Sorry for the lapse in time, life has just been crazy here. But it is all about to get a lot better. I just finished my last midterm, 5 in two days is no fun. Ironically the easiest ones were in Italian. I've been studying like mad for all of them and I think it paid off. All of them went well and I was more than prepaired. It feels so good to be done with all of them. And now FALL BREAK BEGINS!! I have no work over the break, and will be playing in England and Spain for 10 days!!!!
I leave tomarrow morning on my adventure. 5 am heading to the bus shuttle thing and make my way to the airport. Then a flight and some trains, taking me to Brighton/Sussex, England and Melissa. I'm gonna spend time with her for 4 days arround Sussex and London. Then I'm heading to Oxoford for 2 days to hangout with Hilary and Maxwell. And see how they celebrate Halloween in England. My favorite part is comming up next, flying into Spain and figuring out how to get from the Madrid airport to Iri's apartment. Personally I think it will be fine, but it may also turn into a hillarious scene from a girly comedy, where I get lost in Madrid. But hopefully I'll meet Fernando Torres and live a happy spanish life. In reality I'll get to Iri fine, and spend 4 days with her and Kayla. This is going to be the best brake ever!!
I'll be taking lots of photos and make a huge blog entry after it is all over. I hope all is well with you all back in the states, and that all my california kids are safe from the fire. Yeah it made the news over here. You can immagine my reaction, having to hear about it on the Italian news. Rough but still accuarate translation, "California is in flames!" The news is sensational everywhere. Ridic.
Alla prossima.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Carnia Campania
So this week was quite a doozie full of a lot of firsts for a lot of us.
The previous week, leading up to this past Wednesday was spent preparing for my oral history presentation. Sounds ordinary but it was far from it. First off, I was feeling a bit of pressure because this is really the only class that matters/counts for my major and I want to do really well in it. Secondly, I was in the first group to present. Luckily, I had two amazing partners (Kelsey and Kate) who made this project far better. Most importantly, this presentation was worth 25% of my final grade in the class. And it’s me, so we all know I was just ridiculous about it. Main point of the story is that it went amazing! We rocked ‘The Diabolical Sect’ and our proff gave us lots of positive feed back, which is always a good sign. I really loved standing up in front of the class, lecturing about the week’s reading and leading discussion. It was a good sign that I would enjoy being a university professor, but I’d prefer a much smaller class (got to love those small liberal arts colleges, lol). It went well and I am glad it’s over with.
This entry is mainly about the weekend and all of the spontaneous/semi-adventurous things I did. So on Friday, Evie, Sarah, and I headed out for Campania. The trip started out quite nice, seeing as how our train was a Eurostar (you don’t get much better than that, well other than first class seating on said train). The ride down was really relaxing and we arrive in Napoli before we knew it. And here begins the interesting parts of the trip. So we really didn’t know where to go once we got off the train. The plan was to go to Pompeii, but we were not entirely sure how to get there from our platform. Time to put my “intermediate Italian” to the test. So I went up to the info desk and had a chat with the lady there and she gave us a great deal on a weekend pass and told us what line to take to get to Pompeii. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, speaking or trying to speak the native language of a country gets you so much farther than not trying at all. From the train station we caught the right line and headed out to Pompeii on the intercity train. I’m just going to come out and say it: Napoli (Naples) is the ugliest, most sketchy place I have been to yet. All of the trains/metro have graffiti on them and it’s just not the best place to be if your female, don’t speak Italian, or are a tourist. That being said, we sucked it up and got on the sketchy train towards Pompeii, while making our best ‘we’re hardcore, we speak Italian, so don’t try anything on us’ faces. But honestly, there were three of us, my Italian is getting really good, and we’re not stupid people/we are aware of our surroundings so there really weren’t any problems. Plus I was wearing my trusty Rick Steves hidden money pouch, so they didn’t have a chance at getting anything from me.
We arrived at Pompeii, had delicious thick crust pizza for lunch, and then went in to explore the city. It was amazing!! My inner (who am I kidding?), My Outer History Nerd was in heaven!! The experience is still so surreal to me. First of all, it’s a lot bigger than you would expect, and once you start walking around you find it hard to believe you’re there. It took me a good amount of time to realize I was not on a movie set, and that I was walking around a city that was bustling all the way back when (well up until 79 AD when the eruption happened). I saw their Temple of Apollo, the Basilica, the Forum, the Forum Baths, their Temple of Jupiter, the Villa of Mysteries, the Great Theater, the Small Theater, the House with Venus in the Shell, and the Amphitheater. It was just crazy awesome. While walking around you would just look up and see Mt. Vesuvius just chilling in the background. I saw this a wondered what the inhabitants of Pompeii saw when they lived here. The mood would grow somber whenever we would come upon one of the preserved bodies, and it made you remember what had to happen here for this site to be so well preserved and subsequently famous. But then to liven the mood, we pretended to be gladiators in the big amphitheater and took funny photos. After our long day of walking around and marveling at Pompeii we got back on the sketchy metro and headed out for our hotel, which was in Sorrento.
Sorrento is a beautiful little seaside town that is so welcoming. We also had the best luck in the world, in that we got off the metro and walked into the nearest hotel to ask for direction to our hotel. And then we realized that the hotel we had chosen to ask for directions was really the hotel we were looking for. Great luck! It had a great view of the water and Mt. Vesuvius was framed perfectly by it. Once we had settled in, we went out into the town and had dinner at a great little place overlooking the sea. The food was so yummy, and we got to try the world famous Limoncello. I was super excited to try it, and let me just tell you it’s so gross! Granted I am not a fan of alcohol, but other agrees with me that it tastes like a combo of to sweet lemon drops and rubbing alcohol. But now I can say I have tried it (and for free I might add).
On Saturday we headed out with a fairly open agenda, main point was to explore the Amalfi Cost. I can now say that I have seen the most beautiful coastline and I appreciate it because of the trials it took to get there. Our original plan was to go to Capri, but we decided that we were too cheep to pay the overpriced tickets for the boat ride out there. So we walked around the main part of Sorrento and then decided to use our passes and take the bus along the Amalfi Cost. Here’s something I didn’t know about the cost: it’s super windy, and steep along the cliffs, and you get from place to place on these giant tour buses that sway back and forth. Needless to say, it took a lot of effort for me to take some of the photos that I did, so do look at them and enjoy them. The first city that we visited was Positano. It was really great to walk up and down the streets, and to get off of that nauseating/frightening bus. It’s definitely a beautiful place, with cute little shops that you can drop into. I loved this one little dress shop, and all they had were these lightweight, white stitched dresses and skirts. I wished I looked good in white, and had more euros to spend.
From Positano, we headed back on the buses towards Amalfi. There was a great church with a lot of gold lief and that we walked around, and more cute little shops, a lot of which sold little bottles of Limoncello (eew). We bought some delish gelato and headed out to the pier to sit along the ocean and eat it. I know, this is the life. Right after we finished our gelato, the weather decided to get a bit harsh and start raining. So we caught the bus and headed on a long ride back to Sorrento. As we were driving the rain just got harder and then the thunder and lightening started. Guys it was seriously frightening: the lightening almost lit up the whole sky meanwhile were on a big bus on a small windy road below which is the ocean! Yeah, that’s what I thought. But we made it back to Sorrento and headed to this restaurant for dinner. We decided to go there cause they had two huge tvs and we wanted to watch the big game on tv with the locals: Napoli v. Inter. So we start eating and watching the game, but it’s storming so bad outside that the power goes out. Needless to say there are some pretty upset people in the restaurant. After a short while the power comes on, but the tv is not working. So the owner puts the radio on so we can listen to the game. Some more time passes and then the tv finally works, so we can finally watch the game. I’m going to be honest, I could barely tell what was going on while listening to the game on the radio. Napoli ended up loosing 1-2 to Inter. It was exciting to see, and I now know what a dangerous team Inter is. You should seriously never take your eyes off of them, I did for a second and they made a goal. Even though they lost, it was a good experience to sit around with the locals and cheer on their team (we were definitely the only Americans in the place and 3 of the 6 girls there).
Sunday was very restful. We checked out of the hotel and made our way back to Napoli. The good thing about the rain was that it cleared out the sky, giving us great views of the bay in the morning. Once we made it back to Napoli we decided to visit the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (I’m sure you can figure it out from the title). In the museum they had such a huge range of works that it was hard to see everything. I was happy with what we were able to see in the few hours that we were there. My two favorites would have to be the mosaic of Alexander’s troops fighting Darius’s troops. It was epic huge and it just took my breath away. I also liked the copy of the Doryphorus (only copies remain, the real was has long been destroyed) who just makes every other statues and person look so out of shape. Seriously, no one looks like him, but that’s why the style he’s in is called Idealized. The rest of the exhibits were also fascinating, but we did have a train to catch to get back to Florence, so there wasn’t much more time to see the rest. We then headed back to the station and made our way back onto what I hope is the last of my sketchy train rides. But it wouldn’t have been a true trip to Napoli if someone did not try to jack our stuff. Basically there was this guy behind me (and his friend apparently tried to do the same thing to Sarah) and I felt my backpack get tugged/moved a bit. And I instantly went oh no, he is not trying to get my stuff! Well first off all he’s an idiot and all he would get would be my dirty clothes and the most expensive thing in my backpack is my history course reader (cause as I said earlier all my valuables were in the front of me). So I recognize what he’s trying to do and I swing myself around and he subsequently gets hit with my backpack rather hard and he then proceeds to run away. My only regret is that I did not hit him harder! Needless to say we were even more cautious after that. But the ride to the train station was fine, and then Eurostar ride home from there couldn’t have been more relaxing. It was a very memorable and exciting weekend. These next few weeks will be more low key, seeing as how I have to start studying for midterms (boo). But as soon as those are over: FALL BREAK = ENGLAND AND SPAIN!! I’m not going to be having many more big weekend trips until then. I’m going off to Rome for a daylong site visit with my art history which should be fun and educational. Alla prossima.
The previous week, leading up to this past Wednesday was spent preparing for my oral history presentation. Sounds ordinary but it was far from it. First off, I was feeling a bit of pressure because this is really the only class that matters/counts for my major and I want to do really well in it. Secondly, I was in the first group to present. Luckily, I had two amazing partners (Kelsey and Kate) who made this project far better. Most importantly, this presentation was worth 25% of my final grade in the class. And it’s me, so we all know I was just ridiculous about it. Main point of the story is that it went amazing! We rocked ‘The Diabolical Sect’ and our proff gave us lots of positive feed back, which is always a good sign. I really loved standing up in front of the class, lecturing about the week’s reading and leading discussion. It was a good sign that I would enjoy being a university professor, but I’d prefer a much smaller class (got to love those small liberal arts colleges, lol). It went well and I am glad it’s over with.
This entry is mainly about the weekend and all of the spontaneous/semi-adventurous things I did. So on Friday, Evie, Sarah, and I headed out for Campania. The trip started out quite nice, seeing as how our train was a Eurostar (you don’t get much better than that, well other than first class seating on said train). The ride down was really relaxing and we arrive in Napoli before we knew it. And here begins the interesting parts of the trip. So we really didn’t know where to go once we got off the train. The plan was to go to Pompeii, but we were not entirely sure how to get there from our platform. Time to put my “intermediate Italian” to the test. So I went up to the info desk and had a chat with the lady there and she gave us a great deal on a weekend pass and told us what line to take to get to Pompeii. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, speaking or trying to speak the native language of a country gets you so much farther than not trying at all. From the train station we caught the right line and headed out to Pompeii on the intercity train. I’m just going to come out and say it: Napoli (Naples) is the ugliest, most sketchy place I have been to yet. All of the trains/metro have graffiti on them and it’s just not the best place to be if your female, don’t speak Italian, or are a tourist. That being said, we sucked it up and got on the sketchy train towards Pompeii, while making our best ‘we’re hardcore, we speak Italian, so don’t try anything on us’ faces. But honestly, there were three of us, my Italian is getting really good, and we’re not stupid people/we are aware of our surroundings so there really weren’t any problems. Plus I was wearing my trusty Rick Steves hidden money pouch, so they didn’t have a chance at getting anything from me.
We arrived at Pompeii, had delicious thick crust pizza for lunch, and then went in to explore the city. It was amazing!! My inner (who am I kidding?), My Outer History Nerd was in heaven!! The experience is still so surreal to me. First of all, it’s a lot bigger than you would expect, and once you start walking around you find it hard to believe you’re there. It took me a good amount of time to realize I was not on a movie set, and that I was walking around a city that was bustling all the way back when (well up until 79 AD when the eruption happened). I saw their Temple of Apollo, the Basilica, the Forum, the Forum Baths, their Temple of Jupiter, the Villa of Mysteries, the Great Theater, the Small Theater, the House with Venus in the Shell, and the Amphitheater. It was just crazy awesome. While walking around you would just look up and see Mt. Vesuvius just chilling in the background. I saw this a wondered what the inhabitants of Pompeii saw when they lived here. The mood would grow somber whenever we would come upon one of the preserved bodies, and it made you remember what had to happen here for this site to be so well preserved and subsequently famous. But then to liven the mood, we pretended to be gladiators in the big amphitheater and took funny photos. After our long day of walking around and marveling at Pompeii we got back on the sketchy metro and headed out for our hotel, which was in Sorrento.
Sorrento is a beautiful little seaside town that is so welcoming. We also had the best luck in the world, in that we got off the metro and walked into the nearest hotel to ask for direction to our hotel. And then we realized that the hotel we had chosen to ask for directions was really the hotel we were looking for. Great luck! It had a great view of the water and Mt. Vesuvius was framed perfectly by it. Once we had settled in, we went out into the town and had dinner at a great little place overlooking the sea. The food was so yummy, and we got to try the world famous Limoncello. I was super excited to try it, and let me just tell you it’s so gross! Granted I am not a fan of alcohol, but other agrees with me that it tastes like a combo of to sweet lemon drops and rubbing alcohol. But now I can say I have tried it (and for free I might add).
On Saturday we headed out with a fairly open agenda, main point was to explore the Amalfi Cost. I can now say that I have seen the most beautiful coastline and I appreciate it because of the trials it took to get there. Our original plan was to go to Capri, but we decided that we were too cheep to pay the overpriced tickets for the boat ride out there. So we walked around the main part of Sorrento and then decided to use our passes and take the bus along the Amalfi Cost. Here’s something I didn’t know about the cost: it’s super windy, and steep along the cliffs, and you get from place to place on these giant tour buses that sway back and forth. Needless to say, it took a lot of effort for me to take some of the photos that I did, so do look at them and enjoy them. The first city that we visited was Positano. It was really great to walk up and down the streets, and to get off of that nauseating/frightening bus. It’s definitely a beautiful place, with cute little shops that you can drop into. I loved this one little dress shop, and all they had were these lightweight, white stitched dresses and skirts. I wished I looked good in white, and had more euros to spend.
From Positano, we headed back on the buses towards Amalfi. There was a great church with a lot of gold lief and that we walked around, and more cute little shops, a lot of which sold little bottles of Limoncello (eew). We bought some delish gelato and headed out to the pier to sit along the ocean and eat it. I know, this is the life. Right after we finished our gelato, the weather decided to get a bit harsh and start raining. So we caught the bus and headed on a long ride back to Sorrento. As we were driving the rain just got harder and then the thunder and lightening started. Guys it was seriously frightening: the lightening almost lit up the whole sky meanwhile were on a big bus on a small windy road below which is the ocean! Yeah, that’s what I thought. But we made it back to Sorrento and headed to this restaurant for dinner. We decided to go there cause they had two huge tvs and we wanted to watch the big game on tv with the locals: Napoli v. Inter. So we start eating and watching the game, but it’s storming so bad outside that the power goes out. Needless to say there are some pretty upset people in the restaurant. After a short while the power comes on, but the tv is not working. So the owner puts the radio on so we can listen to the game. Some more time passes and then the tv finally works, so we can finally watch the game. I’m going to be honest, I could barely tell what was going on while listening to the game on the radio. Napoli ended up loosing 1-2 to Inter. It was exciting to see, and I now know what a dangerous team Inter is. You should seriously never take your eyes off of them, I did for a second and they made a goal. Even though they lost, it was a good experience to sit around with the locals and cheer on their team (we were definitely the only Americans in the place and 3 of the 6 girls there).
Sunday was very restful. We checked out of the hotel and made our way back to Napoli. The good thing about the rain was that it cleared out the sky, giving us great views of the bay in the morning. Once we made it back to Napoli we decided to visit the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (I’m sure you can figure it out from the title). In the museum they had such a huge range of works that it was hard to see everything. I was happy with what we were able to see in the few hours that we were there. My two favorites would have to be the mosaic of Alexander’s troops fighting Darius’s troops. It was epic huge and it just took my breath away. I also liked the copy of the Doryphorus (only copies remain, the real was has long been destroyed) who just makes every other statues and person look so out of shape. Seriously, no one looks like him, but that’s why the style he’s in is called Idealized. The rest of the exhibits were also fascinating, but we did have a train to catch to get back to Florence, so there wasn’t much more time to see the rest. We then headed back to the station and made our way back onto what I hope is the last of my sketchy train rides. But it wouldn’t have been a true trip to Napoli if someone did not try to jack our stuff. Basically there was this guy behind me (and his friend apparently tried to do the same thing to Sarah) and I felt my backpack get tugged/moved a bit. And I instantly went oh no, he is not trying to get my stuff! Well first off all he’s an idiot and all he would get would be my dirty clothes and the most expensive thing in my backpack is my history course reader (cause as I said earlier all my valuables were in the front of me). So I recognize what he’s trying to do and I swing myself around and he subsequently gets hit with my backpack rather hard and he then proceeds to run away. My only regret is that I did not hit him harder! Needless to say we were even more cautious after that. But the ride to the train station was fine, and then Eurostar ride home from there couldn’t have been more relaxing. It was a very memorable and exciting weekend. These next few weeks will be more low key, seeing as how I have to start studying for midterms (boo). But as soon as those are over: FALL BREAK = ENGLAND AND SPAIN!! I’m not going to be having many more big weekend trips until then. I’m going off to Rome for a daylong site visit with my art history which should be fun and educational. Alla prossima.
Monday, October 1, 2007
A Week of Not Quite What I Expected
It’s funny how things turn out sometimes. After weeks of amazing-ness, I finally had a week that was not what I expected it to be. I’m not saying it was bad, it was in it’s own way a good week. It just didn’t turn out quite as I had planned: and we know how I do love my plans ;)
So, first of all I was caught off guard on how quickly the weather can change around here. It went from being super hot, to nice and cool to drenched in rain, to cold, to pleasant again all in seven days! Needless to say, I was not quite as prepared as I thought I was. Being the naïve Californian I am, I thought some jackets, tennis shoes, and an umbrella would suffice. Oh no. I have now learned that you must hike up the bottoms of your pants because jeans absorb water like no other, and that the older stone roads here are deceiving in that you think the water on top of them is shallow and then you end up with a lake in your shoes. Well I asked my host mom where I could so some shopping for this kind of ridiculous weather clothes, and I have subsequently bought a cute ‘sportivo’ brown jacket (with soft and warm goose down inside) and the water just rolls right off of it. I also got a cute pair of black suede scrunch boots, which I have waterproofed, and am quite sure will hold up in the rain (they passed the cold test). I still need to do some more shopping for more sweaters and jackets, which is really making me miss California.
But before I was able to purchase these lovely new clothes, I learned the hard way that I was in need of them. But the experience that I went through to figure it out was well worth it. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Marisa went to her first professional European soccer game. We call it calcio in Italy and it is a way of life over here! On Wednesday night, the night the weather decided to change, I and half of the kids studying abroad here, went to the Fiorentina v. Roma game. Well we were all sitting, and by sitting I mean standing cause you don’t sit at the games here (apparently you can’t insult the other teams as well when you’re sitting, funny I know), in the curva with all the crazy guys (and I do mean loud soccer loving Italians men waving scarves and shouting obscenities at the Roma fans). Also, the opposing team’s fans have to sit in this caged off seating, so as to avoid riots. There actually was a riot that broke out the week before our game, but I think it was up in Milan (not surprising). We had pretty good seats and could see all of the action. I was able to follow along with most of the game, seeing as how I don’t know what the ref’s signals mean I usually wait for the announcement, but they said it in Italian, and my Italian sports vocabulary is not that great. But one can figure it out based on the crowd’s reactions, so I ‘booed’ when they did and cheered in the same fashion. It was a crazy intense game, back and forth between the two sides. Rome scored first, but then we scored, and I have never seen so many people jump and scream at once. Oh and did I mention amongst all of this excitement, it’s switching between moments of light drizzle and POURING RAIN?!! Yeah, throw that into the mix. But back to the game, so we’re now mocking the Rome team (I have never cursed so much in my life) and their songs are like half swears. I did learn one of the main Fiorentina songs, and my favorite jeer of the night would have to be the one that sounded like it came from a White Stripes song (dun-dun-dun-dun, etc.) and went “Giallo Rosso Bastardo.” And that was one of the tamer songs. There was another one that had some gestures that was sung after Rome made their second goal, and I don’t think I can write the lyrics on here. So we’re now down one-two and we’re getting close to the end of the game. And the closer we get the more scared I am of a riot breaking out. But then the rain lightens up, and the GOAL!! Mutu gets the equalizer and the entire stadium goes crazy!!!! There was jumping, screaming, hugging of strangers. Oh Mutu, how we love you! (Plus the guy’s pretty attractive, in addition to being one of their best scorers. But he’s got nothing on Torres.) The game finally ends, in a tie of two-two and people are good. There was a small incident after the final goal by the Rome cage but it was broken up quite quickly, so no worries. Despite, the rain, it was such a great experience to be united with so many people and cheering on your team. Soccer really needs to get more popular in the US. I really would like to go to another game before this semester is over. Moral of the story: mi piace calcio, non mi piace la pioggia.
The weather lightened up later in the week, after I bought my new cold weather clothes. On Saturday, I went with my school on a trip to Ravenna. Ravenna is the place to go to see Byzantine art and their lovely mosaics. So we saw a lot of churches, with a lot of mosaics, depicting a mix between Roman and Christina traditions. Their churches are decorated to the detail! Then we saw Dante’s tomb (a point of tension between the Florence and Ravenna because Florence wanted Dante’s body because he’s from Florence, but because Florence drove him out for a while and he wrote some of his most famous work in Ravenna, Ravenna decided to keep him. The Pope had to get involved and now there are two tombs to Dante, but Dante is buried in Ravenna. End of ridic story).
Then on Sunday, I participated in Corri La Vita. It’s a 12K competitive run and a 6K noncompetitive walk to raise money and find a cure for breast cancer. This is a huge event in Florence and literally thousands of people participate in it. The shirts are designed each year by a certain high fashion designer (meaning the just sign their name on a generic shirt) and this year it was all about Ferragamo. Well, I finally got there and started the 6K, planning on walking and running it, off and on, but I wasn’t able to, seeing as all of those thousands of people were walking the 6K in front of me. It started out very slow, trying to get some space and there really wasn’t any place to run. We went in and out of private residences and gardens, all throughout the city on both sides of the Arno. It was a nice walk, but it just took way too much time to do it in. I would have much rather run the 12K at slow pace than have shuffled along the 6K like I did. But I did get to see some great views from climbing up the hills outside the city. It was good, but just not what I expected it to be.
School is moving along nicely. I have some presentations coming up this week in Italian and History of Witchcraft (the history one is 25% of my final grade-no pressure). But I really don’t foresee the work getting too difficult. I’m really more excited about the upcoming trips: this coming weekend I’m going to Pompeii and the following weekend is a day trip to Rome. But I’ll be going back to Rome for another two-day trip after midterms. Plus they’re also Fall Break trip to England and Spain to look forward to!!
I just realized that I have been in Italy for a month now. I hadn’t really registered that fact but it does not surprise me. I feel like I have adjusted nicely and am fitting in here: I can go back and forth between Italian and English with less trouble, I’m using public transportation and walking a lot, I now own boots, and tourists annoy me but I am excited when they ask me in their horrible Italian if I know how to get somewhere and then I help them out in English (it feels great). Personally I don’t think I look Italian at all nor does my full name sound it, but I have been asked many times if I am an international student from Spain because I can speak Italian but I don’t look it. Ah romance languages. I guess that’s all for now. Alla prossima.
So, first of all I was caught off guard on how quickly the weather can change around here. It went from being super hot, to nice and cool to drenched in rain, to cold, to pleasant again all in seven days! Needless to say, I was not quite as prepared as I thought I was. Being the naïve Californian I am, I thought some jackets, tennis shoes, and an umbrella would suffice. Oh no. I have now learned that you must hike up the bottoms of your pants because jeans absorb water like no other, and that the older stone roads here are deceiving in that you think the water on top of them is shallow and then you end up with a lake in your shoes. Well I asked my host mom where I could so some shopping for this kind of ridiculous weather clothes, and I have subsequently bought a cute ‘sportivo’ brown jacket (with soft and warm goose down inside) and the water just rolls right off of it. I also got a cute pair of black suede scrunch boots, which I have waterproofed, and am quite sure will hold up in the rain (they passed the cold test). I still need to do some more shopping for more sweaters and jackets, which is really making me miss California.
But before I was able to purchase these lovely new clothes, I learned the hard way that I was in need of them. But the experience that I went through to figure it out was well worth it. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Marisa went to her first professional European soccer game. We call it calcio in Italy and it is a way of life over here! On Wednesday night, the night the weather decided to change, I and half of the kids studying abroad here, went to the Fiorentina v. Roma game. Well we were all sitting, and by sitting I mean standing cause you don’t sit at the games here (apparently you can’t insult the other teams as well when you’re sitting, funny I know), in the curva with all the crazy guys (and I do mean loud soccer loving Italians men waving scarves and shouting obscenities at the Roma fans). Also, the opposing team’s fans have to sit in this caged off seating, so as to avoid riots. There actually was a riot that broke out the week before our game, but I think it was up in Milan (not surprising). We had pretty good seats and could see all of the action. I was able to follow along with most of the game, seeing as how I don’t know what the ref’s signals mean I usually wait for the announcement, but they said it in Italian, and my Italian sports vocabulary is not that great. But one can figure it out based on the crowd’s reactions, so I ‘booed’ when they did and cheered in the same fashion. It was a crazy intense game, back and forth between the two sides. Rome scored first, but then we scored, and I have never seen so many people jump and scream at once. Oh and did I mention amongst all of this excitement, it’s switching between moments of light drizzle and POURING RAIN?!! Yeah, throw that into the mix. But back to the game, so we’re now mocking the Rome team (I have never cursed so much in my life) and their songs are like half swears. I did learn one of the main Fiorentina songs, and my favorite jeer of the night would have to be the one that sounded like it came from a White Stripes song (dun-dun-dun-dun, etc.) and went “Giallo Rosso Bastardo.” And that was one of the tamer songs. There was another one that had some gestures that was sung after Rome made their second goal, and I don’t think I can write the lyrics on here. So we’re now down one-two and we’re getting close to the end of the game. And the closer we get the more scared I am of a riot breaking out. But then the rain lightens up, and the GOAL!! Mutu gets the equalizer and the entire stadium goes crazy!!!! There was jumping, screaming, hugging of strangers. Oh Mutu, how we love you! (Plus the guy’s pretty attractive, in addition to being one of their best scorers. But he’s got nothing on Torres.) The game finally ends, in a tie of two-two and people are good. There was a small incident after the final goal by the Rome cage but it was broken up quite quickly, so no worries. Despite, the rain, it was such a great experience to be united with so many people and cheering on your team. Soccer really needs to get more popular in the US. I really would like to go to another game before this semester is over. Moral of the story: mi piace calcio, non mi piace la pioggia.
The weather lightened up later in the week, after I bought my new cold weather clothes. On Saturday, I went with my school on a trip to Ravenna. Ravenna is the place to go to see Byzantine art and their lovely mosaics. So we saw a lot of churches, with a lot of mosaics, depicting a mix between Roman and Christina traditions. Their churches are decorated to the detail! Then we saw Dante’s tomb (a point of tension between the Florence and Ravenna because Florence wanted Dante’s body because he’s from Florence, but because Florence drove him out for a while and he wrote some of his most famous work in Ravenna, Ravenna decided to keep him. The Pope had to get involved and now there are two tombs to Dante, but Dante is buried in Ravenna. End of ridic story).
Then on Sunday, I participated in Corri La Vita. It’s a 12K competitive run and a 6K noncompetitive walk to raise money and find a cure for breast cancer. This is a huge event in Florence and literally thousands of people participate in it. The shirts are designed each year by a certain high fashion designer (meaning the just sign their name on a generic shirt) and this year it was all about Ferragamo. Well, I finally got there and started the 6K, planning on walking and running it, off and on, but I wasn’t able to, seeing as all of those thousands of people were walking the 6K in front of me. It started out very slow, trying to get some space and there really wasn’t any place to run. We went in and out of private residences and gardens, all throughout the city on both sides of the Arno. It was a nice walk, but it just took way too much time to do it in. I would have much rather run the 12K at slow pace than have shuffled along the 6K like I did. But I did get to see some great views from climbing up the hills outside the city. It was good, but just not what I expected it to be.
School is moving along nicely. I have some presentations coming up this week in Italian and History of Witchcraft (the history one is 25% of my final grade-no pressure). But I really don’t foresee the work getting too difficult. I’m really more excited about the upcoming trips: this coming weekend I’m going to Pompeii and the following weekend is a day trip to Rome. But I’ll be going back to Rome for another two-day trip after midterms. Plus they’re also Fall Break trip to England and Spain to look forward to!!
I just realized that I have been in Italy for a month now. I hadn’t really registered that fact but it does not surprise me. I feel like I have adjusted nicely and am fitting in here: I can go back and forth between Italian and English with less trouble, I’m using public transportation and walking a lot, I now own boots, and tourists annoy me but I am excited when they ask me in their horrible Italian if I know how to get somewhere and then I help them out in English (it feels great). Personally I don’t think I look Italian at all nor does my full name sound it, but I have been asked many times if I am an international student from Spain because I can speak Italian but I don’t look it. Ah romance languages. I guess that’s all for now. Alla prossima.
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