Day 97!

I'm still here! I apologize for not posting in over 20 days! Totally unacceptable how fast time goes by here. So much has happened since my last post. The week of the 9th was midterms for me, so I did nothing but study for those. I did pretty well on my grammar midterm and got 100% on my test for my cinema class! I was so surprised.
We went to Padova as a big group on Friday the 13th. I missed the first train with everyone because my alarm didn't go off, then missed ANOTHER one, not really sure how! But I finally made it there around 1. We wandered around the city, had a tour of the university there, and saw Giotto's frescoes. Padova is a really cute city.
Nothing too exciting the next week, just class and homework, the usual.
The weekend of the 2oth, Erin, Rodolfo, and I went to Barcelona! What a beautiful, fun city! It was a really fun weekend. We flew out on Friday afternoon, arrived in the evening. We settled into our hostel and went out for dinner, walking around the Ramblas and just experiencing Barcelona. Saturday we got up and walked to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia--SO AMAZING! We took a tour bus around the city for most of the day, stopping at places we wanted to see: Gaudi's Park Guell and Casa Batllo and the Picasso Museum. We got to see so much of the city from the bus, too. We saw the sight of the 1992 Olympics, the ports on the Mediterranean, beautiful views of Barcelona. Really a beautiful place and a wonderful day. Sunday we had to check out of the hostel and make it back to the airport, but we all agreed that we have to return sometime this year!
Once again, just class and homework this week. Our program provided a lovely Thanksgiving dinner for us on Thursday, so that was fun (and delicious!). I can't believe it's almost December! Time has really flown by!
Be sure to check out the pix of Padova and Barcelona!
xoxo

Day 76!

Ciao! I can't believe it's been almost another whole week since I last blogged! The days are just flying by. Not much really to tell about this week. I've just been going to class and do school work pretty much. I have midterms for both of my BCSP classes next week, grammar is on Tuesday and cinema is on Thursday. So I've spent most of yesterday and today studying for those. Alex and I went to the Sala Borsa, the public library, to study yesterday. It's so big and beautiful. I felt super productive and focused, so I think I will make going there to study a habit!
Wednesday night Erin, Allegra, Alex, and I went to the Irish Pub to get hamburgers since everyone was craving American food! I guess Wednesdays are big soccer nights here. The place was packed with people to watch the game. I didn't stay for the whole game, but Erin and Allegra did, and they said things got a little crazy a times!
Last night Anne, Alex, and I went to Ristoro delle Fate on Via Zamboni for drinks. It's a really cool restaurant/bar and has a great atmosphere. It was an early night though, nothing crazy!
Tomorrow I think I am going to go to mass in the morning and then go to this gym I found to join it so I can get back in shape! It's a little far away from my place, but it is a lot cheaper than the other closer gyms. I am looking forward to working out again. I have the time for it, and I will feel so much better when I have some physical activity again. It has been far to cold for me to run this week, and I feel so lazy! Other than that, I will be studying all day tomorrow. My Unibo class has been cancelled for this week, which is wonderful timing for me. Now I only have class on Tuesday and Thursday this week, so I can spend all of Monday and Wednesday studying for my exams! Not too fun, but very helpful.
I'll try to blog sometime in the middle of the week this week for once!
xoxo

Day 70!

I tried to post this last night, but my internet was down. So here it is now!

Whew, what a week! I have been so busy this week with schoolwork. A lot of reading and a paper to write, etc. I am slowly but surely regaining my once brilliant study habits haha! I really have a lot of free time here, I just need to be better about time management. But I really got a lot accomplished this week, so I feel pretty good about my studies right now!
I have been running again in the giardini Margherita. This week I befriended the adults who I always see running there together in the morning! Well to be more precise, they invited me to start running with them. They are so nice and in great shape! I am really excited that I know them now because I can exercise and practice my Italian at the same time! And now I am more motivated to actually get up at 7 and get out to the giardini to run with them.
Halloween here was fun but not nearly as exciting as it is back in the States! A bunch of us all dressed up and went to Erin's. Erin was a geisha, Alex was a fairy, Allegra was a spider, and I was Hello Kitty. I found bat and ghost shaped cookies and gummy vampire teeth, so we had some Halloween treats! No candy corn though, which I was sad about. I actually had a dream about candy corn last week! Haha sometimes I miss the strangest, most random things from home! We were all going to go out to the discoteca in the giardini Margherita after our Halloween festivites, but Allegra and I were too tired, so we just went home!
I got up this morning and went to 10:30 mass with Maria, Michael, and Maria's dad, who's in town for a few days. It was such a beautiful day today! The sky was perfectly blue, not a cloud in sight, and it really wasn't that cold. I am starting to feel much more at home in Bologna, like when I am walking around the city. I have always enjoyed it, but have had a few boughts of mild homesickness in which I haven't really appreciated what a beautiful place it is. But today walking back from mass, I was just overwhelmed with how pretty everything was. I walked under the two towers with the sun shining on them and the blue sky behind them--I am just so blessed to have the opportunity to live here for a year! Spent the rest of the day sitting in my room reading for my Italian literature class. I am still reading the first of the novels we talked about, Conversazione in Sicilia (Conversations in Sicily), and we are now talking about the fourth! But luckily I only have to read two of the four, so I am not really as far behind as it seems. And the way exams work here, I will have a lot of time between the end of the lectures and when the exams are to study, so I can always catch up on the reading. But I made a lot of progress today, so like I said, I am feeling good about my studies, and I feel like I am learning a lot!
I think I am going to hit the sack a little early tonight to rest up and get a fresh start to my week tomorrow. Ciao!
xoxo

P.S. Check out the pix from Halloween!

Day 65!

Hey there! I am so sorry it's been so long since I last posted! Nothing exciting happened last week, and I was very busy with school work. I literally stayed in all weekend reading and working on homework. It was pretty cold, so it was a good weekend to do that! It was actually kind of relaxing to just lounge around my apartment, get things accomplished, and not have to go out into the cold.
However, this past weekend more than made up for my lack of action the weekend before! Maria, her boyfriend Michael, Michelle, Rodolfo, Allegra, Alex, and I went on a roadtrip to Austria! We rented two little Italian cars. I rode with Michael, Maria, and Michelle. We all left Thursday night at about 11 and drove through the night to Vienna. I slept almost the whole way, but was awake long enough to see the AMAZING night sky over northern Italy/Austria. The stars were sooo big and bright, and the constellations were really easy to pick out. Easily the most amazing night sky I have ever seen:)
We arrived in Vienna at about 7 Friday morning, but we got lost within the city for about 3 hours! Turns out Vienna is quite a large place and difficult to navigate when you accidentally get into it on the wrong side of town... I enjoyed our morning drive around the city, however. Vienna is absolutely beautiful. It is unlike anything I have seen in Italy. This whole trip really showed me how different Italy is from other parts of Europe. Vienna is much more open, with much bigger, grander buildings than anything in Bologna. We finally found our parking garage and got out of the car to walk around the city. We headed into the center of town and met up with Rodolfo, Allegra, and Alex at the parliament building (gorgeous!). We were all famished and in dire need of nutrients/COFFEE, so we headed to a cafe. I had a delicious and much-needed cappuccino and jam-filled pancakes--yum! After we had all regained our energy, we decided to go see one museum type thing--there were plenty to choose from! We ended up seeing the silver and china collection belonging to the Hapsburgs, as well as the royal apartments/palace rooms. So elaborate and beautiful! Then we just decided to walk around and see the city instead of going through more museums. The weather was absolutely beautiful, much warmer than the past week in Bologna, sunny, very fall. We started walking and ran into a kind of fall festival with lots of food stands, music, activities. It was the perfect thing! I have really been missing the usual fall type activities, and this festival really hit the spot! We tried strum, kind of a mix between beer and wine, hard to describe, but very good! There was a wonderful little candy stand, so of course we all got treats--I bought a marzipan potato:) After that we just walked around some more. Maria, Michael, Rodolfo, and I went into this beautiful gothic church and then talked to a bunch of strangers (everyone in Austria is SO friendly!) to get suggestions for a good place to get wienerschnitzel. We all ended up going to this little pub for an early dinner. I ended up having some kind of wurst instead of wienerschnitzel, but it was sooo good! Right after dinner we headed to Salzburg, about a 3 hour drive (relatively easy!) We arrived in Salzburg about 10 pm or so, checked into our hostel, and IMMEDIATELY went to bed!
The next morning, feeling quite well rested :), I got up early to enjoy the great breakfast spread provided by our hostel. This was my first hostel experience, and it was such a nice one, I think I'm spoiled now! Our plan for Saturday was to do the "Most Unique Sound of Music Tour." The real Trapp family is from Salzburg, and most of The Sound of Music was filmed there! We had this crazy British tour guide, Sue, who was QUITE enthusiastic! We saw the gazebo from the "16 going on 17," but unfortunately couldn't go inside because an old lady broke her hip a couple years ago trying to dance from bench to bench. We saw the lane where Maria sings "I have confidence," the two different houses they used for the Von Trapp home, the convent (both from the movie and the one the REAL Maria was in), the church where they filmed the wedding, the lane they drive down when the kids are climbing trees in their curtain outfits, and the garden where most of the "Doe a deer" scenes were filmed. Besides that we got to see lots of beautiful Austrian scenery, mountains, lakes, and the headquarters of Red Bull (Austrias BIGGEST export, even before Swarovski crystal!). It was a great tour, really cool to be in the places where they filmed The Sound of Music, and a great way to see Salzburg. We got one of Maria's favorite things--apfelstrudel with vanilla ice cream from this little cafe that has won awards for its strudel! After the tour, we spent some time wandering the garden and then went to dinner. We found this super authentic Austrian restaurant. This time I DID have wienerschnitzel :) and Sacher torte, a chocolate and apricot cake that originates in Vienna and Salzburg. We ate so well in Austria haha! Rodolfo, Allegra, Alex, Michelle, and I went to an Irish pub after dinner to enjoy the Salzburg "night life." We were all pretty tired, however, so we went back to the hostel (and bed) before long.
Sunday we got up planning to do some shopping, but soon realized that shops in Salzburg aren't open on Sundays! Michelle and I wandered around downtown Salzburg for the morning, getting pretzels and chocolate:). After that we met up with Maria and Michael and headed back to the hostel to get the car and make our way back to Bologna. We spent most of the day driving back, and finally got back to Bologna at about 7 in the evening. The scenery on the way back (when I was awake) was gorgeous--fall colors and mountains everywhere!
It was a long, sometimes hard, weekend, but I am so glad we did it! Austria is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me of something out of a fairytale, and I really didn't want to leave! I hope I get the chance to go back and stay for more than just a few days.
I have just had class yesterday and today, nothing too exciting. Now I have a lot of work to catch up on since I didn't have time for homework this weekend. Last night, Erin, her mom and grandma, Michelle, Alex, Allegra, Anne, and I took a cooking class at a little bed and breakfast outside of the city. We learned how to make handmade pasta! It was really fun, although I don't know if that will be a dish I make for myself as it is quite time consuming. We had a delicious meal with three different types of pasta (all made at least in part by us!). It was not only yummy, but was also a fun way to spend an evening.
All right, I wanted to get everyone caught up and tell you about Austria while it's still fresh in my mind, but now I really have to get to work!
xoxo

p.s. PIXX OF AUSTRIA

Day 53!

It has started to get COLD here in Bologna! Monday was rainy and gray, but the rest of the week has just been cold (like in the 50s) but sunny. It was so cold last night that I woke up in the middle of the night and had to find another blanket! I've been sleeping in a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up! Haha. I got my winter coats in the mail today, from Mom and Dad--just in the nick of time! I am done with class for the week. My Italian Contemporary Literature class was difficult to follow this week, but I started talking to this really sweet girl, Francesca, who usually sits in the front row with me. I borrowed her notes last weekend, and they really helped my comprehension of the class, so I will probably make that a habit. My Italian grammar and Italian cinema classes both started this week, and I am really enjoying both of them! They are both through BCSP and are structured more like American classes--aka there's regular homework. I don't like that about them, but I'm glad to be back in a regular grammar class because I know I need it! And the cinema class is really interesting. It's taught by Prof. Ricci, the director of our program. We have two lectures a week, two hours each, and we have movie screenings on Thursday. Today we watched Roma Citta Aperta, a very good, but very sad, film. I haven't really done much else this week, just trying to get caught up on all the things I feel like I need to do! My roommates and I had a little conference yesterday (the first time we've all been together!) about how things work in the apartment, bills, rent, spese in comune (olive oil, paper towels, coffee, etc.), things like that. I found out that Giuseppe is moving out! He and Alessandra (his girlfriend) are looking for a place together, and they hope to find one soon. So I will probably have a new roommate soon. Giuseppe and Alessandra are both really nice, but I don't see them much at all, so I'm not too upset by this news, more surprised than anything.
By the way, I have not forgotten about putting up pictures of my apartment! I wanted to wait until I had decorated my side of the room and Flavia had decorated hers. My side is done I think, and it's starting to seem like Flavia won't really be decorating her side, so I will try to get some pictures up soon!
I would like to ask you all to pray for my friend Maria and her family. She went home a couple weekends ago for her grandpa's funeral, and just this week she lost one of her cousins. She has been having a rough time with all this, of course, and I know she and her family could really use some prayers!
xoxo

Day 50!

I've been here 50 days! I can't believe it.
I had a really nice weekend. I'm feeling more and more settled here, which is definitely a good feeling!
Danielle organized a picnic for some of the BCSP kids on Friday. Alex, Anne, Erin, Maria, Rodolfo, and me. We were supposed to go up to Villa Gighi, a park outside of the city center, but it started raining, so we just ended up going to the BCSP office and eating our food there. Still so fun! Danielle brought her adorable little dog, Lilo, who is afraid of EVERYTHING except Danielle. She also brought a deliciously gooey chocolate cake that was basically fudge, yum! We had several different cheeses, some prosciutto, fruit, bread, gelato, and prosecco. Quite a feast! Maria drew a big sun on the whiteboard, so we still had a picnic-like atmosphere, and we played hangman, in Italian, of course! That night, Erin, Alex, her roommate, & his friends, and I all went to Covo, a club outside of the city center to a Rakes concert. It was SUCH a good show! I had never heard of the Rakes before, but they are a fairly well-known band from London. They kind of reminded me of a combination of the Killers and Franz Ferdinand. They really play a GREAT live show. We were all right up front by the stage, dancing our hearts out, it was so fun! Erin and I met the drummer, both guitar players, and the bassist (everyone except the singer/frontman) after the show. We ended up talking to the drummer and guitar/keyboard player for a couple hours! They were both so nice and funny, not to mention fantastic musicians. It was a really amazing night:)
Saturday Anne, Erin, and I went to Mambo, Bologna's modern art museum. It has some really great pieces, and I was quite impressed with the collection overall. It was a really nice way to spend an afternoon. Erin and I went out to dinner after at a restaurant across the street from Alex's apartment. I had pizza with prosciutto, yummm! Then we went and got a carton of gelato to take to Alex's. Alex, Erin, and Alex's roommate watched Trainspotting and ate gelato. I went home after because I was soo tired! It was fun, though. A nice, relaxing day overall.
Sunday was relaxing as well. I started reading Conversazione in Sicilia, one of the books I need to read for my Contemporary Italian Literature class. It's not too hard to read, but it is still pretty slow going. I went to 6:30 mass at San Martino, down the street from my apartment. I can't wait till I actually know the mass responses in Italian!
Today seems like it's going to be kind of dreary. It rained REALLY hard for about 5 minutes, I think there might have even been some hail.
xoxo

p.s. pixxx from this weekend.

Day 46!

I am done with my first week of classes! Well, my first week of one of my classes anyway. My University of Bologna class, Contemporary Italian Literature, started on Monday. My classes through BCSP don't start until next week. So I had class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 3-5. My class is a huge lecture of literally hundreds of students. This week, I had some trouble understanding everything my professor said. He talks really fast, and I'm not altogether familiar with literary terms anyway. But every day has been a little bit better, and I borrowed this week's notes from an Italian girl, so hopefully looking over those will increase my comprehension. Today I am staying in and copying notes and reading the novel we have been talking about, Conversazione in Sicilia by Elio Vittorini. I really want to try to stay ahead of the game since I'm working with such a severe language handicap. I think I will like the class, though, once I understand more. And apparently our professor is really funny; there have been a few times that he says something and everyone cracks up. Of course, I didn't catch the joke, but at least I know he has a sense of humor, haha right? The other thing is, I know he is really good about helping foreign students, so I can always go to him for help if I really need it.
I have started running and working out again! I have gotten up and ran three times so far this week. I like getting out at about 7 am because there are less people to run around on the sidewalks. Also the morning air here is so nice, and both the sun and moon are in the sky. I have been running across to Via Zamboni (the one that most of the university buildings are on) down to Via Castiglione to the Giardina Margherita. I really love the garden. It's still so green, fall really hasn't settled in here yet. There are quite a few regular runners I have started recognizing in the garden. Working out more means I can eat more gelato, right? Haha.
Rodolfo, Rob, Alexandra, Erin, Alex, Allegra, Anne, Michelle, two of Maria's housemates, and I all had a little birthday party for Maria on Monday. She just turned 20! I feel old. We made pasta with a tomato and mushroom sauce, salad, cake, and gelato. There were too many of us to eat in the kitchen, so we all feasted sitting on the floor of Maria's bedroom. It was really fun, and I think Maria really enjoyed herself.
Anne and I went out to Swine Bar (right next to my place) and Cafe Zamboni last night to sample both aperitivos. Swine Bar has this really cool room on the street side of the sidewalk, like and outdoor bar with really comfy couches and little tables. It had such a cool atmosphere! There wasn't a lot of food there, but I think it was better quality than Cafe Zamboni. Cafe Zamboni was packed by the time we got there and was super noisy and crowded. It's pretty well known for its aperitivo, so there are always a lot of people there. There's always a lot of food, too. By the time we left, I think they must have been running out, though, because they literally had set out an entire platter of hot dogs cut up into little pieces. I kid you not. I'm glad we got our food before that! I preferred Swine Bar, and it's really close to my house, so I will probably go there quite a bit. Aperitivo is a really good deal, buy a 6 or 7 euro drink and eat as much as you want! I know I'm going to miss that next year!
xoxo