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 :)