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
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