RGPPC Policy & Press July 22, 2011 *TEST*

Economy

*Op-Ed: President Obama: Go 'big' on debt deal (USA Today)

Healthcare

*POLL: Americans Don't Want Biases in Hiring Smokers, the Overweight (Gallup)

Energy & Environment

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Education

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Immigration

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Immigration

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Trains, planes... No just trains!

Well what a day so far. It started at 4am and I'm already in Florence,
again! I just got on the train that's taking me to Milan and wow! It's
nice! It's nicer than any airplane I've taken. And I'm in 2nd class!
There's an outlet, power blinds, table, comfy and roomy chair, and I
even have my own chair! No one next to me. I feel spoiled. I'd take
this over an airplane any day if airplanes weren't just so much fun.
Now I just have to do my best to stay awake for the next 3 hours
yikes. I want to see the sites! Hopefully I'll keep alert!

Arrivederci Siena!

Da Martedi a Venerdi

Wow wow wow. I can’t believe today is it! I just finished my last day of classes! Accidenti! It has been a little crazy the past fews days so I haven’t been able to write my blogs. Not to mention I never had internet so I wouldn’t have been able to post them anywho. So I’ll start on Martedi (Tuesday):

After class the whole lot of students from Utah went to our professor’s apartment to eat various different types of pasta. She made us four different types! All from the same noodle, but just different sauces. It was really good. There was a gorgonzola, salsa di pomedori, pesto di basil, and another that was a meat one. It was really good and all I really know is it took her two days to make. Yikes. It was really fun to just hang out with everyone. Per dolce abbiamo mangiato ananas e vari biscotti. Era deliciosimo! Doppo sono andato cercare un libro al liberia ma non lo ho cercato :-( Va bene. I went home after that and ate a hamburger that one of my roommates (Jake E.) cooked up. He was very nice to share some with me. After we tested out some wines that I bought (they were horribly cheap wines we discovered) and just sat and talked politics and everything for awhile. It was actually a very nice conversation. I ended up getting to bed very late though because after I went and hung out with some other people in another apartment. It was a late night!

Mercoledi:

Wednesday was a very long day. I started the day out really early having not slept much and headed to the weekly market. I hadn’t been yet and I really wanted to go. It was interesting. It was basically just like going to the swap meets in Mexico/Arizona, but things were too expensive here because of the Euro/USD exchange. For Europeans though it would be very cheap. Then immediately after school three of us (Jake E and Carly) headed to piazza Gramsci to catch the bus to Firenze! To Florence again! Once we got there Jake and I went to the Accademia to see the infamous David. Dun dun dun.... WOW. We ended up waiting in line for a little bit because sadly the tourist season is starting up over here. Prior to that we had ZERO lines anywhere, but people are starting to poor in because school is now out in England and most of the US. British folks are big time tourists these days because the pound is worth so much. Ugh. Once we finally got in though, words become useless. There is honestly no word I can think of to properly describe the David. Michelangelo was a genius. I would say that only one other sculpture has surpassed him, Bernini. But man Michelangelo was the best of the best until Bernini came around. It was also really neat because there are four statues there that Michelangelo never finished so it gives a lot of insight into his sculpting technique, what was absolutely amazing. The best way to describe it is to think of a person raising out of the water and under the water they are a solid piece of marble but as they break the surface everything crumbles away and leaves only the person. It’s hard to describe but it’s amazing to see. He literally released the subject from the marble. Nobody else ever really mastered his technique. It was his own. After the Accademia I headed up the Duomo Dome and that was amazing too! But holy cow. It was very very humid that day in Firenze and I about died. Ugh. The dome is probably around 500 or 600 steps winding up and over and everywhere climbing to multiple places inside the dome. Suffice it to say I ended up getting heat stroke (I’m pretty sure) because that night I was no buono. I had a bad headache, I couldn’t stop sweating, I felt like vomiting, I wasn’t good. BUT I ended up cooking dinner and then meeting a bunch of people at the Tea Room for one of our last get-togethers as a whole group there. Of course I left early because I just wasn’t feeling well at all. I really enjoyed the dome though! It was amazing. It made for a very long day though and I’m pretty sure that combined with the heat stroke I was exhausted from such a long day in the heat. Ugh.

Thursday was tough. My teacher had told us not to worry about our test and that it would be easy but of course it wasn’t. We had our final and I did horrible. The test was just not put together very well and the structure was VERY difficult to understand. It’s strange because they take tests different here. It’s not the same way we test in the states so not only are you trying to fill in the answers but you’re also having to figure out the structure of the test too. It was strange the first time I took a test here. Just different. It ended up being very draining, not to mention that it is horrifyingly hot here. It’s bad. It makes it so hard to concentrate. (Today is even worse. This morning at 8 it was already unbearable). After class the school put on a big lunch for the U of U students and some of the teachers came and it was really fun. My teacher is a riot lol. I’ll have to show you some videos of her, but she’s the talk of the group. She’s crazy! We love her! I wasn’t doing so great Thursday though because I still wasn’t recovered from Wednesday. After the lunch I ended up just relaxing in the camp with Sarah and just doing nothing. We just sat there and talked and people watched and I drank lots of water and it was great to just relax. Essentially it was the last time I’d be hanging out in the campo! It was a little sad. We had all planned on going to an enotecca later, but Sarah and I headed over there to check it out and discovered it was way way too upscale for tourists! It was a good thing we didn’t go because people were dressed way too nice. Hopefully today we will be going though because I want to pick up some wine I found there that is amazing. On the way there we stumbled across an Italian basketball game though! In the street they had blocked off a section and there were tons of high schoolers out playing ball in different jerseys. We watched for awhile on the way there and then on the way back we ran into some people from our group and we all watched them play a few tournaments together. It was really interesting. Italians play basketball kind of like soccer! It’s strange. They weren’t the greatest but it was really fun to watch. They were blasting American rap and shooting hoops, serving hot dogs and hamburgers, it was just like being at home... Sort of. After that we headed to the Tea Room again for a smaller version of goodbyes to everyone. We were some of the only people there so we ended up playing the piano and singing and having quite the time. I ended up heading home early though so that I could get some much needed sleep.

Friday:

Today I woke up much better! The sleep was nice. It was also nice to know that school was basically finished and so there was a bit less stress. We ended up talking all morning in class about random things like religion and Africa and just talking. It was wonderful! It was nice to be able to carry on conversation in Italian (even though it was horrid italian!). Then we all headed to a local bar to get caffé and cappucinos and just sit and talk outside of a classroom setting. After that we came back and spent some time on Facebook with my teacher looking at pictures and talking about them and it was so much fun! I am now friends with my italian teacher on Facebook! Woot! After class we all wrote on the wall in the student lounge (tradition) and here I am! I made some lunch and packed a bit. Then I went to the Ennoteca to buy some wine to bring home but....it was all gone! I was very upset. This is the best wine I’ve ever tasted here in Italy and it’s really rare. I ended up traversing all over Siena trying to find it and everywhere I went everyone had this look on their face of “You want what?” *sigh* Hopefully I can find it online in the states because I only have one bottle :-( Immediately after that I met up with a group and we all went to San Giseppi, a tavern/restaurant that is really really good and fancy. It was delicious! Really expensive but really good and it was awesome to hang out with some people one last time. There were three people there, two from Holland, one from Sweden, that have become pretty good friends. It was a little hard to say goodbye! It’s starting to set in. Hopefully tonight I won’t be staying up too late, because tomorrow I’ll be waking up around 4 o’ clock! Yikes! I get on the train to leave Siena at 6.27 and I head to Svizzera! Wish me luck!

Accidenti!

Hey All! Sorry I haven't posted in the past few days! I haven't had good internet to get online with. *sigh Italy* But here are my blogs that I wrote for Friday-Monday! I will get to work on Tuesday and Wednesday tonight hopefully :-) Ciao!

Friday & Saturday:

What a day! Well where to begin. Hm... I’m trying to remember when I wrote my last blog. I think I wrote one Thursday? Let’s start on Friday. This has been quite the busy crazy weekend! Friday night I went out with a bunch of people bar hopping! It was a lot of fun! We started out going to a cool German/American bar called the Red Baron that was kind of interesting. Turns out it’s a popular place for the 16-21 crowd so it was quite different. Pretty good and cheap drinks but a very different atmosphere from typical Italian bars. From there we headed to the Irish Pub--a pretty popular bar here in Siena. As the name implies, it’s an Irish Pub. We hung out there for awhile because they have live music and one part of the group stayed there and the other part broke off and we headed to the Bella Vista/Havana Club. It’s a quaint little place that’s pretty much a Cuban bar. It was very interesting to see the different types of crowds that would hang out at each one. I had no idea Siena had such a live night life! The Italians know how to party! I certainly learned that tonight (more details later). So after a really late night I finally got to bed *phew* only to wake up bright and early at 7 to get ready to go to Firenze! Yay!

Sarah and I headed to Firenze today and had quite the time. I’ve been trying to get tickets reserved for two places in Firenze (the Uffizi and Cappella Medici) for two weeks and have quite the time. Long story short we did finally make it into both. I managed to buy tickets to the Uffizi on Thursday when I was there and we managed to get tickets to the Medici on the spot! Yay! And wow. The Medici Chapel is quite amazing. Sadly it was undergoing some restoration and not all of it was viewable, but it was pretty amazing. It just blows me away how much power and influence one family can have. To be able to do the things they did, it just blows me away. Of course being up close staring at Michelangelo statues is ALWAYS a pleasure. His works are simply amazing. I don’t know how he did it. For example: One of the statues in a part of the chapel has Night and Day humanized in marble (lifesize). Night has the appearance of the moon shining down on her. Literally. It looks like the moon is in the room and is completely illuminating her. It’s amazing! He made MARBLE look alive. It just blows me away the skill he had. He was a genius. Pure genius. The sculptures are by far my favorite part. From there we had quite a bit of time to kill so we slowly made our way over towards the Uffizi. We walked by some people eating these strange waffle gelato thingies and I was like “what are those and why are they eating them and why are they selling them what are they?” I’ve seen them around, but apparently they are this Florintine thing and so I had to try them. For R & D of course for Ben! And WOW. DELICIOUS!!! It’s like a waffle icecream sandwich, but it’s not a waffle. It’s weird. It’s this special dough they use that they cook in the waffle iron and then they put a scoop of gelato on it and put another on top. It was absolutely delicious. I’m most certainly doing some research into them because you all need to try one. Yum. We ended up eating those in the piazza just outside the Uffize and simply relaxing and watching the crowds go by for an hour or so. We both just love people watching and Firenze is a great place to watch. There are so many tourists and it was a blast! We ended up getting a pet piccione (pigeon) named Polly who only had one foot and we saw three weddings go past! It was really fun. When it finally came time for our appointed time to go to the Uffizi we headed to get in line. We were both really excited to go. For those of you who don’t know, Uffizi is “office” in italian. THE Uffizi is a large office building that the Medici’s built as their business headquarters, and it contained their personal art collection, which was the largest in Italy. It is an amazing building and it’s amazing to think that they worked around these pieces of work. Of course it has expanded drastically and did not have nearly as much art in it during their time. A lot of the art was in their own homes and different churches, but most of it all belonged to the Medici’s. We ended up spending 3 1/2 hours there! There was SO MUCH to see. I loved it. It was absolutely overwhelming though the amount of art. I couldn’t even begin to take all of it in. It was very educational. It was great to go with Sarah too because she is an Art History major and I learned a ton. I’ve always had a great appreciation for art but I’ve never known a lot about it. It blows me away the talents of people. I can’t even begin to name all the things we saw. You name it and we probably saw it. Some of the more famous pieces are Carvaggios, one Da Vinci (an unfinished piece that is pretty famous), lots of Burtecelli, the list goes on. I don’t even know them all. Lots and lots of original Roman sculptures that were awesome. Many of them were Roman replicas of original Greek sculptures. It was amazing. Sadly most of the Hellenistic sculptures were lost because of the whole bronze situation of the time and the only remains we have of them are Roman marble replicas, which are still amazing and so old! It blows me away that I was looking at art that was over 2000 years old! Words just don’t work for moments like this.

After spending quite a bit of time there we headed back to the train station to get back to Siena. We were completely exhausted from the partying the night before and you wouldn’t believe how tiring going through a gallery that big is! I’m still exhausted. After getting back, I was in for quite the shock. As I was walking into my contrada I was greeted by a sight like no other! My contrada was having their huge dinner/party! The whole street was decked out with tables and flowers and flags and people everywhere! I got back into my apartment and two of my roommates said “are you coming down to eat with us? We were invited!” I was like “yeah!” It was a chance of a lifetime, and it was absolutely amazing! Basically to explain, there are 17 contrada (like communities) in Siena. The Palio is on July 2nd. Up to July 2nd they have lots of parties and parades and all sorts of stuff. It’s quite detailed and very very interesting. Long story short this week is when the Contrada della Tortuca (Turtle Contrada) is celebrating! Perfect timing! So we headed down having no idea what we were doing and feeling completely out of place in this massive party celebration, but we were welcomed like family. It was absolutely humbling. They knew who we were, that we didn’t speak much Italian, and they just pointed lots and repeated themselves in drunken Italian! We finally ended up with some delicious food and we were just standing around eating when a singore approached us with a plate of food and pointed and gestured to the table near us, to sit, drink, and eat. We were just blown away. They welcomed us in like family. He even said, “adesso, siamo tutti una famiglia.” or something to that effect. “Here, we are ALL a family.” They just kept putting plates of food in front of us and wine and dessert and food and bread and everything just kept coming! They talked to us and even put up with our broken Italian. It was amazing! There were so many people everywhere singing and dancing and talking and just enjoying themselves like I’ve never seen before! They really were like a huge family! The museo was open too (which is not ever open to the public) and they let us go in and walked us through it. Apparently the Tortuca contrada is quite wealthy and well known for winning the Palio. It was very interesting because they were very humble about it. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. I loved it. We ended up spending nearly 4 hours just sitting there eating everything we could get our hands on and drinking whatever we could find. Absolutely amazing homemade wines! Wow! Nothing like I’ve ever had! As I’m writing this at nearly 2AM they are still out on the street below me partying it up! The regazzi (youth) here are crazy! People say Americans party... Ha! The YOUTH party. Everywhere. All youth. They are all crazy. I have no idea how they do it but it’s hilarious to watch! Well I’m really really really tired. It’s been an amazing and long day and absolutely overwhelming. Quite the cultural experiences!

Dominica e Lunedi

Yikes. Today was my last Monday in Siena! Crazy! Unfortunately the internet service on my phone went out yesterday because the subscription ended and it has been very sad not having net on my phone :-( That is the main reason I haven’t been posting my blogs on a regular basis. The internet at the school is a joke and I just don’t get enough time to get things posted! I can’t believe how quickly time is going by this week. It will go so fast. Suddenly I feel like time has just flown by. It is indeed crazy. I booked a room in a hostel in Zurich today! Ah! I’m really nervous. I’ve never stayed in a hostel before and I’ll be all alone, but I decided I need to experience it. One thing I’ve learned on this trip is to do things I may not necessarily want to, simply to experience it. Life is for the learning! So let’s see... Sunday:

I slept until 2! Yay! I know I know what a waste of a day. It was necessary though! I slept maybe 3 hours on Friday and then traveled all day Saturday and then I didn’t get to sleep Saturday night until very very late and it was HOT! My body was EXHAUSTED. It was so wonderful to sleep so long. I woke up completely refreshed! It has gotten hot here again and it’s difficult. It gets so hot it’s hard to even concentrate sometimes. Ugh. And there is no where to go to get away from the heat because air conditioning doesn’t exist. Mamma Mia! I ended up spending time Sunday simply relaxing. I was able to go through most of my pictures and upload some new ones and I also managed to make a backup copy of all my photos too. We also had a dinner planned for Sunday night that was a sort of going away dinner. It was really really good. One person here is a pretty good cook and he planned out the whole meal and we all pitched in helping to cook and everything. It was delicioso! Antipasta was melone con prosciutto. Prima piatto was a four cheese macaroni and cheese made with this delicious type of noodle. I can’t remember what it was but it was an old type of wheat grain and then some native cheeses. Very very good. Secondo piatto was teriyaki chicken con fried peas and MASH POTATOES! That’s right. YUM. The best part. That was the part I made. It was sooooo good. Oh it hit the spot. We cleaned out an entire pot. They were so good. The theme of the dinner was comfort foods. And it was very very comforting! The meal was absolutely delicious and the company was great. We reminisced about the trip and just had a grand ol’ time!

Monday I got up and went to class. The usual. It was really hot though so focusing is always harder. I feel like the Italian is making more sense now though so it makes class more fun. It’s kind of frustrating because I’m finally feeling like I want to keep learning but I’m heading stateside in a week so.... Oh well. After class I did some relaxing and internet using to book a hostel and do more trip planning then we had our last cooking class tonight. :-( It was a lot of fun though. We made pizza and some vegetables and a DELICIOUS dolce. It wasn’t a full course meal like the others, it was a self service meal with dessert served after and it was actually really nice. The pizza was OK. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was fun to make. The dolce though....WOW. It’s a recipe that was made by a cook here at the school and it was really really good. I will definitely be making it at home! If I can remember how... The desserts are my favorite part so that’s what I tried to learn to make the best. Hopefully I can remember everything I’ve learned. It’s a crazy amount of stuff to learn. After cooking class I went to il campo and worked on homework with Sarah and just relaxed and talked. It had been awhile since we had just hung out nel campo and it was divertentissimo. That was my day! Only 10 to go...

Venerdi!!

Wow! So I forgot to post a blog last night! It was rather late and I was really tired from the night before, and surprisingly it ended up being a rather fun night. Quick trivia.... did you know that Quantum of Solace was filmed here?!?!?! I totally did not. It hadn't even registered with me! So last night we went scene hunting!!!! It was so nerdy and geeky, but I loved it. Only the first part of the movie was filmed here, but every single portion was actually filmed here (except for the underground parts, because those are historical parts of the city so they took pictures of them and then built replica sets). How cool is that though?! One of the people here had the movie on his laptop so we put it on his iPod Touch and wandered the city looking for where things were filmed. Obviously the parts filmed in il campo were pretty easy, but the others were hard. We actually only ended up finding one of them. We spent a pretty long time looking for the other major one but couldn't find it.... :-( Oh well. At least I know I was here! Now every time I watch that movie I can say "yeah, I've been there...." I can't wait to watch Angels & Demons so I can do the same thing with Roma! Woot for movies!

So that was last night. Before that I really didn't do much. I spent some time online trying to figure out more Switzerland stuff. Who knew a 4 day trip would take so much planning! It's crazy hard to plan stuff when you have no idea where you're going. I have officially booked a hotel for Luzern and a hotel for Montreux! I'm still trying to find a good one for Zurich and Roma. The one in Luzern (and Dad you'll love this!) is a little Swiss Chalet! I'll take plenty of pictures because it looks so cool. The one in Montreux is an old Russian Palace that was converted into a hotel. How cool is that?! And the odd thing is these are the cheapest I could find! Imagine if I spent some $$$ :-0

So today was class as usual. However.... class was actually much more fun than usual. We spent almost an hour and a half talking about politics! Again! With a different teacher though. This time I had a harder time understanding all of it. It was more complex. We have a Swiss person in that class though who is very knowledgeable and also two girls from Holland. It was very very very interesting. Very. After that class, during our break, I went and got a cappucino e panino with the Swiss and continued the conversation but in English. He's been to the US and traveled all over and so we talked about all the different countries. I really picked his brain on Switzerland though because I'm very curious about how they function. It fascinates me that the Swiss people have been functioning in virtual prosperity for the past 1000 years while the rest of the world has gone up and down and up and down. I tried to get as much out of him as I could. I loved it! The more I learn in Italian the more I'm able to just talk and learn rather than do exercises to learn. It's great. After class I went with Sarah and another girl to an art exhibit going on here. It's an exhibit on art of the insane. *drum roll* Wow. Or as we say in Italia, accidenti. It was different. It was a whole exhibit focused around insane asylums and the mentally unstable and art produced by them. Very strange. Very strange indeed. It was awesome though. Some of it was very very interesting. I also so an original Van Gough! How often do you get to say that eh? The human mind is quite amazing I can tell you that. There was one painting there that I really really liked. It was by a german guy and it was just so intriguing. I will definitely be looking it up to learn about it more. Some of it though..... I don't think I'd recommend the place for everyone. Let's just say that some things are meant to remain in the human mind and not be expressed. But the experience was well worth it. For the most part I've just been hanging out and relaxing tonight though. Tomorrow I go to Firenze again though! To the Uffizi e le Cappelle Medici! I'm super excited. Lots lots lots of art! I think I'll be going back to Firenze on Sunday too. I haven't decided. I will let ya'll know how it goes!

I decided I'd take a few and get some videos uploaded that I've recorded on my iPhone. They aren't the greatest but they are still pretty cool.

This first video is a really cool church (Sant'Agostino Church) in San Gimignano. This was a courtyard that is part of the Monastery connected to the church. We got there and shortly after the bells in the church tower started chiming to the hour. It was gorgeous and amazing to listen to because they were right above us. It was just really peaceful and pretty.

This was in the Baptistry in Pisa. The Baptistry was designed to be perfectly acoustical so every half hour a person comes in and sings some notes. It was amazing. The design is so perfect that if done properly you can sing three notes in a row and the echo is just right so that it sounds like you are singing a chord! It is still debated today that it's possible it was not only designed as a Baptistry but also as a chorale room. It was pretty cool.

As we were walking back from getting some (really yummy) gelato Saturday night in Venezia we walked past some restaurants that have live music that would duel against each other to try and get the largest crowd. The music was pretty good and it was just good clean fun :-)

Sunday morning in Venice I woke up early to take pictures and I managed to capture the two bell towers dueling it off at 7am. It was amazing to listen to especially since nobody was there. It was very peaceful, this video does not do it justice!

La Cucina e il cibo!

Yay for today! Today was a good day. In class things went much different and I feel like something clicked! I'm not sure if maybe it was just a good day or what, but I feel much better about my Italian after today. I've been speaking in Italian much more today than I have been in the past and it's great! After class we had a big party at our Professor's apartment. Una festa di gelato! Yum. We had gelato from our favorite gelataria in town, the Kokokabana. It was delicioso! Her husband had also just flown in from SLC and brought cookies with him! Cookies from America!! It was sooo good. You really miss the small things in times like this lol. They were delicious. I think they were just cheap Sam's Club cookies, but man they hit the spot. We all hung out in her really nice apartment eating way too much and just having a great time. I really had fun. After, Lindsay (one of the people here) wanted to show me this really cool book display she found in Siena because she knows how much I love old books. Accidenti!!!!!! I was amazed. It was probably THE COOLEST AND BEST thing I have seen the whole time here in Italy. It's a close tie with Venezia. It was a massive library of old books. Old. As in I don't think there was a book there that wasn't published before the 1800s. I was in heaven. There was a copy of the Divine Comedy from the 1600s and so many other amazing books. I wanted them all. I wanted the whole place! Words can't even describe it. One of the most amazing things ever. I am going back for certain!

After that I had a little break and was able to use the internet a bit to get some things done and then Sarah and I headed alla scuola for our cooking class. It was pretty awesome. Tonight we made an antipasta that was spinach and a sauce that I can't remember the name of (I have the recipe) and for il primo piatto we had a pasta that was delicious. It was noodles (that we made) and a tomato sauce with chili peppers in it and a pesto sauce (all of which we made from scratch). For the secondo piatto we had fish.... I wasn't very excited but I tried it. I didn't help prepare it at all because I just couldn't. Fish isn't my thing. But I did eat almost all of it. It was ok. I wouldn't choose it as a meal but it was O K. For dessert we had panna cotta con frutta. Yum. That's what I helped make. It was really really really good. I loved it. I think it's a fav. It was a really good meal! After the meal around 9 everyone was heading to the Tea Room. It's this really cool little place that you can get drinks and yummy desserts. They do live music on Wednesday nights. I ended up there around 10ish I think (I was talking to mio fratello!) and it was also a lot of fun. There were a ton of people there that I knew, mostly from our group, and we all just had a blast. I've had a really great day! It was about time though.... I needed one. Hopefully tomorrow will be alright and then it's Friday! Yay!

Lunedi e Martedi....

*So I wrote this all last night with full intention of posting it....but I was working on my laundry (as noted in my last paragraph) and had a little run in with a local security/police officer so I ended up having to pack up all my stuff and leave. It was rather annoying as I didn’t get to use the dryer! It made for a rather annoying night. I wasn’t happy. But I’m drying things now before class and thought I would get this posted!*

Well Monday was pretty boring. That’s why I didn’t write anything. I went to class... Yay. Then I did homework/hung out in il Campo until just before 6. Then I went to Sarah’s apartment to use the internet because it was..... The keynote presentation for the Apple World Wide Developers Conference!!! Yes that’s right. New iPhone everyone. It wasn’t really all it was made out to be, but basically that was the highlight of my day.

Today I went to class like usual. Class is getting a bit frustrating because I’m getting tired. I’m wanting to go to Switzerland!!! After class I spontaneously decided to go to Firenze! I love spontaneity :-) There was a group who had reservations for the Uffizi and Sarah and I want to go on Saturday but yeah. Long story short I wasn’t quite awake when I made our reservations online and totally booked them for the wrong day. So I went to Firenze today to try and sort all of that out. Didn’t work quite right but oh well. I’m still planning on going to Firenze on Saturday to see the Uffizi and the Medici Chapel. It was nice walking all over Firenze though. I was literally walking all over. I went to one place and they sent me to another, then I had to call someone, then walk somewhere else....which was closed by then. Oh well! Quest’é la vita! I didn’t mind. Going to Firenze is pretty cheap these days too. Hahahahaha Let’s just say we’ve learned how to cheat the system and it’s REALLY cheap to go :-) It’s horrible I know, but I’m poor! What can I say? It’s either that or not eating.... It’s a dog eat dog world out there.

Oh! I just remembered something that happened today! We have a different teacher for the last hour of the day, and we somehow started talking about the economy and jobs and money etc etc and instead of doing a lesson we ended up talking for an hour in Italian about the world economy and the Italian and the EU and it was AWESOME! I’ve been wanting to get a European’s perspective on the global economy and the USA and everything and our teacher is perfect! She has lived in Siena her whole life, but she is very well educated. She’s been teaching for 11 years and she’s been to the US before because her brother lives in New York. She also has a brother who works in Switzerland. She knew her stuff. It was awesome. They just had elections here so a lot of that stuff is still really fresh in the air, especially since the whole EU had elections too. I found the whole conversation very very interesting. Anyway, that was probably my favorite class that I’ve had so far. I really liked it. And I learned a lot!

Well I’m sitting here doing my laundry (ahhh goodbye $$$$) and it’s almost finished so I best go! Ciao!

Cinque Giorni!

Whoa! It’s amazing how fast time can fly. It has been five days since I wrote a blog! Due to issues with internet and the fact that really hardly anything has been going on, I just never got to it. I really kind of was getting tired of posting my blogs from my little iPhone keyboard :-) and the internet at school was down all week. It was quite frustrating! But I’m getting caught up now. So... The past few days:

Wednesday was back to class. It was rather difficult getting back into classes after having a four day weekend.... But I managed. I was a little out of it though. After classes I really didn’t do much. It’s rather sad, but even in Italy you can get bored! It’s my own fault though. There is plenty to do... I was just tired. I’m even having a hard time remembering what I did! Hm... Oh yes I remember. I went over to Sarah’s apartment and hung out. They have internet there so it’s always nice to be able to hang out there. But I spent most of the time using the internet to research my Switzerland trip. It’s very difficult trying to figure all of the details out for a four day trip when you don’t have the internet at your finger tips! I spent most of the afternoon and evening there trying to plan hotels and trains and everything and what to do and blah blah blah. I also spent quite a bit of time trying to plan out the remainder of my time in Italy! It’s unbelievable but I will be stateside in 18 days! I made up a calendar and started filling it in with things that I still need to do while here in Italy and things that are already planned. Originally I was going to spend a weekend in Cinquaterra, but that changed. I could have gone next weekend, but I’m going to be going to Firenze again to try and see the Uffizi, Accademia, and the Medici Chapel. So this weekend I didn’t go anywhere at all! I’ll get to that later. A lot of it also has to do with $$$. Sadly. These little trips can be very expensive and I just needed to realize I can’t go everywhere. Every museum costs money. Every bus ride costs money. Food costs money. Water costs money. Air costs money.... Ok I’m just joking it doesn’t (or does it?). I think a lot of it has to do with the realization of the cost of going to Switzerland for 4 days. Things there are really expensive, but I really really really want to go! So that was Wednesday...

Thursday was a fun day! Class was class as usual. I’m starting to get a little better at things, but class is the boring part of the day. After class I went to il super mercado a fare la stessa (go grocery shopping, I think the spelling is off?) because we were cooking a big huge dinner that night for one of our roommates who was leaving and it was also his birthday! He has been a fun roommate. He was from Sweden and was here before us so it was fun getting to know him. We made a full Italian dinner for him. The antipasti was just a simple cheese and meat dish. I was in charge of il primo piato and I made tortelli con prosciutto topped with formaggio (parma e fette) e basil. Il primo secundo was delicious. One of our roommates is a pretty dang cook and he made a dish with noodles and chicken breasts and he made this white and red wine sauce that was absolutely delicious. It was really yummy. Then for dolce the girls had bought a tiramisu gelato cake from the Kokokabana (spelling) down the street. It’s arguably the best gelato in the city and the cake was delicioso! Of course during the meal we enjoyed a nice bottle of vino rosso and then a vino dolce (which I didn’t really like. I prefer the vino dolce that’s bubbly!). It was a really fun dinner. There were a ton of us all crammed into our apartment and we had quite the fun party. Afterwards we all went out to the Tea Room, a local little bar/eatery that is awesome! It was my first time there, but everyone had gone there lots before. It really was cool. They specialize in all sorts of tea but they also have cheap desserts and different drinks too. I will definitely be going back to get some pictures for you Ben! We ended up running into some people from class there too and we all had a really good time eating and talking and drinking and just relaxing Italian style.

Friday was back to class....
After class I tried to get on the internet at school for a few hours (basically tried to fix their internet) to no avail. Italy is about 10 years behind the US when it comes to implementing technology. It’s quite strange. They HAVE the technology, but mentally they are 10 years behind in how to use it and implement it. Anyway, instead I ended up going over to another apartment and eating some dinner and just hanging out all night. We had a really fun time singing random songs and making cappuccinos. Time really flew and before I knew it I was in bed!

Saturday I slept in! Yay! For quite awhile. I was really tired. I think I really needed it. It’s been hard to sleep in here because it’s so hot and I have to leave my window open, and the street below is always really noisy. Friday though it was actually pretty cold and I was able to close my window! I know it seems like a waste of time sleeping in in another country, but sometimes these things are necessary. That afternoon I made a trip to the Siena Cemetery. It is just outside the city wall and pretty close to where we live. It was quite the experience. It was strange being in such an old cemetery. Old as in almost a thousand years old. We just don’t have anything like it in the states to try and compare it to. I’m not even sure how to describe it. It’s absolutely unbelievable. They only have so much space to bury people here, so long ago they started burying on top of people. Basically the cemetery has gotten taller and taller and taller. I did quite a bit of archeological research on my own (meaning I went where I wasn’t supposed to go) to try and figure out how they did things. I took some pictures that I’ll have to show, because I can’t really explain it. Basically there are generations on top of generations. After so long graves are forgotten, and new ones get put on top of them. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen so many graves. And buildings too. People weren’t just buried in the ground. They have two and three story buildings that people are buried in the walls. It really makes it seem like such a waste. I like the way the Romans did things. Make a ceremonial death mask to remember the person, then burn them. It seems so much more logical. What’s the point in spending so much money and time in making this glorious field of people when they are just forgotten in two generations and someone else gets buried over them? It’s silly to me. All those bodies just become dirt again anyway! Let’s speed it up and save space! But anyway.... It was very interesting to see the old ways of the Etruscans combined with the Catholic ideas in a lot of the tombs. Many of the tombs were not really Christian at all... But they appear to be. If people really knew the history of their own people they would realize many of the symbols they place on their tombs are actually pagan! (pagan in the sense of non-christian) So that was an interesting experience. After that I walked my way back to my apartment, took a break and then headed to Il Campo. I just sat in Il Campo probably for about an hour just watching the tourists. It’s really fun to do. Then I finally decided I was going to make the climb up il Torre del Mangia. So I started the climb up the 400 steps to the top! The view from the top was amazing. It’s the highest point in the whole area and it was awesome to look out and see the hills surrounding Siena and all of the town too. It’s quite the amazing tower. The building was built first with no intention of building a tower, then later they decided to add it. So they did. There is no foundation for the tower or anything. They just stuck a huge massive tower on top of a building and it’s still standing today. Nobody really knows how exactly they did it because there aren’t any remains of the original plans but it’s still standing after over 800 years! It’s quite the tower inside. Before I climbed it I was watching a wedding that was taking place and it was neat because there was a guy at the very top of the tower than manually rang the bell for about 15 minutes after the wedding happened. I think it must have been a really important family or something because there was another wedding that day that they didn’t ring the bell for.... But it was neat to see that and then go up there and see the bell he rang. After my excursion I decided I had earned a gelato and I bought one and sat on Il Campo and ate it and just watched people. I ended up staying there for almost 3 hours! It was just so relaxing sitting and watching people that I couldn’t leave. I finally did though and came back to the apartment and made up some dinner. Basically I just relaxed for the rest of the night until getting to sleep.

Today! I’m finally caught up *phew*
Today I slept in a little bit and then I got up and cleaned! Earlier I had bought some cleaning supplies and what not and I had decided today was the day. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Put five guys in an apartment in Italy and it gets pretty bad. I was starting to get scared to go into the bathroom. So I threw on some rubber gloves and I tackled the whole place. The bathroom now sparkles :-) and the kitchen is much much better! Yay for me! I didn’t really clean anywhere else in the apartment because it took me almost two hours just to clean the bathroom and kitchen! You don’t even want to know how dirty it was, but let’s just say I am much happier now. It was very therapeutical for me. I liked the sense of accomplishment, which I haven’t felt the whole time here in Italy, so it was very good. After that I decided I was going to go see the famous Duomo here in Siena. It’s supposed to be one of the prettiest ones in all of Italy, so I knew that eventually I’d get to it and today was the day. I started out with the Museum where most of the original “stuff” from the actual Cathedral now rests. They replace most things here in the actual buildings with replicas so that they can put the originals inside where they are safe and easier to see. It was an interesting experience. I’ll go into some history:

Siena used to be a rather powerful city. It competed with Firenze and the two have always been rivals. The duomos of each city were a competition as are most things in the cities. Firenze of course won the competition because Siena took a huge hit with the Black Plague and then Firenze came and conquered it. Siena is now a city of about 60,000 people, and it’s amazing to think that at it’s height in the 1200s it had 60,000 people too. It never fully recovered after the plague hit in the 1300s. So most of the art and everything here is medieval, because they never really went through the Renaissance like Firenze did (or like Firenze started). The artwork in the Duomo as well as the construction is all medieval. One of the most famous medieval paintings is actually here in Siena. So I was able to see all of those things. It was very interesting to compare it to other styles that I’ve seen in Roma and Firenze and Venezia. The medieval style was very different. This particular painting, by Duccio called the Maesta, is amazing. It’s strange because it’s the beginning of 3D painting, but not quite there. Having seen some 3D painting already it was very interesting to see a piece that is a transition piece. Duccio and the painters of his time were starting to grasp the idea of 3D/mathematical perspective, but they weren’t quite there. And the church still wouldn’t let them paint that way. During medieval times you can notice that none of the paintings look real. The Church believed it was blasphemous to depict real humans in art, as God was the only one capable of “painting.” Good ol’ Dark Ages. That’s why the art from that time is always disproportionate and strange looking. They weren’t allowed to make it look real... Until the Renaissance hit of course. That’s why this painting is so amazing. It was commissioned by the Church so Duccio had to be careful on sticking to their guidelines, but he still tried to put his own artistic touch on it. Another part of the museum is also climbing to the top of a part of the church that was never constructed. After Firenze started building their duomo, Siena wanted to make theirs even bigger. In fact it would have been the largest duomo of all Christiandom at the time, but the Black Plague hit. They only constructed one wall with some columns and a facade for what would have been a massive nave to the already existing church. Today you can climb up the facade and look out over what would have been the nave and also see the duomo from an interesting angle. It was pretty. After that I went into the duomo.
The inside was really pretty. Very very busy! I have a really hard time with the gothic/medieval churches because they are SO BUSY. Things EVERYWHERE. Statues, paintings, different color stones, etc. It drives me crazy. The style of the time was show off as much as we can which was very opposite of the Roman style. The Romans HAD style. They built gorgeous buildings and used contrast and colors properly. They utilized simplicity in design. Somehow that all got lost in the middle ages and you get messy design! Yay! Basically the more you have the richer you are so let’s show it all off in one room! It was still very pretty though. The unique thing with Siena’s duomo is the people who designed it. The entire project was overseen by Giovanni Pisano (he spent 10 years on it) but there are sculptures by Michelangelo, Bernini, Danatello, Duccio, and other amazing artists of the time. It’s really a hodge podge of amazing art. Michelangelo was commissioned to do certain parts and he started on them, but then he was given the job of the David in Firenze so he abandoned the duomo (duh! Who wouldn’t?!). Bernini did a whole chapel. Duccio did the largest painting and also and absolutely amazing stain glass window over looking the whole church. It really was quite the sight. The floor consists of stories of different Bible scenes. There was art everywhere. There is a library attached that was added on in the 1400s that was absolutely beautiful too. It was fully frescoed by Piccolomini and was done in 3D/realism and it’s amazing. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where the wall ended and the actual 3D ceiling began because the paintings looked so 3D. I felt a true appreciation for the talents of these people. It just blows me away. And it is so interesting to see, up close and personal, the progression of our society. It’s also really sad as well because had we never experienced the Dark Ages we would be so much further ahead now. All the Renaissance really was was picking up where the Greeks and Romans left off. Mostly the Greeks though. The pinnacle of our Renaissance was the height of the Greek society. Imagine if we hadn’t wasted 200 years in the dark! Silly Popes.

So now I’m just relaxing some more! I’ll probably cook some dinner soon and then go relax at il Campo and get some gelato. I’ve actually really been enjoying just relaxing here in Siena. I think I just needed to realize that I can’t do all of Italy and to slow down. I have a whole life ahead of me!

As a final note, I’d like to say congratulations to Reid and Rachel! I’ll try and do better on keeping my blog up-to-date. The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy/crazy! Only 18 days.... Whoa! Ciao for now!

Assisi

Today I got to sleep in! It was really nice. Then of course I OVERslept :-) but I still was just fine. I headed down to Piazza Gramsci and took the bus to Il Stazione where a group of us were taking another bus to Assisi. I really had no idea what to expect from Assisi as I knew nothing about it! We had a pretty nice bus, which was good, and I sat down and began my reading (from my handy dandy Rick Steves book) to learn about the place I was going. I quite like that book! After reading the book for quite awhile to get the history on Assisi, which is rather interesting, I simply sat back to enjoy the scenery. I love the Italian countryside. It's really funny because the more cities I go to and places I see, the more I long for the countryside. I love it. It seems the more I experience the less I want to live in a bustling city. I absolutely love the rolling hills of farmland, vineyards and trees. Our drive today brought us past a lake just before reaching Parugia to make a stop. It was gorgeous! Assisi is in the Province of Umbria, which is the only land locked province in all of Italy. Very very different type of terrain. It was actually fairly mountainous and I loved it. Nothing like the Apennines towards the north, but still very pretty. Driving into Parugia was amazing too. It is up on a mountain side and driving up towards it we went through lanes and lanes of trees that completely covered the road. *sigh* We finally reached Assisi and as we drove towards it I could look out my window and just see it sitting up on a mountainside staring down at us. It was amazing. Just a city perched on the side of the mountain. So many cities here are like that. They just build a wall around the mountain and put a city inside it. Assisi is a little unique though because it was originally a Roman city (like most) that was a religious city. Ever since Assisi was started it has been a religious headquarters and it has always remained such. For the Romans it was a beautiful temple to Minerva, and for the Catholic church there is San Francesco. I had no idea who this man was really before coming here, but after seeing and experiencing today I have a great respect for that man and I truly believe he was a sincere and good person. He was the first "friar" (which is actually a word that comes from fratteli or brothers, which is what he called all his fellow men). Francesco was a rich boy who was sent to fight in the crusades and came back a changed man. He denounced his life and all his possessions and vowed to live a simple and humble life like unto Christ. He lived in poverty begging for food and shelter and taught humility and humanism. The Church at the time very much did not like him. His ultimate goal was to make religion accessible to the people and he was actually the first person to hold mass in a language other than Latin so that the common folk could understand and enjoy it. Legend has it that he was also the first person to carve a Nativity Scene in order to make the story of the birth of Christ more tangible and relatable to and able to be enjoyed in every home by everyone. I think he was just a down to earth real person who believed in caring about the world he lived in and the people within it. He taught to care for the earth and the animals within it. Assisi is also home to St. Clare, who was a pupil of San Francesco and who started a group of nuns similar to friars. They live in poverty etc. In fact they live in a convent right in Assisi and have lived in the same convent since the 1300's! It's crazy how old things are here. It was a really interesting place. There really wasn't a lot to see. I followed the tour in the Rick Steves book and I went to the old Roman Amphitheater, some churches, one of which was really cool. The Church of St. Clare was built on the foundation of an old church from the 2nd century that was built on top of an old Roman structure. After the earthquake of 1997 they discovered the original foundations of the first church and also parts of the Roman structure. The Roman structure was a Roman cistern, and it's still in perfect condition! It just amazes me. It looks perfectly new and usable. It's basically just a big water tank underground that they caught rain water in and used in case of emergencies (such as being attacked and under siege). After that I went to the Temple of Minerva, which is now a church. The temple however was never actually destroyed, it was simply converted into a church and so it's still in really good condition and towards the front you can actually walk on the ORIGINAL Roman floor! It was really cool. In the floor you can see the drain system that was in place for the blood from the animal sacrifices the Romans performed. It was amazing. The exterior is 100% Roman with old old columns and all. The only main difference is that it used to lead down to the Roman Forum, which is now buried. The current street level is about five feet above the forum, so there are only about 3 steps leading into the temple instead of the many steps that would have been there a thousand years ago. That's right. ONE THOUSAND! It just blows me away. There is a museum of the Forum that is inside a building where they have dug underneath the current buildings but I didn't pay to go in. I've seen a lot of Roman stuff and time was short. Next I headed to the Basilica of San Francesco. It was really simply compared to other churches that I have seen this trip. I think that has most to do with the fact it was a medieval church and most of the churches I've been into thus far have been post dark ages. It was still an amazing church. I'm very conflicted with it however. Firstly: San Francesco was a simply man who taught humility and simplicity. So they build a massive church to bury him in... In complete contradiction to what he taught. Secondly however: I am amazed at the dedication and love for a man. They wanted to prove to the world how much they cared about him by having him buried in a glorious building that would be remembered for generations to come. I'm not really sure what to think. I can see both sides. I guess it is good the church is there because now it is a place where the friars learn and it's somewhat like a convent. So that was my day! After that we grabbed the bus back to Siena, I made some pasta for dinner and here I be. It was a nice day off from classes. I feel like I learned a lot and I've really taken something valuable from Assisi. I took almost the whole bus ride home just writing my thoughts down in a book so that I could really express what was going through my mind. It was very helpful and I would highly encourage everyone to try it sometime! Tomorrow it is back to the grind of classes... Hopefully I haven't forgotten all my Italian :-) It's going to be pretty tough getting back into class again, but it's a short week. Ciao!

Arrivederci Venezia

*sigh* I am back in Siena. As glorious as a city as it is I really liked Venezia and shall greatly miss it. This morning I woke up and got ready and as soon as the other four were up, in order to use up some food, I made some delicious eggs with feta cheese on top sprinkled with basil and also some olive oil toast. It was quite tasty. Then we headed to San Marco to see the basillica! There was a huge line and at first I was really worried we wouldn't make it in but it moved really fast. We got in minutes after it opened and wow. Never before have I seen such an extravagant display of wealth in my life. The Venetians truly were a power. Quick fact: did you know at one point Venice controlled 40% of the Holy Roman Empire? That's how powerful! The Basillica was it's own unique type of beautiful. Not my type but still amazing. The city of Venice is a mixture of Byzantine and Renaissance architecture and it makes for an interesting combo know as Venetian Architecture. While in the basillica I saw some bronze horses that supposedly were made in the time of Alexander the Great (but it's debated) which if they were holy cow! Pretty much the coolest thing ever. I'm going to research as soon as I can and find out their story. I also was able to see the power and glory of the Venetian Rule. The treasures they amassed /stole was phenomenal. Of course being St Mark's Basillica I saw the body of St Mark (from a distance ---$$$) and it was interesting.

We had to leave pretty quickly to get packed up and grab a vaporetto back to the train station. We managed to grab a train an hour earlier than we planned (traffic was good!) and we were off! The train ride was pretty good. Same old. We had a two hour layover in Bologna so we did some exploring. That city has quite the history too! It's much older than Rome itself. It would be interesting to explore, but my trusty Rick Steve's guide didn't say a word on it. Jake and I managed to find a bookstore and do some research as well as some Italian plaques near some ruins (in Italian of course). I think it would he an interesting place to visit. If I rememer my history correct, Romulus and Remus (founders of Rome) were from Bologna (it was a different
name then). I might be wrong though. It was absolutely gorgeous going from Bologna to Florence. The train cuts right through the Apennines and wow. It was rainy weather and the mountains were amazing. I loved it. My kind of scenery. It's rainy here in Siena now too and it feels great! Tonight I made dinner after finally arriving around 9ish to the apartment and we enjoyed a simple pasta meal. I'm starting to get this basic Italian cooking down! Hopefully by the time I leave I'll know some good recipes! But bedtime now! Tomorrow I wake up and go to
Assisi! Ciao!

:-(

I'm sitting on the train having just left Venezia... I am sad. Now
begins the long train ride across Italy back to Siena. I hope someday
I can return to Venezia and spend more time there. It's a wonderful
city! Im glad I get to enjoy the beautiful countryside on the return
trip though. Chin Chin a Venezia!

Life at Sea

Ahhhh Venezia. Mi amore! I love this city! I really do. I could easily live here. I absolutely love all the people and the water and the city and everything about it. Today was awesome. After finally getting everyone out this morning we headed toward the north side of the island to catch a vaporetto. Unbeknownst to us though today was a big boat race in Venice! There were a whole bunch of boats all over everywhere racing! All sorts of different types of rowing boats. It was very interesting. We did manage to catch a vaporetto to Murano, the glass blowing island, and it was really neat. Unfortunately because it was Sunday the fornaci were closed but it was still really fun to see all the different types of glass. After that we had a little mix up and only two of us made it on the vaporetto to Burano but it worked out. Burano is about a 40 minute boat ride in the lagoon and it was great. I loved it. Sadly we chose a really cold weekend though and I forgot my jacket! I was freezing! But loving every minute of the wind blowing against me and the waves crashing against the boat. It was great. Being able to look out and enjoy the awesome views of Venezia was amazing too. Words are really not enough. Burano is the lace island. Jake and I (the person who made the vaporetto with me/friend) didn't spend too much time there. We walked pass a few shops, grabbed a panini/wrap and used a WC then jumped on the vaporetto to Turcello. This little island of pop 20 is where the very first settlers of Venice first went prior to settling Venice. It was really interesting. There were some ruins on the island that Jake and I spent some time examining trying to figure out their origin as they weren't labeled or anything. He's a very smart guy and knows his ancient history. It was fun! Kind of like detective work. It was also very interesting to get an idea of what the island where Venice is looked like prior to being settled as this little island is untouched for the most part. It was a beautiful island. I could have stayed there forever it was so great. From there we got on a vaporetto heading back to San Marco via Lido, a resort that rests on the barrier of the lagoon and the Adriatic Sea. I really enjoyed the trip. It took most of the day but it was great. The only other place I had wanted to go was closed today anyway so it worked out great! We met up with the others once we got back to San Marco and we all headed out to try and see if we could make it into Doge's Palace but we missed buying a ticket by 5 minutes! We ended up wandering all over Venice for a good two hours instead and managed to find a super market where we bought a few extra fresh foods to make dinner with. After taking a vaporetto back to our apartment I made a lovely pasta dinner and we all really had a good time talking and relaxing and laughing about things from the day. It's been a great day! I think there are lots of things to see in Venezia, but I feel like we have really experienced it today, not just seen it. Hopefully tomorrow morning we will be able to see San Marco's Basillica as that's something I really really want to see. Especially Alexander's horses. I'm crossing my fingers! I better get to bed though because I'm getting up early tomorrow again! Buonanotte!

Venezia!

Well I didn't get a chance last night to write a blog because I was just too busy absorbing Venice! Yesterday a group of us got up VERY early (as in 430am) and walked really far to the train station in Siena. We then took the train to Firenze, then to Bologna and then onward to Venezia! It was a pretty long train ride but extremely beautiful! I have to admit that it's the first time in a long time I've felt a true longing for Idaho. After we crossed the Apennines (spelling) and came into the Po River Valley it was amazing. It looked exactly like Idaho. Very similar to the Boise area and kind of like the west part of Idaho Falls. Flat farm lands. It was awesome. I loved it. Finally after about 8 hours we pulled into San Lucia Stazione in Venezia :-) it was unbelievably awesome. Words can't even describe that first moment of seeing the city! We purchased vaporetto tickets (it's like the bus here) and jumped on the water! I really can't even describe it. We headed down the Grand Canal towards San Marco and the buildings are amazing. After we pulled in to San Marco we met up with our landlord who walked us through the streets for about five minutes to out Venetian Apartment. The apartment is absolutely awesome! It's sooooo nice and less than a minute from St Marks. As you can see from our balcony you can see the bell tower just over a row of buildings. We got really lucky finding this apartment. It's awesome. We spent most of last night just wandering the city and eventually found a trattorria to eat at. It was alright. We could have done better though but oh well! We ended up on a quest after dinner to find the best gelateria in Venice according to our good friend Rick Steves and found ourselves taking the vaporetto up the Grand and getting an amazing show of the buildings lit up ending up at Rialto Bridge. I took some really cool pictures from there and then we meandered through the streets and stumbled upon the very gelateria we wanted! It was amazing gelato! Wow. And cheap. Wow it was delicious. We are definitely going back! After that we went to see San Marco all lit up and were able to enjoy some time listening to some dueling-for-the-crowd music from two small string bands in the piazza. It was a lot of fun! We were all very tired and made our way back to our apartment, made plans for tomorrow (today) and went to sleep.

I woke up this morning really early (530am) and got out the door around 7 (I was moving pretty slow) and headed out to take pictures of an empty Venice. I think I'm in love with Venice. I know it's a tourist town but it's just so wonderful. I love the water everywhere, the boats, the buildings, and I actually really love all the tourists! I took a few pictures and then ended up just watching some massive cruise ships pull into the harbor. I could just sit all day and watch the ships come in! Seeing Venice all empty was an awesome treat, definitely waking up tomorrow to wander again. Sadly though it's pretty dang cold here and I didn't bring my jacket from Siena! I really wish I had ma va bene. I came back to our apartment to eat some food and now I'm just waiting for everyone to get ready so we can begin our adventures today. I'm really excited! I shall update y'all tonight!

Dolce!

This was the dessert. Wow it was amazing. I'm definitely making this.
It's a chocolate mix that you cook for a short time really hot so that
the outside becomes like cake and the inside is hot liquidy chocolate
pudding. Then it's covered with a mint sauce and an orange sauce.
Yummmmmm.

Questo sera, Mangiamo.

Well wow. Today was pretty busy! After class a group of us made the 45
minute trek to le stazione a compare biglietti per Venezia. Mammà Mia!
What the trip. They were sold out so we had to figure out other routes
on regional trains and long story short, after I spent quite awhile
talking to the ticket person in broken Italian we figured out a way to
get 7 people to Venice over a holiday weekend! This weekend is
comprable to the fourth in the states. Very busy. Then I had to
quickly do some shopping for food for this weekend and then book it
back to school for my first cooking class! I've included a picture of
il secondo piatte. I really had a good time! We all worked together to
make the vegetable mix you see and the meat is veal wrapped around
mozerella and basil leaves. Then it was seared in vino rosso and then
cooked in the oven and served with a mixture of cooked veggies. The
primo piatte was basil egg noodles (that we hand made) in a cream
sauce. I didn't get a picture of it oops. And da dolce was OMG
delicious! I did get a picture of that and I'll upload it after I post
this. I can only do one at a time from my iPhone. The whole meal was
delicious! And I have the recipe! Forse posso cocinare lo quando torno
al Estado Unidos :-) I can't wait to go to my next two classes! But
now I need to get to sleep! I have to get up at 430 to get off to
Venice! Ciao!

Sigh

Well today was a pretty lame normal day. I woke up not feeling too
good. It's a combo of allergies, dehydration, exhaustion, culture/food
change I think. I had a slight fever this afternoon. It was a little
difficult to pay attention in class but I made it. After I just
rested. I did some laundry and read up on Venice while waiting and
then came back to my room and watched almost the first season of the
office. I just needed to sit and vegetate. It was good. Then I fell
asleep for almost an hour and woke up much refreshed in time for a
very amazing delicious dinner! A friend in another apartment cooked a
really fancy delicious dinner and it was awesome. She's one of those
people you meet and just wonder how they do so much! I feel like I've
wasted my life when I compare it to her but oh well. The dinner was
really good and I had fun relaxing and talking. I took the day easy.
Hopefully that way I'll be charged up for a long four day weekend of
nonstop travel. And I really just needed the time. Sadly life doesn't
stay put it comes with you even across the ocean and things always
seem to catch up with you when you pretend they don't exist long
enough.... But enough! Basto! Allora va bene. Ho bisogno di
dormire :-) Ciao a domani!

PS Happy birthday Matt yet again!

San Gimignano

Today was much cooler! Yay! But still hot and humid. Just not in the
90s hot and humid! Today our group skipped the last hour of classes
and high tailed it to piaza gramsci to catch the bus to San Gimignano.
San Gimignano is a pretty unique little place! I actually really liked
it. It was very homey and cosey. It's a city that, to make a long
story short, was frozen in time during the first part of the 14th
century. It's a unique chance to see what a real medieval Romeo &
Juliet/Capulets and Montegues story setting looked like. The city is
very well preserved because of it's unique history. It's also right in
the very heart of Toscano and home to tuscany's best white wine. I
really liked it. We had a nice relaxing afternoon. I have a video I'll
upload tomorrow as I couldn't tonight. I also enjoyed a wonderfully
delicious gelato there as well! The city is home to the winner of the
2006 or 2007 best gelato in Italy competition! It was pretty dang good
stuff. Wow.

Tonight I simply relaxed and let myself do some recovering. I also
purchased my rail pass for Svizzera! It's fo real! Then I was
pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call from Quentin! Yay! Thank
you Carl for letting him use your phone! :-) it made my night. It's
always good to hear from best friends. Yay! Well with that I shall be
going to bed! Ciao tutti!

Parle Italiano?

È possible?! Buonasera tutti! Well I feel like my Italian is starting
to make progress. Slowly but still. I attended a special event this
evening about the Palio and the contradas. They are something very
unique to Siena. You should look them up! I live in the contrada of
the turtle, or in italiano: io abito in la contrada di tortuca.
Anyway. They gave a lecture on the history and origins etc...in
Italian! It's pretty intense. I hardly understood any of it but for
the most part I was able to gather the main ideas from what he told
us. Then after we went to the contrada of the panther and were given
permission to go into their museum. Each contrada has a museum (not
open to the public) containing special things for their contrada and
their heritage. It's sort of like a really big family. That's a good
way of thinking of it. It was interesting. It's all medievil so it's
interesting to see that part of Italian history. They also had a big
huge contrada cooked dinner afterwards (for the panther contrada) but
I didn't do that. Molto caro e non ho soldi! Va bene. Tomorrow we are
going to San Gimignano! I don't know much about it but it is supposed
to be really cool! Hopefully the weather is cool too! The heat is
killing me. I nearly passed out today. I drink TONS of water and sweat
like a pig but sometimes I just get woozy and have to get some fresh
air. I think perhaps I need some protein too.... I might have to
splurge on my shopping and buy some meat *sigh* Molto caro! Very
expensive! Oh well. Alora...Ciao a domani!

Ho caldo....ancora

Today was yet another hot day. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler.... Hopefully! It's unbearably hot. I couldn't even think in class today. I just stared at my teacher with sweat dripping from my face. I do feel as though my Italian is improving somewhat though. :-) it takes time. Today after class I went to il super mercado and did my weekly shopping. It was more fun this time because I had a better idea of how to provide food for myself here. The food is quite different so finding the food you like takes some practice. I've acquired quite the taste for nutella and bread and honey :) it's cheap and sustaining. Yay! After that I did laundry... Finally. I was getting pretty low on clothes. It's just so expensive doing laundry here! It was worth it though not having to slave over a sink in the heat hand washing. The things you all take for granted! After that I was pleasantly surprised (quite surprised!) to get a phone call from a familiar number! Mia mammà! It was really good to hear from her. I could have talked for hours but I had to limit my time. It was ok. I will talk plenty once I get back! A little after hanging up I was really pleasantly surprised to get a call again but this time it was mia papà! I really could have talked for hours to both of them. So much to talk about! But I knew I had to keep it limited. Va bene! I have many days to talk with them! Around 830 tonight a bunch of us got together for dinner. It was really good. We had multiple dishes and various wines and I really had a good time! There are two swedes that hang out with us sometimes and they are fun. One is in the same apartment and the other is across the hall/stairs/other side of the building? Hard to describe. The buildings here are quite different lol.

Hopefully tomorrow is not nearly as hot and I will be able to keep focused! Best wishes to everyone back in the states! I miss you all and sorry if I'm forgetting anything important going on there.... I'm just so sucked into Italy! A presto!

Ho Caldo!

It is hot!!!! Wow. It's 11 at night and I'm laying here in bed sweating like crazy! Today was a lot of fun though, just really really hot. I slept in for once (yay!) and then met up with 2 friends at piazza grumsci to catch a bus to Firenze. We ended up barely missing the bus lol and had to wait an hour for the next one. It was alright though. We went to il super mercado and got some food and were on the road at 1140. We arrived in the bustling city of Florence around 130. What a city! I continue to be amazed by the history of cities. I have to say though that the history of Firenze is by far the most fascinating (next to Rome). I never realized how historically significant it was. Donatello, Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Dante, the Medicis! So many amazing people all got their starts and made their fame in this place! And it shows. The works there are amazing. Today we did not do much, we took a city bus to the piazzale Michelangelo and got a nice view of the city and then walked our way down to the river and crossed on the ponte vecchio (a big bridge with shops lining it. Picture the London bridge). From there we went to the uffizi and walked around outside and looked at the courtyard where all the Medici statues used to reside. Now there are replicas there and the originals are inside the uffizi (a very important art museum containing the personal Medici family art collection). I was absolutely amazed by the sculptures. I can't wait to see the originals! Wow is all I can say. The detail blows me away. After there we went to il duomo and went inside. Most things were closed today so we mostly viewed simple outside stuff. The dome of the duomo is the amazing part. I can't wait to be able to go up to that. It's an architectural wonder of the world. After that we found a famous gelateria and WOW. Watch out Sub Zero. I've never had such amazing gelato. Supposedly gelato got it's start in Florence and it's supposed to be really good there. It was! I'm really excited to go back to Florence again. I'll probably go 3 or 4 times. It's a short cheap trip and there is so much to see!

Week 2 of classes start tomorrow!

Lucca e Pisa

Today was fun! I woke up very very early and headed to la piaza
grumsci to meet a group and catch a bus to the Siena train station. It
was fun riding a bus through Siena. It's a much larger city than I
realized. We have primarily been in the historic part of town but
there probably 80% of the city outside the historic part. I guess the
population of Siena is actually right around 60K people! Anyway. We
got on a train and headed towards Empoli, where we switched for
another train to Lucca. I love the trains here! I wish we used trains
more in the states. It is SO the way to travel. Everyone here uses
them too. They are full! The countryside here is absolutely amazing.
It's so surreal and picturesque I can't even describe it. I feel like
I'm in a movie. I don't even think anyone could understand it without
seeing it. Just being able to pass by massive vinyards and farms that
are hundreds of years old. Cities on the hillsides. Villas on the
sides of mountains. It's gorgeous. Lucca is a really really unique
city too. I can't really describe it! There are pages I could write
about the city but I'll just have to tell y'all sometime. The history
there is amazing. Roman to medievil to Renaissance to modern. It's
insane. It's just this quaint little city nestled in the mountains. I
took lots of pictures. It was strange too because it was so clean! As
my professor said almost "unitalian" it's so clean. I liked it. After
Rome it was a good thing to see a clean city. From Lucca we went to
Pisa. Pisa was actually really cool! I wasn't even really interested
in the tower. So many people get wrapped up in the "leaning tower"
they lose out on the real story behind Pisa. I thought Pisa was really
pretty. I think it is one of my favorites and not even because of the
tower at all. I liked the feel of the city. I also love the history of
Pisa. It's amazing. To have stood and sat in the very same spots that
the young and old Galileo formed his thoughts on the universe is an
honor. I also recorded some video in the baptistry there that should
be pretty cool. The structures in the Field of Miracles really are
miraculous and I doubt people understand that. They were the best of
the time.

After Pisa we headed back to Siena. It's about a two hour train ride
so a lot of time was spent relaxing and talking in the scalding heat
of a moving train LOL. I'm really excited now to go to Venice by train
and eventually Switzerland. I'm going to love it! Tomorrow I get to
sleep in a bit (yay!) and then three of us are wandering off to
Firenze for a little fun. It will be the first of probably many trips
to Firenze as it is only about a 40 minute bus ride and only 8€
roundtrip! Ancora a domani, ciao!

Number Correction

I realized I gave my phone number wrong. From the US you would dial:
011-39-333-941-8343

Just an FYI for ya in case it's needed.

It costs me to return any texts or calls but it's free incoming. Ciao!

Another one today opps! Venezia!

I forgot to mention! Today four of us booked an apartment/hostel in
Venezia! It's a little strange to think about but we had to do it asap
because we are going to Venezia over a longer holiday weekend and
everything was being booked up as we were looking. It was a little
more pricey than I'd hoped for but it's a little two bedroom apartment
right in the middle of the city sort of with it's own kitchen and
bathroom and everything. It's pretty cute! We will be leaving Saturday
(may 30) morning and then taking the last train from Venezia back to
Siena on Monday. Then we will probably be hitting Firenze again on
that Tuesday! Yay for spending lots of euros!

Venerdi

GDDV!!! (Grazie dio domani venerdi!) Ok so that doesn't work so well in Italian... It's a good day. Today was pretty hot over here in Siena. I'm writing a little early tonight because I can! Apparently we get wireless internet in my apartment from about 4pm - 9pm.... strange. Va Bene! That's how things work here in Italy! lol. Really my days are somewhat boring. I'm still planning on a daily posting though. This is somewhat like a journal for me. I made it through the first week and I'm still alive. I might be a little more inundated with alcohol and more Italian than I was a week ago, but I'm still very much alive! I actually bought my very own first bottle of vino today! Hopefully it's a pretty good one. It's really quite unbelievable how cheap the wine is here. (Kacie, you'd be sooo jealous!) You can get a pretty good vino for about 4 euro. Not bad eh? We enjoyed a nice sciampagne dolce tonight that was really good and it was only about 3 euro. I guess that's how things work when you live in vino country!

I'm really hoping my next week of lezioni italiano go better. I feel like I'm not making a lot of progress. This weekend will be good though. We had some plan changes... that always happens! Tomorrow most of us will be getting up VERY early and catching il tren a Luca e poi andiamo a Pisa. Pisa é una cittá molte turistica ma I want to see it very much. We will be back in Siena Saturday night then waking up and taking l'autobus a Firenze as a small group dominica. I'm super excited for Firenze :) We will probably see what we can see and definitely buy tickets for l'accademia so that when we go again we will be able to get in and see David and other amazing things. Then of course back to school on Monday.... *sigh* No it's fun really. It is just very tiring. I miss everyone in the states! It's hard not to get homesick. I hope everyone realizes I'm not ignoring them, it's just hard to focus on home right now because there is so much to focus on here! Two people actually asked me for directions today... I'm not feeling so much like a tourist anymore lol. Sadly they asked me in perfect Italian and I was not able to respond in Italian! I felt like a moron, especially since they were Asian! They saw fit enough to ask me for directions because I looked like I knew, but I couldn't answer! I at least was able to help them get where they were going. It's a little sad though, because I'll never fit in here. Everyone is about 6 inches shorter than me and olive skin and black hair. I stand out like a freak of nature. Oh well. Maybe on my excursion to Switzerland I will find my place :)

As a side note: I do have an Italian cell phone that I don't mind giving out the number. ANYTHING I receive from anyone is completely free for me. But be advised it will cost you to send something international. I think usually texts are like 50 cents or something and I have no idea what phone calls are. Please also keep in mind I'm 7 HOURS ahead! Don't wake me up! lol and I'm in classes until 130! I'll leave the choice up to you, I just thought I'd give anyone the option. Mi numero é: 039-333-941-8343. The 039 is the country code. Basically you just dial it how you see it. I'm not sure if it will work in Switzerland or not... so I might be phoneless after the 20th. Anyway... Ciao tutti!