Last week was pretty typical for me...classes, going to the villa for cards, last dinner at Anna's (SAD), private cooking lesson to learn how to make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, and doing some work for these next few weeks. On Friday, BC sponsored a trip to Verona which I was pretty excited about since I didn't remember much about it from the last time I went. It actually turned out to be a rather unfortunate day though because our typical leader, Caterina, had just gotten back from BC the night before so she put two of our other professors in charge for the day. One of them had never been to Verona before except to take her child to the doctor and the other one only seemed to know how to say "Arco Romano" (Roman Arch) and other miscellaneous and unnecessary tidbits of information. I did finally get my chocolate calda (hot chocolate) there though! It was awesome (looked like it was just going to be straight chocolate pudding, but actually had some liquid consistency to it).
After we finished up the day in Verona, a few friends and I took a train to Venice for the night. We arrived around dinner time, checked into the hostel and then went to find something to eat. Venice is so ridiculous to try and maneuver around, but luckily one of my friends had spent 3 days there prior to our semester abroad so he knew his way around pretty well. We found dinner at some small restaurant not far from the hostel and had some decent food. I had read that pasta e fagioli soup was supposed to be great in Venice, but I ordered it and was not that impressed. Maybe I am just used to something different since I'm from the states, but I think from now on I'll stick to some other dishes. After dinner, my friend who knew his way around Venice also had a cousin living in the Wake Forest house in Venice so we headed over there to hang out for a while. That house is absolutely disgusting. I took some photos for you guys to see because I can't even describe how nice it is. Its right on the Grand Canal, has many huge common rooms, a professional kitchen, huge bedrooms and bathrooms, etc. I was in awe. I was also excited to be able to have some NC conversations with those kids, but apparently Wake no longer admits NC students because they were all from the rest of the country. Quite unfortunate. Most of them were really nice so we had a fun night of being in a more college-like atmosphere which was a nice change for just one night.
Saturday we woke up fairly early to make sure we could get the most in for the day. Originally when we checked in the hostel told us that in the morning we should come to the front desk, pick up a voucher and then head over to the Chinese Buffet for a free breakfast. We were all a little sketched out by this proposition, but figured it was free so we might as well try. That morning though the Chinese Buffet was closed so we quickly realized that we would instead be eating day old croissants from the bar next door (I'm not sure which would have been a better option.) The rest of the day we spent just walking around THE ENTIRE CITY. As my friend Kristin said, I really wish we had pedometers here to see how much we walk in a day. Jeff and I had already been to Venice (and I'm going back for 4 days in Dec/Jan) so we didn't feel the need to pay to see things this time, but we still had a great time just walking around. Venice is such a unique city. We walked into about every store that sold Murano glass (which is approximately 1 million) and stood in awe at each one. To finish the day off we took a water bus around the entire island (we were too cheap to pay the 80 euro for the gondola ride) and got to see a gorgeous sunset over the water. We took a train back to Parma around 7 and as usual nothing can ever go smoothly with public transportation. When we purchased our tickets we were given only one each and it said that we would be going to Parma via Bologna. We weren't sure if this meant that we would need to switch trains in Bologna or not, but assumed probably not since we had only been issued one ticket. The ride from Parma to Bologna was nice and smooth, no complaints there. Then once we arrived in Bologna it seemed that everyone was getting off the train, so the boys got off to see if they could figure out if we were supposed to switch. Dave came back on and said that he thought we needed to go to another train, but by the time we could start to gather our things the train started to move again. We figured we could just deal with it at the next train station, but there would be no next train station as this train never gained speed and headed straight for the docking station away from all civilization and lights. PERFECT. We immediately grabbed up our things and tried to get off the train at this point, but they had locked all of the doors assuming that everyone was already off the train. We freaked a little and started power walking towards the front of the train, trying to make it to the conductor so he could let us off, but before we could do that all of the lights on the train went off. We all jumped and then screamed that someone needed to pull the emergency lock on the door and as soon as we did we all fell off of the train into some dark alley way. There was a man standing alone at the end so we all decided to turn around and walk away (Kristin and I were a little more on a mission with this and booked it to the train station). We had to cross over a million train tracks always looking to make sure a EuroStar train wasn't about to come and pummel us, but we made it safely back and in time to catch the train we were supposed to be on. Nothing like a little adrenaline rush, right? haha. We made it back to Parma safely and I had the entire apartment to myself. I blasted Christmas music (obviously), took a loooong hot shower and just chilled out for the night.
Sunday morning we woke up to go to the Christmas market off of our main piazza in Parma. It was so cute, lots of samples of food and Christmas decorations. It was fun to just spend some time looking around and walking around with the locals. Afterwards, I headed back to my apartment to do some work for this week and then went to the villa for our Thanksgiving Dinner! It took us all afternoon to prepare but it was absolutely amazing. My friend Jeff is an awesome cook and he made a great turkey, stuffing, apple pie and pumpkin pie. I made the veggies (green beans and broccoli), Nate made mashed potatoes (I've never seen a larger pot of them in my life), Dave made this French Canadian dish (potatoes, meat, onions and seasoning-AWESOME), Kristin and Steph made the world's best chocolate cookies that we learned how to make at Anna's last week. It was so much food, but totally worth it. Although it wasn't quite like being home, it was definitely a nice alternative to get to spend a pseudo Thanksgiving with 10 other people in our program. So fun!
Today I've got to do some work on my final presentation for my Organizational Behavior class. It shouldn't be too bad since I have already done all of the research, but also doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, so I'm procrastinating a little. Its hard to believe I only have 2 days in Parma this week before I head off to London! I can't wait. My roomies there have a great itinerary planned out for us and I'm just so excited to see them all and hang out in a city where they speak English and love the Christmas season as much as I do! I will be taking tons and tons of photos to share with you all so no worries there.
I hope you all are doing well. I got home from Venice and had lots of update emails which was great! I wish you guys the best Thanksgiving ever and hopefully I will get to talk with you all soon! Ciao!
Love,
E
No comments:
Post a Comment