Il mio compleanno e il Ringraziamento

Happy Thanksgiving America! I know I am a little late but better late than never.  I have so much to be greatful for this year. I have a wonderful family back home that I got to skype with and share in their day. I have a wonderful group of friends that have become family here in Italy that I spent the day with.  I am also so thankful for all the opportunities that I have been given in my life.  I love you all!

I spent the Thanksgiving day in classes and at work, where everyone wished me a happy Thanksgiving and I got to share a little bit about this holiday with the classroom of 4-5 year olds who just stared at my blankly until I told then we going to make turkeys.  That's when they got excited! So I made turkeys with them using our hands and our feet and construction paper.  Most did not resemble anything at all, but some of the kids managed to pull it off. 

My evening was spent with eveyone in my BCSP program including directors, teachers, friends, family of everyone and the people who are in charge of the internships many of us are doing, including the principle of the school that I work at.  It was actually a pretty good meal including mashed potatoes, salad, corn-on-the-cob, asparagus, and of course TURKEY!  It wasn't as good as a real American thanksgiving with stuffing, rolls and butter, but it wasn't that bad either.  I did however, really miss apple pie and ice cream at the end of the meal, although they did try to make something like it. Besides the food, everyone looked FABULOUS!  Our director told us to dress elegantly and boy did we.  Even in his speech he commented on how amazing we all looked.  He even said that we were the finest looking students he has ever seen.  We didn't look half bad, if I do say so myself.  Bravi ragazzi, bravi!

 

 After dinner, to follow up an amazing meal, we went out and had an amazing night.  I invited all the girls out to finally celebrate my birthday in style.  We reserved a table at a dance club basically under where I live, at a club called VIP.  I had never been there before but it was a pretty cool club and we were put at a table right by the main dance floor which was perfect because we danced all night. It honestly was one of the best birthdays I had because it was nothing but fun. I missed all my friends from home though. I wish I could have been with everyone.  And no, for those of you who are wondering, I did not eat any french fries on my birthday.

 

Baci xx

Lina Visits!

 

Ciao tutti! This post is long overdue.  My friend Lina came to visit me from Lithuania a few weeks ago and I am just getting around to writing about it now.  I was absolutely an amazing weekend. We had not seen each other for two years since I left Italy the last time.  We studied together in Torino and she finally got back to Italy.  I was her last stop before Milan and home. It was fun because when we were in Italy before our Italian was not that great and we talked a lot in English with our friends but we spent the entire weekend talking together in Italian and about old times in Sponda Verde and Chalet and Centrolino and all the other amazing times we had together in Torino.

Her visit was so nice because I got an excuse to be a tourist in my city.  We also got to enjoy a lot of coffee.  If I know one person who loves coffee, its Lina.  We sat in Piazza Maggiore and enjoyed cappuccinos and brioche while people watching, one of my favorite things. After our little breakfast, we went to climb the towers.  I run marathons and let me tell you, it was hard.  There are about one million stairs, and its hard.  This might not actually have been a good thing that I went into the towers.  There are supposedly two things that students are not supposed to do in Bologna or else they will not graduate.  One is to climb the towers.  Luckily, I have yet to do the other things, which is walking across Piazza Maggiore.  Thank god. Hopefully since I am not actually graduating from the Università di Bologna, this will not effect me. Speriamo! Below are the views from the top and a little look into Bologna. The photo on the bottom is one of my balcony at my apartment.  Its pretty cool!

 

 

We went to dinner on Friday night with my friends at Alex's house which was hard for Lina for a minute because we were all shouting in English! Poor thing! But anyways, we went out after to a club called "Hobby 1" but if you are an Italian, you say "Obbie 1" like from Starwars! The next night we went out with my roommates to their favorite bar and possibly the only bar that they ever go to, Balonzone.  All in all, I had an amazing weekend with Lina and can't wait to see her again in LITHUANIA!!!!

I miei coinquilini

I know that I have been talking to a lot of you about my roommates and since there are so many of them and a lot of you are confused about who is who, I decided to clarify.  It only took me about two weeks to figure it all out, and some of my friends still cannot name everyone if they are put on the spot. When Romina and I first moved in here we gave them all nicknames so that we could talk about them in code but I am going to tell you them all now and since they will most likely read this we are going to have to come up with new nicknames (sorry Romina). Here goes:

Name: Romina
Alias: Bitch Romins
Description: The only girl that I live with. Easy.  She loves Jersey Shore, dancing and nutella and is rarely on time for anything.








Name: Fabio
Alias: Fabio
Description: Fabio is always in "delirium".  I am still trying to figure out what that means but he uses it for everything.  Fabio enjoys drinking and watching the film "Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo" with me and my girlfriends. He also loves polo shirts and chat roulette.








Name: Alessandro
Alias: Panna
Description: Panna is Alessandro's last name.  He takes care of the bills so he always gets our money.  He also enjoys feeding me random food that sometimes contains meat. Cool.  One of his favorite hobbies to to swear under his breath and most of the time he looks like he just rolled out of bed.






Name: Enrico
Alias: Dino
Description: I have no idea where this nickname came from, but it stuck.  All of my other roommates call him Mariuci, which is his last name.  Enrico loves going to McDonalds at midnight and is rarely seen doing things by himself.  He is also always concerned with his hair, which always looks fine.






Name: Enrico
Alias: Sweater
Description: Again, I have no idea where this nickname came from. I have never seen Enrico do anything but smile.  He also enjoys making fun of Romina any chance that he can get. 






Name: Augusto
Alias: Principessa
Description: Augusto is our little baby of the house. Aka our princess. He is in his last year of high school and is by far the loudest person I have ever lived with.  But somehow, I love it. I always know when he is home because he enters the house screaming "BITCH ROMINS!" or "bibibibibi".  He also shares Fabio's love for chat roulette.




Name: Rodolfo
Alias: Rudolph
Description: Rudolph just sounds like Rodolfo so it stuck. Rodolfo is not around as much as the others mainly because he is always at the gym.  Because he frequents the gym so often, he enjoys walking around our apartment without his shirt.






Name: Stefano
Alias: Seduction
Description: Stefano was given this name because of his voice. According to Romina and I, it is one of the best voices that we have ever heard.  Congrats Stefano. He can frequently be seen leaving our apartment to go the the gym with his best friend Rodolfo.





Name: Max
Alias: Ferret Man
Description: Max has a ferret. Hence, ferret man. He is my only roommate who is from Bologna.  He is the oldest of all of us. Max is rarely seen, but when he is, Samantha (his ferret) is not far behind.  He loves to walk by the door to my room and shout "CIAO RAGAZZE!" to Romina and me.  This is the extent of our communication since he is working most of the time or hanging out in his room.


Hope this clarifies things for everyone back home.  Please refer back to this when needed.


Baci xx

Londra

Just touched down in London Town!  It was a blast. Just as I remember it when I went years ago with my mom, grandma, and Anna to see Baby Kelly dance in London's New Years Day Parade.  I even got to see the hotel that we stayed at!  But here is the load down on my trip this time: 

Weather: Rain, rain, rain.  Okay not really. But it did rain every single day that I was there, just not all day long. We actually timed things pretty well.  It was, however, cold and wet and rainy.  This is another thing that I don't actually understand. I know that everyone in all of London owns Wellies (rainboots), but that doesn't mean that they don't have to put in a sewer system! There were puddles all over the place.  Like, come on London! You have the tube! Why not put in a drain?

 Money: I don't understand how people can survive in London, let alone the UK.  The pound is killer. They have just as many coins as the rest of Europe does but they do not put any numbers at all on their money.  I think they like to make foreigners like me sit there and flip though the coins and read the currency values written on them to know what they are.  They also do not go by size. You have no idea how many times I just stuck my hand out and let the cashiers take their pick at what was in my hand. 

Friends: I finally got to meet up with my friends Stefanie and Zsolt.  I hadn't seen Stefanie in over a year, since she visited me in Chicago.  But I hadn't seen Zsolt since he left Torino two years ago.  For anyone who has ever met Zsolt, he knows how to dance and that is just what we did. We went to a place called "Tiger Tiger" and danced from 10:00pm until close at 3:00am.  Then we headed home because Zsolt had to catch a 6:00am cab to the airport.  Maybe it was because I had a little to drink or was just really happy to see him, but I cried twice that night, once when he said goodbye to Stefanie and once when I said goodbye to him.  It had been way too long and it was amazing to see him. Saturday, my friends and I met up with Stefanie to watch the changing of the gaurds.  It was pretty cool (see pictures below).  Then we had her be our tour guide.  Guess what our first stop was? STARBUCKS! Best tour guide ever!  We then walked a little ways down teh road and she took us to Harrods to look around and see the puppies! Harrods is amazing. It had literally anything that you would ever need. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the interior because its was not allowed. Guess you will just have to go!

Girls with their Starbucks outside of Harrods

Buckingham Palace

Director of the band in the Changing of the Guards

Notting Hill: For anyone who has seen the movie, it was exactly the same.  I honestly don't know because I have never seen it but everyone else who was with me said it was.  Either way, the market was amazing.  Basically there are what seemed like thousands of stands filled with food, antiques, bags, art, music jewelry, and junk.  We walked through the entire market and didn't buy a thing until we got to the food. Thats where we decided to split up and meet back at the corner for everyone to buy lunch.  Little did we know that we would all end up at the same falafel booth. Needless to say, it was amazing! But everyone managed to get falafel juice spilled all over them.  Oh well, at least we all looked like slobs. Honestly, the houses around Notting Hill were the cutest houses that I have ever seen in London.  If I had to live in London, I would live there.

Our last day: We were super tourists. We started out going to Madame Tussauds Wax Museme.  Luckily, Stefanie had given us 2-for-1 coupons so it wasn't that expensive.  I did however get to hang out with my two favorite people, Miley and Robert Pattinson.  If you can't tell from the picture, me and Robert are dating. The wax figures are made to scale and are accurate height, so judging from the pictures, I am short.  Dang!

 

One of the last things we "had" to do before we left was find Platform 9 and 3/4 for my friends. I was not happy about this since I am not the biggest fan of Harry Pot-skies as I like to call him.  I however resigned to taking a picture so that I could make my wizzard-loving muggle sisters jealous. Eat your hearts out Anna and Kelly!

Thats all about London! We ended out trip with an Indian food dinner and I tried curry for the first time. I am not sure about it still. Then we had to wait and catch our 6am flight home to Bologna!

Baci xx

Il Primo Esame

Its been a while.  A lot of stuff has been going on and I have been super busy.  My friend Lina came to visit me from Lithuania (more about that later), I have had exams and a ton of reading to do so I haven't had a chance to write very much. 

Its now about 2:00 am here in Bologna and I cannot sleep half because I cannot breathe out of my nose and half because I am so excited about tomorrow (or today) because me and five other girls from my program are going to LONDON!!! I am going to get to see two of my friends Stefanie (from Scotland) and Zsolt (from Hungary) who I haven't seen in over a year and over two years respectfully.  SOO EXCITED!

But since I cannot sleep I thought I would share with you one of the most intense experiences I have had here.  It was a true test of my Italian and I think I would have passed with an A.  I started tutoring two Italian boys this week: Brando, 7, and Rocco, 3.  Most of the time I work with Brando.  Both of the boys attend the school I am interning at, the International School of Bologna.  Each grade level does a "Unit of Inquiry" and they have just finished their first units.  Both of the boys teachers sent home a progress report explaining how each of the boys did in the unit.  Their mother, Alessia, speaks little-to-no English and asked me to translate the report cards for the boys.  Each report card was about a half of a page, single spaced.  At first this didn't seem like a big deal.  I mean, I have been in Italy now for about 3 months.  How hard could this be?

Thats what I thought.  I started reading the first report card about Brando.  Then I started translating it and it was going fine but then it got the best of me.  I started thinking, "I bet I sound like a total idiot."  and "Omg! Did I say that right?" and "Is she understanding me?"  And that's when my hand began to shake.  Right about at this same time, their grandmother came over because she heard me speaking Italian and started listening to me.  (Commence sweating).  That was also about the same time that Brando and Rocco started decorating my arms with silly bands that I had brought for them and talking to me in English. 

Lets review: Reading in English, thinking in Italian, listening to the boys in English, speaking in Italian to their mother and responding to the boys in English.  Oh, did I mention I was sweating? 

About this time their mother stopped the chaos that was surrounding me and said, "You are doing fine. I can't even read this in English so that fact that you are translating this for me is amazing."  That was when I realized that I was doing fine.  I was switching from English to Italian and back faster than I have ever been able to and I was making sense in both languages.  I knew what verb tenses to use and how to reconstruct the sentences into Italian.  IT WAS AMAZING!!  It was so excited!  I am really starting to feel great about my Italian skills.  Now please correct my declining English skills.

Baci xx