well i'm finally home! thanks to lufthansa i almost didn't make it, but after arguing with associates in germany, italy, and switzerland, i managed to get home on the planned day.

i guess that's the end of this blog until next spring! thank you for reading and commenting and staying in touch :)

last weekend in italy!

so yesterday i went to the island of MURANO with sky. you know, the place where they make murano glass. it was incredible! we saw a guy blowing glass, and he made a glass horse in a matter of minutes. every store was prettier than the last, and i saw the most gorgeous glasswork. sky and i made friends with lots of the store owners, because we were (gasp!) americans that could speak wonderful italian! i had a conversation with one store owner in particular who said i had such good italian that i should come to italy to teach! we talked for a while and i told him i was studying in padova and that venice was my favorite city, and when i left he gave me a free keychain. :)
after murano, we went to lido again to relax on the beach for a couple hours. the ocean was a little cold, but hey it was still a venice beach.

i've been studying and reading all day today, because tomorrow is a review day and tuesday i have all my finals! i have two written exams, one oral exam, and one timed essay.

today i also packed up one of my suitcases completely, and have the second about half packed. i have my ride to the airport organized, and am all set to go! i can't believe i only have about four days left here!

more rome pictures:



the spanish steps. can you see me?


not hiding anything


the trevi fountain!


in saint peter's


the altar in saint peter's by bernini. the twisted columns are designed after the columns of solomon's temple




saint clement's

more pictures!

in front of constantine's arch!


good without gluten! you know it!


at the coliseum


candid friends!


better picture of me at the coliseum




constantine's arch


the piazza in front of saint peter's




this used to be one of nero's bathtubs! it's probably full of sketch and evil.

so on tuesday i took laura to saint anthony's basilica, and then we decided to go into venice for dinner (what a hard life i have!). we wandered around the whole city, to saint marks, to the rialto bridge, and pretty much everywhere. every once and a while we'd just look at each other and be like hey, we're having dinner together in venice...what. we talked endlessly about linguistics, which was pretty fantastic. we wandered through a bunch of little deserted side roads and wound up at this really amazing bar/restaurant. we got fusili with pesto and ravioli with ragu, and just sat there for hours. the owner was this young and hip lady who did pretty much everything. it was quite the find, basically. another cool thing: while we had been walking around, we got stopped by two students, one from italy, one from france, who were working on an art project that involved asking us what justice was and taking our picture. very cool.

yesterday laura and i had lunch at cafe pedrocchi, this swanky but not overly expensive place with the greatest ice cream dishes ever. after that we went to the scrovegni chapel, which was full of original frescoes by giotto. it was quite an experience seeing such legendary stuff up close. we had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants with some of the other girls, and then went to a really cool bar that played reggae music so that laura could try some traditional veneto drinks. after we got back to the room we stayed up pretty late talking about Serious Things and that was pretty wonderful.

this morning laura departed for france once again. i just had my very last petrarch class, and in 20 minutes i'll be having my last self expression/grammar class! this weekend will be finishing the italo calvino book and preparing for my two final exams. the petrarch exam has a question and answer (and probably analysis) part as well as a sit down essay, and the grammar exam has a question and answer portion and a 20 minute one on one oral exam. pretty scary!

i'll be home a week from today...

so my friend laura is finally here! yesterday we wandered about and shopped a bit; i got to try on exciting clothes that i could never afford haha. we also went inside the duomo and saint justine's basilica, and i had never been in either before so that was cool. there was quite a bit of trouble talking the hotel staff into letting her live in my room with me, but we figured it out. we had a conversation with one guy at the hotel who spoke to her entirely in french and me entirely in italian, and although most of it was debate, it was still linguistically awesome.

lots of work for class and such, finals are next monday and tuesday.

more updates to come! today i'm taking laura to saint anthony's and venice!

I GOT AN A- ON MY PETRARCH PAPER.
i can't believe it! yay!

in other less earthshaking news, i now have a ride to the airport for my trip back to the US, although it involves staying awake for about 24 hours and doing a lot of nothing for a while.

oh did i mention? A-.

so it's raining and thundering like CRAZY right now. i'm with two friends using the internet at school, and we're not quite sure how we're getting back to the hotel alive.

anywho, i had a pretty cool day. i slept in, then i went to the antiques market that's in il prato della valle the third sunday of every month. it was reeeeally cool. after that i wandered through la piazza del santo where saint anthony's basilica is and got a really awesome prosciutto crudo e mozzarella sandwich. while i was wandering some back roads with my sandwich, a french couple flagged me down and were speaking quickly in french, and then were like "ERBE. ehhh....piazza...ERBE." so i was like oh hey okay i know where that is! they didn't understand english OR italian, so i just spoke to them in italian for practice's sake (and i was hoping it'd be closer to french than english), and was like well i can't really explain how to get there because it's pretty far away, but i'm going in that direction so i'll take you! when we got there they asked if i lived here (i can understand easy french verbs woo), and i said i was studying italian. then they said but you ARE italian and i was like ha no, i'm american! and they were all NO WAY (because that is totally the lexicon of elderly french couples).

italian until proven guilty haha.

last full week of school starts tomorrow! my friend laura is also coming into town tomorrow afternoon, i'm SO excited. ^_^

a couple more rome pictures

the pantheon!




in a courtyard in the vatican museums


at dinner


i just love the statues with birds on their heads, what can i say

petrarch's house!

so yesterday i went to arqua petrarca, a little town where petrarch had lived for the last 14 years of his life. we went to his actual house, which was beautiful! the inside walls were painted with frescoes of scenes from his poetry, and the laurel wreath he received was preserved in a case on the wall. there was also a dead cat preserved in a case in the wall...i'm not really sure what that was about. the inscription was in latin. the house was located in some really stunning hills that were covered in vinyards, flowers, and lovely fields. outside the house were two trees with bright pink and white flowers that reached up into the second floor windows and a small hedge maze. the town itself had lots of steep hills and little shops, but most things were closed when we were there. we got a three course meal at a restaurant afterwards, and i ate prosciutto and melon, potato cakes and tortellini with PEAR in it, and a little cream and berry torte. the melon (cantaloupe) was amazing; if you don't like cantaloupe it's because you haven't had it fresh. the pear in the tortellini made it have a little sweet kick, which was pretty ingenious.

speaking of food, every once and a while i eat at the university cafeteria (called 'mensa'), and i can get a two course meal, bread, unlimited drinks, and dessert for 3.50 euro. it almost makes up for all the other restaurants costing an arm and a leg. today i had spaghetti al pesto and lamb. not your typical cafeteria food!

well...since i'm talking about food already...a couple nights ago i had carpaccio di manzo (extremely thinly sliced beef) served cold over rucola. now THAT was delicious. also, turns out the english translation of rucola is rocket salad? i have NEVER heard of rocket salad before.

i'm working on uploading the rest of the rome pictures, but it isn't working well. the internet is just so slow everywhere here that the connection is constantly resetting during uploads. :(

this weekend i'm staying in padova, and i'll just be doing homework, taking walks, and reading harry potter in italian. oh, and eating a lot.

a domani!

i...love eurodance music. don't tell anyone.

yay italy.

i finished my poetry explication for today, and it was...okay. talking about poetry is just not my strong point, you know? so we shall see how i do. i made a couple good points though and am not a bad writer, so i should be okay.

tomorrow my petrarch class is cancelled since we have a big field trip in the afternoon (to petrarch's house!), so i get to SLEEP IN. what a crazy idea. i'm so excited.

i love my professors!

okay. what we've all been waiting for. pictures!

first a couple from rovigo:

countryside




mediterranean climate and totally abbandoned


ha.

and now, ROME. photobucket won't let me upload half of them so i'll have more to show when i come home.


all the popes






me in front of st. peter's


me and danielle :) isn't she pretty?


st. peter's basilica!




heavenly!






the guards!

more later, time to make a phone call!

rome continued

i forgot to add yesterday, before the coliseum i had the BEST gnocchi i've had in italy (and i've had rather a lot). it was gnocchi al pesto. i actually think i like the food farther south in italy.

anyway, continuing! after the coliseum, danielle and i had the brilliant idea of going back to the hostel for a nap. we met some of our other roommates, who were from mexico, canada, and bethesda MD! hostels are a great way of meeting people all over the world, it turns out. we also met a guy who lives in singapore and studies at tufts. we took some time to sleep and shower, and then around 9, yes NINE PM, we met our friend luca and some of his friends for dinner. i can't believe how late people eat here. how do they make it so long after lunch?! we had a great dinner though. we all got un primo piatto (gnocchi al ragu), un secondo piatto (peperoni e pollo), and a dessert, which was some sort of delicious cream with strawberries. on top of that we got water, wine, amaro, and soda, and we only had to pay 15euro each for everything. it was a family owned restaurant. after that we went to a club called "mood" where luca's friend was throwing a party. it was a small club and there weren't too many people there, so we got to dance and hang out and talk. the music was fortunately a little more up to date than the other places i've gone to haha.

on sunday, the other girls left early and allegra and i went to a mass at the vatican. we were actually in the seats right up near the altar inside st. peter's, with the vatican's clergy giving mass. oh. my. goodness. there was an amazing choir too. i could hardly understand any of the mass, being in stylized italian, and parts of it were even in latin. but i knew what was supposedly being said at any point, knowing a catholic mass backwards and forwards. after that, allegra and i hit the spanish steps and the trevi fountain, which were both pretty packed for a sunday afternoon. then we went to the church of saint clement, which was AMAZING. the entryway is 12th century and the ceiling inside is 13th century, and then you can go down some steps into the 9th century church, then 8th, then 3rd (not positive about the numbers, but it goes way back to 3rd or 4th century)...it was really incredible walking down through history and seeing the ancient rooms and altars and everything. unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but it would have been too dark to take them anyway. after that we hopped on a train and came back to padova! we were both exhausted and slept for most of the train ride, and when i got back to the hotel i went to bed early. and that was rome!

so in italy it's impossible to predict when stores will be open or closed. in theory markets are open from around 7:30am to 4:30pm during the week, but if it's too hot or not busy enough people will pack up and go home early. on top of that, EVERYbody takes lunch breaks for a couple hours in the middle of the day, and the stores are all closed (except for restaurants of course). restaurants are closed one arbitrary day a week. on sunday the city is ABANDONED. i'm finally starting to get the hang of it. church bells also ring at arbitrary times during the day.

today i'll be working on my paper for my petrarch class, and hopefully i'll be going to the gym! i've got some gelato to work off. :P

roma, the eternal city

soooo i went to rome this weekend! :D i'm still pretty exhausted from the trip, but i'll do my best to summarize.

we left early friday morning, and when we got to rome we went right to our hostel to check in. it was simply called "yellow". the downstairs was awesome: cool people, cool decor, a bar. however, the rooms themselves were a little questionable. they weren't horrible, just a little barren, dark and dusty. ah well. after dropping off our stuff, we went to the vatican and saw saint peter's basilica! WOW. there are no words for beauty on that kind of scale. there was also some serious art in there, like works of raphael almost close enough to touch. after the vatican, we saw the pantheon and then went to dinner for allegra's birthday. the food was the best that anyone in the group had had in italy! after that we went to a cafe with supposedly legendary coffee. it was certainly delicious! after that, some of the girls went back to the hostel, but danielle, sky and i went to il campo dei fiori to hang out.

saturday morning i went to the vatican again with danielle, this time to check out the museums. while we were contemplating the massive line to get in, a guy named luca came up to us and said if we bought a guided tour we could skip the line and just go right in. i wanted a guided tour anyway, so i was definitely willing to pay extra and skip the line. we ended up talking to him for a little bit, and then he told us that he was throwing a party at a club with one of his friends that night and that we should come, so we exchanged phone numbers. after that we went to the coliseum, which was massive and incredible. i can't believe how intact it still is!

i'm exhausted so i think i'll stop there, but the saga continues tomorrow afternoon!

for now, i've got to write a three page explication paper about a petrarch sonnet. in italian. woo.

books!

oh man oh man oh man.

i went to an internet cafe the other day (which was quite nifty to begin with) that had a shelf with FREE BOOKS on it.

not only do i love books, but i love italian as well, and they were offering me the delectable combination of the two!

i ended up with a comic book (diabolik), a couple teenage girl love story books, stranger to the ground by richard bach (i LOVE richard bach), and some other fiction books that seemed interesting.

fotografie!

venezia:

lone gondola guy






friendly pidgeons...


there is a lot of political grafitti here, discussing not only bush, but communism, fascism, etc.










gondolas under il ponte dei sospiri (the bridge of sighs)!


you know what's fun? ATTRACTING PIDGEONS


the twin astrological clock to the one here in padova


saint mark's basilica!


pidgeons cuddling up to art








the discoteca i went to


somebody's fruit and vegetable stand ON A BOAT




here there is always a little wind
for all the hours of every season
a puff at least a breath
for all the years i've been living here
and day after day i write
my name on the wind
(my liberal translation)


the glass bridge




the beloved train station, venezia santa lucia






look it's me! in this photo i'm waiting for my dinner at a restaurant



other non-venice photos:

GASP. UNLUCKY. and very affectionate.


il prato della valle


saint justine's? i think?


saint anthony with the baby jesus


how undignified haha


there will be a second installation of photos tomorrow!

also, the hotel does our laundry for us, and the iron EVERYthing. even underwear. it's pretty awesome.