Another fabulous Weekend

I am worried what I am going to do with myself when I return to the states. The weekend started off great, with a tour of a world-renown chocolate chef who works at the culinary school here. We toured his lab and he showed us how to make chocolate--or how they make it. Then, they let us test taste coco cookies, lemon jellies, 85% chocolate, white chocolate (which isn't chocolate it is just sugar and fat) and regular chocolate. What a great start to the weekend. 

Then Friday night we went to the Florence Wine event. For ten euros we received a class, a punch card and a booklet telling us all about the wines at the event. The punch card has 12 punches and we had three days to try 12 different types of wine. But most stops that night didn't punch our cards...more free wine! But it was a really great opportunity to try the different types of wine from Tuscany. It will be a big help in my wine tasting class, I will finally have wines to discuss. 

Saturday morning, my roommate Maria and I woke up very early and went to the train station to meet with school. (We made it this time ;) We all jumped on a train and headed to Cinque Terre, five small towns on the cost of Italy--two hours north--which are connected by paths through the mountains. We arrived at one, hiked through the mountainous terrain to a second--this was actually quite a challenge, I was huffing and puffing. Honestly, it was worth the small asthma attack because it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Maria, who HATES my constant need to take pictures said when we got home, "Stacey, I am actually glad you were the pop-a-frickin'-razzi because the pictures are awesome." Which is a huge step because normally she just says "Do you have to take ANOTHER picture?" And of course I always say "yes."

After we hiked through the mountains, the rocky path just ended and all of a sudden we were in the middle of a town, it was crazy. But we had two hours free to eat or swim or shop, whatever we wanted. Maria, our new friend Jack and I grabbed a pizza and a bottle of wine, then we headed to the beach. It was only about 70 degrees (F) but we were at Cinque Terre, I had to go in the water. It was cold, but worth it. 

When we got out remembered we were not going to go swimming, so we brought out suits in case, but no towels...great thinking. It was fine, we just air-dried. It was a little breezy though! 

Then we met back up with our class and hopped on a boat to a third town, as equally beautiful as the last two. We then walked the paved "love" path to the fourth town. The love path was built in the 1960s when the towns were still very secluded and people stayed in their villages. It was the path that helped lovers from other villages meet up. So today there are paintings on the wall and a lot of graffiti and names up. It was a very beautiful walk also. 

We arrived at our fourth town of the day and had some free time to check out the port and of course grab something sweet before getting back on the train to Florence--more gelato! After a long day, we walked home, snacked and fell right asleep. 

Sunday was another early start. A bunch of us from school did the 5K breast cancer walk together. I was my normal cheerleader self, so excited, getting everybody pumped up for the walk. Then it started...mob mentality. Everyone who wasn't running headed toward the start line. There was no where to go and thousands of people. After a slight panic attack (I knew for sure this would turn into a riot...I heard the news flashes "American Student killed in riot for breast cancer walk") A little dramatic, but it was really traumatizing. 

Finally, the walk started, I met back up with my friends and we walking, waiting for the people to thin out. We waited and waited. It never happened. Then the runners started to loop back to finish they had to run through the walkers going the opposite direction. Good thing for the 10K runners they police escorts for the leaders. It was the most chaotic and crazy walk I have ever done, but it was typical Italy organization. No one is ever quite sure what is going on...crazy. The redeeming factor was the view. Nothing could be better than walking and being able to see all of Florence from the Michelangelo Piazza. It did turn out to be  a great walk--without causalities. 

I also managed to finish some homework and make it to the wine festival one more time! It was another epic weekend in Italy. 

I will put up more photos soon, I am looking for a better place to store them, I had a request from Kristen--she wanted the photos to be easier to access--so hopefully I can find something better. 

Have a great week!

Sicily

This weekend was a whirlwind. It started Thursday night with a half hour trek to the train station, where we jumped on a commuter train to the next train station. It was here my roommate Taya and I joined up with the rest of our classmates who would be going to Sicily. We waited for the overnight train to arrive. It was running late, as Francesco our adviser would say "is normal."

Anyways, it arrived and we went to our sleeper cars, which was fantastic. It was so nice to travel and be able to lay in a bed. We got situated and met the girls in the car next to us, chatted for a while then tried to settle in for the night.

We woke up the next morning to the train getting on a ferry. Yes, you read correctly, the train drove right onto the boat. How crazy? After the train arrived in Taromina, we jumped off and hopped on the a double-decker pink and black tour bus, it was perfect! We drove into the town, parked and walked to the center of town where the Duomo (the cities biggest/central church) is located. Stopping on the way for the best cannolis in the world! It was at this first stop we realized the rich history that is Sicily.

For a while it was the center of the world, when the "world" was Rome. It played a huge part in trading. It was ruled by many different civilization, including the Greek, Arabs and Romans, which you can see in differences in architecture. I was awestruck at the idea that one country could be influenced by so many different cultures, religions and people.

After that a short history lesson with a great view, we headed to the beach. We had a chance to swim in the Mediterranean while looking at the Volcano that made Sicily. After we grab a bite to eat--we had really great pizza--we jumped back on our ostentatious bus and headed to Syracuse. We drove for 2 hours and then arrived at our hotel, which was right across the street from an amazing church.

We had a chance to shower and nap a little then we had a fantastic dinner--three courses, including shish kabobs, with meat I didn't know, but it was delicious. Then we treked to a bar, forty minutes away and had drinks. I thought I was ordering a vodka and sprite, so when they came out with just a shot, I was a little taken aback. But I just explained to my friends my ordering difficulties--they made me shoot it on principle. After that, we made started our journey home, where we fell asleep very quickly after a long few days.

The next day was where we had the chance to learn the most about the history and culture of Sicily. We toured around Syracuse. We visited catacombs, an ancient Greek theater (which looks like a coliseum), the Duomo and took a boat ride on the Mediterranean. It was a really great day. We had a great lunch in a little fish cafe--I am 95% sure they had just made the pasta by hand.

That night we had the typical Sicilian fish dinner, my favorite! They mixed tuna in with pasta and red sauce, a combination worth trying. A few of us went out to grab dessert and since we were in Sicily we had to have cannolis, but then someone mentioned how gelato is made differently depending on which region of Italy we were in and that we had to try it. So, I didn't bother stressing about which to have, I ate both!

The bus left early the next morning heading for Noto. Here there was a bike racing going on! We were able to see the Palace and an old school theater, gold paneling, red curtain and a fresco on the ceiling. The details in the theater we so perfect, it was my favorite stop of the whole trip. The square with the palace and theater was gorgeous, it was all white and perfectly clean-with great landscape. We had the afternoon free and stopped at a beach. It was a little cold so a few of us went to have a long lunch. I, being an adept orderer now, asked for fish and chips--perfect for Sicily. I ate the freshest fish I have ever had and had a HUGE plate of French fries...perfect.

We had one more stop before we reached the train station, the Cyclops coast. It gets is name from Greek mythology. We were standing in the place where some of the myths actually took place. This was an overwhelming thought. Being from such a young country it was hard to comprehend all the history and years of people who lived in this very city. We were able to climb up the castle to get a better view. A castle, a great view of the ocean, a mythological story and of course gelato, the trip could not have ended any better.

Click on the photo to see pictures of my trip to Sicily. It was only three days, but I took hundreds of photos, so thought it seems like I put a lot up, I was very selective. Post soon to follow! 

Sicily

Photobucket Album

Sometimes I catch myself saying...

This weekend we had our first meal at home with all the roommates. It was great just to sit down together at home and share a meal.

Since my other roommate cooked, I invoked the rule, if you cook you don't clean. As I started the washing the dishes, some cleaning concerns of mine came up. First, I saw the other girls "wash" dishes by just running lukewarm water over them and putting them away. This started a little rant on the necessity of hot water, soap and germs. I caught myself saying "to get the dishes really clean you need to wash them with really hot, soapy water." And then I saw the sponge soaking in cold dirty water and I just threw it away. I knew my roommates would continue to use it and simply spread germs and not kill them, they thought that was pretty hilarious.

Then we discussed the fact that I am the only one to take out the garbage every day and I caught myself saying "If everybody just did a little everyday, it wouldn't get so dirty."

Next, the topic of the dishes in the living room came up and I caught myself saying "the dishes didn't walk in here themselves and they certainly won't walk out themselves."

And after one of my roommates sneezed in her hands and I mentioned that was the incorrect way to catch a sneeze, my roommates tagged me a germ-a-phob and the cleaning nut.

I don't think my parents ever thought it was possible that 1) I was listening to their cleaning lectures because I am so messy at home and 2) that I would be the "clean one" anywhere.


Apparently, all those lectures worked, because apartment is staying fairly neat and as germ-free as possible.

But I don't like the fact that I am quoting my parents pretty much verbatim.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

My first Travelling Experience

The weekend started off a little disappointing. We had plans for a small trip on Friday and it rained and ruined our day, as it did all day Saturday. But we adjusted we went out rented a movie, grabbed a bottle of wine and Saturday was redeemed. Sunday was going to be our big day this weekend. We had plans to go on the school trip to the beach!

My roommate Maria and I woke up early and left to meet with everybody. Low and behold on our way to the train station we got lost. All of a sudden it was after eight, so we knew we had missed our train. Maria asked "Well, what do we do now?" I thought for a second and said, "Go to the station and get on the next train." Hmm, that sounds like a great idea, two American students who don't speak Italian are going to jump on the next train to a city they've never been. But, hey, we are in Italy, why not?

So we finally (after an hour and a half of walking) reached the train station in Florence. We bought our tickets, which was a little confusing, but we found our way to the train. We rode for an hour and a half and reached our destination of Viareggio! We jumped off the train, in our swimsuits and cover-ups and went in search of a map. We found a tourist information site and the women, who spoke English, gave us directions and a map.

We grabbed a taxi and headed to the beach. At first, we were just overwhelmed with the beauty. We were standing on the beach of the Ligurian Sea and looking at the Northern Appennines. But it was only 1030 and still quite cold. So we sat for a while, then grabbed some lunch. After our early lunch the sun came out and we ran directly to the beach. We went swimming in the Ligurian Sea! There was a wicked current so we didn't stay long, but the water was warm and the view was perfect. Then Maria and I went to our chairs to dry off and relax. An hour passed and we were both enthralled in our own thing, me in my Newsweek, her in her Ipod. When we looked up there were some nasty clouds that looked pretty big headed our way. So we started walking to the train station.

We walked the three miles back to the station with only a few drops of rain, bought our tickets and jumped back on a train. We didn't know if it was the right one, it was the right number but it didn't have any signs or postings. But we were tired from the day and we fell asleep. We woke up, both a little panicked that we were on the wrong train, but after about 30 minutes we saw the Firenze sign.

Our big adventure ended at an American sports bar in Florence, where we had cheeseburgers (I know how to order in English!) and watched the end of the Packer game. Aaron Rodgers is looking pretty good!

It was a great trip and we were both very excited we didn't quit when we were lost. We decided we make a pretty good team--minus our lack of map reading skills early in the morning.

Finishing up my four days of class

As I am becoming more comfortable with the area, I am starting to take more risks. I have moved passed the protein shakes and yogurt, as far as meals, and I have been going to different restaurants and cafes. I normally go in, say hello and then point to something in the glass case and hope I like it. So far, my pointing has gotten me in more trouble than I like.

The sandwiches I point to are either all cheese and tomatoes or have mushrooms instead of cheese. But I try it, because it normally costs 4 Euros (which is about $6.50) and I want to try everything before I stick up my nose at it. That is my least favorite thing about American students here, they are so quick to say "eew, that is gross I cannot believe that eat that part of the chicken." Or whatever it is. Because it isn't gross, it is just different.

Anyways, last night my roommate Maria and I went out and I hit rock bottom for ordering. We went to a little pub and sat outside. The menu was huge so I pointed to something on it that looked a little familiar. Ninety-five percent of the menu was sandwiches, so I thought I was safe. Well, she returned with a plate of tomatoes! What kind of dinner is that? Not one that I wanted, but oh well. I guess I will have to start looking a little more closely and learn how to ask questions.

It turned out to be hilarious and not a big deal, I ate what I could of my plate o' tomatoes and we went for a walk. We sat down at an outdoor bar and were drinking our liters of beer when a man, who spoke English invited us to join him and his friend. The two were med students who were taking some time to travel between levels of school/training. They ended up being pretty fun, for a couple of boring med students :). But they were really nice and asked a lot about the art aspects of Florence.

The night ended with Maria and I frantically searching for a bathroom on our way home. We had to run into a bar and buy a drink so we could use the bathroom. We only ordered one and it was 8 Euros. Money well spent for a bathroom though!

The rest of my classes seem very interesting. My non-credit cooking class was great. We made egg plant (which I really liked when we were done) with homemade pasta, mushrooms (in a ridiculously delicious sauce, and a pastry dessert that was similar to a funnel cake at home. It was the best meal I have had here (probably because I didn't have to order it!). And our in instructor had a little bit of attitude and would poke fun at all of us. It was so amazing making pasta from scratch and learning fun little tricks, like how to peal a tomato really quickly and how to cook an eggplant so it has a good texture. The woman spoke my language about textures.

My Tuscany and Its Wines class is going to be great. The professor, Massimo, is a wine professional, has owned many restaurants and now is a consultant for local restaurants and such-basically he knows his wine. He is also very funny and makes jokes all through class. This class is also very small so we will be able to learn a lot.

My food writing class is very different from what I expected. The instructor is 24 and is from the states, went to Berkley for undergrad and is doing her masters here. It will be really interesting, we are going to study food writing as a genre, where and when it started and why food is more than just for eating. I finally understood what the instructor meant about food being more than surviving when she said "There is a difference in eating to live and living to eat." So that kind of gives you and idea of what the premise of the class is.

It will probably be Monday before I update again because the school is shutdown for the weekend. So, I hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Classes Begin

As classes start and I am slowly starting to gain independence I have had a couple of very interesting experiences. 

First, I made it to my first destination on my own! Last week we pretty much just were wandering around, we never really had a specific place we were looking for. But yesterday, I went in hunt of the English book store. It was in a very obscure place and I took out my map and found all on my lonesome. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but if you know how directionally impaired I am you completely understand what a milestone this is. So I was very excited to find the bookstore and get all the textbooks I needed. 

The locals are starting to recognize the American students because we've been invading their areas for long enough. So today on my way to class, I was stopped by a local shop owner. I was excited that a local finally wanted to chat with me, like I was a regular. He said hello and insisted that I, the beautiful Americano, come inside his store. I didn't think there was any harm. He started speaking a million miles an hour in Italian and I must have looked very confused, because he knew that I didn't understand a word he was saying. Then he started looking around his story and giving me things. I said I didn't want to buy anything and he said "No, for you." I walked away with some shoe polish and he wanted to give me a belt, but I got out of that one somehow. It was all quite a crazy exchange. When I was reliving my story to my friends, they warned in other countries gifts can be a sign of marriage so I should watch out. I think they were joking ;) 

My photojournalism professor is 28 and speaks very rough English. But he studied under a photojournalist in New York for two years. Now, he works for different Italian publicans and Newsweek. He was in Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and on the Burma Thailand boarder with all the immigrants. He showed us his portfolio and it was astounding...he just takes breathtaking photos. He is also very blunt and makes a lot of jokes, or at least tries, we don't understand what he says a lot. The best part of class was when he was looking at what equipment we all had. He sang a song of triumph when I pulled my Nikon out and gasped in horror at the cannon camera. 

In Introduction to Renaissance Art History, we heard exactly was I was hoping for from this class. We will start with lecture for the first half and then leave and go to various museums, churches and galleries throughout Florence. What a fantastic way to learn about the city.

I have Italian three times a week for an hour with 5 other girls. It is nice our class is so small we will have a lot of opportunities to speak out loud. Also, my professor is awesome and she makes fun of all of us because we are really bad at pronunciation. For me, I keep saying the Spanish version and she says "Atenciona, e Italiana no espanol!" Well, the word gente (people) is the same in Italian as it is Spanish, but said very differently. A lot of things are like that, so I have a feelings I will struggle with pronunciation for the whole semester. 

I hope everyone is doing great! Have a great rest of the week. 

My Roommates

So as I continue to get used to my surroundings, I am also learning more about my roommates. It turns out that I am living with some pretty incredible women.

Taya shares a room with me. She grew up in Isreal and moved to the US when she was 15. She has a twin brother--what are the odds? To her family she speaks Hebrew, but her English is perfect, it helps that her dad is from Britain.

Maria is from Connetiucut, but goes to Tampa University. Her family is in the wine bussiness, but she claims no knowledge on the matter. She is graphic design major and we have two classes together.

Daveen is from China, English is also her second language. But she moved to the US when she was young. She goes to school at PITT and is studying international business but loves fashion and wants to be an event planner. She is the most organized and together person I have ever met.

Julieana works at the Abercrombie on 5th Ave in and lives on Wall Street. In the last Cosmo Magaizine she knew most of the models. She for sure has a different outlook on life than the rest of us. She is a sweatheart though. Her mother is from Venuzula so she grew up in a bilingual house also. She is here taking intensive Italian, so she has 9 credits of lauguage class.

Erin is a photographer just like me, but a Cannon user--too bad for her. She is from Tusan, but goes to school in Salt Lake City. She is here studying art, drawing, painting and such. She seems to know about more about the city's historical things than we do, but I know we'll all keep learning.

So I wouldn't even need to leave my apartment to gain a world of cultural knowedge, but I guess I still will :)

Sorry about the writing errors in my last blog, they've been fixed and I checked this one over twice so it shouldn't be painful to read anymore!

My Florence Apartment

Photobucket Album

Welcome to Florence

September 3, 2008

Arriving

Well, I made it. Even during the plane ride I was enthralled. As I walked onto my flight from Chicago to Zurich, I saw what I'd been hoping for, TV monitors at every seat! The coolest part was the camera on the front and bottom of the plane, so at any moment during the flight you could turn the camera on your screen and see what was going on. Also, there was a wealth of movies and TV shows to watch. So my flight over, actually went well. And most importantly--no puking. When I arrived in Zurich I couldn't for the life of me find what number gate I was supposed to be at. Only to discover Florence would not be on the list, but Firenze--haha.

I found my gate no problem after that and headed to Firenze. The next few hours are a little blurry. After I debarked the plane, had my passport stamped, I went to luggage, where my bags came out quickly. I hooked them together, just how Kim showed me and it worked perfectly. So many people looked dumb trying to wheel their huge bags (I had two of the very smallest) by themselves. A lot of people brought more than they could carry, which astounded me, I didn't know who they thought would be there to help them.

After I lugged my bags outside and down the airport, there was a huge coach bus waiting for us. We drove for about 30 minutes, being in a bus here was almost traumatizing. I saw a mini cooper on the street and it looked big for the street and compared to most of the other cars, so I thought we were going to hit the sides of buildings the whole ride. The bus dropped us off in a square, where a man greeted us and told us to leave our bags in the middle of the square. We all trusted him and did. We went, received our keys, cell phones an did some paperwork. We moved back outside where a drive took us to our different apartments. My driver had to drop me off at a busy intersection, so he pulled my bags out and drove off. But alas, I found my apartment door, despite struggling to carry all my bags.

Apartment

My first roommate Taya greeted me. We were the only two, so we both settled in a bit and went for a walk.

After our walk to school and around our street, we just went back to our enormous apartment. I'll download photos later, but it is huge and we have a great courtyard, which all of the bedrooms have access to. Fatigue and hunger began to catch up with me after our walk and I came close to having a slight panic attack, but good news, the other four girls began to arrive and I was distracted again.

Orientation

Today, was another laid back day. We slept in, which we all needed. Then we had orientation at 1 pm where they gave us the orientation book in speech form. The advisers added in some personal stories to frighten us from getting drunk and leaving our apartments gross or damaged.

Night out with the Roommates

The fun continues. My roommates and I spent the late afternoon walking around, different markets, a department store and searching for the Internet. It is so strange how every corner offers something so different, yet so many of the buildings looking the same. Just today on our way home from dinner, on a street we've already walked 15 times, we found an internet cafe, just what we'd been so desperately searching for a few hours earlier.

In our hunt to access to our worlds back home, we ended up in a new place, finally the Internet Cafe we'd searched for (and missed on our way down the street). When my other roommate Erin asked to join us later, I said no problem I'll come meet you. well, I went a few different places to find her with no luck. Go figure, my first 10 minuets alone in Florence, and I don't know where I am. Nothing even looked a little familiar, despite the fact we'd spent so much time walking around earlier. Then I realized it was getting dark. So I grabbed my cell phone to call and find out where I was, only to hit the wrong button and turn it off. Well Stace, turning it back on right? Crisis averted...nope. we need a code to turn our phones on and off since they are rental and I didn't have mine ;)... alone, lost, dark, can't read the signs and no phone. Again, I came close to a slight panic attack, but it was fine I just kept walking in what I thought was the right direction until I found the church, St. Croce, which is right near our apartment. It is huge and hard to miss, a very good reference point. So I found my roommies and we trucked across the bridge over to have a nice dinner and our first bottle of wine.

After a nice long dinner we headed home and slowed down to enjoy the things around us. The streets that were once busy with the hustle and bustle of the day seemed deserted with a solemn car or mo-ped every few minutes. Not having to worry about walking into people or being run down by cares, bikes or mopeds gave us all a chance to look around a little more. The houses are not all the same, the shutters are different, each room has a little something different hanging from the windows and then a Madonna and child Statue appeared from walls in a building. usually we are worried about finding something, anything familiar, it was nice to let down our guard and find a few of the so many unusual things that will continue to pop out of nooks and crannies for the duration of our stay.

Sorry this post is so long. The rest will be shorter because I'll have more Internet access and less time :)! Have a great weekend everyone.