Auguri!

So its now the end of 2010.  I don't really know anymore, does that rhyme? Whatever! I cannot believe that another year has gone by and this time I am celebrating the new year in a new place with new friends.  I am lucky enough to have made some great friends here in Bologna. I spent the past week getting to know all the friends that my roommates have in their hometown and now I am spending New Years in Bologna with all of them.  There are actually 30 people staying in my apartment for New Years eve.  And if I have learned anything from our most recent house guest, they are not likely to leave anytime soon! 

I just want to take a minute to reflect on such a great year I have had.  It was barely a year ago that I was returning to Champaign-Urbana to live with my nuggets and Petey for my final semester at U of I in what I will never consider a real apartment.  To tell you the truth, I cannot remember what I did for New Years.  That last semster went by so quickly, I trained for a half marathon, I took 18 hours worth of classes, worked as a waitress at Sushi House, and spent as much time as I could with my friends Emily, Teresa, Jessy, Cory and Corinne.  We took a road trip to Iowa to visit Brad and Colleen.  That was Petey's first road trip!!! BBBBRRRRRRAAAAAAADDDDD!!!!!  Haha.  We made our very own WOLFPACK barcrawl.  I learned to drive a stick shift (not very well).  I celebrated my last Unofficial.  I got to surprise Baby Kelly for her 21st birthday with Anna.  I went to visit Anna with my cousin Kayla in Colorado.  I spent the summer being a bum in the beginning, getting my TEFL degree in the middle and spent the last month with family and friends that I will not get to see for another 8 months.  Wow, that sounds crazy!  I finally got to see Rihanna in concert with Emily, Colleen, Ellie, and AJ! "The ticket is for my girlfriend!"  I also got to spend time with my family at my lakehouse on the 4th of July and watch some baseball games with my Dad.  Then I packed my bags and headed to Bologna.  I know I am leaving out a few things but I did so much I cannot remember! 

Here in Bologna I made a new family.  I now have 8 brothers and all the friends that come with them.  I have also become close with the girls in my program Lauren, Mallory, Maried and Nicola and my roommate Romina.  Sadly though, Nicola is not coming back next semester. I am going to miss you!  I got to know Bologna, and now consider it my home.  I am tutoring a boy in English and working at the International School of Bologna. I also got to see my roommate Azmeen and meet all her friends in Verona, Italy and again when Kelly, Maried and I went to Rome.  I also got to see London for the second time and still could not bring myself to like it. Oh well. I also got to see a ton of little town on day trips and got to become part of a real Italian community when I went with my roommate Enrico to his hometown of Carassai. 

I still cannot believe how lucky I am.  I am 23 years old, living, studying and working in Bologna, Italy.  I have the most amazing family and friends that I could ever ask for.  And the best, smartest, most beautiful dog that has ever walked the planet.  If you disagree, please stop following my blog.  Again, I just want to wish everyone the most wonderful New Years.  I hope that all your hopes for the new year come true and that you keep your new years resolution for at least a week. :)

Baci xx

Merry Christmas!!!

Buon Natale a tutti!

I am here in Italy wishing I could spend the holiday with my family and friends.  But it really is not that bad.  Right now, I am in Carassai, Italy in the region of Le Marche staying with my roommate Enrico.  I LOVE IT.  It is so nice to be surrounded by family and my three new brothers.  I have yet to meet someone who is not one of the most friendly people in the world.  The town itself is absolutely adorable. There are just a little over 1,000 people who live here and every single person knows everyone.  It is unbelievably adorable.  Everyone says hi to everyone and knows who is related to who and who dated/is dating who.  I love it.  I am starting to get familiar with the faces of everyone too.  I mean, there is not that many!  Enrico took me to see another small town close by called Fermo the other day.  It was where he went to high school.  It was a little bigger then Carassai and just as adorable.  That is where his mom works, at the hospital and we went to go visit her when we were there.

I really have so much to say and so many pictures to show all of you but I am extremely tired from being here.  I never imagined how hard it would be to be 100% completely immersed into a culture.  In Bologna, I have my friends who I speak English with almost every day but here its Italian all the time. I really could not have asked for a better Christmas gift that that though. I have probably learned more in the past 4 days being here than I did in a month of Italian grammar class.  I am also learning a lot of dialect that they speak here. Basically every single town has a dialect of their own.  I picked up a few things from my roommates talking to each other in our house but now I am learning a lot.  I cannot really use it myself yet but when everyone is talking I am starting to understand it more and more.  On another note, I have ate more meat in the last few days then I have in the past 10 years of my life.  Well, most of you do not consider fish actual meat but I have had baby clams, tuna, octupus, tuna, crayfish, tuna, shrimp and did I mention tuna.  You all would be so proud of me.

I wish everyone the best Christmas!  I am sending everyone my love and I hope you all eat well and anjoy being together on this holiday.  I really miss you all!  Merry Christmas!

Il Prostituto

Yesterday was a sad day in our apartment. The Prostitute went home.  I can just imagine some of you who are reading this screaming in shock about this last sentence, but don't worry, it's only half as bad as it sounds.  A little over a month ago, my roommate Romina unknowingly let a prostitute into our apartment and he decided to stay.  Lets start from the beginning.

Romina, Nicola, Maried and I were walking into my apartment when we first ran into the Prostitute. At the time we did not know who he was but he was talking to someone on the speaker to our building so he came inside when we opened the door. All four of us squished into the elevator while he took the stairs and talked about how scary it would be if he was at our door.  When we got out, HE WAS!!! So leave it to Romina to do the right thing.  Announce to him that she had keys and let him inside! At this point he was extremely confused and started shouting one of my roommates name in a desperate attempt to find his friends.  Once he finally got inside he proceeded to scream "WHO ARE THESE ENGLISH GIRLS!" not realizing that we did not have English accents (as I have found out a lot of Italians cannot tell the difference).  Apparently no one had told him that my roommates had two Americans, let alone American girls, living with them.

After his initial freak out, he calmed down enough to tell us his name, Massimiliano.  He then told us the first of what would be many lies, that he was a prostitute.  Somehow though, the name "Prostitute" stuck and his real name didn't.  I tried telling my mom on skype that I was living with a prostitute and she told me to respect cultural differences and that maybe being a male escort was normal in Italy.  Okay mom. Let me give you an idea of the person I lived with for the past month.  He only brought clothes for one weekend.  That's about 3 shirts, two pairs of pants, and a jacket.  So naturally what do you do when you are visiting 7 of your friends and only have 3 shirts but decide to stay for one month? Borrow one? No. The Prostitute preferred to just not wear one.  Doesn't matter that it was about 20 degrees outside and snowed 3 times while he was here. He never wore a shirt (note picture).  He also never slept at night. You could find him walking around the house at any hour of the night and if you woke up hungry around breakfast, he would most likely be in the kitchen cooking up a huge pot of pasta for himself before he decided to go to bed.  He would call this dinner.  He slept during the day and went out about every single night.  I had to start sleeping with my door locked because on more than one occasion he barged into my room at 5am just to see what was up and to chat.  NOT OKAY! There were also events that occurred that I cannot speak of because no one wants to hear about them again. 

At first I was not a fan of my 11th roommate, but slowly he became my favorite.  The Prostitute was always there to talk to in his crazy, undecode-able dialect voice, shirtless and cigarette in hand.  Unfortunately, he decided that one month was long enough away from home, where I have learned he does the exact same thing.  His poor mother.  Don't worry though.  I will get to see him when I go to Le Marche for Christmas.  And he also told me he would be back in February.  Maybe this time he will pay rent!

Buon Natale America!

So its almost that time! Christmas time.  As most of you already know, this is not one of my favorite holidays.  Lots of fuss and nonsense.  But this year, I am actually extremely excited and extremely sad about Christmas. I am sad because this will be my first Christmas that I am not spending with my family.  My first Christmas in 23 years. WOW! I know that I always get a little stressed by trying to fit in all the different places that I travel on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but Christmas is just not going to be the same without my family with me.  Which brings me to why I am excited about this Christmas.  I have adopted a family of my own since I have been here: my roommates and friends.  This year, I am going to spend Christmas with them!!! I am really excited about this!!! I get to experience an actual Italian Christmas! 

This is what I have learned so far about Christmas in Italy:

-Children leave a "window" open for Santa in Italy since a lot of children live in the city and don't have a chimney

-Santa's name is Babo Natale

-Christmas Eve is a feast of fish 

-Christmas day everyone eats meat (I am already in trouble)

-You get together with your friends and play cards on Christmas

I am sure there will be more to come after I spend the next three weeks in Le Marche, the region where my roommates live. Here is a map so you can see where I will be (for those of you who care).

So when Kelly came, she secretly brought me 8 shirts from Abercrombie & Fitch for my roommates. I gave them the shirts the other night because my roommate Romina was leaving for Toronto, so we had Christmas early.  Let me just say they went NUTS!  Before I gave them the shirts, Maried, Romina and I spent about a half an hour trying to decide who was going to get what shirt.  Not that hard you say? False.  These are Italian men I am dealing with. They are very particular about their clothing. And we wouldn't DARE give someone the wrong size in fear that they get offended. MY GOD!  For example, Enrico always wears green but there was only a medium or a large, but these were American sizes so would they fit diferenetly.  And then Panah obviously gets the large because he is the tallest but what size does Max get?  I never see him without a jacket on so how would I know! In summary this was stressful.  But after they opened their gifts they all HAD to put on the shirts and we did it! We guessed perfectly and everyone was so happy!!!!! BUON LAVORO SQUADRA!!!!!! (good work team) BUON NATALE!

Some of the boys sporting their shirts (from left: Massie, Augusto, Fabio, Enrico)

My little Italian Family!!!! (front: me, Augusto, Enrico, Massie. Top: Panah, Enrico, Rodolfo, Romina, Fabio, Stefano)

Kelly is here and she doesn't want to leave.....

So its been two weeks and I cannot believe it but it's time for my Baby to go back home. I am really sad and so is she.  I really wish that I could go home with her to see all of you but I am sending her home with hugs and kisses for all of you. And now, for my first guest writer:

Bridge in Florence

Its Baby Kelly here, and I am sad to say that my two weeks abroad are over. I have had a lot of fun traveling with Ellen, meeting her friends, roommates, and experiencing what her life is like here in Bologna. On the days that we have been in Bologna I have followed Ellen around on what would be her "everyday schedule".  I even went to one of her Italian lectures, and I didn't understand a word the entire two hours I was there. Once class was over we would either window shop, find wonderful delicious food, or hang out with Ellen's friends from her program. I have grown to love these girls.

Roommates and friends

When we were at the apartment we were never alone, for as you know Ellen has 9 roommates. It was fun to get to know the group that Ellen lives with, they are a fun/entertaining bunch. Little did Ellen know, but most, if not all, of her roommates can speak a little bit of English. As everyone else knows Italian, they never had to use English. But I got the secret out of them!

Ellen hard at work

We didn't stay in Bologna the whole two weeks! We traveled to Rome for a weekend, and took day trips to Florence and Ferarra the second week of my stay. Ellen had a lot of school work after our Rome trip so we spent most of my second week in Bologna, other than the day trips. But this was great too, I got to know were she lived and how her life was here. She studies hard, goes to class (unlike some of her classmates), interns at the international school of bologna, and tutors. I also joined her on the days that she tutored and got a new boyfriend out of it. His name is Rocco and he is 4 and one of the cutest kids ever.

what we felt like before we got our 5am train to Rome

On top of St. Peter's Basilica

Throwing a penny in at the Trevi Fountain

Colosseum in Rome

Of all the places I have been in Italy, Rome and Bologna are my favorite. Rome blows my mind with all of its history. I had a hard time imagining a packed Colosseum, or how no one knew about the Roman Forum before someone decided to dig. And then there is Bologna. I cant decide whether I loved it so much because I was able to meet true Italians here, make new friends, or just simply because I got to spend a wonderful two weeks with my sister, but this is truly a beautiful city. I loved the portici (covered walkways) and the Christmas lights that were all over the city and hanging over all the streets.

Christmas tree in Piazza Nettuno

All in all this was one of the best trips I have been on, if not the best!!! And no I did not stay in a 4 star hotel, and I did not have fancy dinners, and shopping sprees. I slept in Ellen's twin bed right next to her, shared one bathroom with 11 people, cooked at home, ate a local restaurants, and shopped at the open marketplace with everyone else. But best of all I got to see my sister for a whole 2 weeks! I miss her already and I haven't even left.

Thank you for the great time and unbelievable memories!

 

Ellen's front door

Ellen was so happy I brought her "AMERICA"

Baci xx

Baby Kelly is here!

Dearest family and friends-

I have been slacking on my blog posting. I apologize.  Baby Kelly has, however, arrived safely in Bologna and we are about to catch a train in 4 hours to head to Rome for the weekend. Ugh. We have such a hard life. I know. Expect a celebrity blog post from our Baby upon our return.  It wil be filled with pictures, fun and I am sure a couple of good stories.  My friends here have already started a plan entitled "Phase Ellen Out" so I think they like Baby Kelly. My roommates have also started to teach Baby Kelly essential phrases such as "I like" and "My name is Kelly" and a few others that I cannot write online.

You know what they say, what happens in Rome, stays in Rome! Or is it when in Rome do as the Romans do? I can never remember!

Baci xx
Ellen and Baby Kelly