Ciao tutti!
Ok so I’m pretty sure I left off with Berlin. After Berlin we went to Dresden, Germany. Which is this amazingly cute little town, very picturesque. It was bombed completely in WWII and after that was in Eastern Germany. Only recently have they begun to restore the old part of the town.
After that we went to a Concentration Camp, Terezin. It was an old fortress that the Nazi’s converted into a concentration camp during WWII. It was intense to see where they were kept and killed. Definitely an experience.
Then we got to Prague. Prague is GORGEOUS!!! Definitely my favorite city so far. They have their own currency, not on the Euro, so stuff like food was really cheap, which was nice. We went and got a nice dinner, except the service was awful and I ordered the Goulash that I thought would be like my mother’s Goulash, but it was not!!! Mother you cost me a nice dinner, because you have been feeding me lies about what real Goulash is, its basically stew, and I didn’t want stew. Fail. Oh well
Then Monday morning we had a walking guided tour that took us all around. And then in the afternoon I met up with my friend Katia and her friend Susan who live about an hour away from Prague. Katia was visiting her aunt in the states last summer so I showed her around the bay then and she showed me around Prague here! It was so great to catch up and hang out with locals. We rented paddleboats, then got food and shopped a bit. We even got giant iced coffees at this hidden local place for super cheap. It was sooooo good! Oh and while waiting we saw this famous Czech actress I guess, which was cool. Then they had to get back because their last bus was leaving, so I met back up with the group and watch the football (its football here, not soccer). I’ve definitely got world cup fever, which is great because everybody here is mad for football. Now that all my teams are out, I’ve decided to root for the Netherlands, which probably means they are going to lose next. Ha-ha but overall Prague was fantastic!!!
Ok next, on the way to Budapest, we stopped in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It was ok, we didn’t get much time there, but they have these funny looking statues all around the city, which were fun to take pictures with. And we saw this really pretty bright blue church, which was cool. But it was nice to only spend a lunch there.
Ok next was Budapest, Hungary. They aren’t on the Euro either, so we had to divide everything by 280, which was quite annoying. But food was really cheap. The first night in Budapest we all went to a Karaoke bar, and with a little liquid courage, there was some funny songs sung, among them my heart will go on by our tour director. Ha-ha. Then the next morning we had a bus guided tour around the city, and then shopped a bit. Then we took a boat cruise for an hour right at sunset, which was breathtaking. Then we got dinner, and I tried this typical Hungarian dish, which was boiled potatoes in Paprika. Hungary is famous for its paprika, but I have no room in my suitcase to bring any back, sorry! Then we went to a local club for a bit before coming back and hitting the sack.
We just arrived in Vienna, Austria! I am having a blast, but I really really really really really can’t wait until I can come home. 4 months and now constant traveling is exhausting, I’m ready to come home to my own bed! Aright, until next time! Ill try to post pictures to facebook but the Internet here isn’t great, so we’ll see. Ciao!
~Alyson~
☺
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Berlin: the coolest city in Europe
Ciao from Berlin!
So Berlin has been named the coolest city in Europe, of which I have to agree, it is a cool city. Its very modern, but a cool modern, using angles and lots of glass. Berlin is one of the cheaper cities in Germany so it is a central point for all the artist type, which gives it a pretty cool (I’m going to use that word a lot, see if you can count how many) vibe.
So we got to Berlin around 4ish on Friday after a 6-hour train ride from Amsterdam. We got ready and went and saw the Brandenburg gate, the famous gate where Reagan gave his speech telling Gorbachev to tear down the wall. It’s where all the millions of people came in ’89 when the wall finally fell. We caught it just at sunset, which was great. Then we went to the memorial for the Jews that died in the holocaust, it was a bunch of cement blocks that are supposed to represent the tombs of those who died, they range in size, and also the ground dips and rises as you reach the center. It is a really cool memorial, quite well done, one of my favorites. Then we went to the Reichstag building, which is the parliament building. It has a cool glass dome that you can walk up with a bunch of mirrors in this cool inverted triangle sort of a thing. It would have been really cool if we weren’t so hungry, so by this time it was 9 and we really hadn’t had anything since breakfast. So after that we booked it to the nearest restaurant and impressed the waitress by how much food we ordered. It was amazing. Then we went out looking for this cool club thing our guide told us about, but on the way we went up in some building which had graffiti all over it, and was filled with different art exhibits, all the starving artist seem to come to this area of Berlin and showcase their work, a lot of which is really cool. We finally found the club thing, which is this big area of sand with club/bars surrounding it. There were bands playing and people just chilling drinking by fires having a good time. It was fun just to relax and hang out with our whole group.
Ok so today we got to sleep in (finally!) I think that was the first time this whole trip I have gotten more than 5 or so hours of sleep, no joke. Then we had a guided bus tour, which showed us all the cool places in Berlin. We saw the Hitler’s bunker where he killed himself. Then we went to this place, which has the largest remaining part of the Berlin wall. Every few years they invite these international graffiti artists to come and paint it. It’s really cool! My favorite was one with the famous picture of the kiss between East German leader Erich Honecker and his Soviet counterpart Leonid Brezhnev. Then Sora and I signed part of the wall!!!! I signed the Berlin wall; pretty cool I’d say. After that we went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which tells the stories of all the escape attempts across the wall to West Berlin. One story they hid this girl in the passenger seat of a car, like she was sitting inside the seat. Another family made their own airplane from getting directions by reading a book from the library. Some of the stories and pictures were quite amazing. Checkpoint Charlie for those who don’t know was the checkpoint for internationals going from the American sector in West Berlin to East Berlin. After this we took a break before we went to this street where they had huge screens of the football (soccer for all you Americans) going. We watched the USA lose a heartbreaking match to Ghana. I seemed to have inherited my father’s terrible luck for picking the sports teams, Italy being eliminated in the first round! Gah! So now I’m back in my hotel packing, we leave for Prague tomorrow! I posted pictures on facebook if you would like to see more! Ciao!
~Alyson~
Friday, June 25, 2010
Brussels/Amsterdam. Waffles/Pancakes
Ciao tutti!
Don't have a lot of time, so just a quick overview. We left paris late, so we only had about one hour in Brussels, which so wasn't enough time. We went first to a world famous Belgium chocolate place, then we got waffles (of course). There was also some sort of Army/police graduation thingy going on. we kept asking people, but nobody knew what was going on exactly. but it was in what is called the most beautiful square in Europe, which it was.
ok we got to Amsterdam that night, and we went and walked through the redlight district. Prostitution is legal in Amsterdam, so you walk through and there are these glass windows with girls just sitting waiting for guys to come in. it was an experience. apparently if you take pictures of them they will come out and chase you down in their heels for you to delete the pictures, so thankfully none of us took pictures of them.
the next day we went to the Anne Frank house. She was a young jewish girl of about 13 during WWI, living in hiding with her family, where she kept a diary: "the diary of Anne Frank". it was really interesting. we could see the secret bookcase where they would have to sneak into their annex where they were hiding. it was crazy. Then we walked around for a bit and went back to the hotel and slept before we did a pub crawl that night.
Thursday we got the world famous dutch pancakes, which were amazing! then we had a bike tour of Amsterdam. (there are bikes everywhere! worse than UCSB) it was fun, but some of our group had never ridden a bike before, so we kept having to stop because we lost people. we were an hour late and we didn't even get to some of the stops. but we did get to see the I AMsterdam sign, which was pretty cool. then we went and ate and watched Italy lose and get eliminated (I think I have inherited my dad's lousy luck with my sports teams). anyways I gotta go to dinner, but I loved Brussels and wished we could have spent more time there, and amsterdam had a really cool vibe. I liked it waaay better than Paris. ok ciao!
~Alyson~
:-)
Don't have a lot of time, so just a quick overview. We left paris late, so we only had about one hour in Brussels, which so wasn't enough time. We went first to a world famous Belgium chocolate place, then we got waffles (of course). There was also some sort of Army/police graduation thingy going on. we kept asking people, but nobody knew what was going on exactly. but it was in what is called the most beautiful square in Europe, which it was.
ok we got to Amsterdam that night, and we went and walked through the redlight district. Prostitution is legal in Amsterdam, so you walk through and there are these glass windows with girls just sitting waiting for guys to come in. it was an experience. apparently if you take pictures of them they will come out and chase you down in their heels for you to delete the pictures, so thankfully none of us took pictures of them.
the next day we went to the Anne Frank house. She was a young jewish girl of about 13 during WWI, living in hiding with her family, where she kept a diary: "the diary of Anne Frank". it was really interesting. we could see the secret bookcase where they would have to sneak into their annex where they were hiding. it was crazy. Then we walked around for a bit and went back to the hotel and slept before we did a pub crawl that night.
Thursday we got the world famous dutch pancakes, which were amazing! then we had a bike tour of Amsterdam. (there are bikes everywhere! worse than UCSB) it was fun, but some of our group had never ridden a bike before, so we kept having to stop because we lost people. we were an hour late and we didn't even get to some of the stops. but we did get to see the I AMsterdam sign, which was pretty cool. then we went and ate and watched Italy lose and get eliminated (I think I have inherited my dad's lousy luck with my sports teams). anyways I gotta go to dinner, but I loved Brussels and wished we could have spent more time there, and amsterdam had a really cool vibe. I liked it waaay better than Paris. ok ciao!
~Alyson~
:-)
Monday, June 21, 2010
Paris!
Ciao tutti!
Ok here is the rundown of Paris. We got in Saturday afternoon, and then checked into the hotel then all went out to see the Notre Dame. It was a good style of a gothic church, but I have liked other churches better. Then we all got our first crepes, and then went back to the hotel to rest before dinner. That night we had a 4-course meal (with unlimited wine). We even tried snails there, it wasn’t that bad. Cover anything with butter and garlic and you will be fine. Hahah.
So then Sunday was my favorite day. We had a bus tour in the morning, and then we went to Versailles. The Palace wasn’t the coolest thing I’ve seen but the gardens are worth the trip in itself. There are so many beautiful gardens and every time you turn a corner you find something new. I could have spent hours in there! My favorite place in Paris hands down. Then we met up with sora who finally got to Paris. Apparently the cops saw a video of the guy steeling her purse while for a second we were all looking away. But he dumped it (without her camera) across town but it still had the passport in it! She was so lucky. The cop that found her actually contacted her through MYSPACE!!! Isn’t that nuts! The police force! It took her a while also because the cops put it in some high tech special safe that only one person in the whole city has a key to, so it took them a while to track the guy down, but she finally got here!!!! That night we went to the church on the hill with a lookout over the city, and also the Moulin Rouge! We just saw the outside of it, shows are really expensive, but it was cool to see!
Monday we did the Louvre in the morning. All there really to see there is the Mona Lisa, which is way smaller than I thought it was going to be. Then we got lost for a bit and saw the concords. Then we all met up and went to the top of the Eiffel tower!!! The view was amazing. It was super high, some people got freaked out. Then since it’s the solstice there was a huge music festival playing all over Paris! It was super cool, all these really good bands playing on every street corner. It reminded me of Scotland last year during the fringe festival.
So that was pretty much Paris. It wasn’t my favorite city, but it was cool to see and some parts were amazingly pretty!!! All right now off to Brussels/Amsterdam!!! Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
☺
Ok here is the rundown of Paris. We got in Saturday afternoon, and then checked into the hotel then all went out to see the Notre Dame. It was a good style of a gothic church, but I have liked other churches better. Then we all got our first crepes, and then went back to the hotel to rest before dinner. That night we had a 4-course meal (with unlimited wine). We even tried snails there, it wasn’t that bad. Cover anything with butter and garlic and you will be fine. Hahah.
So then Sunday was my favorite day. We had a bus tour in the morning, and then we went to Versailles. The Palace wasn’t the coolest thing I’ve seen but the gardens are worth the trip in itself. There are so many beautiful gardens and every time you turn a corner you find something new. I could have spent hours in there! My favorite place in Paris hands down. Then we met up with sora who finally got to Paris. Apparently the cops saw a video of the guy steeling her purse while for a second we were all looking away. But he dumped it (without her camera) across town but it still had the passport in it! She was so lucky. The cop that found her actually contacted her through MYSPACE!!! Isn’t that nuts! The police force! It took her a while also because the cops put it in some high tech special safe that only one person in the whole city has a key to, so it took them a while to track the guy down, but she finally got here!!!! That night we went to the church on the hill with a lookout over the city, and also the Moulin Rouge! We just saw the outside of it, shows are really expensive, but it was cool to see!
Monday we did the Louvre in the morning. All there really to see there is the Mona Lisa, which is way smaller than I thought it was going to be. Then we got lost for a bit and saw the concords. Then we all met up and went to the top of the Eiffel tower!!! The view was amazing. It was super high, some people got freaked out. Then since it’s the solstice there was a huge music festival playing all over Paris! It was super cool, all these really good bands playing on every street corner. It reminded me of Scotland last year during the fringe festival.
So that was pretty much Paris. It wasn’t my favorite city, but it was cool to see and some parts were amazingly pretty!!! All right now off to Brussels/Amsterdam!!! Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
☺
Everything sounds nicer in a British accent.
Ciao tutti! (I know this is a few days old, sorry I haven't had time to upload it)
Ok so quick update on the last 3 days in London. Wednesday I met up with my EF group. There are 41 people and still I know about 5 people’s names. But they are all super nice! We checked into our hotel and then had welcome drinks. Then some friends and me went to platform 9 ¾ in kings cross-station, because we are that cool.
Thursday we got up and went on a walking tour around London and then took a hop-on-hop-off tour. Then we walked around London for a bit. We went out to a club that night, but London definitely doesn’t stay out as late as other cities I have been to. But it was still fun.
Today (Friday) we went to Bath and Stonehenge. Unfortunately we spent more time on the bus going there then actually there. But it was nice to see bath again. And Stonehenge is really impressive. They were all there getting ready for the summer solstice where people camp out waiting to see the famous sunrise in Stonehenge, because I guess Stonehenge works sort of as an ancient sundial. We got back from Stonehenge and then some of us did a Jack the Ripper tour. This tour guide walked us all around London showing us the murder spots of Jack the ripper, the first serial killer. The guide made it fun, and he really knew his stuff. He’s even taken Johnny depp on a private tour before.
I loved London this time around. Last year I didn’t really feel like I got a grasp on the city, but this time I knew it better and I was able to sit back and enjoy it without having to take crazy pictures everywhere. I will miss London.
Ok so Saturday morning we were at the train station where my friend Sora who is doing this trip with me got her walled stolen. We were all sitting by the bags and suddenly it wasn’t there. She had to stay In London while the rest of us went on the train to Paris. I tried to stay with her, but the tour guide wouldn’t let me. Anyways, so that is London, Ill post one of Paris soon. Arrivederci!!!
~Alyson~
☺
Ok so quick update on the last 3 days in London. Wednesday I met up with my EF group. There are 41 people and still I know about 5 people’s names. But they are all super nice! We checked into our hotel and then had welcome drinks. Then some friends and me went to platform 9 ¾ in kings cross-station, because we are that cool.
Thursday we got up and went on a walking tour around London and then took a hop-on-hop-off tour. Then we walked around London for a bit. We went out to a club that night, but London definitely doesn’t stay out as late as other cities I have been to. But it was still fun.
Today (Friday) we went to Bath and Stonehenge. Unfortunately we spent more time on the bus going there then actually there. But it was nice to see bath again. And Stonehenge is really impressive. They were all there getting ready for the summer solstice where people camp out waiting to see the famous sunrise in Stonehenge, because I guess Stonehenge works sort of as an ancient sundial. We got back from Stonehenge and then some of us did a Jack the Ripper tour. This tour guide walked us all around London showing us the murder spots of Jack the ripper, the first serial killer. The guide made it fun, and he really knew his stuff. He’s even taken Johnny depp on a private tour before.
I loved London this time around. Last year I didn’t really feel like I got a grasp on the city, but this time I knew it better and I was able to sit back and enjoy it without having to take crazy pictures everywhere. I will miss London.
Ok so Saturday morning we were at the train station where my friend Sora who is doing this trip with me got her walled stolen. We were all sitting by the bags and suddenly it wasn’t there. She had to stay In London while the rest of us went on the train to Paris. I tried to stay with her, but the tour guide wouldn’t let me. Anyways, so that is London, Ill post one of Paris soon. Arrivederci!!!
~Alyson~
☺
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
London with my mamma :-)
Ciao tutti!
So my mom just left for the airport! (sad) so I am just sitting here in the hotel waiting to go to my next hotel for my next 20 day tour through EF college Breaks. This tour will go from London to Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Munich. I am super excited but for now I will tell you all (because I know you all care) about my time here in London with my mommy.
We flew in Saturday night and got to our hotel, which is right by Victoria station.
Sunday we got up and went to St. Paul’s cathedral for the Sung Eucharist. It was great to go to church in such a beautiful location. Then we went on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour around London. It was nice because we didn’t really take pictures since we had been here last year, so we could really focus on hearing all the information and enjoying the sites. We didn’t get back to the hotel until 7, so we just stayed in and relaxed.
Monday we got up and were going to go look for this house that my mom read a book about, but the tube was so backed up it took us 1.5 hours just to get to Leister Square where we had to go to get half price theatre tickets. Then we waited 30 min for another hop on bus to come and take us to Kensington palace, but it didn’t tell us where to get off so we ended up having to take the tube anyways. Finally after we got there we toured the palace. Which was interesting. They have this “enchanted palace” theme with stories of princesses who lived there. If you go, make sure you talk to the guides because without them telling you the stories it really isn’t worth it. Then we got back to central London and saw the national portrait gallery, which was great because my mom knows everything about English monarchs so she could tell me cool facts about everyone. Monday night we went to see Sweet Charity. It wasn’t the best musical in the world, but I guess it was entertaining. But it wasn’t Wicked or Billy Eliot for sure. But it was fun.
Tuesday we had all around better luck. We went first to Hampton court where King Henry VIII held court for most of his life. And that was cool; they had a mini demonstration with actors playing Henry VIII and Katharine Parr getting ready for their wedding. Then we saw the beautiful gardens there. We went back to London and saw the British Library again, which has the most amazing stuff. From the Gutenberg Bible, to the Magna Carta, to the original Alice in Wonderland given to Alice to original Shakespeare and even some original Beatles stuff. Quite amazing. Then we went to a movie and saw Prince of Persia, which was fun. Then we just came back to the room and packed and went to bed.
Alright I gotta go, time to start Europe: part 3!
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
☺
So my mom just left for the airport! (sad) so I am just sitting here in the hotel waiting to go to my next hotel for my next 20 day tour through EF college Breaks. This tour will go from London to Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Munich. I am super excited but for now I will tell you all (because I know you all care) about my time here in London with my mommy.
We flew in Saturday night and got to our hotel, which is right by Victoria station.
Sunday we got up and went to St. Paul’s cathedral for the Sung Eucharist. It was great to go to church in such a beautiful location. Then we went on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour around London. It was nice because we didn’t really take pictures since we had been here last year, so we could really focus on hearing all the information and enjoying the sites. We didn’t get back to the hotel until 7, so we just stayed in and relaxed.
Monday we got up and were going to go look for this house that my mom read a book about, but the tube was so backed up it took us 1.5 hours just to get to Leister Square where we had to go to get half price theatre tickets. Then we waited 30 min for another hop on bus to come and take us to Kensington palace, but it didn’t tell us where to get off so we ended up having to take the tube anyways. Finally after we got there we toured the palace. Which was interesting. They have this “enchanted palace” theme with stories of princesses who lived there. If you go, make sure you talk to the guides because without them telling you the stories it really isn’t worth it. Then we got back to central London and saw the national portrait gallery, which was great because my mom knows everything about English monarchs so she could tell me cool facts about everyone. Monday night we went to see Sweet Charity. It wasn’t the best musical in the world, but I guess it was entertaining. But it wasn’t Wicked or Billy Eliot for sure. But it was fun.
Tuesday we had all around better luck. We went first to Hampton court where King Henry VIII held court for most of his life. And that was cool; they had a mini demonstration with actors playing Henry VIII and Katharine Parr getting ready for their wedding. Then we saw the beautiful gardens there. We went back to London and saw the British Library again, which has the most amazing stuff. From the Gutenberg Bible, to the Magna Carta, to the original Alice in Wonderland given to Alice to original Shakespeare and even some original Beatles stuff. Quite amazing. Then we went to a movie and saw Prince of Persia, which was fun. Then we just came back to the room and packed and went to bed.
Alright I gotta go, time to start Europe: part 3!
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
☺
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Cruise!
Ciao tutti!
Ok so I know I have been bad and not updated this in a while. BUT my mom and I just finished our cruise and it was fabulous!!! We started the cruise on Saturday and then Sunday we arrived in Split, Croatia. Unfortunately we didn’t have a very good map and no tour so we walked around Split but didn’t really know what we were seeing, which was disappointing. But we did walk around Diocletian’s palace, which is this big market-like place with shops and things like that, which was cool.
Monday we arrived in Corfu, Greece. Corfu was my favorite place on the cruise. We took a shuttle into town and then walked around the old fort that the Venetians had built in around the 1500s (I think). It was a gorgeous hot day and the water there was crystal clear blue. After that we walked around the town, which was filled with cool little side streets with shops and vendors. We saw some gorgeous churches and even a Synagogue. We also stepped our feet in the Ionian Sea, which was the clearest water I have ever seen. Corfu is also the greenest Island of Greece, so it was perfectly picturesque. I loved it.
Ok so then Tuesday we went to Athens. There we took a tour that took us to the Acropolis and the Parthenon. It was truly amazing, a wonder of the world. Unfortunately our guide talked FOREVER so we only had 45 min to walk around the acropolis and be back down the hill in time for the bus to leave ☹ It really didn’t give us enough time to stand and appreciate where we were. Oh well, then we went and stopped by the Olympic stadium in Athens, which was cool. But by that time we were so tired we then just went back to the boat and slept till dinner.
Wednesday was Mykonos. We had signed up for a trip to the beach that morning (the Aegean), but unfortunately that was the one overcast and cold day!!! What rotten luck! But we went in the cold water, and can now say we swam in the Aegean. We went back to town, which is filled with gorgeous white houses with blue lining, one of the typical pictures when you think of Greece. We had traditional Greek food at a local restaurant and shopped a little, but since we went to the beach earlier we didn’t have time to really explore the town before we had to get back to our boat. Also, since it was overcast, the whole town looked more grey then white. If the day had been like it was in Corfu, I think I would have liked it more.
Thursday we saw the ancient site of Olympia. That was cool. We took a shuttle there, but didn’t get a guided tour so it gave us a chance to really explore it on our own which was nice. We read the little signs and mom remembered some stuff she had read in her guidebook (which she conveniently left at home). But then we rand into some friends from our table at dinner who had taken a tour so they gave us some snapshots of the interesting stuff their tour guide gave them, so we lucked out there. We saw where they light the Olympic torch before every Olympic games. And also the ancient stadium and even ran a little bit of the way there. Haha. Then we saw the archeological museum, which has some cool ancient Greek mythological statues, which I loved. Finally we just found some shady grass and ate some Baklava and enjoyed our final time in Greece.
Friday was just a day at sea, so I packed my large suitcase while mom relaxed and tanned by the side of the pool. ☺ For our first cruise it was really fun. Mom and I played mini golf one day (she won of course) and we read by the pool some other afternoons. We saw some of the shows, there was a Beatles group and then some singers and dancers one night. Mom’s favorite was this Motown group who was really good, but I didn’t know many of the songs which mom thought was a travesty. Oh and there was also a magician the last night, who was really good. One really nice thing about our cruise was that our table was really fun. Really fun talkative people, some of which were my age, which was great. ☺ And of course the food was amazing. We had 2 teenage boys at our table and by the end of the cruise our waiter just brought them basically the whole menu, so we always had tons of different foods at our table.
The cruise came into Venice early Saturday morning, and mom and I dragged our suitcases up a bunch of stairs to the train station to leave them there while we went and explored Venice. I loved Venice. I have wanted to see Venice ever since I was little and it was just as cool and mysterious as I expected it to be. We got lost for a bit before we found St. Marcs square and then toured the Doge’s palace, which was cool. Then we sat and had a coffee and cornetto in the square watching people feed the birds with the Basilica in the background. It was quite a lovely experience. The line was too long to see the Basilica, but honestly I had seen enough churches in Italy to last me a lifetime. Then we took a Vaporetto (the local water taxi system) to a small park and then found a nice restaurant where I had one last pizza in Italy. It was a fun place and the owner even came out and sang a couple of silly Italian songs while we ate. A good find. Then we went and got lost a bit more in Venice before we got our bags and took a bus to the airport. Our flight was a bit rocky but mom (who doesn’t do well on planes) did really well! We got into London late last night. Our hotel is in the Victoria area.
Today we got up and went to St. Paul’s Cathedral for the Sung Eucharist service. It was cool to go to church in such a gorgeous setting. The Cathedral is really magnificent, much prettier I thought then San Paulo church in Rome were St. Paul is actually buried. Then we ate lunch and went on a hop on hop off tour. Being Sunday nothing much is open after 6, so now we are just relaxing in our hotel room planning what we are going to do the next two days. We are loving London! I do miss Italy and my host family a lot (I can tell my Italian is slipping badly), but London is such an amazingly beautiful city, it’s hard to be sad about anything. Alright, if you are still reading this I applaud you and check facebook for all my pictures of Greece, and I will try to upload some London ones tomorrow or the next day.
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
☺
Ok so I know I have been bad and not updated this in a while. BUT my mom and I just finished our cruise and it was fabulous!!! We started the cruise on Saturday and then Sunday we arrived in Split, Croatia. Unfortunately we didn’t have a very good map and no tour so we walked around Split but didn’t really know what we were seeing, which was disappointing. But we did walk around Diocletian’s palace, which is this big market-like place with shops and things like that, which was cool.
Monday we arrived in Corfu, Greece. Corfu was my favorite place on the cruise. We took a shuttle into town and then walked around the old fort that the Venetians had built in around the 1500s (I think). It was a gorgeous hot day and the water there was crystal clear blue. After that we walked around the town, which was filled with cool little side streets with shops and vendors. We saw some gorgeous churches and even a Synagogue. We also stepped our feet in the Ionian Sea, which was the clearest water I have ever seen. Corfu is also the greenest Island of Greece, so it was perfectly picturesque. I loved it.
Ok so then Tuesday we went to Athens. There we took a tour that took us to the Acropolis and the Parthenon. It was truly amazing, a wonder of the world. Unfortunately our guide talked FOREVER so we only had 45 min to walk around the acropolis and be back down the hill in time for the bus to leave ☹ It really didn’t give us enough time to stand and appreciate where we were. Oh well, then we went and stopped by the Olympic stadium in Athens, which was cool. But by that time we were so tired we then just went back to the boat and slept till dinner.
Wednesday was Mykonos. We had signed up for a trip to the beach that morning (the Aegean), but unfortunately that was the one overcast and cold day!!! What rotten luck! But we went in the cold water, and can now say we swam in the Aegean. We went back to town, which is filled with gorgeous white houses with blue lining, one of the typical pictures when you think of Greece. We had traditional Greek food at a local restaurant and shopped a little, but since we went to the beach earlier we didn’t have time to really explore the town before we had to get back to our boat. Also, since it was overcast, the whole town looked more grey then white. If the day had been like it was in Corfu, I think I would have liked it more.
Thursday we saw the ancient site of Olympia. That was cool. We took a shuttle there, but didn’t get a guided tour so it gave us a chance to really explore it on our own which was nice. We read the little signs and mom remembered some stuff she had read in her guidebook (which she conveniently left at home). But then we rand into some friends from our table at dinner who had taken a tour so they gave us some snapshots of the interesting stuff their tour guide gave them, so we lucked out there. We saw where they light the Olympic torch before every Olympic games. And also the ancient stadium and even ran a little bit of the way there. Haha. Then we saw the archeological museum, which has some cool ancient Greek mythological statues, which I loved. Finally we just found some shady grass and ate some Baklava and enjoyed our final time in Greece.
Friday was just a day at sea, so I packed my large suitcase while mom relaxed and tanned by the side of the pool. ☺ For our first cruise it was really fun. Mom and I played mini golf one day (she won of course) and we read by the pool some other afternoons. We saw some of the shows, there was a Beatles group and then some singers and dancers one night. Mom’s favorite was this Motown group who was really good, but I didn’t know many of the songs which mom thought was a travesty. Oh and there was also a magician the last night, who was really good. One really nice thing about our cruise was that our table was really fun. Really fun talkative people, some of which were my age, which was great. ☺ And of course the food was amazing. We had 2 teenage boys at our table and by the end of the cruise our waiter just brought them basically the whole menu, so we always had tons of different foods at our table.
The cruise came into Venice early Saturday morning, and mom and I dragged our suitcases up a bunch of stairs to the train station to leave them there while we went and explored Venice. I loved Venice. I have wanted to see Venice ever since I was little and it was just as cool and mysterious as I expected it to be. We got lost for a bit before we found St. Marcs square and then toured the Doge’s palace, which was cool. Then we sat and had a coffee and cornetto in the square watching people feed the birds with the Basilica in the background. It was quite a lovely experience. The line was too long to see the Basilica, but honestly I had seen enough churches in Italy to last me a lifetime. Then we took a Vaporetto (the local water taxi system) to a small park and then found a nice restaurant where I had one last pizza in Italy. It was a fun place and the owner even came out and sang a couple of silly Italian songs while we ate. A good find. Then we went and got lost a bit more in Venice before we got our bags and took a bus to the airport. Our flight was a bit rocky but mom (who doesn’t do well on planes) did really well! We got into London late last night. Our hotel is in the Victoria area.
Today we got up and went to St. Paul’s Cathedral for the Sung Eucharist service. It was cool to go to church in such a gorgeous setting. The Cathedral is really magnificent, much prettier I thought then San Paulo church in Rome were St. Paul is actually buried. Then we ate lunch and went on a hop on hop off tour. Being Sunday nothing much is open after 6, so now we are just relaxing in our hotel room planning what we are going to do the next two days. We are loving London! I do miss Italy and my host family a lot (I can tell my Italian is slipping badly), but London is such an amazingly beautiful city, it’s hard to be sad about anything. Alright, if you are still reading this I applaud you and check facebook for all my pictures of Greece, and I will try to upload some London ones tomorrow or the next day.
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
☺
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Last week in Rogliano! plus meeting my mom!
Ciao Tutti!!!
So I think I left off with Tropea, I’m sorry I’ve waited so long to write this, I have been soooooo busy with my family!!!! The last week I just tried to spend as much time with my family as possible. Friday night we got a tour of all the chiese (churches) in Rogliano. It was pretty sweet. But after we saw the churches it was about midnight and some of us decided to go sneak into the cemetery at night. We walked up the hill and luckily the door was open. So we sat and hung out in the cemetery for a bit. It was kind of spooky not gonna lie. Ahah our families were shocked we went up there, they thought we would have been terrified. But it was super cool since it was almost a full moon. Haha then Sunday me and Michelle’s family (the sisters and mom and dad of Vanessa) and also the family of Andrea (the aunt and uncle of Vanessa) all went up to the Sila Mountains for the day. We had lunch in the forest of the squirrels (scoiattoli), then drove up to the highest point, which had a gorgeous view.
Monday was our last day teaching the bambini (kids) at the schools. Shayna and I had gotten all their work they had done with us and made little packets with their name on it tied with ribbon. But the kids had a surprise for us, they had organized a party for us! The kids organized it! And it was only our class (which totally means our class is the best). Haha but it was sweet, the kids had their parents make cakes and other sweets for us. I was really sad we had to leave them ☹
Oh Monday night we stood waiting in the rain for 3 hours waiting for Mauro Fiori to arrive. Mauro Fiori is from Marzi (the town next door where some of the people in my program live) and he just won an Oscar for Best Cinemetography for Avatar. It was a huge deal because I guess this is Italy’s 3rd Oscar. So we all waited in the pouring rain for him to arrive. He came and said thanks, but didn’t stay long because his big party was on Tuesday.
Allora, Tuesday was nuts to say the least. My family got to Marzi at 330 because Aldo had to be in some show thingy for Mauro. It turns out that their “spetacolo” was just wearing shirts with Mauro’s face on it and holding balloons so it looks like the Italian flag. Except that they kind of waited too long and the kids got anzie so all the kids eventually dispersed. Then a bunch of important people gave super long speeches in Italian, which I kind of ignored. Then Mauro came out and talked for a bit and they gave him the keys to the city. Then that night Miss Italia came because she is from about 20 min away from Rogliano and is the first person from Calabria to win Miss Italia. I didn’t get to see her shoes but they must have been high because she was suuuuuuuper tall! There was some bands playing later that night along with everybody and their mother from Calabria. Haha it was nuts. They also had a gorgeous firework display. It was so much fun! I was there from 3:30 in the afternoon till about 2:30 at night. It was a white night in Marzi so everything was open super late. I even got to talk and get a picture with Mauro!!! My Italian aunt Emilia knows him and she introduced me and I talked with him for a bit in English saying how much I love rogliano and a tad about my program. He was super nice! Then again everyone from rogliano and marzi are super nice! But apparently his wife doesn’t like italy or Marzi and doesn’t like coming. She said bomino instead of bellissimo when she was thanking Marzi. Hahah
Ok so Wednesday was a national holiday in Italy so my family and Cesare’s brother and his wife and another couple all went to the beach for the day. We were there from 10:30 in the morning to about 5:30 at night. Unfortunately I had a final exam the next day so I had to study while I was there cioè (therefore) my back is burnt!!! I never get burned, and I realize now I don’t like it! But it was fun, and at least I got a little tanner. But apparently there was supposed to be a concert/music lesson by a local rogliano band, but when it came time for the concert they couldn’t find the band members. Haha so typical southern italy. Haha apparently the band members thought it was the next day.
Thursday we took our final exam, which I don’t think went tooo badly haha. But at least it’s done and it’s SUMMER!!! Then Vanessa made my favorite for lunch. Pasta alla Milanese (pasta with saffron) and her specialty zucchini!!!! It was amazing! As much as I wont miss being forced to eat way to much every meal, I will miss vanessa’s cooking because it is fantastic. Then the afternoon after my family went to work me and Michelle and Emily went out with some good Italian friends to the beach. Its cool to have made good friends here that we can keep in touch with and hopefully see when we come back (yes when). Then Thursday night we had a goodbye diner with all the families. It was fun to hang out and take pictures with everybody, but really really really really sad too because we will never again be all together at this wonderful place! Then my family and michelle’s took me to the bus station where I had to say goodbye to everybody and take the midnight bus from Calabria to Rome. I didn’t start crying till the bus pulled away and then I lost it. Im getting sad just thinking about it. I couldn’t have asked for the most generous kindest family! I will miss them forever and I am already thinking about when I can come back. It surprised me so much that I loved rogliano way more than rome. Rogliano just seemed perfect to me. Everyone was so kind and generous and loving, it really made me feel a part of the town and the family. Michelle and I have decided that we will always be Tucci’s for life! TUTTI SONO TUCCI TUTTI SONO PAZZI (Cioti in dialect).
I got into rome at 6 am at the bus station, then took the metro to the train station and sat and waited and tried to avoid all the creepers in the station for about 6 hours until my MOMMY CAME!!! Yes my mom made it safely to rome and we took a eurostar (first class!!!) up to Venice. It was nice and relaxing. We are now in our hotel and we leave for our cruise around 12 tomorrow. Its so weird that my program is over and I do miss everyone terribly but I am excited to start the next part of my adventure! Arrivederci! Ci vediamo!
~Alyson~
☺
p.s we are now on the ship on our way to croatia!!!
So I think I left off with Tropea, I’m sorry I’ve waited so long to write this, I have been soooooo busy with my family!!!! The last week I just tried to spend as much time with my family as possible. Friday night we got a tour of all the chiese (churches) in Rogliano. It was pretty sweet. But after we saw the churches it was about midnight and some of us decided to go sneak into the cemetery at night. We walked up the hill and luckily the door was open. So we sat and hung out in the cemetery for a bit. It was kind of spooky not gonna lie. Ahah our families were shocked we went up there, they thought we would have been terrified. But it was super cool since it was almost a full moon. Haha then Sunday me and Michelle’s family (the sisters and mom and dad of Vanessa) and also the family of Andrea (the aunt and uncle of Vanessa) all went up to the Sila Mountains for the day. We had lunch in the forest of the squirrels (scoiattoli), then drove up to the highest point, which had a gorgeous view.
Monday was our last day teaching the bambini (kids) at the schools. Shayna and I had gotten all their work they had done with us and made little packets with their name on it tied with ribbon. But the kids had a surprise for us, they had organized a party for us! The kids organized it! And it was only our class (which totally means our class is the best). Haha but it was sweet, the kids had their parents make cakes and other sweets for us. I was really sad we had to leave them ☹
Oh Monday night we stood waiting in the rain for 3 hours waiting for Mauro Fiori to arrive. Mauro Fiori is from Marzi (the town next door where some of the people in my program live) and he just won an Oscar for Best Cinemetography for Avatar. It was a huge deal because I guess this is Italy’s 3rd Oscar. So we all waited in the pouring rain for him to arrive. He came and said thanks, but didn’t stay long because his big party was on Tuesday.
Allora, Tuesday was nuts to say the least. My family got to Marzi at 330 because Aldo had to be in some show thingy for Mauro. It turns out that their “spetacolo” was just wearing shirts with Mauro’s face on it and holding balloons so it looks like the Italian flag. Except that they kind of waited too long and the kids got anzie so all the kids eventually dispersed. Then a bunch of important people gave super long speeches in Italian, which I kind of ignored. Then Mauro came out and talked for a bit and they gave him the keys to the city. Then that night Miss Italia came because she is from about 20 min away from Rogliano and is the first person from Calabria to win Miss Italia. I didn’t get to see her shoes but they must have been high because she was suuuuuuuper tall! There was some bands playing later that night along with everybody and their mother from Calabria. Haha it was nuts. They also had a gorgeous firework display. It was so much fun! I was there from 3:30 in the afternoon till about 2:30 at night. It was a white night in Marzi so everything was open super late. I even got to talk and get a picture with Mauro!!! My Italian aunt Emilia knows him and she introduced me and I talked with him for a bit in English saying how much I love rogliano and a tad about my program. He was super nice! Then again everyone from rogliano and marzi are super nice! But apparently his wife doesn’t like italy or Marzi and doesn’t like coming. She said bomino instead of bellissimo when she was thanking Marzi. Hahah
Ok so Wednesday was a national holiday in Italy so my family and Cesare’s brother and his wife and another couple all went to the beach for the day. We were there from 10:30 in the morning to about 5:30 at night. Unfortunately I had a final exam the next day so I had to study while I was there cioè (therefore) my back is burnt!!! I never get burned, and I realize now I don’t like it! But it was fun, and at least I got a little tanner. But apparently there was supposed to be a concert/music lesson by a local rogliano band, but when it came time for the concert they couldn’t find the band members. Haha so typical southern italy. Haha apparently the band members thought it was the next day.
Thursday we took our final exam, which I don’t think went tooo badly haha. But at least it’s done and it’s SUMMER!!! Then Vanessa made my favorite for lunch. Pasta alla Milanese (pasta with saffron) and her specialty zucchini!!!! It was amazing! As much as I wont miss being forced to eat way to much every meal, I will miss vanessa’s cooking because it is fantastic. Then the afternoon after my family went to work me and Michelle and Emily went out with some good Italian friends to the beach. Its cool to have made good friends here that we can keep in touch with and hopefully see when we come back (yes when). Then Thursday night we had a goodbye diner with all the families. It was fun to hang out and take pictures with everybody, but really really really really sad too because we will never again be all together at this wonderful place! Then my family and michelle’s took me to the bus station where I had to say goodbye to everybody and take the midnight bus from Calabria to Rome. I didn’t start crying till the bus pulled away and then I lost it. Im getting sad just thinking about it. I couldn’t have asked for the most generous kindest family! I will miss them forever and I am already thinking about when I can come back. It surprised me so much that I loved rogliano way more than rome. Rogliano just seemed perfect to me. Everyone was so kind and generous and loving, it really made me feel a part of the town and the family. Michelle and I have decided that we will always be Tucci’s for life! TUTTI SONO TUCCI TUTTI SONO PAZZI (Cioti in dialect).
I got into rome at 6 am at the bus station, then took the metro to the train station and sat and waited and tried to avoid all the creepers in the station for about 6 hours until my MOMMY CAME!!! Yes my mom made it safely to rome and we took a eurostar (first class!!!) up to Venice. It was nice and relaxing. We are now in our hotel and we leave for our cruise around 12 tomorrow. Its so weird that my program is over and I do miss everyone terribly but I am excited to start the next part of my adventure! Arrivederci! Ci vediamo!
~Alyson~
☺
p.s we are now on the ship on our way to croatia!!!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Ciao rogliano!
Ah this is my last day in Rogliano! Sorry i haven't had a chance to update this, but I will write a last up date soonish (maybe) haha but I had a fabulous time with my family and I will miss everybody here. I am taking a midnight bus to rome and meeting up with my mom tomorrow morning where we will go to venice to start our cruise! ah I am having such torn emotions! but i have to go pack now. Ciao tutti!!!
~Alyson~
:-)
~Alyson~
:-)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Tropea!
Ciao tutti!
So after we got back from Sicily, we had a pretty quite week, the usual, teach kids english, have lunch, go to class and then have dinner and just hang out with the whole family till super late at night. wednesday, Michelle, Andrea and Shayna all came over to my house for dinner, which was fun. It was a little difficult at times because me, michelle and andrea are all in second year and can pretty much understand and/or get the gist of what people say in italian, but Shayna is only in the 100 level so we had to translate alot, but it was still alot of fun. Then more of the family came over and we just sat and ate dessert and emilia (andrea's mom) who is hysterical taught us some "bad words" in italian, and we taught some to them in english, quite entertaining, haha. Thursday me, Michelle, and Andrea went to Cosenza to meet the ex of michelle's host sister. We ended up going to a mall, and it felt and smelt like a real mall, it was crazy! i didn't buy anything but if you cared to know, a mall is still a mall no matter what country you are in.
Ok but the best part of this last week had to be our trip to tropea. We left friday after lunch (the higher ups at the local schools through us a lunch party with homemade regional food, it was super nice!) and took multiple trains and got to Tropea around 7. Tropea is this amazing beach town on the west coast of Calabria. Its in all those picturesque post cards you see of the Mediterranean with tourquoise blue water and the cliffs in the background. Anyways before we left we checked the weather report and it said rain and storms all weekend. Well God was definitely on our side this weekend, we got to our hotel (there were 6 in our group) just in time for a glorious sunset over the Mediterranean. Unfortunately my camera decided to die just as we got there, so I'll have to steal some pictures from my friends. oh also our hotel had the most gorgeous higher up view of the whole town. After we took pictures of the sunset we walked down the hill and went to this recommended pizza place which was uber good. we were told that they had the best veggies ever, but I actually perfer the veggies my family makes :-) After dinner we just hung out and chatted at a gelateria, because the town was pretty dead considering its not summer yet. Then we hiked back up the huge hill to our hotel and chilled on our balcony for a bit before hitting the sack. After a night of being eaten alive by bugs we got up and saw blue skies!!!!!!!!!!! we got breakfast and then jumped in the hotel pool for an hour or so before taking the shuttle down to the hotel's private beach. The water was cold, but sooooo clear! and while there were clouds in the sky I swear god had his hand protecting the sun just for us. I got sooooo tan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! heheh we were only there for one day, but a few hours in the hot sun was perfect.
when we got back all the family went over to Michelle's house to watch the European championship soccer game which the team that my whole family hates L'inter was playing in. I was rooting for them to loose (because aldo was) but I seem to have inherited my dad's luck for picking the wrong team. L'inter won 2-0 :-( but after it was crazy because they are an italian team, and its been 45 years since they've won the copa europa the piazza in Rogliano was crazy!!! There were fire works and crazy fans waving flags from cars and every other crazy mob thing you could think of. It was so much fun! even though I was bummed they won. Afterwords we went to the Yogurteria and got frozen yogurt and chilled there before we went home. Overall a pretty good weekend. Now to get back to the loads of homework I have to do. Mi mancate tutti!!!
Baci
~Alyson~
:-)
So after we got back from Sicily, we had a pretty quite week, the usual, teach kids english, have lunch, go to class and then have dinner and just hang out with the whole family till super late at night. wednesday, Michelle, Andrea and Shayna all came over to my house for dinner, which was fun. It was a little difficult at times because me, michelle and andrea are all in second year and can pretty much understand and/or get the gist of what people say in italian, but Shayna is only in the 100 level so we had to translate alot, but it was still alot of fun. Then more of the family came over and we just sat and ate dessert and emilia (andrea's mom) who is hysterical taught us some "bad words" in italian, and we taught some to them in english, quite entertaining, haha. Thursday me, Michelle, and Andrea went to Cosenza to meet the ex of michelle's host sister. We ended up going to a mall, and it felt and smelt like a real mall, it was crazy! i didn't buy anything but if you cared to know, a mall is still a mall no matter what country you are in.
Ok but the best part of this last week had to be our trip to tropea. We left friday after lunch (the higher ups at the local schools through us a lunch party with homemade regional food, it was super nice!) and took multiple trains and got to Tropea around 7. Tropea is this amazing beach town on the west coast of Calabria. Its in all those picturesque post cards you see of the Mediterranean with tourquoise blue water and the cliffs in the background. Anyways before we left we checked the weather report and it said rain and storms all weekend. Well God was definitely on our side this weekend, we got to our hotel (there were 6 in our group) just in time for a glorious sunset over the Mediterranean. Unfortunately my camera decided to die just as we got there, so I'll have to steal some pictures from my friends. oh also our hotel had the most gorgeous higher up view of the whole town. After we took pictures of the sunset we walked down the hill and went to this recommended pizza place which was uber good. we were told that they had the best veggies ever, but I actually perfer the veggies my family makes :-) After dinner we just hung out and chatted at a gelateria, because the town was pretty dead considering its not summer yet. Then we hiked back up the huge hill to our hotel and chilled on our balcony for a bit before hitting the sack. After a night of being eaten alive by bugs we got up and saw blue skies!!!!!!!!!!! we got breakfast and then jumped in the hotel pool for an hour or so before taking the shuttle down to the hotel's private beach. The water was cold, but sooooo clear! and while there were clouds in the sky I swear god had his hand protecting the sun just for us. I got sooooo tan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! heheh we were only there for one day, but a few hours in the hot sun was perfect.
when we got back all the family went over to Michelle's house to watch the European championship soccer game which the team that my whole family hates L'inter was playing in. I was rooting for them to loose (because aldo was) but I seem to have inherited my dad's luck for picking the wrong team. L'inter won 2-0 :-( but after it was crazy because they are an italian team, and its been 45 years since they've won the copa europa the piazza in Rogliano was crazy!!! There were fire works and crazy fans waving flags from cars and every other crazy mob thing you could think of. It was so much fun! even though I was bummed they won. Afterwords we went to the Yogurteria and got frozen yogurt and chilled there before we went home. Overall a pretty good weekend. Now to get back to the loads of homework I have to do. Mi mancate tutti!!!
Baci
~Alyson~
:-)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sicilia!
Ok so I realize that it’s been a bit since I’ve written, I am just having so much here I don’t have time to write! Haha ok so I think I left off with the pulcino. Unfortunately he died last Monday ☹ Michelle was very sad; as was Aldo at first Aldo thought the Pulcino was sleeping because he had a fever. Oh another piece of baddish news, so while Aldo was running outside he fell and scraped his face really bad, he didn’t cry and there wasn’t blood but he was in shock and he sort of had the Phantom of the Opera look going for him. But when I got back on Monday his face was muuuuuuch better! I was worried it would scar really bad, but I don’t think it will, which makes me very happy!!!
Ok so that was Monday, Tuesday Cesar’s cousin came over for dinner. She goes to the University of Cosenza, but it was tons of fun because she doesn’t like dialect so we all spoke Italian the whole night, which was really nice because I could more or less understand everything!!! That night was fun. Wednesday was entertaining (every night is entertaining) we were all at Michelle’s (my friend who lives with Vanessa’s mother) and they found an Italian phrase book and we were teaching them some bad English words, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder! Haha the phrase is true that “tutti sono Tucci, tutti sono pazzi!” Everyone is tucci, everyone is crazy! Oh but I learned a new word in dialect “ciodu” or pronounced for all you people that cant speak Italian “chiodu” meaning pazzo or crazy. I am learning a few word in dialect but when people speak dialect I still cant understand anything.
Thursday me Michelle Andrea and Shayna all ate lunch outside in a park and we finally got some sun! Then we went to the Tucci garden that has all the fresh vegetables that we have been eating (My favorite dish so far has been this Zucchini puree that Vanessa made, its amazing!!!) all their vegetables are super fresh and delicious!
Ok so this weekend our program went so Sicilia! Friday we were in Reggio Calabria (the toe of the continent) but part of the autostrada was blocked by a land slide so it took 2 hours more to get there so we missed the museum but we saw the bronzi which are these famous ancient Greek bronze statues found in the sea near the coast of southern Italy. They are in amazing condition for being from 500 BC give or take.
Saturday we took a ferry to Sicily, the ferry ride was suuuuuper windy! I was literally being pushed around from all the wind! But it was really fun. Then we stopped for an hour in Messina, which is the first town you get to in Sicilia. At noon everyday there is a sort of Small Worldesque spectacle on the big clock tower in the center of town that I think tells some sort of story, but I’m not sure exactly what it was, I know there was a rooster and a lion and a priest and angels and some ancient king guy but it was cool nonetheless. Saturday afternoon we went to Catania which wasn’t my favorite city I’ve been too, it’s a little to industrial for my taste, but all the buildings we made from the black lava rock from one of the eruptions of Mt. Etna. So that was cool. After that we went to this little (and quite dirty) beach, but it was sooooooo windy and cold this weekend! But I did go swimming it was sooooo cold! Much colder than Santa Cruise, but it was fun to at least be at the beach.
Sunday was super fun! Sunday morning we hiked mount Etna!!! I was expecting it to be a rigorous hike so I wore shorts because I figured I’d be hot, however it was sooooo windy and freezing!!! It was so cold I had to drink a coffee before to keep warm (which I actually liked! At the moment I am drinking café lattes with lots of sugar but I am determined to like coffee before I leave!) But despite being super cold it was tons of fun! I wish we could have done a rigorous hike, but we only had our guide for 4 hours. Mt. Etna was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Afterwords we went to the beach, but it was cold and cloudy. BUT this weekend we are going to Tropea and its supposed to be sunny!!! I am having sooo much fun here, and i love my family and i am sad that we only have 3 weeks left! :-( I love and miss you all!
Un bacio (how the italians end their messages, it means one kiss)
~Alyson~
:-)
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Happy Mothers day!
Happy mother's day mommy!!!
Ciao tutti! Happy mothers day to all the mothers who are reading this! (probably just my mom and nanni)
Nothing much has happened since I last wrote. My family is still great! This weekend there was a hot air balloon (mongolfiere) or something like that festival in a town nearby. so sat afternoon/night we all went to that. It was super cool, but the Hotair balloon rides had closed by the time we got there, which was sad. BUT michelle's sister Ester really wanted an animal and there was a booth that you could pay 2 euro and pick a number and that number would correspond with an animal (fish, turtle, etc) anyways Ester scrounged up enough money to go buy one. and she let Aldo (my little brother) pick the number and he picked 75. Guess what 75 was? a Pulino! or a little baby chick! So her mom wasn't too happy about it, but it was cute. so they brought it home to their house (thank goodness, Aldo was set on bringing it home to ours) and apparently it didnt stop chirping all night, so Michelle took it and slept with it! ah! (I have a slight fear of birds). His name is Michael Paolino. Aldo liked the name Michael and Ester liked the name Paoloino. For a while though Aldo wanted to name him Scott!!! Scott he always remembers your name! anyway today we are going to see Cesare (my host dad) play soccer for Rogliano, and speaking of that I have to get back. Love and miss you all! Ci Vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
p.s RIP Michael Paolino. :-(
Friday, May 7, 2010
loving rogliano!
Ciao tutti!
So we finally have wifi at the cultural center where we have class everyday, so it will be easier for me to update this. BUT so far I am looooooooving Rogliano! Its a small town, but I feel like I am getting a true Italian experience. My family is sooooo nice, they wait on me hand and foot, its crazy! My little brother Aldo is such a ham (probably not unlike myself when I was younger) haha he reminds me of Scott, always playing with some sort of ball, he loooooves soccer! They are slowly making me a soccer fan. Wednesday was the big game between Roma and Inter to decide the "CopaItalia" or the Champion of Italy in their devision. I was for Roma (of course) but unfortunately they lost 1-0 :-( Aldo HATES Inter so he was very upset, but Vanessa's dad Francesco loves Inter so he was rubbing it our faces. I eat dinner alot with Vanessa's mom's family, which I like because my friend Michelle lives there, and she has 2 younger sisters names Zulieka and Ester who are really really nice. My Italian is getting loads better! I am constantly thinking and talking in italian, so I apologize if my english sounds a bit like Yoda right now, but I am so used to thinking in Italian. It is a little hard because everyone here also speaks dialect which I can't understand at all. For example the phrase "ciao come stai?" in dialect is "We, comu sta?" so its very different, but when my family talks to me they speak in Italian which i can usually understand.
So far I haven't done much. On our way here to Rogliano we stopped for a night in Paestum where there are these amazingly preserved ancient Greek temples (and a beach too!). So that was cool. But in Rogliano I usually just go to school eat and talk Italian. The food is is ammmmmmazing!!!!!! I am trying to get Vanessa to teach me how to cook. But its sooo much food! and Vanessa gets really sad if i don't eat all of it, I have definitely learned to use the phrase "sono piena" meaning I'm full alot! But she is slowly understanding i want smaller portions, which is nice. I also try to walk as much as I can. Yesterday we went and saw the University of Cosenza (a bigger town about 20 min away) and then walked around the town of Cosenza. We ended up hiking to this really cool medieval Castle on the top of this huge hill that was really cool.
Ok I have to go because my computer is about to die, but Overall I am having a blast and I love my family!
Ci Vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
So we finally have wifi at the cultural center where we have class everyday, so it will be easier for me to update this. BUT so far I am looooooooving Rogliano! Its a small town, but I feel like I am getting a true Italian experience. My family is sooooo nice, they wait on me hand and foot, its crazy! My little brother Aldo is such a ham (probably not unlike myself when I was younger) haha he reminds me of Scott, always playing with some sort of ball, he loooooves soccer! They are slowly making me a soccer fan. Wednesday was the big game between Roma and Inter to decide the "CopaItalia" or the Champion of Italy in their devision. I was for Roma (of course) but unfortunately they lost 1-0 :-( Aldo HATES Inter so he was very upset, but Vanessa's dad Francesco loves Inter so he was rubbing it our faces. I eat dinner alot with Vanessa's mom's family, which I like because my friend Michelle lives there, and she has 2 younger sisters names Zulieka and Ester who are really really nice. My Italian is getting loads better! I am constantly thinking and talking in italian, so I apologize if my english sounds a bit like Yoda right now, but I am so used to thinking in Italian. It is a little hard because everyone here also speaks dialect which I can't understand at all. For example the phrase "ciao come stai?" in dialect is "We, comu sta?" so its very different, but when my family talks to me they speak in Italian which i can usually understand.
So far I haven't done much. On our way here to Rogliano we stopped for a night in Paestum where there are these amazingly preserved ancient Greek temples (and a beach too!). So that was cool. But in Rogliano I usually just go to school eat and talk Italian. The food is is ammmmmmazing!!!!!! I am trying to get Vanessa to teach me how to cook. But its sooo much food! and Vanessa gets really sad if i don't eat all of it, I have definitely learned to use the phrase "sono piena" meaning I'm full alot! But she is slowly understanding i want smaller portions, which is nice. I also try to walk as much as I can. Yesterday we went and saw the University of Cosenza (a bigger town about 20 min away) and then walked around the town of Cosenza. We ended up hiking to this really cool medieval Castle on the top of this huge hill that was really cool.
Ok I have to go because my computer is about to die, but Overall I am having a blast and I love my family!
Ci Vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Rogliano!
Ciao tutti!
I am safely in Rogliano. I loooooove my host family. My moms name is Vanessa, her husbands name is Cesare and i have a little 5 year old brother named Aldo. They are sooo nice. and bascially the whole town is related, tutti sono Tucci! everybodys name is tucci! haha I dont have internet i am currently using the internet of my host moms mother. so i probably wont be able to update this very often. but i am having lots of fun and everybody is sooooo nice. but my mother is always cleaning! but she wont let me help! sempre sempre sempre pulisce pulisce pulisce! but i just wanted to tell you i am safe and happy! Ciao ciao!
Alyson
:-)
I am safely in Rogliano. I loooooove my host family. My moms name is Vanessa, her husbands name is Cesare and i have a little 5 year old brother named Aldo. They are sooo nice. and bascially the whole town is related, tutti sono Tucci! everybodys name is tucci! haha I dont have internet i am currently using the internet of my host moms mother. so i probably wont be able to update this very often. but i am having lots of fun and everybody is sooooo nice. but my mother is always cleaning! but she wont let me help! sempre sempre sempre pulisce pulisce pulisce! but i just wanted to tell you i am safe and happy! Ciao ciao!
Alyson
:-)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Last week in Rome. :-(
Ciao tutti!
So this will be my last week in Rome before we leave for rogliano to live with host families for the rest of the program. Last week we switched internship groups, which is too bad because I really liked my other group. The new group is super far away and they don't really seem to have much of an agenda for us to do everyday. Thursday we just followed them while they got a lesson on ancient broken shards of pottery, not the most exciting thing in the world. oh well, tomorrow both groups are meeting together because the interns just finished culture week (where all the museum's in italy are free) so we are all celebrating with them, which should be really fun! Friday after we went and saw some baroque churches with Caravaggio stuff in them we went to the Vatican Museum! The first part of the museum is a bunch of roman statues of emperor's and mythology. It was really cool, especially since I love mythology. After that we saw Raphael's "School of Athens" which was pretty impressive, and finally the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is soooo immense and detailed. We were very very very tired by this point, which was too bad, but it was still amazing. Then Sat, it was raining but I did get some gift shopping done (get excited everyone!) but then i got a stomach ache from some salad i ate for dinner, so last night was a down night for me.
But today was amazing! It was warm and sunny so some of us walked to the Villa Borghese, which is this huge park right above the spanish steps. It was so nice and picturesque, people were doing rollerblading tricks and out with their kids. We just sat on the grass and enjoyed the warm sun while doing some homework. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Really worth the long walk. Ok well I gotta go eat some dinner. Ciao tutti!
~Alyson~
:-)
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Assisi
Ciao tutti!
So last weekend we went to Assisi for friday to saturday. It was amazing! It was seriously like a storybook. Our hostel was about a 20 min hike from the city (which our professor forgot to tell us about, so all i brought was flats and sandal, which was not a good idea) but the view was absolutely amazing. We even saw a dove right next to an olive tree. It was cool, in an ironic symbolic kind of way. Its in the county of umbria, which is what you think of when you think of the green hills of italy. After we checked in at our hostel we went down and explored the town for a bit. Unfortunately it was super cold and rainy (i guess in part because of the volcano in Iceland) the town is super cute, with lots of nice shops around. We even met a guy who is friends with Rick Steves (the guy who writes those travel guides) He was funny, friendly Fabrizio was his name, and he gave us free samples of different Umbrian foods which were super good. After we got back from to the hostel, we had the most amazing dinner ever! It was a true italian 4 course meal. We started with the bread (melt in your mouth amazingness) which was the antipasti, then we had the primo piatto which is pasta. They made us lasagna, which is by far the best pasta I have had here in Italy. Nothing compares to how amazing that lasagna was. Then the secondo piatto, which was sausage and a backed potato with some backed cheese too. It was good, but not nearly as good as the lasagna. Then for dessert they had this coffee pudding thingy that was actually quite good. So after this huge meal we were all very tired and just crashed.
The next day we all got up early to go to San Francesco's Basilica . It is gorgeous with all these amazing fresco's (paintings on the walls) of San Francesco's life. and I saw his tomb too. Also outside there was a bride going inside to get married, with the most amazing dress i've ever seen. Also the groom drove up in a lamborghini, which was pretty sweet to see.
Anyways after that we shopped around for a while, then we hiked up to this castle called La Rocca Magiore. It had the most amazing views of the city and countryside ever! The castle was super cool too, there were all these amazing lookouts that we had to climb sketchy spiral stairs to go to. But there was this long scary tunnel that could have come straight out of lord of the rings or harry potter. hehe
I loved assisi, If i wanted the quite picturesque countryside I could definitely live there. I loved the art in Florence, but the actual city wise i liked Assisi waaaaay better.
Ok well I have intership super early tomorrow, so I have to sleep now.
Ciao ciao!
~Alyson~
:-)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
who wants a post card!?
Ciao tutti,
So I am buying postcards to send to people, I would love to send one to you if you could give me your address! Either post it here, or email it to me aly248@uw.edu Grazie!
~Alyson~
:-)
So I am buying postcards to send to people, I would love to send one to you if you could give me your address! Either post it here, or email it to me aly248@uw.edu Grazie!
~Alyson~
:-)
Monday, April 12, 2010
Firenze
Ah sorry everyone that I haven't posted everything, I've been sooo busy! ok so heres a recap of my week.
last week we began our "internships" which so far have just been the grad students who work at the museum take us around the city talking to us about the different things we are seeing, one day it was ancient roman stuff, another day it was works by caravaggio, and today it was the significance of the different streets. Its hard to understand them sometimes because they are speaking very fast italian, but my comprehension skills are definitely improving (I can now understand almost all the words in the italian versions of the disney songs, i call that a win!). In class we are just watching movies (depressing neorealism movies) and reading stories (depressing stories) and learning grammar and stuff (which is kind of depressing) hahaha, but actually its kind of fun, and i am getting better because i can just focus on italian, and I have other people here to help me, which is super nice.
So on friday our teachers took us to the Vatican, where we went inside the basilica. It was overwhelming, so grand, and its the biggest basilica in the world. (there is actually an unwritten rule that it has to be the biggest) and there are actually marks in the center, citing where the other churches end making sure that st. peters is the biggest. Afterwords we went down to where they had all the tombs of all the old popes (and a swedish queen). I even secretly snagged a pic of john paul II's tomb (i quickly ran away because the security guard was coming after me hehe). but it was incredible, so massive and grand. I even rubbed the foot of the st. peters statue from the original basilica (apparently it brings good luck).
So after that my group came back and then about half of us went to the train station to go to FIRENZE (florence). we got a cheap regional train that took about 4 hours, which was nice because i got all my homework done. So we arrived around 9ish and went to find our hostel, well unfortunately when we got to where our hostel was we couldn't get in, some people had to let us in and they said they had never seen anybody on the floor of our hostel. We got up to the floor and we met some americans (one of which goes to st. marys!!!!! it was sooooo weird!!!!!!!) anyways they said they had waited 3 hours for the lady to come let them into their rooms and they hadn't seen her since. So we called the lady and finally got a hold of her, and in the end she just told us to go find another place because she didn't want to deal with us, unfortunately we had already paid the 10% deposit.
So we were quite frustrated, but the americans we met told us about a nearby hostel so we went there and they were able to get us rooms for 20euro/night. so it ended up working out and the reception people at the new hostel were really helpful and nice.
So saturday we had reserved tickets for the museo uffizi, which was great because that meant we didn't have to stand in a super long line! the Uffizi was amazing!!!!! there was so much great art, and I even saw botticelli's Birth of Venus!!!!!! and primavera too!!!!!!!!! I was so excited you have no idea! It was amazing to see the original of something i have studied for so long. super cool.
So after that we went and looked a the duomo, but it cost to go up to the top, so we didn't. but we did got to hands down the best pizzeria ever!!!!!! that pizza was by far the best pizza i have had in italy. AMAZING! it was like gustopizza or something like that.
So by this time it was about 5ish, so we walked to the edge of the city up this huge hill to the piazza Michelangelo, where there was the most breathtaking view of firenze, it was incredibile! and saturday was gorgeous, 70 degrees and sunny!!!!! (I love the sun).
unfortunately on sunday it was about 50 degrees and raining (i felt like i was back in seattle), but it wasn't too bad because our only plan for the day was to see the Academia, where michelangelo's David is. There really isn't anything else in the museum except david, but David=wow, so worth the 18 euro we paid to see it. Its one of those things you think you've seen pictures of so why see it in person, but I'm telling you the pictures don't do it justice. that thing is massive!!! i think about 4 m high! and the detail in every curve is astounding. I probably stared at it for a good 20 min. it was mindblowing. seriously.
So after that we were super tired, so we just went and took an earlier train back to rome, where we more or less crashed.
So that was my week, this weekend we are going to assisi with my program, which should be fun, i'll try to keep this more updated.
Ciao tutti!!!
~Alyson~
:-)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Buona Pasqua!
Buona Pasqua tutti!
Happy Easter everyone. (I know its a few days late)
So for easter I did go to the Vatican, unfortunately it was raining super hard! So since everyone had thier umbrellas it made it really hard to see everything, I could see the pope much better on friday. ah oh well it was still really cool. We missed the mass, but we got there for the easter blessing, which a lot of it i could actually understand, which was impressive. By the end though we were very cold and wet so we basically slept and staying inside and cooked for the rest of the day. But one of my bucket list things is checked off, Easter at the Vatican. Oh and I finally got gelato!!! (I gave up ice cream for lent) and it was soooo good!!!! Definitely worth the wait. :-)
Yesterday (Monday) is a national holiday for italy called Pasquetta (little easter), so we didn't have school or anything which was nice. One of the guys on our program CJ had some of his friend's from the other side of italy come visiting so we hung out with them most of the day. It was super fun! because we knew enough italian and they knew enough english where we could joke around with them and everything. They even ended up editing my italian summary of this movie we watched. They laughed at my italian mostly because I don't like using pronouns so I just repeat people's names alot. haha but they were very helpful. Later last night we all ended up at a Irish pub where they had BASEBALL on!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately it was the Cubbies game, the giants game was on later (like 1 am) which was too bad, since the Cubs game was kind of depressing. but oh well, they italian guys definitely didn't understand how baseball worked, and they though it was super boring, haha oh well I find soccer boring so to each his own i guess. But i did get very excited when I was able to watch base ball. (Blame my mother for my obsession with baseball) haha I am such an american when it comes to my baseball. GO GIANTS!!!!
Sorry about my baseball rant, anyways so this morning was our first day of our internships. I am one week at this market thingy and then 2 weeks at the museum and then 1 more week back at the market. But the market was more like a museum (i think) right next to Il foro di Augosto. (a forum with alot of old roman relics) today we just got a tour and lecture in italian about il foro and all the old roman pieces. it was cool, a little boring and tiring but cool. So now we still have 3 hours of class (after 3 hours of internship this morning) So i will be a very tired little monkey, but I am still having a blast.
Ci vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
Happy Easter everyone. (I know its a few days late)
So for easter I did go to the Vatican, unfortunately it was raining super hard! So since everyone had thier umbrellas it made it really hard to see everything, I could see the pope much better on friday. ah oh well it was still really cool. We missed the mass, but we got there for the easter blessing, which a lot of it i could actually understand, which was impressive. By the end though we were very cold and wet so we basically slept and staying inside and cooked for the rest of the day. But one of my bucket list things is checked off, Easter at the Vatican. Oh and I finally got gelato!!! (I gave up ice cream for lent) and it was soooo good!!!! Definitely worth the wait. :-)
Yesterday (Monday) is a national holiday for italy called Pasquetta (little easter), so we didn't have school or anything which was nice. One of the guys on our program CJ had some of his friend's from the other side of italy come visiting so we hung out with them most of the day. It was super fun! because we knew enough italian and they knew enough english where we could joke around with them and everything. They even ended up editing my italian summary of this movie we watched. They laughed at my italian mostly because I don't like using pronouns so I just repeat people's names alot. haha but they were very helpful. Later last night we all ended up at a Irish pub where they had BASEBALL on!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately it was the Cubbies game, the giants game was on later (like 1 am) which was too bad, since the Cubs game was kind of depressing. but oh well, they italian guys definitely didn't understand how baseball worked, and they though it was super boring, haha oh well I find soccer boring so to each his own i guess. But i did get very excited when I was able to watch base ball. (Blame my mother for my obsession with baseball) haha I am such an american when it comes to my baseball. GO GIANTS!!!!
Sorry about my baseball rant, anyways so this morning was our first day of our internships. I am one week at this market thingy and then 2 weeks at the museum and then 1 more week back at the market. But the market was more like a museum (i think) right next to Il foro di Augosto. (a forum with alot of old roman relics) today we just got a tour and lecture in italian about il foro and all the old roman pieces. it was cool, a little boring and tiring but cool. So now we still have 3 hours of class (after 3 hours of internship this morning) So i will be a very tired little monkey, but I am still having a blast.
Ci vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Il Colosseo!!!
Ciao tutti!
So Friday was amazing!!! I finally got to see all those places in Rome that you learn and study about. First we went to Il forno romano, or the Roman forum. There we saw all the old roman ruins. We saw the place where Julius Caesar was burned and where they held the chariot races. The temple where they kept the most sacred Virgins. Our teacher Ruggero was a fantastic guide! He knew everything!!! apparently he has even been interviewed by local news people or something because he knows so much about rome! Couldn't have asked for a better tourguide. My little history nerd self was having a field day!!! After that we went to the Colosseum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you can't tell I was a little excited. We took a TON of pictures, but it wasn't unbearably crowded. We were able to nudge our way into some prime viewing locations. It was so cool. :-)
Oh this is to Michelle, so afterwords we came back and went to this little pasta place, and guess what kind of pasta i got? GNOCCHI!!! haha just for you!
So Last night we also saw something really cool. We went back to the Colosseum when it was all lit up and we saw the 14 Stations of the Procession of the Cross ceremony presided over by the pope!!! It was a once in a lifetime experience. All those people, with the backdrop of the colosseum at night was breathtaking. It was mostly in Italian with some latin chant-type stuff put in, but I could understand a little bit of the Italian. We couldn't stay through the whole thing because it was freezing and our knees started locking up, but I am greatly looking forward to going to the Vatican for Easter tomorrow!
It was nice having a day off, so today my friend Lauren and I went exploring around rome, we got lost but still ended up finding the Trevi fountain, which is just as cool (and just as crowded) as you expect. The best thing about getting lost in rome is that there are always new cool things to find. Well I got to go pick up some groceries because everything will be closed today and tomorrow because of easter and Italy's little easter.
Ci vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
"Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale" :-)
Ciao tutti!
Sono andata alla libreria, e ho comprato il libro Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale!!!
aka. I went to a book store and bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone!!!!
"Il signore e la signora Dursley, di Privet Drive numero 4, erano orgogliosi di poter affermare che erano perfettamente normale, e grazie tante. Erano le ultime persone al mondo da cui aspettarsi che avessero a che fare con cose strane o misteriose, perche' sciocchezze del genere proprio non le approvavano.......Harry Potter, il bambino chi e' sopravvissuto"
heheh I am such a Harry Potter nerd.
Anyways so its been a day or so since I last posted. yesterday we had our first day of classes. I am taking the italian language course, ital 203 which is learning grammar and all that fun stuff. Then there is another class which is a combination of literature, history, culture, and film! After class we were super tired so I came back and took a nap, before we all went to a bar and "discoteca" (dance club) for this girl in the program's birthday. It was nice because this morning we didn't have class until 1:30 so we all slept in.
oh good news!!! So as i was writing this our water heater was just fixed!!! For the last couple days we have been taking cold showers (not fun) so now we have hot water again! yay! hahah
So today in class we had an hour lecture about some roman ruin places we are going to see tomorrow (including the colosseum!) then we watched a movie called. Roma, la citta' aperta--meaning rome the open city. It was about Italy during the Nazi occupation of WWII. It was a good movie but sad and depressing.
So then we went to a libreria (book store) where i bough some pens, a notebook, and HARRY POTTER! So now I am going to go attempt to read it. Wish me luck!
Ci vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
Sono andata alla libreria, e ho comprato il libro Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale!!!
aka. I went to a book store and bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone!!!!
"Il signore e la signora Dursley, di Privet Drive numero 4, erano orgogliosi di poter affermare che erano perfettamente normale, e grazie tante. Erano le ultime persone al mondo da cui aspettarsi che avessero a che fare con cose strane o misteriose, perche' sciocchezze del genere proprio non le approvavano.......Harry Potter, il bambino chi e' sopravvissuto"
heheh I am such a Harry Potter nerd.
Anyways so its been a day or so since I last posted. yesterday we had our first day of classes. I am taking the italian language course, ital 203 which is learning grammar and all that fun stuff. Then there is another class which is a combination of literature, history, culture, and film! After class we were super tired so I came back and took a nap, before we all went to a bar and "discoteca" (dance club) for this girl in the program's birthday. It was nice because this morning we didn't have class until 1:30 so we all slept in.
oh good news!!! So as i was writing this our water heater was just fixed!!! For the last couple days we have been taking cold showers (not fun) so now we have hot water again! yay! hahah
So today in class we had an hour lecture about some roman ruin places we are going to see tomorrow (including the colosseum!) then we watched a movie called. Roma, la citta' aperta--meaning rome the open city. It was about Italy during the Nazi occupation of WWII. It was a good movie but sad and depressing.
So then we went to a libreria (book store) where i bough some pens, a notebook, and HARRY POTTER! So now I am going to go attempt to read it. Wish me luck!
Ci vediamo!
~Alyson~
:-)
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Mail!
So I'm posting the address of the Rome center where I will be staying until April 30th or so. It costs alot of money for me to pick up packages, so please don't send packages, but I would love letters!!!
Alyson Singh
UW Italian Studies
c/o University of Washington Rome Center
Piazza del Biscione 95
00186 Rome, ITALY
grazie!
:-)
Alyson Singh
UW Italian Studies
c/o University of Washington Rome Center
Piazza del Biscione 95
00186 Rome, ITALY
grazie!
:-)
Roma day 2!
Ciao tutti,
So our second day in Rome we had an orientation tour for the UW rome center and then our ital studies group went around the neighborhood around where our apts are. Then we went and got cell phones. my number is 339 7187289. in case of any emergencies. Also its free for me if anybody calls me, even from the US, which is cool. Then we walked around and I got pasta for lunch, super good. and Then we walked over to see the boys apartment which is about 20 min away from ours across the Tevere (The Tiber river) . Then we went to the supermarket, which are all under department stores which is weird. Imagine a grocery store under Macys. then we all walked to the Pantheon, which was amazing!!! Unfortunately my camera died before i could take any pictures of it, which stunk. but the architecture of it was soooo amazing! carved marble, and the detail was so intricate. Che bellisimo! We were super hungry by the time we got back to our apartment so we went to the nearest restaurant which was super expensive, because it was made for american tourists. haha oh well it was soooo yummy! haha ok well i gotta go.
Ci vediamo!
~Aly~
:-)
So our second day in Rome we had an orientation tour for the UW rome center and then our ital studies group went around the neighborhood around where our apts are. Then we went and got cell phones. my number is 339 7187289. in case of any emergencies. Also its free for me if anybody calls me, even from the US, which is cool. Then we walked around and I got pasta for lunch, super good. and Then we walked over to see the boys apartment which is about 20 min away from ours across the Tevere (The Tiber river) . Then we went to the supermarket, which are all under department stores which is weird. Imagine a grocery store under Macys. then we all walked to the Pantheon, which was amazing!!! Unfortunately my camera died before i could take any pictures of it, which stunk. but the architecture of it was soooo amazing! carved marble, and the detail was so intricate. Che bellisimo! We were super hungry by the time we got back to our apartment so we went to the nearest restaurant which was super expensive, because it was made for american tourists. haha oh well it was soooo yummy! haha ok well i gotta go.
Ci vediamo!
~Aly~
:-)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Arrivo a Roma!
Ciao tutti!!!
So I have successfully arrived in Rome!!!! Its so amazingly wonderful. We woke up super early to catch our flight. But when we got to the airport we were starving and so thirsty. So we stood in a really long line because they had this juice and pastry deal, but when we got to the front of the line they had no pastries! We were so sad, and then as soon as we sit down they get a whole bunch more, but there was still a line out the door. We were not happy. Anyways, so we got on a plane and arrived in rome and met the majority of our group and tried to find our way to the center of rome. We successfully found the train station and bought the right ticket, but then got on the wrong train. haha. It ended up working out, we had to take a cab from where we got off and had to pay a bunch of extra money, but we did find the UW Rome center. We checked in and found our apartment. I love the apartment! we got the best one!!! I am with 10 other girls in my program and we are literally 30 seconds from where our classes are and right in the center of Il Campo dei fiori, which has a great little market right outside of our door. The 8 of us who were in then went and walked around the area, and since most of us were starving, we went to a little Pizzeria. It was sooo good!!! and it tasted especially good since Lauren and I hadn't had a real meal since friday night. Tomorrow we are getting an orientation tour for the Rome Center and around the neighborhood, and I think classes start on Wednesday.
Arrivederci!!!
~Alyson~
:-)
p.s the pictures are of my room and the view from our window. I am in heaven.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Barcelona day 3 (Last Day)
Ciao Tutti!
Since we slept in most of the day yesterday, we had to get up and get going today. Our first spot was the Castle atop the Hills of Barcelona, Called the Castle Montjuic. It was so amazing (everything is so amazing, i know). You take a cable car up to the top of this hill, and like the good guidebook said, the cable car was half the trip. All around the Castle were gorgeous views of Barcelona! There was also a benefit "Spain for Chile" concert going on, which was really cool. We took tons of pictures with the castle and Barcelona in the background.
Next we took a bus (which took a really long time) to this park we read about called the Parc Guell. It was designed by a famous architect who also designed the Cathedral and the Casa de Batllo. It was soooo breathtaking! I felt like I was on another planet, it was so cool. James Cameron has got to come here to get inspiration for Avatar 2. Seriously, It was that beautiful. Unfortunately since we still needed to make it to the Picasso museum, we only had 1/2 hour which was not nearly enough time, but we made due, rushing like mad women to see as much as we could. The Park has these famous mosaic benches that were so intricate and cool.
*random story: So as were were taking the Metro back there was the cutest little kid in a stroller, who saw me holding on to the pole, so he held on too (even though he was in a stroller) he was frustrated that I was taller then him so he tried to raise himself higher than me so he could grab the pole higher. We played a pole grabbing game for the whole Metro ride, he was adorable! His parents told him to say "ciao ciao" to me after. So cute! :-)
After we rushed about the park, we took a bus back to the main square and rushed to the Picasso Museum. apparently the museum has over 30,000 total works by Picasso, much of which was donated by him. It has alot of his early work, which wasn't that abstract, and I didn't know he did alot of work before he went all abstract, so that was interesting. My favorite part was his interpretation of the "Las Meninas" painting by Velazquez. If you remember (or are actually still reading this) That was my favorite painting in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Picasso's interpretation of it was incredible and fascinating. My art history nerd self was having so much fun, hehe.
After the museum closed we just walked around Barcelona for a bit and stopped for a drink in guess where....STARBUCKS! haha yes, but it really did feel like and taste like Starbucks. Haha
After that we went back to our hotel while we now have to pack to take a very early plane flight tomorrow A ROMA PER 3 MESI!!! I can't believe it, I've ben wanted to go to Italy since I was 12, and I am finally going! eeeeee!!!! Spain was amazing! So many things to do and the people were so nice and helpful. If you are planning to go, I would say no more than 2 days in Madrid and spend more time if you can in Barcelona. Barcelona is amazingly beautiful and wonderful.
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
:-)
Barcelona day 2
Ciao tutti!
So last post was on friday after we got to Barcelona. We went dancing that night, and ended up coming back and talking till 8 am, and then we were planning to take a short nap before we started our day, but we slept till 4 pm. So our day was basically shot. We did go and see La Segrada Familia! Its the most beautiful construction site in the world! It was started in late 1800s i think, and was never finished, so over the years they have added more and more, and they hope to have it finished in 2025. I did a project my senior year of high school on Barcelona, and La Segrada Familia has been one of the things I have been dying to see. And I finally did! Thanks to Mrs. Martinez, my high school spanish teacher. :-)
After that we were starving, so we went to this pastry place and got the most amazing churro I have ever had. It was perfect with this light cream, sort of like banana or lemon cream. It was soooo good!!!! (especially since we hadn't had anything to eat all day!)
So next we tried to go to the Picasso Museum, but it was closing and it was going to be free on sunday, so we decided to go today instead.
After that we just went to a supermarket (which are all under department stores interestingly enough) and got sandwich stuff for dinner. It was earth hour, so we turned off the lights and watched as they turned off all the lights in Barcelona! (more or less). After that we went down to the water front where the '92 Olympics were, which is the ultimate club spot in Barcelona. We paid way to much for a crazy dance club, but it was still fun.
We didn't stay out too late (stupid time change) and then went back to get a few hours sleep before we had to get up for a very full day today.
:-)
Friday, March 26, 2010
Barcelona
Ciao tutti!
So the last post was written last night, but i couldn't post it until just now.
Anyways I arrived safely in Barcelona, the train ride didn't have the best accomodations, but we dealt. We were in a 6 bunker small room, and had to have the couple there with us help load our (very) heavy suitcases up onto the ceiling storage area, it was quite the task. But it was kind of fun to fall asleep to the rocking of the train.
We arrived in Barcelona around 8 am this morning, and since we couldn't find a place to stay ahead of time, we went to the travel place at the train station, and we ended up booking a 3 star hotel, that was the same price as a hostel. So we took the metro to find our hotel, which is a little above las Ramblas street, in a very nice area fairly close to the center. Its a really nice hotel for the discounted price we paid for it.
So we stored our bags at the hotel and walked around Barcelona for a while, we found the cathedral, and some other amazing buildings! Barcelona is gorgeous!!! Its a really sunny warm day (but all the locals are dressed warm, so I think its a colder day for barcelona, even though we think its so hot, especially since Madrid had been freezing). All of the buildings have so much detail, its amazing! I also cannot understand anything anyone says, they are speaking Catalan, which is half spanish half french, and completely impossible to understand. But parts of Barcelona that we walked down are considered to be pick pocketers paradise, so I made sure i had my hand around my little over the shoulder purse thing (Thank you nani!) and nothing was stolen.
So we finally checked into our room, and now I am in the hotel lobby using the internet, as we decide what we are going to do later!
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
:-)
So the last post was written last night, but i couldn't post it until just now.
Anyways I arrived safely in Barcelona, the train ride didn't have the best accomodations, but we dealt. We were in a 6 bunker small room, and had to have the couple there with us help load our (very) heavy suitcases up onto the ceiling storage area, it was quite the task. But it was kind of fun to fall asleep to the rocking of the train.
We arrived in Barcelona around 8 am this morning, and since we couldn't find a place to stay ahead of time, we went to the travel place at the train station, and we ended up booking a 3 star hotel, that was the same price as a hostel. So we took the metro to find our hotel, which is a little above las Ramblas street, in a very nice area fairly close to the center. Its a really nice hotel for the discounted price we paid for it.
So we stored our bags at the hotel and walked around Barcelona for a while, we found the cathedral, and some other amazing buildings! Barcelona is gorgeous!!! Its a really sunny warm day (but all the locals are dressed warm, so I think its a colder day for barcelona, even though we think its so hot, especially since Madrid had been freezing). All of the buildings have so much detail, its amazing! I also cannot understand anything anyone says, they are speaking Catalan, which is half spanish half french, and completely impossible to understand. But parts of Barcelona that we walked down are considered to be pick pocketers paradise, so I made sure i had my hand around my little over the shoulder purse thing (Thank you nani!) and nothing was stolen.
So we finally checked into our room, and now I am in the hotel lobby using the internet, as we decide what we are going to do later!
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
:-)
Madrid day #3
Ciao tutti!
Ok so we originally weren't planning on spending another day in Madrid, but the way the trains worked out we were able to. Last night we weren't able to go out because we were trying to find a last min hostel to stay in in Barcelona, up till 5 and no luck finding a hostel.
Anyways, the next morning we checked out of our hostel at noon, and then I went and got a pear pastry for breakfast. Then we just decided to walk around Madrid till we could have a nice lunch. We ended up almost making a complete square of Madrid. We walked so far!!! But we saw amazing architecture, the library, gave high fives to a random statue of a hand. haha
So its about 4 pm. by this point we are starving! so we tried to find a restaurant, but it took us a while. We ended up taking the metro to this other area, and we finally found a little restaurant/cafe and I had empanadas y gallas (i think), i had not idea what it was, it turned out to be this pastry thing with chicken and peppers. It was really good. Anyways, we went back to our hostel and got out bags and now we are waiting at the train station for our overnight train to Barcelona! We should get there around 7:15 tomorrow morning.
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
:-)
Ok so we originally weren't planning on spending another day in Madrid, but the way the trains worked out we were able to. Last night we weren't able to go out because we were trying to find a last min hostel to stay in in Barcelona, up till 5 and no luck finding a hostel.
Anyways, the next morning we checked out of our hostel at noon, and then I went and got a pear pastry for breakfast. Then we just decided to walk around Madrid till we could have a nice lunch. We ended up almost making a complete square of Madrid. We walked so far!!! But we saw amazing architecture, the library, gave high fives to a random statue of a hand. haha
So its about 4 pm. by this point we are starving! so we tried to find a restaurant, but it took us a while. We ended up taking the metro to this other area, and we finally found a little restaurant/cafe and I had empanadas y gallas (i think), i had not idea what it was, it turned out to be this pastry thing with chicken and peppers. It was really good. Anyways, we went back to our hostel and got out bags and now we are waiting at the train station for our overnight train to Barcelona! We should get there around 7:15 tomorrow morning.
Arrivederci!
~Alyson~
:-)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Madrid day #2
Ciao everyone!
Ok so we had a wonderful day in Madrid here. First it was supposed to rain all day, and it didn't start raining until 4ish, which was great.
So we slept in and then went out at about 11ish to find breakfast. We ended up going to this indoor market thing, and talked with this great lady from mexico who gave us discount on orange juice, we also got churros con chocolate, which were delicious!
Then we wanted to find this park that we read was really nice, but on the way we saw this grand cathedral, so we decided to check it out. Called the Catedral de la Almudena. It was so amazing, I'll post pictures on facebook.
So after the Catedral, we continued on to find the park, but on the way this time we found La Palacia Real--the Royal Palace of the Spanish Monarchy. So of course we went inside. We went to buy tickets (it said it was supposed to be about 8E) but the guy at the entrance said, "lo ciento, only EU citizens today, where are you from?" we said "los estados unidos" and he said" no, only EU citizens today, where are you from?" so finally we said "Roma" and he gave us free tickets to the Palace! It was so cool!!! (we made sure not to speak english around any of the guards, so we wouldn't get in trouble), but it was great 1800 furnishing and decorations, so pretty. Another good find. After the state rooms, we went to the armory, which had guns over 10 feel long! Then we saw the official Farmacia. Which had jars of herbs and old medicines. It was really interesting, I had never seen something like that before.
Ok so after that we went and got 1E baguette for lunch, and headed off first to El Museo Thyssen, an art museum. They were having a Monet Exhibit, It wasn't that amazing, and not worth the money.
BUT THEN we went to El Museo del Prado, which is the most famous art museum in most of Spain, It has all the famous spanish artists, Goya, Titan, and Valazquez. Our favorite was the painting Las Meninas (I think). But El Prado was amazing! If you go to Madrid, you HAVE TO GO!!!
Ok, so by this point we were all dead tired, but we had to go to the train station to buy our tickets for barcelona. We are taking the overnight train tomorrow night, we so get one more day in Madrid than we originally thought, which is nice.
We then came back to our hostel and got tostadas, which were very yummy, and now we are just relaxing in our hostel resting before we go out tonight! So overall a great day! I probably won't write on this before I get to Barcelona, but ill try my best.
Ciao tutti!
~Alyson~
:-)
Ok so we had a wonderful day in Madrid here. First it was supposed to rain all day, and it didn't start raining until 4ish, which was great.
So we slept in and then went out at about 11ish to find breakfast. We ended up going to this indoor market thing, and talked with this great lady from mexico who gave us discount on orange juice, we also got churros con chocolate, which were delicious!
Then we wanted to find this park that we read was really nice, but on the way we saw this grand cathedral, so we decided to check it out. Called the Catedral de la Almudena. It was so amazing, I'll post pictures on facebook.
So after the Catedral, we continued on to find the park, but on the way this time we found La Palacia Real--the Royal Palace of the Spanish Monarchy. So of course we went inside. We went to buy tickets (it said it was supposed to be about 8E) but the guy at the entrance said, "lo ciento, only EU citizens today, where are you from?" we said "los estados unidos" and he said" no, only EU citizens today, where are you from?" so finally we said "Roma" and he gave us free tickets to the Palace! It was so cool!!! (we made sure not to speak english around any of the guards, so we wouldn't get in trouble), but it was great 1800 furnishing and decorations, so pretty. Another good find. After the state rooms, we went to the armory, which had guns over 10 feel long! Then we saw the official Farmacia. Which had jars of herbs and old medicines. It was really interesting, I had never seen something like that before.
Ok so after that we went and got 1E baguette for lunch, and headed off first to El Museo Thyssen, an art museum. They were having a Monet Exhibit, It wasn't that amazing, and not worth the money.
BUT THEN we went to El Museo del Prado, which is the most famous art museum in most of Spain, It has all the famous spanish artists, Goya, Titan, and Valazquez. Our favorite was the painting Las Meninas (I think). But El Prado was amazing! If you go to Madrid, you HAVE TO GO!!!
Ok, so by this point we were all dead tired, but we had to go to the train station to buy our tickets for barcelona. We are taking the overnight train tomorrow night, we so get one more day in Madrid than we originally thought, which is nice.
We then came back to our hostel and got tostadas, which were very yummy, and now we are just relaxing in our hostel resting before we go out tonight! So overall a great day! I probably won't write on this before I get to Barcelona, but ill try my best.
Ciao tutti!
~Alyson~
:-)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Madrid day #1
Ciao everyone!
So I successfully made it to madrid! We are staying in a nice cheap hostel. The flight went perfect, I got to Madrid with way too much time to spare (especially since my friend's flight was delayed). The metro here in Madrid is amazing! it takes you anywhere you want to go for 1 Euro. We got into out hostel about 845ish, then we got ready and went out to dinner. It was nice, and midway through these spanish guys from the local university came and sang us songs which was very entertaining. haha Anyways, I must go to bed, we have a very full day ahead of ourselves tomorrow. Ciao!!!
~Alyson~
:-)
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