Carnevale a Viareggio!

As many of you may know, during the months before Lent, Carneval takes place in many countries and cities around the world. The most famous city that celebrates Carneval is Venice in northern Italy. The second most famous city is Viareggio, a small town in northern Tuscany that is located on the water. Viareggio is most famous for its political satire-themed parade.  So today, 2/19/12, four friends and I went to Viareggio. The parade takes place every Sunday in February and the first three in March.  Even though it rained (almost) all day, we had an amazing time!

After a two hour train ride, we arrived in Viareggio just as the rain did. We got some lunch and walked around the city before heading into the festivities area. The city has a long part of the coast blocked off for Carneval and of course you have to pay to get in. There were bleachers set up to watch the parade, there were carnival rides and street vendors. We went into a small bar/restaurant and got white chocolate and nutella crepes. Oh my goodness, I think I died and went to heaven. They were AMAZING! After that, we walked around and went into all the little shops and stores. I bought a big flag with the symbol of Carneval in Viareggio: Arlecchino, a traditional Carneval persona. We walked down to the water and I touched the Tyrrhenian Sea! =) We walked back and went into a make-up shop and did our make-up before the parade. I went for lemon yellow and bright blue stripes of eye shadow. And might I say, we all looked fine! After that we staked out a spot on the side walk to watch the parade. Holy cow, was it a sight to see! And the rain stopped a few floats into the parade so most of the parade was rain free!

The floats (called “carri” in Italian) had to be at least 30 feet high and were almost totally moveable. One float had 25 foot tall political figures dressed in Bishop’s robes and they were swinging giant incense burners that actually had incense in them! Another had dinosaurs that moved all around and grabbed at the crowd. Every float has its own music, its own theme, and people dressed up, dancing on and in front of each float. There were baton twirlers, two marching bands, and men on stilts. It was really an incredibly sight to see and I’m thrilled I got to experience this!

My favorite dinosaur float!

Amsterdam!

This past weekend, I was Holland bound! Three friends and I left Thursday night and came home late Sunday night. It was an amazing trip but frigid cold and we all came home drained. Both of energy and money! We planned our trip about a month ago after finding a round trip flight for around 80 Euro. Here's an overview of the trip with a picture at the bottom. Enjoy!

Thursday we left for the Siena train station at 7:00pm. We took an 8:00pm train to the Pisa airport, which brought us there around 10:00pm. Now let me tell you; we had planned to sleep in the Pisa airport Thursday night because our flight was at 6:30am Friday and we wanted to save some money. Around 10:45pm on Thursday, we found out that we were not allowed to sleep at the Pisa airport... After panicking for about 30 minutes, we came to the decision to sleep outside infront of the airport. There was joking of laying 52 pick-up on the third rail to stay warm, but ofcourse that didn't happen. A police officer came by around 11:30pm and told us we could stay over in a certain area of the airport. I don't think I've ever been so relieved. We made camp and my friends Betsy and Kerie slept for a while, during which time I taught Shannon how to play Rummie 500 and we played cards with some other Americans going to Amsterdam for a couple hours.

We made it through the night and onto the plane at 6:30am, which I slept through. Then we took a 15 minute shuttle bus from the Eindhoven airport to the Eindhoven train station. From there it was a 1 1/2 hour train ride to Amsterdam, another of which I slept through. We took a taxi from the train station to the hostel, settled in, and set out to explore the city.

The first thing we did was go to the Anne Frank house. The storefront and upper annex of the secret hideout for the Frank Family was turned into a museum and can now be toured. You walk up the same staircases, go behind the same bookshelf, and look at the same pictures on the wall that Anne Frank and her family looked at for two years while in hiding. It was quite an experience to be there. Anne's diaries are on display and Shelley Winters' Oscar is housed here. The rest of Friday consisted of a late afternoon nap, American fast-food (Dutch food isn't the best), and going to bed early.

Saturday we got up bright and early to start our day. We bought tickets to a city tour bus and toured all day. We went to the Gassan (pronounced Hassan) diamond factory and learned how diamonds are cut, polished, and priced. At one point, I was sitting only a few inches away from a diamond woth 114,000 Euro! It was really cool the learn about and watch the process.

Next stop was the Van Gogh Museum. It contains 200 of 900 Van Gogh original paintings as well as some of his sketches and letters. The museum starts with the artists whom Van Gogh was inspired by then continues chronologically through his lifes work and finally finishes with the artwork of the artists whom Van Gogh inspired. It was very interesting because Van Gogh's work changed based on the city he was in and the artists he met a long the way.

After that, we stopped by a local restaurant to get some Dutch pancakes! The Dutch have the most amazing sweets and desserts. These pancakes were about a foot in diameter, thin like a crepe, but made with what tasted like American pancake batter. I got mine with ham and cheese and it was absolutly delicious! We also stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam and the Heineken store. With the tour, we got a coupon for a free gift at the store, so we all got bottle openers from the offical Heineken store.

To finish off our day, Shannon and I went to the Amsterdam Sex Museum while Betsy and Kerie went shopping. It had everything from an exhibit on sex through the ages, to an exhibit on Marilyn Monroe and Rudolph Valentino as sex symbols, to the history of lingerie. It was quite an interesting experience! Likewise, so was touring the Red Light district Saturday night. We walked through the streets and yes; there really are windows with red lights over them and prostitutes standing in them. It's illegal to take photographs there.

Sunday was a relaxing day of breakfast and walking around taking pictures. We left Amsterdam at 12pm and got back to Siena at 12am...needless to say we had some trouble in transit but we made it home safe and sound. The weekend was truly a memorable experience.

This picture was taken at Dam Square in front of one of the main buildings. (L to R Me, Kerie, Betsy, Shannon)

SNOW!

IT'S SNOWING IN SIENA! It's so crazy! We've been talking about snow coming in on a cold front from Russia for about a week now and it's actually here! It started Tuesday 1/31 as rain around 2pm and now we have about 4 inches and it's coming down at a decent rate. Do they even have snow plows in Siena? I don't know  but this is just crazy! The only downside to the beauty of the snow is that inclined cobblestone streets aren't exactly the best walking conditions... So here's a picture from my bedroom window!

On a side note, I had my first final exam this week! Every month, we have one class broken up into language and grammar. At the beginning of each month, new students come in and then at the end of the month, we take a final exam. It has a written grammar section and an oral language section. The highest score you can get is 30 points in total. Combined written and oral I got 28 out of 30!