March Update

Today, March 10th, is the two month marker. I will be home two months from today. Just figured I would update about what's been going on and what will be going on.

1. Day Lights Savings doesn't happen in Europe until March 25th. The United States and Europe aren't in the same cycle for Day Lights Savings. Needless to say, oober confused this morning. Therefore, I am only 5 hours ahead of USA (instead of the usual 6 hours) until March 25th.

2. School is going very well. This month we double up on classes. I have twice as many course hours each week and I am taking Art and Contemporary Histroy in addition to my normal grammar and langusge course. Last semester, I got a 28/30 on my final again. Pretty excited about that.

3. This past weekend was the Chocolate Festival. Chocolateirs from all over Italy were here to showcase and sell their creations. I bought one each of chocolate covered and candied lemon, lime, orange, papaya, mango, apricot, fig, dates, and ginger. I also bought chocolate covered almonds and hazelnuts, truffles rolled in nuts and coconut, and liquor filled chocolates. It was a delicious but decadent weekend to say the least.

4. March 8th was International Women's Day. To celebrate, I took part in a Flash Mob freeze to raise awareness of domestic violence against women. One of our friends here was participating and we joined as well. We all gathered on a busy main street in Siena in the middle of the day. At 2pm, a woman screamed and we held a picture of a woman's face with a man's hand covering her mouth over our faces. 2 minutes later, she screamed again and we walked away. It was actually very exhilirating and made me feel good to take part in something to raise awareness on an issue.

That is all for now. I havent done much traveling since Amsterdam but I am planning to go to Sicily at some point and I would like to go to Spain and Ireland atleast before I leave. Updates to come!

Gatto e toast

This is a picture someone posted on Facebook. It's called a meme. A meme is a picture with words, typically something funny, whitty, or factually based that makes fun of something else. My mother told me to post this so here it is. I will post the English translation below because it's in Italian.

1. Toast always falls butter side down.

2. Cats always land on their feet.

3. Tie buttered toast to the cat.

4. The cat and toast will fall, and turn itself without hitting the ground.

5. Attach cat with toast to generator

6. Acheive infinite energy.

Hope you got a good chuckle out of this one. I know I did.



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!

A Day in Florence

This weekend, three of my friends and I spent a day in the Tuscan city of Florence. Only about an hour away by bus, it was very easy to get there. The day was a bit chilly, only 40 degrees Farenheit, but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

This is a picture of me on the Fiume Arno (The Arne River). Gorgeous day! From the bus station, we made our way to the Duomo. It was amazing! The ceiling was beautifully painted and the size was incredible. Later in the evening, the tip of the dome was lit up. 

We also visited the Uffizi, which is the museum containing most of Florence's works of art, including The Birth of Venus. The David wasn't in the museum and we couldn't find it but we'll go back again to find it. The Uffizi contained black and white photographs, paintings, drawing, and sculptures. We spent about two hours in the musem, before heading to a local pizzeria for lunch. After that, we walked around the open market on one of the main Florentine streets. Bags, scraves, shoes, painting, you name it! It was huge! We also crossed the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge filled with really expensive jewelry stores.

The last place we went to was the Piazzale Michelangelo. We walked uphill and up stairs for about 10 minutes to the top of a hill. But the view was absolutely breath-taking! You could see the entire city! We went up at sunset and there was a huge staircase carved into the side and you could jsut sit and watch everything. Truly a sight to see. The picture below is the sunset view of the hillside from this spot.

My Weekend in Rome

I spent this past weekend with my UMass group in the metropolis of Italy: Rome! We departed Saturday morning for the 3 hour buss ride south to Rome. The city is HUGE compared to where I am right now, in Siena. The small walled city does nothing to compare to Rome. The city was absolutly beautiful and we had an awesome weekend packed with sight seeing, great food, and meeting old friends. We saw the Colloseum, Trevi Fountain, Capitol Hill, Spanish Steps, Piazza of the People, Pantheon, and some other monuments. Below are some photos from the weekend. Enjoy! =)

The Colloseo! Truly, it was collosal! We couldn't actually go into it but just standing in front of it was breath-taking. This photo is taken from a few hundred feet away. We took a nice group photo in front of it but I'll have to steal it from whoever took it off Facebook.

This is a picture from the "entrance" of The Vatican. You can see the Christmas Tree and Nativity scene are still up for another week. Saint Peter's Basilica towers in the background. The inside of the church was absolutly stunning! We listened to a mass (because we went on Sunday) and then at noon, the Pope came to his window and blessed the crowd in the square. He spoke in 6 different languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and English. It was beautful to see him and hear him speak.

Another highlight of my weekend was meeting up with my high school exchange student! Her name is Ilaria and she came shopping and touring Rome with us Saturday evening. I haven't seen her in 3 years and I miss her so much so I was excited beyond belief to see her! She goes to school in Rome for medicine. The site is being finickey so unfortunatly I can't add a photo.