Una bella pausa di 17 Giorni

Ok, I'm back. Most of these entries I wrote either on, or neer the date they say. I just wanted to put them up altogether and then I got lazy!

what's going on

I'm back! I wrote all these posts awhile ago and've been meaning to put them up together. However, I am having some difficulty with the pictures(though there are many). If you want to start where I left off go to the entry for April third- NAPLES!

Click on this link to see some pictures I took down South. If it's not automatic, copy paste it above.

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1344330028/a=2697444028_2697444028/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

1 Thursday- April fools!

Today we had a very tasty class: it was a picnic. Because so few of us were left, several others had already left for vacation, we decided to have class outside. We first went to the grocery store and were told to pick out whatever we wanted. Upon hearing this, I promptly scurried off to the bakery section and came back with a gigantic bunt cake!

After we finished stocking up on our supplies we went up to the park near the fortress for our picnic, I mean class… That’s why they call it food for thought. It was initially looked like a good day, rather sunny, but the wind was quite fierce and the temp had dropped a bit. And just when I was getting used sunny and 65. An hour later when the rain came we scurried into a bar where we finished our lesson.

I know what you’re thinking, feeling sorry for me and with the lesson gone horrible awry. I did get some work done though. After the lesson I locked myself in my room and banged out a bit of my term paper on immigration. But you know why I chose this topic. It’s because I want to know all the procedures so I can stay in this land of picnics forever. Oh well, two months left!

2 Friday- Good Church

Happy Good Friday! Today I went up to the local Cathedral for the Good Friday Mass. I understood a good deal, because they read aloud the story of Jesus’ crucifiction from John’s gospel. Because I have heard so many times it was pretty easy to follow. We also sang some hymns and did the usual churchy stuff.

The interesting part was when they brought out Christ. Near the end of the service one of the priests picked up a miniature cross with a dying jesus on it. After proceeding it to the front of the assembly he invited us to kiss the miniature Jesus. Everyone there, we were about 30 in this huge church, came up and paid their respects to the model. Although it was a moving gesture, in my mind a little bit was lost by the man standing next to the cross with the hand wipe who was wiping the cross after every kiss. It seems like we’re still worried about cooties.

When I came back for dinner there were literally 2 people in the dining hall. Pretty much everyone has left. I spent the rest of the night packing for my trip; I leave in the morning for Sorrento and Southern cooking. I’ll put some more posts up when I return.

3 Saturday- Beggining Vacation- NAPLES!

Started my trip with a 6:00 am bus on my way to South Italy; finally reached our destination at 10pm!
Part of the reason it took so long is that we spent the afternoon sightseeing of Naples. The city is so, so alive! This is Italy as I imagined it to be. There were markets everywhere, seas of people milling around and no traffic laws whatsoever. Everyone and his son had a scooter (not kidding I saw an 8 year old driving with his 6 year old brother in the back! Traffic laws are laughed at and the scooters regularly come up onto the curves, beeping at you for not noticing them.

We went to a famous pizzeria (Michael’s Trianon) and had some pretty good pizza, though very greasy. Then, we spent a good deal of time just wandering through the town, soaking it all in. The buildings are very built up and the city very densely packed. Because of this, there are a number of clotheslines and balconies hanging out over the streets and it feels like you’re in everyone’s backyard.
Because it was the day before Easter, a number of churches were doing walks to raise money. But these weren’t your ordinary cross walks, but rather there were little floats followed by mini rock bands praising Jesus. They were really good, but not quite good enough to get us to donate. That money was better spent on the food!
Then, we went to the Archeological museum which had an incredible collection of ancient Roman Sculptures. The “Farnese collection” contains a number of pieces constructed in the second century AD, modeled after earlier, now destroyed, Greek works. Inside, there were marble and stone sculptures of Hercules and Aphrodite which just make Michelangelo’s David look small by comparison.

After swinging by the Tyrrhenian for a view of Vesuvius and Pompeii we headed back to the train station and took the hour long train to our youth hostel right in Sorrento.

4 Sunday Sorrento- EASTER!

I’m going to talk less and put up more pictures. The brief narrative:

We’re not technically in Sorrento, but the town from that. It’s a youth hostel with 10 people to a very large room.

In the morning we went to a Mass and then strolled through the touristy center of town. We managed to find a deli in the back of a grocery which sold us incredible salami and mozzarella sandwiches for only 2 Euros. Sorrento is famous for its mozzarella and the food definitely lived up to its reputation.

After lunch, we went to the Larrotti ruins. It was really cool and ruiny! Hundreds of years old and overlooking the sea it offered some of the best land for hiking and sightseeing. Later in the afternoon, we trudged back and spent most of the remainder of the day because pretty much everything was closed. The public transportation had stopped by 12. The Italians take their holidays pretty seriously.

5 Monday Pompeii

So I could go on and on and brag about how cool Pompeii was. Talk about how it’s the best preserved ancient Roman town, how we had a great view of Vesuvius, but really that would be a lie. According to me it wasn’t worth the 11 euro admission.
The history of the town is fascinating and much of it still is intact. We walked down the old street roads and many of the buildings were still mostly constructed. However, they were still ruins.

The bodies were really exciting. When the volcano blew and covered 2000 of the town’s inhabitants in 8 feet of ash many were buried alive. Then, when the lava came, it solidified them in the pathetic fetal positions they had been in right before they died!

6 Tuesday Positano Amalfi coast-

This was the last and best day of the Trip by far! Early in the morning we boarded a bus in Sorrento for the famed Amalfi Coast. The Bus ride was breathtaking in every sense of the word. The view of the surrounding countryside and water was incredible, but so to was how tight the turns were. Every time the bus driver rounded a corner he honked his horn twice to alert anyone coming from the other direction to watch out. Luckily, we made it there and back in one piece.

Our first stop was Positano, a beautiful little beach town as you can see from the pictures. I couldn’t get over how cool all the buildings looked, stacked right into the face of the cliff. After taking a million pictures, eating some sandwiches (which we had bought earlier from the same deli) and just enjoying the warm weather we boarded the bus again and continued to the end of the route.

Amalfi was heavily touristed, but beautiful. Rob, with the help of Rick Steves, found a hiking trail which showed us some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen. At the start of the trip I found the perfect walking stick- it was a sign. And not half an hour later in an abandoned cave I found an incredible cowboy hat which was to complete my outfit. I won’t talk more about the beauty, because you can see it in the pictures, but I’d just like to point out that after we took those pictures from the top of the mountain we had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get back down. Fortunately, after taking some very sketchy paths we made it back before sundown.

I’m glad I made it back, because this was barely the start of my adventures…

7 Wed- ISTANBUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought Naples was exciting, but Istanbul is just another world! Yes I went to Istanbul, Turkey. I have a very good friend there who was always talking about how great the city was. So, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I’m glad I did.
My friend, Katie, is working at a private University in Istanbul teaching English to a bunch of Turks as part of a co-op program. This is the second time she has been to Turkey, the last time she was teaching in the country’s capital, Anchora. Because she has spent so much time in the country and has so many Turkish friends she knows the language very well. This is very fortunate, because Turkish has more in common with Asiatic languages than it does with English, or Italian. It took me about 3 days to pronounce correctly “yes” and “no.” Turkish does use the Latin alphabet, but it has a number of very different accents, marks, and sounds. My favorite word is Türkleştiremedigimizlerdensinizdir (were you the one we weren’t able to Turkify!)

Anyways, I left from Sorrento around 5 in the morning, flew out of Rome and was in Istanbul by 4 (3 hour flight across one time zone). When I arrived, Katie met me in Taksim square and we took a whirlwind tour of the area right where I would be staying. She helped me check into a nearby “hotel” that cost half what I’d been paying in Sorrento and was in a much better location. When the owners finally asked me for the money after she had left I had a lot of fun figuring that out, because I knew no Turkish and they knew no English. However, with the help of universal sign language and a calculator we figured it out in the end. The good news is that the dollar is stronger than the Turkish lyre, and that one Euro is currently worth two lyre!

So, if you want to know what I did for the next week the answer is pretty much everything. Only stepped foot in one museum (Haga Sophia), but saw practically every part of the world’s third largest city, from the sea of Mara mar, up the Bosporus to the Black sea(which is actually pink). I could go on forever about Istanbul and Turks, about how ignorant I was about their history and culture and how grateful l am to have had the opportunity to travel to this welcoming place. Besides learning a bit of the language, the majority of the culture I learned at the restaurants. Long story short (you don’t need to read anything after this) I ate very well and have fallen in love with a large number of Turkish dishes and pastries, which my dietician should never hear about!

After dinner on Wednesday we went to an café and drank Turkish tea (it is very good and everyone always drinks after every meal. Although the weather was a bit chilly we sat outside next to a huge electric heater and watched the crowd’s go by. On our table was a backgammon board. The Turks love games. They have thousands of them lying around in all the restaurants, from Trivial Pursuit to Risk, but their favorite is backgammon. I can now say that if I have learned nothing else, I have at least become a fairly respectable backgammon player.

On the way back to my room we went through the famed fish market, which is this covered alley filled with restaurants, cheery waiters, and many different musical groups. The city and especially this famed alley is just so alive. The best part was when we saw a waiter walk away from the restaurant to a nearby street vendor to by a fish. Apparently the restaurant had run out, but there was the fish market right there and you know it’s fresh because you see all the fishermen lining the Bosporus every morning!

8 Thrs-Blue mosque Haga Sophia

Thursday we saw the biggies, getting all the touristy musts out of the way. They were definitely worth it. We went to see the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and the huge Haga Sophia.

I started my journey by boarding the Funicular, which is this cool rope pulled form of transportation which they have operating underground. Public transportation is pretty good and there are many different forms: Funicular, tram, busses and even trolleys.

The Grand Bazaar is this absolutely massive covered shopping center, where people have been trading for years. There were many cool trinkets which I know regret passing up on. The Blue Mosque is similarly overwhelming, but stunningly beautiful. It’s amazing to see the walls covered by thousands of blue tulips painted with the most exquisite detail. Finally, the Haga Sophia was massive, period. I cannot say that it was the most beautiful space that I’ve seen, because the mosaics in Ravenna have survived the ages better. However, the sheer immensity of the space, coupled with its history made it a worthy stop. You can see how the Turks tried to cover up the Christian symbols when they took over and converted it into a mosque. Certain Angels heads are covered and the alter has been moved to face Mecca!

For food I had 2 excellent experiences. First in the morning I had lunch at Bambi’s. And if you’re wondering, yes it is the same Bambi from the Disney movie which is on all the menus of this Turkish quasi-fast food joint. There are no copyright laws in Turkey, so Disney probably isn’t getting a dime. Anyways, the food was incredible. If you ever get the chance go for Islak hamburgers and their waffles. Their hamburgers are small, kind of like white castle, but very tasty. The waffles are simply incredible and more a desert than anything else, filled with ice cream, bananas, chocolate syrup, nuts, and every type of sugar imaginable.

Later in the afternoon we bought fish off a boat on the Bosphorus! Most of the other vendors have shops along the coast, but this one actually sells it from a boat tied to the shore. It’s incredible that the waiters can keep their balance with the rolling waves, but they did an incredible job of maintain their balance.

9 FRI- BAYRUM!

On Friday, I got to meet Katie’s Turkish boyfriend Bayrum. Bayrum means “festival” in Turkish and he’s a good guy. He’s studying at another university in Istanbul to be a teacher. He knows enough English for us to have some interesting conversations and he taught me a bit of Turkish.

Together, the three of us wandered down to Besitas where we saw the doma bace(excuse my butchering of these names) and the huge stadium for one of the city’s soccer teams. Then, we boarded a Ferry and for a lyre fifty I was on my way over to Asia!
Kadikoy, the area we landed in is just on the other side of the Bosporus and honestly little different from the rest of Turkey. However, it was a little less touristed and we found some excellent baklava! I had never heard of this Turkish pastry before, but I am so glad I have found it. It consists of 40 layers of very fine pastry on top of a walnut, or pistachio base. The man we bought it from had been working in the same shop for about 40 years and you could tell from the taste that he had learned his trade well.

Last note on food. You can put anything on a baked potato, kind of like the waffles. Hotdogs, corn and yogurt work surprisingly well together. My favorite conversation in Istanbul was about this tasty treat. One waiter was trying to entreat us in, asking us in English if we wanted to see a menu. When Katie replied “no thanks” in Turkish he realized he’d have to try harder. His response: “But we have potatoes!” we laughed so hard that we almost went, even though we had just eaten.

10 Sat- Park

Saturday I had some time to kill before meeting up with Katie and her friends, so I went to the nearby park. It was full of beautiful flowers of all colors and little kids running around. Two of them were playing soccer near where I was sitting. When they figured out I knew how to kick the ball they invited me to play. Soccer is the universal game.

The rest of the day we explored different parts of the city. We went back to the port are Ortakoy with the potato man and also crossed over to its Asian side equivalent BeylerBey on the Asian side, where the restaurants were half the price and the sunset equally beautiful. Bayrum’s friends knew absolutely no English so they taught me the multitude of hand gestures that the Turks can communicate with. Between Italy and Turkey I feel like I don’t really need to speak; I can just use my hands

11 Sunday- Church

So, even though 99.8% of the population is technically Muslim it is possible to find a Christian church (although I had to settle for a Catholic mass at St. Antony’s Church). It was actually very interesting. Given by a Nigerian minister with a thick accent and supported by a chorus of middle aged Asian women. Although it was in English I had a hard time following his accent, but the songs were well chosen and the space itself was beautiful.

Directly over the mass we headed down to Besitash to catch a ferry to one of the big islands several miles off the coast of Turkey. When we finally arrived I found an island full of wild cats and dogs. The entirety of Istanbul is full of cats and dogs who no one owns, yet everyone takes care of. This island, however, probably had more felines than people. What industry there was, was concentrated near the port in the form of a number of restaurants and bike shops. There are thousands of bikes for rent, because there are two tracks which go around the length of the Island. We were going to ride around the longer trail, but there were a couple of factors which got in the way of that plan. First, none of us were in very good shape and it was much more fun to bike for 5 minutes and stop for tea, or a snack. Secondly, I lost the group when my crappy bike chain came off. And then, I found my cell phone wasn’t working… Anyways they eventually came back for me.

Today, Bayrum’s friends were named Zafer (victory) and Ginon (world). They were ridiculous and we probably took a hundred silly pictures. All in all, it was a very good day.

12 Monday- Katie’s school

Monday I got to follow Katie to work. Her University is very nice and seems a lot better organized than mine in Italy. She works in the learning center giving extra help to students who need to practice their English, or holding conversation classes here and there. No students actually visited this day, because most were taking exams.
During her lunch break we went to one of Istanbul’s many mega malls. 5 stories high, it was filled with many western stores. I tried, and fell in love with iskender and the desert kunefe. Even when you order food at what would be our equivalent of a fast food place they still make it right in front of you.

For my last night we went up to a little restaurant in the middle of nowhere (the cab driver was even making fun of the location). This trip was necessary because the restaurant “Uzunya” was right next to the Black Sea. I feel like I saw pretty much the whole city. The fish was pretty incredible too as the pictures surely testify….

13 Tue- Return-

Early Tuesday morning I boarded a Plane back to Italy and said goodbye to the city. Stupidly, I waited till the morning to look for souvenirs and everything was still closed. Fortunately, I don’t think I’m ever going to forget my stay in Turkey.
I came back through Bologna and was home by nightfall. Although I wanted to go straight to bed, my kite flying friend Claudio called me and reminded me that there was the first meeting for the new club he had started- the English conversation club. I was the first guest!

14- 15 WED--Thur "Pochi ma buoni

Wednesday, I just tried to catch up on my school work and try to remember the Italian language. Thursday, was my last Art History class. We went for a walking tour of some of the major oratories and churches. As luck would have it, we seemed to get stuck behind groups of little kids. Regardless, It was a good tour and a good class. As our professor Bombrezzi described it was “pochi ma buoni” (small but good).

16 Fri- Interviews

Today I had two classes with Peter. The first in the morning was back at the state archives, with two guests who wanted to learn more about what we were doing. One of the guests actually wants to be an archivist! For the after Contemporary History class he sent us out on the town to interview the old Italians about any aspect of their history that we wanted to discover. In addition to learning some interesting facts about family dynamics and their professions we also heard some very interesting stories from the bored old men. Surprisingly, they seemed particularly interested in being interviewed by the girl with long blond hair in our group!

17 Sat- Perugia- Assisi

Today I left early on a Villanova sponsored trip to the towns of Perugia and Assisi. For the entire weekend we have a nice tour guide, Marco, who’s showing us around. Perugia was interesting, but their most historically significant piece of architecture is this tiny fountain. However, what the locals are more proud of is the local chocolate. Perugino chocolate is supposedly very famous, but definitely very good.
In the afternoon we toured the Basilica of Assisi. The artwork is fantastic, almost 10,000 square feet of frescoes. It is literally overwhelming. Besides the artwork the other cool part was the tour itself. Because the Basilica was so packed and because we are supposed to be quite in this holy place everyone in the group was given ear buds which were tuned into our tour guide. It is the little things in life that makes me happy.

18 Sun- Gubbio

This morning we got up early and left Assisi to head back to Urbino. On our way we stopped in another little hill town named Gubbio which is the land of the crazy people. They have the world’s light display that is in the shape of a Christmas tree on the side of their mountain. Once a year, May 15th, they have a huge race with large figurines.

19 MONDAY- Theatre

Today I studied and went back to my theatre class at night. It’s always fun, but this time I had a bit of trouble understanding what they wanted me to do. Guess I got to keep working on my Italian.

20 Tuesday beautiful Day

Tuesday, I went my classes and did some work. It was a beautiful day out, 60 and sunny. While I was waiting for my laundry I found my friend from my Monday theatre class dancing hip hop upstairs. When I asked him to show me some moves he went on for at least an hour in almost perfect English. He’s an incredible dancer, knows, karate and English and this huge Italian’s goal in life is to become an actor. The people you meet…
After dinner my other friend dragged me to his English speaking club, for its second meeting. We talked about everything under sun from the difficulties of remembering multiple languages to how to get into and out of America without the authorities knowing. The things you learn…

21 Wednesday- Work

So this Wednesday I had no classes, so I literally locked myself in my room and wrote half of one of my research papers. It’s not that I don’t like the topic it’s just that there are so many things going on that it’s easy to push it off. My goal is to half at least the rough draft finished by tomorrow night. After dinner I went out for the weekly tango lesson at the local studio. I am really starting to grow fond of the tango crowd and it’s fun to see how much more I understand every week. Until this last less I have never understood a word the instructor has said, because he is from Buonos Aires and has a very thick accent. On top of that he’s speaking Italianolo (Italish= Italian Spanish) Unstead of saying buono he says bien and I even caught him tonight saying entonces instead of poi, which both mean then in English.

22 Thursday- Lazy Italians

Weather was so great, just walking around in a t-shirt and jeans. The views are so great that after class I just grabbed a bench and did my reading outside.

In my Italian class we were readings some Italian sayings and judging their accuracy. Lot of them are very similar to our samples e.g. the herb that is closest is always greenest. But there language is also very masculine dominated. We would had a lot of fun arguing over the validity of the one that said women can’t drive. I’m not saying anything, but if it’s proverb there must be something to it.

Just kidding, I don’t know if I even remember how to drive it’s been a while now. We’ll see if I remember when I get back.

23 Friday- 3rd floor of the Ducal Palace

So today we went back to the Ducal Palace for my Renaissance History class. This time we went up to the third floor, which few people go to or even know of. When we first tried to go up their the guards were confused and tried to make us go the other way first, but we persevered. It's a shame more people don't get up there because they really have some amazing stuff from late renaissance style through to the baroque.

The the readings for this weak dealt with portraits and their ability to speak speak to future generations. Portraits, by the 16th century, were less concerned about perspective mastery, as they were the consumption of skill. Incredible detail is reserved for the intricacies of the lace trimmings on the differing dresses. Increasingly people were dressing more elaborately and these paintings made sure to do justice to their necklaces and wardrobes. The people are also more lively and the focus is more on the symbolism of the different interactions. One painting we found was a typical annuciation scene. However, what was intriguing about this specific picture was that Mary had everything at her disposal. She had a nice plush bed, fabrics to embroidery and an adorable cat to keep her company. Outside the window is an idylic countryhouse with beautiful nature, but that's outside. The point is that aristicrotatic women of the day were supposed to remain inside and not venture out and get into trouble!

The Ducal palace itself reflects this notion. The Duchess has her own living arrangements on one wing (separate from the Duke). On her side are all the best views to the outside world. She was able to sit comfortably at the seats by the window and watch the people outside. Women during this time were seen only as political, economical, and baby making assets. So much for romantic love!

After the tour I had a fantastic lunch- Parmigiana pizza with eggplant. Can't beat that.

24 Saturday Conversation

Today was a productive day. After staying up half of last night talking with two Albanians I realized that at least of the paper I’m writing on immigration is wrong, or out of date. Therefore, I spent most of the day doing more research and revising what I have.

In the afternoon I met with my friend from Buenos Aires for our semi regular Italian/English conversation. She’s getting better all the time and I’m amazed by how many American songs she knows.

25, Sunday Sweedish Internship

Worked on my immigration paper a bit today. I also took a long break to help a friend who's applying for an internship in Sweeden. He's an English major from Germany interested in business relations and he's in my same itlian class. Because he's a good guy I gave it a look and an hour later we had pretty much rewritten it. Although I was able to help him, he called me out on a bunch of things to(like my random usage of commas!)

26 Monday Fare un Squilo

So today I almost slept through my conversation date with my friend. I thought I set my alarm for 8, but it never went off. Luckily she called, but it wasn’t any normal call.

The phone woke me up, but it only rang one time. When I went to look I saw I had one missed call. The strange part was she hadn’t texted me, nor had it rang through to the voicemail.

When I was finally dressed and had met her she said she did it on purpose and that this was common practice("fare un squilo" in Italian. People will call and hang up after one ring to see where you are. To me that seems so strange, but it kind of makes sense. If I was busy talking to someone, or couldn’t pick up the phone it wouldn’t be terribly annoying. The other logic behind the one call is that it’s cheap. I remember now in Turkey that happened often because no one wants to pay the phone bills and it’s only the person who calls who pays.

27 Tuesday English Conversation

So tonight, I brought my friends from Vermont and Germany to the English conversation class. Usually, it’s just me and the other Italians, but tonight we had some other interesting perspectives. Additionally, my friend Sasha came. He’s from Russia.

We talked about many things, but the thing that interested and confused me the most were the different types of schooling we all have received. It seems in Europe that there are simply far more options you can choose from, especially in high school. They have the technical schools, but they also have high schools for classical studies and also science/math. In Germany too, there are many choices, somewhere between 4 and 5. And then, there’s always the possibility that you might not want to go to high school and you choose art school.

Additionally, the styles of learning and grading are markedly different from region to region. In Italy, for example, critical thinking is almost disencouraged. When you go to the exam the teacher expects you to have memorized the Big Book- which has all the important things some famous person has said. Usually, you don’t actually read the book; rather, you usually read excerpts of what he has written with your teacher’s commentary on the side. Once the exam comes you are expected to know the book cold. When my friend Sasha went for his oral exam his teacher asked if he had read the book. When Sasha responded “no,” the teacher simply responded that he would see him next “time.” Add

Another horrifying thing is that many teachers also require you to by the book and to prove you have bought the book. They require, or at least strongly prefer and give better grades, if you bring the required reading to the exam. The reason, of course, is that the teacher is the one who wrote the book and they want to know that you bought it and didn’t just photocopy it. This way they ensure that they’re getting a cut of the purchases.

Although this frankly frightens me, I’ve heard that many students manipulate the crooked system by just sharing the books. One person will by a book and bring it to the exam. After that person has finished with the 15 minute exam he or she, will hand it over to the next person so as to fool the teacher. Great system- yeah.
Yet another thing that always gets me is the lack of writing that is required. Normally, students have no homework for the year and only start studying a month before the final exams. They have no essays which they have to write and no presentations they have to give. In many other schools across Europe longer papers and presentations in front of the class are required. However here they only have to cram for the final.

Although Urbino University is terribly disorganized, the education system, I’ve been told, is pretty much uniform across Italy. I simply don’t get it. Therefore, we changed the conversation to Scuba diving- turns out there is a really nice place near here if we want to go, and if you have the right license you can teach all over the world. Sign language is pretty much universal!

28 Wednesday- il Cortigiane

Today I got to eat at a fantastic restaurant- the Cortigiane. The food was incredible and the best part is that I ended up paying nothing.

Normally I have my weekly renaissance history class with Peter Friday mornings. However, because I am going to be in Venice this Friday we moved it today! Today we went to the newly opened Albani Museum which is right next to the Duomo in church. This brand new museum is absolutely glorius and the thing that amazes me is how modern it is and how much it must have cost to build. Regardless, it was beautiful and we had a very productive class.

After class, we went to a pretty fancy restaurant right across the street (I was sick of the cafeteria food). The food was extraordinary- different cold cuts, huge salads and even ravioli with pumpkin (not bad). My friend from Buenos Aires joined us at the end she got to practice her English with the funny Canadian.

Very good day- I will start putting up pictures soon!

29 Thursday

Very little to report. Today in the Italian language class we were all in a bit of a silly mood. We had to match one list of words with their antonyms. However, most of us fiercely disagreed with our teachers, because there were arguably several right answers.

Tonight I should probably do some laundry-it'd be good to have something clean to wear for my trip.

30 Friday, Venice

Back in Venice for the weekend! We spent most of the day in a train traveling. Once we arrived we just relaxed for a while, nothing planned for today. It’s good because we have a busy schedule tomorrow. The one thing we did accomplish was a gondola ride- and it only cost 50 eurocents! The reason why it was so short was because it literally lasted 50 seconds and just took us from one part of the city to the other. Nevertheless, I can now say I’ve been on a gondola ride in Venice.

The night was pretty interesting too. We got some good food at a trattoria nearby are hotel. The food was good, but the music at the nearby jazz café was even better. Peter actually grabbed a harmonica and started jamming with the guys for a good half-hour. It was a very interesting night.