okay so weirdest things first. while i was walking around piazza maggiore, i saw two guys wheeling a fridge down the sidewalk. that was weird by itself. then one guy stopped to take a picture of the other guy wheeling said fridge, then they saw me and insisted i be in the picture as well. that's...totally a normal thing to happen...
today i did touristy things.
first i climbed the taller of the two slanted towers (tower asinelli) in the center of the city. there's a superstition that if you climb it while you're still in school you won't graduate, but i boldly climbed those hundreds of steps anyway. it was worth it too; the view was INCREDIBLE. i could see the whole city and the mountains beyond it! today was a little bit foggy which made the view more mystical as well. i took pictures, so sooner or later you guys will see what i'm talking about. the tower asinelli is 97 meters high, and the other one, the garisenda tower, is 48 meters high i think. the garisenda tower is theoretically more slanted than the tower of pisa!
i went into saint petronius' basilica, and i actually wasn't that impressed. i think it was too hyped up for me, because all the texts i've read were like, they stopped construction so it wouldn't be more amazing than saint peter's at the vatican! it was enormous but pretty plain inside. i use the word "plain" relatively though, because it's not entirely a word than can be used to describe any basilica ever. it was nowhere near the excellence that is saint peter's, so i guess mission accomplished?
i lit candles for everybody in the family.
the last touristy place i went to this afternoon was the archaeologic museum, which was neat. also free.
i've gone up and down about a million steps today, and now i'm crazy exhausted. i don't know what i'm going to do tonight yet, but hopefully it involves copious amounts of sitting.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
running!
today i took a long walk to the margherita gardens to try and run a little there, and it was AMAZING. it was beautiful, for starters, despite all the trees being leafless and such. there were runners EVERYwhere and i saw two kids playing disc on rollerblades, which i really want to try now. i brought a disc with me, but alas, no rollerblades. there were lots of people with beautiful dogs walking around. it was a really nice day today. i think the rain may finally be taking a break.
all the runners in the gardens had the most fashionable running pants and jackets, just like maureen told me they would. i wandered into an "athlete's world" store this evening to see if i could find anything nice and affordable, and had been completely deceived by the name of the store because they didn't sell anything that appeared even remotely athletic even for italian standards (it was pretty common for guys to wear polo shirts to the gym in padova). ah well, i know there's a nike store around here somewhere which may actually have sportswear.
if tomorrow's nice i'm going to try and go visit some of the bologna tourist hotspots, if they're open that is. a surprising number of things are closed til march, which unfortunately includes almost all the gelaterias. at least that's saving me from myself a little, i have a most powerful gelato addiction.
tonight i'm going out so i should go back to my appartment to get ready and such! i will leave you with two of my favorite italian phrases that i recently learned:
-when somebody is really good at something, italians say that person is "un drago" (a dragon) the way we would say somebody is a beast. for example, an italian would say "oh man he is a DRAGON at guitar hero".
-if someone is really furious and storming around, an italian would say that he's "wearing a devil as a hat".
i intend to use both of those as often as possible.
so i'm in the sala borsa library's public computer lab, and the little old lady next to me is definitely looking at porn in french. the modeling site i use is blocked for displaying pictures containing nudity on people's pages, so i have no idea how she's doing it in the first place. :P
all the runners in the gardens had the most fashionable running pants and jackets, just like maureen told me they would. i wandered into an "athlete's world" store this evening to see if i could find anything nice and affordable, and had been completely deceived by the name of the store because they didn't sell anything that appeared even remotely athletic even for italian standards (it was pretty common for guys to wear polo shirts to the gym in padova). ah well, i know there's a nike store around here somewhere which may actually have sportswear.
if tomorrow's nice i'm going to try and go visit some of the bologna tourist hotspots, if they're open that is. a surprising number of things are closed til march, which unfortunately includes almost all the gelaterias. at least that's saving me from myself a little, i have a most powerful gelato addiction.
tonight i'm going out so i should go back to my appartment to get ready and such! i will leave you with two of my favorite italian phrases that i recently learned:
-when somebody is really good at something, italians say that person is "un drago" (a dragon) the way we would say somebody is a beast. for example, an italian would say "oh man he is a DRAGON at guitar hero".
-if someone is really furious and storming around, an italian would say that he's "wearing a devil as a hat".
i intend to use both of those as often as possible.
so i'm in the sala borsa library's public computer lab, and the little old lady next to me is definitely looking at porn in french. the modeling site i use is blocked for displaying pictures containing nudity on people's pages, so i have no idea how she's doing it in the first place. :P
Thursday, January 29, 2009
still alive!
the internet has twice shut down and deleted very long posts, so suffice it to say that i have survived whatever sickness i had and had a lovely day today!
Monday, January 26, 2009
picking classes is hard arggg.
the italian university classroom is the opposite of the mount holyoke college classroom. you aren't supposed to have opinions of your own until grad school, the professor is GOD (if you use the informal tense with him you might as well die right there and then), and there is no discussion whatsoever. mhc has spoiled me.
this weekend was actually quite fun! went out for dinner and a glass of wine with laurel on friday, and we bonded and had a good time. saturday i met maureen for lunch and she brought a friend from the program, and it was SO much fun. i "clicked" so well with the two of them, and we ended up spending almost the entire day together. they have both been here since september, so they also gave me the skinny on other people in the program, professors, and what classes to take/avoid.
i bought a whole bunch of books today. i got the little prince and harry potter and the deathly hallows in italian, brisingr in english, and the most amazing italian regional cookbook, among other less interesting things. i can't wait to make all the delicious dishes from the cookbook for you guys when i get home this summer.
i also bought 1.6% milk today. i was trying to decide whether i wanted 1% or 2%, and they had that beautiful compromise right there in front of me.
have i mentioned that i completely and utterly adore my italian grammar teacher? her name is christine dodd, about as american as it gets, but she's 100% bolognese. the other day she stopped class because it smelled like something was on fire, and she was like "morgana morgana come into the hallway with me! i need you to tell me if it smells like incense or if you think the building is on fire". it turned out to be a hobo fire in the courtyard...
italian food lesson: "pasta alla bolognese" doesn't exist. it turns out that NO ONE says "alla bolognese", it is always "al ragù". keep this in mind if you are ever in italy to avoid certain death. furthermore, ragù is only put on tagliatelle, tortelloni, lasagne, or other wide, flat pastas. i hope i can save you where i was not able to save myself!
we had a long lecture (i'm talking two or three hours of lecture) about drug and alcohol use, and both of the doctors speaking were "Dottore Fabio". i found that immensely entertaining. i also met someone named Manlio, and he didn't understand why i thought that was the best name ever.
it's still freezing, it still rains 99% of the time. it is frequently deliciously sunny at 1000 when i'm walking to class, and then rainy from 1300 on after i get out of class. lovely.
okay, i really have nothing very interesting to say so i should probably stop typing. :P i have about a million emails to get to and i have a presentation due tomorrow woo!
the italian university classroom is the opposite of the mount holyoke college classroom. you aren't supposed to have opinions of your own until grad school, the professor is GOD (if you use the informal tense with him you might as well die right there and then), and there is no discussion whatsoever. mhc has spoiled me.
this weekend was actually quite fun! went out for dinner and a glass of wine with laurel on friday, and we bonded and had a good time. saturday i met maureen for lunch and she brought a friend from the program, and it was SO much fun. i "clicked" so well with the two of them, and we ended up spending almost the entire day together. they have both been here since september, so they also gave me the skinny on other people in the program, professors, and what classes to take/avoid.
i bought a whole bunch of books today. i got the little prince and harry potter and the deathly hallows in italian, brisingr in english, and the most amazing italian regional cookbook, among other less interesting things. i can't wait to make all the delicious dishes from the cookbook for you guys when i get home this summer.
i also bought 1.6% milk today. i was trying to decide whether i wanted 1% or 2%, and they had that beautiful compromise right there in front of me.
have i mentioned that i completely and utterly adore my italian grammar teacher? her name is christine dodd, about as american as it gets, but she's 100% bolognese. the other day she stopped class because it smelled like something was on fire, and she was like "morgana morgana come into the hallway with me! i need you to tell me if it smells like incense or if you think the building is on fire". it turned out to be a hobo fire in the courtyard...
italian food lesson: "pasta alla bolognese" doesn't exist. it turns out that NO ONE says "alla bolognese", it is always "al ragù". keep this in mind if you are ever in italy to avoid certain death. furthermore, ragù is only put on tagliatelle, tortelloni, lasagne, or other wide, flat pastas. i hope i can save you where i was not able to save myself!
we had a long lecture (i'm talking two or three hours of lecture) about drug and alcohol use, and both of the doctors speaking were "Dottore Fabio". i found that immensely entertaining. i also met someone named Manlio, and he didn't understand why i thought that was the best name ever.
it's still freezing, it still rains 99% of the time. it is frequently deliciously sunny at 1000 when i'm walking to class, and then rainy from 1300 on after i get out of class. lovely.
okay, i really have nothing very interesting to say so i should probably stop typing. :P i have about a million emails to get to and i have a presentation due tomorrow woo!
Friday, January 23, 2009
i now have a library card at the greatest library on earth, and i can get free internet for an hour a day, three days a week. it actually sucks as far as getting all my internet stuff checked, but saves me a little bit of money. if i bring my laptop with me i can have three hours a day seven days a week, but that would involve at least a mile of walking with said laptop. i'll probably do that on weekends.
oh, turns out you get an hour if you start ON THE HOUR because it kicks you off on the hour. today i get 37 min free. -.-
the floor at this library is clear glass, so that you can see the AUTHENTIC ROMAN RUINS that are still underneath. it's probably the coolest library in the history of libraries. i think there are tours of the ruins on fridays, and i'm going to try and take one some time. the music library has an extensive CD collection covering classical music, jazz, modern italian music, and modern foreign music, and i intend to spend some serious time there. :D
i told gilberto and romano (the guys i live with) that i have sicilian ancestry, and the other day gilberto gave me an orange called a "tarocco siciliano" that is found only in sicily that had been picked (in sicily) only days before! it was such a sweet gesture. the orange was amazing too. it wasn't quite a blood orange, but it had bloody patches.
getting kicked off momentarily, so i'll end here.
oh, turns out you get an hour if you start ON THE HOUR because it kicks you off on the hour. today i get 37 min free. -.-
the floor at this library is clear glass, so that you can see the AUTHENTIC ROMAN RUINS that are still underneath. it's probably the coolest library in the history of libraries. i think there are tours of the ruins on fridays, and i'm going to try and take one some time. the music library has an extensive CD collection covering classical music, jazz, modern italian music, and modern foreign music, and i intend to spend some serious time there. :D
i told gilberto and romano (the guys i live with) that i have sicilian ancestry, and the other day gilberto gave me an orange called a "tarocco siciliano" that is found only in sicily that had been picked (in sicily) only days before! it was such a sweet gesture. the orange was amazing too. it wasn't quite a blood orange, but it had bloody patches.
getting kicked off momentarily, so i'll end here.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
in a rush, but i wanted to post a little something!
still just using internet points at the moment because the wifi still doesn't work in the school building. very annoying. not sure yet if it's worth it to set up a connection in my apartment since there's an internet point next door, and in theory once all the paperwork goes through to enroll at the university there will be free wi-fi everywhere for me!
found out today that due to a very strict reevaluation of the schengen visa policies, it's technically illegal for me to go to the united states and return to italy without my official permesso di soggiorno card. furthermore, thanks to the slowness of the italian bureacracy, i will probably never have the official card. i have the receipt, which will work within the country for all other intents and purposes. neat.
watched the inauguration on a big screen in a bar and it was inspiring. i won't lie i cried a bit. my program had a mini party which was fun, and afterwards i went to an inauguration party at laurel's apartment which was most excellent. i made some awesome italian friends, and now life seems a little less dismal here, which is nice. some of the friends are even girls! i have FEMALE italian friends who not only do not detest me, but are actually quite friendly and excellent cooks to boot!
interesting facts of the day:
-in italy they call sweet potatoes "american potatoes".
-apparently tortellini are supposed to be the shape of venus/aphrodite's bellybutton. that does not make me want to eat tortellini.
-bologna is famous for the three Ts: Torri (towers), Tortellini, and Tette (boobs). bolognese women are supposedly curvier since people "eat better" here.
-in america people say "healthy as a horse", and here they say "healthy as a fish".
see i'm learning things! this week i actually started the four week intensive orientation course, which i mentioned, and it's surprisingly exciting! we're working on vocab and grammar as always of course, but we're also focusing on the proper intonation of phrases that REAL italians would use, as well as connotations and idioms and such.
now i have to go visit one of the university libraries with my program to do who knows what. they didn't provide us with an address so i don't actually know where i'm going, yay.
still just using internet points at the moment because the wifi still doesn't work in the school building. very annoying. not sure yet if it's worth it to set up a connection in my apartment since there's an internet point next door, and in theory once all the paperwork goes through to enroll at the university there will be free wi-fi everywhere for me!
found out today that due to a very strict reevaluation of the schengen visa policies, it's technically illegal for me to go to the united states and return to italy without my official permesso di soggiorno card. furthermore, thanks to the slowness of the italian bureacracy, i will probably never have the official card. i have the receipt, which will work within the country for all other intents and purposes. neat.
watched the inauguration on a big screen in a bar and it was inspiring. i won't lie i cried a bit. my program had a mini party which was fun, and afterwards i went to an inauguration party at laurel's apartment which was most excellent. i made some awesome italian friends, and now life seems a little less dismal here, which is nice. some of the friends are even girls! i have FEMALE italian friends who not only do not detest me, but are actually quite friendly and excellent cooks to boot!
interesting facts of the day:
-in italy they call sweet potatoes "american potatoes".
-apparently tortellini are supposed to be the shape of venus/aphrodite's bellybutton. that does not make me want to eat tortellini.
-bologna is famous for the three Ts: Torri (towers), Tortellini, and Tette (boobs). bolognese women are supposedly curvier since people "eat better" here.
-in america people say "healthy as a horse", and here they say "healthy as a fish".
see i'm learning things! this week i actually started the four week intensive orientation course, which i mentioned, and it's surprisingly exciting! we're working on vocab and grammar as always of course, but we're also focusing on the proper intonation of phrases that REAL italians would use, as well as connotations and idioms and such.
now i have to go visit one of the university libraries with my program to do who knows what. they didn't provide us with an address so i don't actually know where i'm going, yay.
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