Will Vienna Wait for Me?

This weekend I am going to Vienna, Austria for four reasons:
1. School trips are fun and usually not very expensive
2. When I was in high school I wrote "go to Vienna" on a list of life goals
3. The movie Before Sunrise (if you haven't seen it, you probably should)
4. Billy Joel. Here are the lyrics to his song "Vienna"


Slow down, you crazy child
you're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart, tell me
Why are you still so afraid?


Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You'd better cool it off before you burn it out
You've got so much to do and
Only so many hours in a day


But you know that when the truth is told..
That you can get what you want or you get old
You're gonna kick off before you even
Get halfway through
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?


Slow down, you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Tonight,...
Too bad but it's the life you lead
you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong, you know
You can't always see when you're right. you're right


You've got your passion, you've got your pride
but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?


Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize,..Vienna waits for you?
And you know that when the truth is told
that you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get half through
Why don't you realize,. Vienna waits for you
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

City of Lucca and Palazzo Vecchio

This weekend I was able to go on fun little trips everyday. It was very relaxing!

On Friday I went to Bologna and bought a new pair of jeans that I desperately needed. (Two of the four pairs I brought with me are ripping). It was pretty hard to find a good pair of jeans because the styles and sizes here are not what I'm used to. Some stores use Italian sizes and some use European sizes, and they only slightly different.

Saturday I went to the city of Lucca with my friend Erin. She goes to the University of San Francisco but is from Hawaii. Her conversation partner Giusseppe also came with us. Lucca is such a cute town! I loved it! The historical part of the city is surrounded by completely intact Medieval walls. You can climb up onto the walls and there's a path that you can ride bikes on. We rented bikes for 2€ and did a loop around the walls. It was so fun! It was my first time on a bike in a really long time.

Sunday the weather in Florence was absolutely gorgeous! I had to get outside. I went for a walk and ended up going to a museum. Haven't been to a museum in a while actually. I went to Palazzo Vecchio. It was orginally built as a government building but the Medici moved in and converted it to a palace.



How much is that doggie in the window? And how cute is Lucca!?!?


A square with the duomo of Lucca and a bell tower. Lucca, though very small has 23 churches. There's nothing the Medieval Italians could better than build a chruch!

Up on the walls. See its like park up there almost. There's a tree lined path for walking, jogging or biking, complete with lamp posts and all that jazz. (That's Giusseppe in the corner.)

My sweet ride. The seat did not fit properly. I asked the bike shop guy to raise the seat but he lowered it about 4 inches instead. Oh well.



Erin and I wanted to imitate all the cute couples riding bikes and holding hands. It was really hard to balance!


Peekaboo!

I wore my new hat!


Admire the lovelty walls of Lucca!


Inside a room at Palazzo Vecchio. I think it was a meeting room? Much of Palazzo Vecchio is still used for events and such, notice all the chairs on the floor.

HUGE murals along the wall.

Staircase


Office of the Medici. The mayor of Florence and one of the important councils still use this room for important things. Can you tell its important yet?

This is a painting of Florence above the desk in the mayor's office.

Medici style fireplace.


Donatello's Judith. It used to be outside the entrace, but was replaced by Michelangelo's David. The David was moved in the 1800s to the Academia to preserve it.


This is the map room. It was my favorite room. I really love maps! For some reason I can just stare at maps all day long. That big ball in the middle is a globe circa 1567.
So that was my weekend. It was really hard to take pictures at Palazzo Vecchio because you can't use the flash. But at least pictures were allowed there. Palazzo Vecchio is also the least important of 3 Medici palaces in Florence. Most important is the Pitti Palace across the Arno (M&D we are going) and the Medici-Ricardi Palace. It was purchased by the Ricardi family when Cosimo moved the Medici to Palazzo Vecchio. (by the way the CHI in VecCHIo is pronounced key)

Blog Face Lift

I decided to change my blog template. I like this one with blues and greens better than the pink and purple one. And maybe now you male readers won't be embarrassed to read my blog in public. Haha.

An Ode to Italian Shopping

Recently I went to the grocery store and was inspired to make a blog post about the different products I have gotten used to buying in Italy instead of the United States. I took some pictures of my recent purchases.


Background on grocery shopping: We shop at a store called Esselunga. It's about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of Safeway, which for Italy is gigantic. It's about a 10 or 15 minute walk from the pensione, about 30 minute walk from the duomo and historical center of Florence. When grocery shopping you have to wear a glove to pick out produce. Going to the deli? Take a number! At the checkout, you must pay three cents for a plastic bag and don't for a moment think someone will bag up your groceries for you. If your total comes to something like 18.22 it will be rounded down to 18.20 and if you pay with a 20 the lady will wait while you dig through your purse for that 20 cents. Making change is avoided at all costs.


Unsalty saltines.


Eye make-up remover. This one was hard, I had to go home and look up the words in the Italian dictionary because I was afraid of getting like nail polish remover on accident. I learned that the verb "struccantare" means to remove make-up.


Chapstick. It took me a few tries before I bought something chapstick like. Chapstick is not kept by the checkout so you can buy one while waiting for the checker to scan your items. It is back with the shampoos and such. Interestingly, razors are by the checkstand. I did not think shaving was done with the impulse purchase of a razor. And the razors are only on a few of the checkstands. I get the feeling shaving is the necessity here as back home.

A 3€ bottle of strawberry spumonti (I did not spell right, but its what we call sparkiling wine because champagne is only from France).



Granola bars. Behind them is my finance book. These granola bars are a little like those Nature Valley ones you can buy at Costco (Dad calls them sawdust bars) but they have little bits of dried fruit in them. Very crunchy!



My new body wash. I have never bought the same kind twice. This one is "milk and silk" (latte e seta) but my skin does not feel like silk...


Shampoo. Capelli Ricci = curly hair. I have absolutely no idea what any of the other words on the bottle are.


Frutti di Basco yogurt in a 2 pack. It means fruit of the woods and is my favorite yogurt. I eat a lot of yogurt on the weekends for the protein and calcium. Helps off-set the carbs.

The BEST sandwich ever. Made by me in my room. It is: a hunk of freshly baked baguette, sliced open and filled with fresh mozzerella cheese, turkey and salame.


Apples and oranges. Blood oranges are really popular over here. They are pretty tasty too.



Bag of shredded carrots. It's basically the cheapest vegetable you can buy.

The laundry detergent I use. Laundry detergents here are not at all like the Tide I am used to using back in the States. They all smell like old things, like fake flowery stuff. Anyways, Mom sent me my favorite Downy dryer sheets which make up for the weird laundry soap. Notice that I used my dirty knee socks as a background for the laundry detergent.



Today I went shopping at the outdoor market in a nearby town. I bought this hat, do you like it?

February is moving right along

February has been a pretty slow month for me. Nothing really eventful has happened. I have been spending a lot of weekends in Florence this month and loving it, it’s so wonderful to not be traveling all the time. Even though there is so much to see, I love taking the time to enjoy Florence as much as I can. Traveling on the weekends means you barely get any sleep because when we travel, we get up early to go see the sights, then are out late enjoying the places we go to. So that equals not very much time spent sleeping, and trying to make it up during the week is almost impossible.

Last weekend I went on two day trips: first to Siena and San Gimignano then to Assisi. By the way it’s pronounced jim-in-yan-o (in Italian a ‘gn’ makes the sound of ‘ny’).

Siena was great! Peter, the travel director at school, took a small group of us. It was only Peter, Fr. Paul (the chaplain) three other girls and myself. Our first stop in Siena was to see the head of St. Catherine of Siena (there are multiple St. Catherines). Her head is in the church of San Dominico in Siena while her body is in Rome where she died. Siena and Rome both wanted her when she died, so they decided to share. Sorta creepy.

After that church, we got a snack at Nannini’s. Including this panteforte thing that Peter bought us. I thought it was gross, but I ate a little of it anyways to be polite. After our snack and bathroom break, Peter walked us over to Il Campo. It is really one of the best squares for people watching I have ever been to. It was such a beautiful day too, the sun was shining and oven though it was cold, it was really good weather for February. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a lot to see!

Back in the day (as in 1200/1300s) Siena wanted to build a Duomo bigger than the one Florence had, so they set about expanding theirs. They built a few new walls, then the plague struck Siena and the population went from 100,000 to 30,000. From then on, plans for expansion were cancelled. Nevertheless, Siena’s Duomo is FANTASTIC! The best part is the floor. The floor is done totally in designed marble. Most of the floor is kept covered to reduce wear, but there is still plenty to see. We also went to the Duomo museum and climbed up to what would have been a new wall of the expanded Duomo. Great view!

After some lunch, we left Siena and drove over to San Gimignano (did you say it right?). This small town is so cute! It is known for having lots of towers. But over the years many have been destroyed, from the original 40 or so, there are only 14. San Gimignano is up on a hill and you can go climb up to part of the old fortress and look down across the whole valley below. We had perfect timing and got there just at sunset. After taking some pictures we went to a small church: St. Augustine. As we started heading back to Florence and the stars were out. I love getting out of Florence to places where I can see the stars again. Never again will I take seeing the stars at night for granted!

That night, I went to dinner at ZaZa’s with some girls from the day trip. It was really good food, but something very strange happened there. After we ate, the brought us the check! I have never been brought a check in Italy. No matter how crowded a restaurant is, they always let you take all the time you need, I’ve always had to ask for the check. This was a first and it really took us by surprise!

Next morning, was Assisi! We went to a lot of churches. Honestly, I got a little churched out by the end of the day. Assisi is up on a hill, but the first church we went to was at the bottom, Santa Maria degli Angeli. (Degli is pronounced day-yee) The cool part of this church is that there is a church inside the church. Santa Maria degli Angeli is really big and was built around a small chapel like church (the Porziuncola – don’t ask me how to say that one). Also, going though a hallway you get to large window with a rose garden outside. That rose garden is where - according to legend - St. Francis died by throwing himself into the thorny roses when he was tempted by a woman.

Our next site in Assisi was the hermitage St. Francis started. Let me tell you if I were to be a monk, I would like to have that view every morning! The hermitage is all stone and built into the hill. I’m not sure how much of it is still used a monastery today, but there are tons of tourists there in summer. (Going to these places in the winter certainly has its advantages!)

After the hermitage we went to the medieval downtown of Assisi, had some lunch and gelato! Yummy. We had enough time for a visit to the church of St. Claire. So pretty! St. Claire has these gorgeous stripes of pink limestone around the outside. Inside, we saw relics of St. Francis and St. Claire: some clothing, St. Claire’s hair in a box and her body. The body was covered this time. The next church was the childhood church of St. Claire. Inside this man who didn’t speak English kept showing me and another girl things to see in the church. He directed us to a side chapel, a hallway full of Pope John Paul II portraits, and a guestbook to sign our names.

The final church of the day was the Basilica of St. Francis. HUGE! The basilica is two stories and has a piazza to the side, as well as a cloister for the active monastery. Peter arranged for a professor to guide us around through the basilica, pointing out certain interesting things. It was a pretty good tour for the most part. Except it was a little long (2 hours) and his voice was kind of hard to listen to. There was a lot to see in the church and I honestly didn’t pay very close attention to the tour and can’t really remember anything he said.

After the tour, we had some hot chocolates and drove back to Florence. We went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants: El Gato e La Volpe (the cat and the fox). The waiters there are always really nice and end up giving us a discount every time. The balsamic vinegar there is one of the most amazing things on the planet. And they give you salty foccacia bread for dipping! It is so good. (Mom and Dad will be able to vouch for me in about 2 months.

My life in Florence, is going pretty great! I have taken up running and I have gone almost every day for about a month. Unfortunately, I am not getting much better, so no marathons in my plans. But I like the running, even though I can’t run very far or very fast, the endorphins put me in a really good mood. School has been good too. After this weekend, I have midterms all next week! The weekend after that I was thinking about taking the train to somewhere to ride bikes or do some hiking. Something outdoorsy. I’ll let you know if I end up following through. My jeans are starting to show some serious wear, as in they have holes. So I might have to spend some time and money in Bologna shopping for new pants.

I am so excited to go to Scotland for Easter! I am going to stay with our relatives Ann and Jim in Glasgow. Then go to Edinburgh and go on a 3 day tour of the Highlands that includes the Isle of Skye, Culloden, and sleeping in a castle! It is going to be so cool!

This weekend I was not at all bitter about it being Valentine’s Day and not having a date. Nope, not bitter at all. Thursday night I went to a movie. In the Valley of Elah was playing at the Odeon. (Odeon is the theater that has movies in English once or twice a week.) It was a pretty good movie, but we all left really depressed.

Friday was the beginning of my hair dying saga. Alyse was one of my room mates last year and she lives in the pensione with me this year. Her favorite thing to do is dye people’s hair. Last year she did my hair twice, so I decided to dye my hair this weekend. And I wanted to be blond. As a child I had blond hair so I have the right skin tone to pull it off. Friday afternoon we had a box of blond hair dye and Alyse was putting it on my head when we ran out of hair dye! I know I have a lot of hair, but I didn’t think it was so much hair that we would run out of dye (its never happened before). Alyse did the best she could but after I rinsed it out, the new color had only dyed the top few inches. So Saturday we tried again. This time I bought two boxes of dye. The first box we used on the bottom of my hair to try and even it out. But the bottom wouldn’t really take the dye. So we used the second box to dye the top layer that shows the most. So end of story is, I am not a blond, but I might want to be someday. My hair is lighter, especially on the top, but that’s all. At least it didn’t turn orange or dye all patchy.

After the hair dying last night, I went out to a concert. It was a really odd experience. Liz’s conversation partner Luca invited her to a “heavy metal” concert. She took Jenne, Alyse, and me along. We met up with Luca and his two friends and went to this concert. Heavy metal it was not. It was like creepy vampire music. But it was good because it was finally something different that the Americans haven’t infiltrated, got to practice the Italian. The band was basically just a man screaming into a microphone. Thank God I changed into a black shirt before we left. Originally I was going to wear blue; I would have been the only person not in black at the concert.

My quest for an internship in accounting (or really anything at this point) is not going so well. Some of the other girls and I have all been complaining to each other about how hard it is to find an internship that wont turn you down immediately because we are in Italy and cant do the standard on-campus interview process.

Ok, this is a really long blog, if you made it all the way to here, you get a prize!
Sorry this has no pictures to do with the stories. But I'm putting some up on shutterfly, check them out if you want to!

All my love as always!

cArNeVaLe!!! (playing with caps makes it fun? yes?)

Jan 25-27 I went North to Venice. It was one of the most beautiful cities I have even been to! Luck for me, I got to see Venice during Carnevale! I took a lot of pictures and here are some of them. To save money our school stayed at a campground across the water from Venice. There is one bridge and one ferry to get to Venice. Boats ferrying across end at 9:30 and the bus to the campground end at midnight, so we didnt get to enjoy much of the nightlife. But that might be a good thing because everything there was so expensive! Restaurants in Venice do not seem t o believe in house wine for one thing, so it cost a lot to have meals there.


A canal in Venice. They are so many and oodles and oodles of bridges too.


The Island of Murano. Murano is where all the glass making is done. So Murano glass is the real name of Venetian glass. We went into a glass factory and got to see people making really cool things with the glass. Unfortunately, I did not buy much glass, it is so fragile and expensive to get stuff with good craftsmanship. I could have spent my life savings on glass vases, picture frames, Christmas ornaments and all kinds of things!

Girls in masks! We wanted to participate in Carnevale like the Venetians.

Wearing my mask in St. Mark's square.



The Grand Canal!!!!

The Rialto Bridge. It is only of only two bridges that goes over the Grand Canal.
View from the Rialto Bridge of the Grand Canal.


So a priest and a rabbi walk into a bar... I just couldn't help it. I had to be slighty stalkerish and take this photo.

Bridge of Sighs. When prisoners were taken to be executed they went through this bridge and got to see the sun through the windows one last time.


The bell tower at St. Mark's square.
Church of St. Mark's.



All the pigeons in St. Mark's square. You can actually pay money to get a bag of bird food to try to make some pigeons land on you. GROSS.


One of the traditions of Carnevale in Venice is dressing up. Some people dress in traditional costumes and go to galas and balls. If you've seen the movie Cassanova, it's a bit like that. Others put on elaborate outfits and walk around in the streets for people like me to take pictures of them.








The crowd in front of St. Marks to see the Flight of the Angel. For this, an angel (sometimes a person, bird, or acrobat) descends from the bell tower to the gound below. This year the angel was Coolio. I am not lying!

That man is really Coolio!!


In other news....

I recently broke my iPod that isnt really an iPod, but I call it my iPod because I dont know what else to call it. The screen is completely out, but it will still play music (sometimes). I hope it can last another 2.5 months!!

My grades last semester were good, I think it's a little wierd to post them here though.

This semester my classes are:

Italian 102: its a lot harder than 101, but I am understanding Italian more and I can mostly get around with my Italian. There's a lot of vocabulary I dont know though since my classes are mostly about grammar.

Business 490: The class is called "Diversity in Organizations" and I am taking it to get what Gonzaga calls and Integrated credit. The teacher has the most awesome name: Dr. Pepper! Overall its sort of an interesting class. But everyone in the class is pretty much the same, so its hard for us to talk about diversity sometimes. Everyone is white, most of us from the Northwest and have middle(ish) class families.

Management 352: I have decided to add International Business to my accounting major, so I am in an International Mangement class. Its mostly looking at cultures and case studies of buiness that operate internationally.

Religion 331: Christan Sexual Morality. Taught by the Dean, this class is very much awkward. It gets really hard not to giggle.

Finance 320: A business core requirement. So far its like accounting but not as technical. Also, the teacher isnt the best at writing clear examples. We have a test on Monday, so I'll have to see how good she is at writing problems for exams.

Marketing 310: The professor is completely nuts, it makes the class very entertaining. She went to school in England so is quite British and strict.