Eccomi!

Salve! Here's your prodigal blogger back to fill in an even longer gap. Two weeks--time's just moving along here, folks. I'm starting to get a bit nervous about returning, but that's a different story for a different post. Today, I have some exciting adventures to share. The first week was just a lot of school. I took my oral and written midterm exams in Italian (which went abbastanza bene) and had my first day "on the job" at Campansi, the nursing home I'm working at for my sociology class. I got to see a large part of the home gather for one of their monthly gatherings. This time the women from the division I'll be working with sang traditional Sianese songs for the other patrons and some visitors to celebrate the coming of spring. You know I loved that! I was also able to interact with some of the guests which is always good for my Italian.

After that busy work week, I had a week in vacanze. Wow! It was so much fun! I can't explain to you the overwhelming feeling of gratefulness that I got, especially during this past week. I am constantly appreciative for the opportunity to be here in Italy and to be having the life experiences here, but as a born planner, I can honestly say that I'm not sure I've ever been so content with my place in life before. To be a young woman in Italy now! I keep having this image of me as an old woman thinking back to this time in my life. But for the low-down, I'll split the stories into two entries. I still have some homework to finish up and there's too much to even write the gist of it all, so here's the first bit:

My friend Elizabeth and I took a night bus to Salerno, arriving there at 7 AM exhausted and unsure where to go. After an unnecessarily long time and several stops for directions, we finally found our hostel where we stayed for three nights and were able to meet some great people. The first day we explored Salerno and planned the rest of our trip. I am glad to report that fortune was our friend this whole trip and even when things seemed to be going poorly, they always turned out for the better. For instance, Saturday night we looked for a place to eat in a ravenous state, finally stumbling on a place after a while of searching that we weren't sure of. We ended up making great friends, returned for our last night, and ate well (for a discount!).

Our second day we spent in Pompei. What a trip! We decided to skip the audioguides and try to discover the best sites on our own--and a little help from Rick Steves. While walking aimlessly, I was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of Vincenzo, a well-informed security guard who had already worked at the ruins for 35 years. Vincenzo took it upon himself to show us the best sites, including those that weren't open to the public! I took in the sun on top of one of the houses, touched an original marble table, and stood in the best preserved houses which, according to Vincenzo, will never be open to the public. Here's a picture of us that Vincenzo took for us; please notice that we are behind a fence that is meant to keep people out from standing next to the completely original fountain! We even got an extra hour of exploration in his company. After sharing a coffee and our goodbyes, Elizabeth and I caught the train feeling that we had just had the best encounter with the ancient city possible.

The next day was split between Paestum and Amalfi. We got up close and personal with the Greek ruins in the morning and missed the first train back to Salerno. As Lady Luck would have it, we found a buffalo farm and tasted fresh mozzarella di bufala--the milkiest cheese and one of the many specialties of the region. After returning, we immediately took the hour-long bus trip to Amalfi. Talk about breath-taking! Not only from the gorgeous view but also the driving. The road clearly wasn't made for buses but somehow we got there. Elizabeth and I sat on the pier taking in the sunset on the coast (which can be seen above), explored a bit of the town, then returned.

The next morning we took a trip to Napoli. What chaos! It was so different than anywhere I had ever been before and have this feeling like I really need to return to understand more of the place. Sadly, we overlooked that we couldn't get into the one museum we had planned on seeing so instead spent a few hours soaking in the city. We sampled some great pizza & svogliatella (a pastry)--more yummy specialties of Campagna. My synopsis of the region: You can get lost quite easily and can meet some wonderful people, but you can NEVER go wrong with the food! We caught a train back to Siena in the afternoon, quite satified and thoroughly drained from our adventures.

I'll stop here for now, but don't forget to check out my pictures and keep looking for the second leg of the trip where I trugged on alone into Umbria, the region next to Tuscany.

Daily Discoveries

I've been busy to say the least. But even looking back on things, busy is much different in Italy than it is in America. It's healthier and more enjoyable at first glance. On a crazy night with a lot of homework I get 7.5 hours of sleep instead of 3 back home. And while it feels like I've been in school from 9-5 all day, I still have time to take walks around the city as I mentioned before. Thanks to a terrific friend who made me promise to go in giro each day, I take time to "get lost" in the Siena. This part of the day is undoubtedly my favorite. I stumble across different ways to get home or things that I saw last summer that I forgot about. Ci sono i tesori dappertutto! (There are treasures everywhere!) Maybe next time I'll remember to take my camera and document it for you.

But getting to the events of the week, each day starts the same. My brisk walk across the north part of the city-my average travel time lands at 13 minutes-ends when I arrive at school just in time to open the doors of the Siena School as the bells of San Domenico chime. I slip into class and each day starts with our trip to the Wonderful World of Italian Grammar. A bit like Disneyworld, but not. After 2 weeks of this same thing, I can resolutely say that Italian grammar class and English grammar class are equally painful.

But I've made some more discoveries. At the close of the second week, either 1) my brain is learning how to learn quicker, or 2) my mind is starting to think in Italian. Or both. I'd be happy with that, too. Classes are becoming less painful and I'm less likely to hesitate before speaking. And two days in a row I haven't had a headache at the end of the day! I don't know exactly what's happening, but I think that is a GREAT sign!

Continuing on, we had course presentations this week. I attended them all just to get a feeling for each of the classes. Taking the pulse of the school, I think everyone is pretty excited. Excited to take other classes besides Italian and to get to know new and very interesting people. There are 6 new professors who are bringing with them a wave of excitement about their subject for us to tap into. Some are Italian, some are immigrants, but all have very interesting stories. There is still a whole week of intensive Italian before we get started, but time is already flying by so I'm sure I can wait a little bit longer.

Ho togliato la testa del toro (I cut the head of the bull, or made a decision when doubting between choices) and I'll be taking the two part Sociology class and Creative Writing. I'll go into more detail about them when we get started, but I wanted to talk about getting inspired by Jackie. I don't consider myself a creative person, but Jackie, the photography instructor, talked about the Photography class's requirement to keep a photo journal. I started today. I'll leave you with some of them. A dopo!

L'inizio

So school has started which has been keeping me quite busy! Not to mention exhausted. I start my walk to school around 8:45 and get there with just enough time to get myself situated before class at 9. Then grammar with Roberto fino alle 10:45 where we do exercises and occasionally play games (where the real point is to have the best team name!) which is followed by a 15 minute break. After is conversation class with Claudia until lunch al mezzagiorno. I just finished writing new words to an old Italian song from the 60s for homework. Both classes are challenging but the atmosphere is still really fun.

The length of lunch depends on what else we have left for the day which ends up being anywhere from 45 minutes (an extreme case) to 2 hours (which is the average). Then comes language lab where both levels of Italian meet with one of the professors for an activity. Sometimes we play games like Categories, while other times we watch movies. Two days ago we went on a Treasure Hunt and had to ask the Sianese questions about the city; we were all a bit nervous at first, but my group had lots of fun!

So I'm getting settled in as much as I can, but things continue to be unsure. I have accepted it as a reality of studying abroad that I cannot count on my emotions to be consistent from one hour to the next. Lucky for me, there is still great support from the staff and other students of Siena School.

But I'm still having fun. I've been going on walks everyday around the city just to see what I can find. Secondo me, the views from everywhere are simply stunning. I've also had some entertaining experiences. For instance, my host parents asked me if I wanted to come with them to the countryside to babysit their grandkids. Of course I did and was greatly rewarded.

First, I saw 2 wild boar (a speciality of Siena) nella campagna. But then, I met 3 beautiful girls who I was able to spend time with and get to know. The oldest is pre-adolescent aged, around 11 or 12. We practiced a little English together and I found it nice that other people have as much anxiety about another language as me. The youngest is 1 and was simply joyful. She is almost ready to walk but is so cute that you always wanted to squeeze her close. And the middle child is 4 and turned out to be a perfect companion for me. She taught me new words and corrected some of my grammar. I taught her some English words ... although she couldn't care less. We sat at the kitchen table and spent hours together drawing pictures, counting, and practicing the alphabet. And of course there were lots of tickles. I've discovered that laughing sounds the same even in Italy.

But now I have to get some sleep. No matter how much I get, it's never enough! A dopo, tutti!