Hey everyone,
Sorry I just got lazy with posting..then time goes by and there is just too much to catch up on! Anyways, classes are good, started my Storia delle chiese class in Italian, it's pretty intense! It is 2 hours of straight Italian and she talks so fast. We've been pretty busy with class and everything. The weather is finally starting to warm up! We get a lot of sun now and there is a little olive grove right by the University that we go hang out in sometimes...Today I'm finishing a midterm for my art history class, then spring break starts and my best friends Lindsey and Sam will be here :) I'll try to keep up with blogging from now on...I'll let you know how the break is!
Love,
J
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Buon San Valentino :)
Happy late Valentine’s Day. I hope yours was as wonderful as mine! Saturday night Bri and I caught the train out to Bucine where Claudia picked us up. We went and got Pizza di Tonino, which I had to tell you about by name because Claudia told me it is the BEST pizza in Tuscany. We went to her friend Chiara’s house and had a girl’s night in this big downstairs room with a fireplace. We ate the DELICOUS pizza, guacamole, the best tira misu ever (mm mmm thank you Maffei women) and drank wine that Chiara’s grandpa makes. We ate baci which are little chocolates with fortunes that we all read out loud. I kept one that said: Invecchia insieme a me, il meglio deve ancora venire- Grow old with me, the best is yet to be! Everything just sounds better in Italian…Then we went to a bar called Mod’s, where they played all 80’s music, I particularly liked the theme song from The Breakfast Club, and we drank mojitos. After that we went to Mister Bloom’s and met up with the rest of the American kids, and stayed out til 4. That was a mistake…considering I had to be up at 8 to catch a train to Lucca!
Michelle and I went to Lucca and met up with some family friends of hers. It was a guy named Gabrielle and his girlfriend Giselle who, by the way, likes Berlusconi and doesn’t think Brad Pitt is good looking…We walked around the city and all along the old city walls which they’ve made into a park and then Gabrielle bought us lunch before we drove out to Viareggio. Viareggio…mm. It’s a town on the coast where you can stand on the beach and see snow-capped mountains! It was beautiful. Carnivale was going on so there were people everywhere in costumes with confetti and silly string and giant floats and rides in the streets. We walked around for a while, had a silly string fight, went down to the beach and walked the pier. I can’t wait to go back to Viareggio when it is warm and we can sit on the beach! We saw a sail boat that said ‘Scuola Nautica.’ I think I would like to move to Viareggio and go to sailing school..yeah, that sounds nice! I’m not sure I’m ever coming home…anyways, we caught hopped on the train and got back late, just in time to write a paper and study for Italian the next day before I collapsed in bed feeling like I hadn’t slept in years! The past couple days we’ve just been studying and relaxing. We watched wheel of fortune in Italian last night..and then Il Signore Dei Anelli- the Lord of the Rings- haha also in Italian. Miss you. Love you!
Baci
J
Michelle and I went to Lucca and met up with some family friends of hers. It was a guy named Gabrielle and his girlfriend Giselle who, by the way, likes Berlusconi and doesn’t think Brad Pitt is good looking…We walked around the city and all along the old city walls which they’ve made into a park and then Gabrielle bought us lunch before we drove out to Viareggio. Viareggio…mm. It’s a town on the coast where you can stand on the beach and see snow-capped mountains! It was beautiful. Carnivale was going on so there were people everywhere in costumes with confetti and silly string and giant floats and rides in the streets. We walked around for a while, had a silly string fight, went down to the beach and walked the pier. I can’t wait to go back to Viareggio when it is warm and we can sit on the beach! We saw a sail boat that said ‘Scuola Nautica.’ I think I would like to move to Viareggio and go to sailing school..yeah, that sounds nice! I’m not sure I’m ever coming home…anyways, we caught hopped on the train and got back late, just in time to write a paper and study for Italian the next day before I collapsed in bed feeling like I hadn’t slept in years! The past couple days we’ve just been studying and relaxing. We watched wheel of fortune in Italian last night..and then Il Signore Dei Anelli- the Lord of the Rings- haha also in Italian. Miss you. Love you!
Baci
J
Friday, February 13, 2009
Ciao!
Ahh..where to begin…
Ravenna and Classe. We had our 3rd art history class last week and went to see the mosaics in Ravenna and Classe. They were so beautiful. I think all of the paintings start to blur together in my mind after a little while…and its hard to appreciate the 130983545th painting we look at. But, mosaics I could stare at all day long. They were amazing. They were so colorful, and golden, and when the light came in through the church windows they would glow. Oh, and in Ravenna everyone rode bikes! Even cute little old men and women were on their bikes with baskets just cruising around town!
From there we hopped a couple trains to Venice. Ya know they aren’t kidding about Venice sinking. The high water, called acqua alta, came and went the whole time we were there. One night we were standing in Piazza San Marcos and all of the sudden sirens and bells started going off! Turns out, they were signaling high tide and within an hour the piazza was under a foot of water. That was of course when the real fun began…one of my roommates and I were the only ones wearing rain boots so we went exploring while everyone else tried to make it to dry ground. They put raised sidewalk planks, passarelle, all over the island for people to walk on. We hopped off the planks and just waded…there were places where the water was so high I had to walk on my tiptoes to keep the water from spilling into my boots! I think exploring during the flooding may have been my favorite part about Venice. Although, it was all pretty wonderful. One of our professors was in town with a different group so we got to tag along on a private after hours tour of the Basilica San Marcos…wow. When we walked in all of the lights were turned off, and the whole place was dark and spooky…and huge. Then, they turned the lights on one by one to light up the domes. The whole places glowed gold. After that they took us into the crypt to see the place where St. Mark is supposedly buried. They next day when we were on our way to go up in the campanile, the bell tower, we spotted the group again and got to go up for free :) The views of Venice were absolutely perfect, and while we were up there the bells started going off! We took a day trip to Murano island to see where they make all the handblown glass. The island was so quiet, like a mini Venice. The boat ride over was about an hour, but the sun came out and we stood on the deck and soaked it in. We road the waterbus up and down the grand canal to see everything…and I think we spent an entire day just wandering around and getting lost. I’ve never been in a place where it is so easy to get lost. Of course, getting lost in Venice isn’t such a bad thing…I loved it. Really, Venice is magical. There’s just no other way to describe it!
Yesterday we went to Pisa Pisa! We had class about the transition into early Renaissance art…we looked at lots of old stuff. We took the obligatory goofy pictures with the tower. We visited the baptistery and church, and the cemetery which was seriously damaged during WWII. Pisa was relatively quiet, surprisingly so, and is apparently unpopular with Italians. There is a saying that goes better a dead person in your bed than a Pisan on your doorstep. Harsh.
Other than that, class is going well! I just bought Gomorra in Italian. It’s a book about the mafia family in Naples. I read the first page…and I think I understand it pretty well. Hopefully buying it in Italian wasn’t too ambitious. I’m still reading Angels and Demons in Italian and that’s going really well. I’m off to read on the terrace. It is sunny and beautiful today, though it snowed this morning!!!!
Tutto il mio amore,
Jenny
Ahh..where to begin…
Ravenna and Classe. We had our 3rd art history class last week and went to see the mosaics in Ravenna and Classe. They were so beautiful. I think all of the paintings start to blur together in my mind after a little while…and its hard to appreciate the 130983545th painting we look at. But, mosaics I could stare at all day long. They were amazing. They were so colorful, and golden, and when the light came in through the church windows they would glow. Oh, and in Ravenna everyone rode bikes! Even cute little old men and women were on their bikes with baskets just cruising around town!
From there we hopped a couple trains to Venice. Ya know they aren’t kidding about Venice sinking. The high water, called acqua alta, came and went the whole time we were there. One night we were standing in Piazza San Marcos and all of the sudden sirens and bells started going off! Turns out, they were signaling high tide and within an hour the piazza was under a foot of water. That was of course when the real fun began…one of my roommates and I were the only ones wearing rain boots so we went exploring while everyone else tried to make it to dry ground. They put raised sidewalk planks, passarelle, all over the island for people to walk on. We hopped off the planks and just waded…there were places where the water was so high I had to walk on my tiptoes to keep the water from spilling into my boots! I think exploring during the flooding may have been my favorite part about Venice. Although, it was all pretty wonderful. One of our professors was in town with a different group so we got to tag along on a private after hours tour of the Basilica San Marcos…wow. When we walked in all of the lights were turned off, and the whole place was dark and spooky…and huge. Then, they turned the lights on one by one to light up the domes. The whole places glowed gold. After that they took us into the crypt to see the place where St. Mark is supposedly buried. They next day when we were on our way to go up in the campanile, the bell tower, we spotted the group again and got to go up for free :) The views of Venice were absolutely perfect, and while we were up there the bells started going off! We took a day trip to Murano island to see where they make all the handblown glass. The island was so quiet, like a mini Venice. The boat ride over was about an hour, but the sun came out and we stood on the deck and soaked it in. We road the waterbus up and down the grand canal to see everything…and I think we spent an entire day just wandering around and getting lost. I’ve never been in a place where it is so easy to get lost. Of course, getting lost in Venice isn’t such a bad thing…I loved it. Really, Venice is magical. There’s just no other way to describe it!
Yesterday we went to Pisa Pisa! We had class about the transition into early Renaissance art…we looked at lots of old stuff. We took the obligatory goofy pictures with the tower. We visited the baptistery and church, and the cemetery which was seriously damaged during WWII. Pisa was relatively quiet, surprisingly so, and is apparently unpopular with Italians. There is a saying that goes better a dead person in your bed than a Pisan on your doorstep. Harsh.
Other than that, class is going well! I just bought Gomorra in Italian. It’s a book about the mafia family in Naples. I read the first page…and I think I understand it pretty well. Hopefully buying it in Italian wasn’t too ambitious. I’m still reading Angels and Demons in Italian and that’s going really well. I’m off to read on the terrace. It is sunny and beautiful today, though it snowed this morning!!!!
Tutto il mio amore,
Jenny
Monday, February 2, 2009
Exorcists, Antique Markets and Obvious Americans
I miei amori,
It’s raining again in Arezzo…We had a couple days of sun and now we’re back to the rain. It might snow tomorrow which will be…interesting. Today was the first day of Italian class and I’m so excited! We mostly did logistical stuff…but then we learned gestures. Italians love their gestures. We also learned some fun facts about Arezzo! For example, there are only 7 exorcists authorized by the pope in the whole world, and one of them is the priest at the big duomo here. The past couple days in Arezzo have been beautiful. It’s been chilly, but so sunny! And, two exciting things happened in Arezzo this weekend. Since it’s the first of February, the gelato stores all over town have opened up! Mmm mm..so good. I love gelato and crepes with nutella. Also, every first weekend of the month there is a big antique fair and the streets are flooded with vendors with all kinds of interesting stuff. They have really beautiful old furniture and fixtures and paintings and jewelry and the most ridiculous fur coats…everything you can imagine! The tourists come for the market, and I saw other Americans in Arezzo for the first time this past weekend. We are so obvious and easy to spot…from across the Piazza you can see a group and think..yeah..they’re definitely American. My friend Lyndsay and her roommate Allie are staying in the next town came to Arezzo for the market and I got to meet up with them. It was really great to see someone from home here! After they left I went exploring! I just started walking and found all kinds of great stuff...there are cute little piazzas and churches everywhere. I think I found a place where they are excavating something…old haha. I also stumbled upon the cemetery…WOW. I’ve never seen anything like it in my whole life. It is enormous. There are all kinds of different levels and staircases all over the place and chapels. I felt like a kid on a playground..and really, REALLY wanted to play a huge game of hide and seek there…but don’t worry...my better judgment will stop me. I’ll put pictures of that up soon. It is so incredible. We’ve also discovered a Blockbuster in town haha and my roommates and I rented a couple movies. Fun fact, they sell popcorn in chip bags, pre-popped, because no one has microwaves here! In other exciting news… we just booked a hostel in Venice for 3 nights this weekend! Can’t wait to go there…Love you all :)
Baci,
J
It’s raining again in Arezzo…We had a couple days of sun and now we’re back to the rain. It might snow tomorrow which will be…interesting. Today was the first day of Italian class and I’m so excited! We mostly did logistical stuff…but then we learned gestures. Italians love their gestures. We also learned some fun facts about Arezzo! For example, there are only 7 exorcists authorized by the pope in the whole world, and one of them is the priest at the big duomo here. The past couple days in Arezzo have been beautiful. It’s been chilly, but so sunny! And, two exciting things happened in Arezzo this weekend. Since it’s the first of February, the gelato stores all over town have opened up! Mmm mm..so good. I love gelato and crepes with nutella. Also, every first weekend of the month there is a big antique fair and the streets are flooded with vendors with all kinds of interesting stuff. They have really beautiful old furniture and fixtures and paintings and jewelry and the most ridiculous fur coats…everything you can imagine! The tourists come for the market, and I saw other Americans in Arezzo for the first time this past weekend. We are so obvious and easy to spot…from across the Piazza you can see a group and think..yeah..they’re definitely American. My friend Lyndsay and her roommate Allie are staying in the next town came to Arezzo for the market and I got to meet up with them. It was really great to see someone from home here! After they left I went exploring! I just started walking and found all kinds of great stuff...there are cute little piazzas and churches everywhere. I think I found a place where they are excavating something…old haha. I also stumbled upon the cemetery…WOW. I’ve never seen anything like it in my whole life. It is enormous. There are all kinds of different levels and staircases all over the place and chapels. I felt like a kid on a playground..and really, REALLY wanted to play a huge game of hide and seek there…but don’t worry...my better judgment will stop me. I’ll put pictures of that up soon. It is so incredible. We’ve also discovered a Blockbuster in town haha and my roommates and I rented a couple movies. Fun fact, they sell popcorn in chip bags, pre-popped, because no one has microwaves here! In other exciting news… we just booked a hostel in Venice for 3 nights this weekend! Can’t wait to go there…Love you all :)
Baci,
J
Friday, January 30, 2009
Vacanze Romane
Ciao tutti,
I’m sure you’ll all be very happy to know I had class yesterday! So far we’ve only had 2 classes, one in a coffee bar and one in Rome. Thursday morning we caught the 7:14am train to Rome, and as soon as we got there took off immediately. We went to a church called San Pietro in Vincoli, where they keep 2 sets of chains that Peter was bound in and then miraculously fused together. There’s also a Michael Angelo statue there. The whole church was empty, so we go it to ourselves. Then we walked to the Colosseum and sat down outside it and Kirk gave a lecture right there. How great is school when your classroom is in the shadow of the Colosseum! We walked around inside, got to be tourists for a few minutes and take pictures, and then left for the forum. We walked all through the forum, which was amazing because it was centuries and centuries of history all in the same place. It looked like all the architectural history of Rome thrown together in one place. After that, we stopped by the Pantheon and got a lecture on space in architecture and what it says about the Roman attitude. Basically, Rome is the center of the universe. And, Italians act as if they are the center of their own universe. I can’t even tell you how true that is…people don’t pay attention to where they are walking or driving, everyone cuts in line, and basically does whatever they want when they want to! It all makes sense! We went to a gelato store near the Pantheon that had 150 flavors…it was SO hard to choose! I finally decided on Nutella and Tiramisu. Molto buono! From there we split, and a group of us decided to stay an extra day in Rome.
We walked to our hostel on the other side of the river by the Vatican, dropped our stuff off and got checked in and then headed out to walk around Rome! We went to the Spanish steps, and the Trevi fountain where we stopped to eat more gelato and throw coins in. We ate dinner at a little restaurant on a street right off the Fontana di Trevi, and just sat and talked for a while. When we finally made it back to the hostel we decided to watch Gladiator before we went to bed. As soon as we sat down in the little living room area and put the movie in one of the guys that worked there walked in and said AHH! Basta! Basta! Which means Enough! Enough! He said we were literally the 5th group to come through and watch that movie haha. The atmosphere of the hostel was so great, everyone was young and was either studying or on holiday. There were kids from Germany, Australia and even the States. We were exhausted and all went and climbed into our bunk beds all in the same room. There were 7 of us, so we were toasty warm all night!
Today we got up early, went to St. Peter’s Square and had coffee and ciambelle, donuts, walked to Piazza Navona where it was sunny and warm and local artists had their easels set up all over the place. We walked back to the Fontana di Trevi, later saw the Four Fountains, and the Piazza del Repubblico, grabbed a panino at a café while some other kids ate at McDonald’s haha. Then we went to the train station, where I bought the book Angels and Demons in Italian. I managed to get through about 20 pages on the train before I fell asleep! That was exciting! When we got home we went to our favorite Kebap place where our very sweet Turkish friends work, and now I’m home watching a German TV show called Kebab for breakfast, dubbed in Italian. Very interesting…
Anyways, missing you a lot.
J
I’m sure you’ll all be very happy to know I had class yesterday! So far we’ve only had 2 classes, one in a coffee bar and one in Rome. Thursday morning we caught the 7:14am train to Rome, and as soon as we got there took off immediately. We went to a church called San Pietro in Vincoli, where they keep 2 sets of chains that Peter was bound in and then miraculously fused together. There’s also a Michael Angelo statue there. The whole church was empty, so we go it to ourselves. Then we walked to the Colosseum and sat down outside it and Kirk gave a lecture right there. How great is school when your classroom is in the shadow of the Colosseum! We walked around inside, got to be tourists for a few minutes and take pictures, and then left for the forum. We walked all through the forum, which was amazing because it was centuries and centuries of history all in the same place. It looked like all the architectural history of Rome thrown together in one place. After that, we stopped by the Pantheon and got a lecture on space in architecture and what it says about the Roman attitude. Basically, Rome is the center of the universe. And, Italians act as if they are the center of their own universe. I can’t even tell you how true that is…people don’t pay attention to where they are walking or driving, everyone cuts in line, and basically does whatever they want when they want to! It all makes sense! We went to a gelato store near the Pantheon that had 150 flavors…it was SO hard to choose! I finally decided on Nutella and Tiramisu. Molto buono! From there we split, and a group of us decided to stay an extra day in Rome.
We walked to our hostel on the other side of the river by the Vatican, dropped our stuff off and got checked in and then headed out to walk around Rome! We went to the Spanish steps, and the Trevi fountain where we stopped to eat more gelato and throw coins in. We ate dinner at a little restaurant on a street right off the Fontana di Trevi, and just sat and talked for a while. When we finally made it back to the hostel we decided to watch Gladiator before we went to bed. As soon as we sat down in the little living room area and put the movie in one of the guys that worked there walked in and said AHH! Basta! Basta! Which means Enough! Enough! He said we were literally the 5th group to come through and watch that movie haha. The atmosphere of the hostel was so great, everyone was young and was either studying or on holiday. There were kids from Germany, Australia and even the States. We were exhausted and all went and climbed into our bunk beds all in the same room. There were 7 of us, so we were toasty warm all night!
Today we got up early, went to St. Peter’s Square and had coffee and ciambelle, donuts, walked to Piazza Navona where it was sunny and warm and local artists had their easels set up all over the place. We walked back to the Fontana di Trevi, later saw the Four Fountains, and the Piazza del Repubblico, grabbed a panino at a café while some other kids ate at McDonald’s haha. Then we went to the train station, where I bought the book Angels and Demons in Italian. I managed to get through about 20 pages on the train before I fell asleep! That was exciting! When we got home we went to our favorite Kebap place where our very sweet Turkish friends work, and now I’m home watching a German TV show called Kebab for breakfast, dubbed in Italian. Very interesting…
Anyways, missing you a lot.
J
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Went to an art opening, and gypsy market. Bri got punched and I ate meat.
Cara famiglia,
Missing you all a lot, but Italy is so wonderful.
Last Friday we went to an art gallery opening. It was called arte & industria, and was all kinds of chairs and sofas and light installations. There is a girl who studied here last semester who interns and the gallery, so we all tagged along and crashed the party! It was fantastic. We stood around drinking spumante and eating all their great food…and apparently there at a lot of midgets in the art world because there were a lot at the opening. Anyways, Betsy, I know you would have loved it…
Then Saturday morning we got up early, really anything is early because we’ve been sleeping in a lot, and we went to the gypsy market! It was cold and rainy, but we walked around for 2 hours. The market was huge and lined a main street in town for probably a mile. The vendors had all kinds of stuff..shoes, clothes, linens. Since it’s the rainy season everyone is selling umbrellas, and everywhere you go you hear umbrellaumbrellaumbrellaumbrella. It’s actually pretty amazing how fast they say it, I definitely can’t do it!
Saturday night…well that was an experience! My roommate, Bri, and I decided to go dancing with some of the local people. We were standing in line to get into this club, Sugar Reef, with our friends Claudia and Bea who were telling us allllll about how jealous Italian women are. They were saying that in the club you have to be careful who you talk to or dance with, and you have to make sure there aren’t any girls staring you down because they might come up and yell at you if you get to close to their boyfriend haha. We all laughed at that and thought it was so funny..but didn’t really think twice about it. Well, about 2 or 3 hours later everyone is dancing and having a good time..and Bri met an Italian guy named Emanuelle. They were dancing and talking for a little while…when all of the sudden, out of NOWHERE, a big tall blonde girl ran over, started punching the guy, turned and PUNCHED Bri across the face, and then went back to attacking the guy!!!!A couple of guys jumped in and protected Bri, and she was fine. She doesn’t even have a black eye, which we were both a little disappointed about. They weren’t lying about Italian jealousy!
We got home around 5 in the morning, went to bed and then had to be up bright and early to catch the 11:45 train to go have lunch at Claudia’s house. Her family is SOOO WONDERFUL! She said her mom cooked and cleaned for 2 days. There was so much food it felt like Thanksgiving, and her mom is and incredible cook. She even made lasagna from scratch..and I had some. I decided I was probably going to eat some meat in Italy and I had a little! I figured if I have to break the streak at sometime…homemade lasagna in Italy isn’t a bad way to go. Haven’t eaten any meat since, and I don’t expect to eat a lot. But to all the carnivores back at home, aren’t you surprised! And proud!? They even opened a bottle of champagne and toasted to us being there…it was so great and they are such a nice family. Claudia’s dad makes his own wine, her grandma lives with them and while we were there had a friend come over to just hang out haha…her mom is the most amazing cook, and Claudia is the nicest person in the worldddd, I loveee her! I think I would like to adopt them as my Italian family. Yeah, it’s decided! After lunch we drove into Siena and went to the Piazza del Campo, if you haven’t seen it, Google image search that! It was amazing, and it’s the only Piazza in the world of its kind. On the drive home I got to see the stars! It has been cloudy and rainy most of the time we’ve been here, and seeing the night sky in Tuscany was..bellisima.
Anyways, Love you,
Jenny
Missing you all a lot, but Italy is so wonderful.
Last Friday we went to an art gallery opening. It was called arte & industria, and was all kinds of chairs and sofas and light installations. There is a girl who studied here last semester who interns and the gallery, so we all tagged along and crashed the party! It was fantastic. We stood around drinking spumante and eating all their great food…and apparently there at a lot of midgets in the art world because there were a lot at the opening. Anyways, Betsy, I know you would have loved it…
Then Saturday morning we got up early, really anything is early because we’ve been sleeping in a lot, and we went to the gypsy market! It was cold and rainy, but we walked around for 2 hours. The market was huge and lined a main street in town for probably a mile. The vendors had all kinds of stuff..shoes, clothes, linens. Since it’s the rainy season everyone is selling umbrellas, and everywhere you go you hear umbrellaumbrellaumbrellaumbrella. It’s actually pretty amazing how fast they say it, I definitely can’t do it!
Saturday night…well that was an experience! My roommate, Bri, and I decided to go dancing with some of the local people. We were standing in line to get into this club, Sugar Reef, with our friends Claudia and Bea who were telling us allllll about how jealous Italian women are. They were saying that in the club you have to be careful who you talk to or dance with, and you have to make sure there aren’t any girls staring you down because they might come up and yell at you if you get to close to their boyfriend haha. We all laughed at that and thought it was so funny..but didn’t really think twice about it. Well, about 2 or 3 hours later everyone is dancing and having a good time..and Bri met an Italian guy named Emanuelle. They were dancing and talking for a little while…when all of the sudden, out of NOWHERE, a big tall blonde girl ran over, started punching the guy, turned and PUNCHED Bri across the face, and then went back to attacking the guy!!!!A couple of guys jumped in and protected Bri, and she was fine. She doesn’t even have a black eye, which we were both a little disappointed about. They weren’t lying about Italian jealousy!
We got home around 5 in the morning, went to bed and then had to be up bright and early to catch the 11:45 train to go have lunch at Claudia’s house. Her family is SOOO WONDERFUL! She said her mom cooked and cleaned for 2 days. There was so much food it felt like Thanksgiving, and her mom is and incredible cook. She even made lasagna from scratch..and I had some. I decided I was probably going to eat some meat in Italy and I had a little! I figured if I have to break the streak at sometime…homemade lasagna in Italy isn’t a bad way to go. Haven’t eaten any meat since, and I don’t expect to eat a lot. But to all the carnivores back at home, aren’t you surprised! And proud!? They even opened a bottle of champagne and toasted to us being there…it was so great and they are such a nice family. Claudia’s dad makes his own wine, her grandma lives with them and while we were there had a friend come over to just hang out haha…her mom is the most amazing cook, and Claudia is the nicest person in the worldddd, I loveee her! I think I would like to adopt them as my Italian family. Yeah, it’s decided! After lunch we drove into Siena and went to the Piazza del Campo, if you haven’t seen it, Google image search that! It was amazing, and it’s the only Piazza in the world of its kind. On the drive home I got to see the stars! It has been cloudy and rainy most of the time we’ve been here, and seeing the night sky in Tuscany was..bellisima.
Anyways, Love you,
Jenny
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Made it!
To my darling friends and family,
So much has happened already, and I’m already learning so much! I guess for starters, our apartment is so great! We have our own garden and giant terrace, my bedroom opens out onto the terrace..which I’m so excited about. It's in the centro storico, the historical center of Arezzo, so it feels like we live in a movie. We’re surrounded by cobble stone streets, and the Italians love to get dressed up and just walk around. Everyone here is so beautiful! They also love to dress their dogs, we see dogs in outfits all the time, and dogs can go everywhere. Coffee shops, grocery stores, malls…I mean everywhere! It really makes me miss my dogs, even if they are horribly cranky and misbehaved. One of the funniest things I’m adjusting to is having to push the doors to enter. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I swear everytime I try to go into a building I look so ridiculous because I always struggle to get the door open! Also, getting into a bank is like trying to get into a spaceship, and the bathtub/ shower situation is…interesting. Arezzo has a big city feel to it, but is actually kind of a small town. We’ve been checking out all the bars (which means both coffee and alcohol..) and are already starting to see familiar faces just walking around the city. The first night I got here, I thought I was going to crash at 8, but instead everyone decided to go out! We went to a bar called Crispi’s and had pizza and beer..they also have karaoke on Thursday nights..so we’re going back tonight! Then we went to a little bar called Marilyn and met the owner, Maurizio. A couple nights later we also met the bartender, Luca, and the DJ, Paolo, who work at Marilyn at a different pub called Mister Bloom. Its so nice to actually know some locals! We’ve met up with the students from Arezzo who were at OU last semester..and they are wonderful! Claudia, Lorenzo and Maria Grazia. They’ve also introduced us to some of their friends here..and given us a chance to start practicing our very bad Italian...but I’m learning pretty quickly. I think. The whole month of February is our language class, we have it 2 hours a day everyday and that should whip us into shape! Our classes are kind of..all over the place so we should have plenty of time to travel ;). Yesterday we took the train to Florence and walked around a little, then went to the US consulate and got a tour and a ‘safety briefing.’ Other than that…we don’t have a lot of school to do and are spending our time eating, drinking, and walking around Arezzo! There is a giant park at the top of the hill in the center of the whole city…and it is so beautiful. I know what I really need to do is get some pictures up of stuff, the adjusting and getting everything figured out has just been crazy. I feel like so much has happened already in the first week..it’s impossible to explain! Anyways I’ll update again soon…more Italian adventures to come!
Love love love!
Jenny
So much has happened already, and I’m already learning so much! I guess for starters, our apartment is so great! We have our own garden and giant terrace, my bedroom opens out onto the terrace..which I’m so excited about. It's in the centro storico, the historical center of Arezzo, so it feels like we live in a movie. We’re surrounded by cobble stone streets, and the Italians love to get dressed up and just walk around. Everyone here is so beautiful! They also love to dress their dogs, we see dogs in outfits all the time, and dogs can go everywhere. Coffee shops, grocery stores, malls…I mean everywhere! It really makes me miss my dogs, even if they are horribly cranky and misbehaved. One of the funniest things I’m adjusting to is having to push the doors to enter. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I swear everytime I try to go into a building I look so ridiculous because I always struggle to get the door open! Also, getting into a bank is like trying to get into a spaceship, and the bathtub/ shower situation is…interesting. Arezzo has a big city feel to it, but is actually kind of a small town. We’ve been checking out all the bars (which means both coffee and alcohol..) and are already starting to see familiar faces just walking around the city. The first night I got here, I thought I was going to crash at 8, but instead everyone decided to go out! We went to a bar called Crispi’s and had pizza and beer..they also have karaoke on Thursday nights..so we’re going back tonight! Then we went to a little bar called Marilyn and met the owner, Maurizio. A couple nights later we also met the bartender, Luca, and the DJ, Paolo, who work at Marilyn at a different pub called Mister Bloom. Its so nice to actually know some locals! We’ve met up with the students from Arezzo who were at OU last semester..and they are wonderful! Claudia, Lorenzo and Maria Grazia. They’ve also introduced us to some of their friends here..and given us a chance to start practicing our very bad Italian...but I’m learning pretty quickly. I think. The whole month of February is our language class, we have it 2 hours a day everyday and that should whip us into shape! Our classes are kind of..all over the place so we should have plenty of time to travel ;). Yesterday we took the train to Florence and walked around a little, then went to the US consulate and got a tour and a ‘safety briefing.’ Other than that…we don’t have a lot of school to do and are spending our time eating, drinking, and walking around Arezzo! There is a giant park at the top of the hill in the center of the whole city…and it is so beautiful. I know what I really need to do is get some pictures up of stuff, the adjusting and getting everything figured out has just been crazy. I feel like so much has happened already in the first week..it’s impossible to explain! Anyways I’ll update again soon…more Italian adventures to come!
Love love love!
Jenny
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