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
1.26.2010
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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