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Urbino, Marche, Italy
A man on a mission Mailing address Via Gian Carlo de Carlo 07 Tridente 3/512 Urbino 61029, Italia

1,2 Monday Tuesday March

Not much to report, except I still haven't received my replacement debit card, and not one here takes visa!

3,4 Wed Thur March- Alan Parsons Project

Classes both days, Tango Dancing Wednesday night. The Tango's fun. Everytime the owner comes to pick me up he gives me a new italian lesson. He's always correcting my pronnunciation and speeelllling!

Wednesday morning, I spent a while practicing Italian with my friend from Buenos Aires. She had told me the last time that she was interested in this 70s progressive rock band, the Alan parsons project. I'd never heard of them, so on Wednesday she brough in a cd with a bunch of their songs. For one song, "Eye in the sky" I had her try to explain to me in Italian what the English lyrics mean. She was pretty close, but the song is very nuanced. This is the link
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/alan+parsons+project/eye+in+the+sky_20005307.html
Do you know for sure what they are talking about and do you think you could explain it to a foreigner. If so, you're one up on me.

5, 6 Weekend March- Beautiful view

Both days I went for a run around town. I haven't run again since. I think it had something to do with the beautiful weather and correspondingly grand homework.

Sunday however was exceptionally magnificent. In the back of the center, on top of the entire mountain there is this little fortress. And by the fortress you get an incredible view. You see the entire walled town sprawled out beneath you, the valleys and mountains, and even on a clear day, the Adriatic coast 20 miles away. I definitely plan on taking some pictures up there.

And it's not only the view that's great, but all the people up there. There's a nearby playground with all the parents and the little kids. There are the old folks slowly walking around and also there are the college kids sprawled out on blankets(some pretend they're studying, but most don't even bother).

ps. I was about to submit that post when I realized that spell check might be fun and I have to admit it was pretty fun to count every "their" I put in place of the other "there."

4,5 Thursday, F March- A leauge of immigrants

So I lied. That last blog was written Thursday afternoon and the night was pretty exciting, and since not much happened Friday (procrastination) I'll lump the two together.

Thursday night, I had my weekly Italian Studies class, which is an extremely informal class. Some weeks we learn really cool stuff, some weeks we go to a bar, and some weeks we do both. This Thursday night was pretty exciting (even though no one got drunk) because the topic was immigration. Basically, Peter had the brilliant idea of sticking representatives from all the major immigrant groups in the same room and have them answer the question: "what does it mean to be a ...(Romanian) in Italy). I believe the Romanians are actually the largest minority here now and that answer is tough, because "they assume you must speak Russian or something."

We also heard Joseph's story. He's a guitar playing, Bob Marley singing Nigerian who works in the nearby town of Pesaro, because he was scared out of his country. The story goes that he was a very successful musician back in Nigeria and that the government does not support success stories. So one night, 2 armed men entered in the night and demanded all his expensive equipment. But wait, it gets better. Instead of breaking down the door to get in. they threw acid on the wall. Good story.

7-9 Sunday-Tue, March, Yes you can

Sunday?

Monday the only semi interesting conversation to note was the one I had with my aquilone flying friend Claudio (who now, ironically, has moved to the dorm named aquilone). Although his english is very good, I had fun explaining the can I/may I distinction. He was always told just to ask "can I" have something and I told him that was fine, although he should be wary, because the omelette lady back at Villanova will not give you anything unless you ask correctly.

And today is Tuesday(haha I've caught up). What's new, Well: IT'S STINKING SNOWING AGAIN. I mean come on, it's really getting cold...

10, 11, Wed.-T March- SNOW!






That's the story, crazy amounts of snow. It started late Tuesday night, there were 4 inches by Wed Morning and now it's Thursday night, we have at least a foot and it's STILL COMING! All classes were canceled today and I spent every second of the break hunched over my books studying. Well, that is except for the several hour sledding break....

I feel very guilty and I hope none of the lunch ladies here are reading this blog, but I stole two lunch trays in my huge backpack. The hills around hear are absolutely beautiful with the snow and pretty good for sledding. I got my Lebanese roommate and aquilone(kite) flying Italian to join me on my escapade! We sled right by the school so all the other students were watching us. Most cheered us on and two even joined us neer the end. Very productive snowday.

But enough about my sledding. Anyways, I haven't uploaded those silly photos yet, so if you're curious to see me wiping out you'll have to check back in a couple days. What I did upload were pictures of the documents I'm working on in the State Archives. I showed up completely soaked and alone Wednesday morning and I think I truly surprised the nice ladies working there(it might be my beard).

12, Friday March- Food Tasting

Today was interesting.

So I meet up with my professor at ten this morning ready to head to the archives. But instead of going to the archives, he informs me of his plan to go food tasting!? So we while we waited for them to prepare the food we went to a nearby bar, got some drinks (caffe and te) and discussed last weeks readings.

20 minutes later, we headed up the street to this good sized delicatessen/pasta shop(that's the best English description I can come up with). They market them selves as vendors of all natural, traditional Italian food. They have huge hunks of dried meat hanging everywhere and one cut of prosciutto had a little sign on it that said "I'm Italian". You could tell by the classic American pop music that they were marketing their wares for the wealthy and tourists.

However, the presentation they gave was quite good. The owner first brought out a plate full of all the different grains and beans local to Italy. This is how Peter tied it into the class, because I've been studying the grain economy for the last several weeks. After that, he brought out several different slices of cold cuts for us to sample. He explained how each was made, where they came from, and with which wines they went best with. Although I passed on the wine I discovered that peccorino cheese, aged for several months is quite delicious!

After we finished we went to another local bar and talked some more about the reasons why he brought me (Villanova paid) and the rest of the readings. I thought the lesson was very tasteful.

Speaking of food, the lunch ladies went on strike(they must of find out about my stolen sleds!) Thankfully however, there only planning on striking for 1 day. Strikes in Italy are usually very frequent, but also short. My theory is that it just takes them a day to realize that working a couple of hours of a day, with a huge break in the middle, isn't too much to complain about.

13, Saturday March: Rimini & Ravena







Today we hit up the two R's i.e. Rimini and Ravena.
At 8:00 we rolled out of Urbino for Pesaro. From Pesaro, we caught a train to the port town of Rimini which was 30 minutes north. When we first arrived Peter took us to two historically important stops. The first was a beautiful 15th century church which was decorated with the most ornate and expensive marble of the time. It was absolutely gorgeous, even though many of the pictures were destroyed, in addition to the old roof, when the Allies fought it out in the Alps during WWII. It's the Americans fault it was wrecked! After that, we saw a 2000 year old arch which was all that remained of the entrance of the once walled city. The history was pretty cool, but the market was even better. Hundreds of vendors were selling everything you could think of. I ended up purchasing a 3 euro jacket and 15 euro shoes which were made in china!

Around 1:30, we boarded another train for Ravenna where we wen on a guided tour. I could go on for a while about all the cool things that I learned but I'll stick with two and put up a bunch of pictures. First, the mosaics. I have never seen so many beautiful pictures made out of tiny pieces of glass and stone before. And the amazing part was that most of this came from the time of the Goths 1400 years ago!
Second, the city is really sinking! Somehow this is the result of the water eroding the silt and the ground compacting over time, but anyway. 1 church we went into was rebuilt 3 times in order to keep it operational. The first time they raised the whole thing and built a new one. The second time (500 years later) when the water table met the ground floor the builders decided that instead of raising the whole building, they'd just raise the floor and the pillars for the arches. Although this worked, and most of the city is currently protected by 25 huge water pumps, we could still see how hight the water rose on the original floor(5 feet!)

14,15 Sunday- March, SNOW PICS






Just worked. Here's some cool pictures

15 Monday March Fuoriolongo

My kite flying friend has struck again.

Monday night, Claudio invited me to join him for his Italian Theater Class, and although he had forewarned me that it was strange, I still was not ready for this madness.

We started out with an excercise that was quasi icebreaker/quasi warm up drill. Basically we ended up giving everyone else backmassages?!

Than we learned a "famous dance" which I've never heard of,(dance of the maura, or something) which one rugby team does before everygame. It involved a lot of warlike, primitive movements. The following dance we learned was all improvisation. Our instructor told us to imagine how the native americans behaved and act the part. However, everyone started in a line and you had to follow what the first person was doing. So if the first person was smoking a peace pipe, or taking a piss, everyone had to follow.

Besides having a good time, the idea was to attract as many different immigrant groups, and thus, diversity, to the group as possible. Although I'm not from Romania, I can proudly say that in one sense, I was the most "native" american in the group!

16, 17 Tuesday- Wed, March,

Tuesday I went to a couple of travel agencies to figure out spring break. Although I didn't go through them, they did confirm my suspicions that it is neither cheap, nor easy,to get from Urbino to Istanbul. Anyways, I think the current plan is to spend a couple days in South Italy at Salerno. Possibly, check out Naples and Mt. Vesuvius.

Wednesday, I got some new Italian music from roomate. I think I'm learning more from these songs than my classes(don't worry Mom, I still go).

18, Thursday March, Layed back

Thursday I chatted again with my Argentinian friend. This time we practiced more English, because her teacher's begun giving her a hard time. It's fun explaining all the sayings in the english language which I never thought of before. We were talking about people being 'layed back' verses 'uptight.'

Additionally I stayed up ridicuously late to register for next semesters classes at Villanova. Villanova told me I could register starting at 9:30pm. In Italy time that =s 2:30 am= OUCH!

19 Friday March- COOKIES!


This morning was excellent! I was still tired from staying up so late last-night registering class, and I didn’t have any food in the dorm to eat before my morning class. However, when I passed by the front desk I saw there was a little package waiting for me, full of HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. That was a very tasty, and the chocolate chips made it well rounded, breakfast. (THANK YOU SO MUCH!)

For my morning class, instead of going to the state archives we went to one of the many state Libraries. However, this was no regular library. You can’t actually see, or take out any books unless you fill out a slip with the request for a certain book or bundle of manuscripts. Then, a librarian brings it to you.

We were looking at problems the Duke of Urbino had to deal with (the theme was life at the court). Most of the manuscripts, in the bundle we examined from the early 17th century, addressed problems of food. In one instance the Duke’s men suspected that one of the bakers, on staff, was purposely making low quality bread. The solution the Duke thought up was to take the same materials that were given to the court baker, give them to an outside baker (without telling the first) and have him make the same amount of bread and compare the quality. It’s amazing to think that this is what the leader of Urbino spent his brainpower concocting.

For the second half of class we actually went to the kitchen, or, that is, what remains of it beneath the Ducal Palace. The basement beneath the Palace is incredibly cool. There are huge arches holding the ceiling up, chimneys extending all the way to the surface and, the remains of the freezer(which is just a huge well with access to the element which they stored snow in to preserve the food during the warmer months).

After another 4 hour history class with Peter(in which we covered all of WWI & II from Italy’s perspective I returned to the dorms for some dinner and rest. However, I was swarmed by my Syrian friends who wanted to learn tango. So I gave an intro lesson upstairs, and although it started out with 2 people, we ended with at least 10 respectable dancer and 6 or 7 supportive onlookers.

20,21 Weekend, March + Outdoor Soccer

This weekend was nothing new. Went for a walk, did some homework, learned that Villanova B-ball is out of the tournament(fortunately I didn't bother to watch). The only really exciting thin that happened wast they turned off my phone. The company bills my debit card every time I make a call. However, I think they just figured out that the last debit card was canceled after I was robbed in Rome. Guess I should give them a ring!

So nothing exciting happened today, but I just realized I forgot about Wednesday night. I joined a faculty soccer team and we played a friendly match. This was truly an international team, and everyone was pretty good. However, we had to drive for about ten minutes to the nearest field, because everything is so hilly.
The cool thing is it was just a lighted soccer field. Nothing else. They even had locker rooms and showers. This is what you get in a land that only knows the football that you play with your feet- a real soccer field!

22 Monday March- Theatre Animals

Big news today is they turned my cell phone back on-Yay. Oh, and I had fun trying to explain my views on the recently passed Health Care Bill to some of the Italians. Then, we got into to talking about social medicine. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for me, my technical vocabulary is woefully limited so I kept repeating that there are still problems with the aforementioned ideas.

I also returned to my weekly theatre group, I just have to say it gets crazier this time. So instead of imitating Native Americans, this time we had to imagine an animal. We had to imagine that animal (I picked a lion) being born and feeling out the world for the first time. Our development was accompanied by a live group of immigrant drummers. With the congas ringing it almost seemed natural!

Someday, I think this might culminate in a performance, but most of it is now focused on loosening us up. I don’t really care where it’s going, I just know it’s a pretty good way to spend a night with some new friends.

23-4 Tuesday, Wed. Tango and Jive

Both of these days I was dancing (in addition to my regular classes). Tuesday I volunteered to give another lesson to my friends, which was also a lot of fun.

After I was done teaching I learned that one of the students (from America named Ryan Hayward) is an incredible dancer. Ryan dances 16 hours a week back in the U.S. So he spent a little time showing us some east coast swing. Next he demonstrated jive. I had never heard of this dance before and it is incredibly taxing and fun to watch. After 1 minute Ryan was sweating bullets.

On Wed. I had my normal lesson at the dance studio. I asked the owner which restaurants in Napoli he recommends, because he was there for several years.

25 Thursday March Dinner

Today, I had 8 hours of class and yet had quite a bit of fun. We spent a bit of our Italian class learning a number of hand gestures. The list was very large, but in no way exhaustive. After Italian, I had lunch with my Argentinean conversation partner and her boyfriend.

For art history we spent the first hour in the classroom, but the second walking around town and through the newly opened Museum of Albani. It was a beautiful day, and as we walked along he explained the significance of many of the different statues I pass by every day. The Museum was beautiful; however, the best part was the motion sensor lights. As soon as you left the one rooms the lights faded to noting.

For dinner Villanova paid for us to go out together. Once a month, the school schedules us to have an exceptionally good time eating in Italy. They did a very good job and I ate way too much of their deserts.

26 Friday, March, EXPLORATION

So today was an absolutely beautiful day and my classes were cancelled for a conference. So I hopped on a bus with some friends and we just took it to the end.

We stopped for a bit in Urbania which is renowned for its mummy museum. However, when we were there it was closed so we got back on the bus and headed up to the town of Lamoli. Lamoli is a really beautiful town with about 40 buildings total. The rest is just beautiful mountains. As we trekked higher and higher on the trails we really got a sense for how small it was. The trails were pretty good and I actually saw several dear, a pack of chickens, and a number of huge piggish creatures (they looked like pigs, but they were to hairy). All in all it was a very beautiful day (pictures forthcoming.)

27, 28 Weekend March Cutting Hair!






27 Saturday-Conversation and Scissors
Another beautiful day in Italy- 65 and sunny. I spent the morning practicing my Italian with my friends and the afternoon cutting my friends hair. It way too long and very disorganized and he just wanted it all off so he asked me for some help. Of course I had no idea what I was doing, but I’ve been to the barber’s enough times to fake it. So we just through some water on in, and started hacking away with scissors and a beard trimmer.

Nothing have as exciting as scissors happened on Sunday. Another beautiful day in Italy.

29 Monday March, Database nightmare

My philosophy teacher was missing in action again and I had to settle for an unimpressive substitute. The shame is that she’s a pretty good teacher but never there. Anyways...

I spent the rest of the day trying to get some work done on my term papers. Because I was hoping to do some more research I attempted to activate Villanova’s electronic databases. However, because I’m halfway across the world the system won’t let me in.
In an attempt to try to fix this problem I went to the library’s website.

Turns out there’s a link that lets you chat with a Villanova librarian on line. Every time I’ve tried they’ve responded within seconds and they really tried to help. They wanted me to open a terminal session to appear as if I was as Villanova and allow me to access the databases. Although this fixed the first problem, it effectively killed my internet access. Long story short, you can get Villanova databases at Villanova.

30 Tuesday, March- Tango with friends

Today I gave another tango lesson to my friends (after all my homework was done). It’s amazing how fast they’ve learned and how much better I am at explaining things in Italian. Anyways, after the lesson my friend was teaching us some waltz and rumba. Next thing you know, you’ll see me on dancing with the stars.

31 Wednesday March- Anahi, Katie, Soccer, Tango

Another relaxed day, most people are done with classes and looking ahead to break plans. I spent the day practicing my Italian And at night I spent an hour playing soccer at a miniature indoor field. I’m either getting slower(from all this good food) or the Italians I’m playing with just better. Anyways, I’m going to pretend this was a cultural learning experience….

All the Italians bring huge bags to the soccer matches. Why? It’s because they’re all hygiene obsessed. In addition to carrying their cleats, the bags carry a change of clothes, because they all want to shower immediately after the match. Every field
I’ve gone to, indoors and out, has a locker room with showers. My friends bring not only soap, shampoo, and shower shoes, but also huge blow-dryers and robes to put on for the two seconds after they’ve dried off and before they put on new clothes. The funny part about the blow-dryers is that most of them have next to know hair to dry. No matter, before they leave, their 1 inch of hair is perfectly dry.