In just 8 short hours I will be on a train headed for Paris. It’s so strange to think about that statement. It’s always been one of those “oh maybe someday” type thoughts, but no, tomorrow I go to Paris. Exciting!! My friend Erin has every spare second planned. It’s kind of relaxing.. almost like a tour guide without the big fee, excellent. Hopefully I’ll be able to return the favor if she ends up jumping the plane to Germany with us.
Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I should be packing right now but instead all I want to do is read my book but instead I’m writing on this darn contraption. My computer has been getting fussy lately. I’ve had a real bad history with this computer that likes to break at the most inconvenient times… Hopefully, knock on wood, it can hold out until I get back to the states. Otherwise Best Buy is going to have one angry customer, not that they don’t already but more angry could be worse than the current state of “totally and completely agitated past the point of all stable thinking…
Well, I suppose I should move on to that whole packing thing since it is mildly important and all that jazz.
Ciao for now! And Bonjour tomorrow!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
A few things..
Ok, I realized that I forgot to post the pictures of my day trip to Genoa. They are in the gallery now right under the Scotland album... go here.
Also, here is this week's Student Abroad Article...
I think that's it.. ttfn! :)
Also, here is this week's Student Abroad Article...
I think that's it.. ttfn! :)
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
5-Aprile-2006
Yay for no class, boo for extra segments of class. Today I spent a ton of time at school because for my Italian class extra hours are to be spent doing listening comprehension. Thankfully I finished mine today and now I only have to worry about the rest of the compositions that I need to recite.
Yesterday was the final day of cuisine class. Possibly one of the saddest days of my life and not because we won’t have any more meals but we also have a harder final than I thought humanly possibly. During the class our teacher has been going into depth about the origination of the goods used. The different types of grains for pasta, regional cooking differences, etc. and now it seems that she wants us to regurgitate most of that information in the form of a paper. Oh no… I should probably get working on it because if I put it off for too long, then I’ll forget about it. I also have my last presentation for Italian culture due at the end of the month. We got to pick our own topics and I chose dogs in Italy. I was pretty excited.
Other than that today has been fairly uneventful. I paid for the rest of my rent while I’m in Italy and the program directors tried to talk me into going and getting the shots again today. Sounds fun, huh? I’m still all opposed.. but who knows, maybe I’ll be swayed.
Arrivederci!
Yesterday was the final day of cuisine class. Possibly one of the saddest days of my life and not because we won’t have any more meals but we also have a harder final than I thought humanly possibly. During the class our teacher has been going into depth about the origination of the goods used. The different types of grains for pasta, regional cooking differences, etc. and now it seems that she wants us to regurgitate most of that information in the form of a paper. Oh no… I should probably get working on it because if I put it off for too long, then I’ll forget about it. I also have my last presentation for Italian culture due at the end of the month. We got to pick our own topics and I chose dogs in Italy. I was pretty excited.
Other than that today has been fairly uneventful. I paid for the rest of my rent while I’m in Italy and the program directors tried to talk me into going and getting the shots again today. Sounds fun, huh? I’m still all opposed.. but who knows, maybe I’ll be swayed.
Arrivederci!
Monday, April 03, 2006
3-Aprile-2006
I can’t believe that I forgot to finish the adventures of my Scotland story. Sunday was pretty exciting. We walked around town and sat in Borders for a while. Being able to read rocked. I even bought a cookbook so I could try and redeem myself as someone who is efficient in the kitchen. We’ll see how many more pans I can ruin in the next month and a half. After Borders we went to eat at this small art café, which had amazing food. I had a Brie baguette with sun dried tomatoes and spinach. It still sounds amazing! I tried to replicate it today and I think I might be missing an ingredient or two, but it was still good.
After we made it to the airport, thanks to Gillian and Jim, our flight was delayed because someone got on the wrong plane. When we landed, we had to catch a bus from the Bergamo-Milano airport to the Milano train station. This usually is an hour bus ride but for some reason, Sunday night traffic was thick and it took us two hours! Our train was the only thing on time about the whole journey, and we made it back to Torino a little before midnight. Regardless, still a good weekend.
Today was like Christmas. I received three, yes three packages and one super awesome card. One from Adam, one from Megan, one from my mom and a super awesome card from Rose. Thanks to all of the excellent pick-me uppers J It was great. Did you know that “espresso” literally means “pick me up?” Just thought that some of you all might need some random useless knowledge.
The new diagnosis for my bites is bed bugs. Sounds exciting huh? If you do a google search on bed bugs you can find people ranting and raving about how horrible they are. I even read about a couple that moved out of their house. Apparently once you pick them up and they start to multiply, you can get stuck with them. The web sites suggested a few at home recipes but most recommended a professional to do the dirty work. I guess we aren’t totally sure if they are bed bugs, but I’ll be taking precautions. Tomorrow I’m going to boil my bedding. Sounds fun, huh? We’ll see I suppose.
After we made it to the airport, thanks to Gillian and Jim, our flight was delayed because someone got on the wrong plane. When we landed, we had to catch a bus from the Bergamo-Milano airport to the Milano train station. This usually is an hour bus ride but for some reason, Sunday night traffic was thick and it took us two hours! Our train was the only thing on time about the whole journey, and we made it back to Torino a little before midnight. Regardless, still a good weekend.
Today was like Christmas. I received three, yes three packages and one super awesome card. One from Adam, one from Megan, one from my mom and a super awesome card from Rose. Thanks to all of the excellent pick-me uppers J It was great. Did you know that “espresso” literally means “pick me up?” Just thought that some of you all might need some random useless knowledge.
The new diagnosis for my bites is bed bugs. Sounds exciting huh? If you do a google search on bed bugs you can find people ranting and raving about how horrible they are. I even read about a couple that moved out of their house. Apparently once you pick them up and they start to multiply, you can get stuck with them. The web sites suggested a few at home recipes but most recommended a professional to do the dirty work. I guess we aren’t totally sure if they are bed bugs, but I’ll be taking precautions. Tomorrow I’m going to boil my bedding. Sounds fun, huh? We’ll see I suppose.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
1-April-2006
Wow, what a day in Scotland. I think this is the first April Fool’s Day in a long time that I haven’t been apart of or even heard one April Fool’s Joke. Strange. We decided to do a bit of sight seeing today and we happened to come on the weekend of a Scottish holiday. This meant that all of the historic touristy traps were free!! We started off this morning by heading north to the only lake in Scotland, (I can’t think of the name right now, but I’ll get back to you). It’s the only lake in Scotland because all of the other bodies of water are called Lochs. There was a church built on an island in the middle of the lake around the 11th century. There are a few walls and some ruins left on this relatively small island, but it made for some fun exploring. As we were climbing all over grassy knolls, rocks, and roots, I felt like we were in Houghton on the tech trails. Good feelings.
After that we headed to the famous Edinbrough castle. That area of Scotland is more touristy than Glasgow is. There were a few Scots playing the bagpipes in their kilts and lots of souvenir type shops. The castle was pretty amazing. It has also been standing since at least the 11th century. Also, Edinbrough has some fantastic geographical features in its town. There is a huge rock close to the parliament building and by huge rock I mean small mountain. There were people climbing it and it looked like a really good time. From the top of the castle there were some incredible sights. The Carlton Hill (I think that’s the name) was located on an opposite cliff and looked like a very cool place. Jim said that there was a museum and a few other ruins up there. Jim and Gillian made perfect tour guides.
Jim grew up in Edinbrough so on the way home we had to relive his childhood. He took us to a very old bomb shelter type thing. Even he doesn’t know when it was built or the real reason for its construction, but it was amazing nonetheless. Apparently he has been inside of it, but we didn’t get to do that today. There are a few floors for bunks and it’s pretty much built into the ground and some of it is underground. Kind of fun and exciting.
For the remainder of the evening we acted like big bums. We watched some “Friends” and a movie called Crash – good movie, highly recommended. Tomorrow we are going to do a bit of touring around Glasgow before our 3pm flight. That will begin the long trek back to Torino. Scotland has been absolutely amazing thus far. I wonder what it would take to do some studying up here…
After that we headed to the famous Edinbrough castle. That area of Scotland is more touristy than Glasgow is. There were a few Scots playing the bagpipes in their kilts and lots of souvenir type shops. The castle was pretty amazing. It has also been standing since at least the 11th century. Also, Edinbrough has some fantastic geographical features in its town. There is a huge rock close to the parliament building and by huge rock I mean small mountain. There were people climbing it and it looked like a really good time. From the top of the castle there were some incredible sights. The Carlton Hill (I think that’s the name) was located on an opposite cliff and looked like a very cool place. Jim said that there was a museum and a few other ruins up there. Jim and Gillian made perfect tour guides.
Jim grew up in Edinbrough so on the way home we had to relive his childhood. He took us to a very old bomb shelter type thing. Even he doesn’t know when it was built or the real reason for its construction, but it was amazing nonetheless. Apparently he has been inside of it, but we didn’t get to do that today. There are a few floors for bunks and it’s pretty much built into the ground and some of it is underground. Kind of fun and exciting.
For the remainder of the evening we acted like big bums. We watched some “Friends” and a movie called Crash – good movie, highly recommended. Tomorrow we are going to do a bit of touring around Glasgow before our 3pm flight. That will begin the long trek back to Torino. Scotland has been absolutely amazing thus far. I wonder what it would take to do some studying up here…
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