Shopping Trip!

Thursday I didn’t do much besides go to classes and do schoolwork; besides the general wandering around town and hanging out with friends here.
On Friday all the architecture students (26 of the 36 A&M students) were busy finishing up their projects and no one really wanted to go anywhere so I stayed at the center and read and hung out. Didn’t really leave the center for anything but walking around and a gelato break with the arch kids.

On Saturday though, that’s when we had a lot of fun.
We had heard/read in an Italy travel book that there was an outlet mall outside Florence. We found it online and nearly had a heart attack when we saw the list of stores they have there: Burberry, Fendi, Gucci, and Valentino just to name a few.
Jillian and I went with two students from Kansas State. We took a train from Castig to Rignano Sull’Arno and then took a taxi to the mall. The taxi ride was only about five minutes and was 3 euro for each person, which I thought was pretty cheap. The alternative would have been walking on the highway with no shoulders/sidewalks.
We walked through all the crazy expensive stores and looked at all the things that we couldn’t afford. It was still a lot of fun though. We saw a beagle in Burberry and a baby wearing Gucci- definitely made me want to vomit. I guess the parents can tell the kid later. “Hey, sorry… we can’t pay for your college because when you were little we bought you this great little Gucci outfit.” It was ridiculous.
We did find one store that we could actually afford things in- Diesel. Jillian found a really cute hot pink purse and some cute shoes. While she was trying on the shoes there was a pair that caught my eye. And I was like… No, I can’t pull those off, they are a little too ridiculous. Jillian convinced me to try them on though and I loved them. They are so ridiculous, but decided when else and I going to be able to buy and wear such ridiculous shoes- Italy is definitely bringing out my adventurous side! Hah!



After we got back from the outlet mall we had dinner here at the center and then we went out to two of the bars here in Castig. The music selection is always interesting here. It seems that they get music about a decade after it comes out in the US. We were at a bar called “Bar 2000” and they were playing “Barbie Girl”, “I’m Blue”, and other random songs from my middle school years. It’s also interesting to watch the locals. When a song they know starts playing they belt it out, but I guess we were doing that too when the DJ started playing songs that we loved.
The night ended with the watching of Paranormal Activity 2. While watching that movie is a terrifying experience in the first place, watching it in a pitch black, 15th century monastery is even worse! I’m pretty sure some of my friends (the guys) didn’t get any sleep last night.
And today… Sunday. I’ll probably catch up on all my schoolwork prepare for our week-long trip. We leave for Rome on Tuesday and we wont be back until next Sunday. I am debating whether I am even going to take my computer. I think I need to though because of all the grad school stuff- need to check emails and whatnot.
Today I’ll also probably try and finish plans for Spring Break and maybe try and plan something for the weekend after we get back from Rome. We shall see!

Cold & Rainy Perugia

Today we went to Perugia (wish is about an hour by bus). The weather was pretty miserable because it was raining and cold. We went to the National Umbria Museum and saw a lot of Medieval, Gothic, and Renaissance artwork. It was hard to sit through Paolo's talking about the artwork because it was so early and the weather was just awful. By the time we got 3/4 of the way through I was just thinking "okay, okay... there's the Virgin Mary holding Jesus in every one of these... can we move on?"
After the museum we went and had pizza, about the only reasonably priced food that you can get without shelling out some serious euro. Of course there was all the fun and laughing to be had as usual with the group that I hang out with. I'm really starting to make good friends here, which makes me happy. As Chris told me before I left, I needed to "play nicely with the other kids," and I am! Hah!
A group of us decided that we are going to go back to Perugia when the weather is better so we don't have a sour taste in our mouths about the place. It was a really nice town and there were some gorgeous view, the weather just killed it today.

We've started making plans for this weekend. I heard someone say they found a Prada outlet store somewhere nearby and that they were going. In one of my books that Catherine got me for Christmas I saw that there is an entire outlet mall near Florence that sells brand name stuff like Dior, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton. It's 10 euro to get there by train and I know I probably won't buy anything because I don't plan on spending lots of money on things I don't need, but why not go and look? It's going to be a great time! :)

The weather here in Castig tonight is pretty gross. It's pouring down rain and it hitting the windows is really loud. I already wrote my paper for LBAR 332 and now I am going to write my timed essay for my A&M grad school interview. Tomorrow I have my interview via Skype. I am really excited, I hope that I can overcome the disadvantage that being out of the country and not actually being able to attend puts me at.

Off to do some writing!

Ciao loves! :)

Monday- Valentine's Day in Italy

Yesterday was a great day! I didn’t have class until after lunch, so I slept until 10:30 to store up some sleep for the rest of the week. For lunch we had soup for the first course (seems we have soup every day for lunch- not my fave but it’s still good). We also had tuna salad- different from what Americans would think of it as, an assortment of vegetables, and toast with tomato on top. Lunch can sometimes be pretty odd! Haha! The staff surprised us with Valentine’s Day treats for dessert. In addition to the fruit that we get at the end of every meal we also got little dessert pastries.

After lunch we had a core meeting and Sharon (Paolo’s wife who helps him run the center) told us about our Wednesday trip to Perugia and next week’s trip to Rome. These past few weeks have gone by so quickly! I cannot believe our first extended trip is next week! Basically we are going to Rome for three nights, then Pompeii the next day; then we are staying in Sorento for two nights. On the way back from Sorento to Castig we are stopping in Naples (not staying for long though because it is somewhat dangerous there- especially for tourists).

After core meeting I finished up some sketches of things that I wanted to make in jewelry making class. At 2:45 we met downstairs and took a Castig school bus to the jewelry-making studio. It is the studio of Andrea Roggi who is our art teacher for lack of a better term. He is a famous sculptor who’s work is on display all over the world. His pieces typically include topless women, which is interesting culturally because you’d never really see that kind of open display of sexuality in America. I’ve been told that one of his pieces is in College Station. I am curious. If I can find it somewhere on google I’ll put a link or picture up.

Being in Andrea’s studio was awe-inspiring. Suddenly the sketches that I had previous been so proud of I wanted to burry deep in my pocket and never let him see. His work was all over the studio- both finished and unfinished. Katie, my roommate, and I agreed that being around so much of his work was intimidating. As we sat at the table molding wax into future jewelry pieces (which is MUCH harder than it sounds) he was ten feet away welding and creating huge bronze sculptures. It was pretty amazing. For my first day of jewelry making I had planned to keep it simple- but my drawing as anything but when trying to create it in wax. I finally got my first piece done and then finished two smaller pieces- one for Chris and one that I will add to something else later. He told us that next time we meet our pieces would be in bronze. It will be exciting to se how it turned out. We have the choice to use silver, gold, bronze and copper for our jewelry, but since bronze is cheapest we started out with it. Maybe later when my skills are honed a little more I’ll make something in silver.

The ride to and from the studio made me absolutely fall in love with where I am. It is hard to put into words just how amazing it is here. It is even harder to capture it in a photo- at least with my poor photography skills. The weather was amazing and the skies were clear. As we drove away from the walled-in city we saw the bell tower that lovingly (HAH!) wakes us up in the morning, the watchtower from the Roman ruins of the city, and if we looked closely enough- the courtyard of Santa Chiara. I am so in love with this little cit that I am calling my home for the semester.

After class we had dinner (amazing pasta, spinach, and pork). *We found out for sure that yes- they will sell us the cookbook from the center at the end of the semester for ten euro. I’ll be able to bring a little bit of Italian culture home and share it with my friends and family!*

Planning for spring break is taking over the lives of students here. I’m lucky because one of my best friends, Kristin, is coming over to visit me during that week. We’re staying in Italy so I don’t have to stress about all the country hopping that my friends are doing. However, I am going to Paris for the first weekend of spring break before Kristin comes. I’ve already booked my flight over there- I think it was about a $50 ticket. Not to shabby if you ask me. We’ll be leaving from Venice where we’ll have just finished a trip on Friday morning and we’ll head to Paris for the weekend (sounds luxurious, doesn’t it?!). When the rest of the group heads to England, I’ll head back to Rome and meet up with Kristin for a week of exploring Italy together.

After booking my flight, we watched a movie in Italian that was required for class. It was supposed to show us the lives of Italian families on the eve of the holocaust. It was unanimous between the ten of us watching it- the movie was horrible! We have about six or seven of these “required” movies left, yikes! We are going to try and convince the professor to let us watch Inglorious Basterds next time. Really historically accurate, right? Hah!

We finished off the night at Regiro’s, or “Pirate Bar,” for a Valentine’s Day party/ a A&M student’s birthday party. We got two of the four rooms closed off for us. The back one we pushed all the tables against the walls so we could dance- which Italians in Castig have to mayoral permission for; and we brought an iPod to play all of our favorite American music. About an hour and a half into the party some Italian guys came in and started dancing. It was interesting to watch the cultural difference. When they were dancing they were hopping up and down, clapping, and chanting “hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!” We all had a pretty good laugh about it, but I’m sure they thought our dancing was weird too!
Best part of the night you ask?... Definitely doing the Aggie War Hymn in Regiro’s at midnight! Amazing day!

Pisa!

These past few days have really been great. On Friday morning we left really early for Pisa and explored the town and did some window-shopping before we headed over to the historical area. We saw the Baptistery, the Cathedral, the cemetery, and the Campanile (the meaning tower). It was a group of four so it was really relaxing and we didn’t really have to worry about losing people and dealing with a big group. We made a ruckus in the Duomo Museum taking photos and we got yelled at (in Italian) for getting on the grass in the cemetery. We’re troublemakers in Italy apparently.

Pisa was gorgeous. Everyone told us that it wasn't really worth a weekend trip because there wasn't much to do, but we were glad we went. It was a good introduction to weekend traveling for us. Now we know the low-down on hostels and stuff like that.

Speaking of hostels... ours was GREAT! We booked on hostelworld.com and I was pretty nervous because all you hear is horror stories from people. I read the reviews and felt pretty confident that it wasn't going to be absolutely horrible. Our room was a private one and not dorm style which is what people always here about. It was like a small hotel room with four beds crammed inside. They had a computer that we could use and WiFi (which is more than we can say for the internet here at Santa Chiara). So first experience in a hostel was overall pretty awesome. No complaints except that our window opened up to Piazza Garibaldi and it was pretty noisy in the room. We survived though!

One thing that we found kind of obnoxious in Pisa was the vendors. And I don't mean have a cart and try and get you to come and look at their stuff kind of vendors. I mean these African guys that have arm-fulls of things and will follow you down the street trying to get you to buy their crap. They are insistent! It's so annoying! Ugh. We all were pretty unanimous that they were our least favorite part of Pisa.

We came back to Castig in the early afternoon. On the train ride back we had a stop in Florence to change trains and in the train station me and one of the other girls stopped to get lunch… at McDonalds. I know… I know… but comforts of home are great to have! And it was the first time that I've had something other than pasta or pizza for a main part of the meal in weeks. We savored every bite!

The rest of Saturday was pretty low-key. Just hung out and did some reading. And of course we had another lazy Sunday. That seems to be how it goes here, at least the four of us in our room. Things will change though when we get to doing some serious weekend traveling.

Things that I've started to miss from home:

-Peanut Butter. Apparently they use Nutella as a substitute, because they sell it absolutely everywhere and they put it on and in everything.

-Queso. My family and friends can totally understand this one.

-Diet Pepsi. Although they have it here, it tastes a lot different. They also have Mexican Coke here instead of American Coke, so everyone really loves that here.

-Hot breakfasts. I would pay a lot to have a hot breakfast. Something like scrambled eggs or an omelet or something. The only thing I have had for breakfast these past three weeks are croissants and random pastries. There is one place that we know for sure serves hot breakfast but they are shut down right now (we think the owner is in the hospital, but we're not sure).

-Aggie sporting events. I miss basketball a lot. The girls are doing so well this year too, it kind of sucks that I am missing their amazing season. Thankfully I can somewhat regularly check on scores and stuff.

-Reliable internet. Enough said.

And of course I miss my friends and my family. I have refused to get homesick yet. I keep telling myself that it is FAR too early because I still have a long time here to go. I refuse to leave the "honeymoon" stage of adjustment and into the "resentment" stage where I am angry and want to go home. I am keeping myself busy mentally and physically so I don't fall into a rut and get homesick. It isn't hard to keep myself busy though cause I am in Italy and there is always something to do, and since I'm living with 80 some-odd other students, there is always someone to hang out with.

Lessons Learned

I hope that Chris doesn't read my blog. If he does then I'm crossing my fingers that he doesn't read this post because he would have three words for me: Told. You. So.

Yesterday I went to the co-op and, while I typically don't go places in Italy by myself, this time I ventured out on my own. I had been the co-op two or three times before so I knew where it was and I wasn't worried about getting lost. I feel pretty safe because we live in a pretty small village- so that wasn't the issue either.

When I was done shopping and getting my groceries (they don't serve us breakfast or lunch on the weekends so we get munchies) I went to the checkout line. I knew I wasn't going to be able to carry my things up the hill in a plastic bag because they were somewhat heavy- I got my first bottle of Italian wine! So I picked up one of the reusable bags that are ever so popular in America and put it on the conveyor belt with my things. When she was finished ringing me up she picked up the reusable bag and started talking to me (quite quickly) in Italian. I told her "me dispiache, no italiano," which means "I'm sorry, I don't speak Italian." She continued to babble to me saying things that I can't even imagine meanings to. This went on for about two minutes. I'm feeling terrible because I have no idea what she is saying and clearly she is trying to communicate with me.

On my two-mile walk back up the hill with all my groceries I think I put the pieces together as to what she was saying. Apparently the reusable bag that I had gotten from the rack did not have a price tag on it so I think she was trying to ask if it was already mine or if I was trying to purchase it that day.

Ugh, it was awful. Language barrier realized. In small towns like this people don't know English. It is so refreshing when we get to go to larger towns like Florence where some of the people speak very small amounts of a language that we actually realize. It's even better to be walking down the street and hear people speaking in English (there are American Universities in Florence).

Lets just say that I was definitely overemphasizing my Italian skills when I said in a previous post that I could "get by."

Lesson learned. Next time I would definitely have brushed up on the language before throwing myself into the fire (just like Chris told me to).

Planning a Trip for this Weekend

So I am planning a trip to Pisa this weekend and I am really excited! We're currently getting a head count of how many people want to come and then we're going to book a room at a hostel! Haha! These are the current plans as of now:

Friday:
Take the train from Castiglion Fiortentino to Pisa (stops in Florence and switch trains)
See all the sights in Pisa including: The Leaning Tower of Pisa (of course!), the Baptistry, the Cemetery, the Duomo and museum, and the Piazza del Duomo. Everyone that comes to Italy has to take that stereotypical leaning tower of Pisa picture so we decided to take ours early.

We're going to stay in a hostel in Pisa Friday night. We found one that has private rooms that can fit 8 people for only 13 euro a person. A lot cheaper than trying to rent hotel rooms for that many people!

Then on Saturday we are going to wake up early and take the train to San Gimignano (every time I try and say the name I butcher it beyond all repair). It's about an hour away by train and it's supposed to be an amazingly beautiful city. In the medieval ages there were over 70 towers built in the city and there are still 13 standing so it has a "sky scraper" skyline, which will be awesome to see. There are also outside markets in the middle of the city during the morning, so shopping, shopping, shopping! :)
The thing I am most excited about in San Gimignano though is (don't judge me) the Museo della Tortura. Yes, you read that correctly: a museum about medieval torture devices. I think it'll be really neat to see, everyone else seems a little hesitant about it though! Haha
Then late Saturday night we'll head back to Castig (unfortunately we'll probably miss dinner).

But yeah, that's kind of the gyst of the planning so far. Hope it all works out and we can get enough people to go! :)

I am off to my jewelry making class. Hope we actually get to do something today. I can't wait to start making pretty things. I figure jewelry will be a nice souvenir for friends!

Ciao!

Saturday in Florence

Haven't posted in a couple of days, so I'll give you a quick recap:

Thursday: Class & Velvet Underground After

Friday: Slept in & Did a load of laundry. Laundry is unnecessarily expensive here. Doing a moderate sized load costs about $10.

Continued to bond with the roomies. After laundry we went to the co-op and Liz bought an enormous jar of Nutella... she's already finished a smaller one so this time she went for the mond0-size! She's excited... can you tell?!

Aaaaaand today: SATURDAY! :)

Today a big group of us woke up early and headed off to Florence by train, which cost 13 euro round trip. There was word of a chocolate fair and a leather market. While the leather market went unseen we definitely found the chocolate fair. There was chocolate out of the wazoo!! I didn't but any, but my friends did and it all looked pretty delicious!

While we were walking through the town all of a sudden we heard all this banging... needless to say we were a little alarmed being the tourists that we are. We kept walking and came across what seemed to be a parade... which we thought was odd. However, after watching for a few minutes and our sad interpretation of their signs in Italian we realized that the thousands of people walking through the streets banging on pots and pans were protesting the Prime Minister's recent scandal. (At least I'm pretty sure it was the Prime Minister... I'm not too up to date on my Italian government scandals!)

They had all sorts of signs saying things like "confess your sins" and things that sounded really funny once translated into English. Seeing it was definitely an experience!

After window shopping for a bit we ate lunch at a little cafe close to the train station.

We continued shopping and found this little market that was selling all sorts of leather goods (I've been told that Florence is one of the world's leading leather producers). One of the first carts (I guess you'd call them that... they're outside vendors) I walked by had this purse that I immediately fell in love with. And then... I looked at the price tag, haha. It was priced at 75 euro, which my currency converter conveniently tells me is close to $102. I wasn't going to pay that much for a bag because 1-it was far too much and 2-I just didn't have that much cash on me. We kept walking around the market and I was looking for a cross-body bag that is bigger than the one I have, but I couldn't get that first purse off my mind! Hah! I've heard that you've really got to haggle and they'll lower the price on things. So, I went back to the man and I told him I literally only have 45 euro, will you give it to me for that price? He immediately as like "No," so I put the sad face on and started to walk away and he was like... "okay." He told me "special price" and "just for you" and made me promise not to tell anyone that he gave it to me so cheap (so if you're ever in Florence and meet this purse guy don't let him know!). So basically I paid 45 euro instead of 75, which was close to $60. I thought it was a steal, especially for genuine leather from Florence. And it has been my only splurge so far so I don't feel so bad... haha. I love it & I needed a bigger purse. (This is me validating my purchase to myself, haha!!)

Afterwards we took the train back to Castiglion Fiorentino (which Liz and I have decided to shorten to "Castig") and we had dinner, which was amazing! The center made us pasta, fried chicken and french fries- once again, the comforts of home are amazing to have! They always make us healthy food so when they give us something that isn't directly vegetable related everyone gets excited. But, they always make sure to give us salad and instead of desert we get fresh fruit.

Okay, now for the random things:

-Italians take their dogs everywhere. I'm not even exaggerating. In clothing stores, in restaurants... EVERYWHERE. And they aren't all even small dogs. There are huge dogs like Dalmatians in Louis Vuitton! And they are all dressed up cute and whatnot to keep them warm. They're all pretty adorable. They're all well groomed & taken care of. Definitely makes me want a dog more and more every day.

-Everyone and their mother drives a Fiat. Everyone. And if they don't have a car then they ride their bike everywhere, even when they appear to be wearing entire designer outfits.

-I have gotten okay at "survival Italian." That means that I can get around and do essential tasks and communication in Italy. I can order food and make sure that I am headed in the right direction (like if I'm headed to the train or back to the center).

-I've tried a lot of new food while I've been here. Unless something looks absolutely inedible or disgusting I'll typically give it a try. I've determined that kiwi tastes pretty good, I still like other fruit better. Oh, and that blood oranges are delicious!!

-When we went to the co-op the other day Liz bought something she thought was lotion and when we got back to the room it turned out to be hand soap. So now we have a nice bottle of hand soap in the bathroom. :-p

I am really enjoying each and every day here. Everything is so beautiful and I've met a lot of really awesome people. I don't really miss being home or in College Station; however I do miss some friends and my family- but I've been so busy that I haven't really had a lot of time to think about it.

Hoping to go to Arezzo tomorrow (only 1.90 euro for that ticket!) to go to an antique fair and hang out. We shall see... :)

Exploring Florence!!

There are few words that can describe how amazing being in Florence was today. I will start with these three: Oh. My. God! There was so much history and so much beauty... it was crazy!! I can't even begin to explain.

We woke up early this morning and got on the bus bound for Florence at 8AM. As much as I tried to fall asleep on the bus I was was too excited to. When we arrived I looked to the right and the first thing I see is the Florence skyline with the Duomo, Santa Cruce, the Baptistry, etc. Great way to start the morning, right?! (You'll have to check Facebook for photos, they are taking too long to upload to here.)

At the top of the hill in Piazza Michelangelo we toured a church that is 1000 years old. Think about that... that's 4X the time that the US has even existed!

Afterwards we went to Santa Croce- a Dominican Cathedral that you can pay 3 euro and take a tour. SO WORTH THE 3 EURO!

While my friends were in College Station in classrooms I was in Santa Croce with the tombs of... wait for it... Michelangelo, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Dante. (While the bodies of Galileo and Michelangelo were there- da Vinci and Dante's are located elsewhere.) Just standing there in the church in front of their tombs was crazy! These are the people that I've read about in history books and now their bodies are within feet of me!

Afterwards we walked around the city with Paolo (the amazing man than runs the center) and he showed us all the sites that people don't typically see when they are just wandering through. Then we all went to a restaurant to eat and we had an amazing meal!! We had pasta, followed by pork, salad, french fries (comforts of home!), and then ice cream. Amazing!

Then we were allowed to do whatever we wanted and roam the city. Three of my friends and I went over to a market that lined several of the streets. We had to go over and look at them for a class (and write an essay on it later). It was really interesting. They had all sorts of cheap leather goods like purses, wallets, jackets, and gloves.

Once we were done walking the market we walked around and went into actual shops. Katie and I found a place that sold warm socks and we split a 5 pair/10 euro deal. Now my toes are nice and toasty. It comes in handy since they don’t really do the central heating thing over here. They turn on the radiators whenever they feel like it’s completely necessary for us to not get frostbite. This is part of the reason that I’m not feeling too sorry for people in Texas right now with the cold weather. Yes, it’s freezing there, but outside it is a constant 30-35 here and inside it’s about a constant 55 degrees. Really gotta bundle up to stay warm inside here. It’s funny because everyone will be eating meals in their full winter coats and winter garb.

We met back up to get on the bus in Florence at 5:30 and then started heading back to Castig. Once we got here we had about 30 minutes until dinner.

Now I am fighting with the Internet trying to post this. The wireless here has really been acting up- boo. Finally got it posted. Internet ninja! :)