BARCELONA

Alright I've got to recap you guys on a full weeks worth of events so stay with me or just find the parts you want to read and don't worry about reading it all.

Last week was pretty routine and relaxed.  My Mondays are quickly becoming very boring so last week I attempted to entertain myself with uploading pictures and things, but found myself out of things to do around 2.  I decided I was going to go crazy if I stayed in the room any longer so I went on a 3 hour walk of this side of the city.  It was actually really nice because the weather was perfect and although I bike by all of those storefronts and houses every day I never get the opportunity to really look at them.  That night I had dinner with the girls that live upstairs and as usual we just did a potluck dinner where I make the salad/bread and then they provide the meat and wine.  Its always fun to hang out with those girls.  Tuesday I had my usual day of classes and lunch with my tandem partner, Mara.  We went to lunch at this really cute sandwich shop near school.  I entered the restaurant talking US presidential politics (as per usual) and the owner of the restaurant must have overheard me talking so he came over, apologized for interrupting and then introduced himself as Joe the Plumber.  It was probably one of the best things I have experienced so far in Italy.  That lunch was also particularly nice because my tandem partner brought a friend of hers to lunch so instead of just speaking English the entire lunch we actually got to speak a lot of Italian (very broken on my end) and  discussed politics, movies, TV, food, etc.  Its so nice to feel comfortable enough to just try to use the language and know that they will help me if I need it.  Such a great abroad experience!  I also had cooking class on Tuesday night where we learned how to make orecchiette with broccoli.  I enjoyed it although didn't think it had a whole lot of flavor, but as per usual she made sure there were lots of other amazing foods to supplement (chicken marsala, green beans, cheese, salad).  Always the highlight of my week in Parma!

Wednesday the entire BC group went to the Parmesan cheese factory as part of our History of Parma class.  We were all a little less than excited to be getting up to leave at 7:45, but it turned out to be much more involved and interesting than we expected.  They walked us through all of the different processes of making and aging the cheese.  We got to try some in the end and got a free cheese grater too!  Good day. haha.  After that I had my other class and then hung out at the villa on Wednesday night after packing for Barcelona!

Thursday I went to my first two classes and then had to miss my Organizational Behavior class (definitely not a problem) to catch a train to Milan for our flight.  Traveling went very smoothly which was a very nice experience after the previous weekend's nightmare.  We left Parma at 3 and got to our friend's apartment in Barcelona around 11.  We were exhausted once we got there though so we decided to stay in for the night and plan our next couple of days.

Since we had 2 full days in Barcelona (as opposed to the usual 1 when we fly out on Friday) we were able to sleep in a little on Friday and then get up to see the city well-rested.  Chiara was an AMAZING tour guide.  She has been in the city for only a couple of months, but knows so much about it all.  As we were walking around I kept talking about how the tour buses were following us because everywhere we would go they would be there, we were just doing everything for free and on foot (which is always better).  My legs and feet were very tired after this weekend, but it was totally worth it to say that we really saw everything.  I am just going to kind of list what we saw here, but if you have the time I would recommend looking up some of the spots we saw online because they really were great.  I am a huge fan of Gaudi now even though I couldn't have told you much about him at all before we went.  His presence in Barcelona is EVERYWHERE.  From the street lamps, buildings, parks and sidewalks he has left his impressions for everyone to see and its really inspiring.  I could walk around that city for the rest of my life and still be in awe.  So for Friday, we got up and spent a few hours in Parc Guell (an area designed by Gaudi that was supposed to be a residential neighborhood but lost funding so it has now become a park) , then ventured over to Las Ramblas (the main street of Barcelona for shopping and toursity attractions), Mercat de la Boqueria (the most impressive food market I have ever seen), Palau de la Musica Catalana (gorgeous exterior), La Pedrera (a house designed by Gaudi with an amazing rooftop overlooking the entire city), House of Bones (another house by Gaudi which was beyond impressive), Universitat de Barcelona (I contemplated transferring there because its so beautiful), and the Cathedral (under major construction so you can't see much due to scaffolding).  After a long day we had a great dinner at a tapas restaurant Chiara recommended.  It was so nice to sit down and enjoy some real spanish food and sangria.  

Sunday we followed the same routine of waking up around 9 and then heading out by 10 or so.  We were able to have a little more relaxed day because we had seen so much the day before, but still managed to stay plenty busy.  We first went to the beach (so warm!) at Olympic Port, then walked through the Gothic Quarter (where I would live if I lived in Barcelona), went back to Las Ramblas, saw La Sagrada Familia (more impressive than words or pictures can do it justice), Hospital de Sant Pau (I also considered injuring myself just so I could stay here for a few nights.  It looks like a gorgeous college campus.), Parc de Montjuic (we took a ski lift to the top of the mountain to see an amazing view of the entire city), Olympic Stadium (there was a children's neighborhood cultural event going on, complete with fireworks!), and a light show at Placa de Espanya (gorgeous!).  After another full day Chiara took us to get some more amazing food for very cheap.  I considered ordering paella because it seemed like a requirement, but then remembered I don't like much seafood or rice so I decided against it and ordered salmon instead.  Still a very good choice.  Then we went souvenir shopping and I found some great coasters that I will definitely be excited to use in my dorm next semester.  I love buying these little things that I know I will be able to use for a long time and remember this amazing time I am having.  

Sunday we had to get up early (especially early because we forgot that Day Light Savings Time was ending until we got to the train station) and headed back to Parma.  We got back here around 3 and then got to relax for a while. Nate was awesome and cooked our little group dinner again since he was in town for the weekend so we all got to get together and talk about our weekends which was fun.  

Today I have been doing all of my school work and trying to debate my plans for next semester at BC.  I have a lot of things that I would love to do, but don't want to fill my plate up too much.  Definitely be praying about that for me if you can!  

Tomorrow night we are headed to the Opera in Parma which should be so much fun to get dressed up and experience some real Italian culture.  (Hopefully it will be better than the horrible one we went to when I was here with PDS last time, haha).  Other than that, the week is looking pretty normal and then 9 of us are headed to Lucerne, Switzerland on Friday.  I can't believe November starts on Saturday!!  And the election is in a week?! What?! No, I'm not starting to freak out or anything.  I'm thinking of having people come over and spend the night at my apartment and then we all can get up pretty early (our time) to watch the results and I'll make a big breakfast for everyone.  We'll see how that goes, but I figure we're going to need something comforting to do while we sit around and wait for the results to roll in.  

Hope you guys are doing well.  As always I keep you guys in my thoughts all the time and would love to hear any updates.  You guys have been so awesome about staying in touch!  I love it.  Every time I check my email it seems like I have one waiting from at least one of you.  Thanks!

Love and miss you guys a lot!! Ciao ciao.

P.S. Here are a couple of pics to recap.

Chiara, Kristin and I on the bench designed by Gaudi in Parc Guell. 

Amazing light show at Placa de Espanya.

All 3 of us again on the roof of La Pedrera and you can see La Sagrada Familia in the very far distance.  Very toursity pic, haha.

not quite what we had planned...

Kristin and I sitting in a tower in Lisbon, Portugal.

Me in front of Lake Como. (You can imagine George standing with me.)

Well I was supposed to be writing you tonight after eating Belgian chocolate and waffles all weekend, but sadly our plans didn’t quite work out as planned.  First though, I’ll do a recap of the week.

 

Monday, like normal, I didn’t have any classes so I spent the day going to the grocery store, preparing food for the week, doing a little bit more homework, running and just enjoying a day of recuperating after a whirlwind weekend in Portugal.  Its really nice to have that day in place where I know I can come back and relax before starting classes again.  My roommates also hosted a party in our room that night which I wasn’t took excited about at first, but turned out to be really fun.  It was a lot of people that I don’t usually hang out with so it was nice to see them and just be able to chill out in the comfort of my own apartment.  Tuesday I had my usual two classes and lunch with my tandem partner.  I had an hour and a half to kill between my first class and lunch so I walked all around the city to trying and get more of my bearings set.  I am never forced to leave the main street because my apartment, classes and friends all are located off of that street.  It was nice to see what else is around, although its really not much more than little shops and cafes up and down the streets. It was still fun to wander around though. Hopefully I’ll get even better at navigation in the city as time progresses.

 

Wednesday we went to the world’s least entertaining museum for class with probably one of the world’s most long-winded professors ever.  This was all for our History of Parma class and could not have bored me any more.  It turned out to be more a Latin lesson on how to read people’s tomb stones than actually learning anything about the city.  At least the grading in the class is supposed to be easy.  I also had cultural diversity which is still very intriguing and definitely my favorite class here.  It is even making me strongly consider changing my minor to sociology when I get back to BC.  And by that I mean I am almost 100% sure that is what I want to do.  I had never taken a sociology course before now and am realizing that a lot of my passions align with the sociology classroom, so that’s a great discovery!  Wednesday night I spent hanging out at the villa with friends and playing cards.  Jeff made sangria for us that night which was interesting, lots of good fruit!  Thursday is still many my hell day of 3 classes spread out over the entire day.  I kept to my routine of going to the fake library in-between classes and getting my work done which is always a bonus.  Thursday night I just had a chill night because I was getting up at 5 am to go to the train station on Friday.

 

So here come the events that constituted my very not-to-plan weekend.  I woke up at 5 am to make it to the train station by 6:30.  We were going super early because we had heard there was a train strike planned for that day so we wanted to ensure that we would make it to Pisa for our 12:30 flight.  Only to find out that the strike was cancelled and we were at the train station an hour and a half early.  Despite that, we made it to Pisa (after 3 trains) with just enough time and ran into the terminal to check-in.  Upon entering we looked up at the display screen and see that CANCELLED is written next to our flight to Brussels.  Not exactly what you want to see after 6 hours of traveling.  We immediately head to the customer service area and stand in line for a few minutes.  Once it becomes our turn to talk to the representative she immediately rushes away telling us she has a “mandatory break” and points us in the direction of the other terminal.  We then stand in line there for an hour and a half waiting to talk to someone, only to find out that they have no other flights to put us on and that we will be refunded for this flight (if we send them a letter or fax. What century are we living in?) but not our return flight on Sunday.  We were all quite annoyed so we decided to head to Florence to see if we could figure out a way to get to Brussels from there, but were unsuccessful.  Some of the kids stayed in Florence that night because they were tired of traveling that day, but Kristin and I were tired of Florence after living there for 3 week so we decided to come back.  We met the most adorable man on the train from Florence to Bologna though!  Seriously, it was the only saving grace that day.  We discussed religion, politics, where he’s lived, Italian men, food and traveling. It was great!  We got back to Parma around 6:30 pm (a full 12 hours of traveling from the last time we were at that station) and headed to dinner.  Then we just had a relaxing night and planned our activities for the next day. 

 

Saturday we got up late because we were exhausted from the day before and headed to Lake Como.  Unfortunately there was no sign of George Clooney, but it was really pretty.  We took a bus ride along the coast to the middle of the lake and walked around at that city, Bellagio, for an hour or so before starting the treck back home.  It was a nice and relaxing day.  Como was on my list of things to see while I was here so I’m glad we made it there even though it wasn’t in the best of situations.

 

Today I just had a very relaxing day of cleaning the entire apartment, watching the SNL skits, watching the Office, grocery shopping and cooking dinner for some friends.  I love cooking here, but never take the time to make really good things because I am usually just cooking for myself so it was a nice change to cook something good.  I felt like a true Italian because I was cooking in small increments all day so I wouldn’t have to do it all once everyone got here.  I think I’m finally getting used to this less-strict lifestyle. 

 

This week should be pretty much the same and then I am headed to Barcelona on Thursday!!  I am so excited for it because Kristin and I are staying with a mutual friend, Chiara, so we will have a personal tour guide to show us all the great things.  It should be a lot of fun.

 

Hope you guys are doing well!!  Keep the updates coming.

 

Love,

E

land of cats, dirty streets, vasco de gama and pastries

Well I successfully made it through my first weekend out of the country so far.  Good to know I can do it since I've got every other weekend planned too. haha.  It was a jam-packed weekend, but it was totally worth it.  Portugal was such a different place than I was expecting which made it all the better to go and visit.  

First lets start with Thursday night though.  Nothing too remarkable happened, dinner at my friends' apartment and hanging out there for a while.  BUT around 11 we decided we wanted to get out for a little bit before I headed back to my apartment to get ready for the weekend so we went out for gelato and OMG it was the best gelato I have had yet.  I'm still dreaming about it. haha. It is called Milano Chocolat and they have a lot of chocolate and fruit flavors but it is all so creamy and delectable.  I had dark chocolate (my favorite!!) and nutella flavors.  It was absolutely heavenly.  I wish all of you could experience it, but you will just have to take my word for it.  I can't wait to go back. Anyhow, now onto the more interesting weekend in Portugal.

Three of us went on this trip (Kristin, Jeff and I) which was nice because it wasn't too many people to keep track of or opinions to deal with.  We were all pretty much on the same page the whole time which was nice.  We took a 9:09 am train to Milan on Friday morning then had to catch a 40 minute bus from the train station to the airport.  In total that portion of the trip took 2 hours and 45 min, which wasn't bad, but definitely a long leg of the journey of the flight before we even left the country.  We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare so we had to wait in a room for about 45 minutes until it was two hours before our departure so we could check in.  When the time came we went and stood in line for a while, only to find out that our flight was actually at 4:50 not 2:50 like we had though so we ended up having to wait another 2 hours in the room before we could even check-in.  Needless to say, we were ready to get out of the airport by then.  I did manage to pass out on the 2.5 hour plane ride to Lisbon though which was nice.  We arrived there and were able to bypass any customs so we were out into the city (sadly without a Portuguese stamp on our passports) within minutes.

We got a taxi to take us to the hostel which turned out to be quite the process.  Not only did none of us speak Portuguese, but the driver had no idea where our hostel was located.  We had the address written down, but he had no idea where it was located.  He proceeded to ask about 6 other taxi drivers as we drove around the city and finally someone pointed us in the right direction.  We arrived at the street, but the driver said he couldn't drop us off on it because it was a street only for the electric tram in the city so he dropped us off at the next street down.  No big deal, so we walked back to the street he had pointed at only to realize that this in fact was not the street either.  We had gotten maps at the tourist station at the airport, but the street we were looking for was not marked on it so we were rather hopeless.  We ended up going into the most amazing store ever and had 2 very nice men help us find out where we were supposed to be going.  Despite their limited English and our lack of Portuguese fluency we were struggling to communicate but we managed to get across the idea that we were very lost and needed to find our hostel.  They immediately whipped out the world's smallest computer and started google mapping the location and then gave us directions from their store.  I couldn't have been happier to have stumbled into such a fortunate situation at the very beginning.  So despite the fact that we started off a little lost, we ended up having a great interaction with our first Portuguese locals.

We made it to the hostel and were immediately met by another very friendly (and attractive!!) Portuguese man.  He spoke very good English which was so nice to hear after all of that traveling and showed us to our room.  I kid you not, this hostel was nicer than some hotels I have stayed at in my lifetime.  We had a room with bunk beds, a common area with couches and a table, a full kitchen where they served breakfast every morning, free internet use on their computers, very clean bathrooms and a relatively quite location despite being in the heart of the bars/restaurant area of the city.  Since this was our first hostel experience we were all quite impressed with the amenities and realized we were probably spoiled this time in comparison to our upcoming hostels.  After we had settled in we went downstairs and asked about places to go for dinner and the guy sent us to this small/cheap place that was supposed to serve local food.  Well serve local food it did because I couldn't understand a word on the menu.  haha.  Eventually we found the "tourist menu" in the back that gave the highlights in English which was nice.  I ended up ordering Portuguese pork (I figured I might as well) which was pretty good.  I didn't feel well after eating it that night, but I'm beginning to think that had more to do with the fact that I am slowly becoming a vegetarian here since I have to cook for myself so my body isn't used to having to process meats.  In any event, we were so happy at that point to be eating that it didn't matter.  Afterwards we decided we needed to do at least a little exploring before crashing for the night so we walked to a park that we had seen on our map and then down to the water to get our bearings of the city a little bit.  As per usual, we spotted an Irish pub and immediately went inside.  I swear I am drawn to these places because of my name.  We manage to find them no matter where we are.  They had two Irish guys playing the guitar and violin and we just chilled out there for a little while and did some planning for the next day.  

Saturday morning we woke up at 7 am to get ready for the day. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but we all figure we wanted to make the most out of the weekend and we could find other times to sleep.  We ate breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to Castelo de Sao Jorge.  We decided to walk there because the place didn't open until 9 so we had plenty of time.  It was quite the tour of the city as we were walking among all of the apartments and filthy streets that Lisbon is known for.  I didn't even really realize the disgusting nature of the city until I got back to Parma yesterday and noted the lack of smell and filth everywhere.  Anywho, we made it to the castle and spent a little over an hour roaming around in there.  It was gorgeous and gave us a great view of the city.  We were nervous about the rain storm that was supposed to be coming at any time though so we left around 10 to head to our next location so we could hopefully beat the rain.  It ended up raining on our walk to the next spot, but only for about 20 minutes and that was it for the day.  So thanks to all of you who crossed your fingers after my last post because apparently it paid off.  Next we headed to the Ribeira Market which is Portugal's oldest market on the river and was supposed to have a floor of food and then a floor of a flea market, but we couldn't seem to find the market portions so we walked aimlessly around looking at all the different food options.  It is always interesting to see the different products offered, lots of whole eels, fish and pigs everywhere.

Next we headed to my favorite part of the day, Belem.  It is a part of the city of Portugal but on the very far side from everything else.  There we visited the Torre de Belem (a tower placed in the water), Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (Monastery where Vasco de Gama is buried), and Pasteis de Belem.  Pasteis de Belem is a local pastry shop that is one of the biggest and oldest (1827) attractions in Lisbon, especially for the locals.  They make 1200 of these "pasteis de nate" every day and serve them warm with cinnamon and powdered sugar.  Absolutely amazing!  We got some and ate them in a cute park outside of the monastery during the afternoon.  I also bought a little ceramic vase to remember my trip by in Belem.  Its very vibrantly colored and I think will be a good memorabilia piece for a long time.  After spending much of the afternoon in Belem we headed to the other side of town again to go to a park that seemed rather significant given its dominance on our maps.  It was a nice location to chill out for a while.  My friends decided to lay down in the grass and rest for a while (we had practically been up and walking for 8 hours already!) while I ventured up to the top of the hill of the park to see if there was a view.  There didn't really appear to be much to see since we were located in the commercial district at that point so I went back down and convinced my friends to keep on exploring.  We took the long way back to the hotel to see a little bit more of the city, but we were all quite exhausted at that point so we headed back to the hostel for a quick break before dinner.  

I had found the name of a restaurant in my research before the trip that was supposed to be located near our hostel so we decided to head there for dinner.  We found the street, but couldn't find the restaurant anywhere so we decided to go with the method of walking up and down the streets until we found something that seemed enticing.  After eating those pastries that afternoon though I wasn't up for a big dinner so we ended up going to a place where I got a chicken salad, but we had a good time anyway.  To make sure to get at least a little big of Portuguese inspiration into the meal we ordered Porto before dinner, as per our waitresses suggestion.  It was supposed to be a drink that you have before dinner to help with the digestion process, but in our opinion it was far too sweet tasting to be appetizing.  At least we tried though!  After dinner we did a little more walking around before heading back to the hostel for a game of cards and then bed.  I had wanted to go out that night, but we had done so much during the day that we were all just too exhausted to function.

Yesterday was another day of traveling, but thank goodness it was a much less tiresome.  We even caught a train within 5 minutes of getting to the train station so we made it back to Parma by 5 which was great.  I had time to get in a run before it got dark which was so nice since we had been sitting all day in our different forms of transportation.  I loved my trip to Portugal, but I was so happy to be back in Parma with all of my things, where people spoke a language I can mostly understand, and clean streets.  When I got back from my run though I realized that I had no food in my apartment (because you can't leave anything over the weekend or it will spoil since there are so few preservatives here).  I was less than excited about dinner, but then got a call from one of my friends saying that Nate wanted to cook dinner since he knew probably hadn't had time to go to the grocery store.  Such a good surprise!  I headed back here pretty early though to do some unpacking, laundry and catching up before heading to bed. 

Its so nice not to have classes on Mondays.  I slept until 9 this morning then got up and have just been doing little things around the apartment all day, but things that are pretty productive.  I'll have my 3 days worth of classes starting tomorrow and then its off to Brussels, Belgium on Friday!  Its so surreal to be talking about traveling like this.  I can't wait to share all of my pics with you guys. 

You guys have been awesome about sending me updates lately so THANKS!  I can't wait to hear more about your lives soon. 

Ciao!

E

getting into a routine

Its so nice to be writing this after a week of getting on a schedule.  I feel so much more productive and content now that I have a routine to stick to.  

I started classes on Tuesday and they have been going pretty well so far.  My Cultural Diversity class is amazing.  The entire thing is based on theories of immigration through the entire world with specifics on Italy.  The professor is very engaging and has already taught us some really interesting material.  My Italian class is also great!  She refuses to speak any English to us which is nice because we are having to learn quickly although it takes my brain a little while to wake up when we have that class first thing in the morning.  That class meets for 2 hrs and 15 minutes twice a week but she does a great job of entertaining us with different games and conversations so it never seems that long.   Organizational behavior is one of my other classes and is probably the biggest joke of a class ever.  So far we have learned what a manager is and what the term behavior means.  Really tough concepts.  I'm not complaining though (despite the fact that the class is tearfully boring) because its nice not to have class stress this semester.  My last class, history of parma is interesting.  We will be taking a lot of trips during class to see things around the city (such as the Parmesan factory!) which will be good.  He's not a very interesting professor, but I think the subject matter will be enough to keep us entertained.  

I also found a great place to go running around my apartment yesterday!  It had been so long since I ran and it felt absolutely incredible.  It takes me about 7 minutes to run to the park and then the park has 2 different levels where you can run and is perfect for people watching.  I was so excited to find it!  

My first cooking class was this week too!  We made spaghetti alla carbonara.  I wasn't a big fan of it, but everyone else seemed to love it so I wrote down the recipe so I can make it for you guys some other time.  On top of learning how to make that, the host mother also made us 4 other courses!  It was a ridiculous amount of food, but you just have to learn how to pace yourself.  The whole night was great because we got to sit around the table and have a 2 hour dinner together and chat about everything.  It will definitely be one of the highlights of my weeks here.

This weekend I am headed to Lisbon, Portugal!  I have done a lot of research for it so hopefully we'll be able to see all the highlights.  It is supposed to be gorgeous weather when we get there tomorrow, but then rain Saturday and Sunday so cross your fingers that that isn't the case.  We'll still have a great time for sure, but I would love to see some sunshine.  I'll be sure to post pictures when I get back and let you know how it went.  

I hope all of you are doing well!

Love,

E

my apartment!

Here are some pics around the apartment. My roomies were gone for the day so I took the chance to take them while I could. Enjoy!

welcome to our home, bonomi A 

the hallway as soon as you enter into the apartment

our den with t.v., dvd player, awesome fold out couch and dining room table

did i mention it also has a china cabinet? yeah, we are classy like that.

kitchen! complete with stove, stove, table, refrigerator and some appliances

the bathroom i share with 3 other girls plus our washing machine in the back

the view of our room as soon as you enter (my stuff is on the left)

my bed and shelves!

monica's side of the room.

my closet (i get the nicer one because she has less clothes and gets the desk)

our version of the dryer

our little terrace area where we keep our bikes

my AMAZING bike!

a whole lot of firsts

So apparently I am not so good at keeping up this trend of frequent posting, but at least I have been able to talk to some of you more online now that I have reliable internet! 

I wrote something that was supposed to be posted right before I left Florence, but I didn't have any internet to post it, so I'm going to start with pasting that here and then I'll start a new post afterwards to get you guys caught up on my life.

Monday, September 29:

FINITO! Well, at least with my time in Florence.  Hard to believe I have been here almost three weeks already.  I took my Art History final this morning and finished up with that class.  Now its time for Parma, non-hotel living, 4 more classes and lots of traveling.  I’ve really enjoyed my time here and we all keep commenting on how we have such an amazingly well structured program we have here, but the time has come to move on.  I think I am little less upset at the prospect of leaving knowing that I’ll be back here in December.  Its hard to comprehend all I have done since I last blogged, but I’ll try and do it all justice.  It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but amazing and full of lots of photo opportunities (which will hopefully be posted later this week!).

 

We finished up our class with the David and the New Sacristy on Thursday, followed by a day-trip to Siena on Friday.  I really enjoyed the class, but I think three weeks is about all I needed.  I could feel myself reaching a little bit of an overload on Friday so that was pretty good timing.  Siena was pretty and something I hadn’t seen before, but not necessarily somewhere I would travel back to.  Lots of art history, but beyond that not much more than shopping to do. 

 

Friday night we took it easy after Siena because we had to get up at 6:30 am on Saturday to get to our train on time.  Yes, I had 3 days in a row this weekend where I didn’t get more than 6 hours of sleep, but totally worth it.  Saturday was our day to go to Cinque Terre.  This had been number one on my list of things to do while I was abroad, so to say I was excited is an understatement.  I also got to go on my first train ride ever!  From what I hear it was an amazing experience in comparison to others because we got our own car section with just seats for the 6 of us, a door and shades to draw when we were ready to sleep.  It’s a pretty nice way to travel although I couldn’t sleep at all because I was so concerned we would miss our stop since they didn’t announce them.  But anyway, we made it to Cinque Terre, specifically Monterosso, at about noon on Saturday morning and began our 5.5 hour hike.  This region is right along the western coast of Italy (I would strongly suggest looking it up online) with mountains and beaches everywhere.  It was only about 6 miles of hiking, but the first two segments were quite intense so it seemed like much longer than that.  There are 5 cities (hence cinque terre) that you visit along the way and then when we were finished we took a ferry back to the starting point so we could see all that we had hiked from the water.  Let’s just say its my new favorite place in the world.  It was PERFECT weather for hiking with some sun and clouds plus about upper 60s to lower 70s weather (I still haven’t quite figured out the whole Celsius conversion thing).  Once we got back to Monterosso from the Ferry we were on the mission for dinner, but happened upon a free wine festival (have I mentioned how much I love this country?).  We stopped there for a while until our hunger took over and then we found a cute restaurant on a side street for dinner.  Apparently the region is famous for pesto (which we didn’t quite understand how you could be given that pesto is only 4 ingredients, but whatevs) so I had ravioli with pesto.  Pretty good after a long day of hiking.  Then we still had some time to kill before our train left at 9 so some people went to get gelato and then we sat on the beach chatting until it was time to leave.  Such a good day!  We made it back to the hotel at about 12:20 and fell quickly asleep.

 

Sunday we had another early train so we were up around 6:30 again.  This time we were headed to Assisi for the day.  It was a long train ride (2 hrs 40 min), but a nice chill day after hiking so much the day before.  We visited most of the churches in the city as well as walked to the top to get a good wide-range view of the Umbria region.  Everything was so perfect and green there!  We decided to catch the 3:15 train back so we could make it back to the hotel for free dinner and we made it with some time to spare.  Like I said, not the most active day, but a good way to see another region and have a chill day.

 

Today we woke up, ate breakfast and then our professor came to give us our exams.  We have until 6 tonight to complete them, but most of us have been finished since around 3:30 or so.  I’ll be happy to turn that in and be ready.  It wasn’t bad (choose 3 out of 10 options and write max 2 pages on each) but its always nice to hand it in and be finished with it. 

 

I’m not sure what the plans are for tonight, but I’ve pretty much packed up all of my things already so I’ll be up for anything.  It’ll be weird not to all be together to plan things every night, but nice to have some down time and get into a routine in Parma.  I’m also STOKED about being able to cook for myself.  A lot less overly-cooked and fried food options will be nice.  I’m also in desperate need of doing laundry, but luckily have a few more pairs of underwear so I can last until my clothes air dry (since they don’t use dryers here). 

 

A private bus will come to pick us up at 2 pm tomorrow and will drive us all to our apartments.  We also have a welcome dinner (which is supposed to be great) tomorrow night which will be fun.  Lots of things planned for the next few weeks so there should be plenty to keep me entertained.

**TODAY'S POST (10/4)

I have finally made it to Parma!!  We had a good last night of seeing the town in Florence on Monday after our final and then packed up our things and got on the bus Tuesday afternoon.  We arrived here after only a two and a half hour bus ride, but much to our surprise my roommates and I were dropped off at a car wash and told to walk to our apartment from there.  We all kind of looked at each other trying to determine exactly what was going on, but then someone gave us directions (away from the car wash thank goodness) and we went and set up our rooms.  My apartment is so cute! It looks like something an old woman would live in with its decor, but its really homey none the less.  We have two bedrooms with 2 girls in each room, a bathroom, washer, kitchen (complete with stove and gas stove top), a common room (with a fold out couch and t.v.), and a balcony/terrace area where we can hang our clothes to dry and park our bikes.  I finally finished unpacking a couple of days ago and got my pictures put up on my wall so it feels a little more like my space.  I can't describe how nice it is not to be living out of a suitcase anymore.  To actually be able to look and sort through my clothes is a novelty I was beginning to wonder if I would every be able to indulge in again.  

My favorite part of Parma so far is the bikes we have.  It is the PERFECT mode of transportation for us (and most of the Italians here) because we can go wherever we please without having to worry about bus schedules, its an almost flat city, and its also such a European experience riding around the streets as the leaves are falling off of the trees.  Every time I do it I appreciate it more.  My bike is not the most appealing to the eyes, but Aldo (one of the owners of the apartments) convinced me that my bike was particularly special despite its obvious rusting because its authentic to Parma.  He was so excited that I had chosen that one because apparently no where else in Italy can you buy one like it.  I'm not really sure if this is the case, but I am quite a fan of it.  

So back to our arrival...we got in around 5 on Tuesday and immediately started to try and settle in.  We all then met for our welcome dinner at a cute restaurant near the city center.  We had lots of authentic Parma food which was wonderful!  First they served us 3 kinds of prosciutto and parmesan cheese (doesn't get much more authentic than that), then tratelli (basically like ravioli and stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese), then chicken with a lemon glaze and salad.  The wine was also from the area and although they told us it wasn't the best you could find, they thought it complemented all of our food well and that it did.  Frizzante wine (bubbly similar to champagne) is popular in Northern Italy and so both our rosso (red) and bianco (white) wines were frizzante that night which was a fun experience.  After dinner I quickly went to go check out one of the other apartment complexes where people are living and then headed back to my apartment. 

Wednesday we had to get up early to go buy bus passes and permit of stays for our time in Parma.  It was a long day of waiting in line and paying tons of money, but now everything is set for us until we leave which is nice.  I also spent a lot of time just wandering around the city those days trying to get a grasp on where things are, but I still haven't quite figured it all out.  Luckily the 3 locations where BC students are living are off of the same main street so it makes it relatively impossible to get lost on my bike rides between apartments.

Thursday was more of the same, getting ready for classes.  We went to see where we would be taking classes (one classroom where all of my classes will be held?!).  We also met with our tandem partners that afternoon.  These are Italians from Parma that are matched with us so that we have an Italian to connect to in the city as well as it being part of our Italian language course.  I didn't get to spend a lot of time meeting with mine because she had to leave to run to another meeting, but we are meeting for lunch on Tuesday so hopefully I'll get to know her a little better then.  Thursday night we were supposed to all go to this club called XXL (they have HORRIBLE American-esque names for all the clubs) because this group in Parma organizes all of the international students and creates programs for them all to get together.  This was the first of the meetings, but after hearing from a bunch of people who were already there that it wasn't worth the ride over I decided to stay in and continue to get organized and watch a T.V. show with a friend.  

Friday we had to get up  early to go to the Correggio exhibit here in Parma.  It is advertised all over the city and supposed to be bringing many people here over the next few months to see it.  Correggio was a high-Renaissance painter from Parma, and did many famous frescoes that adorn the domes of the churches and baptistery here.  The best part about the experience was that they have scaffolding set up at all of the different locations so that you can climb up to eye level with the frescoes so you can get a glimpse of what the artist's perspective would have been as they were painting.  It was quite an experience and definitely not one I am likely to get to have again.  We had a horrible tour guide who reminded me of a bad PBS special, but it made us all so glad we had such a great Art History professor in Florence.  It was definitely worth the 4 hour long early morning session.  After the exhibit was over I grabbed lunch and headed back to the apartment to watch all of the Presidential/VP debates online.  Needless to say, that took up most of my afternoon.  Around 7 I headed over to the Villa where my friends Nate and Steph are living and we made a great dinner.  And by we made I mean Steph and I cut veggies and bread while Nate cooked up an amazing dinner, haha.  We had salad, toasted bread with olive oil and oregano, pasta with tomato sauce & veggies, and chicken with warmed mozzarella and tomatoes on top.  Not too bad for college students, right? Then we had a couple more of the guys that live in the villa come over and we played cards until around 2 because no one else seemed to have any other plans and we were pretty content with just staying in.  Since it was 2 and I had ridden my bike to the villa I decided to spend the night there which was great since they have lots of extra room there.  

I woke up this morning and made my way back to the apartment.  It was a pretty chilly ride back at 9 am, but a good way to wake myself up.  Now I am just getting out of the shower and eating some food before a group of us head to Bologna for the afternoon/night.  I was flipping through my Fodor's book last week trying to find things to do in Italy and found out that there was a festival this weekend in Bologna (only about an hour train ride away) so we are headed there.  We have had good luck with festivals so far, so hopefully this one will turn out well too.  We are leaving here around 1:30 pm and then catching a train back to Parma around 12:30 tonight that will get us back here around 2 am.  We figured it would give us enough time to see the city and the festival without having to pay for lodging for a night.  Everyone else starts classes on Monday, but I don't ever have classes on Mondays so I'll have another day to get back on a regular sleeping routine.  

I've also booked a lot of trips since I last wrote.  Here's my schedule as of now in case any of you care or are keeping track:

Oct. 4: Bologna

Oct. 10-12: Lisbon, Portugal

Oct. 23-26: Barcelona, Spain

Oct. 31-Nov.2: Lucerne, Switzerland

Nov. 7-10: Elena and Hil come to Parma to visit!

Nov. 14-16: Trapani, Sicily

Nov. 21-23: Verona/Venice

Nov. 26-30: London

Dec. 6-8: Alps (a pre-planned/paid for trip with all of the BC kids)

Dec. 12: Program ends

So basically I am going to be super busy, but I think it will be perfect.  There isn't a whole lot to do here in Parma that can't be seen during the week so I figure I might as well do as much traveling as I can on the weekends.  

Well I started this blog when I got out of the shower and now my hair is officially freezing (I forgot to mention the arctic temperatures inside of my apartment!) so I think I am going to go finish getting ready for Bologna.  

I hope all of you are doing well.  Keep the email updates coming.

Love and miss you all!

E

P.S. For those who care, I have officially won shanghai twice now :)