January 2010
10 posts
“Rent has AIDS and Nazis, right? No? Then what’s the musical with the...”
– Eric somehow manages to combine Rent and The Sound of Music in to one strange, time warping musical
Hawt.
Today, at the suggestion of my friends Christina and Debbie, I went to a Bikram yoga class at Bikram Yoga Evanston. Bikram yoga is 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises practiced in a 105 degree 40% humidity room for 90 minutes. I was fairly apprehensive about it because I had heard it was really hard, and the BYE website is pretty intense. So I get there, pay, introduce myself to the instructor,...
Not Just Another Movie About Stealing Resources...
I just saw Avatar for the second time, and it was awesome again (if the fact that I’ve spent a total of $30 dollars on this movie didn’t prove that). As pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has said, the plot was pretty standard (think Pocahontas, Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves, etc.), but it’s so visually awesome that it doesn’t even matter. I’ve only seen it...
“1. Did everyone see Jersey Shore last night? If you didn’t…. get...”
– My queer cinema TA in our discussion today
Italia, ti manco
Up at 3am trying to write a paper on two days of very little sleep… this is what I did not miss about Northwestern.
Real Grown-ups
My roommates and I are pretty much completely settled into our apartment (and its below-mentioned oddities), and I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty awesome. Saturday night my roommate Laura and I made a really delicious dinner, which prompted on of my friends from Italy to say, “It’s like you’re real grown ups now.” So here are some pictures to prove it.
...
?
Our apartment is an anthropological treasure trove. Literally everywhere you look you find something that begs the question “why would anyone do that?”
Examples:
Supergluing a full-length mirror to the back of a door.
Putting 2 outlets in every room of the house except for the bedroom that’s slightly larger than the pantry, which has 6.
Strange.
Back to School!
I’m finally back in Evanston, where it is a surprisingly toasty 18 degrees. I moved into my apartment on saturday and started classes on monday. To start the quarter off, here is one or two interesting facts from each of my first classes.
Medieval Literature: Paganism and Christianity- The names for our days of the week come from germanic gods, and the french, italian, spanish, latin...
Last Days in Italy Part 4: Cultural Findings
I’m back in Evanston, and I think I need to wrap up this story before I completely kill it (if I haven’t already), so here are some funny “snidbits,” as my sister would call them, of italian culture.
1) Correction: I said earlier that my roommate was always using the hand gesture for “you’re busting my balls.” Not true. She was using the Sicilian hand...
December 2009
4 posts
Last Days in Italy Part 3: A Tale of Two...
Pronto soccorso- emergency room and sala d’attesa- waiting room
I’ve never had to stay in an American hospital overnight (thank God), and I don’t claim to know much about the American healthcare system, but I do feel like I’ve gotten to know the Italian system pretty well. Here are some facts, observations, comparisons, etc.
-Italy has a national healthcare plan that...
What fresh hell is this?
My hard drive crashed… again.
Last Days in Italy 2 of 4: The People
Overall, spending a week in an Italian hospital and having to come home early was not the greatest experience, but if there was any good part, it was the people, so here are the most important five. Disclaimer: Ignore how I look in all of these pictures.
1. Anna- Anna was one of my four roommates at the second hospital and the only one who was there the whole time. She was a really cute old...
Last Days in Italy: Part 1 of 4
A cappuccino I got the morning before all this started, after falling flat on my face, but before being rushed to the emergency room.
I’ve been back back for a week now, and how I ended up back here is quite the long an involved story. I ended my (almost) semester abroad with some very bad news and a week long stay in the hospital. This whole fiasco deserves more than one post, so...
November 2009
5 posts
Meh
No blogging lately because I’m in the hospital and all I have is my iPhone, but trust me, I’m having quite the cultural experience and gathering lots of material. I will blog the hell out of this whole crazy exerience if they ever let me out of here.
“Which medical condition do you fear the most?”
– One of NU’s choices for security questions….WTF?
Ask me what I really think
As I said, I went to the doctor last week to get a prescription. This is the doctor BU recommends we go to, and she has walk -in hours from 8:30 to 11. So my dad and I go at 8:15, hoping to be early in line so I can make it to my 9 am class…. not what happened. The waiting room is full to maximum capacity with really old italian women and other BU people. While we were waiting, a...
Family Visits!
I’ve been kind of behind on blogging lately, but with very good reason. My mom was here two weeks ago, and then my dad and Julie were here this past week. They were supposed to all come together, but Julie won districts in tennis (Yay!) and went to state.
So first, Mom’s visit: Thursday after class I rushed to Venice as fast as possible, and Mom and I had dinner and hung out. Friday we walked...
So basically we're licorice?
Friend 1: Italians love Americans.
Friend 2: Yeah, but not really. It's more like we're a new flavor of gelato that everyone wants to try, but no one wants to take home a whole kilo of.
October 2009
23 posts
Blurbs
1. The hot water is fixed. Thank you baby jesus.
2. I killed my first Italian mosquito after trying for 2 months.
3. I was supposed to have the whole house to myself today, instead, tommaso decided to skip school and stay home with his lady friend… all day.
4. I had a minor laundry crisis yesterday. Now I know that if you wash things on the delicate cycle, it doesn’t spin them dry...
Happy Birthday Lee!
(For some sad reason, when you google image search happy birthday, about a third of the results have something to to with twilight. I thought this one was funny.)
Brrrrrrr
The hot water better be fixed by tomorrow because I physically cannot make myself do that again.
Rant Rant Bitch Rant Rant Mehhhh Rant Rant How do...
It’s 6pm right now, and we still have no hot water, which means it won’t be fixed by tomorrow morning, and I’ll have to take a fourth freezing cold shower. I’m not going put any cute animal pictures this time because it’s really not funny anymore. I’m close to being at the end of my rope with this situation. It’s one thing to use a not so great shower for 4 months, but having to choose between not...
F my life
I had an awesome weekend with my mom, which I’ll recount later, and I already didn’t want to leave her and our nice hotel and go back to my homestay. So I get back this morning and… The hot water heater is broken again. Fml. Luckily I was able to go back to the hotel and shower there, but still, rough morning.
Apparently Riding a Bike is Not Like Riding a Bike
Last weekend, BU took us on a day trip to Ferrara, where we went on a tour of the castle there, had a group lunch , and then had the rest of the day free. My group of friends (half the group peer pressured the other half) decided to rent bikes and ride around the medieval walls of the city. The ride was beautiful, but after a lot of wine at lunch and at least a year or two without having ridden...
One time, in Italy...
One of my friends here was at a party at her tandem partner’s house, and the italians there started asking her about american parties and what they were like. She started to describe a normal american college party, and they like looked disappointed and told her that they thought american parties were in the school gym with music and decorations like in “the shining example”...
The American Dream
Italian guy at spritz night: Do you know... the burger king?
My friend Becky: Burger king? Yeah
Italian guy: Is it true... at the Burger king... there is a sandwich... with four pieces of meat?
Becky: Yeah, I think so.
Italian guy: Ahh... this is the American dream.
I can't do this conversation justice at all. I was both hilarious and really sad.
...And I'm not ashamed to say it.
My mom is coming a week from today and Julie and dad are coming the week after that. I honestly can’t remember ever being more excited for something.
“Non so mangiare senza pane!” or “I don’t know how to eat...”
– Yelled by a random man in line at brek (a self service restaurant) when he was told there was no more bread. After a month and a half in italy, I’m starting to feel the same way.
Awkward story
Yesterday afternoon, Tomasso had a girl over, and I could totally hear them having sex through the wall we share. She left before his mom got home, but he came to dinner last night with a pretty noticeable hickey. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want his mom to know about this, but he hasn’t mentioned anything to me, so guess he just trusts me not to say anything. Crazy kid.
Budapest
This weekend was definitely my favorite trip so far. I really liked the city, but even more important, I really like the people I was traveling/staying with. Before I recount my weekend in Budapest, here are three reasons why it’s an incredibly small word:
1. On the plane from Venice to Budapest, I noticed the man next to me had Medill bag. Turns out he went to NU and knew my dad.
2. I...
Possibly TMI
If my theory on the superiority of American public restrooms needed anymore evidence, this is it. The turkish toilet. Worst invention in the world (if a hole in the ground can be called an invention). Lots of italian bars and even some restaurants only have this type of toilet and I don’t understand why. Given the choice of paying a little extra for a real toilet or cleaning this everyday...
Why, Italian women?
Italian women LOVE harem pants. I don’t understand the appeal. They look comfortable, but the diaper look is really not the most flattering, and is it really that inconvenient or uncomfortable to wear pants with a crotch?
Too good to be true?
While I’m here, I’m participating in this program called tandem learning. Basically the language center at University of Padova pairs me up with an Italian student who wants to learn English better, and we meet like once a week a speak a little of both language. My partner’s name is Marta, and she lives here in Padova and goes to law school in Ferrara. So basically, I meet her...
10/7/2009
I have somehow switched to the european way of writing the date without even realizing it. Strange. No I can never remember which one is which.
Snap decision
I just booked a trip to Budapest this weekend. I know nothing about budapest, but I’m pretty excited. I’m going with Rebecca (other northwestern student) and Emily (Mt. Holyoke) and staying with Stephanie Oh who goes to NU and is studying in Budapest. It should be a fun weekend.
Mehhh
Four hours of lecture completely in italian is hard to listen to. Really hard. This is going to be a long semester. Concentrating hard enough to understand what’s going on is mentally exhausting. I’m constantly forcing my brain to stay… on. My professors are great, and classes are going well, but wow this is difficult.
In other news….
…The hot water heater in my family’s apartment is broken and for three days I’ve had to take ice cold showers. The plumber came yesterday to fix it, and it was about the biggest let down in the world when he left and said he couldn’t fix it for some reason and he’d be back. I’m told it’s being fixed today, but I’m not holding my breath. It’s been a few hours since my shower and...
Siena
After lunch in San Gimignano we caught a bus a train and another bus and found our hotel in Siena, yet another lovely medieval town. After dinner (gnocchi with truffle sauce and tiramisu) we headed to the main piazza where they were having the celebration/feast for the neighborhood that won the Palio, a famous horse race held every year in Siena. The neighborhood that wins gets this huge party...
San Gimignano
San Gimignano is a really small medieval town up in the tuscan hills. It reminded me a lot of Assisi, very beautiful and very touristy, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s nice to hear English every once in a while. We walked around the town and eventually found a garden with a man playing the harp and a tower wall type thing with amazing amazing views. After taking tons of pictures we...
A Weekend Under the Tuscan Sun (In multiple posts...
Part 1- Certaldo
After finishing my intensive month final exam and going out to a really delicious free dinner with the whole program and the professors, eleven of us headed to Tuscany for the weekend. We started in a small town called Certaldo where, after taking a really dangerous walk down the highway from the train station to the hostel) we ate a really delicious dinner in the medieval part...
September 2009
33 posts
Exam Time
Tomorrow is my intensive month final exam. It’s very weird that I’m already taking finals, because it seems like I just started classes, but at the same time it seems like forever ago that I got to venice. I will have been here a month on friday, and Padova is finally starting to feel like home. Unfortunately, the result of me getting used to being here is that I want to travel all the...
My Class Schedule
For anyone who might be interested, here is my class schedule.
Italian- Monday and wednesday 9-11
Art History- Tuesday and Thursday 9-11
Modern Italian History- Tuesday and Thursday 1-3
I’m pretty happy with it.
My November (most likely)
Weekend 1: Amsterdam
Weekend 2: Lee visits here
Weekend 3: London
Thanksgiving weekend: Dublin
That's not right is it?... That's so not right.
I went to mass at the Santo this morning. Novella seemed surprised when I asked her if she knew the mass times, and she had to get out the phone book and call for me. I guess her former host children didn’t go to church much. I still love the church itself, and it was nice to do something in italian that was still really familiar. All religious stuff aside, it’s nice to hear italian...
"In the United States, what do you call the place...
After hearing about it for three weeks and passing up a weekend trip to the Dolomites with my friends, I finally got to go to vineyard and pick grapes. The vineyard belongs to Davide, Novella’s boyfriend, and it’s located in the hills outside of Padova in Petrarch’s hometown, Arqua Petrarca. Davide also grows olives there, but I don’t know what one calls the place where olives grow. Anyway, we got...
So get excited
I don’t have the energy right now to write everything I want to write about my day in the vineyard, but I will say that it was pretty awesome.
