It seems that I have been failing at everything techonolgy related lately. Blogging, journaling for myself, uploading/tagging/captioning pictures, and everything else that links me to home...my bad.
But here's a little update about life before I set off for what may be the 3 most productive weeks of my life....travel-wise at least.
Thursday I leave for Dublin, then head to Galway to see the Cliffs oh Moher, then back to Dublin for a few days. Then I hop over to London & hopefully squeeze in Broadway! After that I travel alone in Europe for the first time to meet Katie in PORTUGAL! I fly into Faro then head to Lagos. Then finally at the end of the week head back to Verona for a whole 4 days. (Possibly less if we decide to take a day adventure for extreme sports in either Interlaken or Lake Garda...keep your fingers crossed). Then April 2 we're off again TO GREECE! We are spending my 21st in Santorini then taking a ferry to Athens for a few days. And finally we fly to Rome and take a train up to Cinque Terre for a weekend of camping & hiking! Let me tell you that's a mouthful to explain & is going to be the most exhausting three weeks of my life!
By the way my birthday is April 6th mark your calanders so you can allow at least a week for your presents to actually reach me ;)
But all of that is what's to come, here is what's been going on...
Friday we had Unofficial and we got up to start the festivities a 9am. We had Sweedish crepes and Sangria for breakfast and from there quickly switched over to Mexican guac & chips. Sadly we didn't have tequila with it but we made do with vodka.
Sunday we had a Claudio trip to Lake Garda. We spent hours just exploring the towns on the lake and we all decided that's a life we could easily live. Everything was so much more calm and slow there than in real life. I could get used to that life vry quickly. After that we took a cable car up the mountains and saw some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. It was like entering an entirely different universe with snow-covered mountains and quaint lodges where everyone knows everyone else. If I weren't such a horrific skiier than I could get used to that life too. We spent most of the day doing photo shoots with all the beautiful scenery. By the last town we started losing steam and after our mad dash for much needed gelato, we found a park and a new way to entertain ourselves. Sometimes acting like a kid again is just what you need to refresh your perspective and replenish your energy. We played the couch game, which is where everyone anonymously switches names. You then have to call name to figure out who is who and get your team to your bench. It kept us entertained for a few hours until dinner. We all LOVE Claudio dinners because it means at least a 4 course meal and an almost endless supply of free wine! (Have I bragged about this before?!) This mean didn't disappoint, complete with one of my favorites...risotto! And of course red & whine wine and coffee after dinner (my new appeciation). We played some of our favorite bus games: 20 questions & Would you Rather..? all the way home!
This week was "light" for school....as if it could be any easier. We didn't have photography and for business tomorrow we have a fieldtrip to a Candy factory! So now all that's left for me this week is to get graded on my chocolate-eating abilities. I forsee it going well.
I'm so excited though because tomorrow morning Claudio's wife, Rita, is taking me and Ashley to the hair salon she goes to so we can get our hair dyed!! I'm nervous because of the whole I freak out if my hair isn't dark enough and language barrier thing. But hopefully everything wil work out fine! It has to because after my hair appointment I go on the fieldtrip and then Claudio drops me, Lauren & Maura off at the train station so we can catch our train to our plane to Dublin!
So I better go pack, wish me luck!! I'm attempting to fit 11 days into one backpack. If I accomplish this, I will consider myself a fully functioning adult because up until I moved to Verona I have been notorious for overpacking unnecessary items for every trip. So overcoming it will do wonders for my future travelling :)
3.11.2010
Sweet Home Verona
We are officially halfway done. Monday marked the exact halfway point of our time in Verona. I can't believe it is going so incredibly fast. The thought of it all ending is so depressing. A summer in either Bloomington or Champaign compared to Verona? No offense but I feel like it's going to be rough. I am excited to see everyone though so I'm sure I'll manage somehow...
So this past weekend Katie came to visit me from Florence! Lauren's 3 friends were also in town visiting from the States. We had a packed house all week but it was at least very entertaining!
Katie got here around noon on Friday and we went to eat in Piazza Bra. We went to Breck, which is a really nice self service. We had pasta and bread and cappuccino! After that we walked around for a little while but went home because it was cold. Of course of all the weekends I choose to stay in Verona it happens to be the very cold one right in the middle of warm ones! Anyways that night Kim, Lo & I took all the visitors to dinner at one of our favorite pizza places San Matteo. It's a cool restaurant because it's very modern inside but connected to an old church outside. We got free Sprits with dinner too! After dinner we bought wine and headed back to the apartament to have a few bottles. But of course the cheaper wine opener we have doesn't actually open wine bottles that have plastic corks. So we finally settled on attacking the corks with a pitch fork for about 30 minutes until we could force them down inside the bottles. It was interesting...
Finally we decided to try out the Osteria close to our apartment that we pass by all the time. The people inside always wave to us so we figured we would give it a try. It was a small family bar with about 10 people in it. They were all over 50...but pretty excited there were six 20 year-old American girls there. They tried to start Karaoke for us but the owner said it would be too loud too late so unfortunately we never got that ball rolling. Would have been an experience though...
The next day we got up early to sight-see in Verona! We each got a day pass that allows you entrance into all of the touristy places. First we went to the Arena and acted as tour guides as we explained some of the history of Verona. Then we took the girls to Piazza Erba and Piazza Signiori (aka Piazza Dante because of his statue). We took them to the top of Lamberti Tower to get a beautiful view of the whole city and surrounding country side. After that we went to one of my FAVORITE places, La Casa di Giulietta! We walked through the tunnel of love letters to rub the bronze statue of Juliet and walk through the house out onto her balcony. People come here by the thousands every year to find good luck and true love and I love the power of a place like this. It has inspired so many famous authors, poets and artists. I am so proud to live in the city of love. It is such an important city especially to an English minor like me! Then we walked to the churches Santa Anastasia and The Duomo (or the Verona Cathedral). We finished the day with a walk over Ponte Pietra (the Stone Bridge) to see the Roman Theater. I'm hopefully going to see Romeo and Juliet performed there in Italian later this month! It's a beautiful outdoor theater overlooking the city and has beautiful terraces attached. There are endless pictures in the newest link of all my sightseeing so be sure to look at my beautiful city!!
That night we went to two new clubs. First we went to a Jamaican club, called Jamaika. How creative. It was a really fun atmosphere though with reggae music, bowls filled with alcohol and fresh fruit, and of course shots lit on fire. After that we went to a discoteca, my first one in Verona, where we of course stayed out too late and had soo much fun! All in all my weekend with Katie was filled with so many new adventures and I got to show her where I lived! (By the way Katie told me she calls Rachel to laugh at how cheesy my blog is...so enjoy Katie).
As with every new week in Italy, this one was no exception to the many incredibly opportunities I have. This week 5 of us had the chance to get involved with one of the local high schools. We have been working on a presentation for the past few weeks and it was finally time to give it to a group of high schoolers. We went to the school to talk about American Literature, Mark Twain, and Racism in America. It was such an awesome experience to interact with local kids. We presented the information we prepared and helped the teacher to explain the basic concepts. Some of them didn't even know who Elvis or Martin Luther King Jr. were!! It was definitely an experience because we had to talk very slowly and use very simply language. However, I will give them credit because their English is a lot better than our Italian. But we've only been learning for weeks and they've been learning for years. It was such an awesome thing to be a part of, especially because my minor is English. Although it is even an asset to my major because I've worked in Psych labs before dealing with cultural differences and this was a chance to experience it first-hand! I will say though, despite the fact that almost all of the women I am related to are teachers, this reaffirmed the fact that I DO NOT want to be a teacher! I am sticking to my plan to do research!! I don't have a problem with speaking in public but I still don't think it's something I would want to do for the rest of my life.
So there are my stories of the week. Tomorrow we have Unofficial in Verona. It's a week late but we still have to celebrate it! Then Saturday we head to Venice and Sunday to Lake Garda for another Claudio trip! That means we get a whole weekend of free (well pre-paid) 4 course meals with wine. We've been desperate for another Claudio weekend for a while!! I'm excited because we are going Murano, where the glass blowing is, in Venice :)
Oh, one last thing. While it was in the 60s in Illinois yesterday, it SNOWED ALL DAY FOR THE FIRST TIME in Verona!!!!! It was the craziest thing ever! But luckily it didn't stick and the temperature jumped back up again today and I could walk around in just a sweatshirt. I was a little worried there but I'm glad it didn't last long. I'll put up snow pictures soon too!
<3Kalyn
So this past weekend Katie came to visit me from Florence! Lauren's 3 friends were also in town visiting from the States. We had a packed house all week but it was at least very entertaining!
Katie got here around noon on Friday and we went to eat in Piazza Bra. We went to Breck, which is a really nice self service. We had pasta and bread and cappuccino! After that we walked around for a little while but went home because it was cold. Of course of all the weekends I choose to stay in Verona it happens to be the very cold one right in the middle of warm ones! Anyways that night Kim, Lo & I took all the visitors to dinner at one of our favorite pizza places San Matteo. It's a cool restaurant because it's very modern inside but connected to an old church outside. We got free Sprits with dinner too! After dinner we bought wine and headed back to the apartament to have a few bottles. But of course the cheaper wine opener we have doesn't actually open wine bottles that have plastic corks. So we finally settled on attacking the corks with a pitch fork for about 30 minutes until we could force them down inside the bottles. It was interesting...
Finally we decided to try out the Osteria close to our apartment that we pass by all the time. The people inside always wave to us so we figured we would give it a try. It was a small family bar with about 10 people in it. They were all over 50...but pretty excited there were six 20 year-old American girls there. They tried to start Karaoke for us but the owner said it would be too loud too late so unfortunately we never got that ball rolling. Would have been an experience though...
The next day we got up early to sight-see in Verona! We each got a day pass that allows you entrance into all of the touristy places. First we went to the Arena and acted as tour guides as we explained some of the history of Verona. Then we took the girls to Piazza Erba and Piazza Signiori (aka Piazza Dante because of his statue). We took them to the top of Lamberti Tower to get a beautiful view of the whole city and surrounding country side. After that we went to one of my FAVORITE places, La Casa di Giulietta! We walked through the tunnel of love letters to rub the bronze statue of Juliet and walk through the house out onto her balcony. People come here by the thousands every year to find good luck and true love and I love the power of a place like this. It has inspired so many famous authors, poets and artists. I am so proud to live in the city of love. It is such an important city especially to an English minor like me! Then we walked to the churches Santa Anastasia and The Duomo (or the Verona Cathedral). We finished the day with a walk over Ponte Pietra (the Stone Bridge) to see the Roman Theater. I'm hopefully going to see Romeo and Juliet performed there in Italian later this month! It's a beautiful outdoor theater overlooking the city and has beautiful terraces attached. There are endless pictures in the newest link of all my sightseeing so be sure to look at my beautiful city!!
That night we went to two new clubs. First we went to a Jamaican club, called Jamaika. How creative. It was a really fun atmosphere though with reggae music, bowls filled with alcohol and fresh fruit, and of course shots lit on fire. After that we went to a discoteca, my first one in Verona, where we of course stayed out too late and had soo much fun! All in all my weekend with Katie was filled with so many new adventures and I got to show her where I lived! (By the way Katie told me she calls Rachel to laugh at how cheesy my blog is...so enjoy Katie).
As with every new week in Italy, this one was no exception to the many incredibly opportunities I have. This week 5 of us had the chance to get involved with one of the local high schools. We have been working on a presentation for the past few weeks and it was finally time to give it to a group of high schoolers. We went to the school to talk about American Literature, Mark Twain, and Racism in America. It was such an awesome experience to interact with local kids. We presented the information we prepared and helped the teacher to explain the basic concepts. Some of them didn't even know who Elvis or Martin Luther King Jr. were!! It was definitely an experience because we had to talk very slowly and use very simply language. However, I will give them credit because their English is a lot better than our Italian. But we've only been learning for weeks and they've been learning for years. It was such an awesome thing to be a part of, especially because my minor is English. Although it is even an asset to my major because I've worked in Psych labs before dealing with cultural differences and this was a chance to experience it first-hand! I will say though, despite the fact that almost all of the women I am related to are teachers, this reaffirmed the fact that I DO NOT want to be a teacher! I am sticking to my plan to do research!! I don't have a problem with speaking in public but I still don't think it's something I would want to do for the rest of my life.
So there are my stories of the week. Tomorrow we have Unofficial in Verona. It's a week late but we still have to celebrate it! Then Saturday we head to Venice and Sunday to Lake Garda for another Claudio trip! That means we get a whole weekend of free (well pre-paid) 4 course meals with wine. We've been desperate for another Claudio weekend for a while!! I'm excited because we are going Murano, where the glass blowing is, in Venice :)
Oh, one last thing. While it was in the 60s in Illinois yesterday, it SNOWED ALL DAY FOR THE FIRST TIME in Verona!!!!! It was the craziest thing ever! But luckily it didn't stick and the temperature jumped back up again today and I could walk around in just a sweatshirt. I was a little worried there but I'm glad it didn't last long. I'll put up snow pictures soon too!
<3Kalyn
3.01.2010
Informazione
Hey, not sure if I did this before but some people were asking about my address so here it is:
Kalyn Lykkebak
Centro studi IDEA Verona
Stradone A Provolo, 16
37123 Verona Italy
Skype: kalyn.lykkebak
Italian phone#: +39 366 2786720
Email: klykkeb2@gmail.com
Cellphone (if you want to leave me surprise messages to be received at a later date): 309-287-1997
I guess that's all!!
Grazie! Ciao!
Kalyn Lykkebak
Centro studi IDEA Verona
Stradone A Provolo, 16
37123 Verona Italy
Skype: kalyn.lykkebak
Italian phone#: +39 366 2786720
Email: klykkeb2@gmail.com
Cellphone (if you want to leave me surprise messages to be received at a later date): 309-287-1997
I guess that's all!!
Grazie! Ciao!
2.28.2010
When in VERONA....
This blog title was going to be something equally cheesy like, When in ROME...
But I never made it to Rome this weekend. So I have nothing of real importance to report, but I have ample amounts of time to at least report my nothing weekend.
So I woke up very early Friday morning. (Because lets face it 20 year olds only get up extremely early for the fun stuff). Anyways I get up and double check that I'm fully prepared for my weekend adventure & that I have everything. But seriously when am I ever fully prepared for anything? Apparently not this weekend at least. My first misstep was not realizing the rain outside my window. Since it was supposed to be in the 60s in Rome, I set off in my sandals & (too long) jeans. I walked my 25 minute walked in the rain to the train station, only to realize mistake number two. We waited until our train was posted, which of course is only 10 minutes before the train leaves, and once it was we decided to validate our tickets right away so we didn't forget. But low and behold, guess who forgot to even bring her tickets in the first place?? Of course, me! Who also didn't have ANY cash on her because she didn't want to stop at the ATM in the rain? Again, yours truly. So my friend Steph gave me 20 euro & I hopped in a taxi to attempt to make the train. Once I told him my plan in broken Italian, not only the look on his face, but his reaction confirmed my fears. There really wasn't a chance in hell I was going to be on that train.
So after I get home, find the tickets, and have a minor panic attack. I decide to save money and stay here. Aka I got myself too worked up to do what was necessary for the easy fix. But oddly enough everything worked out better for me. Turns out I was running a fever and ended up in bed most of the weekend. Told you I had nothing exciting to report. At least the weather was nice Saturday, even got up to 60! So I spent most of the day lounging on the balcony either reading or dozing off. But I got a lot of random tasks accomplished that I otherwise wouldn't have time for. And my roommate Kim told me that she was still trying to find time to do Rome too and that we could do it together.
So even though I didn't get my adventures in Rome, I at least got a restful, hot tea-filled, excitementless weekend in Verona. And I'm already starting to feel a lot better. Now I'm prepared for my week of classes & my weekend with Katie! She is coming to visit me from Florence and I get to take her around to see all of the wonderful sights of my new hometown :) I am so, so excited. It will be a much more eventful weekend in Verona.
So that's all for now and clearly that's not alot. I promise to have more next time. Sending my love back home <3 Kalyn
But I never made it to Rome this weekend. So I have nothing of real importance to report, but I have ample amounts of time to at least report my nothing weekend.
So I woke up very early Friday morning. (Because lets face it 20 year olds only get up extremely early for the fun stuff). Anyways I get up and double check that I'm fully prepared for my weekend adventure & that I have everything. But seriously when am I ever fully prepared for anything? Apparently not this weekend at least. My first misstep was not realizing the rain outside my window. Since it was supposed to be in the 60s in Rome, I set off in my sandals & (too long) jeans. I walked my 25 minute walked in the rain to the train station, only to realize mistake number two. We waited until our train was posted, which of course is only 10 minutes before the train leaves, and once it was we decided to validate our tickets right away so we didn't forget. But low and behold, guess who forgot to even bring her tickets in the first place?? Of course, me! Who also didn't have ANY cash on her because she didn't want to stop at the ATM in the rain? Again, yours truly. So my friend Steph gave me 20 euro & I hopped in a taxi to attempt to make the train. Once I told him my plan in broken Italian, not only the look on his face, but his reaction confirmed my fears. There really wasn't a chance in hell I was going to be on that train.
So after I get home, find the tickets, and have a minor panic attack. I decide to save money and stay here. Aka I got myself too worked up to do what was necessary for the easy fix. But oddly enough everything worked out better for me. Turns out I was running a fever and ended up in bed most of the weekend. Told you I had nothing exciting to report. At least the weather was nice Saturday, even got up to 60! So I spent most of the day lounging on the balcony either reading or dozing off. But I got a lot of random tasks accomplished that I otherwise wouldn't have time for. And my roommate Kim told me that she was still trying to find time to do Rome too and that we could do it together.
So even though I didn't get my adventures in Rome, I at least got a restful, hot tea-filled, excitementless weekend in Verona. And I'm already starting to feel a lot better. Now I'm prepared for my week of classes & my weekend with Katie! She is coming to visit me from Florence and I get to take her around to see all of the wonderful sights of my new hometown :) I am so, so excited. It will be a much more eventful weekend in Verona.
So that's all for now and clearly that's not alot. I promise to have more next time. Sending my love back home <3 Kalyn
2.24.2010
The City that NEVER Sleeps
I am currently writing to you from my balcony. I am basking in the most beautiful day we've had in Verona thus far sporting jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, sunglasses, and sandals. It is currently 55 degrees & sunny. It's hard to see the computer screen but I decided this was still the perfect place to blog. There is no possible way to sit indoors today and for that matter no way to possibly be in a bad mood. I'm currently looking out on San Zeno (if you didn't know one of our famous churches/museums...it gets its own 2 page spread in Italian travel books) and watching life happen around me. I wrote in my journal earlier since this beautiful weather has me feeling all sentimental and philosophical. But that lead to "What am I going to do with my life?" and "I have so much to do when I get back to the States!" So I quickly pushed those thoughts out of my head and decided to retell my stories from beautiful Spain instead!!
We arrived in Spain Friday afternoon after a smooth trip.We met up with our friends from Rome and Milan because we all stayed in a hostel together. It was cool having friends from all over Italy come together to go to Spain. It was also two of our friends', who live in Barcelona, birthdays so it was a weekend of celebrating! When we first got there we had a few drinks then ventured out to find dinner. That turned out to be somewhat of a disaster since we couldn't find the restaurant we were looking for. It also starting pouring down rain and none of us had our umbrellas. So we found the closest place, which ended up being (ironically enough) a Chicago style Pizzeria. But the food was good so we ate and headed back to the hostel for more drinks and to meet up with the kids staying in Barcelona. The first bar we went out to was called The Dow Jones Bar and it would be a huge hit in America if we ever got one. Maybe I'll bring a Stock Market night to Kams...Basically the drink prices fluxuate based on who is buying what. Here is a picture of me and Mia outside the bar.
The next one is of the drinks.
Every hour the stock market would crash and everyone would run to the bar to get drinks. It was definitely a really cool experience! After that we headed to the strip of clubs along the beach!! We went to a club called Shoko. It had a lot of different bars inside, huge dance floors, and a really cool outside area. Since the weather was so nice a few of us went outside to hang out. We ended up leaving the back of the club and walking along the beach and we saw some other friends in one of the clubs further down. At the end of the night we gathered up all of our friends and we ran to the beach and took our shoes off to run through the sand & water. It was the most beautiful partying ever haha.
The next day we headed out to tour the city. We went to one of the big squares and took pictures in front of a fountain that we had no idea if it had any significance at all but it was pretty. From there we headed to tour the Gaudi museum at La Pedrera. Gaudi is the famous architect that designed a bunch of difference buildings around Barcelona. Being on the roof was incredible because we got a view of the whole city and we were standing on his work. We also learned alot about the unique way he builds. After the museum we walked around the city for a while taking it all in and we stopped at a Kabab place to get Durum. Obviously the boys idea but it was really good & HUGE. Definitely got our 3 euros worth. Then we went to the Park de la Ciutadella and to see the Arc de Triomf. It was all so beautiful we took a hundred touristy pictures in front of one of the fountains. Here is one of our group for the weekend:
From there we made the trek all the way up to Parc Guell, its Gaudi's famous park. It was definitely worth the hike, everything was so beautiful. We could see out over the whole city & the ocean from up there!
After that we made dinner at the hostel to save some money. It was interesting because we found out there wasn't an oven after we bought our food...That night we went out to two cool bars. The first one L'Ovella Negra is a huge open warehouse with tons of seating. It was a really fun atmosphere and perfect for our birthday celebration. AFter that we went to a random bar but we had a lot of fun because my friend Mia and I played Dare. (No truth just dares). All-in-all it made for an interesting night and we stayed out until 5:30 am!! Almost made it to 6 but still a successful weekend for partying.
The next day we had some time to sight-see but we were exhausted so we decided to just try to fit in one thing. We walked down to the beach to take pictures of the ocean and then we took a gondola ride (cable car not boat....) over the city up to the top of Montjuic "Jewish Mountain." We were above the city alot that weekend but everytime the view was breathtaking. We walked around the mountain and went to a castle and the Port Olympic. It's where the 1992 Olympics were held.
And finally we made our journey home to Verona. This was the one part of the trip that did not go off flawlessly. Our plane was delayed so we missed our train home. We ended up having to wait 2 hours for the next one and didn't get home until after 2:30am. But it was okay because we made a new friend--a Spanish 18year old boy who was travelling alone and asked for our help getting a train ticket. We figured he wouldn't have to be alone and we would have the protection of a male so everybody wins. We are all now facebook friends with him too haha. The language barrier was interesting but luckily Ashley & Mia knew some spanish and he knew some Italian because he is studying in Padua.
That's all for now! I head to Rome this weekend with Lauren, Mia, Ashley, Maura, Court & Steph!
CIAO!
We arrived in Spain Friday afternoon after a smooth trip.We met up with our friends from Rome and Milan because we all stayed in a hostel together. It was cool having friends from all over Italy come together to go to Spain. It was also two of our friends', who live in Barcelona, birthdays so it was a weekend of celebrating! When we first got there we had a few drinks then ventured out to find dinner. That turned out to be somewhat of a disaster since we couldn't find the restaurant we were looking for. It also starting pouring down rain and none of us had our umbrellas. So we found the closest place, which ended up being (ironically enough) a Chicago style Pizzeria. But the food was good so we ate and headed back to the hostel for more drinks and to meet up with the kids staying in Barcelona. The first bar we went out to was called The Dow Jones Bar and it would be a huge hit in America if we ever got one. Maybe I'll bring a Stock Market night to Kams...Basically the drink prices fluxuate based on who is buying what. Here is a picture of me and Mia outside the bar.
The next one is of the drinks.
Every hour the stock market would crash and everyone would run to the bar to get drinks. It was definitely a really cool experience! After that we headed to the strip of clubs along the beach!! We went to a club called Shoko. It had a lot of different bars inside, huge dance floors, and a really cool outside area. Since the weather was so nice a few of us went outside to hang out. We ended up leaving the back of the club and walking along the beach and we saw some other friends in one of the clubs further down. At the end of the night we gathered up all of our friends and we ran to the beach and took our shoes off to run through the sand & water. It was the most beautiful partying ever haha.
The next day we headed out to tour the city. We went to one of the big squares and took pictures in front of a fountain that we had no idea if it had any significance at all but it was pretty. From there we headed to tour the Gaudi museum at La Pedrera. Gaudi is the famous architect that designed a bunch of difference buildings around Barcelona. Being on the roof was incredible because we got a view of the whole city and we were standing on his work. We also learned alot about the unique way he builds. After the museum we walked around the city for a while taking it all in and we stopped at a Kabab place to get Durum. Obviously the boys idea but it was really good & HUGE. Definitely got our 3 euros worth. Then we went to the Park de la Ciutadella and to see the Arc de Triomf. It was all so beautiful we took a hundred touristy pictures in front of one of the fountains. Here is one of our group for the weekend:
From there we made the trek all the way up to Parc Guell, its Gaudi's famous park. It was definitely worth the hike, everything was so beautiful. We could see out over the whole city & the ocean from up there!
After that we made dinner at the hostel to save some money. It was interesting because we found out there wasn't an oven after we bought our food...That night we went out to two cool bars. The first one L'Ovella Negra is a huge open warehouse with tons of seating. It was a really fun atmosphere and perfect for our birthday celebration. AFter that we went to a random bar but we had a lot of fun because my friend Mia and I played Dare. (No truth just dares). All-in-all it made for an interesting night and we stayed out until 5:30 am!! Almost made it to 6 but still a successful weekend for partying. The next day we had some time to sight-see but we were exhausted so we decided to just try to fit in one thing. We walked down to the beach to take pictures of the ocean and then we took a gondola ride (cable car not boat....) over the city up to the top of Montjuic "Jewish Mountain." We were above the city alot that weekend but everytime the view was breathtaking. We walked around the mountain and went to a castle and the Port Olympic. It's where the 1992 Olympics were held.
And finally we made our journey home to Verona. This was the one part of the trip that did not go off flawlessly. Our plane was delayed so we missed our train home. We ended up having to wait 2 hours for the next one and didn't get home until after 2:30am. But it was okay because we made a new friend--a Spanish 18year old boy who was travelling alone and asked for our help getting a train ticket. We figured he wouldn't have to be alone and we would have the protection of a male so everybody wins. We are all now facebook friends with him too haha. The language barrier was interesting but luckily Ashley & Mia knew some spanish and he knew some Italian because he is studying in Padua.
That's all for now! I head to Rome this weekend with Lauren, Mia, Ashley, Maura, Court & Steph!
CIAO!
2.18.2010
IS THIS REAL LIFE??!!
I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS IS ACTUALLY MY LIFE! As if I could have even dreamed that I would get even more spoiled by Italy than I already am, it happened today. Like I would have thought I'd have something sooo interesting to post when I leave for Spain tomorrow. But of course Italy is a magical place that never ceases to amaze me.
Italian people, businessmen in particular, are the greatest people on earth. Their way of live is so much better than Americans, I seriously have no idea how we continue to work and live the way we do. Trust me they do life right over here. I mean come on they take a 3 hour lunch break every single day and never forget to have a glass of wine before heading back to work. But other than that, Italians are some of the kindest people I have ever met. So let me tell you about the wonderful things the Italians did for me today...
We had our first Business with Claudio today, and if it is a sign of what's to come, then we've struck gold. First we head to Soave to visit the Zanella Marble factory. We sat in a conference room and talked about marble where we found out that they are constructing a huge statue and fountain for the capital of some country. They only have 15 workers in their factory but their own quary so they don't have to buy marble from others. So far pretty cool. Then we head to the factory and watch the proccess happen in front of us. Alot of the work is done by machines but the final details are meticulously done by hand. It must take forever to complete the huge works they do. I will add pictures once they are uploaded. This company has a unique way of carving the marble too so we couldn't document the whole process because it is consiered a "State secret." It was a really, really inrestesting thing to experience and it was awesome becuase we got a paperweight as a gift. To you it may sound lame but it is made out of the highest quality of marble there is and it is the same type that The David was carved out of, so we were pretty excited.
The day only got better from there. After that the 9 of us piled into the European version of an Astrovan to head back towards Verona to Frau Shoe factory. 9 girls and a shoe factory.....we were pretty excited. So we meet the owner and he is the nicest 76 year old man ever. He talked to us about the importance of good business. He refuses to have his shoes made in Romania or China even though the labor can be 1/10 of the cost. He believes in everything being made in Italy. He was very firm on that point, and on the importance of quality not quantity. You could tell he has passion for what he does and for the people who work for him. He personally knows every single one of his employees. He told us that it takes about 60 people to make each pair of shoes and they make 1400 a day, so he has a lot of workers. He would probably be one of the best people to work for. After we talked to him and drank our tea and coffee, he took us on a tour of the factory. It was so incredible we saw every single step in the process of making a shoe. He also has a robot that we took pictures of and videotaped so I will put those up too!! All in all it was such a cool trip.
As that day of "class" (remember GPA credit class here people) couldn't get any better. He takes us back to the conference room & after we take a group picture with him he says "Do I dare offer you each a pair of my shoes for free?" DO YOU DARE?? DO WE DARE TAKE YOUR SHOES? HELL YES! So the best shoe factory owner on the planet took us down to his store and APOLOGIZED because it doesn't have the full selection. We are imagining like 5 pairs to pick from or something. But he literally lets us run free throughout the entire store (which had PLENTY of shoes) to pick out WHATEVER WE WANTED....FOR FREEEE. He also apologized for not being able to take us out for dinner and drinks that night but said he would not die until we came back. So we are definitely going back. We each got a pair of Italian-made leather shoes/boots/heals/etc for free. It took me another hour after we left to really grasp that this is my life right now. I am by far one of the most blessed people on the planet. I feel like I'm never allowed to have a bad day for the rest of my life. I got adorable greyish heeled boots with a bow. I couldn't resist another pair of red moccasons because they were over half off and I was already getting boots free so I caved and bought those too. Again more pictures to come! The free boots might I add cost 225 US dollars. I'm still in shock that he did such a generous thing for us. Just to show that he is such a good company. You would never find such service in America, I can say that much. Therefore I decided I never want to leave Italy. Sorry everyone I will miss you but I don't think I can come home. Kidding but really this is by far the best four months of my life.
So I just had to rub in how amazing my life is and how greatful I am for the experience. Next time you see me I will be sporting true Italian fashions :)
peace. love. shoes.
Kalyn
Italian people, businessmen in particular, are the greatest people on earth. Their way of live is so much better than Americans, I seriously have no idea how we continue to work and live the way we do. Trust me they do life right over here. I mean come on they take a 3 hour lunch break every single day and never forget to have a glass of wine before heading back to work. But other than that, Italians are some of the kindest people I have ever met. So let me tell you about the wonderful things the Italians did for me today...
We had our first Business with Claudio today, and if it is a sign of what's to come, then we've struck gold. First we head to Soave to visit the Zanella Marble factory. We sat in a conference room and talked about marble where we found out that they are constructing a huge statue and fountain for the capital of some country. They only have 15 workers in their factory but their own quary so they don't have to buy marble from others. So far pretty cool. Then we head to the factory and watch the proccess happen in front of us. Alot of the work is done by machines but the final details are meticulously done by hand. It must take forever to complete the huge works they do. I will add pictures once they are uploaded. This company has a unique way of carving the marble too so we couldn't document the whole process because it is consiered a "State secret." It was a really, really inrestesting thing to experience and it was awesome becuase we got a paperweight as a gift. To you it may sound lame but it is made out of the highest quality of marble there is and it is the same type that The David was carved out of, so we were pretty excited.
The day only got better from there. After that the 9 of us piled into the European version of an Astrovan to head back towards Verona to Frau Shoe factory. 9 girls and a shoe factory.....we were pretty excited. So we meet the owner and he is the nicest 76 year old man ever. He talked to us about the importance of good business. He refuses to have his shoes made in Romania or China even though the labor can be 1/10 of the cost. He believes in everything being made in Italy. He was very firm on that point, and on the importance of quality not quantity. You could tell he has passion for what he does and for the people who work for him. He personally knows every single one of his employees. He told us that it takes about 60 people to make each pair of shoes and they make 1400 a day, so he has a lot of workers. He would probably be one of the best people to work for. After we talked to him and drank our tea and coffee, he took us on a tour of the factory. It was so incredible we saw every single step in the process of making a shoe. He also has a robot that we took pictures of and videotaped so I will put those up too!! All in all it was such a cool trip.
As that day of "class" (remember GPA credit class here people) couldn't get any better. He takes us back to the conference room & after we take a group picture with him he says "Do I dare offer you each a pair of my shoes for free?" DO YOU DARE?? DO WE DARE TAKE YOUR SHOES? HELL YES! So the best shoe factory owner on the planet took us down to his store and APOLOGIZED because it doesn't have the full selection. We are imagining like 5 pairs to pick from or something. But he literally lets us run free throughout the entire store (which had PLENTY of shoes) to pick out WHATEVER WE WANTED....FOR FREEEE. He also apologized for not being able to take us out for dinner and drinks that night but said he would not die until we came back. So we are definitely going back. We each got a pair of Italian-made leather shoes/boots/heals/etc for free. It took me another hour after we left to really grasp that this is my life right now. I am by far one of the most blessed people on the planet. I feel like I'm never allowed to have a bad day for the rest of my life. I got adorable greyish heeled boots with a bow. I couldn't resist another pair of red moccasons because they were over half off and I was already getting boots free so I caved and bought those too. Again more pictures to come! The free boots might I add cost 225 US dollars. I'm still in shock that he did such a generous thing for us. Just to show that he is such a good company. You would never find such service in America, I can say that much. Therefore I decided I never want to leave Italy. Sorry everyone I will miss you but I don't think I can come home. Kidding but really this is by far the best four months of my life.
So I just had to rub in how amazing my life is and how greatful I am for the experience. Next time you see me I will be sporting true Italian fashions :)
peace. love. shoes.
Kalyn
2.17.2010
"This is going to be a long night"
So the title is a quote from my Prague experience, which let me just tell you was one of the most interesting travel experiences of my life. So we had to rough it because our plane left from a town called Bergamo at 7:55am on Friday. However, there are no trains to Bergamo before that. So we had to leave Thursday night. Around 8pm 10 of us hopped on a train and made our way to the town, about an hour outside Milan. Of course we almost missed our one connecting train but miraculously this time we didn't. So we get into Bergamo around 10pm. We try to explore the airport a bit but to no avail. Everything is locked until 5am with the exception of this tiny, freezing cold waiting area. So we suck it up and settle in for the night. Not 10 minutes after we post up agains a wall (of course I'm on the end right next to the door people keep going in and out of) a break dance crew starts setting up on the wall opposite us. So natually we think this is hilarious and completely surreal as it obvious they too will be here all night long. But hey we welcomed the distraction. The break dancers starting having a competition right in front of us, our guess is that they were practicing for some competition. Even though we pulled this theory out of thin air, we stuck to in. After they do a few tricks I convinced Lauren to do a dance off with them. I knew she was the only one who would agree and I was hard up for something to keep my mind of the cold and pressing sleepiness. So she walks up to them and starts to dance then falls to the ground to do the worm. We got it on video so it should be floating around the internet very soon. After that the break dancers were only entertaining every now and then. Sometimes they would put on shows for us and other times they would just talk technical stuff amongst themselves. But here's where my night got really interesting. The creepiest looking guy in the place comes to sit down uncomfortably close to me. So my natural reaction of course is to laugh like any American girl would. I inch away a little and start talking with my friends about how weird he is. Because we ignorantly think he can't understand us. After a little while I am halfway laying down on my bag and so then he follows suit and lays down next to me. Dangerously close next to me. More laughter ensues. At this point Cheryl tries to capture him on camera but I can't contain my laughter and he keeps opening his eyes to stare at us. So this is all we got:
But it gets worse. A little after this blurry picture is taken. He keeps his eyes open one always on me. Then he goes above and beyond our wildest expectations and turns on his side--one arm stretched out to me. And gets EVEN CLOSER. At this point the man is basically trying to spoon me. I burst out laughing soo hard and so does everyone else, at this point I am literally losing it. So I sit up and am basically sitting on top of Lauren sleeping next to me. I start talking to my friends about how I can't do this and he says to me in his broken accent "Dis is going to be a long night." That was the last straw for me and so I walked outside in the freezing cold with Lisa and Cheryl around the entire airport to get away from this cuddle-loving man. However, we got lucky and went through a closed off construction zone to find that there is a cafe opening at 2am. At this point it was 1:30 so we just had to endure 30 more minutes on the ground before we could sit and eat. We ended up staying in that cafe until 5am when checkin opened. He came and sat directly behind me and watched me the whole time. We also got whistles for an hour straight from 50 year old men across the room. Like I said this was my most interesting travelling experience. We waiting at check in for an hour before we could check in for our flight. Then headed to the actual nice part of the airporot they had been hiding from us. There was a kids play room and because we were delirious from exhaustion we decided to play to kill time before our flight. I beat Lauren in the obstacle course, which for me is very excitng because I never win anything. Then we rudely took up three seats each to try to rest a little before our flight at 8. But no such luck because our flight keeps getting pushed back and we don't end up leaving until after 10am. So we don't end up getting to Prague until after 11am. All in all our trip took us about 15 hours.
After being awake for 24 hours straight and suffering from a mild stalking experience we knew we weren't in any mindset to accomplish much that day. We just walked around the snowy city (aka I forgot it was still winter until I saw snow again...sucks for you America its almost in the 50s today in Verona). We had authentic czech lunch though and I had rump steak and the other girls got a meat platter. Everything was delicious!! I miss eating meat all the time! We also stopped in a Starbucks (aka Fourbucks) for coffee and to give our friend Clair her birthday cake! Then we FINALLY napped and got ready for our evening. We went to dinner, oh in case you didn't know Prague is known for having REALLY cheap beer, so obviously we had different kinds of beer with every meal.
Then the surprise began. We said we should go back to the hostel for our free welcome drink and to get other drinks because none of the clubs would be busy yet. So we go back and get drinks and shots. We all tried a shot of absinthe (don't worry the whole hallucinogen thing is a myth...unless maybe you get some from a drug dealer, i don't know) but I thoght it tasted good it was like sugar, because you melt sugar in it before you take it, and licorice. No one seemed to agree. Anyways then we tell Clair that we are taking the tram to the clubs...buuut. WE HAD LIMOS PICK US UP AND DRIVE US AROUND PRAGUE FOR FREEEE!!!!! It was AWESOME! AND SOO SURREAL! I mean seriously who are we to get a limo to drive us around a foreign country?? And for free! Needless to say Rod at Hostelone is the best hostel owner in the world. So it took us to really cool clubs and we made sure Clair had a blast celebrating her birthday. As did we. Here is me and Elangie getting into the limo!
So the next day we got up and did our real sightseeing. We went to Old Town Square and saw the Clock Tower strike 1. There were also little markets there where we had crepes made right in front of us! We also tried food from a stand I got a friend cheese sandwhich aka a giant mozzerella stick flattened on bread. Let me tell you I would eat them everyday if we had them in Verona. So its probably very good that we don't. So then we walked down to the river and explored over there. We got really pretty pictures in front of the castle and everything across Charles Bridge. See the new pictures I uploaded for those!
Then we ventured out to find the John Lennon wall and we got so many cool pictures there too!! Here I am in front of the wall:
We finally ventured home to get ready for our RIVER DINNER CRUISE! It took us all around the city to see the beautiful sights from the river. We also got to feast on fine Czech cuisine--buffet style of course. We had czech sausages, goulash, chicken, dumplings, and soo many other things. It was the perfect way to end our trip! It was a three hour cruise and there was also a jazz band that played music for us the entire time. It was also the perfect setting for me to get closer with more people on my trip. I hadn't travelled with teh five girls I went with before so we all had so much fun getting to know each other even better.
I forgot to mention there was alot of excitement getting to the boat because we almost missed it! I had to run about a mile I would guess in heels. By the end I gave up and ran sock-footed through the snow and cobblestone. But it was definitely worth it. We got home a while after 10 and had to leave the hostel at 3:30am to get to the airport. We always travel at awful hours because its cheaper. So we planned to watch movies in the lounge and relax. But unfortunately Lisa lost her passport and we all felt soo bad for her that we spent the entire time tearing the hostel apart looking for it. We never found it but luckily they let her on the plane anyways because she had copies of her passport and visa. She got a temporary one yesterday that lasts her 6 months so she's good to travel for the rest of the trip. But still we were worried for a while that she wouldn't be able to come home with us.
Finally we made our long journey home to spend the entirety of Valentines Day in bed dead to the world catching up on an entire weekends worth of sleep. All in all it was one of the most surreal and memorable vacations of a lifetime. I still can't believe I get to take a new vacation and see a new country every weekend!!
Next weekend I am heading to BARCELONA SPAIN! So if you've got any advice for me let me know!
One last thing I HAVE to tell you about is that I finally started my photography class yesterday!! I keep liking every class the best and now I love this one too. My teacher is awesome (because everyone here is haha). His name is Mauro and he is a professional photographer. He was born in Verona but lived and studied in NYC for 10 years so his english is excellent. Since the class is very technical it is my only one not in italian. For our first class he taught us about the history of photography and the first camera and alot of other really interesting stuff. Then we watched a few clips from the movie Smoke with Harvey Kitel. It looks really good now I want to watch the whole thing. Then we set off for our first fieldtrip! On our way to the gallery we stopped in Piazza Erbe for coffee, he treated. Is this seriously class??? We sat and talked with him for about half an hour. I love my life. Then we went to the amatuer photographers gallery, which happens to be underground completely within the Roman ruins that lie under the city. It was like entering another world entirely. It was a very cool experience. He critiqued all of the photography, so I'm pretty nervous as to what he will have to say about ours. But I can't wait for the experience of this class, he told us that we will spend an hour or two of each class in the classroom and the rest take trips around the city to either take pictures or see galleries! I still can't believe I'm getting 15 GPA hours for these classes. Life could not be better than this.
And last but most certainly not least...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERUFL DAY (I MEAN WEEK) CELEBRATING WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! I'm sorry I can't be there to go to Outback (in the Outlook) tonight but I will be thinking of you guys!! I miss you & I love you! Have a Margarita for me :)
<3 Kalyn
But it gets worse. A little after this blurry picture is taken. He keeps his eyes open one always on me. Then he goes above and beyond our wildest expectations and turns on his side--one arm stretched out to me. And gets EVEN CLOSER. At this point the man is basically trying to spoon me. I burst out laughing soo hard and so does everyone else, at this point I am literally losing it. So I sit up and am basically sitting on top of Lauren sleeping next to me. I start talking to my friends about how I can't do this and he says to me in his broken accent "Dis is going to be a long night." That was the last straw for me and so I walked outside in the freezing cold with Lisa and Cheryl around the entire airport to get away from this cuddle-loving man. However, we got lucky and went through a closed off construction zone to find that there is a cafe opening at 2am. At this point it was 1:30 so we just had to endure 30 more minutes on the ground before we could sit and eat. We ended up staying in that cafe until 5am when checkin opened. He came and sat directly behind me and watched me the whole time. We also got whistles for an hour straight from 50 year old men across the room. Like I said this was my most interesting travelling experience. We waiting at check in for an hour before we could check in for our flight. Then headed to the actual nice part of the airporot they had been hiding from us. There was a kids play room and because we were delirious from exhaustion we decided to play to kill time before our flight. I beat Lauren in the obstacle course, which for me is very excitng because I never win anything. Then we rudely took up three seats each to try to rest a little before our flight at 8. But no such luck because our flight keeps getting pushed back and we don't end up leaving until after 10am. So we don't end up getting to Prague until after 11am. All in all our trip took us about 15 hours.
After being awake for 24 hours straight and suffering from a mild stalking experience we knew we weren't in any mindset to accomplish much that day. We just walked around the snowy city (aka I forgot it was still winter until I saw snow again...sucks for you America its almost in the 50s today in Verona). We had authentic czech lunch though and I had rump steak and the other girls got a meat platter. Everything was delicious!! I miss eating meat all the time! We also stopped in a Starbucks (aka Fourbucks) for coffee and to give our friend Clair her birthday cake! Then we FINALLY napped and got ready for our evening. We went to dinner, oh in case you didn't know Prague is known for having REALLY cheap beer, so obviously we had different kinds of beer with every meal.
Then the surprise began. We said we should go back to the hostel for our free welcome drink and to get other drinks because none of the clubs would be busy yet. So we go back and get drinks and shots. We all tried a shot of absinthe (don't worry the whole hallucinogen thing is a myth...unless maybe you get some from a drug dealer, i don't know) but I thoght it tasted good it was like sugar, because you melt sugar in it before you take it, and licorice. No one seemed to agree. Anyways then we tell Clair that we are taking the tram to the clubs...buuut. WE HAD LIMOS PICK US UP AND DRIVE US AROUND PRAGUE FOR FREEEE!!!!! It was AWESOME! AND SOO SURREAL! I mean seriously who are we to get a limo to drive us around a foreign country?? And for free! Needless to say Rod at Hostelone is the best hostel owner in the world. So it took us to really cool clubs and we made sure Clair had a blast celebrating her birthday. As did we. Here is me and Elangie getting into the limo!
So the next day we got up and did our real sightseeing. We went to Old Town Square and saw the Clock Tower strike 1. There were also little markets there where we had crepes made right in front of us! We also tried food from a stand I got a friend cheese sandwhich aka a giant mozzerella stick flattened on bread. Let me tell you I would eat them everyday if we had them in Verona. So its probably very good that we don't. So then we walked down to the river and explored over there. We got really pretty pictures in front of the castle and everything across Charles Bridge. See the new pictures I uploaded for those!
Then we ventured out to find the John Lennon wall and we got so many cool pictures there too!! Here I am in front of the wall:
We finally ventured home to get ready for our RIVER DINNER CRUISE! It took us all around the city to see the beautiful sights from the river. We also got to feast on fine Czech cuisine--buffet style of course. We had czech sausages, goulash, chicken, dumplings, and soo many other things. It was the perfect way to end our trip! It was a three hour cruise and there was also a jazz band that played music for us the entire time. It was also the perfect setting for me to get closer with more people on my trip. I hadn't travelled with teh five girls I went with before so we all had so much fun getting to know each other even better.
I forgot to mention there was alot of excitement getting to the boat because we almost missed it! I had to run about a mile I would guess in heels. By the end I gave up and ran sock-footed through the snow and cobblestone. But it was definitely worth it. We got home a while after 10 and had to leave the hostel at 3:30am to get to the airport. We always travel at awful hours because its cheaper. So we planned to watch movies in the lounge and relax. But unfortunately Lisa lost her passport and we all felt soo bad for her that we spent the entire time tearing the hostel apart looking for it. We never found it but luckily they let her on the plane anyways because she had copies of her passport and visa. She got a temporary one yesterday that lasts her 6 months so she's good to travel for the rest of the trip. But still we were worried for a while that she wouldn't be able to come home with us.
Finally we made our long journey home to spend the entirety of Valentines Day in bed dead to the world catching up on an entire weekends worth of sleep. All in all it was one of the most surreal and memorable vacations of a lifetime. I still can't believe I get to take a new vacation and see a new country every weekend!!
Next weekend I am heading to BARCELONA SPAIN! So if you've got any advice for me let me know!
One last thing I HAVE to tell you about is that I finally started my photography class yesterday!! I keep liking every class the best and now I love this one too. My teacher is awesome (because everyone here is haha). His name is Mauro and he is a professional photographer. He was born in Verona but lived and studied in NYC for 10 years so his english is excellent. Since the class is very technical it is my only one not in italian. For our first class he taught us about the history of photography and the first camera and alot of other really interesting stuff. Then we watched a few clips from the movie Smoke with Harvey Kitel. It looks really good now I want to watch the whole thing. Then we set off for our first fieldtrip! On our way to the gallery we stopped in Piazza Erbe for coffee, he treated. Is this seriously class??? We sat and talked with him for about half an hour. I love my life. Then we went to the amatuer photographers gallery, which happens to be underground completely within the Roman ruins that lie under the city. It was like entering another world entirely. It was a very cool experience. He critiqued all of the photography, so I'm pretty nervous as to what he will have to say about ours. But I can't wait for the experience of this class, he told us that we will spend an hour or two of each class in the classroom and the rest take trips around the city to either take pictures or see galleries! I still can't believe I'm getting 15 GPA hours for these classes. Life could not be better than this.
And last but most certainly not least...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERUFL DAY (I MEAN WEEK) CELEBRATING WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! I'm sorry I can't be there to go to Outback (in the Outlook) tonight but I will be thinking of you guys!! I miss you & I love you! Have a Margarita for me :)
<3 Kalyn
2.09.2010
These Streets Will Make You Feel Brand New
These Lights Will Inspire You.
Since I wrote last I've had quite the eventful weekend and first week of normal class. Aka I don't have to get up for 9:30 class every day...ever again! My days have been filled with travelling to some of the most beautiful cities on water in the world, an almost fainting experience, and laughing at how American we still seem to be despite our best efforts to transform into true Europeans...
So a little about the classes I am taking and how it still amazes me how completely different my life is in comparison to the life I would have had if I had stayed in the States. (By the way I don't understand why people don't study abroad more...get your lives together & get over here.) So my Business class is taught by our Resident Director Claudio and there really is no other way to describe him other than badass and one of the most interesting people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. This man literally has connections EVERYWHERE. So for Business we spend 50% of the time in the classroom & 50% of the time on fieldtrips. The fieldtrips include: visiting a marble factory and watching a sculpture carve statues out of marble (aka I will be envisioning the creation of The David the entire time), a visit to a cake/chocolate factory where we obviously get taste-testers and "a gift to take home," a visit to a cheese factory in Asiago where we also go horseback riding in the mountains, a visit to a winery or two where we get to do wine tasting and have dinner, and finally a shoe factory. Now at the shoe factory there are no garuntees but we have been lead to believe that the owner will take us out for dinner and drinks (free of course) and will also let us pick out a pair of custom made shoes to keep...FOR FREE! So like I said this is just not real life anymore. I've officially entered the twilight zone, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
I was supposed to start photography today but after half an hour of waiting we were finally informed that our teacher is out of town...where you ask? America. Hey thanks for the heads up IDEA Verona. Its funny though because its just another example of how different they live here. Had there been 15 kids sitting in a classroom waiting for a teacher in America they would've had a sub all over that within 5 minutes of waiting. It was nice to have the day before my cinema class though so I went grocery shopping with one of my roommates.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This past weekend we hopped on a 6euro train for Venice!! We attended Carnival, which is the Italian celebration of Mardi Gras. We got to Venice around noon and got on the next ferry to San Marco. As amazing as I thought Florence was, Venice is even more incredible. If you know me at all then you know how much I love being near any body of water. Hence why I was a swimmer all my life, taught swim lessons in high school, and secretly wish I could be a mermaid for a few days. Instead of streets Venice has small canals for boats to go through. I've already pictured my whole life living in Venice with my own boat to get from place to place and a house that has steps disappearing into the water. Needless to say I was in heaven the minute we arrived.
Once in San Marco square we found the cheaptest place we could to get some lunch. I shared pizza and gnocci with Maura yumm. After that we were on the hunt for drinks, don't judge me it's a holiday based on drinking. So we found cheap wine and bought a bottle each. Now we were told ahead of time that everyone drinks in the streets and its perfectly normal and acceptable. I don't think 6 people each with her own bottle is as acceptable as we thought. We got so many comments--good and bad. So none the less it was an interesting experience. Mostly we just wandered around the square where they had shows and performers and people everywhere. We didn't do any sightseeing this time because we are heading back in March for that! All in all it was a really fun day and we caught a train home later that evening to be back in Verona because we had an early day on Sunday. The best part: we were wearing Italian-made hand painted masks all day! Of course mine was blue :) Here's a picture of my mask (pay no attention to the awkward smile/closeup).
Sunday we had another Claudio trip!! We live for trips with Claudio because we know they involve seeing amazing places we wouldn't think to go to on our own and tons of delicious Italian cuisine! We headed to some little towns right on Lake Guarda. Its the big lake in Northern Italy and it is absolutely beautiful!! First we went to Salo to see the Vittoriale and the Vittoriale Gardens. The lands were once the home of Gabriele D'Annuzio. D'Annuzio was once a friend to Mussolini until he banned D'Annuzio for becoming too powerful and too popular. D'Annuzio was exiled to the castle built for him in Salo, where he carried out the rest of his life. First we got a tour of where he lived and even saw the exact spot where he eventually died at his desk. He had the biggest personal collection of books that I have ever seen. I couldn't keep up with the tour because I kept staying behind in awe of all the literature. His house was very interesting though and very cluttered...he would have fit in with my family. :) After that we ventured outside to tour the grounds. There are endless acres of land looking over the water. We saw part of the warship the Puglia, the Mausoleum where he remains, an open air theater that still holds prestigious shows during the summer, the terraced gardens, and many war relics. I took the opportunity to wander alone through the vast amounts of scenerey to completely take in the experience. I walked through every part of the gardens and through some trails behind the fountains. Then I climbed to the top of the Mausoleum to sit for a long time looking at the ships on the water.
Later in the day we went to other cities on Lake Guarda and they were all equally beautiful. We also did the typical American touristy type activities such as feed swans (candy because we didn't have bread) and take posed pictures on the piers. But we all got to watch a beautiful sunset together.
I'm getting ready to leave for Prague in a few minutes so that's all I've got for now! I'll do another big picture upload after this weekend. I hope you aren't all snowed in at home ;) because we definitely aren't here!
<3 Kalyn
Since I wrote last I've had quite the eventful weekend and first week of normal class. Aka I don't have to get up for 9:30 class every day...ever again! My days have been filled with travelling to some of the most beautiful cities on water in the world, an almost fainting experience, and laughing at how American we still seem to be despite our best efforts to transform into true Europeans...
So a little about the classes I am taking and how it still amazes me how completely different my life is in comparison to the life I would have had if I had stayed in the States. (By the way I don't understand why people don't study abroad more...get your lives together & get over here.) So my Business class is taught by our Resident Director Claudio and there really is no other way to describe him other than badass and one of the most interesting people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. This man literally has connections EVERYWHERE. So for Business we spend 50% of the time in the classroom & 50% of the time on fieldtrips. The fieldtrips include: visiting a marble factory and watching a sculpture carve statues out of marble (aka I will be envisioning the creation of The David the entire time), a visit to a cake/chocolate factory where we obviously get taste-testers and "a gift to take home," a visit to a cheese factory in Asiago where we also go horseback riding in the mountains, a visit to a winery or two where we get to do wine tasting and have dinner, and finally a shoe factory. Now at the shoe factory there are no garuntees but we have been lead to believe that the owner will take us out for dinner and drinks (free of course) and will also let us pick out a pair of custom made shoes to keep...FOR FREE! So like I said this is just not real life anymore. I've officially entered the twilight zone, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
I was supposed to start photography today but after half an hour of waiting we were finally informed that our teacher is out of town...where you ask? America. Hey thanks for the heads up IDEA Verona. Its funny though because its just another example of how different they live here. Had there been 15 kids sitting in a classroom waiting for a teacher in America they would've had a sub all over that within 5 minutes of waiting. It was nice to have the day before my cinema class though so I went grocery shopping with one of my roommates.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This past weekend we hopped on a 6euro train for Venice!! We attended Carnival, which is the Italian celebration of Mardi Gras. We got to Venice around noon and got on the next ferry to San Marco. As amazing as I thought Florence was, Venice is even more incredible. If you know me at all then you know how much I love being near any body of water. Hence why I was a swimmer all my life, taught swim lessons in high school, and secretly wish I could be a mermaid for a few days. Instead of streets Venice has small canals for boats to go through. I've already pictured my whole life living in Venice with my own boat to get from place to place and a house that has steps disappearing into the water. Needless to say I was in heaven the minute we arrived.
Once in San Marco square we found the cheaptest place we could to get some lunch. I shared pizza and gnocci with Maura yumm. After that we were on the hunt for drinks, don't judge me it's a holiday based on drinking. So we found cheap wine and bought a bottle each. Now we were told ahead of time that everyone drinks in the streets and its perfectly normal and acceptable. I don't think 6 people each with her own bottle is as acceptable as we thought. We got so many comments--good and bad. So none the less it was an interesting experience. Mostly we just wandered around the square where they had shows and performers and people everywhere. We didn't do any sightseeing this time because we are heading back in March for that! All in all it was a really fun day and we caught a train home later that evening to be back in Verona because we had an early day on Sunday. The best part: we were wearing Italian-made hand painted masks all day! Of course mine was blue :) Here's a picture of my mask (pay no attention to the awkward smile/closeup).
Sunday we had another Claudio trip!! We live for trips with Claudio because we know they involve seeing amazing places we wouldn't think to go to on our own and tons of delicious Italian cuisine! We headed to some little towns right on Lake Guarda. Its the big lake in Northern Italy and it is absolutely beautiful!! First we went to Salo to see the Vittoriale and the Vittoriale Gardens. The lands were once the home of Gabriele D'Annuzio. D'Annuzio was once a friend to Mussolini until he banned D'Annuzio for becoming too powerful and too popular. D'Annuzio was exiled to the castle built for him in Salo, where he carried out the rest of his life. First we got a tour of where he lived and even saw the exact spot where he eventually died at his desk. He had the biggest personal collection of books that I have ever seen. I couldn't keep up with the tour because I kept staying behind in awe of all the literature. His house was very interesting though and very cluttered...he would have fit in with my family. :) After that we ventured outside to tour the grounds. There are endless acres of land looking over the water. We saw part of the warship the Puglia, the Mausoleum where he remains, an open air theater that still holds prestigious shows during the summer, the terraced gardens, and many war relics. I took the opportunity to wander alone through the vast amounts of scenerey to completely take in the experience. I walked through every part of the gardens and through some trails behind the fountains. Then I climbed to the top of the Mausoleum to sit for a long time looking at the ships on the water.
Later in the day we went to other cities on Lake Guarda and they were all equally beautiful. We also did the typical American touristy type activities such as feed swans (candy because we didn't have bread) and take posed pictures on the piers. But we all got to watch a beautiful sunset together.
I'm getting ready to leave for Prague in a few minutes so that's all I've got for now! I'll do another big picture upload after this weekend. I hope you aren't all snowed in at home ;) because we definitely aren't here!
<3 Kalyn
2.03.2010
NON C'É FRETTA....
....it means no worries for the rest of your days. It's our problem free philosophy...Hakuna Matata. Non c'è fretta roughly translated means no worries in Italian. Katie taught the phrase to me this past weekend while I was visiting her in Florence! I took it on as a personal motto just as she has done :) If I were to say it in Italian though I would say Io vado a Firenze a visitare mia amica Katie! (except I can only say it the present tense...give me a break I'm still learning)
Anyways Florence is AMAZING! Its different from Verona but I loved the atmosphere. It's one of those cities that is always alive and inviting to everyone. It felt like a bigger and busier version of Verona, and WAY more touristy. We heard more people speaking English on the streets than Italian, which is why I am so happy I chose Verona. While Florence would be such a fun place to live, I feel like I'm getting more of the culture in my every day life.
Florence was definitely a memorable adventure that taught me some important lessons at the same time. We all headed to the train station Friday after class--there were about 20 people who went, which was pretty cool, but we didn't all stay together there. Right when we got to our hostel, called Veronique, Lo & I went to meet up with Katie!!! I was so excited to see her, I was jumping around, hugging her soo much! We went to the store to get food and cooked dinner at her apt before going out. She had only been in Florence for about 4 days at that point so it was really cool to experience her first weekend with her. Her apartment is soooo different from my little place but I loved it. She lives with 7 girls from all over the country! We drank some wine with them and then headed to a little pub called The Lion's Fountain. After that we went to a club called Bbop where I used my sneakiness to simultaneously play a joke on Katie and get us free drinks. I stayed with Katie that night just like we were roomies again :)
The next day we met up with my friends at the Accademia to see Michelangelo's The David! It was unbelievable, I've never seen any artwork so amazing...and I've been to the Louvre! The sheer size of the statue was mesmerizing. But we couldn't take pictures in the museum so I took one of the smaller statue that stands in one of the main squares of town.
After seeing the David we walked to get lunch. Katie and I got McDonalds....shocking I know. But it was a quick cheap meal...can't live luxuriously all the time. After that we walked through the Palazzo degli Uffizi and looked at all of the amazing statues. That's where the smaller David was. There were also sculptures of some of the greats: Donatello, Dante, Galileo, da Vinci, Machiavelli, and so many more! I took pictures so check out the picture site for all of Florence too. We walked through to the beautiful River Arno to take some toursity pictures. Then we met back up with the group to walk through the Uffizi museum. There was so much amazing artwork by so many famous people, I could not believe it. There was so much history too because some of the works dated back thousands of years. Many had been in the museum since the 1600s. We saw da Vinci's famous works the Adoration of the Magi and Annunciation.
Once we toured through the many rooms of the Uffizi we headed to Ponte Vecchio (meaning old bridge). The bridge is the oldest, and most beautiful, in Florence. It was saved by the Nazi's during WWII because of its beauty. Now it houses very expensive shopping. It is also one of the most picturesque places for photoshoots. We walked to the Palazzo Pitti, which is the Medici palace across the river. But because it was closing soon we decided to save it for the next day and head back to the hostel to rest. But first we stopped in the square by where we were staying to ride the Merry-go-Round. Sounds juvenile but it was, like everything in Italy, ornate.
Back at the hostel, as we got ready for dinner, is where I learned my very important lesson of travel. I thought we had rented out the entire floor of our hostel. So I left my makeup in the bathroom area because we were running late for dinner and I planned to finish it when we got back. That was mistake number one. Mistake number too was forgetting the camera on the table after taking pictures of the hostel so people could see what one looks like. Obviously we locked up the bedrooms and the floor and left. When we came back from dinner, my makeup and camera both were gone. There were new people in another room on the floor and the cleaning people had also been through, so I had no way of figuring out who took all my stuff. No one got anything taken from the bedrooms so that was good. But learning the hard way really, really sucks sometimes. It's ironic that two of the things that I use everyday and usually don't go anywhere without got taken from me. I would've been fine losing clothes but no such luck. :( Its okay though because I had extra makeup back home and my big camera is still safe, so there's the silver lining...?
But on the bright side dinner was DELICIOUS and soo much fun! We had to wait forever to get tables because of course we travel in abnormally large groups of 20. But the wait turned out to be well worth it. Dinner was 10 euro and here is what I got: a personal pizza, bruschetta, wine, limoncella, Baileys. It was one of the best dinner's I've ever had!! And the cherry on top (because this is before I knew my stuff was gone). Some Italians thought I was Italian! So in my broken Italian I told them yes and that I was staying here with family haha and they believed me. I was so proud of myself and complimented that people thought I looked like I belong here! Because who wants to stand out as an American really...?!
That night we went out to a discoteca--my first one--called Space. It was a pretty cool club with a lot of different floors and you don't pay until you leave. Which could have potentially have been disastrous but luckily I only had my one free drink that came with paying the cover charge.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel and because Katie is a saint, we put all of our bags at her apartment for the day. Our first stop was back to Palazzo Pitti to see the beautiful gardens of the Medici family. It was literally acres of gorgeous land and we spent hours wandering around admiring everything. It still astounds me that this was just the backyard to their palace and any of the Medici's could roam the gardens any time they wanted. It really reinforced my dream of getting my own castle. Random fact: the Uffizi was offices that belonged to the Medici family and they had secret passageways to get there so they didn't have to go out in public!! Their lives were so fascinating! Here's a view from the gardens of Florence with the mountains in the background...talk about breathtaking. I still can't believe I'm seeing all these things!
After we finally managed to pull ourselves away from the gardens (we literally wanted to stay all day), we headed to get lunch. This was a horrible mistake. We went to a place by the Duomo that was Self-Service...if you are in Florence NEVER, EVER EAT HERE. Every single person who ate there agreed that it was by far the worst meal we had ever eaten in our entire lives. Thinking about it makes me nauseous still. But the Duomo, the main church, makes up for the awful food. If I lived in Florence I would walk around it every day because it is such a force taking up the entire square in the heart of the city. We wanted to go on the free tour of it but unfortunately did not make it in time. After that it was time to SHOP!! We spent hours in the outdoor markets hunting for the best deals on fine Italian leather and scarves, and anything we could find. I ended up getting a really pretty brown leather purse for only 30 euro. I also got a navy blue hand painted mask for Carnival next weekend. I also got bracelets, scarves, a dress, and a mini journal. All in all I would say it was very successful shopping. Once we finished shopping is when we finally realized that staying until the last train home was not the best idea. We were ready to leave but still had hours left to kill. We ended up sitting in a cafe and I had hot tea. Finally we ventured out again to wander through the shops because Saldi (the big sale) is still going on thanks to the world wide bad economy. By the time 5:30 came around we were more than ready to head to the train station.
Here begins a whole new learning experience. Me, Lauren, Alex, & Amelia bought tickets together and we had to switches. No problem right. So the first transfer works perfectly we take a train from the main station in Florence to one still in the city but further out. Then we switch to a train to Bologna. Let me tell you about Bologna's train station. There literally is no inside. It's also dirty with homeless people living in the tunnels. It also has very confusing signs. So of course it is just our luck that we are on the wrong tracks and miss our train back home to Verona. Of course this train is also the LAST train of the night. Let me just put you in my frame of mind for a second: we have been on our feet walking since 10 am in the freezing cold (Florence is colder than Verona), we are carrying heavy backpacks and shopping back, it is dirty, and we a exhausted and have class the next morning. I had one of those truly depressing moments when your spirits just sink as the realization hits that you have no way home that night. But we were resourceful and looked for other trains that were stopping in Verona. We found a German train heading to Munich that stopped in Verona, leaving in a few hours. So we even stopped at information to ask about it and they were all for us train crashing. We had to sit in a smelly room with old men coughing to wait. But while we were waiting we also saw a really disturbing site: a guy (we think was on drugs) fell off a train and hit his head on the platform, his feet were hanging off under the train, and he was bleeding from the head. He was also screaming and gasping for air so loudly that we stopped to look. I'm so glad we had Alex with us because it was one of the scariest things I have ever seen, there just was something not right about the guy and he scared the hell out of me. I could not have been more relieved a few hours later to finally be a stowaway on an overnight train to Germany. We found a dining car and sat for a few hours playing cards. It turned out to be a lot of fun and we got lucky because they never came around to ask us for the tickets we did not posess. We FINALLY made it home around 1am and I still think I'm short of sleep from that weekend 3 days later!!
But Florence was an amazing experience and it felt so good to finally see Katie again. I pulled out one of my cheesy lines like being with Katie felt like being home again...haha. But it really did because in this new experience you are thrown in with 37 kids who don't know you and you get so close so fast, but it just felt great to be with one of my best friends again. We are already trying to plan when we can hang out again!
This week I have my Italian final on Friday then we are celebrating with some drinks! Then Saturday I will be in Venice celebrating Carnival!!! And then on Sunday we have another Claudio trip!! Speaking of Claudio, I have to tell you about my business class that started this week and the amazing trips I am taking with it. But I think I'll save it for another time. I promise to get pictures up soon!
I love and miss you all! As much as I appreciate all of the amazing experiences here, I will always appreciate the people waiting for me back home even more <3 (too cheesy??)
PS I can see the Alps from my walk home from school everyday!! I still can't believe this is really my life. Coming here is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me!
PPS I also have a new roommate. Her name is Katerina, she's 26 and from the Czech Republic. We have no idea what happened to Daria...but like I said here's to new adventures!
Anyways Florence is AMAZING! Its different from Verona but I loved the atmosphere. It's one of those cities that is always alive and inviting to everyone. It felt like a bigger and busier version of Verona, and WAY more touristy. We heard more people speaking English on the streets than Italian, which is why I am so happy I chose Verona. While Florence would be such a fun place to live, I feel like I'm getting more of the culture in my every day life.
Florence was definitely a memorable adventure that taught me some important lessons at the same time. We all headed to the train station Friday after class--there were about 20 people who went, which was pretty cool, but we didn't all stay together there. Right when we got to our hostel, called Veronique, Lo & I went to meet up with Katie!!! I was so excited to see her, I was jumping around, hugging her soo much! We went to the store to get food and cooked dinner at her apt before going out. She had only been in Florence for about 4 days at that point so it was really cool to experience her first weekend with her. Her apartment is soooo different from my little place but I loved it. She lives with 7 girls from all over the country! We drank some wine with them and then headed to a little pub called The Lion's Fountain. After that we went to a club called Bbop where I used my sneakiness to simultaneously play a joke on Katie and get us free drinks. I stayed with Katie that night just like we were roomies again :)
The next day we met up with my friends at the Accademia to see Michelangelo's The David! It was unbelievable, I've never seen any artwork so amazing...and I've been to the Louvre! The sheer size of the statue was mesmerizing. But we couldn't take pictures in the museum so I took one of the smaller statue that stands in one of the main squares of town.
After seeing the David we walked to get lunch. Katie and I got McDonalds....shocking I know. But it was a quick cheap meal...can't live luxuriously all the time. After that we walked through the Palazzo degli Uffizi and looked at all of the amazing statues. That's where the smaller David was. There were also sculptures of some of the greats: Donatello, Dante, Galileo, da Vinci, Machiavelli, and so many more! I took pictures so check out the picture site for all of Florence too. We walked through to the beautiful River Arno to take some toursity pictures. Then we met back up with the group to walk through the Uffizi museum. There was so much amazing artwork by so many famous people, I could not believe it. There was so much history too because some of the works dated back thousands of years. Many had been in the museum since the 1600s. We saw da Vinci's famous works the Adoration of the Magi and Annunciation.
Once we toured through the many rooms of the Uffizi we headed to Ponte Vecchio (meaning old bridge). The bridge is the oldest, and most beautiful, in Florence. It was saved by the Nazi's during WWII because of its beauty. Now it houses very expensive shopping. It is also one of the most picturesque places for photoshoots. We walked to the Palazzo Pitti, which is the Medici palace across the river. But because it was closing soon we decided to save it for the next day and head back to the hostel to rest. But first we stopped in the square by where we were staying to ride the Merry-go-Round. Sounds juvenile but it was, like everything in Italy, ornate.
Back at the hostel, as we got ready for dinner, is where I learned my very important lesson of travel. I thought we had rented out the entire floor of our hostel. So I left my makeup in the bathroom area because we were running late for dinner and I planned to finish it when we got back. That was mistake number one. Mistake number too was forgetting the camera on the table after taking pictures of the hostel so people could see what one looks like. Obviously we locked up the bedrooms and the floor and left. When we came back from dinner, my makeup and camera both were gone. There were new people in another room on the floor and the cleaning people had also been through, so I had no way of figuring out who took all my stuff. No one got anything taken from the bedrooms so that was good. But learning the hard way really, really sucks sometimes. It's ironic that two of the things that I use everyday and usually don't go anywhere without got taken from me. I would've been fine losing clothes but no such luck. :( Its okay though because I had extra makeup back home and my big camera is still safe, so there's the silver lining...?
But on the bright side dinner was DELICIOUS and soo much fun! We had to wait forever to get tables because of course we travel in abnormally large groups of 20. But the wait turned out to be well worth it. Dinner was 10 euro and here is what I got: a personal pizza, bruschetta, wine, limoncella, Baileys. It was one of the best dinner's I've ever had!! And the cherry on top (because this is before I knew my stuff was gone). Some Italians thought I was Italian! So in my broken Italian I told them yes and that I was staying here with family haha and they believed me. I was so proud of myself and complimented that people thought I looked like I belong here! Because who wants to stand out as an American really...?!
That night we went out to a discoteca--my first one--called Space. It was a pretty cool club with a lot of different floors and you don't pay until you leave. Which could have potentially have been disastrous but luckily I only had my one free drink that came with paying the cover charge.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel and because Katie is a saint, we put all of our bags at her apartment for the day. Our first stop was back to Palazzo Pitti to see the beautiful gardens of the Medici family. It was literally acres of gorgeous land and we spent hours wandering around admiring everything. It still astounds me that this was just the backyard to their palace and any of the Medici's could roam the gardens any time they wanted. It really reinforced my dream of getting my own castle. Random fact: the Uffizi was offices that belonged to the Medici family and they had secret passageways to get there so they didn't have to go out in public!! Their lives were so fascinating! Here's a view from the gardens of Florence with the mountains in the background...talk about breathtaking. I still can't believe I'm seeing all these things!
After we finally managed to pull ourselves away from the gardens (we literally wanted to stay all day), we headed to get lunch. This was a horrible mistake. We went to a place by the Duomo that was Self-Service...if you are in Florence NEVER, EVER EAT HERE. Every single person who ate there agreed that it was by far the worst meal we had ever eaten in our entire lives. Thinking about it makes me nauseous still. But the Duomo, the main church, makes up for the awful food. If I lived in Florence I would walk around it every day because it is such a force taking up the entire square in the heart of the city. We wanted to go on the free tour of it but unfortunately did not make it in time. After that it was time to SHOP!! We spent hours in the outdoor markets hunting for the best deals on fine Italian leather and scarves, and anything we could find. I ended up getting a really pretty brown leather purse for only 30 euro. I also got a navy blue hand painted mask for Carnival next weekend. I also got bracelets, scarves, a dress, and a mini journal. All in all I would say it was very successful shopping. Once we finished shopping is when we finally realized that staying until the last train home was not the best idea. We were ready to leave but still had hours left to kill. We ended up sitting in a cafe and I had hot tea. Finally we ventured out again to wander through the shops because Saldi (the big sale) is still going on thanks to the world wide bad economy. By the time 5:30 came around we were more than ready to head to the train station.
Here begins a whole new learning experience. Me, Lauren, Alex, & Amelia bought tickets together and we had to switches. No problem right. So the first transfer works perfectly we take a train from the main station in Florence to one still in the city but further out. Then we switch to a train to Bologna. Let me tell you about Bologna's train station. There literally is no inside. It's also dirty with homeless people living in the tunnels. It also has very confusing signs. So of course it is just our luck that we are on the wrong tracks and miss our train back home to Verona. Of course this train is also the LAST train of the night. Let me just put you in my frame of mind for a second: we have been on our feet walking since 10 am in the freezing cold (Florence is colder than Verona), we are carrying heavy backpacks and shopping back, it is dirty, and we a exhausted and have class the next morning. I had one of those truly depressing moments when your spirits just sink as the realization hits that you have no way home that night. But we were resourceful and looked for other trains that were stopping in Verona. We found a German train heading to Munich that stopped in Verona, leaving in a few hours. So we even stopped at information to ask about it and they were all for us train crashing. We had to sit in a smelly room with old men coughing to wait. But while we were waiting we also saw a really disturbing site: a guy (we think was on drugs) fell off a train and hit his head on the platform, his feet were hanging off under the train, and he was bleeding from the head. He was also screaming and gasping for air so loudly that we stopped to look. I'm so glad we had Alex with us because it was one of the scariest things I have ever seen, there just was something not right about the guy and he scared the hell out of me. I could not have been more relieved a few hours later to finally be a stowaway on an overnight train to Germany. We found a dining car and sat for a few hours playing cards. It turned out to be a lot of fun and we got lucky because they never came around to ask us for the tickets we did not posess. We FINALLY made it home around 1am and I still think I'm short of sleep from that weekend 3 days later!!
But Florence was an amazing experience and it felt so good to finally see Katie again. I pulled out one of my cheesy lines like being with Katie felt like being home again...haha. But it really did because in this new experience you are thrown in with 37 kids who don't know you and you get so close so fast, but it just felt great to be with one of my best friends again. We are already trying to plan when we can hang out again!
This week I have my Italian final on Friday then we are celebrating with some drinks! Then Saturday I will be in Venice celebrating Carnival!!! And then on Sunday we have another Claudio trip!! Speaking of Claudio, I have to tell you about my business class that started this week and the amazing trips I am taking with it. But I think I'll save it for another time. I promise to get pictures up soon!
I love and miss you all! As much as I appreciate all of the amazing experiences here, I will always appreciate the people waiting for me back home even more <3 (too cheesy??)
PS I can see the Alps from my walk home from school everyday!! I still can't believe this is really my life. Coming here is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me!
PPS I also have a new roommate. Her name is Katerina, she's 26 and from the Czech Republic. We have no idea what happened to Daria...but like I said here's to new adventures!
1.26.2010
Photos, Frog Legs & Films
Hey all!
I have a quick update!
If you look to the side of the page I published some pictures from my trip so far. So check them out I added captions to explain too. As I update pictures I'll update that too. I hope you like them as much as I do :)
So today I just had my longest day of class ever, but no worries I only have one more day like that and then my schedule is so easy. Today I had Italian 1 from 9:30am-1pm and then Conversation from 2:30-4:30 and THEN my first day of Cinema from 4:30-6:30! I feel like I'm back on a High School schedule!! But most days aren't like that so I think I'll manage my stress free life just fine.
I really like Cinema so far. My teacher mostly only speaks Italian but she explains things in simple terms and uses English if necessary. There are only 4 of us from Italian 1 in that class and everyone else is more advanced so they are helpful too. We had to identify a bunch of famous Italian actors, actresses & directors for the first part. Then we talked about the important terminology and what films we would be watching this semster. She also explained the history to a few. I'm excited because I at least know one of the films: Life is Beautiful. It's such an amazing movie but so sad...I've only seen it in English so I'm really excited to see it in the language it was made in. For those of you who don't know Life is Beautiful stars Robert Benigni set during the Holocaust in which a father makes up a game for his son to keep him unaware of the horrible conditions they are living in.
We watched part of a movie today called Sciuscia which means shoeshiners and is about two young boys who do various jobs trying to earn money during the war. The movie was in a Naples dialect so we watched it with Italian subtitles. But I actually followed along just fine! I was pretty excited about that :)
During my lunch break today, I got a very unique experience! Me, Kaitlin, Matt & Alex went out for lunch to eat Chinese food...in Italy! We went to a restaurant with red lanterns out front and baby pink walls covered in Chinese artwork inside. Kaitlin and I ordered the "Tourist Special" which was Wanton soup, fried rice, and sweet & sour chicken. Note of warning if you plan on trying this some day: the chicken is slimy not fried so be warned. Matt got duck, which looked really good but I've had it before and loved it! My new experience came in the form of Alex's meal. He ordered frog legs!!! And he was generous enough to let us try them. It was an iteresting taste of something between chicken and fish. But the weirdest part was picking the meat off the tiny bones. You could even still see the feet! But now I can offically say I've eaten frog!
Last night we planned to go to happy hour, which starts at 8pm here and you get fed tons of good food with your drinks. Lauren & I were busy chatting and ended up being late. But the night turned out really fun because we met the girls at a cool German restaurant called KB. The waitresses there were so nice & they liked us because they let us request songs: the music was coming from what they decided to play on youtube on a laptop haha. Anyways now we have another new place to hang out. Oh they also had delicious hot pretzels!
This weekend we are off on our first offically independent adventure! We are going to Florence! There are about 12 of us going I think so it should be really fun. Also I GET TO SEE KATIE!!! She just got here so we've been texting to make plans to meet up. I can't wait to see her :) Katie is my old roommate who moved back to Seattle FYI!
One last note I might help with teaching/giving a presentation to High School kids about Twain! I figure being an English minor, it would be a really cool opportunity. We have a meeting about it tomorrow so I will keep you posted!
That's all for now! Miss you and love you. But right now I'm really missing Cheeze-its & Dorritos! I must look into getting snack food other than Nutella. (Buy some now if you've never had it...it's my lifesaver over here!)
Hugs & Kisses <3 Kalyn
I have a quick update!
If you look to the side of the page I published some pictures from my trip so far. So check them out I added captions to explain too. As I update pictures I'll update that too. I hope you like them as much as I do :)
So today I just had my longest day of class ever, but no worries I only have one more day like that and then my schedule is so easy. Today I had Italian 1 from 9:30am-1pm and then Conversation from 2:30-4:30 and THEN my first day of Cinema from 4:30-6:30! I feel like I'm back on a High School schedule!! But most days aren't like that so I think I'll manage my stress free life just fine.
I really like Cinema so far. My teacher mostly only speaks Italian but she explains things in simple terms and uses English if necessary. There are only 4 of us from Italian 1 in that class and everyone else is more advanced so they are helpful too. We had to identify a bunch of famous Italian actors, actresses & directors for the first part. Then we talked about the important terminology and what films we would be watching this semster. She also explained the history to a few. I'm excited because I at least know one of the films: Life is Beautiful. It's such an amazing movie but so sad...I've only seen it in English so I'm really excited to see it in the language it was made in. For those of you who don't know Life is Beautiful stars Robert Benigni set during the Holocaust in which a father makes up a game for his son to keep him unaware of the horrible conditions they are living in.
We watched part of a movie today called Sciuscia which means shoeshiners and is about two young boys who do various jobs trying to earn money during the war. The movie was in a Naples dialect so we watched it with Italian subtitles. But I actually followed along just fine! I was pretty excited about that :)
During my lunch break today, I got a very unique experience! Me, Kaitlin, Matt & Alex went out for lunch to eat Chinese food...in Italy! We went to a restaurant with red lanterns out front and baby pink walls covered in Chinese artwork inside. Kaitlin and I ordered the "Tourist Special" which was Wanton soup, fried rice, and sweet & sour chicken. Note of warning if you plan on trying this some day: the chicken is slimy not fried so be warned. Matt got duck, which looked really good but I've had it before and loved it! My new experience came in the form of Alex's meal. He ordered frog legs!!! And he was generous enough to let us try them. It was an iteresting taste of something between chicken and fish. But the weirdest part was picking the meat off the tiny bones. You could even still see the feet! But now I can offically say I've eaten frog!
Last night we planned to go to happy hour, which starts at 8pm here and you get fed tons of good food with your drinks. Lauren & I were busy chatting and ended up being late. But the night turned out really fun because we met the girls at a cool German restaurant called KB. The waitresses there were so nice & they liked us because they let us request songs: the music was coming from what they decided to play on youtube on a laptop haha. Anyways now we have another new place to hang out. Oh they also had delicious hot pretzels!
This weekend we are off on our first offically independent adventure! We are going to Florence! There are about 12 of us going I think so it should be really fun. Also I GET TO SEE KATIE!!! She just got here so we've been texting to make plans to meet up. I can't wait to see her :) Katie is my old roommate who moved back to Seattle FYI!
One last note I might help with teaching/giving a presentation to High School kids about Twain! I figure being an English minor, it would be a really cool opportunity. We have a meeting about it tomorrow so I will keep you posted!
That's all for now! Miss you and love you. But right now I'm really missing Cheeze-its & Dorritos! I must look into getting snack food other than Nutella. (Buy some now if you've never had it...it's my lifesaver over here!)
Hugs & Kisses <3 Kalyn
1.24.2010
New Lifestyle, New Adventures
It's so unbelievable how much two short weeks can change your life. I arrived in Verona not knowing any Italian or having any clue of what to expect. And while I still have a lot to learn, I already feel like I have accomplished so much. I have a routine with school, I know my way around the part of the city that I usually venture to, and I now have a whole new set of really good friends.
I actually know enough Italian to have conversations with people who don't speak English well or at all. Before I would never have been able to do that. And the best part is that I'll only continue to get beter!
My latest adventure was skiing in the Alps with most of the people from my program! Luckily Giai, my Italian 1 teacher, taught us a lot of phrases that may come in handy while on the slopes. And I acutally used them! For example I couldn't get on my ski boots and so I asked one of our instructors: Puoi aiutare? Which roughly means Can you help me? But I had more conversations that that too!
So we set off for the Alps at 8am on Saturday morning. I don't think anyone minding getting up so early because we went skiing in the ALPS. Not many people can say that.
As we made our way further up the mountains some people starting getting really nervous but I was nothing but extremely excited! I've only been skiing once in High School and I spent most of the time falling & getting laughed at but at least I knew what to expect. However, I don't think our instructors knew what to expect from us. We had 4 or 5 men and one woman that took us on the trip. My landlord Roberto, aka Babo, organized the trip! And our handyman Giovani and his girlfriend Monica came too. So anyways these hilarious 50 year old Italian men had no idea what they were getting with 30 Americans. They divided us into 2 groups based on your past skiing experience. We think they thought we either skiied yearly or rarely and that we would need little instruction. They were wrong. Their first shock was how many people had never skiied before. Their second came in a much funnier form. They sent us out on the bunny hill and all of the beginners started freaking out and three of them just tumbled all the way down. I was laughing so hard until we had one scary moment. One of my roommates tumbled down the hill and hurt her head/face and almost had to be taken to the hospital. But she ended up being okay and got to ski more later that afternoon. Anyways they finally realized that many of us literally knew absolutely nothing.
I went with the beginngers group because of my extreme lack of athelticism and because I only skiied once 5 years ago. It actually came back to me much easier than I thought it would and I navigated the bunny hill easily, never falling! The funny thing about the 15 of us on the bunny hill is that we were clearly marked. As being American with pathetic excuses for ski gear wasn't enough, the way were divided into groups was by BRIGHT orange or yellow bibs. Perfect. Everyone was talking about the Americans throughout the day, most times coupled with laughter. The other funny part is that there were literally 50 some little kids there that day too. And most of them were much better than we were. They laughed at us too.
Once we mastered the bunny hill and the beginners area it was time for lunch. So we headed in to eat: they were prepared for the Americans because along with our pasta we got french fries, coke, and ketchup called mato mato squiz. We also got dessert and sang to our friend Leah whose 21st birthday was that day!
That afternoon me, Mia and Stephanie decided to take a more advanced slope becuse we had all gone before at least once in our lives. Our friend Maura was our guide since all of the instructors were sill busy with other people. We left our safe bunny hill and headed to the ski lift to hit the Panoramic slope. I will warn you that while it is very beautiful the name is slightly deceiving. We ride the ski lift higher than imaginable to see one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. It is definitely worth experiencing and I think everyone should go! Life on top of a mountain is such a different perspective from life on the ground. So after taking picture and enjoying the endless landscapes of mountain tops, we had to actually ski all the way back down this mountain.
Maura warned us that the first part was the scariest...but we had no idea how steep it would be! She went first and then I followed but me, Mia & Steph stopped after a little because we didn't want to go too fast. Maura waited for us at the flat part after the first drop. So I decided to go for it and attempted to slowly descend the mountain. Of course I failed misterably at going slow. I took off like a bat out of hell and flew to the bottom. In this short time of intense adrenaline/excitement/terror I realized I was going WAY too fast to stop myself. So I started screaming for Maura. I yelled: "MAURA, MAURA HOW DO I STOPPPPP??" But by the time the words were out and Maura was looking at me I was off my feet and on the ground. The best part about my wipeout was that I somehow managed to fall on my back & on my face in just one fall. I think my feet flew out from me first and then I flipped over and landed face first in the snow. I have to say wiping out in the Alps is actually pretty awesome. After that we enjoyed a mostly flat, scenic route for a few minutes. Then we came to the second drop off. Here we let our minds get the best of us. I went down about half way and I could have gone the rest but instead Steph and I decided it would actually be a better idea to butt slide down the mountain. Turns out it was a GREAT IDEA. I'm glad I did it because it was so much fun since the slope was so steep we just held our stuff and slid all the way down without having to push ourselves. The rest of the way was really pretty and the perfect incline to be able to go fast but stay in control.
The very best part however was the end because it was a final drop off--steep but shorter than the first two. And since I was oh SO experienced by this point I wsn't scared to go for it. I shot down the last part increasing speed but I managed to stay on my feet and finished with my poles in the air for victory!! I was an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Finally our day ended with hot tea and cake/bread and story telling from everyone's adventures on the slopes. Everyone was in great spirits because while our friends sat at home on Facebook, we dominated the Alps! :) Lauren and I had matching hats and both happened to be wearing KD gear. So once we were out of our painfully tight snow boots and wet clothes, we posed in front of the mountains throwing up the KD sign. Apparently, this is very interesting to the Italians. They asked us to show them how to do it and we all got a picture together. So not only are we bringing the sisterhood to Italy but we are inducting 50 year old men.
So that is the story of my most recent adventure. Next weekend after class a group of us are off to Florence for the weekend. I'm SO excited because I finally get to see Katie agan and because I've heard how beautiful Florence is!
Other new aspects of my lifestyle include getting used to the European ways. I had my first and only moment of frustration this week. Isn't that incredible, I've literally only had one brief moment of irritation? It's crazy how happy I am living here, nothing bothers me! Except for my fight with the shower. I already learned the hard way that showering early in the morning isn't the best idea because the water takes longer to warm up. So as much as that cold shower sucked, it was my own fault. So last night I get in the shower after one of my other roommates, excited that she has probably warmed it up for me. My shower starts off warm (because our shower does not get hot, only lukewarm). And then all of the sudden its FREEZING. But after only a minute of that it gets worse. The water heater starts making weird noises and what do you know but there is only one tiny stream of water coming out of the entire shower heard. I'm mid-shampoo at this point and not pleased. But luckily after a few minutes of that ridiculous excuse of a shower the water picked back up again and even decided to be nice and get semi-lukewarm for me. After that shower I resolved to take the longest, hottest shower when I get back to the States just depsite these Europeans and their attempts to conserve water, and to make up for 4 months of cold showers. But needless to say I think I'm doing pretty well for only having one moment of frustration and that being at my shower.
The only other annoyance here has been the fault of American banks. GM keeps locking me out of my credit card as fraud protection. What idiots...kidding. But seriously you would think they would take a hint that I moved here after the 50th time!
This week I start my first cinema class! I'm soo excited! But I'm banking on subtitles...keep your fingers crossed for me.
That's all I got for now! Look for new pictures on the website soon.
<3 Kalyn
I actually know enough Italian to have conversations with people who don't speak English well or at all. Before I would never have been able to do that. And the best part is that I'll only continue to get beter!
My latest adventure was skiing in the Alps with most of the people from my program! Luckily Giai, my Italian 1 teacher, taught us a lot of phrases that may come in handy while on the slopes. And I acutally used them! For example I couldn't get on my ski boots and so I asked one of our instructors: Puoi aiutare? Which roughly means Can you help me? But I had more conversations that that too!
So we set off for the Alps at 8am on Saturday morning. I don't think anyone minding getting up so early because we went skiing in the ALPS. Not many people can say that.
As we made our way further up the mountains some people starting getting really nervous but I was nothing but extremely excited! I've only been skiing once in High School and I spent most of the time falling & getting laughed at but at least I knew what to expect. However, I don't think our instructors knew what to expect from us. We had 4 or 5 men and one woman that took us on the trip. My landlord Roberto, aka Babo, organized the trip! And our handyman Giovani and his girlfriend Monica came too. So anyways these hilarious 50 year old Italian men had no idea what they were getting with 30 Americans. They divided us into 2 groups based on your past skiing experience. We think they thought we either skiied yearly or rarely and that we would need little instruction. They were wrong. Their first shock was how many people had never skiied before. Their second came in a much funnier form. They sent us out on the bunny hill and all of the beginners started freaking out and three of them just tumbled all the way down. I was laughing so hard until we had one scary moment. One of my roommates tumbled down the hill and hurt her head/face and almost had to be taken to the hospital. But she ended up being okay and got to ski more later that afternoon. Anyways they finally realized that many of us literally knew absolutely nothing.I went with the beginngers group because of my extreme lack of athelticism and because I only skiied once 5 years ago. It actually came back to me much easier than I thought it would and I navigated the bunny hill easily, never falling! The funny thing about the 15 of us on the bunny hill is that we were clearly marked. As being American with pathetic excuses for ski gear wasn't enough, the way were divided into groups was by BRIGHT orange or yellow bibs. Perfect. Everyone was talking about the Americans throughout the day, most times coupled with laughter. The other funny part is that there were literally 50 some little kids there that day too. And most of them were much better than we were. They laughed at us too.
Once we mastered the bunny hill and the beginners area it was time for lunch. So we headed in to eat: they were prepared for the Americans because along with our pasta we got french fries, coke, and ketchup called mato mato squiz. We also got dessert and sang to our friend Leah whose 21st birthday was that day!
That afternoon me, Mia and Stephanie decided to take a more advanced slope becuse we had all gone before at least once in our lives. Our friend Maura was our guide since all of the instructors were sill busy with other people. We left our safe bunny hill and headed to the ski lift to hit the Panoramic slope. I will warn you that while it is very beautiful the name is slightly deceiving. We ride the ski lift higher than imaginable to see one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. It is definitely worth experiencing and I think everyone should go! Life on top of a mountain is such a different perspective from life on the ground. So after taking picture and enjoying the endless landscapes of mountain tops, we had to actually ski all the way back down this mountain.
Maura warned us that the first part was the scariest...but we had no idea how steep it would be! She went first and then I followed but me, Mia & Steph stopped after a little because we didn't want to go too fast. Maura waited for us at the flat part after the first drop. So I decided to go for it and attempted to slowly descend the mountain. Of course I failed misterably at going slow. I took off like a bat out of hell and flew to the bottom. In this short time of intense adrenaline/excitement/terror I realized I was going WAY too fast to stop myself. So I started screaming for Maura. I yelled: "MAURA, MAURA HOW DO I STOPPPPP??" But by the time the words were out and Maura was looking at me I was off my feet and on the ground. The best part about my wipeout was that I somehow managed to fall on my back & on my face in just one fall. I think my feet flew out from me first and then I flipped over and landed face first in the snow. I have to say wiping out in the Alps is actually pretty awesome. After that we enjoyed a mostly flat, scenic route for a few minutes. Then we came to the second drop off. Here we let our minds get the best of us. I went down about half way and I could have gone the rest but instead Steph and I decided it would actually be a better idea to butt slide down the mountain. Turns out it was a GREAT IDEA. I'm glad I did it because it was so much fun since the slope was so steep we just held our stuff and slid all the way down without having to push ourselves. The rest of the way was really pretty and the perfect incline to be able to go fast but stay in control.
The very best part however was the end because it was a final drop off--steep but shorter than the first two. And since I was oh SO experienced by this point I wsn't scared to go for it. I shot down the last part increasing speed but I managed to stay on my feet and finished with my poles in the air for victory!! I was an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Finally our day ended with hot tea and cake/bread and story telling from everyone's adventures on the slopes. Everyone was in great spirits because while our friends sat at home on Facebook, we dominated the Alps! :) Lauren and I had matching hats and both happened to be wearing KD gear. So once we were out of our painfully tight snow boots and wet clothes, we posed in front of the mountains throwing up the KD sign. Apparently, this is very interesting to the Italians. They asked us to show them how to do it and we all got a picture together. So not only are we bringing the sisterhood to Italy but we are inducting 50 year old men.
So that is the story of my most recent adventure. Next weekend after class a group of us are off to Florence for the weekend. I'm SO excited because I finally get to see Katie agan and because I've heard how beautiful Florence is!
Other new aspects of my lifestyle include getting used to the European ways. I had my first and only moment of frustration this week. Isn't that incredible, I've literally only had one brief moment of irritation? It's crazy how happy I am living here, nothing bothers me! Except for my fight with the shower. I already learned the hard way that showering early in the morning isn't the best idea because the water takes longer to warm up. So as much as that cold shower sucked, it was my own fault. So last night I get in the shower after one of my other roommates, excited that she has probably warmed it up for me. My shower starts off warm (because our shower does not get hot, only lukewarm). And then all of the sudden its FREEZING. But after only a minute of that it gets worse. The water heater starts making weird noises and what do you know but there is only one tiny stream of water coming out of the entire shower heard. I'm mid-shampoo at this point and not pleased. But luckily after a few minutes of that ridiculous excuse of a shower the water picked back up again and even decided to be nice and get semi-lukewarm for me. After that shower I resolved to take the longest, hottest shower when I get back to the States just depsite these Europeans and their attempts to conserve water, and to make up for 4 months of cold showers. But needless to say I think I'm doing pretty well for only having one moment of frustration and that being at my shower.
The only other annoyance here has been the fault of American banks. GM keeps locking me out of my credit card as fraud protection. What idiots...kidding. But seriously you would think they would take a hint that I moved here after the 50th time!
This week I start my first cinema class! I'm soo excited! But I'm banking on subtitles...keep your fingers crossed for me.
That's all I got for now! Look for new pictures on the website soon.
<3 Kalyn
1.19.2010
So Much To Do, So Little Time...
Wow. We've officially started planning season. Everyone is finally getting together, stressing out, and changing plans literally every second of every day right now. It's intense. I'll be so happy once our plans are set. It's kind of a funny turn around though because now we are finally settling into a routine of real life here.
A recap of what I've been doing: basically living like royalty on our first pre-planned trip!
We went to Mantua, Soave, and this other place too hard to spell that I'm too lazy to look up. Sorry. Anyways we visited castles and they were fabulous! SOO interesting! We had a great time learning all of the history and eating so much good food. We also got to learn archery and gothic calligraphy--interesting being the only lefty with that one!
I had my first week of Italian and I can honestly say I LOVE going to class! Learning Italian is fun and we are all just ready to be able to communicate and not sound like stereotypical stupid Americans! I can't remember if I told you all about my first cooking class...but basically AMAZING. We had some of the most declicious food and got to learn how to make everything! I put up pictures on the new link. The bread looking puffy things are my new favorite food. My other new favorite food is Nutella, but more specifically croissants filled with Nutella!
Speaking of, we went to a new grocery store that we found today & we got waaay too excited to shop for food haha. Signs of a starving college student? I think so. But we all decided we can't eat out because we would rather travel everywhere! But anyways this store was so exciting because everything was sooo cheap & because we were so hungry everything looked delicious!! But don't worry they have great fruit here so I'm buying that all the time too, that's usually breakfast. Since I'm so responsible and get up early every day here :)
Random story: Today we had to say what we wanted to do "when we get big" instead of explaining doing psychology research and all of that, I decided it would be easier to say words I knew. I said I was going to be a housewife (haha) and an author. So my teacher asked if I was going to write trashy romance novels. I just told her they would be about psychology. In case you were wondering these words in Italian: housewife=casalinga, author=scrittice. Also random the word for elf is gnomo and our class gets a kick out of it all the time by adding it to our sentences and games. Ya we play games every day in class....be jealous.
So anyways, we are going skiing this weekend in the Alps!! Sooo excited :) Afterthat, it's kind of a free for all of planning.
Here is a list of places I want to go:
In Italy: Florence (where my Katie is) with day trip to Pisa, Rome, Venice (for Carnival), Chinque Terre, Amalfi Coast, maybe some other places in Southern Italy
Greece!!! We just planned/almost booked our Easter Break aka my 21st Birthday! for Santorini. It will be AMAZING! I can't wait!
Prague
Ireland, probably also with England & maybe Scotland
Spain (Barcelona, Granada, some Southern Islands)
Frence! (Versaille to visit Hale!, Paris, Nice & other Southern France)
Switzerland (Geneva to see Britt, Interlaken)
Amsterdam
Berlin
Sooo those are the trips we have in the works for now but who knows which ones will happen. Any advice on places to go/travelling/anything at all would be a great help too so just comment away if you have anything to say about things I should do! Or things I should avoid!
Okay that's all for now I'm going to brush up on some of my Italian and plan my life out!
I'll send out my travel schedule when I figure it out!
Love to everyone back home <3
Kalyn
A recap of what I've been doing: basically living like royalty on our first pre-planned trip!
We went to Mantua, Soave, and this other place too hard to spell that I'm too lazy to look up. Sorry. Anyways we visited castles and they were fabulous! SOO interesting! We had a great time learning all of the history and eating so much good food. We also got to learn archery and gothic calligraphy--interesting being the only lefty with that one!
I had my first week of Italian and I can honestly say I LOVE going to class! Learning Italian is fun and we are all just ready to be able to communicate and not sound like stereotypical stupid Americans! I can't remember if I told you all about my first cooking class...but basically AMAZING. We had some of the most declicious food and got to learn how to make everything! I put up pictures on the new link. The bread looking puffy things are my new favorite food. My other new favorite food is Nutella, but more specifically croissants filled with Nutella!
Speaking of, we went to a new grocery store that we found today & we got waaay too excited to shop for food haha. Signs of a starving college student? I think so. But we all decided we can't eat out because we would rather travel everywhere! But anyways this store was so exciting because everything was sooo cheap & because we were so hungry everything looked delicious!! But don't worry they have great fruit here so I'm buying that all the time too, that's usually breakfast. Since I'm so responsible and get up early every day here :)
Random story: Today we had to say what we wanted to do "when we get big" instead of explaining doing psychology research and all of that, I decided it would be easier to say words I knew. I said I was going to be a housewife (haha) and an author. So my teacher asked if I was going to write trashy romance novels. I just told her they would be about psychology. In case you were wondering these words in Italian: housewife=casalinga, author=scrittice. Also random the word for elf is gnomo and our class gets a kick out of it all the time by adding it to our sentences and games. Ya we play games every day in class....be jealous.
So anyways, we are going skiing this weekend in the Alps!! Sooo excited :) Afterthat, it's kind of a free for all of planning.
Here is a list of places I want to go:
In Italy: Florence (where my Katie is) with day trip to Pisa, Rome, Venice (for Carnival), Chinque Terre, Amalfi Coast, maybe some other places in Southern Italy
Greece!!! We just planned/almost booked our Easter Break aka my 21st Birthday! for Santorini. It will be AMAZING! I can't wait!
Prague
Ireland, probably also with England & maybe Scotland
Spain (Barcelona, Granada, some Southern Islands)
Frence! (Versaille to visit Hale!, Paris, Nice & other Southern France)
Switzerland (Geneva to see Britt, Interlaken)
Amsterdam
Berlin
Sooo those are the trips we have in the works for now but who knows which ones will happen. Any advice on places to go/travelling/anything at all would be a great help too so just comment away if you have anything to say about things I should do! Or things I should avoid!
Okay that's all for now I'm going to brush up on some of my Italian and plan my life out!
I'll send out my travel schedule when I figure it out!
Love to everyone back home <3
Kalyn
1.17.2010
Mini Update
Hi! I've racked up so many great stories this week that I can't wait to write about...but I think I'll put it off just a little bit longer! Until I figure out how to put up more than one picture per post I just wanted to put up the URL to a picturesite that you can all access (this is obviously for all of you non-facebookers). So now you can check out pictures of all the things I'm telling you about! They don't have captions yet but I'll work on that too! Enjoy :)
But some of the pictures that I have up there but haven't explained yet:
All of the amazing pictures of food are from my first cooking class!!! It was phenomenal & I'm so excited there are more to come of that. I'll come back a master Italian chef :)
There are also two different castle pictures, the ones with the gardens are from our visit to Mantua this weekend!! And the other's are of Castelvecchio, which I see every single day on my way to school....sooo pretty! There are also pictures of my apartment and people in my program!
I promise to write again soon with stories :)
The picture site it: http://www.picturetrail.com/kalyn.lykkebak
But some of the pictures that I have up there but haven't explained yet:
All of the amazing pictures of food are from my first cooking class!!! It was phenomenal & I'm so excited there are more to come of that. I'll come back a master Italian chef :)
There are also two different castle pictures, the ones with the gardens are from our visit to Mantua this weekend!! And the other's are of Castelvecchio, which I see every single day on my way to school....sooo pretty! There are also pictures of my apartment and people in my program!
I promise to write again soon with stories :)
The picture site it: http://www.picturetrail.com/kalyn.lykkebak
1.12.2010
For the good life...
Buongiorno!
So it's 5 something in the morning here & let me explain why I am writing now...
After class today we all hung out at school to chat with people from home on the internet (even though we have it in our apartment now) then me & Lo brought Ashley over to see our place. Since we are going out for the rest of the week we decided it was our night of down time. We have alot of free time because we don't have homework, jealous?? Anyways, we watched Mamma Mia & all fell asleep in my big comfy bed. Oops. We were supposed to eat dinner with our roommates and the other girls in our building. So then we end up sleeping basically all night. So of course we wake up now and get online. Great. Tomorrow will be an interesting day.
Sidenote: someone please send me a shotgun to shoot the german shepard next door!! It keeps barking at nothing in the middle of the night.
So we started school on Monday morning at IDEA Verona, which is connected to Don Bosco High school. I guess it's one of the best high school's in the city, but it's so weird seeing kids running around the courtyard on lunch break.
The first day of class everyone taking Italian 101 had class together. We had three hours of learning the basics with a half hour break in the middle. Our teacher, Enrica, won't speak English to us & won't let us speak English to her. It's definitely an interesting experience!! After class me, Lo, Ashley & Alex went to Piazza Bra to eat lunch and stop by the bank. We went to our new favorite place the Hippo. And when Matt came there on his own to eat the hostess automatically brought him to our table because we were all American, we all thought it was pretty funny. Anways after that Ashley & I had to head to the postoffice to declare that we are offically here! It was 2 hours of standing around because we were last....I hate doing stuff like that. But, in case you didn't know, Italians never hurry. They take their time doing literally everything...that will take some getting used to. After that we went to Vodaphone to get new phone plans so we can at least text each other for free. Guess what? That took MORE than two hours....fantastic. We learned the hard way not to do things like that in groups of 15 people. But finally we all got new SIM cards & can text away for free!
After all of that we went grocery shopping for the first time! The grocery stores here are called PAM...and close at 8. So naturally we got kicked out because we are used to Walmart 24/7 on every street corner. But we got food to keep us alive for the next couple of days at least. A group of us girls decided instead of going out & spending money we would have a wine night together. That way we got to see someone else's apartment and get to know each other better. Everyone brought a bottle of wine and we sat around a big living room(complete with beer pong table for future pregames) talking all night. We also don't think they have 30 cases here like at home, so I'll let you know if that beerpong ever works out. On the way home from wine night me, Lo, Ashley, Mia & Maura stopped for a photoshoot in front of some old, pretty building. I'll post pictures once I upload them because they turned out so cute!!
Day 2 of class: They split the Italian 1 students into two classrooms. My new teacher is Giai and she is awesome! Today we broke everything down to the very basics so that we have a good foundation to work off of. But we still can't speak any English. It will be interesting to see if my other classes are in Italian as well. Once I get better I'll write some beautiful italian sentences for you. We went to the snack shop over our break today & I had the most delicious croissant with chocolate inside & broke down to finally buy my first Coke here. Usually caffine does nothing for me but that woke me up! All of that was only 1.50euro. I forsee an unhealthy habit forming...
Lo and I came home for lunch though after class & I made pizza bread with my ingredients from the store. We don't have a toaster so I have to toast my bread on the stove every day. But I see it as an opportunity to practice my future trophy wife skills and become a master at creativity in the kitchen...I'll let you know how it goes.
This afternoon we had tutoring for 2 more hours. Tutoring was basically the same as class except for we had Enrica again and we filled out worksheets and talked to her & each other in what little broken Italian we know. Which brings us back up to the present and why I am still awake. I'll probably just get up soon and shower for the day...
Here's what's to come: I'm soo excited because trips start this weekend!! Well Wednesday and Thursday we are going back to Campus because its Crazy Wednesday with 50eurocent drinks & then euro drinks on Tbursday. Then on Saturday & Sunday we travel around Italy going on castle visits!! It's also our friend Court's 21st so we are going to celebrate, while eating dinner in a castle...pretty awesome huh?! Then next weekend we planned a ski trip in the Italian Alps through school so we could all go on the same day! We get instructors to go around with us all day teaching us what to do and where to do! Then the weekend after that I'm going to Florence to visit my little Katie!! Don't worry I found a travel buddy. After that a group of us girls are going to Milan for Friday & Saturday because on Sunday we have another group castle trip. And finally the weekend after that a bunch of us are going to Venice for Carnival aka Mardi Gras!! And finally the weekend after that I'm trying to meet up with the girls (Katie, Britt, & Haley) in Rome! So the next 6 weekends are booked full with very exciting trips!! I'm exuding excitement right now!!
AND I forgot to tell you in my previous post about one of the most unique things about my experience so far! I didn't get to describe the apartment but once I get pictures I'll show you. But I live with 4 other people. Lauren, my roommate, Kim & Jessica, two other girls from U of I, and Daria from VERONA! She doesn't speak much English & we don't speak much Italian but as we learn we will get to know her better. She's such a sweetheart but she's been busy because they have finals right now! I can't believe I forgot to tell you about her!
Also last but not least...things that will take some getting used to. Water not being FREE!! And having to pay for bags at the grocery store...how weird is that?? But so far the adustments have been easy & we are falling into schedule easily minus this little sleep mishap. But eventually we will get used to the time difference. I still feel like I'm on vacation though, and I'm not sure when all of this crazy experience will actually feel real!! Oh well I"m loving every single second of it either way!
Okay well I'm off for now but I'll keep you posted on all of my adventures!
So it's 5 something in the morning here & let me explain why I am writing now...
After class today we all hung out at school to chat with people from home on the internet (even though we have it in our apartment now) then me & Lo brought Ashley over to see our place. Since we are going out for the rest of the week we decided it was our night of down time. We have alot of free time because we don't have homework, jealous?? Anyways, we watched Mamma Mia & all fell asleep in my big comfy bed. Oops. We were supposed to eat dinner with our roommates and the other girls in our building. So then we end up sleeping basically all night. So of course we wake up now and get online. Great. Tomorrow will be an interesting day.
Sidenote: someone please send me a shotgun to shoot the german shepard next door!! It keeps barking at nothing in the middle of the night.
So we started school on Monday morning at IDEA Verona, which is connected to Don Bosco High school. I guess it's one of the best high school's in the city, but it's so weird seeing kids running around the courtyard on lunch break.
The first day of class everyone taking Italian 101 had class together. We had three hours of learning the basics with a half hour break in the middle. Our teacher, Enrica, won't speak English to us & won't let us speak English to her. It's definitely an interesting experience!! After class me, Lo, Ashley & Alex went to Piazza Bra to eat lunch and stop by the bank. We went to our new favorite place the Hippo. And when Matt came there on his own to eat the hostess automatically brought him to our table because we were all American, we all thought it was pretty funny. Anways after that Ashley & I had to head to the postoffice to declare that we are offically here! It was 2 hours of standing around because we were last....I hate doing stuff like that. But, in case you didn't know, Italians never hurry. They take their time doing literally everything...that will take some getting used to. After that we went to Vodaphone to get new phone plans so we can at least text each other for free. Guess what? That took MORE than two hours....fantastic. We learned the hard way not to do things like that in groups of 15 people. But finally we all got new SIM cards & can text away for free!
After all of that we went grocery shopping for the first time! The grocery stores here are called PAM...and close at 8. So naturally we got kicked out because we are used to Walmart 24/7 on every street corner. But we got food to keep us alive for the next couple of days at least. A group of us girls decided instead of going out & spending money we would have a wine night together. That way we got to see someone else's apartment and get to know each other better. Everyone brought a bottle of wine and we sat around a big living room(complete with beer pong table for future pregames) talking all night. We also don't think they have 30 cases here like at home, so I'll let you know if that beerpong ever works out. On the way home from wine night me, Lo, Ashley, Mia & Maura stopped for a photoshoot in front of some old, pretty building. I'll post pictures once I upload them because they turned out so cute!!
Day 2 of class: They split the Italian 1 students into two classrooms. My new teacher is Giai and she is awesome! Today we broke everything down to the very basics so that we have a good foundation to work off of. But we still can't speak any English. It will be interesting to see if my other classes are in Italian as well. Once I get better I'll write some beautiful italian sentences for you. We went to the snack shop over our break today & I had the most delicious croissant with chocolate inside & broke down to finally buy my first Coke here. Usually caffine does nothing for me but that woke me up! All of that was only 1.50euro. I forsee an unhealthy habit forming...
Lo and I came home for lunch though after class & I made pizza bread with my ingredients from the store. We don't have a toaster so I have to toast my bread on the stove every day. But I see it as an opportunity to practice my future trophy wife skills and become a master at creativity in the kitchen...I'll let you know how it goes.
This afternoon we had tutoring for 2 more hours. Tutoring was basically the same as class except for we had Enrica again and we filled out worksheets and talked to her & each other in what little broken Italian we know. Which brings us back up to the present and why I am still awake. I'll probably just get up soon and shower for the day...
Here's what's to come: I'm soo excited because trips start this weekend!! Well Wednesday and Thursday we are going back to Campus because its Crazy Wednesday with 50eurocent drinks & then euro drinks on Tbursday. Then on Saturday & Sunday we travel around Italy going on castle visits!! It's also our friend Court's 21st so we are going to celebrate, while eating dinner in a castle...pretty awesome huh?! Then next weekend we planned a ski trip in the Italian Alps through school so we could all go on the same day! We get instructors to go around with us all day teaching us what to do and where to do! Then the weekend after that I'm going to Florence to visit my little Katie!! Don't worry I found a travel buddy. After that a group of us girls are going to Milan for Friday & Saturday because on Sunday we have another group castle trip. And finally the weekend after that a bunch of us are going to Venice for Carnival aka Mardi Gras!! And finally the weekend after that I'm trying to meet up with the girls (Katie, Britt, & Haley) in Rome! So the next 6 weekends are booked full with very exciting trips!! I'm exuding excitement right now!!
AND I forgot to tell you in my previous post about one of the most unique things about my experience so far! I didn't get to describe the apartment but once I get pictures I'll show you. But I live with 4 other people. Lauren, my roommate, Kim & Jessica, two other girls from U of I, and Daria from VERONA! She doesn't speak much English & we don't speak much Italian but as we learn we will get to know her better. She's such a sweetheart but she's been busy because they have finals right now! I can't believe I forgot to tell you about her!
Also last but not least...things that will take some getting used to. Water not being FREE!! And having to pay for bags at the grocery store...how weird is that?? But so far the adustments have been easy & we are falling into schedule easily minus this little sleep mishap. But eventually we will get used to the time difference. I still feel like I'm on vacation though, and I'm not sure when all of this crazy experience will actually feel real!! Oh well I"m loving every single second of it either way!
Okay well I'm off for now but I'll keep you posted on all of my adventures!
1.10.2010
Tutti la Fruit
We've only been here two days & already so much has happened! I don't even know where to begin...
And yes the title is a quote from Friends.
Our flights went perfectly, so that was good. I sat next to a really nice German girl on the first flight & had my own seat on the second flight. I got lucky & got all my luggage but there were about 12 people who didn't get theirs :( including Lo (my roomie) but it came the next day luckily! So we are waiting for our luggage & that's when we meet Claudio! He's our Resident Director and we all fell in love with him instantly, he's just our very Italian dad for the next 4 months. He was wearing a bright orange & blue Illini Chief coat when he picked us up!! So we all get dropped off at our apartments & mine is adorable! There are a few things that will definitely take some getting used to but it's so quaint we love it! One luxuray I will miss: hot showers & shower curtains. But I'll manage! We also have the cutest balchony in our room. And we live next to a huge, beautiful church so that's our guide home because you can see it from really far away.
We've already started finding our favorite places! So I'll take you through my first 2 days just for a taste of the unbelievable life I am living right now...
The first night we unpack then have dinner at 9:30. There are 7 Americans in my building so we all left together around 9 just to be safe. Only not....we got REALLY lost & ended up being almost an hour late & Claudio even had to get his car to come pick us up...so embarassing. Everyone was waiting for us but dinner was amazing & so we quickly forgot about that. We had bruschetta, pasta, wine rizzoto, pork, lamb, potatoes, some coffee type dessert, cappuchino, and of course water & wine! One great thing about Claudio: he likes to have as much fun as we do! So then we went to this restuarant. Lo & I get very excited because we walk in thinking it is the Italian version of Dos. So clearly it's going to be a great time. Only to find out we are idiots and its actually a German Oktoberfest type restaurant...hah oops. But still a great time. We tried all kinds of beer then went to get drinks from the bar, where we made our first local friends! We met an awesome group of people who told us what drinks to get and we chatted with all night. Desie and Gary are actually Albanian but have been studying here for like 7 years. And Garrett the bartender is from here I think. It was so funny talking about European/American differences. We told Gary to say something with an American accent, so he says..."Chug it hooker." Needless to say we died laughing because apparently Americans are vulgar to them haha. We also told them about icing out & Desie said "we do something different, we order without ice." That was entertaining too. By the way my new favorite shot is Baby Guiness, Kahlua & Bailey's yumm.
The second day we got up to meet in Piazza Bra (the main Piazza, which of course is beautiful like everything else here & still lit up/decorated for the Holidays!!) at Ippopotamo for breakfast. We just call it the Hippo. Then we went on a walking tour of the city, which would have been perfect except for the pouring rain that drenched us & made us freezing. Some people didn't have umbrellas even. But we saw some of the most amazing places that I can't wait to go back & visit very soon. Some of my favorites are Juliet's house (shocking I know) where I plan to buy lots of stuff from the gift shop, Dante's statue in one of the Piazzas, the Roman ruins the entire city is built on top of, Castel Vecchio & Piazza Erbe which is our favorite so far. But there are many more places to visit & adventures to come! After the tour we stopped at Cappa Cafe for Spritza, which of course is an alcoholic drinks because Italians basically drink 24/7. I also ordered by myself for the first time....hot tea! Cause I was so freezing. After drinks we headed to lunch, which was again amazing even better than dinner. We had wine & water, a really big plate of 2 kinds of pasta, turkey (best I ever had) and potatoes, and I know there was more but I can't remember now! Then the survival scavenger hunt began, which Lo & I contributed absolutely nothing to. We followed our group around until we got back close to Hippo then we just went & sat with Claudio and a few others.
Then home to nap. In case you were wondering my bed is sooo comfy, I love it! Then we met up for dinner last night at this amazing pizza place. It's connect to this really old church but it's very modern inside & they played music from Grease and the YMCA and other random American "classics." We had the best pizza ever & beer & wine. Then we spotted some locals drinking what looked like gelato. We ordered sorbetti, which is basically sorbet with alcohol in it. Possibly one of the tastiest things I've ever drank. Then Claudio said its time to drink! And we left to go to Campus, which we would love to be our new Kams except for that it is VERY far from where we live. It's an awesome bar with a really young crowd there. We experiemented with all these diferent kinds of beers. By the way if you've never had a red beer, you don't know what you're missing! Then we ran into our friend from the night before! They introduced to all of their other friends, including these 2 girls from Scotland who are teaching English here!! We planned to meet up at Campus for Crazy Wednesday, a one day promo thing, and on Thursdays, which is their big night!
Today we got up early for orientation at school. It's really close to home so that's good & like everything else it kicks ass. We got student cards & found out about all of our planned trips to places like castles, Venice, a weekend in the mountains in Asiago, etc. We also signed up for a ski trip in the alps on Jan. 23!! And best of all 4 Italian cooking classes & 3 wine tasting classes. I'm coming back refined & talented. The classes I'm taking here are Italian, Business (for the awesome fieldtrips), Photography, & Cinema. I'm pumped to start class tomorrow morning!
So that is what I've been doing this weekend. But really there's no way to put in words the experience. I have not stopped smiling once since I got here, it's blown away all of my expectations. We have the best group & we've all been spending all our time together. Everyone has been excited the whole time so it makes the experience that much better. I don't think I've ever been this happy in my life & I've only been here two days. I can't wait for everything that's going to come. I'll be sure to write again soon because there is just so much that I can't even begin to convey how amazing this experience already is.
I love you all & sorry but I don't miss you (I'm counting that as a good thing though). CIAO!
PS feel free to comment :)
<3 Kalyn
1.07.2010
The Beginning
So today officially begins my journey. I'm all packed up and getting ready to head through the snow storm to O'Hare! My flight leaves tonight (hopefully) at 8:55pm and I arrive finally in Verona at 4:30pm the next day....which is really 9:30am in the States.
Once I'm there I have orientation and settling in throughout the weekend and my first Italian class start Monday morning. :)
Miraculously, I fit everything into 2 exactly 50lb suitcases, an overstuffed carry-on, and the biggest purse you've ever seen (if you can even call it that).
While I'm over there, getting ahold of me will have to be through the Internet. You can skype me if you have it, my skype name is kalyn.lykkebak or email me at klykkeb2@gmail.com I'll have a local phone too so the # is 366-278-6720 so if you're abroad too we can text/call. If I get a plan that lets me call home I'll let you all know!!
I'm so excited for this finally start, it still doesn't seem real I've been planning for so long and now I'm actually going to start living it. I have no idea what to expect despite all of the wonderful advice I've been given already but I'm ready to embrace what's ahead.
And of course I have to end on a cheesy note, or it wouldn't be me would it!? I have the best family and friends anyone could ask for and I am going to miss you all so very much. Thanks for the encouragement and advice and love everyone has given up to this point, it means alot to me. I will do my best to keep you updated on all of the exciting things I'm doing.
I love and miss you all!
Wish me luck :D
<3>
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