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