of us- it really kept us on the edge at first, but by the end we learned to trust our driver and took in the beautiful views around us. Sicily, might I add, is gorgeous. I took so many photos from the bus ride alone because it was all just so beautiful!
<<Notice our inability to see the bottom half of the car in front of us. There was probably less than an inch between our full-sized bus and this car.

When we got to Palermo, we went in search of our apartment. Asking for directions in Italy (no matter where) I have found to be a challenge. Everyone you ask will tell you something different until you end up finding what you were looking for by chance and sheer luck. That said, our apartment was located down some seemingly-sketchy back roads in Palermo. We were a little uneasy at first, but after meeting our landlord, a sweet old man with a beagle and free tour guides and maps, we felt more comfortable. Our apartment was very cosy and comfortable (complete with second bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and entry); just right for the little time we’d be spending in it. After unpacking, we headed back outside and concluded that despite our apartment’s rough street, it had its own character and touch; something we would have missed if we weren’t living right in the heart of downtown Palermo.

Because of our early start that day, we figured we’d take the day easy and just explore wherever we ended up. We walked through beautiful parks with palm trees, down to a marina, visited some cathedrals where I learned about the Italian tradition of keeping the bones of saints and putting them on display, saw a puppet maker, and found the most delicious dessert shop of all. Along the way, we encountered several people who, I assume because they heard us speaking English to each other, decided it seemed perfectly normal to scream English phrases at us. For example, one man yelled “Sorry!” at us from across the street. When we looked up at him to see what he was sorry for, all he did was smile at us. We’re pretty sure he was just yelling the only English word he knew to catch our attention. A second man, this one who we passed in the park, turned back to face us and said, “Yes, of course!” Not only had we not been speaking with him, but none of us had asked him a question either. And just like the man before, when we looked at him to see what he meant, he only smiled at us, happy to have caught our attention.

The next day we were less fortunate with the weather as it decided to rain all day. It wasn’t so bad however because we spent most of the day in Palermo indoors visiting churches (there are so many all over Italy- and they’re all so beautifully ornate!) and going to the famous Capuchin Catacombs. I had never seen a catacomb before, and this one was huge. There were dead bodies all around- some standing (suspsended by cables), others were lying down, and others were in coffins with glass covers. There were people of all ages- babies, children, adults, and elders- all from over the course of centuries before the practice of displaying your dead ended in the 19th century. As disturbing and eerie as it was (Janelle couldn’t even look up and kept her head facing the floor the whole time), it was interesting too. I couldn’t help but wonder who each person had been when he or she was alive, what they did, where they lived, when they lived, or how they died. After all, every one of them had been wealthy (the poor didn’t put their dead on display like this) so I’m sure they had accomplished interesting things. If we were lucky, the most information we could find on them were their lifetime dates or names- that is, if we found a name, for only a handful of bodies had any information. One particular identifiable corpse however, was the world-famous Rosalia Lombardo mummy. I was surprised when I found her because I had actually read about her years earlier. Anyway, despite all the morbidity, my favorite part of the catacombs was the clothing. Since the bodies ranged from every age and from centuries old to only a century old, I saw hundreds of years of style for children and adults- the only thing was these styles were still being sported by their original owners too. o_o
To end the day and restore some sanity after all the corpses earlier, we played a children’s game of MASH. It was great because Monika and Judith had never played before and we got to teach them. Categories included the usual like who you’d marry, what car you’d drive, how much money you’d make (‘fish’ apparently sufficed for this at one point), where you’d live, etc, but we also threw in a random category for each person as well (ex: a superpower category; “I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be really stretchy.” -Laura). The “Future Job” section was pretty funny too, as some jobs included a yak farmer (“The yaks need milking!”) and Ron Jeremy’s prostate examiner (“You’d get paid in fish for sticking your finger up Ron Jeremy’s butt!”).

The next day we took a trip to the beautiful city of Monreale. Monreale was a great choice to celebrate the news of Urbino getting 45cm of snow and having canceled classes for the week. So, while Urbino suffered from cabin fever, we were outside in the sun in 65 degree weather! At one point in the day, a short walk down the road brought us to a cliff where we looked over the town and could see the ocean!

Before visiting the cathedral, we went to the courtyard and it was like walking into the middle ages. I had the greatest urge to don a medieval dress and walk about in the courtyard. Anyway, it was very pretty and all the posts were so ornate (the ancients really knew how to decorate!).

Outside the courtyard, we met the tiniest little old lady who was asking for money to buy a panini (we nicknamed her Sylvia). She said some lady gave her an American coin and it would do her no good- it was a state quarter for the Virgin Islands (ok maybe not a STATE quarter, but I still want it for my collection) so I gave her a euro for it and she hobbled away. She was the best.
Next we visited the famous Santa Maria Nuova Cathedral, where the inside is decorated in gold with tons of scenes from the bible. It was huge and gorgeous.

After getting back to Palermo that night, I took notice to some things that came as a giant contrast to the stunning sights we had seen earlier in the day. To start, southern Italy has a big problem with its garbage. The garbage system in the south is run by the Mafia as a means to pressure the government, and in some areas it was poorly taken care of. Piles spilled into the streets and some were as big as cars! Monika told me that in recent years, Naples’s garbage problem got so out of hand that they had to make a deal with a German trash company. The company sent down trains to collect the trash and took it back to Germany to dispose of it. Can you imagine having to get another country to dispose of your trash? Another issue I noticed was the stray dog population. There are strays everywhere you go (and by strays I don’t mean sad little dogs, I mean sad BIG dogs- as big as wolves!), and they sleep under the statues and awnings, on sidewalks, in gardens… everywhere you can think of; they’re just part of the scenery. This of course leads me to observation number 3: dog poop. It’s everywhere and you need to watch where you step.

Thursday, we took a trip to the most beautiful beach town I’ve ever seen- Cefalù. While Urbino was still accumulating snow and now had over a foot, we were taking in the sun, posing for pictures WITHOUT COATS, and taking about 200 photos each of the gazillion beautiful views- I mean, for crying out loud, the water was 4 different shades of blue!

We topped off the day with individual pizzas that were the size of a normal-small sized pizza for only 4 euros! (cue more “mmm’s” and “ah’s”). That night, we celebrated Janelle’s birthday at Paskals, a restraunt near our apartment.

On Friday we shopped around Palermo to finish up our trip. We left for Trapani that afternoon, and flew to Bologna at night. When we got to Bologna, we had an issue at the hotel with our reservation. When we had booked online, we had to set our check-in time for midnight (since our plane came in at 11:40), but the website we used listed midnight as Saturday, since 12am is technically Saturday. This proved to be a problem at the front desk who had then booked us two rooms for Saturday night instead of Friday. They tried to convince us to pay extra since we now had to pay for 3 2-person rooms instead of 2 3-person rooms, but I wouldn’t stand for it. This wasn’t our fault, we weren’t allowed to book midnight on Friday online, and therefore was no reason for us to pay extra; we had done everything we could and did nothing wrong. Persistence ended up paying off (thanks for teaching me how to do that, Mom and Dad!), we got our 3 rooms without paying a dime more than we expected, and I got a pat on the back for standing up to the front desk.
That night, despite our exhaustion from traveling (and it was about 1am by this point), I learned chess with the chess set Laura bought in Sicily! I am now an addict and really hope to get my own set soon 🙂

More pictures:
Bologna
Palermo and Monreale
Cefalù

Anyway, now that I’m better and have finally gotten the chance to update, I feel quite accomplished seeing as I also managed to clean, unpack, and do some laundry!

A prossima volta! (Until next time!)
CIAO

I Want to See Everything!!

In an attempt to post more frequent entries, I’ve decided to let everyone in on my plans for the next 2 months (that’s right, I already have less than 2 months in London!). Okay, so I don’t have an exact plan per se, but after I realized how little time I have left in this amazing city, I realized how much I still have left to see and decided to research some exciting places. Here’s a few I’ve found:

Shakespeare’s Globe: Duh. I’m an English major, and I love Shakespeare, AND I’m in the home of Shakespeare. Why would I not tour the Globe and possibly see a play? More importantly, why haven’t I already?! This one is pretty self-explanatory, but for those who don’t know, the guided tours basically explain the London in which Shakespeare lived and the theater for which he wrote. They also talk briefly about the theater’s reconstruction and how it evolved over the years. They also offer exhibitions on different things like printing and costumes.

Museums!!!: Almost all of the museums here in London have free admission, so I plan to see as many as I can. As you know, I’ve already seen the Childhood Museum, British Museum, and National Gallery. Next on my list is first the Bank of England Museum. After the money exhibit at the British Museum, I’m now really interested in seeing a whole museum devoted to currency and its history in England. Next are the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A for short) and the Imperial War Museum, which supposedly has a really interesting exhibit on the Holocaust. There’s also the Saatchi Gallery, right by Sloane Square (the headquarters for the Duke of York), which is a pretty interesting looking contemporary art museum. Much to my surprise, I’m also interesting in seeking out the Hunterian Museum, one of the many medical museums of London. I don’t even know why I’m so interested in it; I guess I’m just curious to see how medicine has improved/changed over the years.

London Sea Life Aquarium: Call me a nerd if you will, but aquariums fascinate me! This is apparently one of Europe’s largest collections of marine life, and according to their website, “the jewel on the crown of the 28 SEA LIFE attractions in the UK and Europe.” Wow! Of course, it’s pretty pricey (£16, £14.40 if I book online) so I’ll probably leave this to the end of my trip.

Speakers’ Corner: Located in Hyde Park, this is a place where public speaking is allowed, often controversial topics and debates. There are other speakers’ corners in London, but this is the most famous. These speeches and debates are obviously monitored to a certain degree. I found out about it when I was looking up the Marble Arch (located right by Hyde Park) and it seemed really interesting – not to take part in, but just to walk by and see what it’s about, on my way to see the Marble Arch.

Tour of BBC TV Centre/Broadcasting House: Pretty self-explanatory, but tickets are only £7 for students!

Trips out of London: Wales, and Canterbury are the top two on my list, but I haven’t done too much research yet. My friend Tara just took a day trip to Cardiff and said it was amazing.

Alright kiddies, that’s all I’ve got for now. Let’s hope I get to do most (if not all) of this! I’m running out of time!

Arts, Antiques, and Allison

So I realize how long it’s been since I last ACTUALLY updated (not counting, of course, my Paris pictures from earlier). This past weekend my friend from home, Allison, came to visit from Rome where she’s studying abroad. But more on that later. This is going to be another LONG post!

Before I delve into all the fun stuff – AKA the more interesting and, dare I say, more important part of this experience – I’ll briefly share that I got my first paper back on Wednesday. I got a 3! Now, before you wonder why I’m so excited about this, let me remind/tell everyone about the grading system in London. It’s on a scale of 1 to 20, where 1-4 are equivalent to high mark (an A), so a 3 is basically an A! I’ll admit, of the 3 papers I had to write last month, this one was the easiest to me; it was basically picking one of the passages from Midnight’s Children she gave us and doing a close reading and thinking up your own thesis. That’s basically what I’ve been doing since junior year of high school. Easy peezy. I felt bad because a few people around me apparently didn’t do so well, but I was still (understandably) proud that I managed to snag an A on my first paper in London. 🙂

Okay, anyway. Last week – Wednesday to be exact – was my birthday! My 21st birthday, even!! What an amazing way to celebrate; after having a handful of pretty uneventful or un-enjoyable birthdays since middle school, it was great to be in London for this major birthday, although I kind of wished I was around my family and friends. I didn’t do much on my actual birthday because many of my friends have class on Thursday even though I don’t.  Orange phone service has this deal for Wednesdays where they give 2 for 1 movie tickets and coupons for Pizza Express. Because we all still have our Orange simcards from when we first got here – we all switched to better plans since then – we decided to take advantage of this. So that night I went to Pizza Express with Tara, Melissa, Aminta, Laura, and Joey and then went with Tara, Melissa and Laura to see Leap Year. The food was AMAZING! The staff was really nice, too. We got an order of garlic bread and dough balls which were both delicious, and I can’t remember what I got for the main dish but I remember it being amazing. Even without the Orange deal, the prices aren’t too bad for a restaurant that looks pretty fancy at first glance. Definitely going back there another time. The movie, on the other hand, wasn’t too impressive. None of us really liked it except for the really beautiful Irish scenery. We all got a little excited about going there on our separate Ireland trips. Oh! I forgot to mention that they also got me a Hannah Montana cake (which was pretty good but went stale pretty quickly) and a “blow up husband” which was not what I originally thought it was, thank God. He’s now inflated and sitting in the corner creepily.

On Thursday, since I didn’t have class, I finally got myself over to the British Museum and the National Gallery. Laura came with, because she never got to see the Rosetta Stone the last time she was at the British Museum, and had never been to the National Gallery either. Tara also wanted to come to the National Gallery, so we were going to meet her when we were done at the British Museum.

British Museum and a lovely day

Inside the British Museum

I hafta say, I think preferred the British Museum over the otherwise-popular National Gallery. I’ve always heard such amazing things about NG and how monstrous it is, but I think BM had more interesting things to offer. For example, Rosetta Stone was there along with a clock room – I happen to think clocks are fascinating – and an exhibit on world currencies over the years. There was even a hands-on station where we could touch and look closely at ancient currency from Africa and Rome (I think). Sweet!

Rosetta Stone!

Yep, this is a clock

World currencies through history

In contrast, National Gallery (not to be confused with the National Portrait Gallery, which Tara did) was mostly paintings and portraits, which made me laugh since there’s an entirely other building devoted to….more portraits? Anyway, they didn’t let us take any pictures but the building itself is probably what stood out to me more than the art. High ceilings, elaborate ceiling artwork and a lot of gilding.

National Gallery from the outside

View from Trafalgar Square after the National Gallery

My real birthday celebration took place on Friday when we all got together to go to a club in Central London, On Anon. It was a beautiful club, although I’m not usually a big club goer. But it was a cool way to celebrate, although it was like Amazing Race to get there before 10 for free admission. We just made it! Josh also offered to cook enchiladas before we left for Central. Soooo good!

(Some of) The group at On Anon

Although I had every intention of sleeping in that day, my friends texted me the next morning about going to Portobello Road, a huge outdoor antique market in Notting Hill. I heard good things about it, and my friends hadn’t left by the time I got up, so I decided to go. It was really cool, although I wasn’t about to splurge on antique knick-knacks or vintage clothing. I did, however, get some paella which was TODIEFOR.

Portobello Road

The paella!!

Anyway, after walking up and down Portobello Road, Aminta and I had somewhere else to be – A DAVE MATTHEWS BAND CONCERT AT O2 ARENA! That’s right, I said it! That was my birthday gift to myself, I guess. It was one of the most expensive things I’ve bought in London (aside from airfare) but it was totally worth it! I’ve been wanting to see them live for years and what better place to do it than in London – and the O2 arena no less! It was such an amazing venue! I mean,the arena itself was basically as big as Madison Square Garden which I’m obviously used to, but it’s located in this huge mall-type place that was really colorful and futuristic looking. It was the kind of place you could hang out in without actually seeing a concert. I also bought a T-shirt which I just realized I’m wearing right now, lol!

Cool looking wall by The O2

Movie theater in The O2 by the arena

Inside The O2

Anyway, before we could enjoy the show and all that, we had to pick up the tickets which of course had to be a whole adventure in itself. Aminta didn’t realize she needed the confirmation number, and she didn’t remember which credit card she paid for the tickets with, so she had all of them with her. True, she probably should’ve thought of these things, but I was still shocked at how difficult this had become. Finally, we realized that the problem was that they were looking under the TicketMaster list, and couldn’t find her name, so she probably ordered through a different company. I didn’t think they had different lists – and didn’t understand why they did –  which was why this was so baffling to me. Then the woman told her to check her e-mail, but she didn’t have her Blackberry with her so the woman directed us to the O2 store to use their computers. But they didn’t have public computers, but thankfully a really nice employee let us use the store computer and print out the e-mail. After 10 minutes of thinking she accidentally deleted the e-mail, Aminta found it and printed it and brought it back to the line. UGH! Altogether, this process took about 15 minutes, but it was finally taken care of. We had gotten there pretty early so we had plenty of time to get a coffee and relax until the doors opened. Then the show! I loved it! We were planning on moving our seats if it wasn’t sold out, but it got pretty full and we liked our seats anyway, so there was no need. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t play a lot of his older/more popular songs, but he played a handful of my favorites, so again, I didn’t care! I was in the same room as Davey I didn’t care at all!!!

Best picture of the night!

I didn’t do too much last week, but on Monday Tara, Melissa, Aminta and I went to “Every Other Monday” comedy show in Angel Islington. I heard about it in an e-mail newsletter I got from the International Office at Middlesex. I know I LOVE British humor (hello, The Office and Whose Line is it Anyway?) but I wasn’t sure of what to expect. It was basically a free comedy night where regulars come to try out their new material. They’re all on for about 8-10 minutes and if the audience laughs, they’re mostly likely going to keep the joke; if the audience sort of laughs – or there’s a mixed reaction – they think about tweaking that part; if the audience doesn’t laugh at all they obviously toss the joke. A lot of them were really hilarious – I preferred the second half – but the first two were INCREDIBLY nervous; the woman was literally shaking all over. I realized that for a comedian to be funny, they have to be more confident or else the humor is kind of lost. This poor girl didn’t have any transitions between jokes it was like a grab bag of random one liners. Anyway, I realized I could never be a stand up comedian, but I had a great time being an audience member! We sat in the first row, so of course we were a target for many of the comedians, especially once they found out we’re Americans. And the MC looked JUST like my brother, only he had a British accent which was jarring as hell, but pretty amusing still.

Then on Thursday my friend Allison came to visit! Before she got here, I bought an air mattress (which I just returned today now that she left – yeah, I cheat the system like that!) but it didn’t have an air pump, which of course made for an interesting experience of blowing it up manually. Anyway, Thursday I went to Stansted to meet her at the airport. Her flight was a little late landing, so I didn’t meet up with her until about 8, and we didn’t get back to Oakwood until about 9:30. We got dinner at the fish and chips shop next to the tube station and then just hung out at my room. I loved having a guest here because I got to do all the touristy things I did at the beginning, again 2 months later. 🙂 Friday she went to the British Museum while I was in class, and later that night we took the Jack Ripper walking tour. Spooky! Basically a tour guide takes you around to the different places where the actual murders took place; most of the locations have since been renovated, but you can still see the same doorways or windows, etc. We were literally at the scenes of the crimes! And it wasn’t the greatest looking neighborhood so that made it even spookier! I didn’t really know much about the JtR story prior to Friday night, but now I know the full story. Basically, for those who don’t know, his victims were all homeless and drunken prostitutes whom he literally ripped (hence the name) apart to very gruesome extent. In the process of brutally slaughtering these women, he removed their wombs. I think the eeriest part of the whole tour was when Jenny (our tour guide) explained how Jack was never caught, never identified, and how he probably got away with it – which I never thought about (how does a man not get noticed walking down the streets of London covered in blood? how does he even know how to properly slaughter a person?) Her theory is that he was probably a professional slaughterer: back in the day, before there were freezers, the animals were hunted, slaughtered, packaged, and sent to the butcher shops by 6 am. Therefore, a man walking around in an apron covered in blood at 3am was probably common. And the only way he would know how to properly slaughter his victims (slice the throat, then down the chest, etc.) would be if he studied it in books and practiced; thus, he was probably a slaughterer. We also got to read an actual letter presumably written by Jack in which he coins himself “Jack the Ripper.” Altogether scary! On Saturday, we did pretty much ALL the tourist spots – Westminster Abbey, Big Ben/Parliament, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s, Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge:

Obligatory phone booth photo

Westminster Abbey

Me and Big Ben

Houses of Parliament and the River Thames

Me and the statue at Buckingham Palace

Our amazing lunch at The Albert!

Another picture of the Tower Bridge to add to my collection

Millennium Bridge at sunset

St. Paul’s Cathedral at sunset

Sunday, we went down to Trafalgar Square for the St. Paddy’s day parade/festival. It was pretty cool, since I’ve never been to the one in NY (which I know is WAY more elaborate and insane than this one was) but it was nice to finally go to one and be surrounded by all that orange and green! There were tables with Irish food and Irish music/performances and everything. I almost felt Irish myself! Afterward, we went to another pub for some English food (we had gone to one on Saturday and FELL IN LOVE with it and its amazing food!) but it wasn’t the same as The Albert; still good though.

Later that night, Allison wanted to go to a real London bar. I realized that there aren’t many places in between laid-back pubs and high-energy clubs. But luckily our friends were on their way down to B@1, a bar in Soho. Perfect! Even though we got there just as it was closing (everything closes pretty early here in London), she was still happy she got that experience, even just for a little. It was a really cute little place that played good music, so I’m glad I found it. After that, we came back here and she slept for a few hours before we had to trek back to Stansted in the middle of the night/early this morning. Her flight was at 8 so she had to get there by 6ish, which means we left here about 4:30am. That means night buses for us, UGH. One thing I don’t like about London is the night buses. Sometimes a little creepy, but always looooooong rides. I went with her up to Tottenham Hale train station, but not to the airport. It was perfect, really, because I was able to get the first tube back to Oakwood from there. I treated myself to a very fresh croissant from Tesco and put myself to BED until 2. Oy, I probably screwed up my sleep schedule for tonight, but whatever.

So that’s what’s been happening here! I also learned yesterday that Daylight Savings Time is different for different countries. Call me dumb, but I didn’t know that! It’s strange because now, for the next two weeks, there’s only going to be a 4 hour time difference between London and New York, as opposed to 5. Weird! Also, yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the UK, so Mum if you’re reading this, Happy Belated (but not?) Mother’s Day! It’s also been getting a LOT nicer weather-wise; it was actually pretty sunny today! Recently, it’s been sporadically sunny while still being pretty windy; how deceiving! I can’t wait until it’s actually spring and our big, green campus is filled with dandelions and pretty-ness! 🙂 Sorry this was so long, I’ll try to post a little more frequently so I don’t have to write a novel every time. But I guess that just means I’ve been having a busy and exciting time here! I still can’t believe it’s already half-over though (or half-left, depending on how you look at it). Wonder what I’ll do next….

Woops!

Well, I forgot to post on my blog last week, sorry! Anyway, last week I took a break from traveling and tried to save a little money for my upcoming Krakow Trip this week. We leave Thursday night at midnight, arrive in Auschwitz in the morning, the next day we visit the Salt Mines near Krakow. I had no idea these existed until I signed up for this trip. I am looking forward to it quite a bit.

On the 10th of March I attended the opening ceremony for the One World Film Festival, a humanitarian event which is being held in multiple locations across Europe. It was a nice event although, they gave the impression that they were going to air one of the movies at the end, but that never happened. To this point, I have not taken the time to go to one of the films, but I hope to before the festival ends on the 18th.

Why Wales? Entry #6: I’ll take Welsh weather over NY weather any day.

The one thing people warned me most against Wales was the weather.

Everyone warned me that is is rediculously wet and cold all the time.

I for one, have not experienced this at all.

I can officially say that Spring has sprung in Cardiff, and I love it. Today is the first day that I can walk outside with short sleeves. These are my favorite kinds of days.

On my walk to campus today, I began to think about the winter we just had. Wales has incredibly mild weather. Yes, it has rained a lot, but it has never been a rain all day type of rain.

New Paltz weather… no thank you. (Photo courtesy of Nicole Cooper)

Cardiff Weather…. it doesn’t snow here
😀

And comparing the weather we have had in Wales, to the winter everyone has been experiencing in New Paltz… I’m glad I’m here.

I came to Wales prepared with a giant winter coat, which I didn’t need. By the second week I already bought a smaller jacket. In NY, when it gets cold, it gets cold (this is where actual temperatures would be useful, but I don’t have those). I feel like by studying abroad I missed a horrendous winter I would have otherwise experienced. That is good considering I hate winter. 🙂

Along with enjoying the beautiful weather, we have also been going on lots of adventures. Cardiff is an amazing place to live. One of the days, we headed down to Cardiff Bay. One of my friends, Marissa wanted to go to the Doctor Who exhibit. (Doctor Who is a well known welsh TV show which she is very into.) I went down to the bay with her and enjoyed the exhibit, while the rest of our group joined us later for lunch.

We enjoyed some delicious fish and chips and then some ice cream by the water. The entire area is beautiful and it makes me realize how much Cardiff has to offer. Since the bay is separate from the city center, I often forget about how beautiful it is, or how much there is to do down there. There’s plenty of stores, restaurants, and a movie theater too.

While at the bay, we saw the Welsh Bockers practicing. It was very cool!

After hanging around, we went back to our rooms, and watched some movies.  🙂

Paris Pictures!

I know, I know. I totally forgot to upload my pictures from Paris! Apologies, apologies (although I’m sure anyone who is friends with me on Facebook is not at all disappointed – all my pictures from the last two weeks are up there. But for those reading this who did not get to see on Facebook, here are some highlights from Paris:

Me, Melissa, and Laura outside Notre Dame

A view from inside Notre Dame

And another!

Me and the Pantheon

My creepiest photo from inside the Catacombs

Me outside the Louvre – amazing museum!!!

I got to see the Mona Lisa in person – I loved it!

One of my favorite parts of the Louvre – Napoleon’s apartments

A walk in a park in Paris – just past the Louvre

NEED I SAY MORE??

So far away from home?

Sometimes when I’m here, in Australia, I feel as though I am still at home. That is…although it has its differences, Perth seems very much familiar to home. I’ve been here for a month now, and I’ve seen a range of similarities consisting of the conduct of instructors in classrooms, students attitudes toward education, people in the local community, similar automotive vehicles, grocery stores and largely, humor. It’s just the sense that the way people live their lives here seems generally familiar to that of home.
Occasionally, I even forget that I am so far away from home, or that I’m even in Au of all places. Of course, being so close to the airport there is the constant drum of aircrafts flying overhead (something I rarely have a chance to hear at home). This causes me to ponder my return flight home. In some ways, although I really do enjoy this lovely place, I do look forward to that day…but only in time, not now. I’ve always enjoyed flying, so it gives me a stimulating rush to think of my next flight. When I snap from that dreamy and ponderous state, I quickly remind myself of where I am and what I am here to do…which sometimes is difficult to pinpoint, considering that my opportunities here are endless.
Regardless of the arid landscape and climate that surrounds me, I am witness to an abundance of tropical vegetation, which sprouts and towers above me in almost every angle of view. This, combined with the birds that I see and hear everyday, and some fauna that I had the opportunity to visit while at a wildlife park (such as kangaroos and koalas), really makes for a spectacular combined experience.
Regardless of whether I feel only a couple hundred miles away from home, or actually conceptualize that I am half way across the planet, I am still in Australia, and am extremely grately to have had the opportunity and ability to travel as far as I did.