This morning marked the second time I got to go to my Italian cuisine course. As before, it was amazing. I was a little bit less thrilled about some of the dishes, but overall that class is easily my favorite. That’s a real hard sell though. We made a great and simple appetizer of toast, garlic, tomato, and oil called bruschetta with a twist. Then we made this weird bacon sauce for these big pasta noodles. Kind of strange, but it had a good flavor. The next part was the real kicker; I learned how to cook clams and mussels. Yeah, it was a little bit scary. I did try them both though, and I think I like mussels more. We ate them over pasta, which was okay, but I think the selfish may have been better on their own. Our secondo piatta was a fish dish with about a thousand other ingredients. It was really a strange mix of ingredients too. We used olives, raisins, pine nuts and a bunch of other random things and then some whitefish. It wasn’t horrible, but I don’t think I’d be able to recreate it even if I wanted to.
After class I got motivated to do some cooking and decided it was about time that I try to make gnocchi since I liked it so much from last class. I bought the ingredients and got excited about my adventure. I followed the recipe and failed miserably to make the right little shapes, but that shouldn’t have effected too much. I’m not quite sure where the whole thing went wrong, but I suppose it’s too late to worry about that now. Maybe I used the wrong potatoes or something because it just wasn’t working so well. I pitched the whole thing and decided I’d just make regular pasta with the same sauce that I was going to use on the gnocchi. Yeah, that didn’t work either. So in short, I failed at making pasta twice tonight. Quite the accomplishment if I do say so myself.
Other than that, I did some homework and I’m looking forward to finishing another Nicholas Sparks book tonight. Maybe I do have too much time on my hands. I think I need a job.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
27-Feb-2006
Picture Link, for my mom who is technologically challenged.
Today was horrible. Mostly it was bad because my school started back up and partially because Mondays are going to be my worse days from here on out. My class schedule is very different from how I try to schedule my classes at home. Here since we only have a few classes offered at all, the times are all pre determined and that made it so that I have afternoon/evening classes instead of morning classes. I’ve never had anything but morning/afternoon classes and my brain is prescheduled to shut off at noon. So, how this is going to work, I am not quite sure. Today I had three classes; Italian culture, Italian conversation and Italian language II. It’s a lot of Italian, to say the least and if I’m not fluent by the time I get back, I think I’ll cry.
Other than that, the day was pretty fun. I celebrated Kim and Andrea’s birthdays with them a few weeks to late, but celebrated nonetheless. We hit up the local appertivo with a few other friends and hung out til the rest of the crew decided to venture to another bar to celebrate another birthday! Oh the birthdays in Italy. Good times.
On a random note, I think I’m going to see if it would be possible for me to earn an Italian language certificate while I’m here. However, I don’t know if Michigan Tech will like the sound of that, so after I inquire, I’ll bring forth an update. Yes, I’m tired. And now, I’m going to bed…
Today was horrible. Mostly it was bad because my school started back up and partially because Mondays are going to be my worse days from here on out. My class schedule is very different from how I try to schedule my classes at home. Here since we only have a few classes offered at all, the times are all pre determined and that made it so that I have afternoon/evening classes instead of morning classes. I’ve never had anything but morning/afternoon classes and my brain is prescheduled to shut off at noon. So, how this is going to work, I am not quite sure. Today I had three classes; Italian culture, Italian conversation and Italian language II. It’s a lot of Italian, to say the least and if I’m not fluent by the time I get back, I think I’ll cry.
Other than that, the day was pretty fun. I celebrated Kim and Andrea’s birthdays with them a few weeks to late, but celebrated nonetheless. We hit up the local appertivo with a few other friends and hung out til the rest of the crew decided to venture to another bar to celebrate another birthday! Oh the birthdays in Italy. Good times.
On a random note, I think I’m going to see if it would be possible for me to earn an Italian language certificate while I’m here. However, I don’t know if Michigan Tech will like the sound of that, so after I inquire, I’ll bring forth an update. Yes, I’m tired. And now, I’m going to bed…
Sunday, February 26, 2006
26-Feb-2006
The update and also the article:
The Orange Battle of Ivrea
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would think that the event that I am about to describe might have come right out of a book written by Dr. Suess. However, I can surely say that it took place and is going to continue until Tuesday.
In a little town outside of Torino during the 12th century, a Count presided over the village of Ivrea. This Count was a nasty one of sorts and proclaimed that he was welcome to any maiden that was about to be married. This went on until one feisty miller’s daughter decided that it had gone on long enough and sparked a revolt against the tyrant by the impoverished townspeople. The whole town rebelled by throwing stones at all of the tyrant’s troops. This desperate uprising went down into the town’s history and eventually became cause for local gangs to stage an annual riot for carnival..
By the time Napoleon came to rule the land, in the 19th century, he ordered everyone to wear red bonnets and brought the fatal uprising down a notch by requiring the use or oranges instead of stones. Some 400,000 kg (roughly 800,000lbs) of oranges are transported to Ivrea from Sicily for this very event.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to witness this mayhem and I must admit, I think it was better than many carnivals that I’ve been to in the USA. There was a parade in which this year’s maiden was presented with bands and horses galore but the parade was by no means the main event. All through the town I saw wagons full of people dressed in bright colors and as it turned out, neighborhood emblems being led by two or four horses that were also elaborately costumed. I couldn’t even count the amount of horse drawn wagons that I saw.
There are four main squares and the approximately 30 roaming carts each with ten “soldiers.” The soldiered wagons then travel to different squares and that’s where it really gets ugly. All of the people in the square, most natives but some are spectators, pound the people in the wagon with as many oranges as they can between the time they enter the square and the time they exit. The people in the wagon get to defend themselves by throwing back the oranges. These aren’t just nice little tosses either; these are second base to catcher throws in the NBL. Luckily, the people in the wagon wear helmets and what looked like football pads, but the people in the square are wearing nothing but their decorative clothes.
Sometimes as a wagon would leave the square, a few people would trail behind them into the “pedestrian zone.” This would lead to a pummeling, usually the person in the wagon was victorious because the person on the ground couldn’t really shield himself or herself as he or she threw oranges. Then after the battlers decided that it was enough, the person on the wagon would take off his helmet and they would shake hands and laugh about how they just whipped oranges hard enough to do bodily harm and exchange a few words of praise about the battle.
As a spectator, the rule goes that if you do not want to get hit, you have to wear something red on your head. As my teacher warned us, this is more of a guideline than a rule. Wouldn’t you know that I left all of my red headgear in America and thus purchased what I can best describe as a sleeping cap to ensure my safe travels through the squares. The town sets up huge nets for people to go behind if you really do not want to get hit. Since I decided those nets were for sissies, I usually ventured into the square and even caught a few wayward oranges. Nothing as serious as the man I saw being led out by paramedics who was definitely bleeding from the nose/mouth area; but the oranges hurt nonetheless.
All in all, I must say that this carnival is one I will remember for a very long time. I couldn’t help but laugh as I gave up trying to avoid steping on the mash of orange and horse manure at my feet. I wouldn’t at all be opposed to visiting another year and watching the games again. Maybe the Olympics should pick up on this time-honored tradition and add it to the schedule for the closing ceremony…
The Orange Battle of Ivrea
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would think that the event that I am about to describe might have come right out of a book written by Dr. Suess. However, I can surely say that it took place and is going to continue until Tuesday.
In a little town outside of Torino during the 12th century, a Count presided over the village of Ivrea. This Count was a nasty one of sorts and proclaimed that he was welcome to any maiden that was about to be married. This went on until one feisty miller’s daughter decided that it had gone on long enough and sparked a revolt against the tyrant by the impoverished townspeople. The whole town rebelled by throwing stones at all of the tyrant’s troops. This desperate uprising went down into the town’s history and eventually became cause for local gangs to stage an annual riot for carnival..
By the time Napoleon came to rule the land, in the 19th century, he ordered everyone to wear red bonnets and brought the fatal uprising down a notch by requiring the use or oranges instead of stones. Some 400,000 kg (roughly 800,000lbs) of oranges are transported to Ivrea from Sicily for this very event.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to witness this mayhem and I must admit, I think it was better than many carnivals that I’ve been to in the USA. There was a parade in which this year’s maiden was presented with bands and horses galore but the parade was by no means the main event. All through the town I saw wagons full of people dressed in bright colors and as it turned out, neighborhood emblems being led by two or four horses that were also elaborately costumed. I couldn’t even count the amount of horse drawn wagons that I saw.
There are four main squares and the approximately 30 roaming carts each with ten “soldiers.” The soldiered wagons then travel to different squares and that’s where it really gets ugly. All of the people in the square, most natives but some are spectators, pound the people in the wagon with as many oranges as they can between the time they enter the square and the time they exit. The people in the wagon get to defend themselves by throwing back the oranges. These aren’t just nice little tosses either; these are second base to catcher throws in the NBL. Luckily, the people in the wagon wear helmets and what looked like football pads, but the people in the square are wearing nothing but their decorative clothes.
Sometimes as a wagon would leave the square, a few people would trail behind them into the “pedestrian zone.” This would lead to a pummeling, usually the person in the wagon was victorious because the person on the ground couldn’t really shield himself or herself as he or she threw oranges. Then after the battlers decided that it was enough, the person on the wagon would take off his helmet and they would shake hands and laugh about how they just whipped oranges hard enough to do bodily harm and exchange a few words of praise about the battle.
As a spectator, the rule goes that if you do not want to get hit, you have to wear something red on your head. As my teacher warned us, this is more of a guideline than a rule. Wouldn’t you know that I left all of my red headgear in America and thus purchased what I can best describe as a sleeping cap to ensure my safe travels through the squares. The town sets up huge nets for people to go behind if you really do not want to get hit. Since I decided those nets were for sissies, I usually ventured into the square and even caught a few wayward oranges. Nothing as serious as the man I saw being led out by paramedics who was definitely bleeding from the nose/mouth area; but the oranges hurt nonetheless.
All in all, I must say that this carnival is one I will remember for a very long time. I couldn’t help but laugh as I gave up trying to avoid steping on the mash of orange and horse manure at my feet. I wouldn’t at all be opposed to visiting another year and watching the games again. Maybe the Olympics should pick up on this time-honored tradition and add it to the schedule for the closing ceremony…
Saturday, February 25, 2006
25-Feb-2006
For being what I thought was to be a fairly uneventful day, a lot happened. This morning I headed to the market to start some observations for that project I’ve been thinking about starting and also to do some shopping. I bought a trout from the fish market and figured I would have some fun trying to remember how to clean fish. Well, the cardinal rule for cleaning fish is to have a sharp knife, which we don’t. To make a long story short, I felt so bad for the fish when I was done trying to filet it, that I almost didn’t want to eat it. But I did and it was pretty good. Jeff and I had a good laugh about it and then he told me he’d give me a refresher course for the next fish. You almost can’t go wrong when you buy stuff from the market. I’ve had some bad luck with some produce, but for the most part, if you look around a bit you can find the best quality stuff.
After the fish fry, two of the girls who live downstairs came up and asked if we had any desire to buy their short track speed skating tickets for tonight because they found something better to do. I didn’t really want to front the cash, but Jeff and Casey did so they bought the tickets. Unfortunately for Casey, but fortunately for me, she’s still feeling pretty sick. I ended up going with Jeff to the finals. It was pretty awesome. I must admit, it was better than the women’s speed skating that Al and I went to. We saw Apolo Ohno get the gold for USA and saw some really good races.
The past week a lot of towns in Italy have been preparing for Carnival, which, from what I gather, is like Mardi gras. A neighboring town, Ivrea, has an added twist to carnival, they have an orange throwing battle. It’s a tradition that started with throwing rocks!! A king long ago made the rule that he had the right to any maiden who was about to be married. One maiden got feisty and the town rebelled against this ritual and threw rocks at the king’s men. Apparently they had so much fun that they wanted to keep it up and eventually it changed from rocks to oranges. Smart move if I do say so myself. Anyways, I might try to go see that tomorrow if the weather isn’t too bad. We’ll see.
I suppose that’s it for now! Ciao ciao!
After the fish fry, two of the girls who live downstairs came up and asked if we had any desire to buy their short track speed skating tickets for tonight because they found something better to do. I didn’t really want to front the cash, but Jeff and Casey did so they bought the tickets. Unfortunately for Casey, but fortunately for me, she’s still feeling pretty sick. I ended up going with Jeff to the finals. It was pretty awesome. I must admit, it was better than the women’s speed skating that Al and I went to. We saw Apolo Ohno get the gold for USA and saw some really good races.
The past week a lot of towns in Italy have been preparing for Carnival, which, from what I gather, is like Mardi gras. A neighboring town, Ivrea, has an added twist to carnival, they have an orange throwing battle. It’s a tradition that started with throwing rocks!! A king long ago made the rule that he had the right to any maiden who was about to be married. One maiden got feisty and the town rebelled against this ritual and threw rocks at the king’s men. Apparently they had so much fun that they wanted to keep it up and eventually it changed from rocks to oranges. Smart move if I do say so myself. Anyways, I might try to go see that tomorrow if the weather isn’t too bad. We’ll see.
I suppose that’s it for now! Ciao ciao!
Friday, February 24, 2006
24-Feb-2006
Today in Torino I avoided the masses of people that are plaguing the city and washed the rest of my bedding… still mad about that… but I did make it out for a run on this rainy day and headed to school to upload pictures and check the email. Email in large quantities is rough, but I made it through alright.
After that Casey, Jeff and I busted out some spaghetti sauce from the states that adam was nice enough to dehydrate for me and had some pasta and fresh vegetables. I love vegetables in Italy. They are amazing. During dinner we watched the Olympics and witnessed Chad Hedrick earn his third medal in speed skating.
Other than that, it’s been a pretty non-exciting day. I’ve been contemplating the major project I have due the week after we get back to school but “contemplating” and “working on” our worlds apart. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I’m going to work on some longer overdue postcards and think about hittin the hay. Til next time, ciao!
After that Casey, Jeff and I busted out some spaghetti sauce from the states that adam was nice enough to dehydrate for me and had some pasta and fresh vegetables. I love vegetables in Italy. They are amazing. During dinner we watched the Olympics and witnessed Chad Hedrick earn his third medal in speed skating.
Other than that, it’s been a pretty non-exciting day. I’ve been contemplating the major project I have due the week after we get back to school but “contemplating” and “working on” our worlds apart. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I’m going to work on some longer overdue postcards and think about hittin the hay. Til next time, ciao!
super fast update!!
ok, i'm at school uploading all the pictures from our trip to Napoli (naples) so this isn't a real informative post, but just one to say that there will be new pictures soon and an update on everything else in the works. look for more on monday! ciao!
http://www.lynndro.com/gallery/
http://www.lynndro.com/gallery/
Thursday, February 23, 2006
23-Feb-2006
Yay for vacations! Well, this could be a very long entry since my recollections have been sparse till now. I will do my best to recap the past week…
Unfortunately, moments after I last wrote, Al received news that his grandpa had been hospitalized. Al decided that it would probably be a wise choice to head home in case something worse should happen. I haven’t heard from him since I’ve been back, but I’m going to assume that no news is good news.
So Casey, Jeff and I departed for Naples last Saturday at 10pm. We rode in a six-person car with two other American students who were studying in Rome. They were kind of grumpy, so we did the best we could. Everyone pretty much tried to sleep. The two guys got off in Rome (at 6am) and we had the car to ourselves until some stupid vender opened our car door, turned on our light and got us up from a semi enjoyable sleep to throw pastries and juice at us and then charge us six euros. Had I fully been able to process what was going on, we would have kicked him out of our car, but he was so pushy that we weren’t able to comprehend what was actually happening until it was too late. Just one time I’m going to figure these stupid shenanigans out and actually cut them off before I owe them money.
We arrived in Napoli (Naples) at 9:30am. It was a nice sunny day, which was a welcome change from the winter weather of Torino. We did discover that there is a dirtier city than Torino, and it is by a long shot that Napoli won. It was almost scary when we entered the square outside of the train station into a open market type atmosphere where peddlers were selling fake Gucci, prada, and dolce & gabbana. My handy dandy Italian day book guide (thanks Rose) helped us find a more interesting side of town that was much cleaner and a little bit more to see. The seaside was absolutely gorgeous and we saw a castle, the palace in the square, another castle that was practically in the ocean and the port where ferries and hydrofoil boats left for the islands of Capri and Ischia.
Since the most attractive part about Naples was that it was the birthplace of pizza, we decided that it might be in our best interest to head out of town and search for a nicer city to explore. We made it back to the train station and caught a different train to Sorrento. Sorrento is about an hour south of Naples and on the way we passed Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum and Pompeii. In Sorrento we hunted around for a cheap hotel and found one for 90 euro a night. After settling in, we toured the town that was surprisingly small but still had enough to keep us entertained. There were a surprising amount of English speaking tourists. I can’t imagine how it would be during the high tourist season.
Back at the hotel we decided that seeing Mount Vesuvius and the ruins would be a great event for the next day. However, the weather person didn’t seem to agree because when we woke up it was gray skies and a wee bit chilly. Still determined to be tourists, we took off for Herculaneum, which has ruins like Pompeii but also has shuttles to the top of Mount Vesuvius. Upon getting there we made the bad decision of deciding to see Mount Vesuvius first. We paid ten euro to get to the top of the mountain, another 6.50 to enter the park area and hiked toward the top of the crater. On the way we met the real rain, some hail, and more grumpy weather. Once we made it, the tour guides at the top told us there was nothing to see today. A girl we were with really wanted to see the crater so we went up to the edge where you can typically see the entire thing and were disappointed when the fog and rain left lots for us to imagine and little for us to actually see.
After that disappointing adventure and with the rain clouds still hanging around, we decided it would be best to head back to our hotel for some dry clothes and a nap. Of course during the nap it got sunny out so we headed back out to explore some more and grab some dinner. We meandered our way through the town and found a seafood restaurant that looked like it would be a good choice. We’d been trying to find a decent seafood restaurant since we’d arrived because all the information about the area just raved about the seafood so we figured we would have to give it a shot. Casey and I ordered salmon and Jeff ordered prawns. We would have liked to be a bit more adventurous with our choices, but our budgets did not quite fit the high prices of this establishment. Jeff did manage to get a surprise when his prawns came fully shelled and with eyes. It was quite exciting to see him contemplate how exactly he was supposed to deal with this meal. He did a good job and we took pictures so we’d remember. He worked to persuade us to give him some money to eat the eyes, but that just wasn’t something we really wanted to see.
Since our first attempt at visiting Pompeii, the partially reconstructed city that Mount Vesuvius covered in rubble and ash in 79 AD, didn’t work out so well, we decided another go was in order. The weather was much better on Tuesday and we met an older couple that was off to do the same thing. Unbeknownst to them, we called them Mom and Dad since they reminded us of nice parents and we planned to split the cost of a guide with them at Pompeii. The guide people turned out to be kind of scary so we decided to go with audio guides instead. They were interesting contraptions that worked like a phone. You received a map and once you got to a certain location, you dialed the corresponding number from the map and listened to the history that went with it. It turned out to be highly educational and a good way to learn about history. I highly recommend it if a tour book just won’t do the trick.
We toured Pompeii for about three hours, saw all the important things that we came to see and even ran into some friends in our program from Torino. They mentioned that they were headed to the island of Capri later on in the day and we decided to do the same.
When we finished up, we bid farewell to Mom and Dad and we headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff before trying to catch a ferry or hydrofoil from Sorrento to Capri. Wouldn’t you know that the moment we had our big bags, the rain started again. We made it down to the port in Sorrento and bought tickets for Capri. We were slightly concerned about heading to and island without a hotel reservation. Especially an island that all but closed down in the off season but we had a few hours before the last ferry headed back so we figured we’d be alright.
Once on the island we made a failed attempt at finding a hotel close to the water and then discovered that we’d have better luck in the center of town, high atop a hill. As luck would have it, we did find a decently priced place and went to find some dinner. Capri is a known vacation destination for big name movie stars like Nicholas Cage, Uma Thurman, Mariah Carey, Keanu Reeves J, and more. All of the restaurants proudly displayed pictures of the owners and the movie stars that had visited. Once we got to the restaurant that had hosted Keeanu Reeves, we knew we’d found our dining establishment. Well, after we ate probably the best meal of our entire trip, we got the bill and realized why it was the best meal of our entire trip. That aside, it was a really good restaurant experience.
The next day we pretty much just started walking with a few sights that we wanted to see in mind. Capri is famous for a tourist trap called the Azzuri Grotto (Blue Grotto) that requires a boat trip into a cave on the island. The light refracted in the cave makes the whole thing turn blue. Since we were visiting in the off-season, the tours weren’t running. Capri was absolutely gorgeous. It was easy to see why the movie stars make it their hang out. We were kind of bummed that everything was closed but it was still worth the trip. We’ll make it back next year. ;) We headed to the East side of the island to witness the Natural Arch which is very similar to the one on Mackinac Island BUT the island of Capri is also the world’s only home to a small blue lizard. The lizards weren’t quite blue yet because of the temperature but there were lizards everywhere. So Jeff and I made it our mission to catch a stupid lizard. I found a big rock where there seemed to be quite a few and made that my home base for awhile. After an exhausting and unsuccessful game of cat and mouse, I decided to head back to where Jeff and Casey were. When I spoke of the lizard rock, Jeff was intrigued, since his mission had been unsuccessful as well. We probably tried to catch lizards for about an hour before Jeff got a hold of a tiny one. I was scrambling for the camera when the thing bit him and he let it go. So we had to catch another one, which he did and I did get pictures of it – viewable in the blog. Sadly the stupid lizards wouldn’t let me catch them, but that’s probably for the better cause I totally would have tried to make one my pet.
At this time we decided it might be in our best interest to make our way back towards Napoli. Our train left at 9:30am the next day and we didn’t want to have to try and find a hotel in Napoli at night. So we left and had little trouble finding a hotel close to the scary train station. Before we could get too comfortable we were off again to visit the Natural Archeological Museum in Napoli. We read that it contained a lot of artifacts removed from Pompeii and Herculaneum and even a gabinetto segreto (secret room) with Roman “art” also retrieved from the excavated cities. Jeff took pictures, we laughed.
We made the train in the early morning and arrived back in Torino at 7pm. Nine hours on the train made us a happy crew and way too tired for words. But overall, a very good time.
When we got back from the train station, we found our house full of people. I had forgotten, but it was Seth’s birthday and there were some people coming over to celebrate. Well, after the train ride, I was needless to say a bit grumpy. There were about thirty people in the apartment and I found out somewhere along the line that while I was touring the country, my bed was being lent out to drunks who couldn’t make it home. Oh yay for roommates. Needless to say, that night wasn’t a good time. There was definitely some crankiness and less than kind words exchanged with the drunken housemates whose names I will not mention (Brad and Seth). Probably not the best time to release the anger, but it was uncontainable. grrrarrr
Unfortunately, moments after I last wrote, Al received news that his grandpa had been hospitalized. Al decided that it would probably be a wise choice to head home in case something worse should happen. I haven’t heard from him since I’ve been back, but I’m going to assume that no news is good news.
So Casey, Jeff and I departed for Naples last Saturday at 10pm. We rode in a six-person car with two other American students who were studying in Rome. They were kind of grumpy, so we did the best we could. Everyone pretty much tried to sleep. The two guys got off in Rome (at 6am) and we had the car to ourselves until some stupid vender opened our car door, turned on our light and got us up from a semi enjoyable sleep to throw pastries and juice at us and then charge us six euros. Had I fully been able to process what was going on, we would have kicked him out of our car, but he was so pushy that we weren’t able to comprehend what was actually happening until it was too late. Just one time I’m going to figure these stupid shenanigans out and actually cut them off before I owe them money.
We arrived in Napoli (Naples) at 9:30am. It was a nice sunny day, which was a welcome change from the winter weather of Torino. We did discover that there is a dirtier city than Torino, and it is by a long shot that Napoli won. It was almost scary when we entered the square outside of the train station into a open market type atmosphere where peddlers were selling fake Gucci, prada, and dolce & gabbana. My handy dandy Italian day book guide (thanks Rose) helped us find a more interesting side of town that was much cleaner and a little bit more to see. The seaside was absolutely gorgeous and we saw a castle, the palace in the square, another castle that was practically in the ocean and the port where ferries and hydrofoil boats left for the islands of Capri and Ischia.
Since the most attractive part about Naples was that it was the birthplace of pizza, we decided that it might be in our best interest to head out of town and search for a nicer city to explore. We made it back to the train station and caught a different train to Sorrento. Sorrento is about an hour south of Naples and on the way we passed Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum and Pompeii. In Sorrento we hunted around for a cheap hotel and found one for 90 euro a night. After settling in, we toured the town that was surprisingly small but still had enough to keep us entertained. There were a surprising amount of English speaking tourists. I can’t imagine how it would be during the high tourist season.
Back at the hotel we decided that seeing Mount Vesuvius and the ruins would be a great event for the next day. However, the weather person didn’t seem to agree because when we woke up it was gray skies and a wee bit chilly. Still determined to be tourists, we took off for Herculaneum, which has ruins like Pompeii but also has shuttles to the top of Mount Vesuvius. Upon getting there we made the bad decision of deciding to see Mount Vesuvius first. We paid ten euro to get to the top of the mountain, another 6.50 to enter the park area and hiked toward the top of the crater. On the way we met the real rain, some hail, and more grumpy weather. Once we made it, the tour guides at the top told us there was nothing to see today. A girl we were with really wanted to see the crater so we went up to the edge where you can typically see the entire thing and were disappointed when the fog and rain left lots for us to imagine and little for us to actually see.
After that disappointing adventure and with the rain clouds still hanging around, we decided it would be best to head back to our hotel for some dry clothes and a nap. Of course during the nap it got sunny out so we headed back out to explore some more and grab some dinner. We meandered our way through the town and found a seafood restaurant that looked like it would be a good choice. We’d been trying to find a decent seafood restaurant since we’d arrived because all the information about the area just raved about the seafood so we figured we would have to give it a shot. Casey and I ordered salmon and Jeff ordered prawns. We would have liked to be a bit more adventurous with our choices, but our budgets did not quite fit the high prices of this establishment. Jeff did manage to get a surprise when his prawns came fully shelled and with eyes. It was quite exciting to see him contemplate how exactly he was supposed to deal with this meal. He did a good job and we took pictures so we’d remember. He worked to persuade us to give him some money to eat the eyes, but that just wasn’t something we really wanted to see.
Since our first attempt at visiting Pompeii, the partially reconstructed city that Mount Vesuvius covered in rubble and ash in 79 AD, didn’t work out so well, we decided another go was in order. The weather was much better on Tuesday and we met an older couple that was off to do the same thing. Unbeknownst to them, we called them Mom and Dad since they reminded us of nice parents and we planned to split the cost of a guide with them at Pompeii. The guide people turned out to be kind of scary so we decided to go with audio guides instead. They were interesting contraptions that worked like a phone. You received a map and once you got to a certain location, you dialed the corresponding number from the map and listened to the history that went with it. It turned out to be highly educational and a good way to learn about history. I highly recommend it if a tour book just won’t do the trick.
We toured Pompeii for about three hours, saw all the important things that we came to see and even ran into some friends in our program from Torino. They mentioned that they were headed to the island of Capri later on in the day and we decided to do the same.
When we finished up, we bid farewell to Mom and Dad and we headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff before trying to catch a ferry or hydrofoil from Sorrento to Capri. Wouldn’t you know that the moment we had our big bags, the rain started again. We made it down to the port in Sorrento and bought tickets for Capri. We were slightly concerned about heading to and island without a hotel reservation. Especially an island that all but closed down in the off season but we had a few hours before the last ferry headed back so we figured we’d be alright.
Once on the island we made a failed attempt at finding a hotel close to the water and then discovered that we’d have better luck in the center of town, high atop a hill. As luck would have it, we did find a decently priced place and went to find some dinner. Capri is a known vacation destination for big name movie stars like Nicholas Cage, Uma Thurman, Mariah Carey, Keanu Reeves J, and more. All of the restaurants proudly displayed pictures of the owners and the movie stars that had visited. Once we got to the restaurant that had hosted Keeanu Reeves, we knew we’d found our dining establishment. Well, after we ate probably the best meal of our entire trip, we got the bill and realized why it was the best meal of our entire trip. That aside, it was a really good restaurant experience.
The next day we pretty much just started walking with a few sights that we wanted to see in mind. Capri is famous for a tourist trap called the Azzuri Grotto (Blue Grotto) that requires a boat trip into a cave on the island. The light refracted in the cave makes the whole thing turn blue. Since we were visiting in the off-season, the tours weren’t running. Capri was absolutely gorgeous. It was easy to see why the movie stars make it their hang out. We were kind of bummed that everything was closed but it was still worth the trip. We’ll make it back next year. ;) We headed to the East side of the island to witness the Natural Arch which is very similar to the one on Mackinac Island BUT the island of Capri is also the world’s only home to a small blue lizard. The lizards weren’t quite blue yet because of the temperature but there were lizards everywhere. So Jeff and I made it our mission to catch a stupid lizard. I found a big rock where there seemed to be quite a few and made that my home base for awhile. After an exhausting and unsuccessful game of cat and mouse, I decided to head back to where Jeff and Casey were. When I spoke of the lizard rock, Jeff was intrigued, since his mission had been unsuccessful as well. We probably tried to catch lizards for about an hour before Jeff got a hold of a tiny one. I was scrambling for the camera when the thing bit him and he let it go. So we had to catch another one, which he did and I did get pictures of it – viewable in the blog. Sadly the stupid lizards wouldn’t let me catch them, but that’s probably for the better cause I totally would have tried to make one my pet.
At this time we decided it might be in our best interest to make our way back towards Napoli. Our train left at 9:30am the next day and we didn’t want to have to try and find a hotel in Napoli at night. So we left and had little trouble finding a hotel close to the scary train station. Before we could get too comfortable we were off again to visit the Natural Archeological Museum in Napoli. We read that it contained a lot of artifacts removed from Pompeii and Herculaneum and even a gabinetto segreto (secret room) with Roman “art” also retrieved from the excavated cities. Jeff took pictures, we laughed.
We made the train in the early morning and arrived back in Torino at 7pm. Nine hours on the train made us a happy crew and way too tired for words. But overall, a very good time.
When we got back from the train station, we found our house full of people. I had forgotten, but it was Seth’s birthday and there were some people coming over to celebrate. Well, after the train ride, I was needless to say a bit grumpy. There were about thirty people in the apartment and I found out somewhere along the line that while I was touring the country, my bed was being lent out to drunks who couldn’t make it home. Oh yay for roommates. Needless to say, that night wasn’t a good time. There was definitely some crankiness and less than kind words exchanged with the drunken housemates whose names I will not mention (Brad and Seth). Probably not the best time to release the anger, but it was uncontainable. grrrarrr
Saturday, February 18, 2006
18-Feb-2006
Holy intermission in my ramblings. I blame Al, we have been traveling and I haven’t wanted to lug my computer around Italy just so I could write in my journal. I’ll try to recall the events the best I can.
First off, if I tend to be writing with an Irish accent it’s because I just finished Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt on the train and I haven’t quite found my writing abilities yet.
Last Wednesday, I guess that was only four days ago, we went to men’s moguls! It was the greatest. I must admit I enjoyed it more than speed skating just because the whole atmosphere was different. They played music to pump up the athletes and got the crowd going a lot which was quite different from the speed skating arena where they kept telling us they needed silence during the start. I took a bunch of videos and as soon as I remember to ask adam for a place to put them online, I will send out the link so if you’re bored you can check em out.
Aside from that, Al and I went to Aosta to snowboard/ski at Pila yesterday. It was a pretty good time but the part we really wanted to ski wasn’t open because of all the snow they received the day before and the day we were there. Al thought it would be a good time to ski in an avalanche and luckily my senses and I talked him out of it. It was damp and cold for most of the day but the falling snow made up for it even if we did call it a day a wee bit earlier than we normally would.
Today we got back into Torino a little after the noon hour and we head out tonight at 10pm for Naples. We’ll spend the whole night on the train and arrive at 9am tomorrow morning. Might I add that these train tickets usually costing 60 euro one way will be a whopping 20 euro round trip because I’m awesome at bargains. Wahoo! This does mean a few more intermissions to my ramblings are in the near future, but do not fret because I will have stories galore when I get back. Might I add that Naples is said to be thief capital of Italy. Yay………….. lol.
First off, if I tend to be writing with an Irish accent it’s because I just finished Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt on the train and I haven’t quite found my writing abilities yet.
Last Wednesday, I guess that was only four days ago, we went to men’s moguls! It was the greatest. I must admit I enjoyed it more than speed skating just because the whole atmosphere was different. They played music to pump up the athletes and got the crowd going a lot which was quite different from the speed skating arena where they kept telling us they needed silence during the start. I took a bunch of videos and as soon as I remember to ask adam for a place to put them online, I will send out the link so if you’re bored you can check em out.
Aside from that, Al and I went to Aosta to snowboard/ski at Pila yesterday. It was a pretty good time but the part we really wanted to ski wasn’t open because of all the snow they received the day before and the day we were there. Al thought it would be a good time to ski in an avalanche and luckily my senses and I talked him out of it. It was damp and cold for most of the day but the falling snow made up for it even if we did call it a day a wee bit earlier than we normally would.
Today we got back into Torino a little after the noon hour and we head out tonight at 10pm for Naples. We’ll spend the whole night on the train and arrive at 9am tomorrow morning. Might I add that these train tickets usually costing 60 euro one way will be a whopping 20 euro round trip because I’m awesome at bargains. Wahoo! This does mean a few more intermissions to my ramblings are in the near future, but do not fret because I will have stories galore when I get back. Might I add that Naples is said to be thief capital of Italy. Yay………….. lol.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
14-Feb-2006
Happy Valentine’s Day!! I kicked off this morning with making breakfast in bed for Jefferino and I. It was amazing except I burnt a piece of toast.
The past couple of days have been fun and exciting. Yesterday we ran all over trying to figure out the game plan for the rest of Al’s stay and my Olympic vacation. We decided to head to Mont Blanc on the day after the men’s freestyle moguls event. It’s on the border of Italy, France and Switzerland. The pictures look amazing, I’m sure that we are going to have an awesome time. After we get back from that, the current game plan is to head to Naples on some cheap tickets that I found on the train website. Hopefully we’ll get to see Pompeii where Mont Vesuvius (sp?) erupted and buried the town in a ton of ash. Should be a good time.
Last night Al talked me into going to see another event. We made our way around the ticket outlets and found women’s speed skating at 4pm this afternoon. It was pretty amazing. I was surprised how empty the arena was but there were still some very dedicated fans. The Netherlands were well represented and their fans were about as nuts as the dedicated Tech hockey fans. Russia won the event today. It made me feel pretty darn cool sitting on my butt in the bleachers watching these fantastic athletes perform. I think I might need to go running.
On another good note, Canada house called and I stopped over to pick up the money they owed me from that night that Seth and I helped out. Yeah for 40 euro! Other than that, nothing too exciting has been going on. Moguls should be a really good time. We’re going to be leaving early so we can make the hour train ride and still have plenty of time to freeze our butts off waiting for it to start.
Well now, I’m about to go read until my eyes fall out. It sounds like the perfect ending to a fun filled day. Ciao!
The past couple of days have been fun and exciting. Yesterday we ran all over trying to figure out the game plan for the rest of Al’s stay and my Olympic vacation. We decided to head to Mont Blanc on the day after the men’s freestyle moguls event. It’s on the border of Italy, France and Switzerland. The pictures look amazing, I’m sure that we are going to have an awesome time. After we get back from that, the current game plan is to head to Naples on some cheap tickets that I found on the train website. Hopefully we’ll get to see Pompeii where Mont Vesuvius (sp?) erupted and buried the town in a ton of ash. Should be a good time.
Last night Al talked me into going to see another event. We made our way around the ticket outlets and found women’s speed skating at 4pm this afternoon. It was pretty amazing. I was surprised how empty the arena was but there were still some very dedicated fans. The Netherlands were well represented and their fans were about as nuts as the dedicated Tech hockey fans. Russia won the event today. It made me feel pretty darn cool sitting on my butt in the bleachers watching these fantastic athletes perform. I think I might need to go running.
On another good note, Canada house called and I stopped over to pick up the money they owed me from that night that Seth and I helped out. Yeah for 40 euro! Other than that, nothing too exciting has been going on. Moguls should be a really good time. We’re going to be leaving early so we can make the hour train ride and still have plenty of time to freeze our butts off waiting for it to start.
Well now, I’m about to go read until my eyes fall out. It sounds like the perfect ending to a fun filled day. Ciao!
Monday, February 13, 2006
wahoo, more pics!
you know the drill
one day i'm going to have the blog and pictures together so this won't be such an internet journey!
one day i'm going to have the blog and pictures together so this won't be such an internet journey!
Article for 13-02-2006
Olympic Transformation
In just the past two weeks this city has undergone some serious changes. My teacher explained it best when she spoke of Italians putting the word “procrastinate” in “procrastinator.” Four days before the Olympics began, when my class was inquiring about the amount of work still in progress; our teacher said, “Don’t worry there are still four days left!” We laughed a bit when we thought about the fact that Torino has had five years to prepare for this event and they are still hard at work in the last four days. On the way home from school I saw them cleaning, planting, building, and finishing final preparations. They were cutting it pretty close to the deadline but my teacher was right, everything that needed to get done was done.
The Olympics have been in full swing for three days now and the amount of people in this city has apparently quadrupled. That’s not an actual figure, but I feel like it has to be close. Torino has 1.7 million residents and the Olympics were said to bring in an additional 2 million people. Today as I was trying to make my way home, I was caught in a pack of people barely moving on one of the big streets in Torino. Two of my friends who had tickets to two different events yesterday left fairly early to get to the competition site but arrived so late that they completely missed one event and were late for the other. I know there are trains running every half hour from the station and charter buses to transport spectators to the site which seems like a lot, but when you’re dealing with this many people you can’t cover everything.
Another great part of the Olympics is that Torino is putting on its finest for the occasion. For instance, Torino is famous for a chocolate festival that is held for two weeks in March. Since the Olympics are here they have decided to have the chocolate festival twice and what can be better than that.
Also, if anyone caught a glimpse of The Today Show on Friday, the UP was well represented. Anna Myers and Mandy Leap and their “Say yah to da UP, eh?” poster made it on national, maybe even international television. I was hanging out in the background along with some other Tech students but Anna and Mandy got the interview! J So if you think about it, turn on The Today Show and maybe we’ll make another appearance.
As for recent events, we stood in line today for 2.5 hrs to see if we could get some free tickets to the medals ceremony this evening. And we totally did! There was some local Torino artists performing followed by the medals ceremony. We saw the medals given to the women’s freestyle mogul winners, the 5,000-meter speed skating events and the men’s halfpipe. Three Americans received medals and the whole experience was amazing. We were probably about 50 yards away from the stage. After the medals we watched Kelly Clarkson, the evening performer, before heading home for some food.
All in all, the Olympics have been amazing. I’ll be sure to keep everybody updated. Till then, watch for me on TV! J
In just the past two weeks this city has undergone some serious changes. My teacher explained it best when she spoke of Italians putting the word “procrastinate” in “procrastinator.” Four days before the Olympics began, when my class was inquiring about the amount of work still in progress; our teacher said, “Don’t worry there are still four days left!” We laughed a bit when we thought about the fact that Torino has had five years to prepare for this event and they are still hard at work in the last four days. On the way home from school I saw them cleaning, planting, building, and finishing final preparations. They were cutting it pretty close to the deadline but my teacher was right, everything that needed to get done was done.
The Olympics have been in full swing for three days now and the amount of people in this city has apparently quadrupled. That’s not an actual figure, but I feel like it has to be close. Torino has 1.7 million residents and the Olympics were said to bring in an additional 2 million people. Today as I was trying to make my way home, I was caught in a pack of people barely moving on one of the big streets in Torino. Two of my friends who had tickets to two different events yesterday left fairly early to get to the competition site but arrived so late that they completely missed one event and were late for the other. I know there are trains running every half hour from the station and charter buses to transport spectators to the site which seems like a lot, but when you’re dealing with this many people you can’t cover everything.
Another great part of the Olympics is that Torino is putting on its finest for the occasion. For instance, Torino is famous for a chocolate festival that is held for two weeks in March. Since the Olympics are here they have decided to have the chocolate festival twice and what can be better than that.
Also, if anyone caught a glimpse of The Today Show on Friday, the UP was well represented. Anna Myers and Mandy Leap and their “Say yah to da UP, eh?” poster made it on national, maybe even international television. I was hanging out in the background along with some other Tech students but Anna and Mandy got the interview! J So if you think about it, turn on The Today Show and maybe we’ll make another appearance.
As for recent events, we stood in line today for 2.5 hrs to see if we could get some free tickets to the medals ceremony this evening. And we totally did! There was some local Torino artists performing followed by the medals ceremony. We saw the medals given to the women’s freestyle mogul winners, the 5,000-meter speed skating events and the men’s halfpipe. Three Americans received medals and the whole experience was amazing. We were probably about 50 yards away from the stage. After the medals we watched Kelly Clarkson, the evening performer, before heading home for some food.
All in all, the Olympics have been amazing. I’ll be sure to keep everybody updated. Till then, watch for me on TV! J
Sunday, February 12, 2006
12-Feb-2006
Oh my pizza! Another fabulous day was had in Torino. We kicked off the morning by going to stand in line to see if we could get some free tickets! The place that we stood in line was right behind the Today Show set up and we happened to see Scott Hamilton being interviewed after he was on the show. I was lucky enough to get my picture taken with him. As I towered over him, I realized how truly tall I was and that I’d probably never be able to do a back flip with my additional 10 inches.
We were standing in line for 2.5 hrs and finally getting to the front of the line I saw that everyone was breaking out their identification. I then realized that I only had the copy of my passport on and now any real documents on me. I didn’t even have my school id. As we got up there, I asked the guy who was letting people in if it would work and he informed me that it wouldn’t. Instead of getting out of line, I just stood there with Al because we heard you could get two tickets per person. So, one of the Italian woman who had been in line with us the whole time started trying to talk to me and she told me that I should use the ID of one of the girls I had been talking to during the wait. These girls were studying in Florence and two of them were standing in line while the other two ran to the train station, but had recently returned. The guard who told me my photocopy wouldn’t work saw me grab the id from the girl and still said that I could go in. It was amazing and I totally loved that Italian woman who had the idea.
Then we had four tickets to the ceremony so we grabbed Jeff and Casey and made our way to the show. There was smaller entertainment so that when people arrived early they didn’t cause a ruckus so we just hung out and listened to the random bands. The place started to fill up and before we knew it we were watching the medals ceremony. I was SO excited when they announced that they would be handing out medals to the Men’s halfpipe! I almost cried. It was crazy to think that just hours before I had seen their runs on TV and now I was standing less than 50 yards away from them. Later I found out that my roommate, Jeff from Reno, had scored reduced price A seat tickets to the competition. He was slightly more fortunate, but only because they were three feet away from the lip of the pipe. Yes, jealousy doesn’t even begin to describe my thoughts on that. But seeing the medals given out was definitely a good time.
Kelly Clarkson then did some performing, which was cool. She was wearing some of the US Olympic garb that we handed out during Team Processing. It was slightly amusing because she didn’t speak a word of Italian and the Italian movie star that introduced her didn’t speak a word of English. Language barriers are amazing.
Well, I’m off to lala land, my legs have been too numb to move on two occasions today and I think they could use a nice sleep time. Ciao!
We were standing in line for 2.5 hrs and finally getting to the front of the line I saw that everyone was breaking out their identification. I then realized that I only had the copy of my passport on and now any real documents on me. I didn’t even have my school id. As we got up there, I asked the guy who was letting people in if it would work and he informed me that it wouldn’t. Instead of getting out of line, I just stood there with Al because we heard you could get two tickets per person. So, one of the Italian woman who had been in line with us the whole time started trying to talk to me and she told me that I should use the ID of one of the girls I had been talking to during the wait. These girls were studying in Florence and two of them were standing in line while the other two ran to the train station, but had recently returned. The guard who told me my photocopy wouldn’t work saw me grab the id from the girl and still said that I could go in. It was amazing and I totally loved that Italian woman who had the idea.
Then we had four tickets to the ceremony so we grabbed Jeff and Casey and made our way to the show. There was smaller entertainment so that when people arrived early they didn’t cause a ruckus so we just hung out and listened to the random bands. The place started to fill up and before we knew it we were watching the medals ceremony. I was SO excited when they announced that they would be handing out medals to the Men’s halfpipe! I almost cried. It was crazy to think that just hours before I had seen their runs on TV and now I was standing less than 50 yards away from them. Later I found out that my roommate, Jeff from Reno, had scored reduced price A seat tickets to the competition. He was slightly more fortunate, but only because they were three feet away from the lip of the pipe. Yes, jealousy doesn’t even begin to describe my thoughts on that. But seeing the medals given out was definitely a good time.
Kelly Clarkson then did some performing, which was cool. She was wearing some of the US Olympic garb that we handed out during Team Processing. It was slightly amusing because she didn’t speak a word of Italian and the Italian movie star that introduced her didn’t speak a word of English. Language barriers are amazing.
Well, I’m off to lala land, my legs have been too numb to move on two occasions today and I think they could use a nice sleep time. Ciao!
Saturday, February 11, 2006
11-Feb-2006
Holy wow the Olympics are here. Yesterday I did the last part of my volunteering. It wasn’t anything overly exciting, we got to start packing up the whole team processing center. There were a lot of people so I got to leave early and I made it home just in time to try and get on the Today Show which is going to be in Torino everyday for the next two weeks. My friends from the UP, Anna and Mandy, made a sign that said, “Say ya to da UP eh!?” and they definitely made it on TV. Not only once, but twice! It was pretty exciting to see the stage set up for the show and hear everything in English.
Right as that was getting done, everyone lined up for the torch! So I got to see that too! Didn’t get as many good pictures as I would have liked, but definitely got to see it and have proof. There were tons of people milling around and trying to get as close as possible, so it was a pretty tight packed operation.
While all this was going on I found out that they needed someone to help out at the Canada house for the party that evening. My friends had all done it and gotten about 80 euro each time so I was more than willing to get a piece of the pie. Seth and I both decided to do it and made our plans to head over around 7pm. The party they were throwing was for the opening ceremony and they had humungous big screen TVs set up so in addition to working, we got to see the ceremony in English! I am quite amazed by this English translation since we’ve only seen things in Italian up until now.
We worked all night, and I had blisters on my feet because I borrowed some shoes L but it was a good time. When the end of the night came, the people we were working with hooked us up with some tickets to come back but didn’t make any movement toward getting us money. I asked them when we would get paid and they acted surprised! Like they had never even heard of that notion. So I’m not thinking this is a super shady deal and I’m getting less and less happy by the second. But they gave us a phone number of a lady to call and they were supposed to tell her what was going on. Fast forward, I called the number and it doesn’t work. So, I’m going to talk to my friends who have been working closely with them and get to the bottom of this.
On the up and up, Al arrives today! I have to pick him up from the airport at 2:15pm. How exactly this whole process is going to work, I have yet to figure out, but I think I have a pretty good idea. I think he’s pretty nervous about getting here and having people speak in another language. So I’m really going to torment him and take him to the market where he’ll have no idea what is going on. Yay for me! J Nah, we’ll have a good time and I hope we figure out some sort of travel plans so I don’t feel like the loser who didn’t travel. That would be no good. So I’m off to think about going for a run, notice I said think J
Non fare cosi! (You don’t have to worry, also another favorite slogan)
Right as that was getting done, everyone lined up for the torch! So I got to see that too! Didn’t get as many good pictures as I would have liked, but definitely got to see it and have proof. There were tons of people milling around and trying to get as close as possible, so it was a pretty tight packed operation.
While all this was going on I found out that they needed someone to help out at the Canada house for the party that evening. My friends had all done it and gotten about 80 euro each time so I was more than willing to get a piece of the pie. Seth and I both decided to do it and made our plans to head over around 7pm. The party they were throwing was for the opening ceremony and they had humungous big screen TVs set up so in addition to working, we got to see the ceremony in English! I am quite amazed by this English translation since we’ve only seen things in Italian up until now.
We worked all night, and I had blisters on my feet because I borrowed some shoes L but it was a good time. When the end of the night came, the people we were working with hooked us up with some tickets to come back but didn’t make any movement toward getting us money. I asked them when we would get paid and they acted surprised! Like they had never even heard of that notion. So I’m not thinking this is a super shady deal and I’m getting less and less happy by the second. But they gave us a phone number of a lady to call and they were supposed to tell her what was going on. Fast forward, I called the number and it doesn’t work. So, I’m going to talk to my friends who have been working closely with them and get to the bottom of this.
On the up and up, Al arrives today! I have to pick him up from the airport at 2:15pm. How exactly this whole process is going to work, I have yet to figure out, but I think I have a pretty good idea. I think he’s pretty nervous about getting here and having people speak in another language. So I’m really going to torment him and take him to the market where he’ll have no idea what is going on. Yay for me! J Nah, we’ll have a good time and I hope we figure out some sort of travel plans so I don’t feel like the loser who didn’t travel. That would be no good. So I’m off to think about going for a run, notice I said think J
Non fare cosi! (You don’t have to worry, also another favorite slogan)
Thursday, February 09, 2006
09-Feb-2006
Well, today was a pretty exciting day. I finished Italian I and now I have Italian II to look forward to after the Olympics. I feel the test went pretty well and have little concern about passing the class.
As for the rest of the day, we tried endlessly to see the torch. My mom so politely informed me that she had already seen it while I was chasing it around Torino. The problem is that our school put up a list of all the streets that it would be on, but apparently it doesn’t go down a street, it may only cross it or just be on a small segment. Trying to figure out which segment or where the path to cross is can be an adventure in itself. Unfortunately, this adventure has yet to be completed. Hopefully we’ll have another shot tomorrow.
Torino is really undergoing some transformations. As far as projects not being completed; our Italian Culture teacher told us at the beginning of the week “not to worry, they still have three days.” So that’s what my new slogan is. I didn’t really take this too seriously, but the Italians have been doing a lot to complete their projects. I’ve seen them roll out grass, put up banners to hide undesirables and wash a lot of graffiti off the walls. I’m impressed.
The amount of people in Torino continues to rise. The buses can’t even go on their normal routes because of the additional people, and probably the torch. Most noticeably, there are helicopters everywhere. If I think it’s kind of scary and I’ve only been here a month, I wonder what the Italians are thinking…
On that note, I’m off to slumberland. Tomorrow, I volunteer, if I can get up early enough.
Ci a domain! (see you tomorrow – figuratively)
As for the rest of the day, we tried endlessly to see the torch. My mom so politely informed me that she had already seen it while I was chasing it around Torino. The problem is that our school put up a list of all the streets that it would be on, but apparently it doesn’t go down a street, it may only cross it or just be on a small segment. Trying to figure out which segment or where the path to cross is can be an adventure in itself. Unfortunately, this adventure has yet to be completed. Hopefully we’ll have another shot tomorrow.
Torino is really undergoing some transformations. As far as projects not being completed; our Italian Culture teacher told us at the beginning of the week “not to worry, they still have three days.” So that’s what my new slogan is. I didn’t really take this too seriously, but the Italians have been doing a lot to complete their projects. I’ve seen them roll out grass, put up banners to hide undesirables and wash a lot of graffiti off the walls. I’m impressed.
The amount of people in Torino continues to rise. The buses can’t even go on their normal routes because of the additional people, and probably the torch. Most noticeably, there are helicopters everywhere. If I think it’s kind of scary and I’ve only been here a month, I wonder what the Italians are thinking…
On that note, I’m off to slumberland. Tomorrow, I volunteer, if I can get up early enough.
Ci a domain! (see you tomorrow – figuratively)
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
07-Feb-2006
Yay, I’m not destined for chickenpox or being quarantined. However, I believe the doctor was as puzzled as I was about the illness. He said it looked like a child’s disease and that it just needs to run its course. He asked me about any contact with animals or children and asked if I had ever had allergies, all of these I answered no to. He still prescribed Claritin for me. I’m not so sure if I like that. Isn’t Claritin the one with the goofy side effects? Well, I guess we’ll be figuring that one out shortly. Among that I have some talc powder, which Casey informed me was ruled outdated in medicinal history and a pill that I take half of after every meal. Now I have a real sense of what my dog is going through. I wonder if this is some weird coincidence.
Today I did the class thing; we have our last day of class and our final exam on Thursday. I’ve been trying to study tonight, but instead I took a bath and finished my book. It was horrible, the dog died. There is no worse ending to a story than a dog dying.
I realized today that when we have our break for the Olympics that I will have a hard time accessing the internet. I’ll more than likely have to pay for my time and it will more than likely create some sort of inconvenience. Plus, if Al and I are traveling, I might not bring my laptop with me, just because it’s so heavy. That could put my journaling in a world of hurt. Ok, maybe not a world’s worth, but a little but regardless. I should probably work on writing another article for the student abroad thing. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with it when Monday got here. Plus, I still haven’t really sketched out a plan for the journey that Al and I are going to take. I’m trying to work it out so that we can do some riding and then do some traveling, but I don’t want to haul all the snow stuff around, so we’ll have to make a trip back to Torino just to ditch some stuff.
Today I did the class thing; we have our last day of class and our final exam on Thursday. I’ve been trying to study tonight, but instead I took a bath and finished my book. It was horrible, the dog died. There is no worse ending to a story than a dog dying.
I realized today that when we have our break for the Olympics that I will have a hard time accessing the internet. I’ll more than likely have to pay for my time and it will more than likely create some sort of inconvenience. Plus, if Al and I are traveling, I might not bring my laptop with me, just because it’s so heavy. That could put my journaling in a world of hurt. Ok, maybe not a world’s worth, but a little but regardless. I should probably work on writing another article for the student abroad thing. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with it when Monday got here. Plus, I still haven’t really sketched out a plan for the journey that Al and I are going to take. I’m trying to work it out so that we can do some riding and then do some traveling, but I don’t want to haul all the snow stuff around, so we’ll have to make a trip back to Torino just to ditch some stuff.
Monday, February 06, 2006
06-Feb-2006
Wouldn’t ya know I’m going to die in Italy because of chickenpox and not by being hit by a Fiat? Okay, maybe my death isn’t that impending, but these things on my arms have taken on lives of their own and it’s time to take some action. I went to the pharmacy to nurse my sickness, but the pills they gave me don’t seem to be working and in fact, my disease appears to be spreading. Tonight someone pointed out that it looked like chickenpox when low and behold, I remembered that I haven’t really had chickenpox. However I was vaccinated for it. So maybe that’s what I’ve got. Regardless, I get to miss some of class tomorrow to go to the doctor’s. In the meantime, I’m trying SO hard not to scratch my arms, legs, or stomach that it is ridiculous. I’m doing my homework and reading a book so I don’t even have time to think about it. Oy vey.
Well, back to the great art of distracting myself. Ciao!
Well, back to the great art of distracting myself. Ciao!
article
http://www.mtu.edu/current/student_abroad/
better read this article fast, the next one is about to get posted! sorry guys!
better read this article fast, the next one is about to get posted! sorry guys!
Sunday, February 05, 2006
05-Feb-2006
**this post pretty much is this week's story in "A Student Abroad"
Holy amazing day! I did a solo journey to Milano. I figured it would be a good way to spread my wings and test my abilities to make a journey on my own. I was a little nervous this morning when I stepped outside and it looked totally overcast and was way colder than the day before. But I got on the train before I could ponder it for too long and found myself in Milano in just two hours time.
Luckily, I received a sweet Italian daytrip book from Adam’s mom, Rose, for Christmas and I let it be my guide for the duration of my trip. I got off the subway right in front of Duomo di Milano, which is the third largest church in the world and the most amazing elaborate display of craftsmanship that I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, the pigeon peddlers in the square also saw my amazement and found it a prime opportunity to take advantage of my tourist-like ways. Before I really understood what was happening I had birdseed in my hands and this random guy is using my camera to take pictures of me with the pigeons. Oh yes, it’s all fun and games until the happy face goes away and one realizes that people expect money for their pigeon powers. Those were the most expensive three pictures I’ve ever had taken with my own camera. And if once wasn’t enough, I was also suckered into a bracelet pittance. I pretty much paid a euro for a piece of string. Not that I’m bitter or anything. I really got to hand it to those guys though; they know how to spot a sucker.
As for the sites, I did actually make it inside the Duomo, which can house up to 40,000 people and walked around for a while. I was more impressed with the outside though and made the venture up to the roof to see some of the elaborate work on the top. The pinnacle at the top is a golden statue of Jesus, quite amazing if I do say so myself. I also met these Italians who were from Rome and raved about it until I thought they would turn blue. Apparently it’s the greatest city in Italy, I’ll have to make that judgment for myself though.
Continuing on my journey, I ran into an astrologist who wanted to read my palm for $30. Luckily I did not let myself fall victim to this ploy. Upon hearing that I did not believe in astrology, he decided that I could save my $30 for lunch, what a nice guy, huh?
Before having my personal space bubble popped by someone else who wanted to sell me something, I went to Castle Sforzesco where the ruler of Milano called home. It was quite an elaborate display, but not quite as cool as the Duomo.
I tried to see Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper, but reservations are required and no one had cancelled their spot. I do think I want to make it back to see the painting, I hear it’s quite the experience. Next time I will have to plan it a little bit better.
As for my last site seeing venture, I toured the Basilica of Sant’ Ambrogio, which is a very ornate church that is tucked away and almost blends in with the rest of the city. Founded as early as AD 379, this church was much smaller than the Duomo but held some fascinating relics. It holds the crypt in which Saint Ambrose along with two other saints are buried.
I ended my tour in a fine pizzeria that wasn’t overly expensive, but definitely had Milano style. Even though Milano is the fashion capital of the world, I was only given several horrified looks when people saw me coming down the street in an orange hoodie. I think I had tourist written all over me. As for my adventure, it was amazing, I can’t believe all the things that I did or happened in only a few short hours. I suppose that ends my story for this week! Tune in next time for some serious Olympic revelations.
Holy amazing day! I did a solo journey to Milano. I figured it would be a good way to spread my wings and test my abilities to make a journey on my own. I was a little nervous this morning when I stepped outside and it looked totally overcast and was way colder than the day before. But I got on the train before I could ponder it for too long and found myself in Milano in just two hours time.
Luckily, I received a sweet Italian daytrip book from Adam’s mom, Rose, for Christmas and I let it be my guide for the duration of my trip. I got off the subway right in front of Duomo di Milano, which is the third largest church in the world and the most amazing elaborate display of craftsmanship that I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, the pigeon peddlers in the square also saw my amazement and found it a prime opportunity to take advantage of my tourist-like ways. Before I really understood what was happening I had birdseed in my hands and this random guy is using my camera to take pictures of me with the pigeons. Oh yes, it’s all fun and games until the happy face goes away and one realizes that people expect money for their pigeon powers. Those were the most expensive three pictures I’ve ever had taken with my own camera. And if once wasn’t enough, I was also suckered into a bracelet pittance. I pretty much paid a euro for a piece of string. Not that I’m bitter or anything. I really got to hand it to those guys though; they know how to spot a sucker.
As for the sites, I did actually make it inside the Duomo, which can house up to 40,000 people and walked around for a while. I was more impressed with the outside though and made the venture up to the roof to see some of the elaborate work on the top. The pinnacle at the top is a golden statue of Jesus, quite amazing if I do say so myself. I also met these Italians who were from Rome and raved about it until I thought they would turn blue. Apparently it’s the greatest city in Italy, I’ll have to make that judgment for myself though.
Continuing on my journey, I ran into an astrologist who wanted to read my palm for $30. Luckily I did not let myself fall victim to this ploy. Upon hearing that I did not believe in astrology, he decided that I could save my $30 for lunch, what a nice guy, huh?
Before having my personal space bubble popped by someone else who wanted to sell me something, I went to Castle Sforzesco where the ruler of Milano called home. It was quite an elaborate display, but not quite as cool as the Duomo.
I tried to see Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper, but reservations are required and no one had cancelled their spot. I do think I want to make it back to see the painting, I hear it’s quite the experience. Next time I will have to plan it a little bit better.
As for my last site seeing venture, I toured the Basilica of Sant’ Ambrogio, which is a very ornate church that is tucked away and almost blends in with the rest of the city. Founded as early as AD 379, this church was much smaller than the Duomo but held some fascinating relics. It holds the crypt in which Saint Ambrose along with two other saints are buried.
I ended my tour in a fine pizzeria that wasn’t overly expensive, but definitely had Milano style. Even though Milano is the fashion capital of the world, I was only given several horrified looks when people saw me coming down the street in an orange hoodie. I think I had tourist written all over me. As for my adventure, it was amazing, I can’t believe all the things that I did or happened in only a few short hours. I suppose that ends my story for this week! Tune in next time for some serious Olympic revelations.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
04-Feb-2006
Today and yesterday were both pretty mellow days. I paid the rent, did a lot of hanging out at the market and worked on more volunteer stuff.
In my Italian Culture class we have to do a group project on some aspect of Italian culture. My group is doing shopping and specifically I am focusing on open market shopping. Since I enjoy going to the market just to see it, I think it’ll be a fairly easy assignment.
Today I ran into a few random people. On the way to pay my rent this morning a guy on the bus totally knew magically that I was a student and started asking me about how I liked Torino and beautiful things in Torino that I had to do. Another guy in the market spoke English with me for a good 10 minutes. Mostly about how the best way to learn a language was to be surrounded by it and talked about his own experience learning English.
Tomorrow I think I’m going to catch an early train to Milano. Hopefully I’ll get to see the painting of “The Last Supper” and do some other cool things. I have to do some more reading before I go to bed tonight so I can figure out what I want to see in the city.
I also went to the pharmacy (farmacia) and tried to figure out my stupid disease. I got some pills, of which I can’t read the box nor the instructions, and the lady told me to take one a day in the evening. So far I’ve taken one and I don’t feel like its taking immediate action. Hopefully within a day or two I’ll see a change.
Monday starts the last week of Italian I, and then it’s onto Italian II after the Olympics. My friend Al will arrive next Saturday and plans to do some traveling with me as well as hang out for the Olympics. Sounds like we’re going to have a pretty good time. I am in charge of planning the travel destination, which I am also working on. Geez, I’m such a busy kid… ttfn.
In my Italian Culture class we have to do a group project on some aspect of Italian culture. My group is doing shopping and specifically I am focusing on open market shopping. Since I enjoy going to the market just to see it, I think it’ll be a fairly easy assignment.
Today I ran into a few random people. On the way to pay my rent this morning a guy on the bus totally knew magically that I was a student and started asking me about how I liked Torino and beautiful things in Torino that I had to do. Another guy in the market spoke English with me for a good 10 minutes. Mostly about how the best way to learn a language was to be surrounded by it and talked about his own experience learning English.
Tomorrow I think I’m going to catch an early train to Milano. Hopefully I’ll get to see the painting of “The Last Supper” and do some other cool things. I have to do some more reading before I go to bed tonight so I can figure out what I want to see in the city.
I also went to the pharmacy (farmacia) and tried to figure out my stupid disease. I got some pills, of which I can’t read the box nor the instructions, and the lady told me to take one a day in the evening. So far I’ve taken one and I don’t feel like its taking immediate action. Hopefully within a day or two I’ll see a change.
Monday starts the last week of Italian I, and then it’s onto Italian II after the Olympics. My friend Al will arrive next Saturday and plans to do some traveling with me as well as hang out for the Olympics. Sounds like we’re going to have a pretty good time. I am in charge of planning the travel destination, which I am also working on. Geez, I’m such a busy kid… ttfn.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
02-Feb-2006
Muhahaha, I definitely got to drive in Torino today. I made my first trip to the airport, but I don’t think I could find it again if I tried. It wasn’t hard to drive around here everything is just smaller. However, it was moderately difficult to find the airport just because it was so far away. We didn’t pick up anyone that I had heard of before, but I do know they were affiliated with the US ski team, not athletes, but coaches or trainers. I found out today that the snowboard team is coming through on Monday and I’m totally placing myself conveniently at the station. Oh yeah, dirty. I like it.
Other than that, I did a lot of scheduling today. I’m a pretty hard working volunteer, but it definitely gives me something to do. Plus I’ll have an awesome resume bullet. I’m excited. I’m even thinking about doing an internship with USOC sometime in the future… we’ll have to see though.
Tomorrow I’m doing more scheduling and who knows after that. I did find out that the team wants a courier in place to get stuff from the Olympic Villages in the mountains to Torino on a daily basis. I think I may have talked myself into that position. I love the Olympics. Well, I’m going to get up and go running tomorrow so I’m going to cut this one short.
Other than that, I did a lot of scheduling today. I’m a pretty hard working volunteer, but it definitely gives me something to do. Plus I’ll have an awesome resume bullet. I’m excited. I’m even thinking about doing an internship with USOC sometime in the future… we’ll have to see though.
Tomorrow I’m doing more scheduling and who knows after that. I did find out that the team wants a courier in place to get stuff from the Olympic Villages in the mountains to Torino on a daily basis. I think I may have talked myself into that position. I love the Olympics. Well, I’m going to get up and go running tomorrow so I’m going to cut this one short.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
01-Feb-2006
Can you believe that in just five short days I will only have four months left in Europe? Whoa. It feels like I have been here forever, but not nearly long enough at the same time. Today was a good day. The sun was shining, you could see the Alps and they are amazing. I am kind of worried about this city warming up since the scent of smog and dog poo has already infiltrated everything I own. If we throw body odor into the mix, I’m not sure my senses will be able to handle it.
I feel kind of lame today; I didn’t do a whole lot. We heard the sales at the stores are to be ending soon, so I decided that a shopping trip was in order. I went down Garabaldi, the street I live very close to and couldn’t find one thing that was in my price range and my style. Maybe I’m just not Italian enough for clothes shopping yet.
Tomorrow I get to play some more Olympic games, hehe. I’ll be checking in with my driving supervisor in the morning and doing some more processing after that. I am looking forward to it. Plus, I’ll be working closely with an Italian who doesn’t know much English and I’m hoping this will help me with my language a bit. Maybe we can help each other out.
Ah well, so the day goes. I still need to carry my notebook around because there is a ton of random stuff that I wish I could remember on a daily basis. But for now, it’s bedtime. Arrivederci!
I feel kind of lame today; I didn’t do a whole lot. We heard the sales at the stores are to be ending soon, so I decided that a shopping trip was in order. I went down Garabaldi, the street I live very close to and couldn’t find one thing that was in my price range and my style. Maybe I’m just not Italian enough for clothes shopping yet.
Tomorrow I get to play some more Olympic games, hehe. I’ll be checking in with my driving supervisor in the morning and doing some more processing after that. I am looking forward to it. Plus, I’ll be working closely with an Italian who doesn’t know much English and I’m hoping this will help me with my language a bit. Maybe we can help each other out.
Ah well, so the day goes. I still need to carry my notebook around because there is a ton of random stuff that I wish I could remember on a daily basis. But for now, it’s bedtime. Arrivederci!
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