One Final Time

On the 26th, I took my family to Perugia, the place where I spent the last 3 and a half months studying.

While there I showed them the two museums that I interned with plus another that I did a project with. I did a project on their Naked Lady (Pictured to the left), in which I simply identified her ethnicity and age. I then expanded on her dialog from the Museum Bio of her.

We also saw the Frontone Garden, which was my favorite place to see trees or run too while in Perugia. After that I finally got to ride on the Merry-Go-Round that's been up since the Chocolate festival so that made my day!

The last thing was saw was this underground market. Literally, under Piazza Italia and inside the city walls is a nice little market place that I wish I had discovered sooner. It would've been nice to explore within the city walls more since it was clearly some underground tunnels that had been carved away in the past.

Florence Round 2

My parents had arranged a trip to Florence so I got to see the David again and even buy a nice lisstle coin purse. This would've certainly been nice to have earlier on. I often caught myself with a jingling purse as I walked. So now when I return home, I'll have something to put my coins in so that I never have a jingly purse again.

I also got to see the inside of the Duomo, which is wicked empty and only the outside it worth seeing to be completely honest.

The Colosseum and Roman Forum

Tis a horse

When I was in Rome for a weekend with my Archaeology class we walked over to the Colosseum and Roman Forum, but arrived too late to go inside.

This time we did and it was pretty cool. It's more impressive that so much of it is still standing and that you can make out the figures of old buildings and such. Some people were touching the ruins on display with old graffiti on it, and that annoyed me. Do you want to destroy history? Because that's how you destroy history! With your oily fingers destroying things. There were also some cool animal bones and skulls, which was pretty wicked from my point of view.

The Roman Forum was also cool, we got to see part of the Golden House of Nero, which is huge. So this guy was obsessed with money and power and built this giant house.

The Vatican Round 2

I returned to the Vatican this past week and as promised early I will give a more in depth post about it now that I've been three times.

So the first time I came with my Archaeology class and we visited the Pio-Clementine and Gregorian Museum. Mainly because they held artifacts from the Etruscan Period and that's what the class was focusing on. There were certainly a lot of cool artifacts and I learned that Museums are named because they are a shrine to the 9 Muses. After the field trip we had to write about an artifact in the Belvedere courtyard and I picked the River God Fountain. The basin is a sarcophagus with war scenes and the god himself is under speculation as to which river he reigns over.

The Second time I went with my family and we went straight to the Sistine Chapel (which I had been at before) and had the most fantastic tour guide of our trip. She called herself our Mamma Bear, and had worked in the Vatican Museums previously. She even called the Pope, Frankie, and said that he would wander the halls sometimes on his own and say "Hi" to workers. We also got the see St. Peter's Basilica and Square which were just massive and wow. So much skill and math went into that church and it's truly impressive.

The third time I went was on Christmas, to St. Peter's Square for the Pope's speech. I can now say that I have seen the Pope! The small white blob, hundreds, maybe thousands of feet away that make up Pope Francis haha.

Villa D'Este

I hadn't visited the Villa D'Este before this week, it was something my parents had planned, so it was nice to see something new since most of our trips were repeats for me.

We mainly went to see the gardens, which were five levels high and filled with a bunch of fountains. It was really pretty here, and it was interesting to see the gardens overrun by the years and weathers.

Pompeii Round 2

Back in September the school offered a trip to Ischia, Capri, and Pompeii and I went on the trip. With my family they also wanted to visit Pompeii so I got to go twice but this time I got to see more.

I did not like our tour guide, I found him not funny, and the headsets we had made it hard to tell if he was speaking Spanish or English, since the tour was in both languages. So JP and I ended up branching off on our own for the most part, since it was allowed. It was fun, I talked about the places I had been to last time (a Roman House, a public bath house, and a brothel), and then we also explored some places that I hadn't been so that was interesting.

We slept a lot on the bus rides there and back, mainly because it was early in the morning and a long ride, but also because they were still adjusting to jet lag, and I was just tired.

The size of Pompeii still amazed me, how a whole city is just sitting inside of a modern city and the incredible things you could find hundreds of years later.

The Family

They have arrived. Finally the day came when my parents and younger brother arrived in Italy to spend Christmas with me here.

It's kind of funny to see them deal with the trash because it reminds me of myself when I first arrived, always asking someone else which recycling bag certain things go in. When I asked for the check (il conto) at a restaurant for lunch the first day, JP was confused by what I said. It reminds me of when I first arrived and knew no Italian, and now I can at least hold a very basic conversation and buy things.

The biggest difference between travelling with my school and traveling with my family is that we look more like tourists as a family. JP is walking around in shorts, goofy socks, climbing rope attached at his hip, and his GSR sweatshirt (I wonder if he's from Italy, hint....NO!). Then my mom keeps stopping at the vendors and actually talking to them, so now they know we are tourists. With my school they'd try and get us to buy things, but we ignored them and they went away, now every time we walk by it's like "Family discount, I save you a table. We have a real Italian chef!" It's very annoying.

My Dad and I kind of fit it, only because I have been here the longest and just know how to blend in. My Dad however, is 100% Italian, as his parents immigrated to the US from Sicily, so even if he doesn't look Italian in style, he's got the face and they don't pick him out in the crowd as easily.

Deutches U-Boat Museum and Archive

In my Junior year of High School I read a book called Shadow Divers about a group of divers who found a mysterious U-boat off the coast of NJ. After years of searching the wreck and doing research on land they were able to identify it as U-869. I took a strong liking to this book and even watched a movie mentioned in the book called Das Boot, and wrote a paper on the book. My paper was on proving that the divers work could be considered archaeology instead of looting. 

The original divers, as part of their research looked for help from Horst Bredow, a World War II U-Boat Navy Veteran, and his archive. Since I've been studying in Italy and felt a connection with the book, I knew that during my week break after school I'd have to visit. So I set about doing travel research and emailing the museum asking if I could tour, and we set up a date. 

Horst Bredow and I in the Archive

When I first arrived I couldn't believe that I had made it, I've never followed through on a book or idea like this before and it was really important to me. I was excited to see the whole museum and some of the U-869 artifacts on display. I was the only patron there that day and got a personal tour from one of the volunteers. It was really incredible all the objects they had. A lot of it was donated by veterans or their family's after they passed. I also got to see some artifacts pulled from U-869 including the identifying artifacts. 

Outside the Museum Building

I'm so happy that I could visit the museum, and Germany in general. I'll certainly miss this country and I can't wait for the day when I can return. This has been a truly incredible experience and I'm so glad I could make the trip and experience it to my fullest.

Hamburg

Hamburg is wonderful! It's a beautiful coastal city with quite literally the best Christmas Markets ever.

Peek-a-boo on U-434 

Today I slept in, since I had no rush to get up and go so that was a nice break from all the go-go-go of the last few days. I visited the Russian sub U-434 after lunch and it was HUGE! I mean I knew subs were big, but this one was big. It wasn't like any of the ship museums in the States, I opened up some cabinets and I tried to open another but was afraid of the "security cameras" ...because those totally were in the ship. I certainly got a little goofy with some of my pictures, and it was fun.

One of the Market Entrances 

Tonight I explored the Christmas Markets and oh my, the rumor that they had the best markets was true! Walking around them one minute I smelled sweet things, then meat and beer, then I saw the toys, and jewelry. These were the most intense shops ever, like so much planning went into this. Wooden outdoor shops, metal things, a merry-go-round in every market, lots of crepe stands. Just an overwhelming amount of stuff and just ...I'll have to come back because it was just beautiful.

Berlin Day 2

When I first set me eyes on Berlin as a place to visit I used Google to find places to visit. I set my eyes on the Berlin Unterwelten, Allied Museum, and the Berlin Wall Memorial. However plans do change and I only ended up visiting the Allied Museum, which is alright because I still had some unexpected visits to two other places in Berlin.

The Allied Museum was pretty interesting as it showed Berlin's history after World War II. It was pretty amazing to see what was going on in Berlin, since in school we only learn that it was divided and we had to air drop in food. It was really so much more than that, radio stations were set up, schools, trying to reignite culture in Germany. Once the roads into East Germany were closed airmen would perform Airlifts into it to bring food and other supplies, even refugees. A group of pilots formed Operation Santa Clause, to have people ship presents to West Germany so that the pilots could bring gifts to the Berlin children for Christmas. There was also a plane crash once and there was one survivor for a bit, Russian let his wife visit and that was a huge deal for the day.

Brandenburg Gate

I then stumbled upon the Bradenburg Gate, the Victory Column, the place where the Berlin Wall once stood, and the Tiergarten. It was all such a wonderful way to end my time in Berlin and I can't wait to come back in the future.

On top of the Berlin Victory Column 

Berlin

The first time that I entered Berlin was Friday the 12th because my flight to Krakow had been delayed and I was forced to stay in Berlin for the night. Luckily my hostel room had some space and I was allowed to stay overnight and switch my days around.

I got back to Berlin a little too late for a Bunker tour and tomorrow I tour two museums (The Allied Museum, and Berlin Wall Memorial) then head off the Hamburg!

Tonight I had dinner with one of my roommates from Umbra, Maiji, we went to this place that served traditional German food, I got some cheese noodles and Maiji got white sausage and a pretzel. Before I leave Germany I will try the Wiener Schnitzel ...I will, and then wash it down with some strudel.

Berlin is huge, it is impossible to walk anywhere as a tourist you must suck it up and use the buses and train systems in place. Which I have had no trouble handling so far (fingers crossed), and it's actually reminding me of Boston a bit (just their underground train system, as it goes above ground too). The homey feeling is nice and at the same time adds excitement. It's not too bad working my way around Germany, they have some things in English and Italian, both of which I can read so it helps.

I wish I had my extra day back in Berlin, but I'm just glad that I can accomplish most of what I set out to do. Tomorrow night I'm off to Hamburg where I'll focus on U-boat museums.

Auschwitz

Today I toured Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz Birkenau.

Auschwitz 1, were it not for the barbed wire, could be looked upon as a cozy cookie cutter neighborhood. However it is not, it's the original Auschwitz concentration camp in the area and many of the originally unspeakable acts were committed here. This part of the camp is mainly a museum now, containing a lot of photos and documents from the days of the camp. It also contains countless items that once belonged to the millions of prisoners. One of the places we couldn't photograph was this room filled with hair, shaved off women after they arrived to be used as fabric for the Nazi soldiers. What really shocked me here was in the giant displays of wads of matted hair, there was a single small blond braid, bigger braid were used in a separate display, but this one was all alone, and probably a child's.

Auschwitz Birkenau was built as a death camp and you can tell. From afar it's just one giant structure and then barbed wire with rows of barracks. Within this camp a lot of buildings were burnt down to try and hide the crimes committed but a lot of the bricks remained. From the barracks that were burned all that remained were chimney's.

Between the camps you could buy flowers to place any where in the museum or camp that you wanted. The most amazing sight I saw was six flowers displayed as the Star of David, easily overlooked if you were just walking by and thought it was another pile of flowers.

Auschwitz Birkenau

Krakow

Well Poland has a different currency than the rest of Europe so when I arrived I found an ATM at the airport and then hailed a taxi!

The drive to the city was beautiful and reminded me of home, the winter touched ground and trees however, still no snow. Very disappointing.

The part of the city I'm in has a building across the way that looks like it has some old damage from WWII since it has patched holes and the building across from that also has some repairs. The buildings themselves for the most part appear dirty, but in the smokey kind, like fires and gun fires. It's almost as if the outer appearance never recovered after the war. The streets are also so old and used that they have permanent dents in them.

It was hard finding places to eat or buy food because they don't have a lot of outer signs on stores, and it's a wicked hard language to understand. I'll be living off supermarket food until I get back to Berlin probably, where the lanuage is more similar and the have a Dunkin' Donuts (yeah awesome right!).

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I got to see the city center on the way back from my Auschwitz tour today, and it is very modern looking and looks much easier to find food than the outskirts where I am.

Also I lost power in my room, but thankfully not in the bathroom, so there's that! :)

December 12th

Prologue:
Two weeks prior we, the students, were told of a transportation strike the day we were to depart from Italy. Up until Tuesday the 9th everything seemed fine for me, until that night when my flight to Krakow got cancelled. So I re-booked a flight that left in the afternoon instead of the morning and the day before I left everything was once again fine, I was just missing some exploring time in Krakow.

Chapter 1: Everything is Still Fine:
The school would be bringing us by bus to the airport so around 12:15am we lugged our suitcases from our apartment over to Piazza Italia. A long walk on a normal day, now imagine a bag on my back, and a close to 50lb suitcase....my hand got blisters. Then it was a three hour long ride to Rome, during which I slept and woke up very uncomfortable. After saying goodbye to a huge bulk of the group a few people and I were stuck hanging around a coffee shop waiting for the last of the morning people to go through customs.

Chapter 2: The Real Fun Begins:
Around 10am I checked the departure board once again to see if my flight finally shows up. It did, for 7pm not 5pm like I wanted. The freak out begins. Turns out my flight was delayed by two hours due to the strike and now I'd have to fly to Krakow the next morning, and miss my Auschwitz tour.

Chapter 3: The Hero Enters:
The calls to my Dad started happening at this moment, trying to reschedule flights and such. It was all a crazy mess, trying to contact Poland and Germany was pointless on my end because my Italian service would not allow it. So I had my Dad calling my hostels and my tour company as we tried to rearrange my weekend and after hours upon hours of phone calls and changes, we did it. Now I have my schedule set and should run into no more problems.

FINITO

Oh my ...I am all done with school, done finals, done projects, essays and presentations. Basta, stop. Three weeks ago I was freaking out over my to-do list, but I must say, my time management skills surprised me haha. I can't believe I got everything done, even some things ahead of schedule, and writing papers that I thought was awful, but got good grades on.

I'm just glad that I can relax now, and spend tomorrow packing and hanging out around friends. I have found it very hard to pack away my GSR Staff photo. It reminded me of leaving camp again, and lately I've been missing it a lot, I'm not ready to pack away Summer 2014, and I found myself liking the program here more than I thought. Maybe a little longer here in Perugia would be nice, but with friends from home of course so as not to be away from them too long.

Cooking 4

Mmmmmm

In my Freshmen Year of college the ANSO (Anthropology/Sociology) Club I'm in had their annual Holiday party and I attended. At this party was an awesome punch (which we recreated), and this spaghetti casserole that was amazing. So the next year we were all wondering if the casserole would come back....it did not!

This year despite not being able to attend I wanted to try and make this dish, in honor of the dinner and so I attempted to make it. It worked for the most part, but I need to add more bread crumbs between the layers of pasta, and layer the pasta better, so that it is tougher pasta all through. I also added my own spin on the recipe by adding mozzarella on top.

Florence

For my final school field trip my Leonardo class went to Florence. It was actually a rescheduled trip from earlier on because a strike in November had caused us to postpone the Florence part of our trip. We visited the Uffizi (You-feet-see) and some other museum took look at Leonardo's work.

Gates of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti

We got to see many wonderful pieces of artwork like art by Botticelli that my mom has a photo of in her bathroom. We even got see Leonardo's Annunciation and it was gorgeous, all the detail he puts into his work and how delicate he paints is just breathtaking.

Afterwords a couple of girls and myself visited the David and its just ...well quite simply it left me awestruck at it's size. You go around the first left hand corner and at the end of the hallway...there it is. I have definitely become more appreciative and understanding of art through this semester and my classes that dealt with it.

Before we when to the David we stopped in front of the Duomo, and while everyone was taking picture of that my friends and I noticed these doors. I had recognized them from Latin class and everypone had their backs to them. I mean they were almost all covered because the building was being renovated but these doors are iconic, and I've attached their photo below.

Cooking 3

Before I left for Italy I became interested in soup, mainly the creamy potato and clam chowder kind. When I got to Italy I figured I'd try my hand at it and it's not too hard, just supply consuming haha.

I've taken the parsley out of my recipe since I feel that it adds no value to the dish. In Italy they don't have bacon or bacon bits so I've been putting pancetta and garlic in a pan to mimic the taste and smell, and it's not too far off. Most recently, to make it creamier, I added a cup and a half of cream to the dish and I got a consistency a little more familiar.

The first step is to brown the onions, but once I burned them and the whole soup was slightly grey instead of a white-yellow haha!

The Beginning of the End

I would say that today officially marked the beginning of the end here in Perugia. Leading up to today I've had to prepare for many presentations, write some papers, and study for many tests and finals.

Today I had to give my first two presentations, and the big end of year items for me are starting to be due.

In Italian this morning I had to give a 5 minute Oral Presentation of my Italian skills by picking a random topic (La Mia Citta Preferita Negli Stati Uniti - My Favorite City in the United States). I talked about Boston for 5 minutes and it was the longest/shortest 5 minutes of my life. Because I love history, I mainly focused on the Freedom Trail and all the sights you see along the way, plus I added in some pictures of an old Crew Trip since it showed my friends and I posing like the statues.

Then in my Leonardo da Vinci class I was the first to present for the entire class, over the three day span. We are presenting a piece of our papers, and adding our own background and opinions into it. I made a prezi for my presentation and I talked about the two pictures I used in my paper on Leonardo's Anatomical Studies. It was a sketch of a skull, with the dental formula in the corner, and a sketch of the spine and different vertebrae from different angles.

I was able to talk about how he drew a European man, who was probably an adult, which corresponds with the fact that he would draw the anatomy of dead male prisoners. I was able to say that because Leonardo used all the shading and showed depth I was able to determine his ethnicity and gender. With the spine I mentioned how the sketch only possessed two mistakes, and even then it could still be used in classrooms today because it was so anatomically ahead of it's time and that near perfect.

Next week I have more papers, presentations, and tests to take so fingers crossed! I'll get one last break though this weekend when I visit my Nonno's cousin Maria in Milazzo, Sicily! I'm so excited!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Internship Update

Much of my time at my two museum internships has been spent cataloging. At the Ranieri house we've been cataloging books that belonged to a women called Romeyne Ranieri Bourbon di Sorbello. She was the grandmother of the founder for the museum and is from America, but while traveling in Italy with her family met an Italian aristocrat and got married.

We have to update the museums website by Thursday or at least have drafts done we are going to meet up sometime this week and do so. I have to put together a Biography for Romeyne with another girl, and the two others in the internship are doing her son.

For the Fondazione Marini Clarelli Santi House we've been inventorying clothes, bed linens, and towels. We found a bunch of costumes last week for a 1700's style party, and a karate uniform from the time when Bruce Lee and karate films were huge!

I get to make up a program proposal for the Santi House, it's going to be a Victorian Era Tea Party for young girls, so that they can have fun while learning table manners of the day.

Milan

On Friday and Saturday my Leonardo da Vinci class went to Milan to visit some Leonardo sights.

On Friday we got to see some of his old notes and a this breath taking Gothic Style Duomo, that made you pay 2 Euro for the right to take pictures. I didn't feel like paying for two reasons: 1) I just don't want to pay to take pictures, and 2) the place was a sight that no photo could do justice.

Saturday we saw more of his old notes, a couple originals and copies and probably one of the most amazing things he has ever done. Saturday morning we got to see The Last Supper. You get about 15 minutes in the room with it for an 8 Euro ticket that you pre-buy and it's amazing. I starred at this piece of work for 15 minutes and felt like it was simply not enough time. Although it has been restored countless times since it was first created and is probably no longer an original Leonardo the piece of work holds up to its name and reputation.

Gelato!

Of course being in Italy I have sampled my fair share of gelato flavors and found the places which do and do not live up to the "Real Italian Gelato" hype.

Fragola (Strawberry): This can be a common flavor but can sometimes be done in a way that reminds one of just american ice cream. The best Fragola I've had, has the taste of a fresh smoothie that's just a little more solid. You can taste the ground up berries and it feels refreshing to eat.

Menta/After Eight (Mint): I've had a lot of trouble finding this flavor in Perugia, but I have seen it in Assisi, Rome, and Siena. This can also sometimes taste just like american ice cream but again it just has that extra kick of refreshing to it. Like a liquid breathe savers just went down your throat and engulfed your mouth.

Tiramisu: Very delicious, and I find it's always best to get the kind with bits of real Tiramisu because it's almost like a nice fluffiness to the gelato.

Anything with the word chocolate in it: I mean, it's chocolate, very hard to go wrong there.

Canella (Cinnamon): SO FREAKING AMAZING!!! Whoever invented this was a genius, it's the perfect amount of cinnamon you could want, it's like eating a cinnamon bun with without the bun and icing. It can be found at the Dolce Bio Gelato shop in Perugia right next to Piazza Italia and it's just to die for.

These have been more of my favorite and memorable flavors, of course there are more out there, and some of the displays are very pretty.

Siena

Leaf Peeping!

I felt like a leaf peeper in Siena! There are more trees there than in Perugia and boy do I miss trees! Their weather was a little more Fall-like than Perugia had been so it almost felt a little homey.

I went Sunday with a girl from my Saint's and Sinner's class, we missed the trip Friday since we went to Rome instead so we made it up, and had a lot of fun! We spent the first hour and half or so getting lost trying to find the city center and the Duomo church, the first stop on our itinerary. There was a crypt under the Duomo with glass floors so you could see the old architecture, but there were also glass floors in the Duomo looking into the crypt so it was a little freaky.

Then we went to a museum in a public building and explored more than we needed to which was fine because there was some cool stuff there. The bones of St. Clement were there and positioned very decoratively with golden ribbons tied to them. I started pointing out his femurs, scapula, patella's and other various bones slightly for practice to see what I could remember from my classes, and because it was so interesting.

In all of the buildings we went to there either were a lot of Madonna and Child paintings or statues and paintings of the She-wolf with babies Romulus and Remus. We wanted to start counting to see just how many we saw because it was simply an insane amount! How many different ways and times can you do over the exact same thing???? A lot apparently haha.

Freaky Fruit

Duomo

Rome

Colosseum 

I went to Rome this Friday and Saturday with my Archaeology class and it was wonderful.

They have built this city up around the old ruins and it's just so incredible how old Italy is an that they can do this. To get to see these buildings and aqueducts spread about also steps you back in time because it's just integrated into the new city. Maybe in 1,000 years or so America will be like this and then people will come to see our old ruins of major cities.

The class itself visited Villa Guilla and the Vatican (so I country hopped as well) focusing on looking at Etruscan artifacts from all over Italy and not just Perugia.

Statue from the Altar to the Fatherland Monument building/
Probably the best photo I'll ever take 

We were allowed some free time so a few classmates and I Friday night scouted out the Colosseum, which we could only see from the outside but was just amazing to behold. We walked all around it and I got a little geeky point out small indents in the old stone saying that "It might have been a road look at these wheel tracks maybe!" We also walked along the Roman Forum and went to the Pantheon.

Saturday after we finished touring two of the Vatican Museums we had some free time again, so we walked around a few more museums and elbowed our way over to the Sistine Chapel. I'll talk more on the Vatican in a later post because it's looking like I'll go again with the family when they come over for Christmas.

Cooking 2

I love Mac&Cheese, and I knew that the only way I'd be able to make it here was if it was baked and from scratch. So it hit the Google webpages and found myself a nifty little recipe.

Final Product

I had to change one of the ingredients, Cheddar for Asiago, simply because Cheddar is very American and I thought Asiago would be close enough, off a guess. Turns out my guess wasn't that bad and I was able to make a delicious baked Mac&Cheese a few times and I took picture of the process this time.

It starts off with cubing a wedge of Asiago, and grating bread and Parmesan cheese. Then you cook your elbow macaroni while creating your cheese sauce. The cheese sauce is made with butter, flour, milk, and your two cheeses, that you mix and melt together in stages. Then you mix the pasta and cheese sauce in the pan you'll bake it in while you brown bread crumbs with butter in a skillet (This recipe calls for A LOT of dishes). After they have browned you spread the crumbs on top and bake it for 30 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius (about 350 degrees Fahrenheit), and once that's done you enjoy!

Prep Stage

Cooking

Pre-Baking

Uncle Tom's Cabin

So at the Library Museum this week we started to look through some old french books.

I was lucky enough to pick La Case Del'Oncle Tom or as it's more known here Uncle Tom's Cabin! This was a 9th Edition 1899 book of Uncle Tom's cabin in french! It had the most amazing design on the cover, and the pages just seeped history out of them. Probably going to be my most memorable moment at that museum.

Dublin

There must be some kind of Leprechaun magic in the Guinness there because everyone who went over break (myself included), loved it and would go back ASAP!

The people there were so incredibly nice, plus they spoke English which helped (although to be honest sometimes that accent was hard to understand haha). I stayed in a really nice Hostel where each room had a bathroom to themselves, and it wasn't too far out of the way that walking everywhere was a chore.

I did a lot of walking in Dublin, and getting lost. I refused to use a map (except when trying to find the Guinness Storehouse because I lost track of the road signs), simply because I didn't want to completely scream tourist, even though I probably looked it a little anyway. A lot of where I went was across the river so remember which bridge to take back was always a challenge, eventually I just took a bridge, walked two blocks and then took a left and eventually found the hostel haha.

The first night I saw a live music and dancing show, which was a really great way to get into the mood of the city. Then on Tuesday I visited the Book of Kells, and this enormous library and the Guinness Storehouse. On Wednesday I went to two archaeology sites, The Hill of Tara and Newgrange. Both were amazing and just learning about a different culture and past from the locals was truly a great experience.

I would 100% go back there to visit, and if I had to pick a European city to live right now it'd be Dublin. It felt like home (almost had a Boston feel to it - can't understand their accents either! (just kidding - sort of)), and it was certainly an experience that I'll never forget and I'm glad I took.

Also I got to see the Swiss Alps going there and back so here's a look at one of those pictures, not even released to Facebook yet!

Eurochocolate

I know I'm a little behind on posting here, but it's not as behind as I am with uploading pictures to Facebook, that's going to be one hell of a photo-bomb when I get around to it haha.

Eurochocolate was pretty cool, I walked around it for a few days, bought some Hot Chocolate which almost made me sick. Not because it was bad, but it was so good, and really thick that I just couldn't finish it, I was way to full to eat anymore. Besides sometimes parents are right and eating too much candy will make you sick (which I am, but not from chocolate!)

I was also lucky enough to find a candy apple seller, which gave me a small taste of Fall. I've realized since coming here how much I miss Fall, it was always my favorite season but I'm telling you, nothing beats New Hampshire in October. The apple cider donuts and just cider in general, corn mazes, the changing of the leaves.

Plymouth State has a webcam that you can use to look upon the campus and when I do I get to see a little bit of Fall. My favorite site of all has to be the Mary Lyon Green at night, with the lanterns all light with a golden glow. Not all of the leaves have fallen from the trees yet but they are all yellow, even the ones on the ground. The leaves and the golden lanterns just give the campus a magical air about it, and makes you feel as if you're surrounded by gold. It's truly amazing.

Back to the Eurochocoalte though! I also purchased some Lindt chocolate, because why not? The crowds had to be my least favorite part though, I could not wait for Perugia to go back to being a quiet city. It would take you double the time just to find the grocery store, and then everything was always sold out! Plus the Minimetro (kind of like a small version of the T but only has one line) was always crowded with people who didn't know what they were doing, so it was all fine and dandy when they left.

Gearing Up to Go!

IT'S VACATION!

From now until Sunday the 26th I can shut my brain off, because Umbra is on it's Fall Break. Instead of giving us small holidays off they just do this one week in the middle, which is nice because it breaks up the semester.

It also happens to fall on the week of the Annual Eurochocolate Festival that happens in Perugia. It opens tomorrow, so from then until this Sunday I'll be walking around town and gaining a "Chocolate 15" (similar to the "Freshmen 15").

On Monday morning I depart for Dublin and will spend until Thursday, exploring campuses, free museums, the Guinness Brewery, and an Archaeology site 45 min outside of the city. I'll let you all know how it goes, and it will be so nice to read signs and order things in English again haha, even if just for a few days.

Assisi

My Saint's and Sinners class took a field trip to Assisi on Friday to actually see the places we had talked about it class.

We saw three massive churches (Basilica of San Maria of the Angels, Santa Chiara, and the Basilica of San Francesco) and the old church called San Damiano. All these places had to do with Saints Clare and Angela. Eventually we will be going to Sienna to learn more about Saint Catherine. The Basilica's and Santa Chiara were absolutely massive! San Maria even housed an old building from the time of Saint Clare inside of it, they simply built around it!

On our lunch break we hiked up to this old Castle and you could see Perugia from there. It was a little strange looking back at Perugia, when normally I look out at Assisi. We had to pull out the compass app to figure out which part of Perugia we were looking at and where our apartments were in correlation.

I experienced mint gelato for the first time in Assisi, it was called "After Eight" and it was AMAZING! Best mint I've had ever, it was refreshing and minty all at once, and the chocolate chunks were in there too so it was just all around delicious.

First Field Trip

So as part of all the classes here there are scheduled field trips to different locations and my first one was this past Friday. It was for my Archaeological Discoveries class and we went to various places around Perugia that showed off it's Etruscan history.

We ended the trip at this old Etruscan necropolis (city of the dead - or in the case a hill on which many people happened to be buried outside of town), focusing on this tomb belonging to a rich family. The tomb only had a few people in it, but it's assumed that it was built for many more, and they aren't sure why it wasn't filled up to capacity.

The second place we visited was this old public well, but we didn't view the outside of the well, we went INSIDE it! The well itself doesn't produce potable water anymore so we got to enter it about halfway down. Apparently it is the widest well in all of Italy.

The first place we went to was the ruins of a church from Etruscan/Roman/Medieval times that were beneath our school. This church used to be huge! It ran under the school, through half of Piazza IV Novembre and into a building across the street. While visiting what they think was the old altar I noticed something out of the corner of my eye on the ground. It was a bone! I couldn't believe it, and when I pointed it out people were asking how I could tell it was a bone. Well I've seen quite a few bones to know one haha. Although I can't tell you what kind of bone it was since it was only a fragment, nor can I tell you what species it's from, but someday I will be able to do that. At least that's the end goal anyway.

 

Cooking 1

Since coming to Italy I've gotten into cooking meals for myself for two reasons. The first being that a lot of what they sell in grocery stores in only fresh food and its'not often that you come by a huge frozen food section. The second being that, you can't live off snacks and pasta forever!

After weeks of finding the perfect cheese, kind of meat (steak tips or hamburger - both work, but one's more work than the other!) and after weeks of searching finally the perfect bread! I have successfully mastered the steak and cheese sub! The second photo could have used more melting of cheese but both were amazing and it's good to have a little bit of home in my weekly diet.

Bari

Last weekend I went to Bari, Italy in hopes of doing some family research. Upon arrival though I remembered that no town office in Italy is ever open on the weekends so I wouldn't be able to learn anything new.

I did however visit a Cathedral modeled after the Basilica di Santa Nicola as well as the Basilica itself. They were both absolutely beautiful, and the Basilica had amazing fresco's on the ceiling and a wedding going on. Apparently it's normal for tourists to constantly walk in during weddings and just head down the stairs to the lower monastery. The lower monastery of the Cathedral had an archaeology museum since it had some older churches below it so I checked it out and it was pretty cool.

The lower monastery of the Basilica had candles that you could light next to offering boxes, so I lit a candle for my Great-Grandmother on my mom's side. It felt really good to be there as it's where she was born and it was exciting to explore the place she lived for awhile.

The first part of Bari you see after exciting the train is a very modern looking city, the buildings are all the same height and it's on a grid pattern. Old Bari is in the back of the city next to the sea and there you'll find a traditional winding streets, and old style Italian homes. It's back here where they have a castle, and I took a free night time tour of it. The tour was only in Italian so I understood next to nothing but it was still cool getting to enter a castle.

My Weekend on the Island

This past weekend the school hosted a trip down to Ischia, Capri, and Pompeii, and it was amazing! We lucked out with the weather as it was sunny and warm the whole time (I guess Perugia got some rain though).

On Friday we took a bus down to Pompeii and walked around the city that once was. It was just mind boggling how an entire city could still just be there after so many years of having no inhabitants. A lot of the house and buildings had collapsed or were just frames at this point but it was incredible to see some still standing. As you walked down the streets you were almost transported back in time, just seeing many people walking the streets gave you this incredible idea that the city was still alive.

On Saturday we went to the Island of Capri; my roommates and I explored this place called Villa Jovis, which belonged to Emperor Tiberius. It would have been nice to get a few more descriptions of what the rooms were besides a generic map, but it was still impressive. The whole house was huge and the size of most of the rooms was incredible. At lunch we tried this thing called a Lemoncello which is a drink that is popular on the island...we all thought it was gross haha!

Both nights we stayed on the Island of Ischia and it was absolutely gorgeous there. On the second night my roommate and I went into the water with a few other people and it was so warm. The others were complaining that it was cold, but being used to the Atlantic, the Tyrrhenian Sea was just perfect in comparison. We were glad we waited to swim at Ischia instead of Capri because Ischia has sandy beaches, where as Capri is covered in rocks!

I tried eating swordfish on this trip, having never tried it before I thought it was good but a lot of people claimed it was over cooked. We also had a rum cake that needs to lay off the bottle, it was like they drowned a defenseless sponge in rum and called it cake.

On Sunday we took a bus tour of Ischia and learned about the hot springs and the giant who is the reason for naming most of the towns (mythology right haha). I found this staircase at one of the beaches so naturally I followed it out of curiosity, and found a really sketchy abandoned house. Pictures were taken of course because you can't just find something abandoned and just not take a picture haha.

The Internship

One of the main reasons why I chose to study at the Umbra Institute in Perugia was because they offered an internship in my field of study. To get it you had to sign up showing interest in the course and fill out a small application. The most stressful part of it was waiting until I showed up to find out if I got it or not since they were only accepting four people and I guess quite a few applied.

Well I got it!

It's got a seminar portion to it in which we learn about museums in general and our museum in relation to Italian History so it looks like it'll be a lot of fun. We also get to learn how to use WordPress which is a website design software found online to make your own website, so that will certainly come in handy for the future. The professor also said that we can do personal projects there too and gave a few ideas that they had. One was looking through World War 1 documents as we are in the 100th anniversary of it this year, and making a database for it. Another was creating a program for school kids to enjoy when they come to visit. Both sound wicked cool and peak my interests so I can't wait to see how this plays out.

First Day of Classes

So today was the first day of classes aside from just Italian language and it's looking like it'll be a fun and challenging semester. Two of my classes are mainly Art history based but they seemed pretty interesting. The one I'm looking forward is my Archaeology class, we get to do a lot of museum visits and a project for one so it really peaked my interest. It's my last class of the day and it made me wicked excited to be back in school again. I definitely picked the right major in life if just defining it puts a smile on my face.

City Vintage Weekend

This weekend has been amazing! They had a fair in one of the city gardens and it was themed for the 40's, 50's and 60's. You could buy clothing and jewelry from the time period and it was amazing stepping back into that fashion style.

They also had a dance show Friday night it featured different dance types from the time period like Rock 'n Roll, Boogie Boogie, and Burlesque. Then Saturday and Sunday they gave free dance lessons in the style of Boogie Boogie and a little Rock 'n Roll. We had to switch partners a few times so I had a total of fours partners over the two days. We used the second dance from the Saturday and they just retaught it today so I already knew it. I had the same partner two days in a row too, it was fun because he knew English (made talking easier), and he knew I had danced before so it was really fun getting to dance with him.

I might sign up for lessons because the style was a lot of fun! Today definitely one of my best days. I did spend the morning watching How I Met Your Mother, but getting to dance again and with people who like to dance as well was amazing. Actually dancing today was certainly my favorite day so far. Next weekend I get to go to Pompeii and Capri but I'm not sure if that trip will surpass how I felt today. I hope I have more adventures like it in the future, but only time will tell.  

Differences

The Biggest difference I've noticed so far between America and Italy.

1) The trees (see post one)

2) The stairs - The are very far apart and short, it just doesn't make sense to me! American stairs seem more proportional and seem better for walking up. I feel like I have to take smaller steps and it's weird.

3) Beverages - In Italy the drinking age is 18, and that includes drinking outside, in public. In America this is illegal to do seeing people drink during the day has definitely been a new daily sight.

4) Peanut Butter - THEY DON'T HAVE IT!

5) The WiFi - It's awful compared to America, in order to get it I need to be in the school or my kitchen table, or the closet space before my bedroom.

6) Breakfast - It's really hard to find breakfast items in a grocery store here, and coming off a summer of full breakfasts of coffee cake, that's been a hard transition!

The First Week

So I forgot my journal at home, and I honestly don't see myself posting to Facebook often, so I figured to write everything down I'd start a blog for the next four months. I've already been here a week and what a week it has been, for this post I'll give a quick synopsis of each day and everything different between here and America.

Friday:
When I first stepped off the plane I noticed the trees, they weren't like the trees back home. Here the trees almost seem manicured, like they grow and only have leaves on top. Either that or they seem to have grown stuck in one of those tree wrappings you seem at Christmas time so that you can bring your tree home without the branches flying everywhere. The first night we stayed in the Hotel Gio and apparently some guy was staying in the room my roommates and I were supposed to, so we each got singles.

Saturday:
Moving into the apartment was something that started to make it all seem real, I guess we got an apartment so nice it's used for professors in the off season. Its got two bedrooms (mine has a view that stretches as far as a clear day on top of Mountain), our bathroom has a tub and our kitchen gives us a nice view of a chapel and the University of Foreigners. Aside from the apartment it was really all orientation for the next few days.

Monday:
Hey this was my birthday! It started off our week of Intensive Italian, which for me meant learning Italian as if I was in English class meant for a second grader. In the afternoons we did Survival Italian which meant, learning about grocery stores, transportation systems, all that good stuff. For dinner I got to go out with the CISabroad group and we went to this Medieval Restaurant, it was pretty cool they had a hole in the ground that seemed to stretch for miles.

Tuesday:
The librarian took me out to breakfast for my birthday. We went to a cafe and I order a what's called a cornetto and it was filled with honey, she got a candle put on it and sang happy birthday. She suggested I talk to some people on staff about Scouting and Dance in Perugia, so that is now in the works! Italy doesn't have Netflix by the way, but that night, I got American Netflix in my apartment! How? It's a a little trick that my best friend in college taught me and I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Not much else happened this week, my roommates and I explored the city a bit and I started thinking of Fall break plans. It should be an interesting semester, I'll be sure to keep you all posted!