An entire semester in one post?

Well, it’s become pretty clear I’ve completely failed blogging this past semester. I’m not sure why. Part of it is definitely the novelty of being abroad has worn off. Things that seemed so shiny and sparkly in the beginning have become routine, a part of my everyday life. This is neither good nor bad, just how it is. I laughed when I read my post about conquering small things, like making coffee and buying groceries. The fact that these events no longer my thoughts really highlight how I’ve adjusted to living in Italy. Sometimes I find myself walking around Bologna, and for a moment, I could be back at Dickinson, back in DC, or even in Athens, GA. As my days here in Italy come to an end, I must remind myself to look up at the gorgeous buildings and portici (the covered arches), for it won’t be long until I’m back in the US and thinking wistfully of my year abroad. I am in the midst of writing a concluding blogpost, one last post to thoroughly reflect on my time abroad, but here’s a lightning quick recap of my semester:

Roma: My three friends from Dickinson — Phoebe, Bart, and Alex — came to Bologna for a long weekend, and we traveled to Venice and Rome! It always amazes me how different parts of Italy are. Canals and ancient ruins, just hours apart via train.

London: The long awaited weekend… reunited with my best friends! A lovely weekend spent in London (despite the fact I don’t think we had more than 15 minutes without rain) meeting up with my best friend Caitlin, Phoebe, Amanda, Patsy. Two other girls were supposed to come (one from Dickinson who didnt go abroad, and one in Toulouse, France) but last minute events prevented them from coming. Nevertheless, it was a great weekend, wandering around London and seeing Phoebe and Amanda’s favorite spots (they spent a month there in the beg. of their program), eating delicious food in Borough Market, and generally just chatting, gossiping, and catching up. I also got to see my friend from HOBY, Alex! I hadn’t seen Alex since Fall Pause freshman year when I went to NYU to spend the weekend with him. Overall, a great time had by all!

Poland: Thanks to the generosity of the Piszek soceity and a couple of Dickinson alums, we went on an 8-day trip to Krakow and Warsaw, fully funded except for a couple meals here and there. Krakow and Warsaw are considered the two capitals of Poland: Krakow as the cultural capital, and Warsaw the actual and place for politics/business. We had lots of pierogies, apple pie, mushroom soups, and other Polish delights. Highlights of the trip included: a visit to the US embassy in Warsaw, the Easter markets in Krakow, and a sobering visit to Auschwitz. It was educational, so we had six lectures and several informative walking tours in both cities. The best part of the trip was that everything was organized! I can’t tell you how nice it was to basically just be a sheep for the weekend (thanks, Ellen!) and just show up at the designated time and location. Also, it’s always fun to travel with the whole group — as long are you’re not the one planning it! — and we had a great time together, sitting around playing cards in the hotel and celebrating 21st birthdays.

Copenhagen: Seeing Caitlin once wasn’t enough, so I booked a trip to visit her in Denmark! It was definitely the most unique of all my travels, as she lives with  host family. It was so refreshing to stay in an actual house instead of budget travel hostels, and meeting her family and playing with the kids was a good change of pace. I love the city of Copenhagen… so pretty with bright colors and green! CPH has some of the most developed bike lanes I’ve ever seen! We spent one afternoon laying out in a park, catching some rare rays, then walking around the city and going out to eat. I insisted we go out for a nice brunch one of the days, as brunches with my friends are one of the aspects of Dickinson I miss the most. We walked through Christiania, an autonomous part of CPH with about 1000 residents and its legal to sell pot on the streets and stuff. Interesting, but way too seedy and sketchy for my taste. Add in a museum, eating traditional Danish food with Caitlin’s family, making funfetti with the kids, and several episodes of Modern Family while snuggled up in bed, and it was one of my favorite weekends!

Studying: Right, right, I do actually have class. School has been much better (and challenging) this semester, so that’s definitely an improvement. My Johns Hopkins class is a ton of work as expected, but I’ve learned a lot and it’s been a good experience. I’ve mostly come to realize I don’t really want to go to grad school right after college. I think taking a couple years and working will give me more of an idea of what I really want to focus on.

Life in general: No complaints. Thoughts that come to mind: I can’t wait to have a blender/food processor. I love having my own room. I’m going to miss my Italian family immensely — my sister has a violin recital on Saturday, and then I have one last dinner! I have definitely acquired an insane amount of stuff this year; packing should be a disaster, per usual. I’m praying my computer makes it these last two weeks; bought a netbook two days ago and can’t wait to play with it at home! While cobblestones are pretty, they absolutely destroy your shoes. I’ll probably only be bringing my boots home, everything else has been destroyed by the streets.

Bologna fun: Luckily, this semester has been full of visitors! My fr

Summer plans: Excited to report I’ll be back in DC! I remember being sad to leave last August and thinking “I better be back soon.” Even more exciting is the fact I won a fellowship that places me at a federal agency — National Center for Health Statistics — pays for housing at GW, and provides a nice stipend. The downside to all this is I need to be in DC either the 30th or 31st, and I get home late afternoon on the 28th. Basically, I have just enough time to wash everything I own, throw it back into the suitcase, and play with Pebs before hopping in the car and heading north. BUT, still nothing to actually complain about. I feel extremely lucky, and I’m looking forward to another great summer!

Old Town in Warsaw

Phoebe, Alex, Bart and me in Venice!

The four of us in the Colosseo!

In the main square in Krakow! Largest medieval square in all of Europe.

La Mancina vineyard in the Bolognese hills!

Trying my hand at making tagliatelle, Bologna’s specialty pasta!

Caitlin and I in Copenhagen!

Me and Becky, my freshman year roommate at Easter brunch!

Caitlin and I at the Notting Hill antiques market!

250 words or less: Prague, Vienna, Bratislava

In a rare attempt to be concise, I’m going to describe my January trip to the Czech Republic, Austria, and Slovakia in 250 words or less. Go!

PRAHA

• Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
• Lots of tasty ethnic food… welcome change from just Italian!
• I would like to own a castle, after seeing the one in Prague.
• The “largest club in central Europe” is about as fun as a middle school dance.
• Very interesting differences between Old Town and New Town… my vote is for OT.
• 4-start hotel for 17 euro a night per person. Enough said.

WIEN

• Best. pastries. ever.
• It’s not a true start to the morning unless you sprint madly to the tram, miss it by .05 seconds, and invariably almost get killed in the process.
• Fon (with the two dots on the o) is the name for hairdryer in German.
• The Hapsburgs didn’t mess around.
• State Hall has floor to ceiling libraries, aka my childhood dream come true

BRATISLAVA

• Cheap, cheap, cheap, ridiculously cheap.
• Historic center = really pretty. New construction (i.e. UFO restaurant) = not so much.
• If you’re really stealthy, you can sneak into a different movie than the one you paid for.
• Their castle looks brand new. Like, built post housing bubble burst new.
• Deep fried turkey is as delicious as it is likely to give you cardiac trouble later on in life.

WC: 221.

Prague

Emily, Me, Michelle

Frolicking in a random park

Prague

Hapsburg Palace at night

Pastry making divinity

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

Center of historic Bratislava

On the famous Charles Bridge in Prague

No, I haven’t been captured by the Mafia

Hello readers!

Thanks to a handy, stalker-like feature of WordPress, I can track how many hits my blog receives every day, so I feel somewhat justified in apologizing to my audience for a complete lack of updates. It sounds absurd, but writing regular posts actually takes a decent amount of energy and time, and to be perfectly honest, I am lazy. As if you didn’t know that already!!

I guess it’s been since Christmas since I’ve written anything substantial, so I’ll just quickly recap the past 6 weeks or so, leaving my latest trip (Prague/Vienna/Bratislava) for a separate post. My break in the US was wonderful, albeit too short and filled with major travel issues on both ends, but still better than staying in Bologna for the vacation. The entire month of January basically passed in one huge, indistinguishable, finals filled daze. Other than a couple field trips to Parma and Ferrara for my Art History class, I didn’t leave Bologna. Actually, I didn’t even venture out of the apartment much either! January in Bologna = disgusting. My bed, a hot cup of tea, and a semester’s worth or work (totally my fault for letting it pile up) were the main reasons for my hermit like behavior. Thankfully, my finals went well despite all my traveling in the fall!

We had a week break in between the semesters, thus my recent adventure to central and eastern Europe.

Which brings us to this current semester! I think I’m going to like my classes a lot better than last semester. At the Dickinson Center, I am taking Italian Politics (yes, it’s as confusing as one might imagine… silly Italians and their 92384739 different parties and governments), Transatlantic Relations and European Economic Integration. So far, the classes seem pretty interesting, and I particularly enjoy European Economic Integration, taught by Professor Jones at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS is Hopkins’ grad school in Bologna, more on that in a few minutes). Now, I usually can’t stand when students endlessly complain about stuff they don’t like, but I’m going to take a minute and vent a tad about the style of several of my classes. Simply put, if I had wanted to sit in a class, and do nothing but listen to the professor lecture for the full 75 minutes, I would have gone to a large university. If I had wanted to regard doing the assigned reading prior to class as unimportant and not felt it necessary to come prepared, I would have gone to a school with 800 students in introductory classes.

But, I chose Dickinson. I value discussion, class participation, and being challenged by professors every class to produce an analysis of the content. I completely understand I am in Italy, and I chose to come to Bologna. Still, it is frustrating to sit in class and feel completely disengaged. For the Italian professors, this is the style of teaching they have always known, so it’s not as if they aren’t qualified; the professors here have an incredible amount of knowledge and are some of the most renowned and respected scholars in their fields. Out of three classes last semester (I don’t count my Italian language class in this), I was only require to write one, 4-5 page paper. I have rarely had a class at Dickinson that didn’t require more writing than that. Instead, I took multiple choice political science exams that had an essay component of 5-6 sentences. I never thought I would miss blue book exams that leave my hand throbbing afterwards, but it is impossible to demonstrate how much you have (or haven’t) learned by writing a few sentences. While I may moan and groan at Dickinson about the endless papers and research, there is a certain sense of satisfaction in turning in a body of work. When I hand in a paper, it feels amazing to present something I have created. Same thing with a good exam.

For that reason, I have a feeling I will be much more satisfied this semester. Professor Jones is American, and his class places a greater emphasis on discussion and lets just say I better do the reading before class! My last class is what has really excited me. I have the opportunity to take a class at Johns Hopkins. Unknown to me until this semester, SAIS is regarded as the top graduate school for people that want to go into International Relations public policy. The best. (Okay, sometimes it’s ranked #2, but #1 sounds so much better). I’m currently taking Alliances and International Relations, a class focused heavily on the theory of alliances. A little intimidated? Oh, you betcha. The reading load is substantial, although not overwhelming. It’s just… well, graduate level. I’m missing a lot of background information on the history of Europe, but I’m doing my best to keep up. The class is a seminar, and class participation counts for a 1/3 of the grade. Definitely no zoning out and daydreaming there.

L to R: Phoebe, Caitlin, Kim, Catherine, Caroline, Amanda, myself

So, enough about classes. The other exciting things happening in my life are unsurprisingly, travel related. I won’t actually be traveling as much this semester, because of the much increased work load. (While most people went to Carnavale in Venice this past weekend, I decided to stay in library and get a good jumpstart to the semester!) Two of my closest friends, Bartlett and Phoebe, are coming to Bologna in two weeks to visit! They are both studying in Norwich, England on a Dickinson program. Later in March, I will be heading to London for the weekend to see Ms. Elizabeth Kosta, who is flying to England to spend Dickinson’s spring break visiting us abroad people! Caitlin, Phoebe, Amanda, and Catherine will also be in London that weekend, so I’m super excited to be reunited with the girls. Finally, the last weekend in April/first weekend of May, I am going to Copenhagen, Denmark to visit Caitlin and stay with her “perfect Danish family.”
We have two weeks off for spring break, and one of those trips is with the Dickinson program to Poland, for a week-long paid for trip! Yay. For the other week, I’ll probably just visit some places in Italy I haven’t seen yet–Rome, the Amalfi Coast, maybe Sardinia? Still working out the details.

Here’s something to leave you with!:

Happy Holidays!

After a two-day delay, several more small (in comparison) delays and 36+ hours of traveling, I’ve made it home, safe and sound. Lucky me, my adorable terrier Pebbles made an appearance in the Charlotte, NC airport to greet me at 2 am when my last flight finally landed. After much sleep and eating my mother’s food, I’ve finally recovered and looking forward to Christmas! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season, filled with good food, family, friends, and holiday spirit.

Morocco: What price is good for you?

Four continents down, three to go. That’s right kids, I can officially say I’ve been to Africa, and thankfully came back in one piece! Due to a religious holiday, I was able to go to Morocco for six days and only had to miss 2 classes, not a bad tradeoff.

One of many kasbahs

Five of us flew from Bologna to Casablanca, the main airport in Morocco. I wish I were exaggerating when I saw approximately half the 4 hour flight was babies, and 100% of them were crying. Once we landed, we had to take a taxi to the train station, and I quickly noticed the ingenious and creative ways Moroccans have discovered to transport themselves. Don’t have a car? No problem, just hitch a horse to a carriage. No horse? Oh, just ride sideways on a donkey. Animals not really your thing? Combine two motorized bikes for a modern day rickshaw. Gotta hand them the innovative prize!

Our adventure got off to a great start on the 3 hour train ride from Casablanca to Marrakech when a young man joined us in our compartment. Turns out the only reason he was even going to Marrakech was to attend a party thrown by the prince of Morocco. Unfortunately, we were not able to wrangle an invitation, but he did help us out tremendously by calling our riad and giving directions to our taxi driver and negotiating the price for us. Oh, and his sister worked on the set of Sex and the City 2 (the movie) while they were filming scenes in Marrakech the previous week, and she actually got to read the script, so we found out what happened during the movie! Let me know if you want the juicy details. We arrived at our riad (a riad is a converted house into a bed and breakfast type deal), which was located in the Medina, the old walled city of Marrakech. To imagine what a medina looks like, picture a corn maze, and instead of corn, insert buildings. It’s a collection of twisting, narrow streets.

Jardin Majorelle

We awoke the next morning to prayer calls from a nearby mosque and roosters crowing… still beats living above a disco. After breakfast on the rooftop terrace, we met a guide the riad had arranged for us to take us around, and he took us to Jardin Majorelle, a beautiful garden in Marrakech. Our worst nightmare came true when we emerged from the garden and Agil was nowhere to be found. Yep, that’s right, we were abandoned in Africa. We took a petit taxi (small taxis, often old Mercedes that take you around in the city center) to the tourism office, where we were given the info of an excursion company. We signed up for a 2 day, one night trek into the Atlas Moutains and Saharan Desert, as well as a dinner and performance for that night.

During the afternoon, we ventured into the souks, which are the shops and vendors Morocco is well known for.

Souks in Marrakech

There are over 2,800 different souks in a medina type set up. We got a guide from outside of a Club Med resort to take us around, and thankfully, he did not abandon us. We got our first taste of bargaining, which was a real culture shock. Everything in Morocco except for food and spices must be bargained for. Obviously there were no prices posted anywhere. If you liked something, the vendor would ask you, “What price is good for you?” and then he would say his own price, and you would go from there. A good rule of thumb is to pay around 1/3 – 1/2 of whatever he originally says. Pretend to walk away and the price will surely go down again! I won’t disclose what I bought since most of them are Christmas presents! After some serious souk shopping, we walked around Djemaa el Fna, Marrakech’s famous square, filled with food vendors, snake charmers, and monkeys on leashes. We got the most delicious orange juice of my life for only 3 dirham (approx. 30 cents) and took in some of the sights from above a cafe.

Djemaa el Fna at dusk

For dinner, we were picked up at our riad in a van and taken to a huge compound like place where different tribes from all over Morocco were dressed in traditional outfits and we were treated to a traditional dinner and spettaculo, a series of fancy horse tricks and what not.

The next morning we ventured into the desert! We drove about 6 hours through the Atlas Mountains, stopping to see things like famous kasbahs and a demonstration of how to make Argan oil, a product Morocco is famous for.

High Atlas Mountains

At about 4 in the afternoon, we made it to our departure site for our camel trek, buying traditional turbans beforehand to make the experience complete! We rode our camels while the sun set in the Saharan desert, a real treat, and then we made it to our campsite for the night. We were taken care of by real Moroccan nomads. They don’t own houses, spend their entire lives in the desert, and enjoy a simple way of life. It was so amazing to sit around, drink mint tea, and hear about their lives. Most of the nomads could also speak 5 or 6 languages! After a hearty, filling dinner, we sat around a campsite and the nomads played music on the drums and chanted. How’s that for engaging the world?? We found out the next morning that we were actually alone in the desert all night, as the nomads left and slept somewhere else (they never sleep in tents, only underneath the sky). It was FREEZING. I wore about 7 layers, had 4 blankets, and snuggled up to the girls and was still freezing.

We ate breakfast while the sun rose and indulged in some sand dune jumping. We weren’t in the “big desert” but there were still some decent dunes to jump off of. We rode our camels back to the drop off site, then drove back to Marrakech, where we bargained for a hotel, saving ourselves about 8 euro! The next morning, Michelle and I spent exploring other sites, such as the Saadian Tombs, a palace, and a couple mosques. We then took a train to Casablanca and spent the afternoon seeing the one site Casablanca has to offer. A word of advice: do not waste your time there. It is an ugly, brutal, industrial city with little to see. Our flight was early the next morning, and we had a long (12 hours total between the flight, hour bus ride to Milan, 3 hour train from Milan to Bologna) but uneventful trip home.

I tried to keep this entry as short as possible, but there is so much to say about Morocco. It is a beautiful country, with beautiful people who are friendly and welcoming to foreigners. It was the first time since being abroad I experienced real culture shock, and it was in a great way. It is such a different way of life, much slower and unhurried. It’s hard to worry about things like finals and summer internships when riding in the car in the Atlas mountains with the window rolled down and the hot African sun and cool Moroccan winds on your face.

Travel update: HOME on Saturday. Enough said.

Paris, always Paris

When I told my Italian professor about our trip to Paris, she told me about a famous saying the Italians have about Paris: “Parigi e’ sempre Parigi.” While this was my first trip to France and thus cannot confirm that it’s always Paris, I liked the saying so much I stole it.

I spent this past Tuesday-Sunday in Paris with Michelle, Emily and Mihiri for yet another great trip, not too shabby of a Thanksgiving vacation. We rented an apartment in the Latin quarter (so named because the Sorbonne is there and the students used to speak Latin, fun fact) for the week, which was a great choice because it was cheaper than a hostel and a lot more comfortable. After the first day, we were already calling it home. Here’s a video tour of it! Enjoy.

Okay, so maybe a real estate agent isn’t in my future, but what can you do. After settling into our home for the week, we got dinner at a fabulous restaurant, served family style at wooden picnic tables and I enjoyed a tasty meal of pumpkin soup and mashed potatoes. Hearty! We wandered around a bit and went to see the Eiffel Tower at night, a beautiful sight. We decided to tackle the Louvre the next day, a full day experience at the very least. The morning got off to a great start because when it was my turn to buy my ticket, I walked up to the window and said “I’m an Italian resident,” and after getting a strange look, showing my visa and Univ. of Bologna student ID, received a free ticket. We did this at all the museums and probably saved ourselves around 40-50 euro. So, anyone else abroad, SHOW YOUR VISA. I love the EU and its tourism policies geared towards university students.
The Louvre was, well, the Louvre, aka overwhelming, gigantic, and way too much to take in. After we had exhausted our art-loving energy supplies, we continued on to see the Pompidou Center, a modern art marvel that looked like a gigantic McDonalds. Unfortunately, it appears that everywhere we travel is filled with disgruntled, striking workers, so we couldn’t actually go in. After a quick pit stop at a cafe to escape the rain, we went to Notre Dame, which was made all the better by the fact we had just studied it in my Art History class. We entered right at evening mass was starting, and there was a beautiful female singer who we sat and listened to for a bit.

As it was a rather long day, instead of going out for dinner, we decided to pretend to be French and bought baguettes, cheese and wine for a lovely dinner at our apartment. The next day we started off with the Musee d’Orsay, my absolute favorite museum in Europe so far. The museum is actually an old train station, and the original structure is really well preserved. It houses a large collection of Impressionist works, including my favorite painting, Renoir’s Le Moulin de la Galette. To make the museum even more incredible, we decided to try to museum restaurant, which got rave reviews in a couple of our guide books. First off, simply the room the restaurant was in was incredible. It was basically unchanged from the 1850s, and I felt like I was royalty, this feeling aided by the delicious food (white fish with salsa, crispy things, rice/and three different types of ice cream on a plate).

Me and Michelle at the Musee d'Orsay restaurant

In the afternoon, we visited the Fragonard perfume museum, which was really cool. The museum was on the second floor of a nice house in a ritzy area of Paris, and there were all the instruments needed for making perfume. Fragonard makes the scents (basic ones), and then sells them to major perfume companies. So, it was kind of like seeing the factory/warehouse part, minus the luxurious location. Since the weather was really nice that day, we decided to climb Sacre-Couer, a famous church located on a hill. The view from the top was gorgeous, and to reward ourselves for our hard work, we ate a crepe at the end, only one of many during our trip.

As it was Thanksgiving, we met up with some boys from the Bologna program also visiting Paris (we were all on the same flight on Tuesday) for a lovely dinner at a steak restaurant. Now, I’m not a huge fan of steak, but it was pretty good. There was no menu, you just walked in and immediately got served bread and a salad, and then not one, but two helpings of steak and frites. I figured this was acceptable since I would have stuffed myself on Thanksgiving had I been home (forget the fact we already had a filling T-day dinner at Prof. Stuarts).

Bologna crew at a crepe stand after Thanksgiving dinner

The next day, I ventured out on my own in Paris, as no trip to Paris would be complete with a visit to Roland Garros, the site of the French Open (one of tennis’ 4 grand slams for you non-tennis crazies). While I was signing up for the tour, a guy my age asked where in the US I was from. Turns out he was studying abroad in Spain and played D1 college tennis for Univ of Missouri–(something). That was cool to have another tennis fan to talk to, and he graciously took many pictures of me. We got to see centre court, the interview room, the mens locker room, and many other off-limits parts of the stadium.

Just giving my post-match interview in the winner's room

After pretending I was reigning French Open queen, I met up with the girls and we ate at the most delicious creperie ever. We started off with a savory crepe (buckwheat crepe with scrambled egg, Gruyere cheese, sauteed mushrooms) and then immediately consumed a sweet crepe (pear, chocolate, vanilla ice cream, caramelized almonds). To walk off some of the many many calories consumed, we did some window shopping and then walked down the Champs-Elysees from the Arc du Triomph to the Louvre, a decent walk (photo credit to Rich Hendrickson!)

Saturday, we visited Versailles, although we didn’t get there until much later than planned due to a slight train mishap. Who knew there was one train that split off into two directions?? I was actually rather disappointed by Versailles. It might have been the dreary weather, but I wasn’t that impressed, although the infamous hall of mirrors didn’t disappoint. I’m sure in the summer the gardens are much prettier. We actually went back to the creperie from the day before, and the staff recognized us and laughed. Then, thanks to the suggestion of a family friend (Carol Myers!) and faithful reader of this blog, I went with Mihiri to the Mosquee du Paris for a peppermint tea (no spa, unfortunately), and it got me super excited about Morocco next week! We had another relaxing night in and spent a couple hours on Sunday before our light wandering around our neighborhood, visiting the Pantheon which has a crypt that houses people such as Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, and Descartes. The flight home was a bit bumpy, but overall uneventful.

Just hanging out in the neighborhood on Sunday morning

Probably my longest post yet, congrats if you actually made it to the end!

Things I am thankful for: the end of midterms, bday care packages, turkey dinners in Italy, my friends on several continents, my family and the US in less than a month!

I apologize for the obscenely long title, but that just shows how much has happened in the past two weeks! As soon as I got back from Brussels, I entered super student study mode, as I had 3 midterms the week of my birthday… lovely present hmm?

Despite the less than ideal timing, my birthday was a lot of fun, thanks to my friends here and at home, and both of my families (Italian and actual). Michelle was wonderful and organized a dinner with a bunch of the girls at a tasty restaurant, and then we came back to our apartment for gelato and gossip, the perfect combination. I received several entertaining birthday cards from my friends at Dickinson that are proudly displayed on my wall, in case I ever want to look at a puppy or a chubby Asian baby. My Italian professor shares the same birthday as me, so she left me a little thing of flowers in my cubby at the Dickinson Center, which are now almost completely wilted in our kitchen… whoops. I had my family dinner on Thursday night, and they prepared a special birthday cake for me (complete with candles and the embarrassing bday song!) and gave me a nice diary to record my thoughts in… very sweet of them! From my parents I received a birthday package, late of course thanks to the Italian post, with lots of my favorite things and goodies.

Dickinson kids and our Thanksgiving spread at Professor Stuart's house!

The celebration continued with a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday at Professor Stuart and Carol’s house. No words can describe how delicious and amazing the dinner was. Every apartment was responsible for bringing several dishes, and it was so nice to have a Thanksgiving dinner. Nothing says the holidays like eating wayyyy too much and being surrounded by good company. After we recovered enough to leave the comfy couch, we walked around Piazza Maggiore because there was a chocolate festival going on! Yum yummm. Christmas lights have gone up all over Bologna, and they have definitely gotten me in the mood for the holidays!
More than ever, I have been realizing how important it is to be around the people you care about during special times, such as birthdays and the holidays. I feel so lucky for all the people in my life who make these days so memorable. All the little gestures and things make a world of difference.

I’ll be back in the US on Dec. 19th… get excited! I’m looking forward to just bumming around, relaxing, hearing English, not having to shop for my own groceries, driving a car, watching college basketball (no espn360.com in Italy… CRISIS), hopefully pulling the abroad card so that my lovely mother will make all of my favorite food, and of course harassing the Pebz and sleeping in my own bed!

Travel update: I will write about Paris in the next blogpost (to be written later today or tomorrow hopefully), and then Morocco next Tuesday! We don’t have class on Tuesday (immaculate conception holiday… Italians sure know how to do holidays, unlike Dickinson), so we’re going to Casablanca and Marrakesh, Morocco for 5 days.

President Durden does Bologna!

President Durden + studying abroad in Bologna = awesomeness. Enough awesomeness to make it onto the walls of the HUB??? Forse, just forse. (translation: maybe).

This past Monday, we were lucky enough to have Prez Durden come visit the Bologna program! He was presenting all week at a conference in Florence for higher education and swung by Bologna on his way back to the states. After a brief talk at the Dickinson Center and reception, 5 students including myself went out to lunch with him, his wife Elka, Professor Stuart and his wife, and a photographer… dun dun dun.
If anyone has ever seen the big photographs in the HUB (our big student union building that houses the caf, grill type restaurant, coffee bar, and many other things), they look incredibly fake. In fact, the poster from the Bologna program is rumored to have been taken in Venice. Alriiiight, authenticity. Hopefully this will change, as the photographer went along to the lunch to snap a few photos that might replace the Venice one. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Durden, and to be immortalized in the HUB while lunching with him in Bologna would be quite fantastic!

The lunch, besides being ridiculously good and filling (so much for my superdieta pre-Paris), was a lot of fun. We talked about how studying abroad now is so different than he did… he took a ship over when he spent the year in Germany! He also talked at length about how the experience you have here can last a lifetime. For example, one of his friends spent a year abroad studying linguistics, and many years later, that friend was reading a terrorist threat in a newspaper, recognized the style of writing as that of his wife’s brother’s, and turned him in. The terrorist turned out to be the Unibomber. So, the Unibomber was essentially caught due to a study abroad experience 20 years prior. That is nuts! Hopefully my experiences here will lead to something slightly more pleasant.

I’m off to the library to study study study for all my midterms next week. Ciao, ragazzi!

Bruxelles: waffles, fries, and a heart attack on the side

Hi all! While I already chatted with my parents about this past weekend (thus eliminating my main blog audience), I decided I’d post anyways! Nine of us girls spent Thurs-Sun in Brussels, Belgium, yet another great trip.

Per usual, RyanAir flies to an airport slightly outside the city center, so we hopped on a shuttle bus that took about 45 minutes to get to the center of Brussels. As we were searching for the metro station nearby, we approached what we thought was the metro, but it turned out to be the train station, which was closed and completely void of people — turns out the train workers were striking, a phenomenon not only limited to the strike-prone country of Italy! Nevertheless, we eventually found our way to our Hostel/Hotel (the two terms are interchangeable here), dropped off our bags, then ventured out for dinner. We ended up choosing a place that had a menu of the day type deal, so my first Brussels meal consisted of garlic prawns, sea bass and frites (delicious Belgian fries!), and a small portion of chocolate mousse. Yum!

The only thing I had on my “absolutely-must-do-while-in-Brussels” list was a visit to the European Union Parliament, which is headquartered in Brussels. There was only one tour while we were there for the weekend, Friday morning at 10 AM. After valiantly attempting to locate the correct EU building and asking for directions about 23984 times, we barely squeezed onto the tour. We didn’t actually get to see much, just the plenary room, which is the big assembly room where Parliament meets, but our tour guide held a “mini-conference” for about 30 minutes, explaining the structure and function of the body, most of which we knew already thanks to Gianfranco Pasquino, our boss of a professor for Comparative Western Systems. One thing that was a pleasant surprise was the warm welcoming our group received from the guide as well as other members of our group… the girl who was giving the tour commented how nice it was that citizens of non-EU countries were taking an interest in what was going on in the rest of the world. After the tour, we headed over to the Atomium, a structure built for a 1950′s World Fair, and we took an elevator to the top for a nice scenic view of Brussels. In each of the silver balls, there was some type of exhibit, so we walked down and saw those. Taking the metro back into the center (I must add that it’s quite possible to ride all public transportation without paying — we bought a day pass, however — as apparently they operate on the honor system) we walked around and saw the Grand Place, which is considered one of the prettiest squares in all of Europe! I would have to agree based on my limited experience so far. A trip to Belgium wouldn’t be complete without sampling the local fare, aka waffles and fries, so that’s what we consumed for lunch. I must say I limited myself to only one waffle the whole weekend, which I would consider a rather large personal victory!

While walking around, we happened to stumble upon a movie being shot, and for a hot second, we thought we were being asked to be extras in the movie, while it actually turned out we were just in the way. Whoops. Maybe we snuck into the shot anyways! After a much needed nap, we ventured to Mort Subite, a famous bar in Belgium known for its specialty beers (peach, raspberry, etc.) and decorations from the 1920s. After a drink and some snacks, we walked and saw the Grand Place lit up at night and then called it a night and went to bed. I mentioned in an earlier post that we met a girl in Oslo who lived in Brussels as an au-pair, and I arranged to meet up with her on Saturday morning in front of the Museum of Beaux-Artes, Brussels’ national gallery of art. After touring the museum which was full of Rubens, we went to a cafe on the 10th (and top) floor of a musical instrument museum. The cafe had walls mostly made out of glass, so we ate a delicious lunch (carrot soup, perfect for a chilly day) with a beautiful panoramic view of the city.

Alison (our Brussels friend) suggested we go on a walking tour of art noveau architecture, so we spent about 2.5 hours seeing the city and beautiful houses on foot. The sun finally came out and it was a great way to walk off some of the waffles and fries! We had to get up at the ungodly hour of 4 AM to catch the shuttle bus back to the airport for our 7 AM flight, and so I spent most of Sunday sleeping, and catching up with reading and work. The next couple weeks will be rather uneventful, as I have all 4 of my midterms (as well as my birthday, excellent timing ) next week. Yuck. They are rather important, as for most of my classes I only have a midterm and a final, so it’s actually time to buckle down and be a student again. Fancy idea.

Travel update: Paris from 24th-29th! What a ridiculously fab way to spend Thanksgiving! I’ll be missing my fam, of course, and Thanksgiving dinner with the Saunders, but I think I’ll be able to manage. We are having a Thanksgiving dinner at Professor Stuart’s house, so I won’t be missing out on mashed potatoes, thank god. Missing all of you! Keep sending the emails and letters! If you want a postcard, send me your address… I asked for everyone’s mailing address before I left, but only about half of you actually responded. Who doesn’t want some Belgian chocolate in their HUB box??

Don’t get too comfy.

If life in Italy is going along smoothly, that can only mean one thing: something is about to break. Unfortunately, our shower is broken, yet again. This makes 3 separate occasions in which we either have no shower head, hot water, or neither. Hopefully it won’t take 8 days this time to fix! Cross your fingers for me, please.