...

If I didn't know any better, I'd think there was a teenage boy living at this house.  Smells like Axe super strong in the bathroom and hallway.  Nope. Just the grandpa. He's a baller.

Londra

It took a trip to England for me to realize how much my study abroad experience has plunged me into a totally different culture.  It's not that I didn't know that already, I knew I was in a new place, but leaving the country for the first time in over a month and going to London was like a mini reverse culture shock.  

Erin, Ariel, Jerrod and I took a train to Pisa early Friday morning and flew from there to London.  At the airport we met up with Erin's friend Katelyn who has been studying abroad in Ireland.  Earlier we had bought tickets for a bus from the airport into London, I was expecting a grey hound type thing, but we got a mini bus, more like a 10 person van that drove us for an hour right into the city and dropped us off right at a Tube station.  Very convenient.  

We stayed in Piccadilly Backpackers hostel which was a short subway ride from where we were dropped off. (1st subway ride! Also 1st hostel experience…)  It was a little rough.  Nothing like staying in a nice hotel, but I hadn't expected that.  We were in a 4 person dorm with 2 bunk beds.  They just give you a clean sheet and a pillow case when you check in and there was a blanket folded at the end of each bed when we got to our room.  

There were all kinds of worldly vibrant murals painted all over the walls.  It reminded me of being back in the dorms when I started college. Maybe a little less clean. Especially the bathroom. But it really wasn't that bad.  I didn't really mind, it was inexpensive and is practically right in Piccadilly Circus.  

We got ourselves checked in around 2 or 3 and went out into London!  We hadn't been walking for ten minutes when all of the sudden someone down the sidewalk is screeching and running towards us.  It was Erin and Katelyn's friends from back in Denver.  How weird.  We're in a huge city and already we see people we know.  

We went to see Buckingham Palace, slightly unimpressive actually.  I thought it would be bigger and fancier, but it just looks like an old stone building.  The guards don't even wear the traditional tall hats anymore! Thats what I wanted to see!  

We walked back towards Piccadilly and went on a mission to find a pub and fish and chips, which there are both on practically every corner.  We found a nice little pub that was really busy downstairs, but they sent us upstairs to eat.  It was cute, we were the only ones up there, we sat in front of a little fireplace, and our waitress was so adorable with her accent and she was just so nice!   This was kind of our first encounter with the reverse culture shock.  I had realized when we got to Italy how their culture is just very blunt and what we would consider rude back home.  It's completely normal in Italy. Its just a behavioral thing, they don't find it rude.  I think I have just come to accept it and also fit myself into in some ways.  When everyone from little kids to little old ladies will just shove by you without even the slightest hint of an excuse me, you just learn to do the same thing.  I find that when I say excuse me, the Italians give looks, almost like that is a weird thing to say in that situation.  Waitresses, baristas, etc. are often very cold when they wait on you.  Some of it may be that they may not like Americans, but I always try very hard to use as much Italian as I can when I order to show them that I am trying.  

So when our waitress was all cheery and sat there and told us which beer she liked, answered any questions about the menu, told us just to "shout if you need anything" etc. she seemed like the nicest person I'd ever met.  We all couldn't get over it.  Katelyn was kinda blown away when we told her about some of the cultural differences. I guess people in Ireland are also normal, friendly, human beings.  

Same thing at the pub later that night.  The bartender was so friendly when we walked in, he joked and chatted with us while we ordered, asked us where we were from and offered up suggestions about the beer.  This all seems like such a normal thing back in Montana, but I've been away from it for close to a month and a half now and hadn't realized that it would feel so strange to go back into. 

In the hostel that night we found out that our beds had a bit of a squeak issue.  Any time anyone even moved a finger they might as well have been jumping on their bed.  I don't think any of us really got very solid sleep.  And because we had Katelyn with us and we were trying to be cheap, we had snuck her in and she had to share a bed with Erin.  Good thing they weren't Italian size beds, two people in one of those would really just end up just being one person in the bed. The other would most likely find themselves on the floor.

Got up at 9, started our day by getting Cinnabon and Starbucks. Not very local of us, but A) Cinnabon was right around the corner, and B) I have not been able to order a latte in Italy because they just don't do soy milk at cafes, and C) its pumpkin spice latte season.  You can't just miss that. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around London.  We saw Big Ben, the London Eye (which we didn't end up riding on because it is pretty expensive), Westminster Abbey, and Tower Bridge/London Bridge whichever its referred to.  Jerrod and I stuck a 406 sticker he had onto a discreet area of the bridge.  We had to leave a little Montana behind.  I took my Holga camera with me on this walkabout and ended up taking a triple exposure of Tower Bridge from far away, the sign saying Tower Bridge, and the Montana 406 sticker.  I guess I will wait for 3 months to find out if it worked. 

I didn't realize that Tower Bridge was a draw bridge.  Those things always amaze me.  A little bit after we crossed, they pulled it up and let a ship out.  It was kinda neat to see. 

We went out for Thai food that night.  Also not a very local Londony thing, but there are tons of Thai restaurants there.  Also, Italians don't really switch it up for dinner and such.  They are rather proud of their food, we eat Italian meals for every meal.  Its probably some type of sin to cook any other ethnic food. Don't get me wrong, I love Italian food and could probably eat it for the rest of my life, but it was fun to switch it up for a couple days. 

The Pound is so strong compared to the dollar. Right now it is 1.6 dollar for 1pound. If you think in pounds when you're buying things it's not that many, but if you do the dollar conversion you realize it costs you an arm and a leg to pay for anything…. I didn't buy anything other than food and drink, but I still felt like it was a pricey couple of days.  When I go back for the few days of my 10 day break I will be finding a grocery store and eating bread and cheese for lunch and dinner.  Which is just fine by me.

When we were walking around that evening there were lots of guys out trying to promote the clubs.  They just come right up to you and start to talk to you about the club.  We automatically went into our Italian Defensive mode and as soon as they walked up we were like "No thank you, Not interested, Go away"  Then we realized that they are not quite like the Italian vendors. They actually were all pretty nice, they weren't trying to force us to buy anything, just handing out flyers for the clubs and telling people about them… We probably looked like rude Americans, but you can't be that nice in Italy, you give them two seconds of attention and they won't go away.  

We had to get up and going the next morning around 9 because we had to catch our little bus/van back to the airport.  I have decided I should not be allowed to fly anymore… When I printed off my boarding passes earlier, it was the day I found out my bank account had been wiped out. My head wasn't really there and I wasn't thinking.  I knew I had checked the "check in for both departure and return flights" box, then I hit the print two copies button.  I had some problems getting the printer to run, but then I got the two copies finally and just kinda had this thought in my head like both my departure and return boarding passes were both on the paper. Who knows.  

Anyway It didn't even hit me  until we were on our way to the airport that I did NOT have a return boarding pass…. We were flying with Ryanair and there are all kinds of rules for flying with them.  We were at the airport 3 hours before our flight and I found a place that I could print a pass from a computer.  Well with Ryanair's stupid rules, you can't reprint your boarding pass with less than 4 hours to your flight. gahhhhh….   So I paid a pricey fee to have their flight desk print it. That is how they make money apparently.  Luckily the original flight hardly cost anything, but it still sucks. A lot.  I cannot make flight mistakes anymore, its killing me!

The flights were a little interesting as well.  The plane wasn't small like I was imagining, but It is crazy loud during take off and the entire flight my ears were popping just about every 5 minutes.  I've never had that happen on a plane before.  Landing was also kinda scary… Both times it seemed like the pilot was like 'oh shit, I should have started decent like 5 minutes ago, I better get down there!'  The plane was so up and down while we were descending, I thought we were falling out of the sky like ten times. 

Right when we landed back in Pisa, Erin gets a call from her room mate here in Italy who was also traveling saying that the trains are on strike until 9 that night.  Are you kidding me?! W`e can't win with the damn Italian train system! They are strikes with the busses and trains like ever other week it seems like.    

The train runs right to the Pisa airport, and thats where we were supposed to get on.  We had bought our tickets beforehand.  But sure enough when we looked at the board, it says strike next to our train.  We decide to try and walk to the Centrale station, it didn't look too far away on Erin's phone map.  We figured we'd just find that one, and then hang out in Pisa for like 5 hours until the strikes were over.

It only took us maybe 20-30 minutes to get there, and right when we walked in to the station, we realized there was a train headed for Empoli, the station where we needed to make a train switch, in like 5 minutes.  It didn't say strike next to it.  So we rush out to our platform to see if its really true.  There is a ton of people out there waiting.  I think everyone figured We might as well get on a train thats moving in our general direction since it may be the last for a few hours.   We listened as the announcement came on over the platform speakers listing the departures that had been cancelled. And then it came on again saying that the train for Empoli would be arriving in like 3 minutes.  Everyone on the platform started clapping and cheering, it was kinda funny.  

Right as we were getting off the train in Empoli, we overheard this lady was asking someone about the train to Siena and he said something about it being delayed 10 minutes. Wait What?!  We sprint into the station, see that there is a Train to Siena without the stike listed and its technically supposed to leave in 3 minutes.  More sprinting out and down under the tracks and back up to our platform.  We've learned you can never quite trust the times with the train.  It doesn't always stay until its correct departure time if it comes early, and if it says its a ten minute delay, they also may show up early and leave early.  So its always a mad dash up and down the stairs to the platforms if you're anywhere within the 5-10 minute range of the train time.  

It came!  We were actually going to get home! This is never our luck, I thought for sure we were going to be getting home by midnight if not later.  If we had hesitated any longer about walking from the airport to the Centrale station, we would have missed that first train to Empoli.  We win. For once.  With all the strike crap happening, we actually ended up back in Siena earlier than we were supposed to with the original train times.  Too lucky. 

When I got to the house, the grandpa was so surprised to see me.  He was like, "I didn't think you would make it home because of the strikes! I thought we wouldn't see you tonight!"  I guess he figures that if I can't even make it back home when the trains really ARE running, then there was no hope for me at all when they were striking.

      I really liked London a lot, but it is strange how homesick its made me feel.  I felt that way a little bit before going, but being there was so much like being in the States, just with better architecture.  Maybe its also that we're about at the half way point of being in Italy so the newness has worn off and its become a reality that I'm living here...

Italian Medicine

So I've been sick for the last 4 days or so. Kinda just started out with a little sore throat and then went into a lung thing.  I've just been taking my Umcka and Esperitox  and  drinking lots of tea (which I finally found a coffee shop that serves hot tea. Its not something very common).  

The grandpa is sick too and has been for longer than me.  I assume thats how I got it, mostly because he literally can't seem to talk to me unless he's got his face 2 inches from mine… when I back up he just steps forward. Sometimes we do this awkward dance for like 5 minutes… 

Anyway today I was coughing at dinner and the grandpa was saying how he takes medicine or something and I'm like yeah yeah, I take stuff too.  

Later I find myself in the living room with him and he's got some kinda powder in a white packet and he tells me to watch.  He tears it open, and knocks it back.   Then he tells me to.  Uhhhh…. 

Medicine, he says. For the cough.  

I felt like I was doing drugs with an 80 year old. 

I think it was just like the Italian version of an Emergen-C but he doesn't mix it with water.  Tastes like oranges. 

I may wake up dead or feeling like a million bucks. We'll see. 

No $$

Ariel texted me last night saying that her debit card information had been stolen and her account had been drained.  I didn't even know what to say to her, I just kept thinking this is so shitty, I wonder if she can file it with her bank and get her money back or not.  I felt so bad for her and was thinking 'Oh I should get online and check my account just to be safe.'  I hadn't really checked it in probably 10 days or so.  I was just thinking it would be a responsible thing to do, ya know, just keep a closer eye on it in case something like that were to happen to me.  

So this morning I went to a little cafe and was doing my homework when Ariel came to meet me. She said how she had called the 24 hour line and had her account frozen, but because it was Columbus day the day before in the states and because we are an 8 hour difference from Montana, she hadn't been able to call her actual bank yet.  It reminded me I should check my account.  So I got on and couldn't believe it.  My account was $250 in the red. Holy shit.  How is this possible?  How do we both get hacked at the same time?  That is the worst feeling.  In 2 days someone had taken 36 small withdraws from ATMs in Italy and completely  drained my account. 

We realized what must have happened was when we went to Venice the other weekend, we both stopped at the same ATM right after we left the train station.   It had to have been that because all of the fraudulent withdraws on my card were from Venice.  

I called my 24 hour line and had my card cancelled and because of the time difference my parents got a wake up call at 5 in the morning.  Everyone kept trying to reassure us that we would get our money back and that it would be ok, but I was just not sure.  I understand with a credit card how they can just reverse the charges that were put on, but it was a debit card.  They went to atms and took cash out. The money is gone. How does a bank reimburse people for money that is gone?   I had to wait until 4 O clock my time before I could call my bank back home, so I spent my whole day just waiting and feeling so helpless.  

I finally got ahold of them and talked to the lady about which charges were and weren't mine and she was like, "well I have to run the numbers and process the claim. I should have the money back in your account by tonight hopefully.  Wow. I was expecting it to be a very lengthy process.  I still haven't heard anything, but I actually have hope that I will not be broke for the rest of my time in Italy.  I was starting to think I was going to have to try and get a job here! 

We'll see tomorrow what it looks like and if anything has gotten straightened out.  

It was also very sickening because I leave for London on Friday.  I have my ticket and room already, but its almost impossible to travel and not spend a single dime.  I still am not quite sure what I'm going to do about that.   I have very little cash on me.  It will all work out I'm sure, but I may be borrowing money from someone until I get a new card.  Difficult. 

This kid asked Ariel awhile ago if me and her were BFFLs (apparently that is Best Friends For Life) because we're always together. She was kinda like, heh no, we just get each other.  Its easy to hang out with one another.  

I am starting to think maybe we ARE becoming BFFLs.  We can't even get our bank accounts hacked alone, we gotta do it together. Jeez…

10/6 Beer Festival in a Castle (or not)

Ok joke's on me. The whole time we were on this little trip I'm about to explain, we thought we were in Castellina in Chianti.  Except after trying to describe to my host family what I did, they seem to think I was in fact not there, but in Monteriggioni. Oops. No wonder there was some confusion…

Ok, so….

Jerrod's host dad told him about a beer festival happening close to Siena, so him, Erin, Ariel and I decided it was a must.  We've been having cravings for good beer in Italy, its kinda hard to find.  We found out we were headed to Castellina Scalo and that you can take a 15 min train ride to the town. Perfect. 

We had started our day off in town trying to book tickets for hostels and trains for our trips to London and Paris. Jerrod had his computer for this and wanted to drop it off at home before we headed out to to the festival. He lives about a 20- 30 minute bus ride out of the city.  So we all hopped on his bus and headed out into the country side.  Then he realized that once we got dropped off, there would be a bus coming in only about 10 minutes to take us back into the city and that its the only one for another 2 or 3 hours. Yikes.  He also informed us that where the bus drops him off is about 3/4 of a mile away from his house still...  

We get off the bus and Jerrod takes off running down the road with his backpack.  We were left in charge of waiting for the bus, and if it came early, begging the driver to stay for just one minute!  Jerrod made it back in time, a bit sweaty from his mid distance sprint tho.  

Part of our walk up to the Beer Fest

We finally got on the train once we were back in town and we were off to Beer Fest!  I thought we had a pretty small station in Siena, but when we got off in Castellina Scalo I thought differently.  We were in a super tiny town.  But thats when Jerrod informed us that Castellina means little castle and we were actually going to a beer fest IN A CASTLE!  What?! no big deal, they just do things like that here in Italy.  (Not even sure now if this is true… Jerrod, I put too much trust into you and your ability to speak Italian)

Well, it looks like a castle doesn't it? 

Thank God for Erin having her iPhone. She navigates us all over the place when we're lost.  I don't know what we'd do half the time without her.  We got a route on her phone on how to get up to the castle and started walking down the highway like a bunch of foreigners.  I don't think its very common here because people were giving us some pretty funny looks. We realized about half way that there was a dirt path down the hill a little that we probably should be on. 

One of the many vineyards

It really wasn't that far of a walk at all.  It's all in perspective though because we have walked our asses off here, so everything seems pretty conquerable.  1/2 hour walk to get a glass of wine? no biggie. A 3.5 mile walk to the discotecha? whatever.  A trek across town and then up a mountain to a castle for beer? Piece of Cake.  

On the way up the hill to the castle there were grapes just growing on the side of the path.  They're small but pack so much flavor! We may or may not have also snuck into a vineyard as well and picked a few clusters from the vines.  Nothing said no trespassing, we're just dumb Americans right? We don't understand!   Thats the argument I have in my head for if I ever do get caught doing things in Italy that I shouldn't be. 

Grapes that I may or may not have picked from the vineyard...

Finally at the Castle!  We walk in through an archway (and up the slickest cobblestones I've ever been on, holy crap!) and into the Beer Fest!  It was so cool! The stands for the microbrews were set up in kinda the central courtyard area.  It wasn't huge, but very local feeling and not a ton of people.  There were 9 different breweries with about 3 or 4 beers each to try.  The way it worked was you purchased tickets for either samplers, small beers or large ones.  We all decided to buy 10 sampler tickets for 10 Euro.  The sampler size was about that of a dixie cup, so it was just perfect to taste.  

There was a man dressed in kinda a peasant outfit running around with a basket full of bread for everyone.  I think it was supposed to be a pallet cleanser but it was more like my appetizers.  

The Bread Man! 

Most of the booths had a Blonde, a Nero (a stout), and a Rossa (it's kinda like an amber, or the closest thing to it. )  The Rossa beers were really good from almost every booth, I think that was my favorite category of the evening.  We tried about 5 of our tasters and then we couldn't resist the restaurant that was next to the event.  I had amazing gnocchi with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. It was one of my favorite things I've had here.  

Just being a Fat American. Gnocchi is the best.

I was all excited because there was Celtic music starting at 9 and I was hoping it was going to be really fun, but once they started it was so quiet you couldn't really hear it which was disappointing. 

I tried one taster from each of the 9 breweries, and then had one ticket left to get my favorite one again, it worked out perfectly and was just the right amount of beer.  All ten samplers probably only amounted to 2  or 2 1/2 pints, but keep in mind that it is all 6 or 7%.   

Drinking birra in an ancient setting. Couldn't get more cool.

The whole night was a lot of fun and it was just such a neat setting for a beer tasting.  I definitely want to go back another day and see how much of the old castle grounds you're allowed to explore.  

Me, Erin, Ariel, Jerrod

We had checked the train schedule to make sure we could get home and there was supposed to be a train every hour until 1.  We left the castle a little after ten to make the 11:15 train home.  We got back down the mountain and to the city way quicker than the way up and we were at the train station at like 10:45.  The station isn't even a building you go into, it has just a little area kinda more like a covered bus stop with a ticket vending machine.  We all got our tickets and sat down thinking we had about a half hour to wait for the train.  In about 5 minutes there is a train that pulls up and we kinda stand up, like is this ours? its WAY early.  We also realized we needed to be on the other platform so in a panic we have to dart down the stairs and under the tracks and as we come up on the other side the doors shut and the train leaves.  We were all convinced that it couldn't have been our train because it was so early and didn't wait around.  So we wait until 11:15, no train.  11:30 no train.  We accepted that we had missed our train, so we would just have to wait for the next hour's to arrive. So we waited. And went back into the tiny so called train station. And all huddled together on the bench for warmth, because it is damp, and freezing. And then we moved back out to the platform to wait for our train again.  I wish I could see a picture of us at that time. Jerrod's in the middle of the bench, he's got Ariel laying down into his lap from one side, Erin from the other, I'm huddle next to Erin, and he's got his arms around the whole of us as we shiver and wait for the nonexistent TrainItalia.  Until about 1:20. NOTHING. Also, right at 1:00 all the lights at the station just shut off all at once.  It felt like something out of a horror story. It was a foggy night out and we're kinda out on the edge of town with a field behind us and the moon making creepy shadows out of everything. 

Then Erin got her phone back out and we started looking at the schedule again when we noticed that when you scroll all the way to the right on the last 1:00 train arrival, it says Autobus next to it.   What?!  Right at one when we were all startled by the lights turning off, a big greyhound bus came to the other side of the station area and then disappeared.  The train just turns into a bus. WTF.  Italy, sometimes you befuddle me. Unless you are a local and take these busses and trains on a regular basis, you would have no freaking clue that the train magically turns into a bus at 1 am. What is this?! Cinderella?

So onto plan B.  We walked back around the station to the street and just kinda stand there staring off into the town like Now what?  We thought we'd try to call a taxi, we really were not that far from Siena.  That wasn't exactly working though because we couldn't find a separate number for Castellina Scalo taxi (because it doesn't exist) and when you call Siena Taxi you get an automated answer… 

One of the rooms in the apartment 

As we are standing there thinking about trying to find a hotel, this guy gets out of his car and I get his attention to ask him about a hotel and if it was even possible at that time of night.  It took a while to get things across, another guy (his brother I think) came from across the street to help, the 1st guy drove to the hotel and back to see if it was open or not, it wasn't, he got the number and called, no answer at first, called again, and then he got a guy who through the hotel service rents out this house/apartment type thing.  The poor guy was of course already in bed and its really his parents that own the place.  We all end up piling into the 1st guys car, he drives to pick up the apartment guy, and we all drive just a little ways outside the town to this apartment.  He gets us in, shows us around we pay him and get things figured out with how to check out.  The place was really nice!  There  was a queen bed, a pull out couch and a twin bed, it was really clean and had a tiny little kitchen. Not that we used anything besides the beds in the 7 hours we were there…  And there was a pool outside! Kinda a fancy place.  We paid about what you would pay in the states for a kinda ok average hotel room, and we were staying in a private apartment in the countryside with a pool and a fantastic view (as we found out in the morning).  It's really too bad we couldn't stay and enjoy it a little longer.  (And it was a legit deal, there were papers on the back of the door with the rates and business name and such, I have to throw that in because it may sound like the process of getting it was a little sketchy) 

The pool outside our hotel/apartment 

The next morning we got up at 9, left the key in the door like the guy told us (oh, small towns) and started our walk back to the town.  We really hadn't driven that far, so we knew it was a do-able walk, but we had done it in the dark the first time so it was sorta a guessing game.  It took a couple of wrong turns and a little backtracking but finally we were at the dreaded train station once again. 

A train really did come this time.  And we got on it.  Finally.  

I had a lot of explaining to do to my host family who I had told I was going to a beer fest, but I didn't know where it was and I'd be back that night probably around midnight.   I had called before we left the hotel in the morning and Loriano, the grandpa only could understand where I was, so I called Cinzia and she was even more confused and so I just had to keep saying "its ok, I will be home in probably an hour or 2"  (could have been 3 or 4 or 24 hours, who knows with TrainItalia) 

We finally got back to Siena, I went home, and the grandma Carla was the only one there.  I did a pretty good job trying to tell her what happened, she seemed really nonchalant about it, kinda laughed and said "its an adventure!" (in Italian of course, I've never heard an English word out of her).  Then later Loriano shows up and I go back through my story as best I can with very limited vocab.  He is not so impressed.  He asked how we got from the station to the festival and I said we walked. And he's like its 7 kilometers! And I was like, no the sign says 3! It only took us 30 minutes! And he argues back saying he spent 30 years working there, he should know, and I'm like well ok, I should believe you then, but somehow we musta taken a crazy shortcut I guess.  That was the first time I had a little doubt about where we had actually gone..  Well he kinda freaks out and shakes his head at my and says something along the lines of, "thats so dangerous! there are Russians and Ukrainians! " 

uhhhh…. what the?!    Hey crazy old man, I don't know why you're always freaking out about the foreigners (its usually the Albanians will get you!) but we were in a town where we maybe saw 50 people total throughout our walk.  And it was like a 30 minute walk.   Oh and p.s.  Russia's not exactly real close.  I'm no Geography wiz, but even I know that.    Sometimes Loriano just makes me laugh with the things he says.  And I just have to continually tell him, Its ok, I was fine, We are fine, we will be fine, I can walk places on my own, or with 3 other people.   If I get lectures from walking for a half hour in a town of maybe 1500, I can't imagine the talk thats coming before I leave for London this weekend… ay. 

Then I went to dinner at Cinzia's house with her, Giulio, Claudia and her boyfriend Marco.  The story had to be re-explained, upon which I found out that we were NOT in Castellina in Chianti.  We were in Monteriggioni.  Castellina in Chianti is close but its just confusing because thats what the train station is called, and the city that the station is in in Castellina Scalo.   Why do they do this? 

They all think its just really funny that we were confused about where we were. 

It was funny while it was happening, and even funnier now, and well worth the trip to whatever awesome place it was.  I don't think we were at a castle, it just kinda looked like it could be one because of the wall around it and such, but I may just keep telling myself it was so that I can be like, Yeah, this one time when I went to Beer Fest in a Castle….

Pictures from Padova & Venice

The store owner dressed me up

Ariel & I in Venice

Erin & I in Venice

The Padova Carousel 

Italian Kindergarten

10/1 - Italian Kindergarten

We do what they call service learning for our program.  It's just like volunteering with different programs that need extra help in Siena, and I will be doing about 4-5 hours a week.  

Today I went with 3 other students to run this after school program for kindergarteners.  We will go every Monday from 4-5:30 and the purpose is to keep them occupied while trying to help them learn English.  It has been a while since I've worked with a large group of 4 and 5 year olds, and on top of it, they obviously don't really get it that we don't fully understand or speak Italian.  We worked with introducing ourselves first, trying to teach them how to say, "My name is…"   We also played some color games, tried to teach them head, shoulders, knees and toes, and taught them a few animals.  

It was pretty difficult at times.  Their attention spans are about 5-10 minutes and then we'd have kids running around, pulling stuff off shelves, etc. so we'd have to switch activities.  The language barrier is pretty hard for me because I still can't understand very much, nor can I speak it very well.  At one point we had a child that was crying and holding his head all of the sudden, and I couldn't even ask what happened, or are you ok?  That kind of thing is frustrating, but I know I'll pick it up quick.  

On the other hand, some of the kids seemed to get it that we were struggling a bit.  We were going around and writing their names on the pictures they colored.  So I would ask their name, but between the fact that they are young children and are difficult to understand anyway, and the fact that I don't know how to spell Italian names at all, I was having a rough time.  This one little girl told me her name about 5 times, and I kept trying to get her to repeat it because it was unusual and I was trying to hear all of the sounds in it, and I think she understood I couldn't figure out how to spell it, so she points to a name tag up on the shelf.  It was a happy moment : )  

I know that it will just get easier every time we go, but it was a challenge today.  I realized I need to learn how to say some important phrases in italian for dealing with little kids.  

And on a side note, this group of Kindergarteners is maybe the cutest group of kids I've ever seen.  They are all just adorable. 

Vacation to Modena, Padova, Venezia & Bologna

9/30- 4 day Vacation to Modena, Padova, Venetzia & Bologna 

Ok first, when it rains here, it rains.  There's no dilly dallying around with a light sprinkle ever, its just like, oh rain today? better bring your poncho and your river shoes.  The hills here turn into temporary water slides for the day.

We just got back from our 4 day vacation, a reward for finishing our 3 weeks of intensive Italian courses!  Glad to be reducing Italian class to only 2 hours a day instead of the 5. 

We went to Modena first where we stopped at a vinegar production place.  That was really neat.  They make the vinegar up in the attic with no temperature control, because they say that it mimics a natural setting the best.  The cooked grape mash stuff sits in these century old wooden barrels and continually evaporates while being moved from the biggest barrel to smaller and smaller barrels.  For the vinegar to be considered "Traditional" balsamic,  it must go through this process for at least 12 years.  The extra virgin vinegar sits for 25 years.   

We got to taste about 6 different kinds after we learned how it was made.  Oh my God, it is unlike any vinegar I've ever had.  My favorites were a white vinegar aged for 8 years (its so sweet! I guess it's good with fruit and on salads), a orange infused balsamic, and then I really liked both the traditional 12 and 25 year balsamics.  The vinegar is thicker, not like runny stuff from the grocery store (which the lady told us they can make grocery store balsamic in 24 hours, TOO EASY!)  I bought the white, the orange balsamic, and a non traditional 8 year aged balsamic that was almost as good and didn't have the price tag of the "traditionals".  It costs a pretty penny for the real thing. I want to say around 75 euro for a  400 or 500 ml bottle.  Yikes. 

This room full of cheese is worth 6 million Euro

Then we went to a Parmagiano factory.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE cheese, and it was very neat inside there, but it smelled SOOOO bad and I couldn't wait to be done with our tour.  And when we tasted it at the end we were still inside the production room and it smelled so bad I just couldn't enjoy the cheese.  Kinda sad. 

Then we headed to Padova, our home base for the trip.  We got checked into our hotel, M14, kinda a strange name for a hotel, sounds like a cell number or something to me.  Ariel, Erin, and I were all in a room together.  It was pretty cosy.  The room was pretty tiny, meant only for the double bed that originally was in there, but they added more or less of a cot type thing to make it a "triple".  But it was very clean! and pretty modern, we had a little fridge, a tv, and "air conditioning" (I don't know that it can be called that considering when you put your hand up to it you could barely feel the air moving) but anywho, we also had a little balcony off our room which was kinda nice.  The bathroom was sorta a one stop shop, the shower is just part of the room just in the corner and the drain in the middle of the floor. You sorta just stand by the toilet with water going everywhere.  However, It was SO nice to use a standup shower after over 3 weeks. It was the highlight of that hotel room. I really dislike my awkward shower baths that I've been taking at my host house.  Oh, and there was a hair dryer, except it sorta looked like a vacuum hose with reverse air flow.  But it worked. 

Our first day in Padova we went to a pretty neat chapel/museum that had incredible frescos in it.  They explained what all the different paintings symbolized and who the people in them were, it was neat.  After that we had a little free time to wander the streets.  Padova is fairly small, maybe even a little bit more than Siena, and much less touristy from what I could tell.  It makes walking the streets very nice, not so many people.  

We walked through their local market for a while, and then all of us girls had to make a stop at H&M where we did a bit of shopping.  I kinda wish we had one of those back home.  But maybe its a really good thing we don't.  

We met back up and had a short walk around a bit of the city where they explained to us what some of the important buildings were and the reason the city streets are built the way they are, etc.  We got to go inside the cathedral which was so beautiful.  They're strict about what you wear inside, so you have to have your shoulders covered and clothing longer than your knees, AND you can't take pictures… which was disappointing.  They actually kicked one of our girls out for taking one because we didn't know.  Thats how we found out.   In this one room the ceiling had about a hundred little cherub faces carved into the stone peering down on us, it was what I really wanted to sneak a picture of, but there was a guard in there the whole time.  I can't remember the name of their Saint there, but there is a shrine type thing devoted to him.  His teeth are in a glass ball and so are (I think, if I understood correctly) his vocal cords.  Kinda strange. 

That night about ten of us walked 3 miles to a discoteca.  First one I've ever been to.  Very fun but something I'm not used to.  We were waiting outside in a pretty long line, and we happened to be by this bouncer who was letting a random selection of women in through a side gate.  So Ariel kinda catches his attention and I think asked him if he spoke english, and he just askes "How many?" and we were like uh, 5 or 6? and he let a bunch of us right on in.  I felt like a VIP haha 

The name of the discoteca is Bimbo.  People had said they had heard good things about it, but I was kinda worried it was going to be a little trashy with a name like that, but No.  All of the bouncers and employees were in suits, it was pretty fancy inside, and I thought I was pretty dressed up when I left the hotel, but got there and realized I don't know how to dress myself for a club haha.   We stayed out super late, took a cab home which was a good call after all that dancing, got about 4 hours of sleep, got up the next morning and got on the train to Venice. 

Gondola in Venice

We had a free day in Venice so we were kinda on our own.  Even to get there.  So we went to the train station and figured out how to buy tickets and which platform to get on, all that jazz, no one told us that you have to validate your ticket with this little machine on the platform before you get on the train.  We ran into a few of our professors getting onto the train and thats when they mentioned it to us.  The board said that the train was delayed 10 minutes, so they're like yeah just run down there and validate it, we have to sit here for 10 minutes anyway before leaving.  Lies.  I wont trust the board again.  We were running back to the car for 2nd class as the guy is blowing his whistle, Ariel and I slip on and the door starts shutting with Erin on the outside still. So I am an idiot and thought maybe it was like a elevator door where if you stick a body part in the way it will bounce back open.  Nope.  Almost lost my arm.  Poor Erin is just standing outside looking at us through the window with the most helpless face on as we pull away.  Luckily there are trains leaving about every 20 minutes for Venice so she was able to get onto another.  But we learned.  When that whistle blows you better be on the train. 

Venice was rainy and gray.  It was neat to see it, but it was incredible packed with tourists, Ariel said when she was there a few years ago in June there were way less people.  It made it really hard to get around and see things.  Plus my feet were KILLING me from dancing the night before and walking about 3 miles through the streets of Venice from the train station to Piazza del San Marco, the sort of main area.  

Bridge of Sighs

We went into one of the many Carnivale apparel stores and I wanted to buy a mask so bad, but the nice ones are very expensive.  The guy working there ended up dressing me up in a mask, a hooded cape, and a hat with a vail.  I looked awesome, and it would be a sweet costume for Halloween, but I didn't really have 200 euro to spend… unfortunately.  

That night back in Padova we decided to take it easy and just hang out at the hotel.  Erin, Ariel, Jerrod and I sat out on the balcony of our hotel room and drank Fragolina (its fizzy strawberry wine!) one of my new favorite things from Italy.   We were kinda told not to hang out at our rooms and have wine because the walls of the hotel are pretty thin, etc etc. We are expert whisperers if I can say so myself. But it was a pretty funny night and really nice to just stay in and talk after such a long day.  

We were supposed to go to a lake for our final day but because of the rain the group decided to head to Bologna instead.  A very good choice.  That may be one of my favorite places we've been so far.  It is a beautiful city with a very nice central piazza area and all of the streets are lined with arcades (beautiful arched covered sidewalks pretty much).  Johan, one of our faculty, lives there part time with his girlfriend so he gave a few of us a short tour of some of the things he likes best.  Bologna actually has 2 towers that are leaning, and Johan said the shorter of the two is actually at more of a lean than the tower in Pisa.  For some reason these are overlooked, kinda like the whole city of Bologna.   It is not as big of a tourist city as Florence, Venice, and Rome, most people skip over it when traveling in Italy.  

The 2 leaning towers in Bologna

In one of the churches in Bologna

We had about 3 hours of free time to wander around the central city area and during that there was some sort of parade/procession going on.  It was a lot like the Contrada parades in Siena.  Every one was dressed up in costume from the middle ages.  People dressed as kings and queens, knights, there were about 5 trumpet players, 15 drummers and 15 flag carriers/dancers for every group or contrada or whatever it is and there were probably 8-10 groups.   It was very neat to see, and the drummers are so loud that it commands everyones attention as they pass by.  I had the shivers watching, its just really awesome.  There nothing like it to compare it to in the states.  Or at least as far as my knowledge goes.  

Back on the bus for a couple hours which is when the sky opened up and all of Heaven's water supply was released on Tuscany.  It stopped raining for the perfect amount of time for me to walk home from the bus drop of in Siena, and I swear I closed the front door and it started again.  

I ate a wonderful dinner with my family, went into a food coma and was in bed by 9 30.  Around 10:30, however, because the Contradas seem to be constantly celebrating here, there was some kind of party going on in the city that ended with a 15 minute solid fireworks show.  I live about a 25 minute walk from the city center, so not necessarily close, but it sounded like cannons were going off in the alley next to our apartment.   I love fireworks, and I'm sure it would have been awesome if I could see them, but no.  It was like there was a war going on, which waking up to that noise was a little alarming.   I think its the tight streets and the way things are built inside the city, but the acoustics are crazy!   Even when it thunders out, it sounds about 5 times as loud as normal because of the way it carries.  The few times that has happened when I've been out and about, I just about peed myself.  The locals just carry on like they didn't even hear the sonic boom that just happened. No big deal.