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!).

---

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.