Berlin and Athens!

So my program ended Friday and Saturday morning I left for Berlin with a friend for a couple days. It was really really cold, but at least no snow. We took a 4 hour walking tour and got to see SO much of Berlin. We saw the Berlin wall, Hitler's old bunker, the House of Parliament, the Jewish Museum, and much much more. And the food was great! I tried their famous warm spiced wine and of course I tried German beer and bratwurst. There are lots of Christmas markets set up in Berlin right now, so we visited a few. They were beautiful, but were very very crowded. I really enjoyed Berlin and would like to eventually see more of it someday.

Now we're in Athens and I love it here! We got up early and walked all day long taking in as much Athens as we could. We saw the Acropolis, the Erectheon, Zeus' Temple, Hadrian's Gate, the Plaka, the House of Parliament and my personal favorite, the Olympic Stadium! I got a great picture of me doing a handstand in front of it. That's probably the closest I'll ever get to the actual olympics. =) And I have been loving Greek food! Today I had a traditional dish called "Mousaka". It's a layered dish served in a bowl with potato, meat, eggplant, cheese, and lots of Greek spices. It was delicious! We have a few things left to see tomorrow before we head back to Italy. I wish we had longer to stay here, but I'm so glad to have gotten to see these two amazing countries!

See everyone soon. Be home in only 4 days!

Last Day in Siena =(

So today is my last day in Siena and I've been really really sad all day. =( I had my oral exam this morning and my culture final this afternoon, so that kept me busy, but I can't believe I'm leaving tomorrow. By this time tomorrow, I'll be in Berlin and a week from now, I'll be on my way back home.

I'm a little nervous to be coming home. Of course I'm excited to get to see my family and friends at home, but I'm worried about the adjustment back to American culture.

So I figured out a better solution: my friends and family will just all come here, so I won't have to leave Siena =) Maybe I should run it by my parents first. There are just so many things I'll miss about Italy. And honestly the thought of coming back to visit doesn't help and I just figured out why: if I ever come back here, it will be on vacation. I most likely won't ever live in Italy again like I'm doing now. (But I still do want to come back of course!)

The pictures I posted are of a beautiful sunset from the Fortress in Siena the other day, a picture of the Christmas tree just recently put up in one of the piazzas in Siena, and the last is a picture of my Italian family last night during our last dinner together =( I'll miss them, but honestly, it'll will be nice to only have one brother (instead of 3!) and to not have constant chaos and yelling in the house! The last time I lived with a 3 year old was when I was 5, and I guess I forgot how annoying 3 year olds can get! But I really have enjoyed living with them, and I'll miss the family.

Tonight is the farewell dinner with my program. We have awards, a slideshow, and a viewing of all of the final video projects we had to make for class. It should be really fun, but we all know at the end of the night, we'll all have to say goodbye to each other. We've recently been exchanging US numbers. (So weird to be exchanging real US numbers as opposed to Italian numbers!) So it will most likely be an emotional night and emotional day tomorrow leaving beautiful Siena.

Tomorrow I leave for Berlin and then Athens and then back to Rome for a couple days before flying back to the US. I won't be able to upload pictures while I'm gone, but I'll try to at least post a blog or two.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at home soon!

Well last week was another busy week. Monday I had a trip to the Enoteca Italiana (Italian wine bar) in Siena, where we tasted some excellent wines. There was also a news station there filming, so I was on TV! Unfortunately I didn't see it, but when I got home, my Italian family was all excited to see "Whitiny" on "la T.Vu". So I think that pretty much qualifies me as being famous in Italy. Guess my job here is done =)

Then on Wednesday we visited a local cheese farm, where they make "Pecorino" cheese. Pecorino is cheese made from sheep's milk and we call it "Romano" cheese at home (even though it doesn't even come from Rome!) I got to hold a baby sheep too! Unfortunately that picture is on my friend's camera. But I did add some pictures of the farm and the magnificent view from the farm and factory. (They're the bottom 5 pictures.)

I also added some pictures I had been meaning to show everyone. The top two are pictures from the Deviole Winery we visited last week. The third one is a view of the Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi gallery in Florence. The fourth picture is of the "Teatro Rozzi" where I saw the piano concerto last week. And the next three are just pictures of Siena during the holiday season. Siena set up a Christmas festival in one of the piazzas, so it's very festive around here. Even my Italian family put up a small tree and some decorations.

This week is my last official week here in Italy. We have finals all week and a farewell dinner on Friday. I'm so excited to go home for the holidays, but at the same time I am going to miss Siena and all of the people I've met here so much! As I told my mom yesterday, I've been so excited about coming home, I didn't really comprehend that fact that coming home means leaving Italy. Blonde moment I guess, but it hit me hard, that I'm not coming back. Of course I hope to come back to Italy in the future, but it's not like going home for break then coming back here. I'm really going to miss it. The friendly people, the food, the laid back atmosphere, the fashion, the espresso, the gorgeous Tuscan landscapes. I'm sad to go, but I am so incredibly appreciative of the opportunity I've been given. It has given me a new outlook on life and has renewed my excitement and determination to travel after college while I'm still young.

Well enough of being sappy ;) I hope the holiday season is treating everyone well. See everyone soon!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This last week was pretty busy. On Wednesday we had a class trip to the Uffizi. We had a tour and packed in a lot of artwork in only 3 hours. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but we only had so much time in Florence. Then on Thursday, I went with my Food & Wine class to a winery in Chianti. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that class, but we started last week as our last culture class. It's harder than I expected. We go way into detail about the chemistry of fermentation and mixing certain wines with certain foods. But I really like it. I never thought I'd actually enjoy drinking wine. We got a tour of the cellar and the vineyards and got to taste 5 different Chianti wines as well as fresh olive oil and Pecorino cheese (sheep's milk cheese, very popular in Tuscany). Friday I had a huge test, which I think went well, and then Friday night I went with some friends to a classical concert. Two pianists performed at the "Teatro dei Rozzi" in Siena, which was gorgeous! The theater itself was beautiful and the concert was amazing. It really made me miss music. And made me miss listening to my mom practice piano at home. (She denies she can play, but I love listening to her.) My two favorite concertos were Bach and Rachmaninov, probably because I'm the most familiar with them. I love how music is so universal. During one of the pieces, they displayed the music on the screen in front of the two pianos, so we could follow. I think it's so cool how everyone can read music, regarless of what language they speak. There's another concert next Friday. I probably shouldn't spend anymore money, but I might just have to go!

Saturday and Sunday I had a mellow weekend in Siena. Saturday I had a girls night out with a few girlfriends and Sunday I met up with my class to work on a final project we have coming up. I also walked around Siena, enjoying all of the Christmas decor. They set up a Christmas festival in one of the piazzas, and have decorated the streets and buildings with lights. It's very tasteful. No blow up Santas or singing reindeer like you'd find at home =)

For some reason, I couldn't upload pictures to my computer, so I can't post my new pictures of Christmas decorations in Siena, but I'll post them as soon as I can. So for now, I just posted a few I just got from Joel from when we were in Rome. The top one is of Joel and me in front of the Trevi Fountain. The middle two are of the beautiful sunset one evening at the Vatican. And the last one is of Joel and me at the Colosseum!

Happy December! Hope all is well at home. See everyone in a few weeks!

Thanksgiving Weeked Abroad!

So the bad news is I didn't have much of a Thanksgiving per se. But the good news is, that instead of turkey and pie, I got to see two new coutries! I was really worried about my travels last weekend because we were trying to fit so much into only 4 days, but luckily everything went perfectly!

So Wednesday (after my Italian presentation, which was a huge relief to get over with) I headed to Milan and stayed there for the night. Then Thursday morning we flew to Prague and spent 2 days there. Prague was WAY more than I imagined. Granted I honestly didn't know much about Prague to begin with, it surpassed all of my expectations. It was so beautiful! It was freezing cold, but the city was gorgeous. Some highlights included seeing the Charles Bridge, the historical Prague castle and walking up to the top of the tower to see the view, the Astronomical Clock, the main city center, and eating traditional potato pancake-like food. The Czech Republic uses Czech Crowns, so that was confusing at first, considering the Euro is equivalent to about 200 Crowns. But we got used to it. The Czech language was crazy! Sounded almost a little like German, but had really strange pronunciations and symbols. I caught myself starting to ask for directions in Italian, then realized neither my Italian or English could help me there! So there was lots of mimicking and charades on my part =)

Then on Friday night, I took an overnight 16 hour train ride to Amsterdam. The first leg was 10 hours on a sleeper car, which was nice to be able to sleep. But we were awoken 3 times by the police at different stops to check passports when entering new countries. At 6am we got into Germany and took another train to Amsterdam. In my opinion, AMsterdam was very similar to Venice with its canals and old buildings. The architecture was somewhat different, but I got the feeling of a Venice-Boston mixed together. We visited the Van Gough Museum, which was incredible and also saw Anne Frank's house, where she hid upstairs. Then as it got dark, we headed to the Red Light District, which was like nothing I'd ever seen before, and really would never care to see again. It was quite an experience. Prostitutes in windows with red backlighting and live sex shows and weed and sex shops. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I'm glad I got to experience it. Then We flew out of Amsterdam and back to Milan. We stayed in Milan for a night, explored the city the next day, and took a bus back to Siena.

It was so nice to be back in Siena! I never thought I'd be so comfortable there. The language was finally back to one I knew, Italian! I didn't think I knew so much Italian until I got back and realized I could ask for or say anything, or at least get my point across. I wouldn't quite call Siena "home", but it definitely feels comfortable and familiar now =)

A little explanation to the pictures I posted: The top 4 are of Prague, with one of me on the Charles Bridge in a goofy hat I had to buy because it was so cold! The bottom 4 are of Amsterdam, showing the fields, canals, and beautiful night scenery.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ciao!

Nov 21 Update

I wanted to give a quick update before I head out of the country for Thanksgiving! Last week was pretty mellow. I finished Italian 2 and my Art History class and I’m now in Italian 3 and have a Food & Wine class, in addition to our Italian Culture class, which lasts the whole semester. I love my culture class right now. We’re learning about the Mafia and I find it so incredibly interesting. America has such a misunderstanding of the mafia and I think that’s mostly due to Hollywood and ‘The Godfather’. It's a great movie, but not entirely accurate. So that’s a fun class right now. I’ll have lots of mafia facts to share when I come home =)

Last weekend I headed to Firenze (Florence) for a day trip with a girlfriend, so I added a picture from that trip. The picture is me on the Ponte Vecchio (a beautiful old bridge full of jewelry shops). I really enjoy Florence. If I wasn’t studying in Siena, I think my second choice would be Florence. It has a big city feel, but isn’t as busy or as dangerous as Rome. It’s really a fun city to visit.

I also added a picture of the fall colors in Siena. Most of the leaves have fallen by now, but a few weeks ago, I took my camera and wandered around the city taking pictures because the changing colors here were so beautiful. I’ve never experienced the fall colors on the east coast at home, but I imagine they’d look something like this. Now the leaves have fallen and it has gotten really really cold here. It’s come close to snowing, but Siena is at a low altitude, so it’s rare that it snows here. But we definitely get frost and ice!

I realized I don’t think I mentioned my gym that I belong to here. The week I got here, I found out about a tiny gym under the stadium seats at the soccer field in Siena. It’s small and funky, but it gets the job done and I really like that it’s unknown, so only locals workout there. It’s small, so I know most of the people and it makes me feel more part of the city.

I also forgot to mention that I am taking salsa lessons! I found out about a few trial classes for locals here and a friend and I tried them out. We tried tango, cha cha, cubano, afro, and salsa. We both liked salsa the best, so we’ve been taking classes for a couple months now. It’s completely in Italian and no one speaks English there, so it’s hard, but SO much fun. It’s amazing how dance is such a universal language. You really don’t need to know how to speak to understand and learn dance. Of course, we are learning a lot of Italian and are getting lots of practice while we’re there, which is always a plus. I hope I can find a class when I get back home because I would hate to lose all that I’ve learned here.

As for this weekend, in a couple of hours I’ll be headed out of town for the weekend. Italians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but our school gave us a few days off. So some friends and I are heading to Prague and Amsterdam! It’s going to be a compact and very fast trip, but I’m so excited to be able to experience two new places. I’m definitely going to miss Thanksgiving dinner, but I’m sure the trade-off will be worth it this year. I’ll be sure to post pictures and let everyone know how it goes when I get back.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and please eat lots of turkey and pumpkin pie for me! Ciao!

P.S. Joel sent me some pictures from when he was here, so I posted a few.

Joel in Italia!

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. I thought this might happen though, because for the past 10 days, Joel has been here! It has been so great having him here. This was his first time visiting Italy and we had such a good time. I’m going to give a break down of the last week, but I promise I’ll try to keep it brief.

So we spent Friday and Saturday last week sightseeing in Siena. We had dinner on the Piazza del Campo Friday night of course since no one can come to Siena without drinking wine and eating dinner on the Campo. Then on Sunday morning we went to mass in the Duomo of Siena. I had been inside a couple times to see the artwork, but mass was amazing. It was a special mass since it was All Saints Day on Thursday, so there were flowers decorating the altar and everything. It was beautiful. Then we spent the rest of the day in San Gimignano. We were there at sunset, so we climbed (actually ran) to the top of the tallest tower in the city and saw a spectacular view. I added a couple pictures of the view from the top as well as a couple others in San Gimignano.

Monday and Tuesday Joel came to a couple of my classes with me, but we didn’t have much time for anything else after school. Wednesday I had a trip to Florence with my Art History class, so Joel joined us. We visited the Duomo, the Duomo Museum, and the Academy Museum where we saw the David! My whole class was devoted to Michelangelo, so finally seeing the David was incredible. Of course we also saw other works of Michelangelo, which were equally impressive. I never thought I’d be so interested in and inspired by art history. I think Joel was surprised too. We both left wishing we could have spent more time in both of the museums. Thursday after school I had an optional school trip to some hot springs. They were naturally heated pools with sulfur (which unfortunately smells like eggs!). Other than the smell, the place was amazing. It was more of a spa in the middle of nowhere, which was great because it had a great view and we were there late afternoon, so we got to enjoy yet another beautiful sunset.

Friday after school, we all left for Rome. Part of my opera class includes seeing an opera in Rome, so we saw Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutti”. It was 4 hours but well worth it. And it was at the Teatro dell’Opera, which was gorgeous. Then Joel and I spent the rest of the weekend in Rome. We did so much in only two days I can’t believe it. My feet still hurt! I think this is why they say to travel when you’re young. Joel and I went both days from early morning until around 1am. Saturday we took an amazing tour my parents recommended of Vatican City. Having graduated from a Catholic high school and having studied religion and the Vatican, it was incredible to actually be there. The first sight of the Vatican and Saint Peter’s Basilica was jaw dropping. Joel and I literally stopped in our tracks. It took a few minutes to take it all in and realize if we didn’t stop drooling, we’d miss our tour! The tour included the inside the Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and I think my favorite, the Sistine Chapel. It was more than I ever could have imagined or expected; it was truly magical. Later that evening we went back to the Vatican and happened to experience the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. The sky looked like it was on fire. We really got lucky with the sunsets during the past week =) That night we went out and experienced the nightlife of Rome. Another fun experience. Drinking wine and eating pizza with the locals was a blast. There were a few things we wanted to see in Rome at night, so we did some more sight-seeing, got completely lost on random buses, but ended up finding the incredible Vittorio Emanuele Monument and the Trevi Fountain. Overall, it was a great night.

Sunday we were exhausted, but we dragged ourselves out of bed, and after a cappuccino to get us going, we had a packed full day. We visited the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, Circus Maximus (where they used to do the chariot races), the Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, and the Spanish steps. What a day! Then to top it off, Joel had surprised me and had bought tickets to the Roma-Cagliari soccer game in the Stadio Olympico. Unfortunately there was a riot outside the game. It was pretty scary. Men with helmets and covered faces had bats, blockades, fireworks, and smoke bombs and created absolute chaos outside the stadium. Joel and I booked it and jumped on a random bus to get out of there. Turns out there had been riots at earlier games and one boy was killed so the rest of the games were cancelled. Unfortunate, but it gave us a little more time to finish off some last sightseeing. Then this morning I left really early to make it back to school. Joel stayed in Rome and will fly out from Rome tomorrow morning. What a great time we had while he was here.

I can’t put many pictures up yet, because we took almost all pictures with Joel’s camera. So as soon as I get those from him, I’ll post more pictures. Sorry this is so long! But I had a lot to update on. Happy Veteran’s Day to everyone at home! Ciao!

Living the Italian Lifestyle

I can’t believe it’s already almost November! In some ways I feel like I just got here, but when I think about my first experiences in and impressions of Italy, I feel like I’ve been here forever. It’s still hard to believe I’m here, living in Italy. There are times I catch myself taking little things for granted, but then there are times like today I am overwhelmed by how lucky I am to be here. Today after school I didn’t have much to do and I was in a mood to just take some time for myself. I walked up to a fortress we have in Siena called the Fortezza Medici. It overlooks all of Siena and has a gorgeous view of the Duomo and the tower in the Piazza del Campo. Past the city, you can see suburbs and countryside. It really is a spectacular view. I stayed there for an hour just taking it all in. I’m really going to miss this place.

Living here really gives me a new perspective of Italy and Europe in general, but also of the US. Mentality is so different here than at home. One of the first things I noticed when I got here was how people don’t rush like they do in the US. Of course people have places to go and jobs and errands, but for the most part they don’t frantically rush like you see in city streets in the US. For example, when people go to the bar in the morning to get a caffe (espresso), they stand at the bar and enjoy their caffe. There is no such thing as “to-go”. To Italians, it is such a foreign concept to eat on the go. (I’ve tried it and I got some very strange looks even just eating an apple while walking.) I’m sure it’s so weird for Europeans to go to the US and watch people power-walk on their way to somewhere very important with Starbucks coffee in hand and always a cell phone glued to their ear. (Another thing I love about Siena: there are NO Starbucks! What a concept!)

Of course Italia is not perfect though. Everyone smokes here! Having grown up with Dare, non-smoking campaigns, and an honest belief when I was little that smoking a single cigarette will kill you, it’s shocking to see so many people smoking here. (Anyone who knows the story about Ry and Sam knows what I’m talking about =) The legal age limit to buy cigarettes is 14 and kids do start smoking at that age! I also don’t like how smiling is so misinterpreted here. At home, when you walk down the street, you generally smile or nod at people if you catch their eye. (Or at least I do.) Here, a girl smiling at a guy is translated to her being interested. I definitely learned that lesson quickly. It’s not that people aren’t friendly; it’s just not a social norm to look around at people on the street and smile. Strange, considering how friendly Italians are in general.

One last thing I’m not a fan of is the role of Italian women/mothers. They do everything! My Italian host mother has a full time job, three boys, and me and does everything around the house. She gets up at 6am and goes non-stop until usually around midnight. This is not to say that my mom doesn’t have days like that at home, but this is everyday and it could be completely avoided if the boys helped out! But boys/men/kids just aren’t expected to help out. It’s the social norm. Even if I try to clear my plate after dinner, I get scolded. Every dinner consists of wine, a first plate (pasta), a second plate (meat and veggies), and a dessert or fruit. My host father, my three host brothers and I just sit all through dinner while my host mom clears all of the plates after each course and serves the next course. I feel so bad! But when I offer to help, she always politely refuses. I talked to her after dinner one night and offered to help with dishes and plates, but kitchen duty is just something the mom does and no one else. In addition to cooking, she does laundry, cleaning, shopping, ironing, and putting the boys to bed. It’s a tough life being an Italian mom, but I admire her. But I have to say I definitely prefer the way we do things at home, even if it means doing dishes or chores. I’m pretty spoiled here!

So that’s life here. I’m still enjoying everything here, but now I’m definitely starting to look forward to coming home. I am loving my experience, but I think I’ll be ready to come home in another couple months. (Ask me once I’m home in the US though, and I’m sure I’ll tell everyone I’m ready to go back to Italy!)

Hope all is well at home. Miss you all!

I forgot to add the pictures of my Italian host family last time, so I added them today. One is with my three little Italian brothers and one is with my two dads while my parents were visiting =) The other pictures are of some of the beautiful views of Siena I've taken while here. Gorgeous huh?

Oh and by request, I’m giving a shout out to the UC Davis diving team =) Ciao!

Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii

Last weekend (October 19-21) I had an excursion with my school. My program includes 3 optional excursions and a few required day trips. This weekend half of my class went to Southern Italy to the Almafi Coast. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately freezing cold. On Friday we left Siena at 6:30am, so I had to leave my house at 5 and walk since the buses don't start running until 7am. And to top things off, I had come down with a cold the day before so I was sick and had a fever. Poor Whitney right? =) But things got better once we left. After 6 and 1/2 hours on the bus, we arrived in Sorrento. We got lunch and then had a guided tour of the city. Sorrento is a small town on the coast. It is know for its Limoncello, which is a lemon after-dinner drink (it's delicious!) Sorrento was cold, but the view of the ocean was amazing.

On Saturday, we left early and took a boat to the island of Capri. Unfortunately it was really really windy and cold, but the island was incredible. There were views from all directions of the mountains, the ocean, and the villas. There were beaches with clear water, but it was way to cold to swim. It was so cold and the ocean was so rough that boats stopped running during the day. We had planned to take a private boat around the island to see all sorts of coves and caves, but we found other things to do. Like eat =) The first pizza ever made was in Napoli which is close to the Almafi coast, so the pizza all weekend was amazing. New York pizza couldn't even compete.

Then on Sunday we packed up, left the hotel, and drove to Pompei. We had the worst weather of all three days on Sunday, but Pompei was definitely my favorite place we saw. We had a guided tour of the Roman ruins and it was incredible. As I'm sure you all know, I'm not a history buff nor do I usually like the subject, but I have never been so enterested in history as I am here in Italy! I had no idea so much of Pompei was preserved. And there's much of Pompei still covered. Since it was raining in Pompei, we saw it snowing on Mount Vesuvius. Pretty awesome. After the tour and after we had eaten lunch, it was time to head back for Siena. While we all stood out in the rain waiting for the bus, we got some bad news. Of course no traveling can ever just go smoothly. Turns out the bus driver had parked our bus in a parking lot and the parking lot owner had locked the lot and was not going to open it until the next morning. Just our luck! We honestly thought they were kidding when they told us that. Long story short, the police were called, it took a few hours to figure everything out, and after we all had gotten hypothermia, the bus finally came. I have never been so excited so see a damn bus. So we got back to Siena a little late, but everything worked out. (And I got to add a story to my collection of travel mishaps =) Overall a cold, but great weekend!

Football Italiano!

I'm sure some of you already know about this because I was so excited about it, but last week the Italian National soccer team came to play in Siena against South Africa. As soon as I heard about it, all of my friends and I bought tickets. The game was amazing. The line-up was obviously different, but this was the Italian team that WON the World Cup last year. The team had never played in Siena because the stadium in Siena is relatively small, but for some lucky reason, they decided to play here. They beat the South African team 2-0 and we sat directly behind the goal where both goals were scored. It was freezing cold, but the crowd was roudy, the beer was cheap, and Italia played a great game. And (I think this is almost as cool as the game) one of my Italian host brothers got to be out on the field carrying the flag, leading the Italian players onto the field. He is 9 and is on the Siena soccer team, so he was chosen to be on the field. He was stoked and did a great job holding the flag. I realized I never posted pictures of my Italian family, so I added a few: one with my little Italian brothers, Federico (9), Edoardo(7), Francesco (3) and one with my host father, Giacomo. Carmen is the mom, but she wasn't there when we took the pictures.

Anyway, so possibly more exciting than the game was what I got to do the day before the game. (drum role....) I got to see the World Cup. The actual gold trophy cup the Italian team won last year. It was incredible! It was in Siena for two days prior to the soccer game. There were two guards next to it and a picture of the Italian team receiving the trophy behind it and I got to stand 3 feet away from it! (Maybe I'm a little over-excited, but how many people actually get to see that?!) Italians are so proud of their soccer and it's really cool to be here during this time that there is so much Italian nationalism. So of course I added a picture of the cup =)