Sing it, Bing Crosby...

I've got some random pictures here...some of them are pre-Christmas here in Italy...the rest are just some pictures I thought I'd share.
Note: Apparently, they don't do advent wreaths in Italy. I asked my Italian professor about them, and she had no clue what I was talking about. So, I had to fashion my own wreath, using my "Martha Stewart" skills. It took me forever to find purple and pink candles; I don't even know where I was in Florence when I found some in a small "dollar store" type store. But now I have an advent wreath, and my RA is turning a blind eye to the burning of candles...candles...what candles?...I don't have any candles...

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/569073097zoVkCw?start=0

Christmas Time is Here

Life in the Villa continues to go as normal. I've taken no big trips lately, and it doesn't look like I will be traveling much for the remainder of the semester. The past couple weekends I've taken small, short day trips to Arezzo and Prato: two small cities near Florence. This coming weekend I hope to go a little farther, but I haven't decided where yet.
We've started singing Christmas carols in our little choir. I now know Silent Night in Italian and Adeste Fideles very well, and sometimes have a hard time getting them out of my head.
Things are winding down with classes. We are now in the week before the cram-week before finals. Its difficult to try and buckle down and study. I'm so excited about going back to the States, and I'm catching the holiday fever...How can I concetrate when Celine Dion is singing "Feliz Navidad" in the background? Florence isn't helping much either; the city has put up Christmas lights over many of the major streets and it looks *beautiful* at night.
But I'll soon be back in the freezing cold and snow, looking at pick-up trunks instead of Smart cars, going to Meijer instead of Esselunga...

Look! More Broken Stuff!

Hmm...I took a few pictures while in Rome. The ruins were very cool and provided for very cool pictures, as did the stormy sky that drenched us on the first day. So forgive the multiples of pictures of falling down buildings and statues with clouds. Creativity, dude.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2762826300102073081IQIOfS

The Tradegy of a Dead Camera Battery

I guess I'm falling behind in my blog here...
Paris. Rain. Lots and lots of rain. I don't think I had properly dry shoes and socks the five days I was there. I did a lot of typical Parisian stuff: the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, ate crepes (about one a day), etc, etc...The highlight of my entire Paris trip came from a miserable two and a half hours of standing in the freezing cold and rain with wet shoes, unable to put my umbrella up, and getting dripped on by others' umbrellas. But it was all worth it, oh yes, it was worth it:
I visited the Arc de Triomphe one afternoon and it was raining and it was cold. Wonderful day. But I took some pictures of the arc anyways and then my camera decided to die. I had nothing else to do, so I decided to walk down some streets and look for some souvenir shops. I walked along, la di da di da and checked out some stores. As I was walking down one street, I noticed this crowd of people in the middle of the sidewalk I'm like "What's this?" Then I noticed the red pathway. Then I looked up and saw that I was in front of a theatre. I put two and two together...And the movie the theatre was advertising was Quantom of Solace (James Bond). I started to get excited, and asked one of the few official looking people mulling around what's happening. Long and short of our conversation: Daniel Craig was coming to this theatre. So I stood in the rain and FREEZING cold waiting for Daniel Criag to show up. He did. And I got his autograph. OH YEA. The only thing I had with me for him to sign was map of Paris...which looked shabby against the posters and magazines that others had for him to sign. But I don't care; I have his autograph. I'm cool. Unfortunately, it is the only documentation that I was actually there and met Daniel Criag--lucky for me, my camera died right before I stumbled upon the premiere. Oh well, I'll take the autograph.

Please, Mind the Gap

Ah, London. I did a lot, saw a lot, spent a lot. On my first day there, I hopped in a tour that went around to the main famous buildings; saw Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, the home of Prince Charles, the Royal Guards...the main "London" things. It was a nice thing to do on the first day because it helped me get my bearings. After that, I just kind of floated about doing things that I had written on a list. I was in London for about five days--flew in Oct 24 and ferried over to France on Oct 29. Some highlights: (For the complete story, see my book...jk)
1. The Underground
If anybody knows how to do public transportation, London does. Wow. The tube was sooo efficient, sooo easy, soooo reliable, comfortable (the seats were totally padded!), and they were safe too! Each day, I bought a day pass and hopped on and off the trains to my heart's content. By the end of my five days, I was almost a pro. I knew which trains went which directions, which stations were where, and yes, I minded the gap between the train and the platform.
2. Camden Town
What started off as a venture to find a store turned into almost an entire day's adventure. I hopped of the underground at Camden station, walked up the steps, and found myself in the alternative part of London. Punk, Goth, Hippie, Ethnic, Druggie--you name it, it was there. I stumbled upon several awesome markets while wandering down the street. The largest of them was completely amazing because it wove in and out of several buildings. One minute I would be walking in the rain (yes, it rained while I was in London--what a surprise) and the next minute I would be inside a open building. The entrance I took to get into the market was lined with little ethnic food stalls. I gave into the delicious smells and bought a taco from the Mexican stand. It wasn't a normal taco though; it had peas in it. But it was good. And it was cheap.
4. Crown Jewels
Talk about secruity. I went to the Tower of London to check out the Crown Jewels (took a tour of the castle too). After waiting in line for a while, I finally got to enter the vault--yes, vault. The doors were probably a foot thick and all metal and very high secruity-ish. And when they mean jewels, they mean JEWELS. To view the actual crowns, they had two moving walkways on either side of the case which took us right past these completely bejeweled crowns. I just wanted to break the glass and touch it. Or maybe try it on. They were stunning.
3. Stonehenge
I found in one of the brochures that I had picked up a tour that left from London and visited Salisbury and Stonehenge. As I was alone and didn't want to mess with figuring out how to get to Stonehenge by myself, I thought this was a good idea. Plus, I paid about the same amount for the entire tour as I would had for just one train ticket. Yes, bargins! The tour met in the morning and we took a train into Salisbury, a quaint medieval town that is the closet civiled place to Stonehenge. We took a tour around the town, saw its medieval buildings and its amazing cathedral and close. We then took a bus out to Stonehenge, via the country road. What totally amazed me on our journey out was the fact that there are still buildings that use the thatched roof. I was floored; I thought that had died out. Also, I never knew how in-the-middle-of-nowhere Stonehenge was until I looked out the window of the bus, and lo and behold! there was Stonehenge. Amazing. I was in fits of giggles because I couldn't believe I was actually there. Our tour guide took us around the circle, stopping every so often to tell us a story or some history. We were almost all the way around when the threatening black clouds all of a sudden let loose. At first I thought it was snow (it was so cold!), but after I second I realized it was hail. So, my last memory of Stonehenge is running towards shelter while the hail poured down around us.

And then I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn on the 29th to catch a train to Dover, to catch the ferry to Calais, to catch a train to Paris...

The Parisian Wind Broke My Umbrella

Here's a chunk of what I took in Paris. Too bad I had problems with my camera dying, or else I would have some pictures of some famous people...more on that later.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/568500190ZkfZyl

They Took Pictures of Sheep and I Ate Fish and Chips

So I lied about getting a story up about Assisi. Basic rundown of that weekend: Friday-Assisi, Saturday-Hike up Mount Morello, the mountain that is on the doorstep of our villa, Sunday-Went to see the opera La Boheme. If you want a more detailed account, you're going to have to ask me when you next see me; I'll be happy to tell you every little detail.

But anyways. I returned from Fall Break in London and Paris which all my body parts, my wallet, and a little bit of sanity left. I figured I'll get some pictures up first and then write my novel. Let me warn you: I took over 600 pictures over the span of Fall Break, so these are only a few of my favourites or ones I thought you would enjoy.

My holiday with the Brits:
http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/568490451GOWlrz

Cheers then, mate!

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

Here's some pictures from last weekend. We took a day trip to Assisi on Friday, and then I hiked up Mt Morello (the mountain that is right out our front door) on Saturday. I promise I will get a ancedote up soon!

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/568082753qlaext

P.S. I LOVE Comments

Read the title, please.

We're violating about 50 health codes right now...

This morning we visited a biscotti making company in Prato for my Experiencing the City class. Observations:
1. Yummy, yummy biscotti
2. The kitchen of this company was about as big as my room, my suite-mates' room, and our bathroom--in other words: tiny
3. We walked right into the kitchen and stood right next to the mixer and oven with no hair nets, no shoe covers, no masks
4. Our tour guide reached into a bunch of cookies with her bare hands and picked up a handful to give to us, then threw the extras back in with the rest (I hope her hands were clean!)
5. Everything was handmade and the cookies are made fresh everyday
6. The biscotti was only made of five ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, pine nuts, almonds
7. Everyone walked out of the store with a small bag of free biscotti

Today was also our second day of Nino's choir. Nino is our chef who makes our amazing meals everyday. He is also an aspiring opera singer and has an amazing voice. On Monday there was about 12 of us; today there was only 6. We are singing a song in Italian, which is sort of difficult when you are still in the process of learning the language. I sort of miss a real choir setting; where we are able to work through phrases and trouble in sections and at request. Nino doesn't speak English at all and most of us are in Italian 101. Some things just get lost...and we just nod our heads and smile.

Lions fly; Pigeons walk, Part II

Sunday morning dawned and we had to check out of our hotel. We stashed our luggage in a random side room of the hotel (I didn't feel to safe about this; the door didn't even lock). We had a little bit of free time before we had to rendevous for a museum tour with our Art History professor, so I did a little bit of souvenir shopping. After our tour of the art museum, I was pretty much art-ed out and wasn't going to make it through the next two optional museum tours...so I wandered off. One of my main goals in going to Venice was to buy a Carnaval mask. I spent the next two hours going into every mask shop I could find in Venice and trying on masks. Of course, I found gorgeous masks that I fell in love with...and they were 100 euro and more. I fought with my the entire time, trying to figure out how much money I was willing to spend on a mask. When I finally came up with a sum, I realized I didn't have that much money in my pocket. I guess I'm buying a mask next semester when I go back to Venice. I'm hoping to actually visit Venice during Carnaval and maybe I'll buy a mask then and wear all day. After window shopping, I ended up in the Piazza San Marco and people and pigeon watched. About 1700, we all crowded back onto our water taxi and headed back to the mainland. A long bus ride later, we were home, and happy to be so.

Why didn't my map have a compass rose?

I am attempting to put my thoughts together to write Part II of Venice, but in the mean time, I've uploaded all my pictures. Here is a slideshow of less than a quarter of what I took.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/567583591LUELxG

Everything in Venice is leaning, Part 1

So on Sept 20 and 21, our group took a weekend trip to Venice. Venice, the city that floats on water. After an extremely long bus ride, we transfered to a water taxi. Every form of transportation in Venice was a boat/ship: water bus, water taxi, gondolas, motor boats. I was in heaven. Before we went into Venice proper, we visited a small island next to the city, Murano. Murano is the island where the Venitian glass is made. We watched a glass-blowing demonstration and then and a little bit of free time to explore the island. Every couple of feet there was a gift shop selling everything made of glass. You want a glass pen--got it. Glass flower--got it. Want to drop 3000 euro and buy a glass chandlier--go ahead. Everything was gorgeous though. After Murano, we took the water taxi to Venice proper and checked into our hotel. Not a big surprise there; it looked like an American hotel. Thank God there were toliet seats on the toliets. The cool thing about my room was that it overlooked the tiny street on which our hotel was located. From here we traveled through the city to the Piazza San Marco. First observation: streets in Venice are not even close to straight. Second observation: you want grandeur and breath-taking views, go to Piazza San Marco. I have plenty of pictures of it at all hours of the day so you can see what I mean. The piazza was surrounded on three sides by this huge pillared building, and then it opened up to the Church of San Marco. We met a tour guide here who took us through the "town hall" of the city, for lack of the proper name. The most interesting part of this tour was that we toured the jail cells below the building. These drafty, stone cells were actually used up until the 1940s. I couldn't believe that. We got free time after our tour. After turning down Burger King for lunch, I ended up eating pizza and gelato. The group I was with had mixed opinions on what to do next, and I ended up wandering away...through the non-logical layout of the city. Needless to say, I became lost in some residential sector of the city--which didn't bother me until it was about 10 minutes before we had to regroup for our next tour. But, Megan has an amazing sense of direction (and with the help of a compass and a map with no compass rose) and she made it to the tour on time.
I have to take a moment and pause before I describe this next experience. It was absolutely amazing. Our art history professor here is amazing and knows how to pull strings to get us into cool places. For Venice, she got it so that we had the entire Church of San Marco to ourselves, with no other tourists. It was about 1900 when we went into the church, and it was getting dark. We were told to sit down in the main part of the church while they turned on the lights. Side note: the ceiling in the church are gorgeous; all mosaic with pieces covered with gold foil. So we sit down. First they turn off all the day lights, so we are sitting in complete darkness. Then they start turning the lights on, a little at a time. We are sitting in complete silence, and the church slowly lights up...first dim, then a little brighter, and then the lights on the side, and the lights in the back, until the entire church is lit. It was an absolutely breath taking experience.
After the church, we all kind of meandered our way back to the hotel. Then, after "freshening up" we went out to experience the night life of Venice. My group found this piazza that was pretty much all pubs. It was pretty cool.

Cinque Terre Pictures

Here's the link to the pictures I took on our hike of Cinque Terre.
Just a note: The pictures where you are looking down upon a city are taken from the trail...we had to go all the way back down after climbing the mountain to get to the city.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/567130828MKcefi

Take a Looksy...

Okay...I'm gradually working through the hundreds of pictures that I've taken. Here's some pictures from Siena. I'll try and get the Cinque Terre pictures up sometime this weekend.

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/567034636cuYbNl

I went for my first run in Italy this morning. It was fun and refreshing.

Be brave, and don't look down

Friday was our day-trip to Cinque Terre, a stretch of mountainous coast that five cities have been established. Our goal was to hike the trail that connects the first city to the fifth. We took a bus from our Villa to the coast, then took a boat to the farthest Cinque Terre city. Then we started our hike. They said it would be "strenuous"; they were kidding. Between the first and second, second and third cities, the trail was up and then back down. There was no flat parts. So we climbed up the mountain, were able to the next city, and had to go back down. After the third city, the trail was easy. You can only imagine how sweaty and gross we all were, hiking up the mountain with the sun pounding down on us, all carrying backpacks of food and bottles of water...The trail was not for those with weak legs, or small of heart. Some of the pathes were maybe a foot wide, with a rock wall on one side and a shear drop-off on the other...and no handrails. But the five towns were the quaintest things I have ever seen. They were picture-perfect Italian villages. (I will get pictures up as soon as I sort through the 200 or something that I took.) When we finally got to the fifth city, all we wanted to do was jump in the water. So, we followed some signs, came to a rocky "beach" and started jumping in...clothes and all. Oh, salt water...feels great when it gets in your eyes. After refreshing in the sea, we still had some time before our train out. A friend and I wandered the city. She stopped to buy a bottle of white wine (I guess the area is famous for their white wine) and I bought some Limoncino, which is a lemon-flavoured liquor. I was informed by several people that it was delicious. I will get back to you on that. The bus ride back to the Villa was probably the most uncomfortable thing in my life. I was still a little bit damp from the water and the bus was blasting the AC. I was dead tired and the seats were not very comfortable. Regardless, I still fell asleep. When we arrived at the villa, we ate some dinner, and I (after showering) went straight to bed. It was the earliest I've been to bed for a long time.

Who Knew?

So I go into the Villa's computer lab to download some files out of the student folders for one of my classes. All is running smooth until a program will not open. I go to hit CTRL + ALT + Delete--I couldn't find the Delete button. Reason: the keyboard was in Italian. I mean, who knows the Italian word for "delete" after three Italian classes?

Sesto in Pictures

After many, many tears and curses, I have finally given up trying to embed a web album into my blog. You guys now have to do some extra work and click the link I am giving you. I really think those programs have it in for me.

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/566599572eNnZNn;jsessionid=abcsNSIlaHVo3fxf2w_Wr

The Italian Night Life

It was decided that we were going to find and go to an Italian night club on Saturday night. Somehow of another, someone found/ was told about the night club Centrale. Funny thing about European clubs is they do not open until late--midnight or later. So about 2300, we all (there was about twenty of us) walk to the bus stop to catch a bus to Florence, where the club is. About and hour later we finally get to the club, between waiting for the bus, the bus ride, and trying to find the club. I was wondering how much this excusion was going to run me, when all of a sudden we are sheparded to the front of the line and given passes to get in free. Turns out, a few people from our group and met and talked with one of the guys that worked at the club earlier that day in Florence. He had given them his card and told them his name, "Eugene". So when we arrived, they saw Eugene and he helped us Americans out. The club was outside in this open pavilion-like thing. But even though it was open, with no walls, the dance floor was sooo warm! We had so much fun; the place was crazy! Everywhere you turned, you saw attractive Italians! We danced for about 3 hours straight, then decided it was late and we probably should head back. It wasn't until after 0400 that I finally crawled into bed. But it was worth it!

Some More Italy

On Saturday, we went into Florence for the first time. It was a pretty big thing, since we are going to be spending the majority of our free time there. Florence is only six miles away from our Villa, and the closest big city. We started off by touring a church on a hill overlooking Florence. This was the first church that we visited that also had a graveyard. I was extremely excited and wanted to visit it, but we only had a few minutes to explore before we moved on. Thankfully, one of my professors told me the the Experiencing the City class (which I am in) will visit the same church and check out the graveyard. I was extremely happy. From there we walked into Florence, starting on the "Other side" and crossing the river to "This side" (these are the names the Italians gave to the two sides of Florence). We pretty much got a quick "Here's this building, this church, and this how you get back to the bus stop" before we got to explore the city on our own. The group that I ended up with decided that we were going to postpone the visits to the cathedral and museums for another time, and just walk around, taking in the city and getting to know it better. During our exploration, we found an excellent Gelateria (Italian ice cream store), the expensive district (with Gucci, Louis Viton, Guess, etc), and obtained the directions to a nightclub in Florence from some locals. We also ate some EXCELLENT pizza. And out of all the brilliant and cool things we found and discovered, there was one thing we could not find, as hard and desparately as we searched: a bathroom. It is not polite to walk into a cafe or restaurant to use the bathroom without first buying something, but we couldn't find a sign for the public "W.C."s either! By this point, we were getting tired and thinking about heading back home, so we decided to hold it. Unfortunatly, getting back to the bus stop was a bit of a problem; there was construction where the bus stop used to be, so it was moved. In addition, we had to walk through the market to get to the area of the bus stop, so we made numerous "pauses" while we were walking. One of these pauses was my doing: I saw an absolutely gorgeous scarf and had to get. A nice part chasmere, part silk scarf for only 6 euro. I was happy. To end this story happily, we found the bus stop, went back to the Villa, took a nap, freshened up (it was HOT), ate some dinner in Sesto, and got ready for out night out!

Sesto and the Villa

The Cozy Little Town that is Siena

Today we took a day trip to frolick around Siena. The day did not start well. The first place we visited was the church of St. Catherine, where her actually head is chilling in a glass box. I, of course was very excited about seeing the decaying head of a really old person. But, as soon as we walked into the church, about 10 of us were yelled at in Italian and herded out the door again. Turns out, the Italians don't appreciate bare shoulders in their churchs; some of us were wearing tank tops. One girl went and bought a shawl to put over her shoulders and the rest of us waited for someone with a coat/shawl to come out so we could borrow it and see inside. Needless to say, I did get to see the head of St. Catherine. We spent the rest of the day seeing all the churches and museums and touristy places of Siena, while being lectured at by our Art History professor here at the Villa. A few places later, I began to think "I really don't care what kind of arches those are, nor care about the use of prespective in that painting...just tell me the history and let me explore on my own!" We did get a short time to run through the city by ourselves, and ended up getting hollared at by an Italian boy. He was rather persistent. After Siena, we went to a winery up in the hills somewhere between Siena and Florence and toured the place and tasted the wine. Delicious! The best stuff was the extra virgin olive oil though. Oh! I have never tasted something soooo good. All in all, it was an interesting day...hot, tiring, educational, fascinating, etc, etc. Tomorrow we shall finally go into Florence and walk around there. People are saying it's supposed to 98 degress. I sure hope they are joking.

So it begins...

I could probably write a novel about the time since I took off from Detroit to now, sitting in my bed at the Villa Corsi Salviati. But I won't bore you. Instead, here are some interesting observations I have made about my journey and the ways of the Europeans:
1. Air plane food really isn't that bad
2. It really is bread and cheese (or meat) for meals
3. European toliet paper is not kind to your behind
4. There are lizards in Italy
5. City people cannot tell the difference between hens and roosters
6. 2 Euros is a coin
7. German secruity is waaay more lax than American
8. I am the only one at the Villa staying for the entire year
9. I'm living in a Italian-type castle
10. Really? CAN you drink the water?
11. I have a Frankfurt stamp in my passport!
12. There were pumpkin seeds on my roll
Today I suffer from jet lag and time zone confusion...tomorrow is Orientation...and Friday, I'm going to Siena!

Going Away Party

Just had my Going Away party yesterday... Thanks for everyone for coming and all the well wishes.
I've decided to start documenting my last week here in the United States, starting with taking pictures of my Padre canning pears. He wasn't too happy. It's getting too close...I haven't even started packing...

25 days to go...

With 25 days to go, I figured I'd get this thing running...not that anyone with be checking it until I'm actually GONE. So I'll just write a little message to myself...Wow. It's getting close. Every so often I realize that I'm not going to be in this country for 8 months--that's always a fun scare. La di da di da.....