Wednesday, June 2, 2010
New blog!
Hi everyone-- Long time no write! (?) If you happen to stumble upon this, I have set up a new blog! It's at http://alisonlikestowrite.blogspot.com. Check it out and thanks for reading :)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
An journey within a journey—the 48+ who knows how much many more hours back to the states
My journey here is coming to an end. I’m hanging at a really nice hotel in Pisa, literally right across the street from the central Pisa train station, with Chrissy. We were going to go to Lucca, but the sun/thoughts of lots of traveling ahead of us kept us here, relaxing. This morning, all of us roommates plus some others took a group van taxi the airport. Signora Pizzi, the landlady, saw us off, as did the poor old woman whose apartment was between the other three of ours, full of Americans. She never said much, besides the “ciao” or “buona sera” as she went in and out and ran into one of us, and the few times she practically ripped our heads off for using the washing machine outside. She watched us leave from the terrace as she had her morning cigarette. She smiled and waved her dainty, bumpy hand. She was probably thinking something like “good riddens.” She’ll finally have some peace and quiet. The first of the roommates to part was Summer, once we reached the airport. Then Chrissy and I saw Amber off a few hours later, and then there were two. Sarah G, Chrissy, and I walked around Pisa, found some great pizza and shopping, and then they saw me off as I headed off to the airport.
And now, writing from JFK airport …
After a day in Pisa, left at 9:30pm for Gatwick. I met Amanda from NYC at the Gatwick airport, and we stuck together and took a taxi together to Heathrow and kept each other company when we slept intermittently throughout our long overnight layovers. This was much more comfortable than the way over, by—instead of being on the tile floor and not even able to put my back flat against the wall due to the low metal bar that was in front of the wall throughout the entire check out area, and all by myself, I had company and we crashed on the surprisingly comfy booths at Costa coffee in Terminal 5. I actually think I got a decent few hours of sleep. Just having some company made all the difference in the world. Now, at the last leg of my trip, my flight to Rochester got cancelled. Argh. I’m on standby for a 10:00pm flight (it’s now almost 5), and if I can’t make that one I have to spend the night here and I have flight tomorrow. Arghhhh.
A few hours later ...
My flight got cancelled, so I'm chilling at a hotel for the evening. Be back in the states in less than 24 hours! Finally!
And now, writing from JFK airport …
After a day in Pisa, left at 9:30pm for Gatwick. I met Amanda from NYC at the Gatwick airport, and we stuck together and took a taxi together to Heathrow and kept each other company when we slept intermittently throughout our long overnight layovers. This was much more comfortable than the way over, by—instead of being on the tile floor and not even able to put my back flat against the wall due to the low metal bar that was in front of the wall throughout the entire check out area, and all by myself, I had company and we crashed on the surprisingly comfy booths at Costa coffee in Terminal 5. I actually think I got a decent few hours of sleep. Just having some company made all the difference in the world. Now, at the last leg of my trip, my flight to Rochester got cancelled. Argh. I’m on standby for a 10:00pm flight (it’s now almost 5), and if I can’t make that one I have to spend the night here and I have flight tomorrow. Arghhhh.
A few hours later ...
My flight got cancelled, so I'm chilling at a hotel for the evening. Be back in the states in less than 24 hours! Finally!
The last couple days!
It's almost the end ...
My last couple days in Castiglioncello were fun and exciting. Last weekend we hung out and got some sun on the beach (Simona’s Bagni Miramare), and Sunday was performance day. Saturday we went out to Havana Mambo (with the roomies and Harge and Brown, etc.), and wound up chatting up some nice Italian guys who we invited to our show (and they actually showed!). Sunday morning was run through of our show at the palestra, the new got our stuff together and Momo drove us to Piazza della Cavallo (Plaza of the Horse, and there was a big statue of a horse and a really pretty pool/fountain there) in Rosignano, the town right next to Castiglioncello, where our performance space was. Another outdoor stage!! We ran through the show for tech and then, around 10, in front of a full audience on a lovely night, we started the show. And performing outside is definitely one of my favorite things to do know. At the very beginning of Chrissy’s piece, when we breath together and look up, I saw a huge, beautiful, clear sky of starts!!! After the show, they served us Prosecco in the Italian Communist headquarters (where our dressing room was, hahaha). We were exhausted when we got home but wound up staying up and talking and at 3am, we were convinced to meet Harge, Brown, Shanna, and Stefania and we went down to a gorgeous beach spot where the Saras were already hanging out. Some of them went swimming (I watched, it was chilly! The first night I had worn long sleeves the entire month), and came home around 4am.
On Monday, thank goodness, we had class late. Amy began the afternoon with a yoga/stretched class which was fantastic. It was just what we needed. Then we learned a super fun “new style” hip hop combo with Momo (Tabatha & Napolean style!!!). Tuesday was our last day of classes. Brown taught a Horton class, which is a particular style of modern/contemporary/whatever you want to call it that looks a lot like jazz to me, it’s very focused on lines. It was hard but I really, really liked it. One last technique class with Nicole, more “new style” with Momo (to “Addicted” by Ne-Yo … awesomeee) and then one more yoga with Amy.
Tuesday night was a blast—my roommates/Miramare hosted a potluck dinner. We originally had the idea so we could all get rid of our extra food so we didn’t have to buy more things or throw much away. The dinner was a great success, everyone, even Amy, Pola, Adolfus (Pola’s insaaane and hilarious husband), and Momo came. We had some great food and a great time, but the idea backfired on us, the hosts, because we wound up with about 3x as much food as we started with, and did wind up having to throw a lot out. After cleaning up from the party, we went out to Havana Mambo and ran into some of the Italian hip hoppers. We also ran into who else but Papi, the Senegalese man who did the drumming for our African classes. Papi had some friends at a discoteca and offered to take all of us there for an enormous discount, and so we totally took him up on that cuz it was our last night. The club was SO amazing. I wish I had gotten photos! It was really modern and hip, with great house music, and it was built on the beach so we could go outside to the bar/seating area and we were about 50 feet up from the beach, looking over the sea. We were there, dancing the night away with the Prodanza-ers unti they closed at 3am, and then we met the Saras and some others at the beach again where we watched the sun rise and tried to soak it all in. It was so very bittersweet.
On Wednesday, feeling very sleepy, we went back to the palestra for the last time for the prosecco party the teachers threw for us. We all hung out, took tons of pictures, traded information, and of course danced. It was a really nice way to end our time together. The rest of Wednesday was spent napping, packing cleaning, and going out for one more walk around the center for a gelato.
My last couple days in Castiglioncello were fun and exciting. Last weekend we hung out and got some sun on the beach (Simona’s Bagni Miramare), and Sunday was performance day. Saturday we went out to Havana Mambo (with the roomies and Harge and Brown, etc.), and wound up chatting up some nice Italian guys who we invited to our show (and they actually showed!). Sunday morning was run through of our show at the palestra, the new got our stuff together and Momo drove us to Piazza della Cavallo (Plaza of the Horse, and there was a big statue of a horse and a really pretty pool/fountain there) in Rosignano, the town right next to Castiglioncello, where our performance space was. Another outdoor stage!! We ran through the show for tech and then, around 10, in front of a full audience on a lovely night, we started the show. And performing outside is definitely one of my favorite things to do know. At the very beginning of Chrissy’s piece, when we breath together and look up, I saw a huge, beautiful, clear sky of starts!!! After the show, they served us Prosecco in the Italian Communist headquarters (where our dressing room was, hahaha). We were exhausted when we got home but wound up staying up and talking and at 3am, we were convinced to meet Harge, Brown, Shanna, and Stefania and we went down to a gorgeous beach spot where the Saras were already hanging out. Some of them went swimming (I watched, it was chilly! The first night I had worn long sleeves the entire month), and came home around 4am.
On Monday, thank goodness, we had class late. Amy began the afternoon with a yoga/stretched class which was fantastic. It was just what we needed. Then we learned a super fun “new style” hip hop combo with Momo (Tabatha & Napolean style!!!). Tuesday was our last day of classes. Brown taught a Horton class, which is a particular style of modern/contemporary/whatever you want to call it that looks a lot like jazz to me, it’s very focused on lines. It was hard but I really, really liked it. One last technique class with Nicole, more “new style” with Momo (to “Addicted” by Ne-Yo … awesomeee) and then one more yoga with Amy.
Tuesday night was a blast—my roommates/Miramare hosted a potluck dinner. We originally had the idea so we could all get rid of our extra food so we didn’t have to buy more things or throw much away. The dinner was a great success, everyone, even Amy, Pola, Adolfus (Pola’s insaaane and hilarious husband), and Momo came. We had some great food and a great time, but the idea backfired on us, the hosts, because we wound up with about 3x as much food as we started with, and did wind up having to throw a lot out. After cleaning up from the party, we went out to Havana Mambo and ran into some of the Italian hip hoppers. We also ran into who else but Papi, the Senegalese man who did the drumming for our African classes. Papi had some friends at a discoteca and offered to take all of us there for an enormous discount, and so we totally took him up on that cuz it was our last night. The club was SO amazing. I wish I had gotten photos! It was really modern and hip, with great house music, and it was built on the beach so we could go outside to the bar/seating area and we were about 50 feet up from the beach, looking over the sea. We were there, dancing the night away with the Prodanza-ers unti they closed at 3am, and then we met the Saras and some others at the beach again where we watched the sun rise and tried to soak it all in. It was so very bittersweet.
On Wednesday, feeling very sleepy, we went back to the palestra for the last time for the prosecco party the teachers threw for us. We all hung out, took tons of pictures, traded information, and of course danced. It was a really nice way to end our time together. The rest of Wednesday was spent napping, packing cleaning, and going out for one more walk around the center for a gelato.
Friday, July 24, 2009
The experience
I’ve been writing so much about what I’ve been doing when I’m not dancing that I haven’t really updated you much on what I’m actually doing here, and that is dancing! As you know, I’m here for a month long dance intensive called Prodanza Italia. It’s not through Denison or any other university- it’s an independent program that brings in teachers of different styles from all over to teach two or four weeks (some teachers have split their time). Many people found it via teachers/professors who knew the program or had taught here previously. I might be the only one who found it independently—I saw a flyer at the dance building at Denison. Thank goodness for that flyer.
It’s been a very challenging few weeks, both physically and mentally. I’m learning a lot about myself as a dancer, exploring and making lots of discoveries, and starting to get a sort of sense of my strengths, weaknesses, preferences, etc. We are continuing to get all twisted up in Amy’s technique class, which is very different than what I’m used to, but I’m finally getting my head and body wrapped around it. The duets for her composition class are coming together really well, we’ve set them to a set of Dusty Springfield songs. African with Nicole and Papi the drummer is a blast! It’s exhausting, first of all, and it takes a lot of letting go of many ways in which my body has been trained (placing things, holding yourself a certain way), but I am having a ton of fun. However, the African style is very high-impact with fast and rhythmic stamping and jumping, so my ankle has unfortunately acted up again a bit. I try to have self-discipline to resist the urge to go full out and take it easy a bit. But the drum and movement really gets me going sometimes, so it’s been hard to have to remove myself from that. I’ve had to sit out a couple times so I don’t hurt myself =(. In Nicole’s composition class we’re continuing to experiment with dance-making tools and putting them to use. Since Bob has left us, we are now having many, many classes and rehearsals with Momo. Hip hop, and mostly popping and locking. It is soo difficult! I’m having fun learning the technique, but it’s frustrating because he’s trying to put together quite a long piece for our performance while we are still all beginners, so we’re trying to master the technique and learn the very fast and complicated (for us) choreography. I wish had more time to practice. We only have a week, so it’s overwhelming. We’ll see … it might be a bit embarrassing. That’s pretty much it for classes. There are also two pieces for the student choreography workshop. My roommate Chrissy’s piece is beautiful in it’s simplicity—it is very much based on gestures, and has a very light yet fascinating quality. I really enjoy it. The other piece (Rodney) Brown is choreographing, is like the complete opposite of Chrissy’s, and it’s just, ahhhhhhhh!!! Everything—the music, the concept, the choreography, the spacing, the dynamics, all SO interesting, very physically challenging, and engaging. It’s brilliant. I’m kiiiiind of obsessed with it (just for a preview, if you care, one of the songs he uses is “Bird Flu” by M.I.A. You’ll hear what I mean. Go look it up!). It def goes to or near the top of my list of favorite pieces I’ve danced in. And yes, I will do whatever I can to get a video of our performance!
In the meantime, my roommate Summer and fellow tapper I have been wanting to put together a tap piece for the performance (and Pola keeps bugging us about it), but we have been so busy that we haven’t found time, so I don’t know if that’s going to happen at all.
As I am reaching the end of my time here (eek!), I’m still not exactly sure what my feelings are about the program as a whole. So far, as a personal experience, it’s been great. I’ve made some milestone discoveries, gained self confidence, all while growing close with the fantastic people here. I’ve also very much enjoyed my free time. As an overall program, I do hope that some organizational changes are made for the future. I should write a handbook for future Prodanza-ers just warning them what to expect, because we had no sense of what was going to be going on before we came. Some logistics and things like that could use some tweaking, and even just that would make it 10 times better.
And, as far as how I’m feeling about coming home, I don’t really want to talk about it.
It’s been a very challenging few weeks, both physically and mentally. I’m learning a lot about myself as a dancer, exploring and making lots of discoveries, and starting to get a sort of sense of my strengths, weaknesses, preferences, etc. We are continuing to get all twisted up in Amy’s technique class, which is very different than what I’m used to, but I’m finally getting my head and body wrapped around it. The duets for her composition class are coming together really well, we’ve set them to a set of Dusty Springfield songs. African with Nicole and Papi the drummer is a blast! It’s exhausting, first of all, and it takes a lot of letting go of many ways in which my body has been trained (placing things, holding yourself a certain way), but I am having a ton of fun. However, the African style is very high-impact with fast and rhythmic stamping and jumping, so my ankle has unfortunately acted up again a bit. I try to have self-discipline to resist the urge to go full out and take it easy a bit. But the drum and movement really gets me going sometimes, so it’s been hard to have to remove myself from that. I’ve had to sit out a couple times so I don’t hurt myself =(. In Nicole’s composition class we’re continuing to experiment with dance-making tools and putting them to use. Since Bob has left us, we are now having many, many classes and rehearsals with Momo. Hip hop, and mostly popping and locking. It is soo difficult! I’m having fun learning the technique, but it’s frustrating because he’s trying to put together quite a long piece for our performance while we are still all beginners, so we’re trying to master the technique and learn the very fast and complicated (for us) choreography. I wish had more time to practice. We only have a week, so it’s overwhelming. We’ll see … it might be a bit embarrassing. That’s pretty much it for classes. There are also two pieces for the student choreography workshop. My roommate Chrissy’s piece is beautiful in it’s simplicity—it is very much based on gestures, and has a very light yet fascinating quality. I really enjoy it. The other piece (Rodney) Brown is choreographing, is like the complete opposite of Chrissy’s, and it’s just, ahhhhhhhh!!! Everything—the music, the concept, the choreography, the spacing, the dynamics, all SO interesting, very physically challenging, and engaging. It’s brilliant. I’m kiiiiind of obsessed with it (just for a preview, if you care, one of the songs he uses is “Bird Flu” by M.I.A. You’ll hear what I mean. Go look it up!). It def goes to or near the top of my list of favorite pieces I’ve danced in. And yes, I will do whatever I can to get a video of our performance!
In the meantime, my roommate Summer and fellow tapper I have been wanting to put together a tap piece for the performance (and Pola keeps bugging us about it), but we have been so busy that we haven’t found time, so I don’t know if that’s going to happen at all.
As I am reaching the end of my time here (eek!), I’m still not exactly sure what my feelings are about the program as a whole. So far, as a personal experience, it’s been great. I’ve made some milestone discoveries, gained self confidence, all while growing close with the fantastic people here. I’ve also very much enjoyed my free time. As an overall program, I do hope that some organizational changes are made for the future. I should write a handbook for future Prodanza-ers just warning them what to expect, because we had no sense of what was going to be going on before we came. Some logistics and things like that could use some tweaking, and even just that would make it 10 times better.
And, as far as how I’m feeling about coming home, I don’t really want to talk about it.
My epic return to Perugia
I am so lucky. I can’t believe I’ve found a place and people halfway across the world who, for now, make me feel at home. I can’t not (yup, that’s a double negative) be back there someday, for good. After being back in the states for 7 months (was it really that long? Or that short?) I was starting to have my doubts that I really couldn’t actually pick up and move to Italy, but being back in Perugia made it all come flooding back. No offense, U.S. of A., but this place has got you beat.
Well, in a nutshell, the title of this entry says it all. This past weekend in Perugia was epic. Incredible. Amazing. Unreal. As close as it could get to perfect, even. Etc., etc., etc. I don’t even know where to start! At the beginning, I guess. I skee-dattled out of class early on Friday, missing my second hip-hop/popping + class with the crazy, hilarious, Italian Moreno, we call him Momo. I decided I wanted more than 36 hours in Perugia, which is all that the trains would get me if I left any later on Friday or on Saturday, especially because the train strike last weekend ruined my plans of having two weekends there. So, I brought my packed backpack to class on Friday and literally ran out as soon as my rehearsal was over. No major problems getting there, only the one hour delay of my train out of Florence that wound up getting me to Perugia at 9:30 instead of 8:30, but it was okay because that’s still a decent hour (for a Friday night, at least). Stepping off the train to the (very crowded, because of Umbria Jazz going on) Perugia train station was SO surreal. I immediately tried to soak it in and let it hit me that I was really there. I took the mini metro up to the center and emerged onto the main road, Corso Vannucci, from a familiar side street right near my old apartment on Via Bonazzi. The center was jam-packed with people walking, dancing, and drinking accompanied by the concert going on the huge stage set up in the main plaza called Piazza IV Noviembre. It was unreal. I probably stuck out like a sore thumb, in my bright coral summer dress and giant backpack, and all the while I was smiling like a loon and taking huge breaths inhaling the smell and trying to take it all in, all among people dressed up in their best and partying on the streets. I was shaking a little I was so excited! I made my way through the crowds and called Mauro who directed me to his apartment right by the Universita per Stranieri. He gave me a giant hug when I made it up there, he feels like one of my best friends even though we only met a few months ago and haven’t even spoken much since I was last in Perugia. I then met a couch surfer who was also staying with Mauro, Alice from Australia. She was really sweet. Mauro went and got us some pizza while I showered the traveling and the day’s dance classes off (when I had left for the station earlier I was already dripping. Too much detail? Too bad.) At midnight, we went out to the center, to Dempsey’s obviously, and I saw EVERYONE! Seriously, I think every Perugian who I met when in the fall who still lives there I ran into in the center. It was so much fun—a lot of them didn’t know I was coming back, and most of them I hadn’t even spoken to since I was last in Perugia, so when I tapped them on the shoulder and they turned around, their reactions were insane! They flipped. For all they knew, I went back to America and that’s all she wrote, and there I was right in front of them. So, there were lots of wide eyes, squeals, and enormous hugs! I also met lots of new people—because of the jazz fest, there were like 10x as many people around. From New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the States, England. Coincidentally, there was an Australian guy who talked with Alice for a while, and it turns out that not only are they from the same city and area of the city (Melbourne), but this guy had taken Alice’s older sister to a prom some years ago. Crazy! We walked around the center and stopped at the two big outdoor stages, watching really fun blues bands. Alice and I got convinced to go to Domus with Sofia, Yannick, and others, and we danced there until 5am. I always tell myself that I’m not going to go there, and somehow I always wind up there … haha. Elisha, if you’re reading this, you know what I mean, right?! On the way back, it was surprisingly still hopping in the center—a bunch of guys had formed some sort of a ghetto drum circle (garbage bins, etc.) next to the stairs and there was quite an eclectic group of people dancing the night away.
I surprisingly only slept a few hours—I think just knowing that I was in Perugia and time was limited, my body didn’t let me sleep too far into the day. Mauro went off to get some errands done, and since he only had one extra set of keys, Alice and I stuck together. It was a nice, yet windy day (wearing a dress was unwise), and I had the intention to take the fullest advantage of being in Perugia. I took Alice to all my favorite places. But first, haha, we met this weird awkward Italian guy named Andrea at the fountain because the night before, at Domus, Alice met him and had drunkenly agreed to meet him in the afternoon. It was pretty awkward, haha—first, I was surprised he even remembered to come in the first place, but Alice soon realized that it was a really dumb idea. He seemed like a perfectly nice guy, but he spoke barely any English. So, he just kind of awkwardly came with us as I walked us around the center, I tried to help translate so the two of them could talk. So, I took Alice and Andrea past my old apartment and the next door gelato place (my favoriteeeee), and to Piazza Italia so they could see the incredible view from there. I also took them to Pierto’s pizza place, Pizzeria Etrusca, the first pizzeria my roomies and I went to on our first day in Perugia. Even the guy who works there recognized me! And I got the 4 cheese pizza that I still dream about, yessss. Andrea finally peaced out after the pizza, and Alice went back to Mauro’s for a nap, and I stopped at Fashion Bar and reunited with crazy, awesome Flavia. She was very happy to see me and it was just like old times! I stood at the bar as customers came and went, I just watched her work and she would sing along to the songs playing on the speakers, we talked like we used to (mostly in Italian, she still doesn’t know much English), and she even made me take drinks to some customers outside, hahaha she used to do that all the time too. Her customers outside kind of laughed at me because I was laughing, I told Flavia “non lavoro qui!” (I don’t work here!). Hahaha but it was so perfect. After hanging there for a while, I took more walks around the center, going back to all my favorite panoramas of the countryside and my other favorite spots, of course stopping for the biscottino gelato at the gelateria that I still dream about. I probably walked back and forth on Corso Vannucci 10 times, just back and forth, back and forth. I also finally got a hold of Antonio, and stopped by his apartment and got to hang out with him for a while, it was so great to see him. I found Alice in Piazza Italia and we headed back to Mauro’s for some pasta and then back out to the center to see a great band play whose set we had caught the end of the night before. The three of us had a great time jamming. In the evening, after a power nap and some dinner, we went back out to the center and I ran into even more people—even people who I had (don’t tell!) kind of forgotten about. In fact, crazy story. Alice was supposed to stay with another person when couch surfing, and for some reason they didn’t communicate in time and that’s how she wound up at Mauro’s. She didn’t know this guy, named Francesco, they had only met via the couch surfing website, but they thought it would be nice to just meet for a drink in the center. So, I went with her to meet them in front of Dempseys, and who is waiting there to meet us but Francesco #2 and Francesco #3 (as they were in my cell phone in the fall), the roommates who I had met in the fall and hung out with a bunch of times with the girls. It was, just, so wild. Of all the people, of all the Francescos (cuz, if you haven’t caught on, there are a lottt of them), what a coincidence. We watched the Soul Spinners, a great band from Memphis!, play in the center, and I ran into Antonio again—we were coincidentally standing right behind him in the crowd. For the rest of the evening, Mauro and I just continued to go to our usual places, including Merlin where I ran into MJ and also Tim, who has since moved back to the Netherlands but was just there for the week, so it was so nice that our time overlapped. At this point it was already 3am and I was exhausted, so I went back and went to bed while Mauro and Alice went to Domus. There was NO way I was even going to leave time to be convinced to go again, hahaha.
And no, sorry sisters + Kathleen, very unfortunately I did not make it to James Taylor—we stopped by the box office earlier in the day and it was already sold out =(.
On Sunday morning, Mauro and I both woke up earlier than we wanted to (the bells woke me up at 9). So, he and I got a cappuccino and cornetto at Bar Duomo and then took a really nice, really long walk. There is a church and park down kind of away from the center that I always wanted to go to in the fall but never made it there, so we walked there together. We went inside the beautiful cathedral and watched a little bit of the mass going on, and then explored around the park a bit more. And we took the really long way home, walking around the center along the road that had no shoulder, but the continuous breath-taking view of the Umbrian countryside was so worth it. We cut through the underground city, stopping at some exhibits down there of Jazz + American history (interestingly enough). We stopped at the festival for some lunch and more live jazz, and barely made it back to the apartment we were so exhausted because we had been out and about for over 2 hours! Hot and sore from our “adventure in flip flops”, we just relaxed in the apartment. But it was such a nice morning/afternoon. Mauro and I had a great chat, he shared some cool Perugian history with me, and it was a really fantastic way to just enjoy being there. On my way to the train station I stopped at the Piazza one more time to see the really awesome drumming on stage, and to say one more goodbye to some friends. Getting back to Perugia was a breeze, no problems with my two connections in Florence and Pisa. Getting off at Castiglioncello around 11pm, I was behind three funny, kind of discombobulated German backpackers, guys about my age, looking for the beach so they could camp on it. I lead them there and they asked me about the security and if it’s good to camp on. I wasn’t really sure what to tell them cuz I’ve never tried camping on the beach in Catiglioncello, so I just told them their best bet was to find a spot and stay until they get kicked out. It was funny. I got some gelato for dinner in the park, came home to find my roommates all chilling in the kitchen so we got to share our stories about our weekends (they went to Cinque Terre!!), and I was incredibly exhausted after barely any sleep and lots of traveling but still on a high from all the excitement, but finally I made it to bed and slept like a rock. Monday was rough, but worth it in every way.
Moral of the story: I. Love. Perugia. And I love you for reading my blabbering! Thank you!
Well, in a nutshell, the title of this entry says it all. This past weekend in Perugia was epic. Incredible. Amazing. Unreal. As close as it could get to perfect, even. Etc., etc., etc. I don’t even know where to start! At the beginning, I guess. I skee-dattled out of class early on Friday, missing my second hip-hop/popping + class with the crazy, hilarious, Italian Moreno, we call him Momo. I decided I wanted more than 36 hours in Perugia, which is all that the trains would get me if I left any later on Friday or on Saturday, especially because the train strike last weekend ruined my plans of having two weekends there. So, I brought my packed backpack to class on Friday and literally ran out as soon as my rehearsal was over. No major problems getting there, only the one hour delay of my train out of Florence that wound up getting me to Perugia at 9:30 instead of 8:30, but it was okay because that’s still a decent hour (for a Friday night, at least). Stepping off the train to the (very crowded, because of Umbria Jazz going on) Perugia train station was SO surreal. I immediately tried to soak it in and let it hit me that I was really there. I took the mini metro up to the center and emerged onto the main road, Corso Vannucci, from a familiar side street right near my old apartment on Via Bonazzi. The center was jam-packed with people walking, dancing, and drinking accompanied by the concert going on the huge stage set up in the main plaza called Piazza IV Noviembre. It was unreal. I probably stuck out like a sore thumb, in my bright coral summer dress and giant backpack, and all the while I was smiling like a loon and taking huge breaths inhaling the smell and trying to take it all in, all among people dressed up in their best and partying on the streets. I was shaking a little I was so excited! I made my way through the crowds and called Mauro who directed me to his apartment right by the Universita per Stranieri. He gave me a giant hug when I made it up there, he feels like one of my best friends even though we only met a few months ago and haven’t even spoken much since I was last in Perugia. I then met a couch surfer who was also staying with Mauro, Alice from Australia. She was really sweet. Mauro went and got us some pizza while I showered the traveling and the day’s dance classes off (when I had left for the station earlier I was already dripping. Too much detail? Too bad.) At midnight, we went out to the center, to Dempsey’s obviously, and I saw EVERYONE! Seriously, I think every Perugian who I met when in the fall who still lives there I ran into in the center. It was so much fun—a lot of them didn’t know I was coming back, and most of them I hadn’t even spoken to since I was last in Perugia, so when I tapped them on the shoulder and they turned around, their reactions were insane! They flipped. For all they knew, I went back to America and that’s all she wrote, and there I was right in front of them. So, there were lots of wide eyes, squeals, and enormous hugs! I also met lots of new people—because of the jazz fest, there were like 10x as many people around. From New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the States, England. Coincidentally, there was an Australian guy who talked with Alice for a while, and it turns out that not only are they from the same city and area of the city (Melbourne), but this guy had taken Alice’s older sister to a prom some years ago. Crazy! We walked around the center and stopped at the two big outdoor stages, watching really fun blues bands. Alice and I got convinced to go to Domus with Sofia, Yannick, and others, and we danced there until 5am. I always tell myself that I’m not going to go there, and somehow I always wind up there … haha. Elisha, if you’re reading this, you know what I mean, right?! On the way back, it was surprisingly still hopping in the center—a bunch of guys had formed some sort of a ghetto drum circle (garbage bins, etc.) next to the stairs and there was quite an eclectic group of people dancing the night away.
I surprisingly only slept a few hours—I think just knowing that I was in Perugia and time was limited, my body didn’t let me sleep too far into the day. Mauro went off to get some errands done, and since he only had one extra set of keys, Alice and I stuck together. It was a nice, yet windy day (wearing a dress was unwise), and I had the intention to take the fullest advantage of being in Perugia. I took Alice to all my favorite places. But first, haha, we met this weird awkward Italian guy named Andrea at the fountain because the night before, at Domus, Alice met him and had drunkenly agreed to meet him in the afternoon. It was pretty awkward, haha—first, I was surprised he even remembered to come in the first place, but Alice soon realized that it was a really dumb idea. He seemed like a perfectly nice guy, but he spoke barely any English. So, he just kind of awkwardly came with us as I walked us around the center, I tried to help translate so the two of them could talk. So, I took Alice and Andrea past my old apartment and the next door gelato place (my favoriteeeee), and to Piazza Italia so they could see the incredible view from there. I also took them to Pierto’s pizza place, Pizzeria Etrusca, the first pizzeria my roomies and I went to on our first day in Perugia. Even the guy who works there recognized me! And I got the 4 cheese pizza that I still dream about, yessss. Andrea finally peaced out after the pizza, and Alice went back to Mauro’s for a nap, and I stopped at Fashion Bar and reunited with crazy, awesome Flavia. She was very happy to see me and it was just like old times! I stood at the bar as customers came and went, I just watched her work and she would sing along to the songs playing on the speakers, we talked like we used to (mostly in Italian, she still doesn’t know much English), and she even made me take drinks to some customers outside, hahaha she used to do that all the time too. Her customers outside kind of laughed at me because I was laughing, I told Flavia “non lavoro qui!” (I don’t work here!). Hahaha but it was so perfect. After hanging there for a while, I took more walks around the center, going back to all my favorite panoramas of the countryside and my other favorite spots, of course stopping for the biscottino gelato at the gelateria that I still dream about. I probably walked back and forth on Corso Vannucci 10 times, just back and forth, back and forth. I also finally got a hold of Antonio, and stopped by his apartment and got to hang out with him for a while, it was so great to see him. I found Alice in Piazza Italia and we headed back to Mauro’s for some pasta and then back out to the center to see a great band play whose set we had caught the end of the night before. The three of us had a great time jamming. In the evening, after a power nap and some dinner, we went back out to the center and I ran into even more people—even people who I had (don’t tell!) kind of forgotten about. In fact, crazy story. Alice was supposed to stay with another person when couch surfing, and for some reason they didn’t communicate in time and that’s how she wound up at Mauro’s. She didn’t know this guy, named Francesco, they had only met via the couch surfing website, but they thought it would be nice to just meet for a drink in the center. So, I went with her to meet them in front of Dempseys, and who is waiting there to meet us but Francesco #2 and Francesco #3 (as they were in my cell phone in the fall), the roommates who I had met in the fall and hung out with a bunch of times with the girls. It was, just, so wild. Of all the people, of all the Francescos (cuz, if you haven’t caught on, there are a lottt of them), what a coincidence. We watched the Soul Spinners, a great band from Memphis!, play in the center, and I ran into Antonio again—we were coincidentally standing right behind him in the crowd. For the rest of the evening, Mauro and I just continued to go to our usual places, including Merlin where I ran into MJ and also Tim, who has since moved back to the Netherlands but was just there for the week, so it was so nice that our time overlapped. At this point it was already 3am and I was exhausted, so I went back and went to bed while Mauro and Alice went to Domus. There was NO way I was even going to leave time to be convinced to go again, hahaha.
And no, sorry sisters + Kathleen, very unfortunately I did not make it to James Taylor—we stopped by the box office earlier in the day and it was already sold out =(.
On Sunday morning, Mauro and I both woke up earlier than we wanted to (the bells woke me up at 9). So, he and I got a cappuccino and cornetto at Bar Duomo and then took a really nice, really long walk. There is a church and park down kind of away from the center that I always wanted to go to in the fall but never made it there, so we walked there together. We went inside the beautiful cathedral and watched a little bit of the mass going on, and then explored around the park a bit more. And we took the really long way home, walking around the center along the road that had no shoulder, but the continuous breath-taking view of the Umbrian countryside was so worth it. We cut through the underground city, stopping at some exhibits down there of Jazz + American history (interestingly enough). We stopped at the festival for some lunch and more live jazz, and barely made it back to the apartment we were so exhausted because we had been out and about for over 2 hours! Hot and sore from our “adventure in flip flops”, we just relaxed in the apartment. But it was such a nice morning/afternoon. Mauro and I had a great chat, he shared some cool Perugian history with me, and it was a really fantastic way to just enjoy being there. On my way to the train station I stopped at the Piazza one more time to see the really awesome drumming on stage, and to say one more goodbye to some friends. Getting back to Perugia was a breeze, no problems with my two connections in Florence and Pisa. Getting off at Castiglioncello around 11pm, I was behind three funny, kind of discombobulated German backpackers, guys about my age, looking for the beach so they could camp on it. I lead them there and they asked me about the security and if it’s good to camp on. I wasn’t really sure what to tell them cuz I’ve never tried camping on the beach in Catiglioncello, so I just told them their best bet was to find a spot and stay until they get kicked out. It was funny. I got some gelato for dinner in the park, came home to find my roommates all chilling in the kitchen so we got to share our stories about our weekends (they went to Cinque Terre!!), and I was incredibly exhausted after barely any sleep and lots of traveling but still on a high from all the excitement, but finally I made it to bed and slept like a rock. Monday was rough, but worth it in every way.
Moral of the story: I. Love. Perugia. And I love you for reading my blabbering! Thank you!
Friday, July 17, 2009
A Perugia!!!!!
ciao all!! this is just a very quick hi from my second home, the beautiful city of Perugia. I arrived an hour late because my train was delayed, arghh, but I finally made it and I am here with Maurooooo!!! I am so so so happy to be here and Umbria Jazz is going on so its crazy in the center and there are people everywhere!! I just had pizza and wine with Mauro and Alice, a couch surfer from Australia who is staying with Mauro- she is really cool! I cannot find the apostrophe on Mauros computer so sorry for sounding kind of weird without contractions in my sentances ... haha. We are about to go out and about and I am so excitedddd. Gotta go now, but just to report that I am so giddy and cannot stop smiling just to be back here. More later, including pictures and videos. Tomorrow is juicy tomato JAMES TAYLORRRRRR!!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Lunedi (Monday)
Eccomi, hello! After a long, difficult, exhausting, and fun week, I’m back to the blog! I’ll get right to it—since I last wrote, here’s what’s happened:
On average it’s been 8 hours each day of dancing:
9-12:30 two technique classes in the morning (one of two contemporary classes with Amy or Nicole and then jazz with Bob)
an hourish lunch break
1:30ish-3:00 rehearsal for the student choreographers’ pieces
3:00-4:30 a contemporary composition class. With Nicole, we’re learning and practicing ways to create a piece—how to inspire ourselves, elements to consider, etc. In the end we’re going to be creating solos. In Amy’s composition class, the material we’ve been working with (it began with improving around the building outside, that was pretty entertaining consider the gym is in the middle of a residential area so the Italians were giving us looks/laughing at us as we were wrapping ourselves around trees and crazy modern dancer stuff like that), we’re doing a bunch of contact-ish duets. I think it’s going to be beautiful.
Then at 4:30 we have repertory class with Bob in which he teaches us routines in a variety of styles of jazz.
Around 6:30, we walk back to the apartment and make dinner, while hanging out with/borrowing dishes and ingredients and utensils and stoves (when our gas wasn’t working) and showers (some of us don’t get hot water) with the 8 other people in my program who live right next to us. Then it’s usually out for a gelato--there’s a couple great gelaterias near our place, one’s called Peter Panna which I think is pretty clever (panna means cream, it’s a common flavor of gelato), and then I’m in bed by 10:30.
I’ve been able to practice my Italian a little bit more because a really sweet Italian girl named Laura joined us for the week. She’s from Florence and got some sort of scholarship to take classes with us for a week. She spoke barely any English and she and Sophia, a girl from Greece who lives in the Netherlands but is here for the summer to dance/vacation wound up joining us for lunch almost every day this week. Laura and I talked a lot, mostly in Italian, and I’ve been serving as her translator so the other girls can talk with her too. It’s good practice. She unfortunately is already back in Florence, I hope we can meet up again before I leave.
On Thursday night, Pola (program director) organized a group dinner for all of us including faculty at a chic new bar and restaurant. This place was straight up GORGEOUS. The place itself was brand new and stylish inside, and it is right on the water. We had the whole balcony to ourselves that overlooks the sea, and for 5 euro a person we got three courses of delicious homemade pasta, seafood rice (yuck…), and a salad, and lots of wine. After mingling with full stomachs and a little buzzed from the wine, we—faculty and all—went up to the roof where there was a DJ and danced the night away to our favorite tunes. It was a late night but soo much fun—tons of food and wine for a fantastic price, and dancing on the roof next to the Mediterranean with 20 other people who love to dance!
I had the whole weekend planned to visit Perugia, but to my disappointment (but honestly, I was not surprised), a train strike ruined my plans. We weren’t exactly sure how the trains were going to run, and even though it was a regional train strike that only took effect in Tuscany (which is where Castiglioncello and Florence are, and I had to switch trains in Florence), I wasn’t sure if I could get back here for classes in time on Monday from Perugia, so I decided not to risk it. I was really disappointed but no matter what happens this coming weekend with strikes and all that, I WILL get to Perugia, even if it means missing a class. There are people I really want to see and some business to take care of. Everyone in my program except me and three other girls went away this weekend, working around the train strike. Most of them, including my roomies, got up at the crack of dawn and headed to Rome for the day. I woke up at 7:45, which is when my alarm goes off during the week for class, and could not go back to sleep, so I got up, went grocery shopping, cleaned the apartment, and made a little video for you all that tours my apartment (see Facebook!). Then Ariel from across the hall and I went to the beach! A friend of Pola’s named Simona owns one of the private beaches that is really close to our apartment- in fact, we can see her green and yellow umbrellas from my window. She helped move us in when we first got here, and she told us and Pola continues to remind us that we were welcome down there anytime and we could lie on the sand (I took a walk along the beach on the way to class on Friday and found that I was mistaken—the public beaches are sand, not rock) we didn’t have to pay. So, we found Simona, and she led us to two lounge chairs and an umbrella! We found out later that it’s normally 50euro for two chairs and an umbrella, and she let us lie there all day and told her staff not to charge us for anything, and kept coming back to check on us to make sure we were doing okay. It was SO sweet! Ariel and I spent the whole day there, taking a break from the sun to go into the PERFECT water. They even had warm showers right next to the water where we could wash the salt off before we went to lie back down. On the way back to our apartment around 5:30, we went to Bar Porticiollo, a seaview bar/restaurant that is right across from our apartment, and got a mimosa. It was the definition of “the life.” After we showered we were too tired to make dinner so we treated ourselves to a nice meal out. We ordered some bruschetta, which turned out being more than just fresh tomato. Two did have tomato, two had prosciutto, and two had a grey-ish topping with the consistency of pesto that we both thought was some sort of fish. We tasted it together, it was nasty. We asked the waitress what it was. It was chicken liver. I guess I can check that off my list. Yay? When we were waiting for our check a nasty guy wearing a black muscle shirt with a Playboy bunny on it sat down at our table and tried to offer us 50 euro and our check to come sit at his table for two minutes. I didn’t understand the rest of his Italian, but he was gross and his friend was laughing and I think they just wanted to see us squirm so I just crossed my arms and looked at him angrily and said no, sorry, we’re leaving. He begged and persisted and he was annoying and I just kept telling him no. It was weird and I didn’t get it cuz we were in a fairly nice restaurant and a part of me suspected that he was some sort of prostitute. Maybe it was the playboy shirt that threw me off. Ew. Anyways, we got out of there pronto and walked off our food around town for a bit. When we came back from dinner the rest of the crew arrived from Rome and we all went to bed.
Yesterday, we all slept in and then went back to Simona’s beach, where she once again let us soak up the sun, swim, and shade. I went back in the water twice, and once swam all the way out the end of the rock bed (I’d say about 100 feet from the shore), and sunned on some big flat rocks with Aili and Noelle, two of my neighbors. I was lazy bum around the apartment for the rest of the day. I finished my book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It was a really, really, really amazing read. Light and heavy at the same time. I’ve never smiled so much and had such a knot in my stomach while reading. I wound up taking a nap because I was worn out from the sun and the book made me sad. Then Amber and I made green beens and rosemary mashed potatoes. Go us!
This morning Nicole taught a Western African class!! We even had a live African drummer! It was siick. Bob is leaving on Thursday (booo, I’m sad, I love his class) and since the Indian dance teacher’s aren’t coming anymore, I’m glad there will be some variety. The hip hop teacher comes this week, I’m scared, rumor has it that he’s mostly popping and locking which we all know I cannot do. It’ll be an adventure, ha. But it will be a fun week and I’ll most definitely be in Perugia this weekend so I’m excited!
I’ve been trying to take pictures but I don’t really have time to upload them yet, unfortunately. Maybe this week, though!
As always, thanks for reading, sorry if it bored you, and I hope everyone is having a splendid time with whatever life has brought to you right now. Ciao!
P.S. not sure why I feel the need to include this, but whatever, I will anyway. I had the freakiest dream that included Michael Jackson last night. It was one of those really long, really realistic dreams that was really wacked out. It involved me and Melissa and someone else who were somehow Michael Jackson’s prisoners and we were jumping trains and hiding under seats of boats and buses and buying plane tickets to countries that I don’t even know if they exist to escape him, but no matter when we did we thought we were safe and then he would come out of nowhere right up to us along the streets/in train stations/airports and just casually grab our arms and say in his creepy voice something like “you thought you can get away, you never can” and lead us back to wherever he was keeping us. He was wearing a bright red suit and a black fedora hat and I remember everyone being like OMG IT’S MICHAEL JACKSON and they would crowd around him and be like I LOVE YOU MICHAEL but I was mad because he kept finding us. I woke up kind of confused cuz I was like whereee did that come from, and was even more confused when I remembered that he’s dead now. What the hey?
On average it’s been 8 hours each day of dancing:
9-12:30 two technique classes in the morning (one of two contemporary classes with Amy or Nicole and then jazz with Bob)
an hourish lunch break
1:30ish-3:00 rehearsal for the student choreographers’ pieces
3:00-4:30 a contemporary composition class. With Nicole, we’re learning and practicing ways to create a piece—how to inspire ourselves, elements to consider, etc. In the end we’re going to be creating solos. In Amy’s composition class, the material we’ve been working with (it began with improving around the building outside, that was pretty entertaining consider the gym is in the middle of a residential area so the Italians were giving us looks/laughing at us as we were wrapping ourselves around trees and crazy modern dancer stuff like that), we’re doing a bunch of contact-ish duets. I think it’s going to be beautiful.
Then at 4:30 we have repertory class with Bob in which he teaches us routines in a variety of styles of jazz.
Around 6:30, we walk back to the apartment and make dinner, while hanging out with/borrowing dishes and ingredients and utensils and stoves (when our gas wasn’t working) and showers (some of us don’t get hot water) with the 8 other people in my program who live right next to us. Then it’s usually out for a gelato--there’s a couple great gelaterias near our place, one’s called Peter Panna which I think is pretty clever (panna means cream, it’s a common flavor of gelato), and then I’m in bed by 10:30.
I’ve been able to practice my Italian a little bit more because a really sweet Italian girl named Laura joined us for the week. She’s from Florence and got some sort of scholarship to take classes with us for a week. She spoke barely any English and she and Sophia, a girl from Greece who lives in the Netherlands but is here for the summer to dance/vacation wound up joining us for lunch almost every day this week. Laura and I talked a lot, mostly in Italian, and I’ve been serving as her translator so the other girls can talk with her too. It’s good practice. She unfortunately is already back in Florence, I hope we can meet up again before I leave.
On Thursday night, Pola (program director) organized a group dinner for all of us including faculty at a chic new bar and restaurant. This place was straight up GORGEOUS. The place itself was brand new and stylish inside, and it is right on the water. We had the whole balcony to ourselves that overlooks the sea, and for 5 euro a person we got three courses of delicious homemade pasta, seafood rice (yuck…), and a salad, and lots of wine. After mingling with full stomachs and a little buzzed from the wine, we—faculty and all—went up to the roof where there was a DJ and danced the night away to our favorite tunes. It was a late night but soo much fun—tons of food and wine for a fantastic price, and dancing on the roof next to the Mediterranean with 20 other people who love to dance!
I had the whole weekend planned to visit Perugia, but to my disappointment (but honestly, I was not surprised), a train strike ruined my plans. We weren’t exactly sure how the trains were going to run, and even though it was a regional train strike that only took effect in Tuscany (which is where Castiglioncello and Florence are, and I had to switch trains in Florence), I wasn’t sure if I could get back here for classes in time on Monday from Perugia, so I decided not to risk it. I was really disappointed but no matter what happens this coming weekend with strikes and all that, I WILL get to Perugia, even if it means missing a class. There are people I really want to see and some business to take care of. Everyone in my program except me and three other girls went away this weekend, working around the train strike. Most of them, including my roomies, got up at the crack of dawn and headed to Rome for the day. I woke up at 7:45, which is when my alarm goes off during the week for class, and could not go back to sleep, so I got up, went grocery shopping, cleaned the apartment, and made a little video for you all that tours my apartment (see Facebook!). Then Ariel from across the hall and I went to the beach! A friend of Pola’s named Simona owns one of the private beaches that is really close to our apartment- in fact, we can see her green and yellow umbrellas from my window. She helped move us in when we first got here, and she told us and Pola continues to remind us that we were welcome down there anytime and we could lie on the sand (I took a walk along the beach on the way to class on Friday and found that I was mistaken—the public beaches are sand, not rock) we didn’t have to pay. So, we found Simona, and she led us to two lounge chairs and an umbrella! We found out later that it’s normally 50euro for two chairs and an umbrella, and she let us lie there all day and told her staff not to charge us for anything, and kept coming back to check on us to make sure we were doing okay. It was SO sweet! Ariel and I spent the whole day there, taking a break from the sun to go into the PERFECT water. They even had warm showers right next to the water where we could wash the salt off before we went to lie back down. On the way back to our apartment around 5:30, we went to Bar Porticiollo, a seaview bar/restaurant that is right across from our apartment, and got a mimosa. It was the definition of “the life.” After we showered we were too tired to make dinner so we treated ourselves to a nice meal out. We ordered some bruschetta, which turned out being more than just fresh tomato. Two did have tomato, two had prosciutto, and two had a grey-ish topping with the consistency of pesto that we both thought was some sort of fish. We tasted it together, it was nasty. We asked the waitress what it was. It was chicken liver. I guess I can check that off my list. Yay? When we were waiting for our check a nasty guy wearing a black muscle shirt with a Playboy bunny on it sat down at our table and tried to offer us 50 euro and our check to come sit at his table for two minutes. I didn’t understand the rest of his Italian, but he was gross and his friend was laughing and I think they just wanted to see us squirm so I just crossed my arms and looked at him angrily and said no, sorry, we’re leaving. He begged and persisted and he was annoying and I just kept telling him no. It was weird and I didn’t get it cuz we were in a fairly nice restaurant and a part of me suspected that he was some sort of prostitute. Maybe it was the playboy shirt that threw me off. Ew. Anyways, we got out of there pronto and walked off our food around town for a bit. When we came back from dinner the rest of the crew arrived from Rome and we all went to bed.
Yesterday, we all slept in and then went back to Simona’s beach, where she once again let us soak up the sun, swim, and shade. I went back in the water twice, and once swam all the way out the end of the rock bed (I’d say about 100 feet from the shore), and sunned on some big flat rocks with Aili and Noelle, two of my neighbors. I was lazy bum around the apartment for the rest of the day. I finished my book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It was a really, really, really amazing read. Light and heavy at the same time. I’ve never smiled so much and had such a knot in my stomach while reading. I wound up taking a nap because I was worn out from the sun and the book made me sad. Then Amber and I made green beens and rosemary mashed potatoes. Go us!
This morning Nicole taught a Western African class!! We even had a live African drummer! It was siick. Bob is leaving on Thursday (booo, I’m sad, I love his class) and since the Indian dance teacher’s aren’t coming anymore, I’m glad there will be some variety. The hip hop teacher comes this week, I’m scared, rumor has it that he’s mostly popping and locking which we all know I cannot do. It’ll be an adventure, ha. But it will be a fun week and I’ll most definitely be in Perugia this weekend so I’m excited!
I’ve been trying to take pictures but I don’t really have time to upload them yet, unfortunately. Maybe this week, though!
As always, thanks for reading, sorry if it bored you, and I hope everyone is having a splendid time with whatever life has brought to you right now. Ciao!
P.S. not sure why I feel the need to include this, but whatever, I will anyway. I had the freakiest dream that included Michael Jackson last night. It was one of those really long, really realistic dreams that was really wacked out. It involved me and Melissa and someone else who were somehow Michael Jackson’s prisoners and we were jumping trains and hiding under seats of boats and buses and buying plane tickets to countries that I don’t even know if they exist to escape him, but no matter when we did we thought we were safe and then he would come out of nowhere right up to us along the streets/in train stations/airports and just casually grab our arms and say in his creepy voice something like “you thought you can get away, you never can” and lead us back to wherever he was keeping us. He was wearing a bright red suit and a black fedora hat and I remember everyone being like OMG IT’S MICHAEL JACKSON and they would crowd around him and be like I LOVE YOU MICHAEL but I was mad because he kept finding us. I woke up kind of confused cuz I was like whereee did that come from, and was even more confused when I remembered that he’s dead now. What the hey?
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Il Mare
There were white tops on the sea today. I could hear the breeze blowing and waves crashing from my kitchen window. Bellissimo.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Castiglioncello! My next Italian Adventure
Ciao ciao ciao a tutti da Castiglioncello (that’s “cast-ing-yon-CHELL-o”), Italia! Yes, I’m here, and yes, I owe y’all a whole bunch of blogging. This one’s gonna be random paragraph-filled and long as per usual, and in the random order in which I think of things. Obviously, I’m not getting easy internet access over here. I need to pay for WiFi and there are only a few places I can do that, and because of my schedule I don’t have the energy or desire to run around looking for where I can find the cheapest signal. So, this is the official apology for being m.i.a. for this month. I’m trying my best to keep track of events, though, so when I do get online I can post these. Although you know I care for you all dearly (and thanks again for checking in with my blog), it is fantastic and liberating to not have the internet. And so far, I don’t even feel a need to have it. I have a phone which keeps me in contact with my Perugian friends and the fam (and any of you others who want to call me!), and other than that, I spend my days dancing and my evenings eating gelato/resting my very sore body/learning my way around the town. I’m glad I don’t have it here to distract me, and it’s nice to kind of go back in time and live like them old folks did without internet. A part of me wishes it was still like that.
First, answers the two questions that all three of my family members with whom I have spoken with so far have asked me, so you all must be dying to know (sarcasm)—
UNO: ankle’s doing great so far! In general it’s a bit more sore than my left but my entire body is aching. But I am still being careful, taping it, I told my teachers that it happened, but so far it has not been a problem and has not gotten my way. WOOO!!
DUE: yes, my Italian is coming back little by little. I am one out of three of us who have any knowledge of Italian so many people are relying on me to help them, so it has kind of forced me to get back into that mindset. But I’m getting there and I remember how much I love that mindset.
And now, the adventure begins.
Getting here was fine. I still can’t believe I did it all on my own. I spent a night in a hotel on JFK property during which I just flipped through channel after channel of Michael Jackson news/stories on the tv, ate an entire small pizza, and attempted to get a good night’s sleep but was so nervous I was not at all successful. In general, the trip was a tad lonely and the few hours during my 12 hour layover in London when it was very very early morning body time and the hoppin’ time at the airport was quite rough. I was so tired and out of it that I tried to order scrambled eggs on toast from a restaurant in the terminal but only managed to articulate “scrambled toast on bread, no, ah, sorry, I mean, the bread on eggs, no, uhh …” until the guy behind the bar just figured it out and gave me a look that I think was a combination of confusion/amusement/sympathy. Ehhhmmmarassing. Once I got to the Pisa airport, I met up with a few other kids from the program and got a van ride (about an hour) to our apartments in Catiglioncello.
My apartment is quaint and cute. Best part by far is our outstanding view from the kitchen of the seaaaaa. We can see motor boats docked, waterside restaurants, and people on the rock beaches and a big span of clear, sparkling blue water. We are still learning the works of the apartment. We have to choose between hot water and power because when the water is on, we lose power. Our land lady speaks no English, so we are just going to leave it be. I share a double room with Summer from San Diego, and Amber from Michigan and Chrissy from Boston share the other room. Our beds are hard as rock, unfortunately. I might start sleeping on the couch that’s in our kitchen because it’s loads more comfortable, especially for our very, very, very sore bodies that are dancing about 7 hours a day and walking 20 minutes to and from the studio to the apartments. But, I swear, I’m not complaining! It’s humbling and necessary to live somewhat uncomfortably at times. It helps you realize what we take for granted and how others survive just fine with things being a little less accessible. Less than perfect is ideal and, to me, kind of lovable. Today I didn’t even turn on the hot water before my shower. I just … didn’t need it. This experience is about challenging myself, anyway, so this is a good way to apply that.
Speaking of sore bodies! The reason I’m here is, obviously, dance dance dance! It’s only been two days of dance, and boy am I feeling it! Thursday and Friday we had two classes in the morning- one contemporary class and one jazz class (the jazz class is taught by a Denison alum!), and in the afternoons we had a 3 hour master class with David Dorfman, well recognized name in the contemporary dance world. All three classes= awesomeeeee. The environment here is a really safe one to learn. Since it’s a small program—there are only 20 of us—they have already learned all of our names (and we know each other’s) and have gotten a sense of our own styles, strengths and weaknesses, personalities, etc. and can cater to those to give constructive criticism. I am SO glad that the teachers have an interest in what we want to get out of our time here and help facilitate an environment in which they can challenge and inspire us while having fun. I love being here with people of all different ages – from 18 to 50ish—who come from different backgrounds but are all here for the same reason, and that is that we love to dance. It’s also nice to be around passionate dancers because already I’ve been able to have some intelligent and interesting conversations about dance in general as an art, choreographing, being in class, teaching, our different experiences, etc. There are also student choreography pieces—I’ve been casted in both of them!—that we auditioned for and will perform at the end, along with pieces that the faculty are going to audition next week and set. Those rehearsals will be in the afternoons/evenings after technique classes. So tonssss of dancing. Getting out of bed/up from a sitting position is painful and we sound like a bunch of old people with our moaning and groaning. Muscles I didn’t even know existed have even joined in on the fun.
One thing I’m really bummed about, though, is that we are no longer learning Indian dance. I guess the teachers, who were coming from India and who have been coming to this for many summers now, were for no reason denied their visas. Booo, I was really looking forward to that. But the hip hop teacher is still coming, in two weeks. Not really sure what to expect from that, but it will be a challenge for sure. But that’s good, because that’s why I’m here
This weekend, we went to Florence to see some of the people in my program perform. We all had the opportunity to put something together, anything we wanted. I really wanted to, but because of my ankle I couldn’t get it together in time. It was technically a competition- it was dancers from my program ProDanza Italia/USA, another international dance program, and two Italian dance programs out of Florence (one was from the University of Florence), and it took place on a Roman ampitheater on the hills of Florence overlooking the city in an area called Fiesole. It was gorgeoussss. We watched a bit of the tech rehearsal, and then me and 6 other girls found a nice pizzeria and had a great dinner and then walked around the market across the street. The evening performance was great, it was interesting to see similarities and differences between Italian and American’s approach to dance. I really wish I could have perfomed, just for the thrill of it. The second half of the show got rained out, though (rain in Florence—what a surprise, right? This marks my fourth time in Florence and the fourth time it rained), although it had already been 2 hours! We took a bus to our hostel, a pretty creepy/crappy one, and then our tour guide Dario, a really funny guy in his 30’s (he is a friend of the program director’s) took us to find food because we were realllly hungry. The problem was it was already 1:00am. Dario found a pizzeria and these poor old Italian women were closing up shop but we were 20 very hungry Americans and a translator who was determined to make sure we got fed and a chance to celebrate the 4th of July so they basically reopened for us. If I were them, I would have told us obnoxious Americans to go away, haha, but it was so very kind of them to reopen, they served us lots and lots of pizza and Dario was like “wine for everyone? Si?”. Those poor restaurant owners. They probably hated us because we were loud and many but we left them a good tip even though it’s not standard to leave one. On Sunday, most of the other dancers stayed to tour Florence, but I was exhausted (and had already done Florence three times) so I took the train back to Castiglioncello (it’s about 2 hours) with two girls who live in the apartment across from me, Mallory from Virginia and Arielle from California. Then another girl, Sarah from San Diego, and I went for a walk in the tent market in what we call the pine park- a man-made park with nice walkways and lots of trees and places to buy cute things and fresh food, and then to la spiagga (the beach)! Most of the beach areas here are private, and the whole span is solid rock. There is no sand. The public beaches are mostly set on concrete platforms with umbrellas and nice chairs. So, getting comfortable in the public spans (especially without a beach towel, which I didn’t pack, go me) was a bit difficult but the sun and water were perfect. So perfect. So I didn’t mind the rocks. All the Italians were laying on them, so if they can be comfortable on them, why can’t I?
I have already spoken on the phone with two of my very good friends in Perugia—Mauro and Antonio—and I will see both of them when I go to Perugia. Mauro is even letting me stay with him, yay. I am planning on going for at least one weekend, but as the days have gone on here I realize that I would love to be in Perugia for more than 36 hours (because of the 5 hours to travel there from Castiglioncello) because I’m here and so close, and most people here will be travelling to places I have been before on the weekends, so why not be in Perugia for two weekends? So, I might actually go this coming weekend, the 11th-12th, as long as the following weekend (during which I MIGHTT see James Taylor perform at Umbria Jazz, the huge famous international jazz festival happening there right now!) so I can spend a decent, relaxed time in my favorite city. Castiglioncello is so different from Perugia—it’s a beach town so it’s much more casual, and it’s beautiful, and it’s new, but I have to admit that it is no Perugia. I think about Perugia all the time.
Sheesh, I am hungry. Haven’t eaten much today. Breakfast at the hostel this morning was pretty fantastic—stale, unsalted bread, chunky coffee, warm water, warm whole milk, and cereal I like to call “hostel flakes” because they have had them in every hostel I’ve been, they’re basically like corn flakes, but gross. Time for some substance--I am going to make myself some gnocchi with pesto, my fave! Go give your eyes a rest, sorry for wearing them out. Piu dopo (more later) and, always, thanks for reading. A presto!
First, answers the two questions that all three of my family members with whom I have spoken with so far have asked me, so you all must be dying to know (sarcasm)—
UNO: ankle’s doing great so far! In general it’s a bit more sore than my left but my entire body is aching. But I am still being careful, taping it, I told my teachers that it happened, but so far it has not been a problem and has not gotten my way. WOOO!!
DUE: yes, my Italian is coming back little by little. I am one out of three of us who have any knowledge of Italian so many people are relying on me to help them, so it has kind of forced me to get back into that mindset. But I’m getting there and I remember how much I love that mindset.
And now, the adventure begins.
Getting here was fine. I still can’t believe I did it all on my own. I spent a night in a hotel on JFK property during which I just flipped through channel after channel of Michael Jackson news/stories on the tv, ate an entire small pizza, and attempted to get a good night’s sleep but was so nervous I was not at all successful. In general, the trip was a tad lonely and the few hours during my 12 hour layover in London when it was very very early morning body time and the hoppin’ time at the airport was quite rough. I was so tired and out of it that I tried to order scrambled eggs on toast from a restaurant in the terminal but only managed to articulate “scrambled toast on bread, no, ah, sorry, I mean, the bread on eggs, no, uhh …” until the guy behind the bar just figured it out and gave me a look that I think was a combination of confusion/amusement/sympathy. Ehhhmmmarassing. Once I got to the Pisa airport, I met up with a few other kids from the program and got a van ride (about an hour) to our apartments in Catiglioncello.
My apartment is quaint and cute. Best part by far is our outstanding view from the kitchen of the seaaaaa. We can see motor boats docked, waterside restaurants, and people on the rock beaches and a big span of clear, sparkling blue water. We are still learning the works of the apartment. We have to choose between hot water and power because when the water is on, we lose power. Our land lady speaks no English, so we are just going to leave it be. I share a double room with Summer from San Diego, and Amber from Michigan and Chrissy from Boston share the other room. Our beds are hard as rock, unfortunately. I might start sleeping on the couch that’s in our kitchen because it’s loads more comfortable, especially for our very, very, very sore bodies that are dancing about 7 hours a day and walking 20 minutes to and from the studio to the apartments. But, I swear, I’m not complaining! It’s humbling and necessary to live somewhat uncomfortably at times. It helps you realize what we take for granted and how others survive just fine with things being a little less accessible. Less than perfect is ideal and, to me, kind of lovable. Today I didn’t even turn on the hot water before my shower. I just … didn’t need it. This experience is about challenging myself, anyway, so this is a good way to apply that.
Speaking of sore bodies! The reason I’m here is, obviously, dance dance dance! It’s only been two days of dance, and boy am I feeling it! Thursday and Friday we had two classes in the morning- one contemporary class and one jazz class (the jazz class is taught by a Denison alum!), and in the afternoons we had a 3 hour master class with David Dorfman, well recognized name in the contemporary dance world. All three classes= awesomeeeee. The environment here is a really safe one to learn. Since it’s a small program—there are only 20 of us—they have already learned all of our names (and we know each other’s) and have gotten a sense of our own styles, strengths and weaknesses, personalities, etc. and can cater to those to give constructive criticism. I am SO glad that the teachers have an interest in what we want to get out of our time here and help facilitate an environment in which they can challenge and inspire us while having fun. I love being here with people of all different ages – from 18 to 50ish—who come from different backgrounds but are all here for the same reason, and that is that we love to dance. It’s also nice to be around passionate dancers because already I’ve been able to have some intelligent and interesting conversations about dance in general as an art, choreographing, being in class, teaching, our different experiences, etc. There are also student choreography pieces—I’ve been casted in both of them!—that we auditioned for and will perform at the end, along with pieces that the faculty are going to audition next week and set. Those rehearsals will be in the afternoons/evenings after technique classes. So tonssss of dancing. Getting out of bed/up from a sitting position is painful and we sound like a bunch of old people with our moaning and groaning. Muscles I didn’t even know existed have even joined in on the fun.
One thing I’m really bummed about, though, is that we are no longer learning Indian dance. I guess the teachers, who were coming from India and who have been coming to this for many summers now, were for no reason denied their visas. Booo, I was really looking forward to that. But the hip hop teacher is still coming, in two weeks. Not really sure what to expect from that, but it will be a challenge for sure. But that’s good, because that’s why I’m here
This weekend, we went to Florence to see some of the people in my program perform. We all had the opportunity to put something together, anything we wanted. I really wanted to, but because of my ankle I couldn’t get it together in time. It was technically a competition- it was dancers from my program ProDanza Italia/USA, another international dance program, and two Italian dance programs out of Florence (one was from the University of Florence), and it took place on a Roman ampitheater on the hills of Florence overlooking the city in an area called Fiesole. It was gorgeoussss. We watched a bit of the tech rehearsal, and then me and 6 other girls found a nice pizzeria and had a great dinner and then walked around the market across the street. The evening performance was great, it was interesting to see similarities and differences between Italian and American’s approach to dance. I really wish I could have perfomed, just for the thrill of it. The second half of the show got rained out, though (rain in Florence—what a surprise, right? This marks my fourth time in Florence and the fourth time it rained), although it had already been 2 hours! We took a bus to our hostel, a pretty creepy/crappy one, and then our tour guide Dario, a really funny guy in his 30’s (he is a friend of the program director’s) took us to find food because we were realllly hungry. The problem was it was already 1:00am. Dario found a pizzeria and these poor old Italian women were closing up shop but we were 20 very hungry Americans and a translator who was determined to make sure we got fed and a chance to celebrate the 4th of July so they basically reopened for us. If I were them, I would have told us obnoxious Americans to go away, haha, but it was so very kind of them to reopen, they served us lots and lots of pizza and Dario was like “wine for everyone? Si?”. Those poor restaurant owners. They probably hated us because we were loud and many but we left them a good tip even though it’s not standard to leave one. On Sunday, most of the other dancers stayed to tour Florence, but I was exhausted (and had already done Florence three times) so I took the train back to Castiglioncello (it’s about 2 hours) with two girls who live in the apartment across from me, Mallory from Virginia and Arielle from California. Then another girl, Sarah from San Diego, and I went for a walk in the tent market in what we call the pine park- a man-made park with nice walkways and lots of trees and places to buy cute things and fresh food, and then to la spiagga (the beach)! Most of the beach areas here are private, and the whole span is solid rock. There is no sand. The public beaches are mostly set on concrete platforms with umbrellas and nice chairs. So, getting comfortable in the public spans (especially without a beach towel, which I didn’t pack, go me) was a bit difficult but the sun and water were perfect. So perfect. So I didn’t mind the rocks. All the Italians were laying on them, so if they can be comfortable on them, why can’t I?
I have already spoken on the phone with two of my very good friends in Perugia—Mauro and Antonio—and I will see both of them when I go to Perugia. Mauro is even letting me stay with him, yay. I am planning on going for at least one weekend, but as the days have gone on here I realize that I would love to be in Perugia for more than 36 hours (because of the 5 hours to travel there from Castiglioncello) because I’m here and so close, and most people here will be travelling to places I have been before on the weekends, so why not be in Perugia for two weekends? So, I might actually go this coming weekend, the 11th-12th, as long as the following weekend (during which I MIGHTT see James Taylor perform at Umbria Jazz, the huge famous international jazz festival happening there right now!) so I can spend a decent, relaxed time in my favorite city. Castiglioncello is so different from Perugia—it’s a beach town so it’s much more casual, and it’s beautiful, and it’s new, but I have to admit that it is no Perugia. I think about Perugia all the time.
Sheesh, I am hungry. Haven’t eaten much today. Breakfast at the hostel this morning was pretty fantastic—stale, unsalted bread, chunky coffee, warm water, warm whole milk, and cereal I like to call “hostel flakes” because they have had them in every hostel I’ve been, they’re basically like corn flakes, but gross. Time for some substance--I am going to make myself some gnocchi with pesto, my fave! Go give your eyes a rest, sorry for wearing them out. Piu dopo (more later) and, always, thanks for reading. A presto!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving! BAM in Venezia
Current location: on a train, somewhere in between Bologna and Rome. It’s my first Thanksgiving not in Ithaca. But, I am so thankful to have Melissa and Bari here so I’m not alone on one of my favorite American holidays. So, instead of eating the greatest meal of the year in Ithaca with the fam, BAM spent Thanksgiving in the one and only city on the water- Venice. After spending a couple rainy days in my Perugia sweet Perugia, we somewhat spontaneously decided to take a trip to Venice. We were there for a perfect 24 hours. We arrived yesterday (Wednesday) around 4:30, took a water bus, and found our way to our FANTASTIC hostel off the Fondamente Nove waterbus stop just as the sun began to set. First, what a nice man at the desk at the hostel, and what a great room! We started walking towards St. Mark’s Square, and on the way we found some adorable shops, including the most memorable book store, The Most Beautiful Book Store in the World. Piazza San Marco was breathtaking upon it’s first appearance to us- everything has such a different charm and peace to them at night. It was just beautiful!! While standing in the empty square we called the family to wish them a happy thanksgiving and to tell them we were in Venice! What a surprise to them! Then we found ourselves a cute restaurant where I FINALLY got some good Italian profiteroles (an Italian dessert). I can’t believe it took me this long to get some, but they were worth the wait. Yummy.
On Thursday, we got breakfast delivered to our room from the guy who runs the hostel! And it was a legit full breakfast, with croissants, rolls, nutella, jams, tea, and orange juice! We were up and out by 9 and we went to go see St. Mark’s square by day. They had the platforms up because due to the crappy weather this week, the square was flooded. Fortunately, it cleared up later in the day and we were able to frolick with the famous pigeons in the square, but until then we did a super cool tour of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge Palace). It had some pretty fantastic rooms, including the enormous council room that had enormous frescoes on the wall and a giant clock that had 24 roman numeral digits and went counter clockwise. My favorite part of the palace, though, was the dungeons- we walked across the bridge of sighs (*siiigh*) and into the prison cells. And yeeesh. I am never committing a crime … in the 15th century … they were not at all comfortable. The coolest part of that section was in one cell they had an exhibit of drawings/sketches that one prisoner somehow managed to put on the wall of his cell. I don’t know how they got it in a display case … maybe it was plastered? I dunno, but it was pretty wild to see those. Then, we went inside St. Mark’s Basilica. Again … wow. I didn’t know that the entire ceiling as well as the design on the outside is actually a mosaic. The background color is gold, and it was seriously enchanting. I’m really glad we went inside. Then, our last sight-seeing destination was the bell tower. Once again, we timed things perfectly- we got to the top just in time to hear the bell ring at noon. So besides that exhilarating aspect, the view was incredible. We could see Venice and beyond, all the way to the Alps. So glad it was a clear (although cold) day.
After lunch and some more shopping, we rode back to Perugia and upon our return, made ourselves a pretty kick-butt Thanksgiving dinner (if I do say so myself) of gnocchi with pesto and salad. Happy Thanksgiving!
On Friday we went to Assisi, a small yet famous I guess? town an hour bus ride from Perugia. Before going, we read about St. Francis, for whom the big church there and other things are for. If you get a chance, go read about this guy. He was the MAN. Basically, he was the son of wealthy nobility, but he got a calling from god to lead a life of poverty, compassion, and equality. So one day, Francesco (his Italian name, and I figured out that the reason why so many Perugians are named Francesco is because they are named after this saint) stood in front of his father and his whole town and stipped naked, declaring his new life. He accepted everyone with equality, including women, and eventually gathered some followers. The monks who now live in Assisi (we saw them everywhere) are some of them. It was really interesting to read about. Seriously, if you have time, just look up some stuff on him on the internet. I found it very inspiring. Once again, I’ve never been a very spiritual person and do not feel a strong connection to Jesus (obviously), but the story and the history behind St. Francis of Assisi was really interesting to me. Oh italy, you sure are turning me into an art history, architect-noticin’, saint-lovin’ girl. Assisi is also an adorable town- we were only there for a couple hours but I would have no problem having another go at it, cuz there were a few things in the guide book that we missed.
The one last adventure that Italy provided for us was the bus home- somehow we missed something between the lines, because the bus that we got that was full of Italian middle schoolers apparently did not stop in Perugia, even though the info at the bus stop said it did. We dunno what happened, but the bus driver was on a very rainy highway not going towards Perugia and told me in Italian that that was the last stop. Umm, what? But he was very kind and called his other bus driver friend, dropped us in some ugly random town, and we waited for 20 minutes and another bus heading to Perugia picked us up. Hahaa, whoops.
What a BAM-ful week! I saw them off very early on Saturday morning. I was so thankful for them coming, again. Not only did it let me to re-discover Perugia for my self as I showed them around and give me an excuse to eat as much gelato as possible, but I got to be their tour guide in their first experience in Europe and have the company of people who have known me the longest. Yay family =)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Visiting with Leo
This weekend past weekend was the field trip for my Leonardo da Vinci class. I had to catch a bus at 6:43am (ugh) to a rainy Florence (this is my third time in Florence, and I’m three for three for rain. I hope someday I can see it in the sunshine). After 3 hours we arrived at the Museo nazionale del Bargello. The exhibit we primarily stopped there to see was, unfortunately, closed (ha, that’s Italy)- we were supposed to see some of Andrea del Verrochio’s work, who was Leonardo da Vinci’s mentor and teacher. Instead ,we got to look around at some Michaelangelo sculptures. Then, we went to the famous Uffizi!! Where we saw three great Leonardo da Vincis: The Baptism of Christ, which was done by Verrochio and Leonardo in Verrochio’s workshop when Leo was still very young. Leonardo painted part of it (if you bother to look it up on the internet, look at the two angels on the left. Leo painted the on the far left and also the landscape behind the angels), and it was so exquisite compared to Verrochio’s work that Verrochio, showed up by his young pupil, decided it was better that he stick to sculpturing. Apparantly Verrochio never picked up a paintbrush again. We also saw Leo’s Annunciation, and his unfinished Adoration of the Kings. Although we were there for Leo, my favorite part of the Uffizi was two paintings by Botticelli in the next room. Botticelli was another prominent painter during Leo’s time who my professor has mentioned a couple times in my Leonardo class. So, I don’t know much about him but in my boredom of my own reading a few weeks ago I wound up flipping through Carly’s Renaissance Art History book and flipped to a page that talked about Botticelli’s two most famous works, the Birth of Venus and Primavera. They are so beautiful- I love the Greek mythology and the interpretations of all the stories. Every painter of the time interpreted it differently.
After the Uffizi, a couple of my classmates and I got lunch and hit up the flea market. I’ve decided that the Florence is definitely my favorite that I’ve seen. It was the first European market I had ever been to in my life, and I have yet to find one that beats it. After shopping, a very nice Polish guy directed us towards the Palazzo Vecchio (means old palace- it still serves as the Town Hall in Florence) where we had to meet the rest of the class, cuz my awful sense of direction got us walking the wrong way. The Palazzo Vecchio was super cool- we had seen pictures of it and it was cool to be inside. On the giant walls is where Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were commissioned to paint frescoes of two famous battles. The frescoes were barely started, and they were eventually covered up by frescoes by another painter some years later. However, somehow there is proof (dunno how all this high-tech art history detecting equipment works), that what Leo began on the wall of the Battle of Aghiari remains underneath the painting that is on the wall now. The giant room was lined by statues, some by Michaelangelo. I saw another statue that caught my eye immediately, a new favorite along with the one of the opera performer one I saw in the Accademia which I failed to get the name of. This one was a sculpture depicting Florence’s defeat of Pisa, personified. Florence was represented by a woman, and Pisa by a man. And the woman was obviously kicking butt, and the man was begging for mercy. The feminist in me was very satisfied =).
Then we hopped back on the bus and rode 4.5 hours to Milan, where we checked into our very nice hotel in the outskirts of the center. Abbey, Shannon, (girls from my class) and I took the metro into the center, where we met Shannon’s roommates, found a great little restaurant for dinner where I had some spiced gnocchi and traditional Milanese risotto, and later I called Dhana and met her in front of the Duomo! We hung out and walked around the center for about an hour and a half, and it was so great that I got to see her twice in 3 weekends! Then Abbey, Shannon, and I hopped on the metro to get back to the hotel, but I guess we weren’t paying good enough attention and we realized that we were on the wrong line- it forked off the wrong way. We got off as soon as we noticed, tried to run to get on the metro going in the other direction, but it was 12:31 and we had missed the last metro of the night by one minute. So, after walking back and forth down a road and past the same bar like 4 times, we went into a hotel and got a map and some directions from two very nice Italian men and we walked about 10 blocks to the hotel. Once again, none of us were worried and we just saw it as an adventure. It was fun and we just kept laughing at ourselves/our situation, but we were relieved to see the hotel after a 20 minute walk in the very windy cold.
The next morning, we went to a private museum called the Ambriosa and saw one more Leo called A portrait of a musician (a guy with a red hat on, long hair, you might have seen it around …), and work by some Leonardo followers. After that, we walked to the Santa Maria delle Grazie for our long-awaited viewing of The Last Supper. I wasn’t expecting much … I mean I was excited because of all the hype about it, but I hadn’t really heard much of it before this class and I knew it was important because we had to make the reservation 2 months in advance. But after standing in a room to get sterilized, I walked into the barren room and there it was, this enormous, beautiful fresco in front of me. I was breathless for a second, and I don’t really know why. It was just … incredible. And I had no idea it was so large. It’s like, 8ft x 25ft or something like that (I suck at measurements … but you get it … it’s ginormous). But … ahhh. I don’t know how else to describe it. I think part of my surprise was it’s fantastic condition. It recently went through an 11-year cleaning and restoration process, but all the images of it we had seen in class were all from before the cleaning, so I was so taken by the detail, rich colors, and immense clarity. We only got 15 minutes to gaggle at it, but Shannon, Abbey and I all agreed that it was sooo not what we were expecting. I didn’t want to leave after 15 minutes … it wasn’t enough. I am still surprised at my own reaction, especially cuz I’ve never been that much of an art geek but it really was beautiful and I am so lucky that I got the opportunity to see it!
After The Last Supper, we went to the Sforza castle yay!, but this time we went inside and took a look around the museum where we saw a ceiling that Leo painted, and another famous Michaelangelo statue (although I guess it’s not that famous because I forgot the name of it already). Then, it was back on the bus, and a 5.5 hour ride back to Perugia, where I rushed off the bus to go down to the train station to greet MELISSA and my cousin BARI! I won’t go into details, but there was some confusion, lack of communication, and worrying, but after a stressful hour of waiting around the train station wondering where the heck they were, we found each other and it was time to begin our BAM weekend in Italy!!!
After the Uffizi, a couple of my classmates and I got lunch and hit up the flea market. I’ve decided that the Florence is definitely my favorite that I’ve seen. It was the first European market I had ever been to in my life, and I have yet to find one that beats it. After shopping, a very nice Polish guy directed us towards the Palazzo Vecchio (means old palace- it still serves as the Town Hall in Florence) where we had to meet the rest of the class, cuz my awful sense of direction got us walking the wrong way. The Palazzo Vecchio was super cool- we had seen pictures of it and it was cool to be inside. On the giant walls is where Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were commissioned to paint frescoes of two famous battles. The frescoes were barely started, and they were eventually covered up by frescoes by another painter some years later. However, somehow there is proof (dunno how all this high-tech art history detecting equipment works), that what Leo began on the wall of the Battle of Aghiari remains underneath the painting that is on the wall now. The giant room was lined by statues, some by Michaelangelo. I saw another statue that caught my eye immediately, a new favorite along with the one of the opera performer one I saw in the Accademia which I failed to get the name of. This one was a sculpture depicting Florence’s defeat of Pisa, personified. Florence was represented by a woman, and Pisa by a man. And the woman was obviously kicking butt, and the man was begging for mercy. The feminist in me was very satisfied =).
Then we hopped back on the bus and rode 4.5 hours to Milan, where we checked into our very nice hotel in the outskirts of the center. Abbey, Shannon, (girls from my class) and I took the metro into the center, where we met Shannon’s roommates, found a great little restaurant for dinner where I had some spiced gnocchi and traditional Milanese risotto, and later I called Dhana and met her in front of the Duomo! We hung out and walked around the center for about an hour and a half, and it was so great that I got to see her twice in 3 weekends! Then Abbey, Shannon, and I hopped on the metro to get back to the hotel, but I guess we weren’t paying good enough attention and we realized that we were on the wrong line- it forked off the wrong way. We got off as soon as we noticed, tried to run to get on the metro going in the other direction, but it was 12:31 and we had missed the last metro of the night by one minute. So, after walking back and forth down a road and past the same bar like 4 times, we went into a hotel and got a map and some directions from two very nice Italian men and we walked about 10 blocks to the hotel. Once again, none of us were worried and we just saw it as an adventure. It was fun and we just kept laughing at ourselves/our situation, but we were relieved to see the hotel after a 20 minute walk in the very windy cold.
The next morning, we went to a private museum called the Ambriosa and saw one more Leo called A portrait of a musician (a guy with a red hat on, long hair, you might have seen it around …), and work by some Leonardo followers. After that, we walked to the Santa Maria delle Grazie for our long-awaited viewing of The Last Supper. I wasn’t expecting much … I mean I was excited because of all the hype about it, but I hadn’t really heard much of it before this class and I knew it was important because we had to make the reservation 2 months in advance. But after standing in a room to get sterilized, I walked into the barren room and there it was, this enormous, beautiful fresco in front of me. I was breathless for a second, and I don’t really know why. It was just … incredible. And I had no idea it was so large. It’s like, 8ft x 25ft or something like that (I suck at measurements … but you get it … it’s ginormous). But … ahhh. I don’t know how else to describe it. I think part of my surprise was it’s fantastic condition. It recently went through an 11-year cleaning and restoration process, but all the images of it we had seen in class were all from before the cleaning, so I was so taken by the detail, rich colors, and immense clarity. We only got 15 minutes to gaggle at it, but Shannon, Abbey and I all agreed that it was sooo not what we were expecting. I didn’t want to leave after 15 minutes … it wasn’t enough. I am still surprised at my own reaction, especially cuz I’ve never been that much of an art geek but it really was beautiful and I am so lucky that I got the opportunity to see it!
After The Last Supper, we went to the Sforza castle yay!, but this time we went inside and took a look around the museum where we saw a ceiling that Leo painted, and another famous Michaelangelo statue (although I guess it’s not that famous because I forgot the name of it already). Then, it was back on the bus, and a 5.5 hour ride back to Perugia, where I rushed off the bus to go down to the train station to greet MELISSA and my cousin BARI! I won’t go into details, but there was some confusion, lack of communication, and worrying, but after a stressful hour of waiting around the train station wondering where the heck they were, we found each other and it was time to begin our BAM weekend in Italy!!!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
I wrote this right after my fall break, it's time to post.
This is one of the many things that my travels thus far have taught me:
When only traveling through cities for a few days, it’s tough to have the opportunity to embrace the city’s real life. Usually, you have a little bit of time which you use to hit the big touristy stuff. Although those attractions are a must-see, that stuff usually doesn’t give you a good sense of true culture in these cities. So, the best way to get an authentic cultural experience is through the one thing that everyone wants and needs- FOOD. As you all know, I am always an advocate of eating, but this is only part of the reason why I seriously suggest this for any future travelers. You have to eat, so you might as well take the extra few minutes to search for the most authentic meals you can while abroad. Food is the best because you’re never going to get it anywhere else (restaurants in the states, even if they are authentic, don’t count in my opinion), and it’s not something you can get from a postcard, a photograph, or in stories. Those are all ways through which you can remember your experiences vicariously, but food IS the experience. You’ll remember exactly how it tasted and how it felt; and that, exactly that, is something you will not ever get again. In all honesty, a lot of I remember the most about the cities to which I’ve traveled is what I ate. Personally it’s been a big step for me - trying to embrace culture through my stomach has enabled me to briefly get over my disgust in some food groups (seafood) for a second and give them a whirl. So yes, dad, I tasted mussels and tuna steak…and wait for it … squid (eek!) in a seafood paella in Barcelona. Yeeaackk. They all tasted the same- nasty and fishy, but seafood paella is a classic Spanish meal, especially in cities on the coast like Barcelona, so I felt a duty to taste it. I also sampled lots of sangria in Barcelona- but how can you blame me? It’s native to the area, and it’s delicious. I had no problem embracing English food culture- an enormous, greasy hamburger, French fries, hot soup, Strongbow (my first ever drink on tap- it’s a sweet cider mixed with beer), cheddar cheese, and an “English breakfast” with bacon, eggs, hash browns, beans, toast, and tea. Yup, no problem there. And since that’s what they normally eat there, I don’t consider it cheating. The same thing of course applied in Greece. No complaints here either. I ate as much Greek food as my stomach and wallet allowed. And of course while living in Italy I’m doing the same thing with food. There is no way I am ever going to enjoy American pizza again after the 1 euro slices I can get everyday here. And the gnocchi, the cheese, tomatoes, the fresh pasta, the wine, the pesto …
Case in point: as my father says, mangia mangia (eat eat).
So yeah, yes, there’s my paragraph on food. I didn’t even get to talk the chocolate baklava from the bakery… that could have a paragraph of its own …
When only traveling through cities for a few days, it’s tough to have the opportunity to embrace the city’s real life. Usually, you have a little bit of time which you use to hit the big touristy stuff. Although those attractions are a must-see, that stuff usually doesn’t give you a good sense of true culture in these cities. So, the best way to get an authentic cultural experience is through the one thing that everyone wants and needs- FOOD. As you all know, I am always an advocate of eating, but this is only part of the reason why I seriously suggest this for any future travelers. You have to eat, so you might as well take the extra few minutes to search for the most authentic meals you can while abroad. Food is the best because you’re never going to get it anywhere else (restaurants in the states, even if they are authentic, don’t count in my opinion), and it’s not something you can get from a postcard, a photograph, or in stories. Those are all ways through which you can remember your experiences vicariously, but food IS the experience. You’ll remember exactly how it tasted and how it felt; and that, exactly that, is something you will not ever get again. In all honesty, a lot of I remember the most about the cities to which I’ve traveled is what I ate. Personally it’s been a big step for me - trying to embrace culture through my stomach has enabled me to briefly get over my disgust in some food groups (seafood) for a second and give them a whirl. So yes, dad, I tasted mussels and tuna steak…and wait for it … squid (eek!) in a seafood paella in Barcelona. Yeeaackk. They all tasted the same- nasty and fishy, but seafood paella is a classic Spanish meal, especially in cities on the coast like Barcelona, so I felt a duty to taste it. I also sampled lots of sangria in Barcelona- but how can you blame me? It’s native to the area, and it’s delicious. I had no problem embracing English food culture- an enormous, greasy hamburger, French fries, hot soup, Strongbow (my first ever drink on tap- it’s a sweet cider mixed with beer), cheddar cheese, and an “English breakfast” with bacon, eggs, hash browns, beans, toast, and tea. Yup, no problem there. And since that’s what they normally eat there, I don’t consider it cheating. The same thing of course applied in Greece. No complaints here either. I ate as much Greek food as my stomach and wallet allowed. And of course while living in Italy I’m doing the same thing with food. There is no way I am ever going to enjoy American pizza again after the 1 euro slices I can get everyday here. And the gnocchi, the cheese, tomatoes, the fresh pasta, the wine, the pesto …
Case in point: as my father says, mangia mangia (eat eat).
So yeah, yes, there’s my paragraph on food. I didn’t even get to talk the chocolate baklava from the bakery… that could have a paragraph of its own …
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
No fabrications. Just adventure.
So, the my blogging in the last couple weeks shows how things have been going over here- school things have piled up so unfortunately I haven’t been able to update you guys on the awesome things that have been going on in between. But I HAVE been keeping good track in my real journal so I could eventually write these in here. So, despite their belated-y (don’t think that’s a word), here are some more records of life in Italia!
My weekend in Milano! I feel like I deserved this weekend. I kind of decided on a whim that this would be a great weekend to travel to Milan to see Dhana. For those of you who don’t know Dhana, she’s an Italy native who was an exchange student at my high school during senior year. She quickly joined my group of friends during her time at Penfield, and we’ve kept after graduation (thanks Facebook!). She’s now going to school in Milan and insisted on me coming to see her when I was over here for the semester. Anyways, I hadn’t been out of Perugia for a while and it felt time to do something by myself and for myself. The idea of travelling on my own was a bit unsettling, but I wanted to challenge myself so that obviously didn’t stop me.
So, Dhana is an absolute sweetheart (Dhana, if you’re reading this, you rock!) and it was so great to see her. Although we weren’t really that close during senior year, she embraced me as if we were and she made me feel so comfortable. And, as a bonus, Erin (Mahany) (another Penfielder) was in Milan visiting Dhana for a couple days during her fall break from studying in London, so there was another familiar face to see. We went strolling and shopping around the city as the sun went down, and I got my first glimpse of the Duomo of Milan. Ohhh umm wow. I unfortunately didn’t have my camera on me but I can remember the way it looked in the twilight- it was almost glowing. It was like how Pisa looked at night 4 years ago, radiating in the dark.
For dinner, I had hands down THE most enormous pizza I have ever attempted to stomach in my life. It was a giant cheese pizza with parmesan and eggplant.
Random interesting fact that I learned in my History & Culture of Food in Italy class: the Italian word for eggplant is “melanzane”. The name comes from a combination of “mela” (Italian for apple) and “nzane”, like the English world “insane”. When eggplant crop first got introduced, it appeared to the Italians as a strange looking apple, and they thought it was poisonous. Therefore, they named it the “insane apple”. Thanks, Peter Fischer, for that!
Let’s see if I can explain this pizza … the plate was about twice the size of my face, and the pizza was hanging off the edge all around by about an inch. Thankfully, living in Italy for three months has prepared me for this, and my expanded stomach did pretty well with finishing about ¾ of it. It was obviously amazing, and thought I would never eat again.
The pizza.
We spent the rest of the evening in the apartment, for our plans to go out on the town failed miserably due to our laziness. Instead, the three of us spent time catching up and reminiscing about high school. Lots of memories there.
On Saturday, we did more shopping (what else is there to do in Milan, anyways?). Unfortunately, we didn’t get to climb to the top of the Duomo, but we DID see all the other sights, the famous ridiculous streets of window shopping that I feel like I’m not even wealthy enough to look at, and we went to the top floor of the 7 story department store that gives us a great view of the top of the Duomo. And up there on that top floor where there was a restaurant and gourmet food for sale, we saw a bottle of 100euro olive oil, and my favorite: 95euro for “refined spring water from Beverly Hills” in a glass bottle with “bling” written in rhinestones. Yeah.
We also got some gelato (caffe & panna cotta), and I put my heel on the famous bull on the floor near the duomo and spun three times for good luck, and I bought myself a nice pashmina scarf that I can now say I got in Milan! Airforce Military jets flew over the city when we were there. Twice. It was strange and kind of scary, no one knows why they were there.
Me at the duomo!
After gelato and last shopping came my favorite part- The Palazzo Sforzesca (The Sforza castle). Another historical fact, this time from my Leonardo da Vinci class (wow, my classes are really coming in handy in this entry!): Ludivico Sforza was the Duke of Milan in the late 1400s, and Leonardo da Vinci lived in Milan and worked for him for about 20 years. He commissioned the painting of The Last Supper (which is in the Santa Maria delle Grazie church very close to the Sforza palace).
Aaaanyways, sorry if you couldn’t give a hoot about the history, but that was for Maddie (hehehee), the palace was sa-weeeet. We walked through to an amazing and enormous courtyard, through some smaller gardens, and out to the park behind it. It was away from the hustle & bustle of the city, and besides running into a couple tourists, we mostly saw locals taking a jog and couples walking hand-in-hand and cuddling on the benches. I love that it’s possible to put a park like that in the middle of a city. We were there as the sun set- it was incredibly peaceful and romantic. I was content there and very glad that Dhana made that one of our stops.
With Erin & Dhana at the fountain in front of the Sforza Palace.
Erin had to catch a train, and after she left we had dinner at Dhana’s apartment of 4 kinds of pasta/risotto at the apartment. Then, we (me, Dhana, Dhana’s boyfriend Matteo, and Dhana’s roommate Julia), went to Rolling Stone, a concert venue/discoteca. They were having some kind of International Student week, so they had to pretend to be French to get in, but they did, and … rave. Inside was, essentially, nzane (insane. Like insane. Get it? GET IT?!). Huuge. Double dance floors- one was on the second floor, surrounded by sound-proof glass so they could play different music. The atmosphere was a bit overwhelming at first- strobe lights, scary/twitching stuff playing on repeating TV screens, loud music, crowded. We got a drink and danced! Danced! Danced! It was mostly rock music (which I have noticed Italians love to dance to … I find it difficult) but they also played some awesomely random selections such as This Thing Called Love (and yes, I OBVIOUSLY did the dance from the Roost). The club closed at 4:30, and since the trams weren’t running that late, we walked all the way back to her apartment. We got back around 5:30 and crashed.
On Sunday, we slept in (obviously), and during breakfast/lunch we watched the 2008 MTV Europe music awards. This is only worth mentioning because it was OBAMA MANIA! It was out of this world- it’s like he’s a rock star. Except, he’s our next President, and Europe is ALL over it. In the half an hour that we watched, there were enormous references to/chants cheering for/things like Katie Perry’s sequined dress of the face of Barack Obama. It is just … crazy. I can’t believe how his worshipped over here. How all of this is so powerful, popular, and prevalent overseas. What is it like in the U.S.?
Then it was time for me to go back to Perugia, and boy did that begin an adventure. First, we got the train station 15 minutes before the train I was planning on taking left, but all the ticket machines wouldn’t let me buy a ticket, and we found out the train was full. Thankfully there was another train leaving 15 minutes later that I got a ticket for, but what happened to me with the first train must have happened to lots of other people, because it had 3x as many people as it should have. It was one of the compartment trains. I spent the first 2 hours squatting/curled up on my backpack on the floor in the very very narrow hallway outside the compartments. Luckily I snagged a seat when I did, about 2 hours to my connecting stop in Arezzo. The train kept filling up as we got closer to Arezzo, and it got to the point where all the compartments were full, people were standing in the compartments, all the seats in the hallway were taken, and people were standing on both sides of the compartments in between the seats. It was quite unpleasant. I sat there and thought, “ohh, so THIS is why people pay an extra 15 euro for an express train (which I took to Milan and it was soo nice) …
The only reason I caught my train out of Arezzo to Perugia is I followed some girls I heard talking on the train about going to Perugia as well- I didn’t know what time the train left Arezzo, but I knew the lay over was short I heard the girls talking about having to run. Thankfully I saw them out of the corner of my eye when I got off the train- they jumped off the train, across the platform, and jumped on the other train directly parallel to the one we just got off. I was about to run and double check the sign to make sure it was the right train, but then I heard the release of air that meant it was about to leave, so I just got on the train and hoped that it was the right one. I thankfully had walked onto a car on which I immediately saw someone else who I recognized from my program, so I knew I was on the right train. I was so thankful to not be travelling completely by myself anymore, so I sat next down to the kid I recognized and we wound up chatting the whole way back to Perugia about our travels and abroad experiences. I was glad he was with me when we got off the train too, because we had to track down a bus to take us back up the center since we missed the last mini-metro by 5 minutes. It was nice to meet someone else and to share stories and experiences about being here.
My weekend in Milano! I feel like I deserved this weekend. I kind of decided on a whim that this would be a great weekend to travel to Milan to see Dhana. For those of you who don’t know Dhana, she’s an Italy native who was an exchange student at my high school during senior year. She quickly joined my group of friends during her time at Penfield, and we’ve kept after graduation (thanks Facebook!). She’s now going to school in Milan and insisted on me coming to see her when I was over here for the semester. Anyways, I hadn’t been out of Perugia for a while and it felt time to do something by myself and for myself. The idea of travelling on my own was a bit unsettling, but I wanted to challenge myself so that obviously didn’t stop me.
So, Dhana is an absolute sweetheart (Dhana, if you’re reading this, you rock!) and it was so great to see her. Although we weren’t really that close during senior year, she embraced me as if we were and she made me feel so comfortable. And, as a bonus, Erin (Mahany) (another Penfielder) was in Milan visiting Dhana for a couple days during her fall break from studying in London, so there was another familiar face to see. We went strolling and shopping around the city as the sun went down, and I got my first glimpse of the Duomo of Milan. Ohhh umm wow. I unfortunately didn’t have my camera on me but I can remember the way it looked in the twilight- it was almost glowing. It was like how Pisa looked at night 4 years ago, radiating in the dark.
For dinner, I had hands down THE most enormous pizza I have ever attempted to stomach in my life. It was a giant cheese pizza with parmesan and eggplant.
Random interesting fact that I learned in my History & Culture of Food in Italy class: the Italian word for eggplant is “melanzane”. The name comes from a combination of “mela” (Italian for apple) and “nzane”, like the English world “insane”. When eggplant crop first got introduced, it appeared to the Italians as a strange looking apple, and they thought it was poisonous. Therefore, they named it the “insane apple”. Thanks, Peter Fischer, for that!
Let’s see if I can explain this pizza … the plate was about twice the size of my face, and the pizza was hanging off the edge all around by about an inch. Thankfully, living in Italy for three months has prepared me for this, and my expanded stomach did pretty well with finishing about ¾ of it. It was obviously amazing, and thought I would never eat again.
The pizza.
We spent the rest of the evening in the apartment, for our plans to go out on the town failed miserably due to our laziness. Instead, the three of us spent time catching up and reminiscing about high school. Lots of memories there.
On Saturday, we did more shopping (what else is there to do in Milan, anyways?). Unfortunately, we didn’t get to climb to the top of the Duomo, but we DID see all the other sights, the famous ridiculous streets of window shopping that I feel like I’m not even wealthy enough to look at, and we went to the top floor of the 7 story department store that gives us a great view of the top of the Duomo. And up there on that top floor where there was a restaurant and gourmet food for sale, we saw a bottle of 100euro olive oil, and my favorite: 95euro for “refined spring water from Beverly Hills” in a glass bottle with “bling” written in rhinestones. Yeah.
We also got some gelato (caffe & panna cotta), and I put my heel on the famous bull on the floor near the duomo and spun three times for good luck, and I bought myself a nice pashmina scarf that I can now say I got in Milan! Airforce Military jets flew over the city when we were there. Twice. It was strange and kind of scary, no one knows why they were there.
Me at the duomo!
After gelato and last shopping came my favorite part- The Palazzo Sforzesca (The Sforza castle). Another historical fact, this time from my Leonardo da Vinci class (wow, my classes are really coming in handy in this entry!): Ludivico Sforza was the Duke of Milan in the late 1400s, and Leonardo da Vinci lived in Milan and worked for him for about 20 years. He commissioned the painting of The Last Supper (which is in the Santa Maria delle Grazie church very close to the Sforza palace).
Aaaanyways, sorry if you couldn’t give a hoot about the history, but that was for Maddie (hehehee), the palace was sa-weeeet. We walked through to an amazing and enormous courtyard, through some smaller gardens, and out to the park behind it. It was away from the hustle & bustle of the city, and besides running into a couple tourists, we mostly saw locals taking a jog and couples walking hand-in-hand and cuddling on the benches. I love that it’s possible to put a park like that in the middle of a city. We were there as the sun set- it was incredibly peaceful and romantic. I was content there and very glad that Dhana made that one of our stops.
With Erin & Dhana at the fountain in front of the Sforza Palace.
Erin had to catch a train, and after she left we had dinner at Dhana’s apartment of 4 kinds of pasta/risotto at the apartment. Then, we (me, Dhana, Dhana’s boyfriend Matteo, and Dhana’s roommate Julia), went to Rolling Stone, a concert venue/discoteca. They were having some kind of International Student week, so they had to pretend to be French to get in, but they did, and … rave. Inside was, essentially, nzane (insane. Like insane. Get it? GET IT?!). Huuge. Double dance floors- one was on the second floor, surrounded by sound-proof glass so they could play different music. The atmosphere was a bit overwhelming at first- strobe lights, scary/twitching stuff playing on repeating TV screens, loud music, crowded. We got a drink and danced! Danced! Danced! It was mostly rock music (which I have noticed Italians love to dance to … I find it difficult) but they also played some awesomely random selections such as This Thing Called Love (and yes, I OBVIOUSLY did the dance from the Roost). The club closed at 4:30, and since the trams weren’t running that late, we walked all the way back to her apartment. We got back around 5:30 and crashed.
On Sunday, we slept in (obviously), and during breakfast/lunch we watched the 2008 MTV Europe music awards. This is only worth mentioning because it was OBAMA MANIA! It was out of this world- it’s like he’s a rock star. Except, he’s our next President, and Europe is ALL over it. In the half an hour that we watched, there were enormous references to/chants cheering for/things like Katie Perry’s sequined dress of the face of Barack Obama. It is just … crazy. I can’t believe how his worshipped over here. How all of this is so powerful, popular, and prevalent overseas. What is it like in the U.S.?
Then it was time for me to go back to Perugia, and boy did that begin an adventure. First, we got the train station 15 minutes before the train I was planning on taking left, but all the ticket machines wouldn’t let me buy a ticket, and we found out the train was full. Thankfully there was another train leaving 15 minutes later that I got a ticket for, but what happened to me with the first train must have happened to lots of other people, because it had 3x as many people as it should have. It was one of the compartment trains. I spent the first 2 hours squatting/curled up on my backpack on the floor in the very very narrow hallway outside the compartments. Luckily I snagged a seat when I did, about 2 hours to my connecting stop in Arezzo. The train kept filling up as we got closer to Arezzo, and it got to the point where all the compartments were full, people were standing in the compartments, all the seats in the hallway were taken, and people were standing on both sides of the compartments in between the seats. It was quite unpleasant. I sat there and thought, “ohh, so THIS is why people pay an extra 15 euro for an express train (which I took to Milan and it was soo nice) …
The only reason I caught my train out of Arezzo to Perugia is I followed some girls I heard talking on the train about going to Perugia as well- I didn’t know what time the train left Arezzo, but I knew the lay over was short I heard the girls talking about having to run. Thankfully I saw them out of the corner of my eye when I got off the train- they jumped off the train, across the platform, and jumped on the other train directly parallel to the one we just got off. I was about to run and double check the sign to make sure it was the right train, but then I heard the release of air that meant it was about to leave, so I just got on the train and hoped that it was the right one. I thankfully had walked onto a car on which I immediately saw someone else who I recognized from my program, so I knew I was on the right train. I was so thankful to not be travelling completely by myself anymore, so I sat next down to the kid I recognized and we wound up chatting the whole way back to Perugia about our travels and abroad experiences. I was glad he was with me when we got off the train too, because we had to track down a bus to take us back up the center since we missed the last mini-metro by 5 minutes. It was nice to meet someone else and to share stories and experiences about being here.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Gyros, jean mattresses, spanakopita, souvlaki, sirs, madams, armies, ruins, hills, baklava, and 4-wheelers: ATHENS
Day VIII
All clearly needing sleep, we slept until 11. We got up and around and without any knowledge of the city or the Greek language besides as map, tried to find the beach. We were very unsuccessful and wound up at the city center of Athens. I didn’t realize how much of a city Athens really is- it didn’t feel much like I had imagined Greece would, besides all of the Greek everywhere. We checked out the flea market, did some shopping, and got our first AMAZING AMAZING gyros. A huge chunk of lamb, tsasiki sauce, onion, lettuce wrapped in a super thick pita … ahh just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Yours too, I bet. Haha, sorry. We spent all day wandering the center. We also admired the Acropolis, which just sticks up in the middle of the city, with the Parthenon just chilling there in clear view. That’s another thing that reminded me that we were actually in Greece. Besides that, I couldn’t believe we were there! For dinner, Nick, his roommate, and other friends took us to their favorite gyro place- this time I got one with chicken (they put French fries right inside), and I got a taste of the Italian I had been missing with some berry gelato. That night, we hung out with Nick’s friends and roommates and had a great time getting to know them.
Day VIII Athens
Nick and us girls took a ferry to the island called Aegina (apparently the pistachio capital of the world- they were everywhere), where we got yet another gyro (I swear I could never get sick of those), and walked around the edge of the island looking for a beach. Unfortunately, we were again unsuccessful in our beach-searching, but walking around the island was gorgeous. Despite the overcast sky, the water and surrounding mountains were so scenic. Jess, Chelsie (who met us in Greece after the first half of her break with her family), and I caught a taxi back to the port and on our way to see some ruins that we saw from the ferry, we decided to be spontaneous and rent 4-wheelers to ride around the island! Jess and I have been talking about riding on a moped/scooter/a similar vehicle ever since we got to Italy so we could NOT pass this one up (also, since my knee was in a very unhappy state at the time, it was another excuse to do it). And ahhh! It was SO much fun! I let Jess drive because I loved riding and looking around/I get nervous/people in Europe drive much differently and I didn’t want to spend too much time getting concerned about not getting killed. So with crazy Jess behind the wheel and me behind her, we sped (er … that deserves quotations … “sped” … we floored at 40) around the island. We passed Carly and Nick and Elisha and Sarah and the best part was the surprised/confused/amused look on their faces when we rode by them! We passed/ got passed by lots of Greek locals as we drove around. Half of them shot us dirty looks because we couldn’t go any faster, and half of them smiled because we probably looked ridiculous. We rode towards the ruins found another great view of the beach, and then realized we were on a one-way road and could not follow the sign we had passed earlier that lead us to the port. We asked a Greek man on a moped who was stopped near us how to get to the port and because of his lacking English he couldn’t explain well, so he just said, “come with me,” and he lead us around to bring us back to the one way street. It was so kind of him, and how funny that must have looked- a Greek man on his nice moped, and three laughing American girls mounted on two incredibly slow and noisy 4-wheelers following him around the side streets of Aegina! Twice we passed some older men doing some landscaping, and we were laughing at ourselves because we could not believe what we were doing, and they stopped their work a just laughed with us as we were stopped at their intersection. I loved their Greek smiles- brilliant white teeth against their dark, sun-kissed skin. We waved at them both times and just could not stop laughing.
Satisfied with Aegina, we took the ferry back to Athens, and when we got back a big group of us went to a taverna (family restaurant-type place, only Greek) for dinner with Nick’s roommates and friends. I got a pretty decent chicken souvlaki and a Greek salad with incredible feta. Yummm Greek food. Afterwards, a couple of Nick’s friends took us to a really nice bar where we got drinks and hung out for a while. Went to a club in Athens- check.
Day IX
We climbed the Acropolis today! Saw the Parthenon! And all the other ancient ruins! And got a 360-degree view of Athens from the Acropolis- how beautiful. It’s another really ginormous city. Around the Acropolis there are lots of other ruins and old temples that we saw. Got yet another lamb gyro for lunch from the same place from which we got our first ones on Thursday (that makes 4 gyros in 3 days … oh yess), and Sarah and I went to go see the 198(3?) Olympic stadium, which is built on top of the old old stadium, and also the nearby National Gardens. It was nice to get away from the crowds.
For dinner, Matt (one of Nick’s friends) took me, Chelsie, Elisha, and Sarah to THE BEST meal I had in Greece. It was a little taverna hidden away from the center- as soon as we walked in I knew it was was going to be perfect. The way it was decorated with old photographs and classical musical instruments of Greek folk music made it feel like the real Greece I had been waiting for. The meal was a fixed menu, kind of like tapas- little plates with a little bit of everything. Tsasiki sauce, a seasoned beef in a sauce, beans, a cheese pastry friend thing, French fries, a pastry roll thing with ham and cheese, Greek salad, homemade bread, and endless house red wine. And, to top it off, there was live music! An older, beautiful woman sang and played the guitar, wonderfully serenading us with authentic Greek songs. She was so fantastic. Everything was so wonderful! The adorable old Greek men who served us practically chased us out the door on our way out, offering us more wine … hehee. Matt took us bakery hopping on the way back, stopping to get some baklava and a strange crème brulee-esque cake and some of that chocolate baklava and three different bakeries. When we got back, we grabbed Elisha and Nick’s other roommate Caleb and they took us up the hill near their apartment, up to the highest point in Athens. We were way above the acropolis- we could see it below us. We saw the entire view of Athens by night. It was just incredible.
So, yeah, Greece: check.
Day X
A drawn return to a very chaotic Perugia on it’s last day of the Eurochocolate festival. No, I didn’t stop to look around because a) I was exhausted, b) it was too crowded, and c) it was too expensive. But don’t you fear, fellow Waldmans, I can get Perugina chocolate here anytime I want and I may just save some of it for y’all.
4 wheeling with Jess, Aegina
me & the Parthenon, gyrossss
Afterthoughts of break:
Just kidding, I’ll spare you. It’ll be posted in a few days =)
All clearly needing sleep, we slept until 11. We got up and around and without any knowledge of the city or the Greek language besides as map, tried to find the beach. We were very unsuccessful and wound up at the city center of Athens. I didn’t realize how much of a city Athens really is- it didn’t feel much like I had imagined Greece would, besides all of the Greek everywhere. We checked out the flea market, did some shopping, and got our first AMAZING AMAZING gyros. A huge chunk of lamb, tsasiki sauce, onion, lettuce wrapped in a super thick pita … ahh just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Yours too, I bet. Haha, sorry. We spent all day wandering the center. We also admired the Acropolis, which just sticks up in the middle of the city, with the Parthenon just chilling there in clear view. That’s another thing that reminded me that we were actually in Greece. Besides that, I couldn’t believe we were there! For dinner, Nick, his roommate, and other friends took us to their favorite gyro place- this time I got one with chicken (they put French fries right inside), and I got a taste of the Italian I had been missing with some berry gelato. That night, we hung out with Nick’s friends and roommates and had a great time getting to know them.
Day VIII Athens
Nick and us girls took a ferry to the island called Aegina (apparently the pistachio capital of the world- they were everywhere), where we got yet another gyro (I swear I could never get sick of those), and walked around the edge of the island looking for a beach. Unfortunately, we were again unsuccessful in our beach-searching, but walking around the island was gorgeous. Despite the overcast sky, the water and surrounding mountains were so scenic. Jess, Chelsie (who met us in Greece after the first half of her break with her family), and I caught a taxi back to the port and on our way to see some ruins that we saw from the ferry, we decided to be spontaneous and rent 4-wheelers to ride around the island! Jess and I have been talking about riding on a moped/scooter/a similar vehicle ever since we got to Italy so we could NOT pass this one up (also, since my knee was in a very unhappy state at the time, it was another excuse to do it). And ahhh! It was SO much fun! I let Jess drive because I loved riding and looking around/I get nervous/people in Europe drive much differently and I didn’t want to spend too much time getting concerned about not getting killed. So with crazy Jess behind the wheel and me behind her, we sped (er … that deserves quotations … “sped” … we floored at 40) around the island. We passed Carly and Nick and Elisha and Sarah and the best part was the surprised/confused/amused look on their faces when we rode by them! We passed/ got passed by lots of Greek locals as we drove around. Half of them shot us dirty looks because we couldn’t go any faster, and half of them smiled because we probably looked ridiculous. We rode towards the ruins found another great view of the beach, and then realized we were on a one-way road and could not follow the sign we had passed earlier that lead us to the port. We asked a Greek man on a moped who was stopped near us how to get to the port and because of his lacking English he couldn’t explain well, so he just said, “come with me,” and he lead us around to bring us back to the one way street. It was so kind of him, and how funny that must have looked- a Greek man on his nice moped, and three laughing American girls mounted on two incredibly slow and noisy 4-wheelers following him around the side streets of Aegina! Twice we passed some older men doing some landscaping, and we were laughing at ourselves because we could not believe what we were doing, and they stopped their work a just laughed with us as we were stopped at their intersection. I loved their Greek smiles- brilliant white teeth against their dark, sun-kissed skin. We waved at them both times and just could not stop laughing.
Satisfied with Aegina, we took the ferry back to Athens, and when we got back a big group of us went to a taverna (family restaurant-type place, only Greek) for dinner with Nick’s roommates and friends. I got a pretty decent chicken souvlaki and a Greek salad with incredible feta. Yummm Greek food. Afterwards, a couple of Nick’s friends took us to a really nice bar where we got drinks and hung out for a while. Went to a club in Athens- check.
Day IX
We climbed the Acropolis today! Saw the Parthenon! And all the other ancient ruins! And got a 360-degree view of Athens from the Acropolis- how beautiful. It’s another really ginormous city. Around the Acropolis there are lots of other ruins and old temples that we saw. Got yet another lamb gyro for lunch from the same place from which we got our first ones on Thursday (that makes 4 gyros in 3 days … oh yess), and Sarah and I went to go see the 198(3?) Olympic stadium, which is built on top of the old old stadium, and also the nearby National Gardens. It was nice to get away from the crowds.
For dinner, Matt (one of Nick’s friends) took me, Chelsie, Elisha, and Sarah to THE BEST meal I had in Greece. It was a little taverna hidden away from the center- as soon as we walked in I knew it was was going to be perfect. The way it was decorated with old photographs and classical musical instruments of Greek folk music made it feel like the real Greece I had been waiting for. The meal was a fixed menu, kind of like tapas- little plates with a little bit of everything. Tsasiki sauce, a seasoned beef in a sauce, beans, a cheese pastry friend thing, French fries, a pastry roll thing with ham and cheese, Greek salad, homemade bread, and endless house red wine. And, to top it off, there was live music! An older, beautiful woman sang and played the guitar, wonderfully serenading us with authentic Greek songs. She was so fantastic. Everything was so wonderful! The adorable old Greek men who served us practically chased us out the door on our way out, offering us more wine … hehee. Matt took us bakery hopping on the way back, stopping to get some baklava and a strange crème brulee-esque cake and some of that chocolate baklava and three different bakeries. When we got back, we grabbed Elisha and Nick’s other roommate Caleb and they took us up the hill near their apartment, up to the highest point in Athens. We were way above the acropolis- we could see it below us. We saw the entire view of Athens by night. It was just incredible.
So, yeah, Greece: check.
Day X
A drawn return to a very chaotic Perugia on it’s last day of the Eurochocolate festival. No, I didn’t stop to look around because a) I was exhausted, b) it was too crowded, and c) it was too expensive. But don’t you fear, fellow Waldmans, I can get Perugina chocolate here anytime I want and I may just save some of it for y’all.
4 wheeling with Jess, Aegina
me & the Parthenon, gyrossss
Afterthoughts of break:
Just kidding, I’ll spare you. It’ll be posted in a few days =)
Hospitals, hostels, high noon, cranberry, royalty, burgers, broadway, strongbow, rollercoasters, Amber alerts, and autumn: LONDON
Day V
On the plane, I definitely knew we were headed for the UK when I heard the flight attendants come around asking for “rubbish”. Just imagine it in the accent. “Rubbish? Rubbish, sir? Rubbish, anyone?”
We finally got our passports stamped at the Stansted airport!!
We missed the last tube (that’s what the metro is called in London) by 2 minutes, so we had to take a night bus and walk the 5 minutes to the hostel. But I didn’t mind the night bus- we got to see the London bridge and a glimpse of the London Eye and Big Ben by night!
The next morning there was free breakfast at the hostel, but it turned sour quickly- my roommate Carly, who has a very severe nut allergy, ate two flakes of a cereal that apparently had an almost glaze of some sort, and after panicking a bit and taking some Benedryl, (no epi pen was needed, thank goodness) she decided that she had to go see a doctor. The doctor down the street wouldn’t treat her because she wasn’t an EU citizen, so we had to take her to St. James Hospital. Just for precautionary purposes, after the initial drugs that stopped her allergic reaction, she had to stay in the hospital. So, while poor steroid and anti-histamine-full Carly slept in a hospital bed, we went and explored London. We saw Parliament, Big Ben at noon!, the London Eye (but we didn’t go on it because it was expensive and a long wait), Westminster Abbey, Picadilly Circus, St. James Park. Oh my gosh, it was all SO SO BEAUTIFUL!! And it was the first I’ve actually seen of fall since I’ve been here- in Perugia there is no grass and no trees therefore no visible proof that it’s autumn. But in London the leaves were falling, and that sweet fall smell was in the air. And the best part is that we had a most brilliant blue sky- no rain in sight for our two days in London! I guess the rain got sick of following us around in our travels. So in St. James Park we shuffled through the leaves! And that lead us to Buckingham Palace where we saw the famous guards. At one point they started very officially pacing back and forth. It wasn’t all it’s been cracked up to be, but it was still pretty wicked. I kind of wish the palace looked more like a palace, though. Its looks more like some official government building. Which I guess it is technically … We also found ourselves near some other parks whose names I cannot remember. One was right behind the Parliament building. It was a big open grassy area where there were all kinds of people we’re around. Some guys were tossing a rugby ball back and forth, a friendly soccer match was happening, and people were just strolling along. It made me realize how long it had been since I had seen a big grassy area. It was just so gorgeous- the grass was a rich green and the sky was perfectly blue and the sun was wide and bright. We chilled there for a while.
Other general highlights of the day: In St. James Park, we overheard the most hilarious conversation. I wrote down the quotes immediately in my notebook to make sure I’d get them exactly right. Again, the effect of the accent is very important- two men in their 30’s or 40’s were bickering. One very angrily said “There’s no whipped cream in society anymore. We’re in a recession- there’s no more need for whipped cream and frothy milk!” His friend annoyingly responded “Oh, shut up!” Okay it doesn’t sound funny now, but it really was hilarious.
Ever since London I’ve been trying to think of the perfect adjective to describe it. But I can’t put my finger on it. “Beautiful” just doesn’t cover it. There’s a whole other element that the entire city encompasses that gives it its charm and sophistication and class. There’s gotta be a word that means all of those things … someone with a good vocabulary help me out here. Especially if you’ve been to London (Brittany & Brynn, that’s your cue).
So after doing the sight-seeing in main street London, we picked up Carly at the hospital, got turned around trying to take a bus back to the hostel (thank goodness people there speak English or we never would have found our way), and got ready to go out for dinner and then a show! Carly and I, who had already seen Wicked, were off to Spamalot when the rest of the crew went to Wicked. First, SARAH HIN met us for dinner and we had what I had been craving of London for weeks- French fries and an enormous, juicy, hamburger. It was so delish. Spamalot was so well done- funny and a fantastic cast. The other girls of course could not stop raving about Wicked- they even got to meet the cast after the show! After our London musical experiences, we met up with Sarah again with her friend and she took us out to a popular club near Picadilly Circus (one of the main city plazas). Sarah was a sweetheart and bought us all a round of drinks and we stayed and danced for a while! Jess, Elisha, and I, who stayed the longest, got back to the hostel at 3:30 by the time we found the right night bus to take. Went to a club in London- check.
Day VI
I got myself up at 7:30 am to meet up with the one and only Alyson with a Y for breakfast!! The original restaurant at which we planned to have breakfast was closed (even though it’s a breakfast food restaurant ..?), so we just walked around and talked and found a café where I got some English tea and a real English breakfast with hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, beans, a think hunk of bacon, and toast. It was so fun catching up with my favorite name twin! Our date was sweet but all too short since I had to get back to the hostel for our last day of sight-seeing and she had class, but our hour together was definitely a highlight of the week!
We headed to Notting Hill (yeah, like the movie! No, I didn’t see Hugh Grant) for the market but it wasn’t as exciting as I was anticipating- first of all, we were all low on pounds so we could not buy anything, and everything was so expensive that we couldn’t have afforded it anyway. But Notting Hill itself is an adorable part of town. Jess and I decided that we’re buying a flat there. And we met a super cute English guy in a coffee shop who told us how to find the market who we wanted to take with us. That was mostly what Notting Hill offered to us, but I’ll take it. English men. Yummy. I dunno if it’s just me, but it seemed to me that everyy English man has searing eyes- most of them were blue or green. It was incredible. And hard not to stare. At some points during our wandering, even if we were pretty sure we knew where we were going, we found it necessary to stop a man on the street to ask for directions just so we could listen to him speak.
After Notting Hill we stopped for a quick lunch before going to the National Gallery Museum. However, we never got to the museum because Jess went next door to use the bathroom while we were stopped for lunch, and never came back. For 3 hours. We started worrying and waited there for her for the whole time. Carly and her friend went to the museum to look for her there in case she went to the museum without us, but with no avail. While the rest of us sat there, confused as to how this happened. We decided to go back to the hostel in case she was waiting for us there, and within 5 minutes of us arriving, she walked in the door. She apparently had walked two feet into the place where we were having lunch, didn’t see us, so went to the museum just thinking we would meet up later. So unfortunately while the rest of us sat there confused and starting to worry, she was able to make it to the museum.
England: check.
After we talked about never getting lost like that again haha, we took the tube to the airport for Greece! We had the gate to ourselves for a while, so we had a picnic for dinner on the floor and played cards until it was time to get on the plane. Carly’s boyfriend Nick, who was our host for Athens, picked us up at the airport and we took the bus to his apartment. We crammed ourselves in his apartment and all cuddled on the floor on top of a pseudo mattress made of the contents of our bags.
the London Eye and a blue sky, Me & Sarah jumping for joy
holding up da Big Ben, Out on the town with Hinnie
On the plane, I definitely knew we were headed for the UK when I heard the flight attendants come around asking for “rubbish”. Just imagine it in the accent. “Rubbish? Rubbish, sir? Rubbish, anyone?”
We finally got our passports stamped at the Stansted airport!!
We missed the last tube (that’s what the metro is called in London) by 2 minutes, so we had to take a night bus and walk the 5 minutes to the hostel. But I didn’t mind the night bus- we got to see the London bridge and a glimpse of the London Eye and Big Ben by night!
The next morning there was free breakfast at the hostel, but it turned sour quickly- my roommate Carly, who has a very severe nut allergy, ate two flakes of a cereal that apparently had an almost glaze of some sort, and after panicking a bit and taking some Benedryl, (no epi pen was needed, thank goodness) she decided that she had to go see a doctor. The doctor down the street wouldn’t treat her because she wasn’t an EU citizen, so we had to take her to St. James Hospital. Just for precautionary purposes, after the initial drugs that stopped her allergic reaction, she had to stay in the hospital. So, while poor steroid and anti-histamine-full Carly slept in a hospital bed, we went and explored London. We saw Parliament, Big Ben at noon!, the London Eye (but we didn’t go on it because it was expensive and a long wait), Westminster Abbey, Picadilly Circus, St. James Park. Oh my gosh, it was all SO SO BEAUTIFUL!! And it was the first I’ve actually seen of fall since I’ve been here- in Perugia there is no grass and no trees therefore no visible proof that it’s autumn. But in London the leaves were falling, and that sweet fall smell was in the air. And the best part is that we had a most brilliant blue sky- no rain in sight for our two days in London! I guess the rain got sick of following us around in our travels. So in St. James Park we shuffled through the leaves! And that lead us to Buckingham Palace where we saw the famous guards. At one point they started very officially pacing back and forth. It wasn’t all it’s been cracked up to be, but it was still pretty wicked. I kind of wish the palace looked more like a palace, though. Its looks more like some official government building. Which I guess it is technically … We also found ourselves near some other parks whose names I cannot remember. One was right behind the Parliament building. It was a big open grassy area where there were all kinds of people we’re around. Some guys were tossing a rugby ball back and forth, a friendly soccer match was happening, and people were just strolling along. It made me realize how long it had been since I had seen a big grassy area. It was just so gorgeous- the grass was a rich green and the sky was perfectly blue and the sun was wide and bright. We chilled there for a while.
Other general highlights of the day: In St. James Park, we overheard the most hilarious conversation. I wrote down the quotes immediately in my notebook to make sure I’d get them exactly right. Again, the effect of the accent is very important- two men in their 30’s or 40’s were bickering. One very angrily said “There’s no whipped cream in society anymore. We’re in a recession- there’s no more need for whipped cream and frothy milk!” His friend annoyingly responded “Oh, shut up!” Okay it doesn’t sound funny now, but it really was hilarious.
Ever since London I’ve been trying to think of the perfect adjective to describe it. But I can’t put my finger on it. “Beautiful” just doesn’t cover it. There’s a whole other element that the entire city encompasses that gives it its charm and sophistication and class. There’s gotta be a word that means all of those things … someone with a good vocabulary help me out here. Especially if you’ve been to London (Brittany & Brynn, that’s your cue).
So after doing the sight-seeing in main street London, we picked up Carly at the hospital, got turned around trying to take a bus back to the hostel (thank goodness people there speak English or we never would have found our way), and got ready to go out for dinner and then a show! Carly and I, who had already seen Wicked, were off to Spamalot when the rest of the crew went to Wicked. First, SARAH HIN met us for dinner and we had what I had been craving of London for weeks- French fries and an enormous, juicy, hamburger. It was so delish. Spamalot was so well done- funny and a fantastic cast. The other girls of course could not stop raving about Wicked- they even got to meet the cast after the show! After our London musical experiences, we met up with Sarah again with her friend and she took us out to a popular club near Picadilly Circus (one of the main city plazas). Sarah was a sweetheart and bought us all a round of drinks and we stayed and danced for a while! Jess, Elisha, and I, who stayed the longest, got back to the hostel at 3:30 by the time we found the right night bus to take. Went to a club in London- check.
Day VI
I got myself up at 7:30 am to meet up with the one and only Alyson with a Y for breakfast!! The original restaurant at which we planned to have breakfast was closed (even though it’s a breakfast food restaurant ..?), so we just walked around and talked and found a café where I got some English tea and a real English breakfast with hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, beans, a think hunk of bacon, and toast. It was so fun catching up with my favorite name twin! Our date was sweet but all too short since I had to get back to the hostel for our last day of sight-seeing and she had class, but our hour together was definitely a highlight of the week!
We headed to Notting Hill (yeah, like the movie! No, I didn’t see Hugh Grant) for the market but it wasn’t as exciting as I was anticipating- first of all, we were all low on pounds so we could not buy anything, and everything was so expensive that we couldn’t have afforded it anyway. But Notting Hill itself is an adorable part of town. Jess and I decided that we’re buying a flat there. And we met a super cute English guy in a coffee shop who told us how to find the market who we wanted to take with us. That was mostly what Notting Hill offered to us, but I’ll take it. English men. Yummy. I dunno if it’s just me, but it seemed to me that everyy English man has searing eyes- most of them were blue or green. It was incredible. And hard not to stare. At some points during our wandering, even if we were pretty sure we knew where we were going, we found it necessary to stop a man on the street to ask for directions just so we could listen to him speak.
After Notting Hill we stopped for a quick lunch before going to the National Gallery Museum. However, we never got to the museum because Jess went next door to use the bathroom while we were stopped for lunch, and never came back. For 3 hours. We started worrying and waited there for her for the whole time. Carly and her friend went to the museum to look for her there in case she went to the museum without us, but with no avail. While the rest of us sat there, confused as to how this happened. We decided to go back to the hostel in case she was waiting for us there, and within 5 minutes of us arriving, she walked in the door. She apparently had walked two feet into the place where we were having lunch, didn’t see us, so went to the museum just thinking we would meet up later. So unfortunately while the rest of us sat there confused and starting to worry, she was able to make it to the museum.
England: check.
After we talked about never getting lost like that again haha, we took the tube to the airport for Greece! We had the gate to ourselves for a while, so we had a picnic for dinner on the floor and played cards until it was time to get on the plane. Carly’s boyfriend Nick, who was our host for Athens, picked us up at the airport and we took the bus to his apartment. We crammed ourselves in his apartment and all cuddled on the floor on top of a pseudo mattress made of the contents of our bags.
the London Eye and a blue sky, Me & Sarah jumping for joy
holding up da Big Ben, Out on the town with Hinnie
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tapas, cocaine dealers, paella, statues, scaffolding, stray dogs, street performers, and sangria; BARCELONA
DAY I
As a great start to our trip, Alan saw us off in Piazza Italia where we got the bus to the airport. AND he brought us CHEDDAR CHEEEESE! From Ireland! We snacked on it while waiting for our flight! And so, I took my first RyanAir flight to Barcelona- RyanAir has a RyanAir song that they play during take off and landing. Haaahaha. We arrived in Barcelona at 6:30 and took an hour bus ride to the center. To find our hostel, instead of taking the metro like the website suggested, we decided to be bold and walk and find it ourselves. After an hour of circles and turn arounds, we found it! After getting settled in the hostel we went out in search for food- at this point, it was after 11:00, which is normal time for dinner in Spain—and we found tapas. Oh my gosh, tapas. We got a kind of friend potato with a garlic sauce, a couple kinds of meat kebabs including sesame seasoned chicken and seafood paella (which, despite it being seafood, was okay) and some amazing Spanish style bruscetta bread. And of course, I had my first ever Sangria. Uhhum, yummy.
Then we wandered and found a Hagen Daaz- real ice cream! As much as I love gelato, it was so great to have real ice cream.
Day II
Woke up to pouring rain- it seems to follow us wherever we go! But again, we didn’t let it stop us. First we caved and got some Starbucks for breakfast- I felt majorly guilty but my white chocolate mocha and blueberry muffin were so deliciousss. I tried to order in Spanish … That has been the most difficult and frustrating part of Barcelona so far. I can’t remember ANY of my Spanish. It’s all getting mixed up with Italian in my head. Like, it felt weird to be greeting people with “hola” and not “ciao”. It has made me realize, though, how much Italian I really know. But I really did forget the basics! Just hello/goodbye/thanks/excuse me/please/I’m sorry/counting has taken me a sec to process. I just want to speak Italian all the time. So anyways, we walked for a while- 40 minutes maybe-down to the central areas with AWESOME architecture and shopping. I just loved all the buildings there. Where we were reminded me of the Los Angeles Promenade that I saw this summer, Gothic style. And there were tons of vendors with cool crafts. There I did the majority of my Barcelona purchases- I got a super bold necklace that I can’t wait to try to wear without looking like an idiot, a new wallet (finally), a shrug, and some gifts for some peeps. Yeah, for you. We also found the Port of Barcelona and saw the ocean.
The most memorable part of my day- when it was lightly raining and we were shopping along the center, we were standing near a homeless man sitting on the ground. And Elisha saw him and went over to him and offered him her umbrella. It was so simple and kind and I was so inspired by it, first it made me sad that doing that didn’t even occur to me. But it has also now put that thought in my head and I will always remember it and next time, I hope it will occur to me. She said “my holy spirit spoke to me and said,
‘give that man your umbrella’ and I said ‘no, I need it’ and then I thought, ‘no, I don’t’”.
In the evening, Amanda, Sarah, and I got an extra scenic view of the city while we got turned around looking for the metro … for 45 minutes. For dinner, we went down to the bay and got Sangria that was better than the night before and Elisha and I split a huge pan of meat paella. The restaurant was a great choice- the staff and waiters were super nice, the guys from Madrid sitting next to us offered us some of their appetizer (mussels- which I tasted! Be proud!), and the Austrian men sitting on the other side of us struck up a conversation as well! Oh, and be proud of me again- I also tasted some of the other girls’ seafood paella. We even took pictures with the waiter guys, and one of them gave me his cell phone on which to listen to Bollywood music, which he sings, apparently. He said that everyone “at home” (India) says that he is the spitting image of some famous Bollywood star? Funny dude. Afterwards, we wandered over to the beach and took pictures on the bay and beach! But we had to leave after dipping our feet in the water and just enjoying ourselves because we were in freakin Spain! because some sketchy guys tried to sell Sarah drugs when she was waiting for us on the boardwalk. And that was our cue to get out of there. We got free passes on the street from a club on the bay called Catwalk- we went in for 15 minutes. Went to a club in Barcelona- check. It was crazy cool inside, but just a little intense for us after our long day. The rest of the bay was fun to walk around, though- there were some super cool buildings and a strip of real hoity toity (yeah, I said it, Andrea Mel and Maren, I hope you read that with Jack Kelly’s accent) guest-list-only clubs.
Day III
Today we toured the Gothic center! We went inside the Cathedral of Barcelona, although we didn’t get to see the outside of the Cathedral because it was under tons of scaffolding =( Boo. But outside the cathedral was a band of older men playing instruments (not very well …. Haha) and a few groups of people folk dancing in a circle in the square!! Yay! Afterwards we just did tons more walking around the Gothic center and shopping center and took tons of pics. On the way back to the hostel we watched a group of 4 funny guys put on a hip hop street dancing show. Then everyone else went to see the Sagrada Famiglia cathedral but my stupid knee sent me back to the hostel to sit down and ice. Arghh.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called QuQu where I got some delicious chicken and (yes, Andrea) profiterol! Funny that my first profiterol was in Spain …. It was okay but I was just excited to have some of it! Then we had a couple drinks at a bar near our hostel where we had a chance to talk to some girls from California who were staying at our hostel as well.
Day IV
We took the metro and climbed the HUGE hill up to Parque Guell where there was an amazing amazing amazing panoramic view of the entire city, facing the water (the bay where we were the day before). I didn’t realize how enormous Barcelona is- it looked bigger than Manhattan to me! And it was cool because we could see where we had walked, and I’d say we covered a good third of it by foot in our 3 days. Go us!
Side story 1: When at the highest most point at Parque Guell (a big cross made of stone up on a hill thing … yeah, descriptive, I know), some Italians were up there with us, about my age, a little older. I overheard them talking Italian. I was standing next to one when he wanted his photo taken, and I somehow made eye contact with his friend who motioned for me to get in the photo with him. I laughed and said okay, why not, hahaha, and then he asked me if I spoke English. I answered him Italian, “yes, but I speak a little Italian” so I talked to them for a few minutes all in Italian! And they were speaking normal speed (I think) and I understood it all! I think it was the highlight of my day. The rest of Parque Guell was so cool! There are a couple more of Gaudi’s works there, plus a huge open square with local artists, and tile designs on benches and a really beautiful, colorful place all together. We walked slowly back towards the hostel because we had nothing else to do- we (me, Carly, Elisha, and Jess) stopped in The Tea Shop, and had fun sampling and smelling the millionsss of kinds of teas they had. I really do like tea!
Back to the hostel to get our stuff, took the very crowded metro to the bus station, bus to the airport, and got into the air to LONDON! So one country on my list- Spain: check.
The beautiful city! , me & Carly at the Port of Barcelona on our rainy first day.
Paella & sangria on the bay, Cartwheeling at Park Guell!
As a great start to our trip, Alan saw us off in Piazza Italia where we got the bus to the airport. AND he brought us CHEDDAR CHEEEESE! From Ireland! We snacked on it while waiting for our flight! And so, I took my first RyanAir flight to Barcelona- RyanAir has a RyanAir song that they play during take off and landing. Haaahaha. We arrived in Barcelona at 6:30 and took an hour bus ride to the center. To find our hostel, instead of taking the metro like the website suggested, we decided to be bold and walk and find it ourselves. After an hour of circles and turn arounds, we found it! After getting settled in the hostel we went out in search for food- at this point, it was after 11:00, which is normal time for dinner in Spain—and we found tapas. Oh my gosh, tapas. We got a kind of friend potato with a garlic sauce, a couple kinds of meat kebabs including sesame seasoned chicken and seafood paella (which, despite it being seafood, was okay) and some amazing Spanish style bruscetta bread. And of course, I had my first ever Sangria. Uhhum, yummy.
Then we wandered and found a Hagen Daaz- real ice cream! As much as I love gelato, it was so great to have real ice cream.
Day II
Woke up to pouring rain- it seems to follow us wherever we go! But again, we didn’t let it stop us. First we caved and got some Starbucks for breakfast- I felt majorly guilty but my white chocolate mocha and blueberry muffin were so deliciousss. I tried to order in Spanish … That has been the most difficult and frustrating part of Barcelona so far. I can’t remember ANY of my Spanish. It’s all getting mixed up with Italian in my head. Like, it felt weird to be greeting people with “hola” and not “ciao”. It has made me realize, though, how much Italian I really know. But I really did forget the basics! Just hello/goodbye/thanks/excuse me/please/I’m sorry/counting has taken me a sec to process. I just want to speak Italian all the time. So anyways, we walked for a while- 40 minutes maybe-down to the central areas with AWESOME architecture and shopping. I just loved all the buildings there. Where we were reminded me of the Los Angeles Promenade that I saw this summer, Gothic style. And there were tons of vendors with cool crafts. There I did the majority of my Barcelona purchases- I got a super bold necklace that I can’t wait to try to wear without looking like an idiot, a new wallet (finally), a shrug, and some gifts for some peeps. Yeah, for you. We also found the Port of Barcelona and saw the ocean.
The most memorable part of my day- when it was lightly raining and we were shopping along the center, we were standing near a homeless man sitting on the ground. And Elisha saw him and went over to him and offered him her umbrella. It was so simple and kind and I was so inspired by it, first it made me sad that doing that didn’t even occur to me. But it has also now put that thought in my head and I will always remember it and next time, I hope it will occur to me. She said “my holy spirit spoke to me and said,
‘give that man your umbrella’ and I said ‘no, I need it’ and then I thought, ‘no, I don’t’”.
In the evening, Amanda, Sarah, and I got an extra scenic view of the city while we got turned around looking for the metro … for 45 minutes. For dinner, we went down to the bay and got Sangria that was better than the night before and Elisha and I split a huge pan of meat paella. The restaurant was a great choice- the staff and waiters were super nice, the guys from Madrid sitting next to us offered us some of their appetizer (mussels- which I tasted! Be proud!), and the Austrian men sitting on the other side of us struck up a conversation as well! Oh, and be proud of me again- I also tasted some of the other girls’ seafood paella. We even took pictures with the waiter guys, and one of them gave me his cell phone on which to listen to Bollywood music, which he sings, apparently. He said that everyone “at home” (India) says that he is the spitting image of some famous Bollywood star? Funny dude. Afterwards, we wandered over to the beach and took pictures on the bay and beach! But we had to leave after dipping our feet in the water and just enjoying ourselves because we were in freakin Spain! because some sketchy guys tried to sell Sarah drugs when she was waiting for us on the boardwalk. And that was our cue to get out of there. We got free passes on the street from a club on the bay called Catwalk- we went in for 15 minutes. Went to a club in Barcelona- check. It was crazy cool inside, but just a little intense for us after our long day. The rest of the bay was fun to walk around, though- there were some super cool buildings and a strip of real hoity toity (yeah, I said it, Andrea Mel and Maren, I hope you read that with Jack Kelly’s accent) guest-list-only clubs.
Day III
Today we toured the Gothic center! We went inside the Cathedral of Barcelona, although we didn’t get to see the outside of the Cathedral because it was under tons of scaffolding =( Boo. But outside the cathedral was a band of older men playing instruments (not very well …. Haha) and a few groups of people folk dancing in a circle in the square!! Yay! Afterwards we just did tons more walking around the Gothic center and shopping center and took tons of pics. On the way back to the hostel we watched a group of 4 funny guys put on a hip hop street dancing show. Then everyone else went to see the Sagrada Famiglia cathedral but my stupid knee sent me back to the hostel to sit down and ice. Arghh.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called QuQu where I got some delicious chicken and (yes, Andrea) profiterol! Funny that my first profiterol was in Spain …. It was okay but I was just excited to have some of it! Then we had a couple drinks at a bar near our hostel where we had a chance to talk to some girls from California who were staying at our hostel as well.
Day IV
We took the metro and climbed the HUGE hill up to Parque Guell where there was an amazing amazing amazing panoramic view of the entire city, facing the water (the bay where we were the day before). I didn’t realize how enormous Barcelona is- it looked bigger than Manhattan to me! And it was cool because we could see where we had walked, and I’d say we covered a good third of it by foot in our 3 days. Go us!
Side story 1: When at the highest most point at Parque Guell (a big cross made of stone up on a hill thing … yeah, descriptive, I know), some Italians were up there with us, about my age, a little older. I overheard them talking Italian. I was standing next to one when he wanted his photo taken, and I somehow made eye contact with his friend who motioned for me to get in the photo with him. I laughed and said okay, why not, hahaha, and then he asked me if I spoke English. I answered him Italian, “yes, but I speak a little Italian” so I talked to them for a few minutes all in Italian! And they were speaking normal speed (I think) and I understood it all! I think it was the highlight of my day. The rest of Parque Guell was so cool! There are a couple more of Gaudi’s works there, plus a huge open square with local artists, and tile designs on benches and a really beautiful, colorful place all together. We walked slowly back towards the hostel because we had nothing else to do- we (me, Carly, Elisha, and Jess) stopped in The Tea Shop, and had fun sampling and smelling the millionsss of kinds of teas they had. I really do like tea!
Back to the hostel to get our stuff, took the very crowded metro to the bus station, bus to the airport, and got into the air to LONDON! So one country on my list- Spain: check.
The beautiful city! , me & Carly at the Port of Barcelona on our rainy first day.
Paella & sangria on the bay, Cartwheeling at Park Guell!
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