While wandering the streets of Venice a few weeks ago, Kailee the Australian and I talked about some of the things we missed from back home. We laughed about vegemite and how the water really does go down the drain in the opposite direction, when Kailee said she missed meat.
It's true, in northern Italy, meat isn't one of the staples. Its pasta, pasta, pasta! Well actually, with my second host family, we have pasta for the first course, and usually meat as a second. But it's not real meat, it's paper-thin slices of beef, fried in olive oil, or sausage, or sometimes little pieces of roast beef. I've had chicken probably 3 times since I've been here.
"I just want a big, juicy steak, ya know? Like, a thick piece of meat!" mused Kailee, and strangely, even though I'm not a red-meat kind of girl, I found myself agreeing with her. The conversation was forgotten.. until tonight.
I ate a piece of Fiorentina in Florence, but didn't pay much attention to it. I was in a restaurant at the time, and was enjoying what I had ordered too much to really pay attention to the food my host father was offering me.
My host brother came up to my room, to ask me what I wanted for dinner. My options were pasta, raw fish (sashimi) or Fiorentina. Not being in the mood for pasta or raw tuna, I replied "Fiorentina, grazie" without giving it much thought.
Half an hour later, I was called down to dinner. I munched on salad and bread as my host brother wolfed down his pasta and sashimi, wondering when the second course would be ready. Finally, Annie brought in the Fiorentina.
Which was half a cow.
No, not really, but it was the biggest T-bone steak I have ever laid eyes on. Huge, juicy, cooked to pink perfection.. and mamma mia, the tantalizing aroma! It was amazing. Perfect. I have become a steak-loving American. That's all I have to say about that.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
l'alaska
Finally, I presented my powerpoint of Alaska.
Well, I tried to present, but the prof had a lot of input and questions, so things didn't go exactly as I had planned them to.
I was happy though, after explaining that I lived on Kodiak island for my dad's job, the prof asked me to describe what Dad did.
I didn't know the word "rescue" in Italian, so I said "He used to fly helicopters to go and save people in boats that sink." Yes, I know the word sink in Italian! Thanks to watching Titanic.
After saying this, the prof exclaimed "Oh! Your father is a hero, then!" I certainly think so.
The bell rang, and as the class was leaving the room we were in, the prof asked me to make another presentation, this one about my father's life...
I told her we could just watch The Guardian.
Well, I tried to present, but the prof had a lot of input and questions, so things didn't go exactly as I had planned them to.
I was happy though, after explaining that I lived on Kodiak island for my dad's job, the prof asked me to describe what Dad did.
I didn't know the word "rescue" in Italian, so I said "He used to fly helicopters to go and save people in boats that sink." Yes, I know the word sink in Italian! Thanks to watching Titanic.
After saying this, the prof exclaimed "Oh! Your father is a hero, then!" I certainly think so.
The bell rang, and as the class was leaving the room we were in, the prof asked me to make another presentation, this one about my father's life...
I told her we could just watch The Guardian.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
My encounters with Seafood
This is what we had for lunch today:
creepy little shrimp- my host father ate them head and all!
squid with artichokes
giant prawn
DEAD, SOULLESS EYE STARING AT ME!
creepy little shrimp- my host father ate them head and all!
squid with artichokes
giant prawn
DEAD, SOULLESS EYE STARING AT ME!It was all yummy, though. I avoided the creepy little shrimp, but the squid was good, and the prawn wasn't too bad.. Although I must say it's a little unnerving to eat something that's looking at you.
Italian Gospel Choirs?
Some girls from school and I had discussed having dinner at my house Saturday night, but nobody could get a ride.
I was afraid all tentative plans would fall through completely, and I would spent yet another Saturday night at home. Miraculously, everything turned out almost perfectly, although none of the plans we had made actually ended up happening.
Here's what I did Saturday night:
First, I went to Mass. After mass, I ran home (literally) so that I wouldn't be late for my dinner appointment with Mari. My host parents and I left 2 minutes before I was supposed to be at the restaurant, and halfway there, Marco realized he had forgotten the bottle of wine at home. (They were going to a friend's for dinner.) I ended up being 15 minutes late anyways, but it was no big deal.
Mari and I had chosen to go to the "Fabbrica della Pizza" or "Pizza Factory" for dinner. Feeling adventurous, I forwent (is that a word?) the usual pizza margherita for a prosciutto-mozzerella-grana padano calzone.
This, my friend, is a calzone. It was practically the length of my arm! The crust was light, but it was stuffed with prosciutto, and boy, was I hungry!
After we both polished off our meals, we walked to the theater to see a gospel concert. There, we met Fede, another girl from school. We ran into the English teacher as well.
The choir itself wasn't too bad, but I've had Lara Brittain as a choir director, so I know top-quality when I see it! They sang one song in Italian, the rest were in English. Aside from gospel, they also sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Somebody to Love" I took a video of Bohemian Rhapsody, but blogger won't let me upload it for some reason. Both renditions were entertaining, but nobody can ever come close to the real Freddie Mercury! The choir director was tall and skinny, and it was worth the 12 euros just to see him jumping around the stage like a madman. I enjoyed the concert, but it really made me miss Concert Choir at Forest Park.
The concert ended at about 11:15, and Mari and Fede and I hung out in the theatre to chat. When the theater's lights started to turn off, we walked to Fede's house and chatted some more, until my host parents came to pick me up.
I went to bed happy, having thoroughly enjoyed an evening out on the town with two of my classmates.. two of my friends, rather.
I was afraid all tentative plans would fall through completely, and I would spent yet another Saturday night at home. Miraculously, everything turned out almost perfectly, although none of the plans we had made actually ended up happening.
Here's what I did Saturday night:
First, I went to Mass. After mass, I ran home (literally) so that I wouldn't be late for my dinner appointment with Mari. My host parents and I left 2 minutes before I was supposed to be at the restaurant, and halfway there, Marco realized he had forgotten the bottle of wine at home. (They were going to a friend's for dinner.) I ended up being 15 minutes late anyways, but it was no big deal.
Mari and I had chosen to go to the "Fabbrica della Pizza" or "Pizza Factory" for dinner. Feeling adventurous, I forwent (is that a word?) the usual pizza margherita for a prosciutto-mozzerella-grana padano calzone.
This, my friend, is a calzone. It was practically the length of my arm! The crust was light, but it was stuffed with prosciutto, and boy, was I hungry!After we both polished off our meals, we walked to the theater to see a gospel concert. There, we met Fede, another girl from school. We ran into the English teacher as well.
The choir itself wasn't too bad, but I've had Lara Brittain as a choir director, so I know top-quality when I see it! They sang one song in Italian, the rest were in English. Aside from gospel, they also sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Somebody to Love" I took a video of Bohemian Rhapsody, but blogger won't let me upload it for some reason. Both renditions were entertaining, but nobody can ever come close to the real Freddie Mercury! The choir director was tall and skinny, and it was worth the 12 euros just to see him jumping around the stage like a madman. I enjoyed the concert, but it really made me miss Concert Choir at Forest Park.
The concert ended at about 11:15, and Mari and Fede and I hung out in the theatre to chat. When the theater's lights started to turn off, we walked to Fede's house and chatted some more, until my host parents came to pick me up.
I went to bed happy, having thoroughly enjoyed an evening out on the town with two of my classmates.. two of my friends, rather.
Last Monday
This is Quadro Svedese, something we did in gym class. I know I look klutzy and ungraceful, but.. I am klutzy and ungraceful! What can I say, I take after my mother.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Whew!
It seems like it's been forever since I've posted! Strangely, I haven't been able to find the time. Here are some of the highlights of my week:
Monday- I decided to rebell against fashion. I wore black, navy blue, dark brown, and grey all in the same outfit. Take that, fashion police! Also, I did the quadro svedese, "Sweedish Square" in gym. I have a video of me doing it, which I will post as soon as I find time.
Tuesday- I wen't to Beatrice's school, like usual. Instead of having an Enlgish lesson, they had an extra music class. I listened to a bunch of 9-year-0lds play the recorder for an hour, but then we played 7Up. They picked me every time, which was flattering.
Wednesday- I went on a quest for peanut butter, because I'm running out. Marta, the colf at the Cuccirelli house, told me of a store that sells peanut butter. I found the store, a little Islamic supermarket, and worked up the guts to go in. I was met by a rather unpleasant odor, coming from bags of dried fish laying about the store. I asked the woman at the register if they had peanut butter, but she didn't speak Italian very well, and she told me to look around. Hesitantly, I looked around the store. The prices of items were written with permanant marker on the items themselves. Seeing no peanut butter, I thanked the woman, and left. I stoped at the bancomat to get some more cash, put money on my cellphone, and continued my quest for peanut butter.
There's another international supermarket near the station, and since I really wanted peanut butter, I decided it would be worth it to walk all the way there. This supermarket, from the outside, looked clean and organized. I entered, again met by a rather unpleasant odor. There was only one aisle, and I walked down it, doubtful that I'd find anything. But then I saw it, written in English: Peanut butter! It was by a brand I've never heard of before, but it looked like peanut butter, and it was only 2 euro! The man at the register gave me a quizzical look, then smiled, and rang up the peanut butter. Everything he said sounded like it had three exclamation points at the end. "Will that be all?!!!" "Would you like a bag?!!!" "That'll be two euro!!!" And so on. I left, feeling triumphant, and proceeded to the gym
Thursday- we had a fire alarm at school. Not a fire drill, a fire alarm. The bell for break started to ring, and we all started to get our snacks out of our backpacks. The bell, however, did not stop ringing. I thought it must be jammed, and continued peeling my orange. After about thirty seconds, somone came in and told us it was a fire drill. One of the boys in the class said "Why did they do it during intervallo? I'm staying inside!" We all agreed with him, but of course put down our snacks, grabbed our coats, and walked outside. I spotted the tecnici (computer geek guys who work at the school) running to their tecnico room. It made me chuckle to see them running, becuase one is a short, round man, while the other is tall, thin, and looks straight from the '70s. Then I wondered why on earth they were running. We got outside, and I saw the tecnici running out of the parking lot wearing bright orange vests, holding the Italian version of a traffic director. This made me laugh out loud: imagine, tecnici doubling as crossing guards! We stayed outside for a good 15 minutes, and someone mentioned it wasn't a drill. I saw no smoke pouring from the building, though, so I wasn't worried. It turned out to be a false alarm, so we all filed back into the classrooms, grumy about losing our break.
Friday- Nonna and I broke the law. We raked up some leaves and dead grass from her yard, then set fire to them. Burning leaves is illegal in Lombardia, but we did it anyway! We live on the edge, man!
Chicca picked me up from nonna's, and we went to the French version of Home Depot. I've never been to a Home Depot in Italy before, but the smell of wood and paint made me get a little misty.. not because of the fumes, but because it made me think of my Daddy.
Today, Saturday- The math teacher was interrogating today, so we did nothing. The next teacher, whom I have for 2 hours, was absent, so we had a subsitute! I asked to go to the library, and now here I am, keeping you updated. Tonight, I may go to a gospel choir concert (snort! Gospel in Italy? I don't think so!) with some friends if I can find a ride to Gallarate. We'll see how that goes!
P.S. Check out Bia's post on the differences between Italians and the rest of Europe! It's SO TRUE! Click here to watch the video
Monday- I decided to rebell against fashion. I wore black, navy blue, dark brown, and grey all in the same outfit. Take that, fashion police! Also, I did the quadro svedese, "Sweedish Square" in gym. I have a video of me doing it, which I will post as soon as I find time.
Tuesday- I wen't to Beatrice's school, like usual. Instead of having an Enlgish lesson, they had an extra music class. I listened to a bunch of 9-year-0lds play the recorder for an hour, but then we played 7Up. They picked me every time, which was flattering.
Wednesday- I went on a quest for peanut butter, because I'm running out. Marta, the colf at the Cuccirelli house, told me of a store that sells peanut butter. I found the store, a little Islamic supermarket, and worked up the guts to go in. I was met by a rather unpleasant odor, coming from bags of dried fish laying about the store. I asked the woman at the register if they had peanut butter, but she didn't speak Italian very well, and she told me to look around. Hesitantly, I looked around the store. The prices of items were written with permanant marker on the items themselves. Seeing no peanut butter, I thanked the woman, and left. I stoped at the bancomat to get some more cash, put money on my cellphone, and continued my quest for peanut butter.
There's another international supermarket near the station, and since I really wanted peanut butter, I decided it would be worth it to walk all the way there. This supermarket, from the outside, looked clean and organized. I entered, again met by a rather unpleasant odor. There was only one aisle, and I walked down it, doubtful that I'd find anything. But then I saw it, written in English: Peanut butter! It was by a brand I've never heard of before, but it looked like peanut butter, and it was only 2 euro! The man at the register gave me a quizzical look, then smiled, and rang up the peanut butter. Everything he said sounded like it had three exclamation points at the end. "Will that be all?!!!" "Would you like a bag?!!!" "That'll be two euro!!!" And so on. I left, feeling triumphant, and proceeded to the gym
Thursday- we had a fire alarm at school. Not a fire drill, a fire alarm. The bell for break started to ring, and we all started to get our snacks out of our backpacks. The bell, however, did not stop ringing. I thought it must be jammed, and continued peeling my orange. After about thirty seconds, somone came in and told us it was a fire drill. One of the boys in the class said "Why did they do it during intervallo? I'm staying inside!" We all agreed with him, but of course put down our snacks, grabbed our coats, and walked outside. I spotted the tecnici (computer geek guys who work at the school) running to their tecnico room. It made me chuckle to see them running, becuase one is a short, round man, while the other is tall, thin, and looks straight from the '70s. Then I wondered why on earth they were running. We got outside, and I saw the tecnici running out of the parking lot wearing bright orange vests, holding the Italian version of a traffic director. This made me laugh out loud: imagine, tecnici doubling as crossing guards! We stayed outside for a good 15 minutes, and someone mentioned it wasn't a drill. I saw no smoke pouring from the building, though, so I wasn't worried. It turned out to be a false alarm, so we all filed back into the classrooms, grumy about losing our break.
Friday- Nonna and I broke the law. We raked up some leaves and dead grass from her yard, then set fire to them. Burning leaves is illegal in Lombardia, but we did it anyway! We live on the edge, man!
Chicca picked me up from nonna's, and we went to the French version of Home Depot. I've never been to a Home Depot in Italy before, but the smell of wood and paint made me get a little misty.. not because of the fumes, but because it made me think of my Daddy.
Today, Saturday- The math teacher was interrogating today, so we did nothing. The next teacher, whom I have for 2 hours, was absent, so we had a subsitute! I asked to go to the library, and now here I am, keeping you updated. Tonight, I may go to a gospel choir concert (snort! Gospel in Italy? I don't think so!) with some friends if I can find a ride to Gallarate. We'll see how that goes!
P.S. Check out Bia's post on the differences between Italians and the rest of Europe! It's SO TRUE! Click here to watch the video
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Ecco!
Attenzione: My time in Venice was spent wandering around aimlessly, without an Italian adult to explain to me the importance of monuments. Usually when I go sightseeing, I'm with my host father, or with someone from Rotary who explains interesting tidbits about everything. In Venice, I just took pictures of what I thought looked pretty.
This might be the grand canal. I'm not sure.
Somebody said this is the bridge of dreams or hopes or something..
Gondola!
Um, I think this is a hospital?
This is a church, I know that much!
The church in the main square in Venice. The piazza was packed!
Piazza-wide conga line!
On the island of Murano
This is the width of an average street in Venice
Somebody told me this was important. So I took a picture.
Cam!
Taylor doing his "Jack I'm flying!" impression
View of Venice's cemetery- taken from the boat
Man with molten glass. He made a cup out of that.
Kristen is happy because..
we got chips and salsa, along with our
BURRITOS!
This might be the grand canal. I'm not sure.
Somebody said this is the bridge of dreams or hopes or something..
Gondola!
Um, I think this is a hospital?
This is a church, I know that much!
The church in the main square in Venice. The piazza was packed!
Piazza-wide conga line!
On the island of Murano
This is the width of an average street in Venice
Somebody told me this was important. So I took a picture. 
Cam! 
Taylor doing his "Jack I'm flying!" impression
View of Venice's cemetery- taken from the boat 
Man with molten glass. He made a cup out of that. 
Kristen is happy because..
we got chips and salsa, along with our
BURRITOS!Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Coming Soon..
Pictures of Venice!
Really. It should be easier, now that I've gotten them all sorted out on my Brand New flash drive.. which is already full of pictures. Really. One gig, already all used up. How frustrating.
...I had a good theme for today's post, but I've completely forgotten about it.
So I had my interview with Simon's Rock today! It went fairly well.. besides the power going out in the middle of the call. The guy I talked to was nice, I don't think I made a fool of myself (although I was pretty nervous) and things are looking like they might, maybe, hopefully work out.
That's about all that happened today.
Oh, no it's not! I just remembered, my host mom called me as I was leaving school, and asked me to stop by and pick up a package that arrived today! From Grandpa! It's a very pretty necklace. I laughed when I saw the "Do not open until Christmas!" post it on the package. Thanks, Grandpa!
Really. It should be easier, now that I've gotten them all sorted out on my Brand New flash drive.. which is already full of pictures. Really. One gig, already all used up. How frustrating.
...I had a good theme for today's post, but I've completely forgotten about it.
So I had my interview with Simon's Rock today! It went fairly well.. besides the power going out in the middle of the call. The guy I talked to was nice, I don't think I made a fool of myself (although I was pretty nervous) and things are looking like they might, maybe, hopefully work out.
That's about all that happened today.
Oh, no it's not! I just remembered, my host mom called me as I was leaving school, and asked me to stop by and pick up a package that arrived today! From Grandpa! It's a very pretty necklace. I laughed when I saw the "Do not open until Christmas!" post it on the package. Thanks, Grandpa!
VERONA!
Here are the pictures from Verona, in no particular order. I only uploaded a few, but am uploading the rest to Facebook as I type.
Juliet's Balcony
Juliet herself
Ancient Roman meeting room
Castle on top of a hill, overlooking a river
Interesting Church (It's interesting because it shows architecture from several different periods. Somebody built the main building, and as time went on, people added things. Like the little portico over the door was added by the Romans, at least that's what Kristen's host father told us.)
L'arena, which is said to have perfect accoustics
Two men dressed up as Romans, who charge tourists to have their picture taken with them
Main square in Verona. Kristen and I ended up going when there was a little market, which was nice
Tower over Main square. Kristen and I decided not to climb it.
Small child dressed up as Buzz Lightyear.
Juliet's Balcony 
Juliet herself
Ancient Roman meeting room
Castle on top of a hill, overlooking a river
Interesting Church (It's interesting because it shows architecture from several different periods. Somebody built the main building, and as time went on, people added things. Like the little portico over the door was added by the Romans, at least that's what Kristen's host father told us.)
L'arena, which is said to have perfect accoustics
Two men dressed up as Romans, who charge tourists to have their picture taken with them
Main square in Verona. Kristen and I ended up going when there was a little market, which was nice
Tower over Main square. Kristen and I decided not to climb it. 
Small child dressed up as Buzz Lightyear. For the rest of the pictures, you can click here
Monday, February 4, 2008
So it continues..
The lack of pictures is what I'm referring to. I'd have posted them today, but I need to hook my camera up to the computer to do that, and my camera battery is dead. As soon as I charge the battery, the pictures from Venice and Verona will be posted. Hopefully.
This weekend was fantastic. Could going to Venice be anything other than fantastic? Probably not.. But the fantasticness of the weekend wasn't only dictated by the trip to Venice, which was on Sunday. Saturday was pretty exciting, too, and since I like to write my blogs chronologically, I'll start with Saturday.
Saturday, I got out of school at eleven, went to a bar and got hot chocolate, and walked to the station. Usually, I end up at the station at least 40 minutes early, but this time I only had to wait for the train about 10 minutes. As I was waiting, I noticed a man staring at me, quite blatantly. It really made me uncomfortable. The train started on its way, and having forgotten my iPod, I passed the time staring out the window. A few minutes passed, and the man walked by my seat and said "ciao" and kind of snickered. I barely glanced at him. On a side note, the train was probably one of the ickiest I've been on since I've been in Italy. About a minute passed, and the man reappeared, bending down so that his face was scarily close to mine. He grinned and snickered, and asked me where I'm from. Origional, isn't he?
Things like this happen often to me, but only because of the color of my hair. I've tried different tactics of fending off the creepy Italian men, from completely ignoring them (which sometimes works) to insulting them (this has had varying results) to pretending I don't speak Italian (this never works.) This time, I tried something new. I asked him somewhat politely to just leave me alone. For some reason, he thought this was hilarous, and snickered some more, flashing his tobacco-stained teeth, saying something like "Oh, you're smart! I like smart girls. And I knew you could speak Italian." Ugh. I kept my catty comments to myself, and told him to go away. Surprisingly, he did, after snickering some more.
I got off at a train station that I've never been to before. Kristen told me she would be waiting on the platform for me, but when I got off, she wasn't there. I waited a few minutes, and having no idea where I could go, I called her. She told me to stay put, and 10 minutes later, she arrived, waving her arms in typical Kristen fashion.
We walked to the Mexican restaurant we found, but it didn't open until that evening, so we found a bar and got lunch. Upon exiting the bar, we realized we didn't remember how we had gotten there, so we ended up wandering around, looking for a tram stop or a metro station. After about an hour of things getting progressivly less familiar-looking, Kristen said we should follow someone who looked like they knew where they were going. We picked a random guy, and followed him to a metro station. Kristen decided we should keep walking, instead of taking the metro home. Eventually, we found a tram stop, and went back to Kristen's house. Well, before going to her house, we stopped at a pasticceria, so I could buy her family a cake. They've been really nice to me, and they like cake, so why not?
We went to Kristen's, put our backpacks in her room, told her host father we were going back out, and left. I decided to get my hair cut, so we went into the first hair place we found. A cut was 20 euro, which is about the best you're going to find in Milan, so I got my hair cut while Kristen listened to her iPod. After that was accomplished, we had nothing better to do, so I dragged Kristen to Sephora, where I agonized over buying products from the Clinique facial line. There's a story behind that, but this post is long enough already, and I have a LOT more to write, so I'll skip it for now. I ended up not buying anything. We left Sephora, and were walking down Via Torino wondering what to do, when I suddenly realized it was Saturday night, and I wouldn't have a chance to go to Mass the next day. I almost had a panic attack, because Masses in Milan start at 5:30, and it was already 5:40. Kristen tried talking me out of going to Mass, but I was pretty adament about going. Thankfully, we found a church where Mass started at 6, so I went to Mass while Kristen went and hung out at FNAC, an electronics/media store. After Mass finished, we met in Carpisa, a purse store, where I scored a cute little brown purse for only 7.50 euro. I needed a purse with a zipper top for Venice the next day, so the purchase was necessary. And I'm proud of myself for finding a deal in Milan. They're hard to come by.
We took the tram from Duomo to Brera, where the Mexican restaurant is. We went into the Mexican restaurant, and I immediately felt at home.. Especially when the waiter came over and said "Can I take your order?" in an unmistakeable American accent. Kristen and I both got (real!!) burritos with (real!!) cheese. They were a-ma-zing. A little pricey, but worth it for the refried beans and sour cream. Kristen kept bursting out laughing, because she thinks it's hilarious that the only place in all of Milan that you can get real burritos is owned by an American. I was just happy to have real TexMex again.
We went back to Kristen's, and tried unsuccesfully to go to bed early. We ended up going to bed at about 11, and Sunday morning we woke up at 6:30. Oh joy.
It was totally worth it. We were going to Venice for crying out loud. Venice!!
The morning is a little fuzzy for me, but somehow we got to the train station, and ended up on the nicest train I've been on since I've been in Italy. I sat next to Kristen, and across from us sat Morgan and Austin. Sometime during the ride, Kristen and Austin left, and Steven came and sat next to me, which was OK by me, 'cause he gave me chocolate.
We arrived in Venice, waited a good hour for the ferry, and went to Murano, the island where they make all the pretty glass things. We went to a glass making place, where they showed us how they make some of the glass products, etc. We watched a man make a glass horse out of molten glass in all of 2 minutes. It was pretty cool. At the end of the little tour, they told us that everything in the store was half off, because we're exchangees. I bought a little orange glass turtle, because it was only 2 euro.
I should probably mention that 2 more exchangees arrived in January, from Australia. One is named Mercedes, and she's from Sydney. The other is named Kailee, and she's from Perth, which is on the Western coast of Australia. I didn't have much of a chance to talk to Mercedes, but I found out she lived in Bethesda, Maryland for a while! What a coincidence! Kailee and I got on quite well, too, and I ended up spending most of the day with her.
After Murano, we got back on the ferry and went to the main part of Venice. By then it was lunch time, so we went to.. McDonald's (I'm not kidding!) for lunch. We ate, then looked in the shops near the McDonald's for a few minutes. Kailee, Morgan (an exchangee from New York, who I get along with well too) and I all needed to go to the bathroom, so we braved the line in the McDonalds, and when we all came out, we realized there was nobody from Rotary in sight.
Misko (the guy in charge of us all) had given everyone maps with meeting places circled on them, so we figured we'd be all right. We were supposed to meet at the Scuola di San Marco at 3:00, and considering it was 2:00, we decided we'd better start searching for this school. Morgan and I have different methods of getting places, however. She prefers using the map, while I like asking for directions. We ended up incredibly lost. Misko called me, wondering where we were, and told us everyone was going to meet in the Piazza di San Marco at 3:30. Morgan wanted to use the map, but I asked two guys, and they said they'd show us the way. We followed them (I know, not exactly the smartest decision, but there were 3 of us and 2 of them and lots of people around us, so we figured we'd be safe.) They took us to the Piazza, which was packed with people.
We found our Rotary mates, then began the long and tiring journey across the piazza. It's hard to move a group of 30+ people across a piazza that's already packed, so it took quite a while. There was music playing in the piazza, and at one point, a piazza-wide conga line formed, and some of the Rotary kids got grabbed by the line. One of the adult Rotary people decided we should form a Rotary conga line, so that's what we did. We congaed across the piazza, led by an older man with a grey beard. I bet we were quite a sight.
We got to the other side of the piazza, and when everyone had finally arrived, we started on our way to the ferry stop. We got to the ferry stop, but it turned out that ferrys didn't stop at that particual stop on Sunday afternoons. Oh dear. Upon hearing this, Misko yelled for us to stick really close together, and we walked as quickly as we could to another ferry stop, fearful of missing our train.
We caught a ferry, got to the station ahead of time, and waited outside while Rebecca (a girl from California) told us that there is a Meningitis epidemic in Italy right now. I guess I'd better not share my glass with anyone, huh?
We got on the train, no casualties reported, and all of the adults heaved a sigh of relief. This time, I sat next to Kristen and Kailee, and facing us were Taylor, Morgan, and David (even though there were only 4 actual steats.) Taylor and David both live in Milan, so I see them more often than I see anyone else. We all ended up telling each other our "love" stories. The guys have some pretty good ones, but again, those are stores for another post.
The ride back home was a particularly enjoyable part of the day. Don't get me wrong, it's great to go to all of these amazing places, and see all of the crazy and unique things, but I really enjoy just talking with my friends, sharing stories, laughing together.
Kristen and I took the bus to her house from the station. We got home at about 9:30, and since we hadn't eaten since lunch, we were both famished. I made pasta, there was some spaghetti sauce left out, and we feasted upon fusilli al sugo di pomodoro.
All in all, the day was exhausting, but well worth it. Venice was grey and rainy and packed with people, but it still managed to be breathtaking. It's hard to see it all in one afternoon, but I know I'll return, someday.
And finally, we get to today.
Kristen dragged me out of bed this morning, ignoring my pleas for "just a few more minutes!" We got dressed, and before I knew it, we were walking the dark, rainy streets of Milan at some ungodly hour. We got to the train station, I bought a ticket, Kristen caught her train, and I waited for mine. Kristen had let me borrow a book her grandmother sent her; some chick-flicky light reading. The train came, and it was as full as I'd ever seen it. Imagine that. People are on the train, sending emails via blackberry before the sun even peeks over the horizon.
The train was clean and warm and comfortable, and there's something satisfying about reading a chick-flicky novel while riding in a warm, comfy train as the rain pours down outside. Before I new it, I was in Gallarate, and it was only 8:30 in the morning. I zipped up my coat, flipped up my hood, and started walking to school.
I got to school at 9, grabbed a pastry and a cup of hot cocoa, and went to the library to keep reading. I didn't have a permission slip to enter the class late, so I just waited for the next hour. School was mundane as usual, and not having brought gym clothes, I went to Nonna's house with Luca at noon.
We all had lunch together, and I watched T.V. for the rest of the afternoon, my eyes glazed over. Nonna's house was even colder than usual, so I made myself some hot cocoa. All Nonna has is whole milk. *Sigh* As long as my clothes still fit...
Although the weekend was incredible, today I was in a strange mood. I wasn't homesick, but I feel like I'm doubting myself about something. Maybe it's just the weather.
I'll try to post those pictures tomorrow, but I can't promise anything. As for now, I'm off to bed!
This weekend was fantastic. Could going to Venice be anything other than fantastic? Probably not.. But the fantasticness of the weekend wasn't only dictated by the trip to Venice, which was on Sunday. Saturday was pretty exciting, too, and since I like to write my blogs chronologically, I'll start with Saturday.
Saturday, I got out of school at eleven, went to a bar and got hot chocolate, and walked to the station. Usually, I end up at the station at least 40 minutes early, but this time I only had to wait for the train about 10 minutes. As I was waiting, I noticed a man staring at me, quite blatantly. It really made me uncomfortable. The train started on its way, and having forgotten my iPod, I passed the time staring out the window. A few minutes passed, and the man walked by my seat and said "ciao" and kind of snickered. I barely glanced at him. On a side note, the train was probably one of the ickiest I've been on since I've been in Italy. About a minute passed, and the man reappeared, bending down so that his face was scarily close to mine. He grinned and snickered, and asked me where I'm from. Origional, isn't he?
Things like this happen often to me, but only because of the color of my hair. I've tried different tactics of fending off the creepy Italian men, from completely ignoring them (which sometimes works) to insulting them (this has had varying results) to pretending I don't speak Italian (this never works.) This time, I tried something new. I asked him somewhat politely to just leave me alone. For some reason, he thought this was hilarous, and snickered some more, flashing his tobacco-stained teeth, saying something like "Oh, you're smart! I like smart girls. And I knew you could speak Italian." Ugh. I kept my catty comments to myself, and told him to go away. Surprisingly, he did, after snickering some more.
I got off at a train station that I've never been to before. Kristen told me she would be waiting on the platform for me, but when I got off, she wasn't there. I waited a few minutes, and having no idea where I could go, I called her. She told me to stay put, and 10 minutes later, she arrived, waving her arms in typical Kristen fashion.
We walked to the Mexican restaurant we found, but it didn't open until that evening, so we found a bar and got lunch. Upon exiting the bar, we realized we didn't remember how we had gotten there, so we ended up wandering around, looking for a tram stop or a metro station. After about an hour of things getting progressivly less familiar-looking, Kristen said we should follow someone who looked like they knew where they were going. We picked a random guy, and followed him to a metro station. Kristen decided we should keep walking, instead of taking the metro home. Eventually, we found a tram stop, and went back to Kristen's house. Well, before going to her house, we stopped at a pasticceria, so I could buy her family a cake. They've been really nice to me, and they like cake, so why not?
We went to Kristen's, put our backpacks in her room, told her host father we were going back out, and left. I decided to get my hair cut, so we went into the first hair place we found. A cut was 20 euro, which is about the best you're going to find in Milan, so I got my hair cut while Kristen listened to her iPod. After that was accomplished, we had nothing better to do, so I dragged Kristen to Sephora, where I agonized over buying products from the Clinique facial line. There's a story behind that, but this post is long enough already, and I have a LOT more to write, so I'll skip it for now. I ended up not buying anything. We left Sephora, and were walking down Via Torino wondering what to do, when I suddenly realized it was Saturday night, and I wouldn't have a chance to go to Mass the next day. I almost had a panic attack, because Masses in Milan start at 5:30, and it was already 5:40. Kristen tried talking me out of going to Mass, but I was pretty adament about going. Thankfully, we found a church where Mass started at 6, so I went to Mass while Kristen went and hung out at FNAC, an electronics/media store. After Mass finished, we met in Carpisa, a purse store, where I scored a cute little brown purse for only 7.50 euro. I needed a purse with a zipper top for Venice the next day, so the purchase was necessary. And I'm proud of myself for finding a deal in Milan. They're hard to come by.
We took the tram from Duomo to Brera, where the Mexican restaurant is. We went into the Mexican restaurant, and I immediately felt at home.. Especially when the waiter came over and said "Can I take your order?" in an unmistakeable American accent. Kristen and I both got (real!!) burritos with (real!!) cheese. They were a-ma-zing. A little pricey, but worth it for the refried beans and sour cream. Kristen kept bursting out laughing, because she thinks it's hilarious that the only place in all of Milan that you can get real burritos is owned by an American. I was just happy to have real TexMex again.
We went back to Kristen's, and tried unsuccesfully to go to bed early. We ended up going to bed at about 11, and Sunday morning we woke up at 6:30. Oh joy.
It was totally worth it. We were going to Venice for crying out loud. Venice!!
The morning is a little fuzzy for me, but somehow we got to the train station, and ended up on the nicest train I've been on since I've been in Italy. I sat next to Kristen, and across from us sat Morgan and Austin. Sometime during the ride, Kristen and Austin left, and Steven came and sat next to me, which was OK by me, 'cause he gave me chocolate.
We arrived in Venice, waited a good hour for the ferry, and went to Murano, the island where they make all the pretty glass things. We went to a glass making place, where they showed us how they make some of the glass products, etc. We watched a man make a glass horse out of molten glass in all of 2 minutes. It was pretty cool. At the end of the little tour, they told us that everything in the store was half off, because we're exchangees. I bought a little orange glass turtle, because it was only 2 euro.
I should probably mention that 2 more exchangees arrived in January, from Australia. One is named Mercedes, and she's from Sydney. The other is named Kailee, and she's from Perth, which is on the Western coast of Australia. I didn't have much of a chance to talk to Mercedes, but I found out she lived in Bethesda, Maryland for a while! What a coincidence! Kailee and I got on quite well, too, and I ended up spending most of the day with her.
After Murano, we got back on the ferry and went to the main part of Venice. By then it was lunch time, so we went to.. McDonald's (I'm not kidding!) for lunch. We ate, then looked in the shops near the McDonald's for a few minutes. Kailee, Morgan (an exchangee from New York, who I get along with well too) and I all needed to go to the bathroom, so we braved the line in the McDonalds, and when we all came out, we realized there was nobody from Rotary in sight.
Misko (the guy in charge of us all) had given everyone maps with meeting places circled on them, so we figured we'd be all right. We were supposed to meet at the Scuola di San Marco at 3:00, and considering it was 2:00, we decided we'd better start searching for this school. Morgan and I have different methods of getting places, however. She prefers using the map, while I like asking for directions. We ended up incredibly lost. Misko called me, wondering where we were, and told us everyone was going to meet in the Piazza di San Marco at 3:30. Morgan wanted to use the map, but I asked two guys, and they said they'd show us the way. We followed them (I know, not exactly the smartest decision, but there were 3 of us and 2 of them and lots of people around us, so we figured we'd be safe.) They took us to the Piazza, which was packed with people.
We found our Rotary mates, then began the long and tiring journey across the piazza. It's hard to move a group of 30+ people across a piazza that's already packed, so it took quite a while. There was music playing in the piazza, and at one point, a piazza-wide conga line formed, and some of the Rotary kids got grabbed by the line. One of the adult Rotary people decided we should form a Rotary conga line, so that's what we did. We congaed across the piazza, led by an older man with a grey beard. I bet we were quite a sight.
We got to the other side of the piazza, and when everyone had finally arrived, we started on our way to the ferry stop. We got to the ferry stop, but it turned out that ferrys didn't stop at that particual stop on Sunday afternoons. Oh dear. Upon hearing this, Misko yelled for us to stick really close together, and we walked as quickly as we could to another ferry stop, fearful of missing our train.
We caught a ferry, got to the station ahead of time, and waited outside while Rebecca (a girl from California) told us that there is a Meningitis epidemic in Italy right now. I guess I'd better not share my glass with anyone, huh?
We got on the train, no casualties reported, and all of the adults heaved a sigh of relief. This time, I sat next to Kristen and Kailee, and facing us were Taylor, Morgan, and David (even though there were only 4 actual steats.) Taylor and David both live in Milan, so I see them more often than I see anyone else. We all ended up telling each other our "love" stories. The guys have some pretty good ones, but again, those are stores for another post.
The ride back home was a particularly enjoyable part of the day. Don't get me wrong, it's great to go to all of these amazing places, and see all of the crazy and unique things, but I really enjoy just talking with my friends, sharing stories, laughing together.
Kristen and I took the bus to her house from the station. We got home at about 9:30, and since we hadn't eaten since lunch, we were both famished. I made pasta, there was some spaghetti sauce left out, and we feasted upon fusilli al sugo di pomodoro.
All in all, the day was exhausting, but well worth it. Venice was grey and rainy and packed with people, but it still managed to be breathtaking. It's hard to see it all in one afternoon, but I know I'll return, someday.
And finally, we get to today.
Kristen dragged me out of bed this morning, ignoring my pleas for "just a few more minutes!" We got dressed, and before I knew it, we were walking the dark, rainy streets of Milan at some ungodly hour. We got to the train station, I bought a ticket, Kristen caught her train, and I waited for mine. Kristen had let me borrow a book her grandmother sent her; some chick-flicky light reading. The train came, and it was as full as I'd ever seen it. Imagine that. People are on the train, sending emails via blackberry before the sun even peeks over the horizon.
The train was clean and warm and comfortable, and there's something satisfying about reading a chick-flicky novel while riding in a warm, comfy train as the rain pours down outside. Before I new it, I was in Gallarate, and it was only 8:30 in the morning. I zipped up my coat, flipped up my hood, and started walking to school.
I got to school at 9, grabbed a pastry and a cup of hot cocoa, and went to the library to keep reading. I didn't have a permission slip to enter the class late, so I just waited for the next hour. School was mundane as usual, and not having brought gym clothes, I went to Nonna's house with Luca at noon.
We all had lunch together, and I watched T.V. for the rest of the afternoon, my eyes glazed over. Nonna's house was even colder than usual, so I made myself some hot cocoa. All Nonna has is whole milk. *Sigh* As long as my clothes still fit...
Although the weekend was incredible, today I was in a strange mood. I wasn't homesick, but I feel like I'm doubting myself about something. Maybe it's just the weather.
I'll try to post those pictures tomorrow, but I can't promise anything. As for now, I'm off to bed!
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