People I have met. Long overdue.

I realized that I have not really mentioned the people I have met while I've been in Bologna, and that is sad because I have met so many interesting people. Some have been kind of sketchy, while others have become pretty good friends. I am going to list them as best as I can and write a little something about them, how we met, or a story surrounding them. Here goes nothing...

1. Marcello Sav: okay, I am starting with him, A. because he was the first Italian I met and B. because so many awkward, funny, sketchy stories surround him. Forgive me for not saying what I really think about him, because that would not be appropriate to post on the internet. Okay, so within the first week of being in Bologna, Jessy and I were walking down Independenza (one of the main roads by our apartment) when some guy grabs my arm from behind. Guess who? Marcello! Anyway, he starts rapid firing questions at me like "what's your name?" "where are you from?" "Do you like animals? I don't" "What's your favorite color? Mine is red because it is the color of passion." Things like that. He also made comments such as "You are very beautiful" and "You are very tall" while I am standing next to Jessy who is at least two inches taller than me. Awkward. Anyway, he completely ignores Jessy the entire time, even when she said something he ignored her. Yeah, kind of a jerk. But wait it gets better. He then gives me his "Spanish" name Marcello, S.A.V. and tells me to add him on facebook. Yeah, so he makes me repeat his name back to him several times. At this point I really just wanted him to go away. Then he finally leaves. So, after a few days I say, "what the heck" and I add him on facebook. Then he decides to message me repeatedly about getting together. NO THANKS. Ok so he gets the hint and leaves me alone. THEN, yeah it gets better, Jessy and I are at Lab 16 meeting up with the Dutch guys we met (who shall be explained later) when he goes up to her and uses the same exact lines on her! Long story short, they end up meeting up almost everyday for the next week, during the day of course, and get coffee, go to museums, just walk around. Normal things. Sadly, he is a creep and not normal. Exactly a week after they start "dating" we see him on Via Zamboni and he looks her in the face from 2 feet away and completely ignores her. WHAT?! Yeah so needless to say we dislike him. THEN, about three days ago I was walking around killing time until I needed to catch a bus and guess who i walk by...Marcello. We made awkward eye contact...bad idea. He creepily walks back towards me and uses the SAME lines AGAIN. I am slightly cold to him and call him out on having A. deleted me from fb (which i wasn't really upset by) B. dating and then hurting Jessy and C. i basically tell him to get lost because I have absolutely NO interest in meeting up with him. (he asked me to get coffee, for my number, and to be friends on fb... all in about 6 minutes) So, that is my Marcello story... hopefully the scumbag, creepy, sketch never crosses my path again (sorry I didn't do justice to his true personality and sorry I decided to share my true feelings... sorry I'm not sorry)

Phew, now that he is out of the way, time for legit people.

2. The Dutch Boys (Wouter, Frank, and Jeroen)- One night at the Irish Pub Jessy and I noticed that our other roommate Nathalie had been gone for a while so I went looking for her when I found her sitting with three really attractive guys. They asked me to sit down so I did and bam! New friends. Jeroen studies at Johns Hopkins in Bologna and Wouter and Frank were visiting for the weekend. Wouter studies in Belgium and I get to see him in March which is so exciting. Frank is still in Holland studying so I don't think I will get to see him again :( Although they were only here for three nights, we ended up seeing them all three nights :) Or at least I did. They are soooo funny and sweet. I am so glad I got to meet them. Oh, and their accents are awesome. "Gay or European?"

3. Luca, David, and the other Naples guy- We were chilling at Cafe Paris (our frequent hang out) when these three Italian guys invited us to sit with them and being my outgoing "let's make friends" self we did. Luca is working as a bouncer in Bologna and the other two were living and working here too. Luca was the only one who spoke any English which made conversing with them really interesting and complicated. They wanted us to meet up with them again at some point but unfortunely that hasn't happened yet. Oh well. BUT I did run into Luca at Soda Pops later in the month where his roommate, Neji, who speaks NO English decided I was the girl for him. Awkward.

4. Neji (Luca's Roommate)- So, after Soda Pops, and stupidly giving him my number, he kept texting me until I finally agreed to meet him for coffee. It actually wasn't that bad. Communicating was difficult but luckily he had an iphone with google translate. Sooo helpful. Anyway, after that I decided I didn't want to meet him again and he eventually stopped asking me. BUT then we saw him on Santa Stefano making out with this girl. haha. Glad he moved on because he wasn't going to get anything from me.

5. Luigi, Matteo, Marco, Lorenzo, Antonio- The other night at the Irish Pub (clearly a favorite of ours) we met these five Italian guys. We only talked for a little while but they seemed pretty cool and at least one of them plays soccer so hopefully we will become friends!

6. American Football Boys Gavin, Matt, Bill, Neil- Super attractive Jocks we met at the Irish Pub and have seen a few times. They play for the Doves in Bologna (an American Football team). Our group of girls from Dickinson may or may not have been obsessed with them for a while. However, from what we can tell they are only slightly stereotypical.

7. Matteo, Gianluca, Lorenzo, Jonas- Nicest guys ever. They are all Italian (as I am sure you could tell from their names) and we met the first two one night then BAM. New friends. We have hung out with a combination of the four of them several times and they are literally the sweetest guys we have met here. Most of them live outside Bologna in Ozzano but either work or attend school in Bologna. Matteo is a mechanical engineer working on getting a masters at unibo. Gianluca is an architect? Lorenzo is attending Unibo for information engineering and Jonas is working as a house measurer? Kind of like an architect. We don't exactly know. Anyway, I am sure we shall continue to be friends with them and hang out with them.

8. Ed- Mexican guy, lives in Kansas, all around awesome guy. He came to Bologna by himself, with no where to live, to study at Unibo. Impressive right? Yeah well he is that kind of person. Friendly, entertaining, fun to be around, etc. He is a philosophy and economics major who has the mind of a writer. I guarantee we will continue to be friends as we are really similar in weird ways. He went to the soccer game with us, we run into him everywhere, and he traveled to Ravenna on a whim with us. It is hard to write about him because you just need to meet him and have a three minute (if that) conversation with him to know how awesome he is. ANYWAY... I will probably mention him a few more times in my blogs :P

9. Daan, Voldemar (I can't spell sorry), Derek, and other California girls- Derek and the California girls are all American (duh) and came together although they don't all attend the same college. We have seen them a few times and they are super nice but I don't know when I will see them again. Daan and Voldemar are Dutch and German? guys we met through Ed. I am fairly certain there are a few more people I have met through him but I can't remember who they are for the life of me. Nina? I think was her name. She was Latvian? Lithuanian? Something like that. Sweet girl.

ANYWAY, I am sure I will blog about more people eventually and I know I am missing people I have met but this is a good chunk so far :)

How did the pigeon cross the road? Well he actually used the crosswalk... weird

At some point I really want to write a blog post that is more reflective and that contains my observations of Bologna and Italian culture... but alas I have work to do after this post.

Verona:

This weekend we made a few day trips to some local Italian treasures, the first being Verona. Now, before I read about Verona the only thing I wanted to do was go to Juliet's House... big mistake. Only because Verona is bigger than originally expected and there was a good deal of places to go and things to see. Also, originally Jessy and I were going to be exploring on our own but we were able to switch some days around to meet up with the Boldrini boys (Stephen, Gabe, Chris, and Brian) which was a nice surprise. We ended making a massive loop around the city starting with a church slightly out of the way but one of the four main ones in Verona. S. Zeno. Then we went to the Arena which was really cool but small compared to the Colosseum (at least that's what I have been told). From there (after several photos and climbing a bunch of stairs) we headed toward S. Anastasia and of course I started singing songs from the movie. I don't know how to explain the churches, they were beautiful but all similar styles.

Then we came across La Casa di Giulietta which was subpar. I mean it is romantic and cool and there were a lot of very attractive young men in the court yard but it costs a lot to go in the museum and up to the balcony. But seeing her statue, the locks on the gates (with lovers names on them), the graffiti of thousands of visitors all over the walls, and the balcony itself is definitely cool. I just liked the atmosphere. Minus the tourist nature of it.

The next two churches were S. Fermo and the Duomo. Funny story about the Duomo... there was a service of some sort going on and I guess it isn't appropriate to take pictures or wear shorts or jeans for that matter. Awkward because I totally was wearing jean shorts and took pictures and a video... oh well. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I was going to get the most out of it.

After the four churches, which in my mind are now muddled together... (thank God for pictures), we headed to Castlevecchio (meaning literally "old castle"-original) which was a major castle with a really cool bridge. After many fun pictures we crossed and went into the Museo Archeologico and Teatro Romano. We saw people climbing up the old looking stairs and seeing that it was 3 euro we couldn't say no. Totally worth it. The view was beautiful and probably the best part of the trip. The museum was nifty as well, some cool treasures in there but the views were definitely more impressive. The theater was neat as well.

Overall, we definitely walked about 8 solid miles. I was impressed.

Ravenna:

I loved this little hidden treasure. I recommend people going there if they get a chance because the Basilicas were all very unique and covered in amazing mosaics. With Melia, Jessy, and Ed accompanying me, I got the opportunity to see many of the places I had learned about in classes at Dickinson. There are five main places to visit on one ticket: Basilica S. Apollinare Nuovo, Museo Arcivescovile, Battista Neoniano, Basilica S. Vitale, and Mausoleum di Galla Placidia. The main attractions are S. Vitale and Galla Placidia as they have the most well known mosaics but there were endearing qualities about all five places. We also hit some free sites like Dante's tomb (which was just cool to see), Arian Baptistry (which was tiny), Basilica of S. Francesco (which had this awesome indoor fish pool under the altar), and this random church that we pasted by.

In S. Apollinare Nuovo there were these mosaics that covered the longitudinal axis of the building. It was cool to look at the different saints and scenes. This was also the brightest church inside due to the amount of windows. Also, the shape was slightly different. S. Vitale and Galla Placidia were sooo exciting especially since I had studied the mosaics and buildings in art history. Gall Placidia was wayyy smaller than originally expected. Literally it was tiny. S. Vitale was as spectacular as I imagined. I can't believe how they took glass shards and gold and made these life like (relatively) scenes. It must have taken forever to create them. Also, how did they stay so high up putting them in for so long? It's crazy to imagine. Then we went to the Archiepiscopal Museum where pictures were kind of prohibited... however I snuck one of the ivory chair where the Preacher would sit during service. This one was just way too cool to not take a picture of. The museum itself was pretty cool. They had bishop robes and slabs of stone from different buildings as well as crosses and other church type artifacts. The craftsmanship was beautiful.

Earlier than most of these sites we stopped at a cute little cafe right outside the wall of S. Vitale that was surprisingly not expensive. I got a four seasons pizza, cappuccino, and shared this nutella piadina with the others. It was delicious and our waiter was awesome. The town itself was nice because it wasn't touristy. Or rather the majority of the tourists were Italian. Also, there were very few cars, most people walked around or biked. It did rain a tiny bit but overall the weather was fine, not as sunny and warm as Verona however.

Ok, so we did stop at this gelato place after our dessert... haha and got gelato. It was probably the best I have had yet. Fresh fruit was also on mine. AH so goodddd.

Alright well I have been writing this for a while and it is getting long so I will leave it at that.

La Mia familgia italiano

Dickinson does this amazing program for Bologna students where we can choose to be paired with an Italian family and I received mine! They had me over this past Friday night for dinner. They live a little bit outside the city center so I took a bus for about half an hour then walked to their beautiful house.

The family is so sweet, and luckily they speak a little English. The mother, Paula, used to be an Italian professor for the Dickinson Center in Bologna and is now a manager for an Italian Bathing Suit company. The father, Stefano, is similar to an Environmental Engineer who works with making sure drinking water is safe to drink. Obviously with my dad being an Environmental Engineer we definitely bonded quickly. AND he has a small collection of historic hand guns as well as a few other really cool museum like objects. These include a Flemish painting of a wolf hunt and 2 vases from Imperial Rome (one for oil and one for wine). Anyway, the daughter, Victoria, is 13 and really really sweet. She takes hip hop dance, plays keyboard, and is really smart. Her English, although she barely speaks it, is pretty good. The son, Enrico/Professor Enrique, is 11 and in that I'm-too-cool-for-school phase. However, as the night went on he started to open up (I think it was the fact that I play video games and soccer). He plays soccer in the summer, plays keyboard, and his English is really good, although he refuses to use it unless we are studying Italian, which we did, a lot. Haha.

Dinner was delicious. The family followed the traditional Italian meal code (appetizer, prima, secondo, contento, dulce). We had proscuitto and crackers first, then amazing lasagna, then chicken with ham and cheese, then salad, and for dessert we had these powder sugared traditional fried dough things and chocolate covered oranges. Everything was sooo good.

The conversations were really wonderful too and as the night went on understanding one another was much easier. I can't wait until Monday when I get to do it all again. But I reallyyy need to study my Italian or Luis is going to kill me!

"Aw man we come home and there was a parade?! Dang so mad we missed it. Wait... but we were just in Paris. WIN"

I just went back home to Bologna from Paris... wait what? I LIVE IN ITALY and popped on over to Paris for a weekend... is this even real?

Jessy and I woke up before seven on Friday walked to the Aerobus stop to catch a bus to the airport. Although it is a six euro bus ride... we failed to pay, completely by accident... we were slightly confused by the system... anyway after checking in at the airport and going through a bunch of security things, we ended up waiting for about 2 hours for our flight. When we boarded I had the pleasure of having a window seat right in front of the wing and Jessy had the aisle of the same row with an empty seat in the middle. The flight, which was a Ryanair flight, was comfortable enough. They don't give you anything for free, which was fine, and it is a little meh but it gets you where you need to go fairly cheap so I can't complain.

The flight arrived on time and we grabbed a bus from Beauvais to Paris (because our flight was to a station about an hour outside Paris). Once we got into Paris we took the metro to Belleville to meet up with Jessy's Sophomore year roommate who lives in Paris and studies at Le Sorbonne. However, we had some time to kill so of course we sat down and got lunch in a little cafe then went shopping... I got 10 euro boots! woo! Once we met up with Aline, we went to her apartment, where we were staying, which was in the middle or Paris' Chinatown... strange, and dropped off our stuff.

Then Aline had to do some work so Jessy and I grabbed the metro and went to the Musee d'Orsay... which didn't sell tickets after 5 and it was 5:10... oops. Needless to say we then just wandered through by the Louvre towards the Eiffel Tower along the river and through the Tuileries Garden. It was a long trek but getting to the Eiffel Tower right before the lights came on was well worth it :)

After that we met up with Aline and grabbed dinner. Somewhere in Bastille we went to this restaurant where Jessy and I got these duck, mashed potatoe, salad tower things. It was so good. Pictures are on facebook of all the food and such. Then we went back to the apartment and crashed...

Saturday we got up early and made our way over to the Louvre. We had from 9 to 12 to see as much as possible. The place is huge. However, we covered a solid amount of it. We finished with everything we wanted to see by 11:15 and went outside to take pictures and start our trek over to Notre Dame to meet up with Aline again. The Louvre was so cool. To see the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa (which I think is a little too hyped up) and the other incredible pieces of art by Monet, Picasso, Cezanne, Jacques-Louis, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, and so many more. I was in awe. Rooms and rooms and rooms full of artworks, artifacts, and statues. It was incredible. One of my huge "wow" moments was when I realized that the Museum staff had taken all of that work out of the Louvre before the Nazis marched on Paris. They moved it ALL. That's insane. Including the Victory of Samothrace down those stairs?! Amazing. The museum itself is stunning. Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a place that big? A map would be needed to navigate through it and it would take over a lifetime to not only furnish the whole thing but just to become familiar with every part of it. Crazy. I was thinking that even though the museum is a world treasure, it would have been cool to have turned the Palace into a school or orphanage or something like that. Just a thought.

After the Louvre we made our way over to Notre Dame. The architecture on that building is so beautifully crafted. The inside is also gorgeous. The stained glass adds an entire different element. When we went inside, the Priests were holding prayer so the Cathedral resonated with holy song. It was indescribable. And the statue of Mary holding Jesus was in there! It was also really really beautiful.

Jessy and I also grabbed some food in there at some point. Then with Aline's expert guidance we wandered the streets around the Sorbonne and through the Jardin du Luxembourg. It was what I expected royal gardens (which it was) were like. An oasis. My first thought was of the Count of Monte Cristo and his massive party. Add some lanterns and a hot air balloon and this garden was that :) Plus some stairs and tons of people in amazing clothes of course. Ah I wish I was a part of that century. *sigh*

We stopped in this famous cafe for a dessert but they weren't serving until three and since we had a reservation at the Eiffel Tower at 4 we didn't have time to wait. But we stopped in and I took a card. It played a huge role in the French Revolution. Look it up :P

We wandered some more then headed to the Eiffel Tower for our ascent. Unfortunately the tip top was closed due to wind :( but we went to the second level which was just as breathtaking and exciting. I took panoramas of each side and they are on facebook so hopefully you all can go look at them and see what I saw. However if you get the chance, go. Because nothing replaces an experience like that.

After the Eiffel Tower Jessy and I went to the Arch de Triumph and the Champs Elysee (I can't spell it...). We wandered for a while then decided to head back to the apartment because we were exhausted. The day was sooo packed. We grabbed dinner at a local cafe then passed out.

Today (Sunday) we woke up early and grabbed the bus then the plane then the bus back to good ole Via Marsala, what we now call home. Walking down Independenza (the main road by our home) we realized a parade had come through. There was a ton of confetti and such everywhere! Hence my blog post title :P

Oh, and while in Paris/travelling to and from, I read an entire book... Don't worry only when I was about to go to sleep or travelling. It was amazing.

Hope all is well,

Ciao!

Carnevale di Venezia!

Today was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

Twelve of us decided that after getting snowed out yesterday of going to Italy's Mardi Gras (Carnevale) that we would attempt to go today. The morning started out not to our liking as it was snowing, very cold, the train was delayed over an hour, and it was super early (at least for college kids).

After FINALLY boarding the train, we stopped several times, switched trains, and overall the supposed to be hour and fifty minute ride turned into an almost four hour ride... oh well.

Even though getting to Venice was a pain, it ended up being so incredibly worth it. Getting off the train the first thing you see is the canal and the beautiful buildings associated with Venice. No long walk to get there, no massive walls, nothing but beautiful Venice. Getting to Piazza San Marco was a long walk but not one that seems that long due to the many bridges and beautiful squares and views. Once you actually hit San Marco, there is a huge stage and music playing, people in costumes and with painted faces everywhere! You look in a cafe window and see two men in Renaissance costumes chilling sipping coffee. It is definitely a scene to behold. The whole scene reminds me more of a Renaissance Fair than a Carnival but either way the energy is something alone to be experienced. There is such an air of jubilance and celebration. Everyone is smiling and dancing in the square, taking pictures and just enjoying the beauty of the place.

We visited Saint Mark's Basilica, where no pictures are allowed inside... although I tried to snap a few... blurry and not very well taken because I just have a thing with not being a law breaker... oops. Anyway, the amount of gold in that building is insane. The bronze horses are beautiful and the building itself is a work of art. I have such an appreciation for it because of the art history class I took. Thank goodness for that!

Of course, we bought masks... one to wear and one to have as a souvenir. :P

We walked all around and down the canal. We saw the gondolas, bridges galore, and boats. It makes me miss the lake and water from home. I can't even describe Venice, so everyone needs to go there. It is literally like a James Bond movie. It's surreal. The energy is intoxicating and fueling. I loved it. Hopefully I can go back.

<3 Ciao!

Bologna "la Grassa"

Bologna "The Fat One"

Classes finally started yesterday. I have officially had all four (although art history doesn't actually start until March 6th, we had a tour today with our professor anyway).

Monday I only have my Food, Wine, Culture, and Identity class. The first class was basically an overview of the semester and a discussion on what culture and identity mean as well as what taste is. We are going to have to keep "food journals" all semester that follow our observations of Italians and their eating habits and our own eating habits and how those habits are shaped while we are here. I feel like that journal and I will have a love hate relationship :) But I am interested to see how I change diets over here. I know I already have changed a lot eating wise.

I also got my ESN card yesterday! Which means I am now part of the Student group that does amazing things all over Europe and helps students meet other students. I am so excited because there are tons of discounts and events right here in Bologna. Including last night. There was a welcome back party and not only did I meet up with people I have met over the past two weeks but I also met a lot more people! I also received a Tandem partner. Basically I was paired with an Italian speaker and we can get together voluntarily to work on speaking the opposite language (so I would practice Italian and he will practice English). I also signed up for a Spanish partner. We will see how this goes!

Oh, and today I received my Bologna family :) I can't wait to start Monday night dinners with them!

Okay, so my other classes were today, Italian 101 (a continuation of the intensive course), cultural heritage and law, and art history (only for the tour). In Italian I got back my test from the end of the intensive and got a 98 :) That is super encouraging! I am starting to really enjoy the class because I am learning a lot grammatically, historically, culturally, and practically! Plus, it is a different atmosphere as in every class we learn something AND our professor learns more English from us! Today we taught her the verb shoveling, and the noun shovel. It's cool to have that exchange in class.

Then after getting my stipend from the bank and buying food for the apartment, I had Cultural Heritage and Law. I am going to love this class! The first meeting consisted of us watching The Rape of Europa (movie about the Nazi plundering of precious artworks). I had seen a lot of the movie in Museum Studies freshman year of college but it was really an experience to watch the whole thing. It was emotional and devastating and exciting and enlightening all in one movie! I think I understand what I want to do now. Maybe. Be a docent/educator or something along those lines. I do think I want to go to grad school in Europe though. I have fallen in love with this place. I don't think my parents are going to be too thrilled... oops :P

Now, for art history we met and went to the History of Bologna Museum that opened like a week ago. This museum is really different because A. It was free and will be until March. B. It is not a public museum because it is owned by the bank. C. The style of the museum is very modern america... which is very contradictory to the rest of the museums in Bologna. It is also a museum on the history of the city from etuscan to current. We got a thorough tour of the museum and I have uploaded pictures to facebook. I think my favorite rooms are the first tomb room, the coronation room, the water room, the portico room, and the music room. (I know that is a lot, but this place had sooo many rooms)

Anyway, all is well, I love it here, and classes are starting up so my posts may be less frequent...

ciao :)

Nevica!

For those of you non Italian speakers "nevica" means snow!

Yesterday it snowed the most it has in Bologna since 1987! So, needless to say, our intensive Italian classes were cancelled and we had a nice snow day. Which for us Via Marsala girls involved sleeping later and watching tv and movies until we went to a wine and cheese get together that night. Gosh I love cheese.

Today, classes started at 10 rather than 9 which was really nice. And we have been told that classes start at 10 tomorrow as well, but we have another test :( Oh well.

After class, which went surprisingly well for me today, aka I understand a lot more than usual (probably that extra hour of sleep). After getting a delicious (and cheap) lunch at this restaurant the Dutch boys told me to try, we went on our final tour. Unfortunately, we were unable to do both University of Bologna history and Music and culture, so we focused on Music in Bologna. It was a really cool tour, both figuratively and literally (SO MUCH SNOW). The group was also really small (actually the group was our normal group of girls plus or minus a few) which made it easier for us to cover more ground, even if we were slipping and sliding all over the place.

Our first stop was at the Bologna Opera. Even though it is relatively small, it is incredibly beautiful and we even got to watch them strike some of the previous set. We plan to go see La Traviata. It is Italia's number one opera. We got to explore a little and sit in some of the box seats. I love it. I can't wait to go!

After that we went to the Bologna Museum of Music. There were some of the coolest musical scores there, and the rarest. There was the first printed musical score in the world, and the only copy that still exists in the museum as well as harps and funny looking guitars. There were a ton of musician portraits including one commissioned by Mozart when he was in Bologna. Also, the most famous singer of his time, Franelli?, ended up in Bologna and there is a HUGE portrait of him in the museum. I really enjoyed this tour because music is so close to my heart. I definitely recommend it.

Then we were to this building on Piazza Maggiore that has a public library in it and used to be where many of the Unibo students had classes before the actual school was built in one place. It is such a unique building with coat of arms of previous students covering the ceilings and walls. The room we actually went into was/is one of the most important and historic anatomy classrooms (or amphitheaters) in the world. There were statues of men as if they did not have skin, only muscle. It was so cool. Dad you would have loved it, especially since it was a classroom focused on dissection!

Alrighty, well I don't think I have much else to share at this point except that the food keeps getting better, I still dislike red wine, and I am hungry :P

Ciao!