Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour! Salut mes amis!

My 3 day weekend in Paris was the BEST YET and I am so filled with joy and thankfulness that it was my last European adventure (for the time being), the grand finale.

It was a weekend of strange and eerie coincidences. First off, Devin and I ran into Leigh from Art History class and her friend studying in Siena while touring the Musee d'Orsay. Then we ran into them again as the Louvre, but this time there was a girl with them that I knew I recognized. It turned out to be Courtney Martin from Whitworth, who came accross Leigh and Melanie her friend because she asked them to take a photograph of her in the Louvre, and once they started chatting, they realized that Courtney's best friend in Northern Ireland (where's she's studying) is a close friend of Leigh and Melanie's back at their small private school in Virginia. The weird gets weirder. Then Courtney and I flipped out when we recognized each other and instantly got into discussion about Whitworth and how we couldn't believe how many freaking mutual friends we have yet we weren't friends yet. Courtney was supposed to meet up with Candace Farley, another Whitworth student I'd recognize, somewhere in Paris but they were separated and neither had phones. But lo and behold, all of us are wandering the Louvre which is packed on Friday nights with free entrance after 6 pm, and we run into Candace! What!?! And Candace said she thought she saw me earlier that day at the Musee d'Orsay and had to do a double take. So then us five plus Kristin our Milan program friend from New York met up and hit the town together. It seriously was the most perfectly smooth weekend ever. Candace and Courtney were even staying at the same hostel as us! AH! We all went out to dinner together in the city of love, drank French wine in a trendy artsy French quarter, dined on delicious French cuisine with fun live French music in a quaint restaurant. I was able to see ALL the sights I wanted to and timing was perfect, I couldn't have asked for more. We saw the Musee d'Orsay (the best impressionist museum in the world), le centre pompidou (modern art), teh Louvre of course, La Tour Eiffel, Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle (the most amazing stained glass chapel in Europe), Sacre Coeur, the Seine, L'Arc de Triomphe and lots more! Oh yeah, and on the first night Devin and I went on a Pub Crawl with some hostel folks...the leader was a guy that just ended a season of being on Big Brother and he was OUT OF CONTROL. His name is 'Crazy James' and he tells me people know him in Spokane and he's spent a lot of time there.....we also made friends with the coolest Swedish 'redneck' ever from Sweden's most northern villages.

I was struck by how all the stereotypes I have heard about Paris and Parisians were broken. In my opinion the Milanese are WAY more rude. We didn't encounter any rudeness or general unfriendliness among Parisians. I got to speak LOTS of French this weekend too which was amazing so that might have helped. The subway was enormous, probably even bigger than the London Underground, and we've been traveling to so many European cities by this point that we found navigating it simple and breezy (one night we saw an almost knife fight on our train car, yikes, ask me about it sometime!). And the portions of food were very large and filling, not tiny and not too overpriced (Italy is way worse in regards to both). The city was epically beautiful, even in December.

I couldn't have asked for a more magical weekend. Candace and I have already decided that we are hanging out this Jan Term and that our mutually friended friend-groups should merge because why not? We're both awesome and are in the same year at Whitworth? Yes, it was such a blessing to talk with the girls from Whitworth and to identify with them in that we're both off studying abroad in Europe where we are being exposed to so much, and all of us are in our sparate programs, trying to survive, figure out our lives and what it means to be Christians in this world on our own. It was so uplifting and the weekend was filled with too many coincidences to actually be coincidental.

I absolutely loved this infamous city and I will return someday.

Ciao! Now I have two weeks of finals preparation hell ahead of me....but 12 days and counting until a glorious return to my homeland of California and then my second but most lovely homeland of Washington State!

Hola, Barcelona!!!

Barcelona, Spain is a city that never sleeps.

And neither did we.


Barcelona is a throbbing city with some of the world's greatest nightlife, most unique art and architecture while being the second largest metropolis in Spain looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. I honestly didn't know what to expect coming to Spain--I had heard people rave about Barcelona but I must confess, I didn't know much about the city before coming, but now I am set on returning someday in the summertime. Spaniards are similar to Italians in that they love to have fun late, late into the night. So we 'did as the Spanish do' and now I am functioning on only a few hours of sleep over a three day span. Needless to say it was a wild time.

We toured a park called the Montjuïc with scenic views of this enormous city by taking a gondola up to a hilltop with an awesome castle on top that overlooked calm Mediterranean as the sun was setting. We visited the Sangrada Familia Church which qualifies as the weirdest looking thing I have ever seen. Seriously, Google image it. Barcelona has a Gothic Quarter with gothic architecture and it has Catalan modernisme (Art Nouveau) leaving an important artisitc legacy in Barcelona, especially through the architect, Antoni Gaudí, who did the Sangrada Familia which is still under construction today and will be complete in 2010. The city features tons and tons of cool stuff that we only scratched the surface of, including great markets and the famous Las Ramblas, one of the best pedestrian walkways in Europe. Park Güell was one of my favorite spots with its views and extensive amounts of Gaudi art, colorful mosaics, and the weirdest looking grotto thing ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell

One evening, Rita and I went to the Travel Bar, an International Bar suggested to us by our hostel, where for 23 euro, we went on a Pub crawl type thing except we got Sangeria, tappas, and entrance to a traditional Flamenco show! The music was incredible with Spanish guitar, rhythmic clapping, and Catalan singing that sounded like beautiful Arabic chanting. And the dancing of course was amazing! The stage was a small, intimate setting, and a man and a woman moved their feet in ways I didn't know was possible. The whole time I kept thinking and telling Rita, "I can't believe I'm actually in Barcelona and watching this amazing Flamenco show!" It was surreal. The night went on, we made friends who we drank Sangeria with (a sweet, fruity, Spanish drink) and later on that night we make some sweet Norwegian friends. We didn't crash in the hostel until 4:30 am! The next day was filled with more sight seeing and then we went back to the travel bar where we made new British and Australian friends who invited us over to their place for dinner. The evening was filled with more Barcelona good times. We were completely, and utterly exhausted, catching a 6:am flight back to Milano and then going to class today (Monday) morning. It was pouring rain, the 57 Cadorna was packed as usual, and our bodies felt pretty miserable today. I'm getting plenty of rest tonight in preparation for a Parisian weekend, the last trip of my European adventures.

20 days and counting until I return home!

An Italian Thanksgiving

All of the American students in my program felt great pangs of sadness and homesickness on Thanksgiving day. It was all we could talk about at school--our favorite homecooked foods that we craved, our family traditions, the smells, watching the Macy's Day parade and American football....all the little things that make a holiday tradition and that are a part of the meaning of 'home' to us.

Many of us wanted to fix up an American Thanksgiving meal for the occasion, but in Italy, none of the ingredients really exist. They don't eat turkey (they have to be imported in for a hefty amount of euro), yams are probably only sold at the specialty markets in the African districts of the city, there is no cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, stuffing, gravy....so it was virtually impossible to fix such a meal. My roommates and I plus our friends Allie and Julianne went to the Brera Neighborhood of Milano where we received a flyer to go to this nice bar/restaurant where they host 'American nights' complete with American traditional food, movies and such. So they were putting on a thing for Thanksgiving complete with big couches and big screen TVs with American football playing. We figured it'd be a fun and a good way to rekindle those good homey feelings....but then we discovered that the meal itself was 35 euro and not very good so we peaced out of there. Instead, we had Thanksgiving dinner at Mirco's!!! (Our good friend and owner of the Italian restaurant around the corner from our apartment in our sketchy neighborhood). But it was great and Mirco was as amazingly hospitable as ever, chatting it up with us and giving us plenty of free food and alcohol. What a guy! We around the table to say what we were thankful for.....and I also got to skype with my mom that day which was nice. Aaron and Beth are officially married now which is exciting and Joe and Rivitta are planning a trip next summer to visit Rivitta's family in Israel, and they plan on going to Egypt and Dubai as well!!! I am INSANELY jealous of my big bro but SO exciting for him! He deserves it and I'm so happy that he is going to get more opportunities to travel after our family vacation in Italy.

Though Thanksgiving was not like being home, it was comforting to be surrounded by people who understood and felt the same way, missing the same place that they call home. Thanksgiving is a lovely American tradition and I appreciate it's family togetherness....even if the First Thanksgiving was kind of a lie considering what colonizers eventually did to the Native Americans. That should be recognized. Anyways, this Christmas I'm eating to make up for Turkey Day. Va bene.

Hej København, Danmark & Malmö, Sweden!

It's been a little while since I went to frigid northern Europe (two weekends ago) so I apologize for leaving out the details! Tara, Rita, Mike & Myself journeyed north to the land of taller mostly blond people, pastries, perfectly pronounced American English, darkness at 4:30 in the afternoon, flatlands, canals, and more and more bikes!!

So it's true, visiting Denmark and Sweden in November means that the days are short as it gets dark around 4:30. Regardless, we were kept busy in these amazing countries. First, we arrived at night in Copenhagen and bought tickets to Tivoli, a really really cute carnival park thing in central Copenhagen. The place was decked out for Christmas, complete with thousands of Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and Danish Christmas treats and even a laser light show. We walked around in the -1 degree C temperatures and sipped on hot wine with spices, a Danish specialty drink that keeps you quite warm.

The next morning we woke up early and rented bikes which is the main mode of transportation in Copenhagen (like Amsterdam, Netherlands). Lucky for us it was a Sunday so the bike commuters weren't out so we could ride leisurely without angering the locals. We rode everywhere, stopping to take pictures at the scenic spots--Copenhagen is an overwhelming beautiful city with pituresque colored row buildings on canals with a thin layer of snow that dusted all the streets, buildings and trees. We rode through a park with a castle and went to visit the famous Little Mermaid Statue that inspired the author of the story and eventually, the Disney film (the statue is surprisingly tiny). Even the areas of the city that were supposed to be more industrial were beautiful and clean. And Danishes in Denmark are THE BEST ever (though only we refer to them as 'Danishes' in the States). Danish, Swedes, and most Nordic countries in general speak incredible English with more American sounding accents rather than British--their school systems start teaching them when they're 8 years old. Danish and Sweden are complex sounding, but very unusual languages and the only phases we picked up were "Hej!" (Hello) and "Takk!" (Thank you.....which I noted is the title of teh Icelandic Sigur Ros's album).

So the city of Malmö, Sweden is only about a 20 minute train ride from downtown Copenhagen, so we figured, what the heck, let's go to Sweden for the afternoon. We wandered around a bit in the cold, saw pretty things and also the "Turning Torso" building, the tallest building in all of Sweden and a modern architectural feat. That night we ate cheap Chinese food....which was odd and seemed out of context. On the train ride back to Copenhagen, we made friends with the NICEST Swedish guy ever who was one of the train conductors. He had a long blond braided ponytail which was entertaining. When we parted ways we informed the man that he was the nicest train employee that we've encountered in all of Europe (which is a lot, believe me!) and it made his day.

I also appreciated the huge emphasis on environmentalism in both Denmark and Sweden, which are among the cleanest countries in the world. Malmö is working on initiatives to becoming one of the most sustainable cities in the world. And the people are among the friendliness I would say, along with the Dutch.

We had a very interesting experience in our hostel in Copenhagen. It was us four Americans staying in a room with one of guy, who we hadn't really spoken to and we didn't know where we was from. So we were all chatting in up one night in the room and the guy, after not speaking a word the day before, asked us "Are you Americans?" So we said yes, and asked where he was from and he answered "Iraq". Then followed an awkward pause in the conversation. We eventually learned that this man's parents both worked at the Iraqui consulate in Copenhagen and that he frequently flies up to visit them, but he was headed back to Iraq the next morning. We exchanged passports to look at and tried to talk with him a little bit despite his broken English. But still there was that feeling of 'oh gosh, what do we say?' How do you tell someone 'um, so sorry my country screwed up your country?' It was an interesting learning experience and I had wished we had more time to talk with this man about life, politics, our cultures. Each hostel we've stayed in has led us to learn a little something new about the world through its people.


So those were the highlights of the weekend. I'd love to return to the Nordic areas someday, but preferably in the summertime! I was sad to leave so soon and return to the congested chaotic streets of Milano, though with each week that I'm here, I see more of Milano's redeeming qualities which I've grown to love.

Ciao mi amici!

Mancherò il Milano? Pazzo, ma vero.

It suddenly dawned on me today that I'm going to miss living in Italy more than I expected. Now that I've grown accustomed to its ways, the chaos, the infamous "Italy factor", I feel comfortable, natural here, going about daily routines. It's cool to see how far I've come in adapting. I have a month left here and I want to enjoy it all--the food, the people, the language, the culture. Adjusting back to life in the States will be strange I'm sure--especially since I only have 12 days at home in California before heading back up to Whitworth. My entire abroad experiecnce will feel like some kind of semester long whirlwind, and I expect it will be difficult to transition back and having to explain my experiences, but no one but me will truly understand what I've experienced. It's been a personal journey for me, one of growth and resilience. And not to mention that I'm going to miss being able to hop on a chaep flight every weekend and travel somewhere new in a matter of minutes, hours. The States is way too big for my liking.


Ciao, mi amici!

p.s. One of my Italian literature profs has no idea who Dr. Seuss is (someone mentioned him in class) and that is just a pity.

Bratislava...Budapest...Vienna. 3 countries. 3 days.

Ciao! I survived a weekend of complete chaos but it was filled with unforgettable moments and experiences. First of all, I can now say that I have slept on a bench for 4 hours in Slovakia, see the biggest Synagogue in all of Europe in Budapest, and slept in a hostel that was annexed to an apartment where a man named Hitler lived in for a year in Vienna, Austria. Europe is weird like that.

After flying in to Bratislava late on Friday, we hopped onto a random shuttle without knowing where it was going, but lucky guess, it took us to the train station where we needed to go. It's amazing how vastly different Eastern Europe is from Western Europe--it's another world. Slovakian seems so so foreign of a language so signs were of no help to us. We waited in a long line to purchase tickets and noticed that we were in the sketchiest of sketch train stations we've seen in all of Europe (which is saying something in comparison to Milan's Stazione Centrale). This place looked like it had just been bombed and the whole place wreaked of urine, cigarettes, and other foulness. The next train to Budapest was at 4:00 am so our only choice was to camp out. The boys and Tara walked about the city of Bratislava for a bit (they said it was equally as sketch with tons of drunk people wandering about) leaving Nancy and I in this random covered area with benches that looked like death. And yes, we slept on the benches. Only a handful of people were around, including some homeless men who were kicked out of the area by two Slovakian guards. The guards tried communicating with us, but the language barrier was too difficult--however, we could deduce that what they were trying to tell is was not to sleep on the benches because it was too dangerous (especially being two young women). When the guards left, this man sitting on the bench next to us told us in broken English in which he threw in broken French, Italian, and Hungarian, that it was okay, that we could sleep and he would keep an eye out for us. He seemed trust worthy enough so we slept though miserably under the circumstances. Then finally, the we got of the train for Budapest.

We arrived in Budapest after three hours of travel, checked our bags at the station, then explored the city for the day. My impressions of Budapest were affected by the fact that I have already visited Prague, Czech Republic, and Belgrade, Serbia. Bascially Budapest, felt like standard Eastern Europe, though not as run down as Belgrade, and not as pretty and scenic as Prague. The Danube river (which also runs through Belgrade, Prague, and German cities) runs through Budapest, separating "Buda" from "Pest". On the Buda side, we explored Buda Castle, views from the Halaszbastya, Szt. Anna templom, Matyas templom, Baths created from natural hot springs and other monuments. On the Pest side, we saw the impressive Parliament building with monuments dedicated to the resistance of Hungarians towards the Soviets, Zsinagoga (the largest synagogue in all of Europe, some museums, and Szt. Istvan Bazilika (St. Steven's Basilica) which was beautiful. That evening we ate some traditional Hungarian gulash! Then it came time to return to the train station and take yet another late night train ride to Vienna, Austria.

Only Tara, Nancy, and I went to Vienna, and we wished we had had more time there because Wien (Vienna) is actually an enormous city with so much culture and so much to do it could keep you busy for weeks! It's the birthplace of so much classical music, (Beethoven, Bach, Strauss to name a few) and was a location for so many important events in European history. To begin our Austrian adventure, we checked in to our hostel where the nicest Austrian man ever was our host. The hostel was several buildings large and we inquired as to what the history of the area was. With that said, the man led us to the backside of the building and pointed up to an apartment and a brick building next to it. He said that the brick building was an old abandoned factory and that the apartment was occupied for a year by "a man named Hitler" is how he put it. In shock we said, "you mean...THE Hitler!?!" And yes, indeed, the hostel we stayed in was annexed to an apartment Hitler lived in for a year during a time which he ironically was dating a Jewish girl that worked in the factory right next to it. So that was some interesting WWII history.
The next day we got an early start and visited Schonbrunn Palace, the most important monument in Austria, where generations of important historical rulers, the Empress of Austria, even Neopolian lived. We took a tour and even stood in the room where the 6-year old Mozart gave his first concert and public appearance. The Palace is enormous but the gardens behind the Palace are really really enormous. We walked all around and even sampled some Austrian coffee at the cafe on top of the hill overlooking the Palace, the Palace gardens, and a sweeping view of the city of Vienna (Austria too, is famous for its coffee and coffee houses, NOT to be confused with Amsterdam's coffeehouses!) After doing the Palace and gardens, we took the absolutely lovely and clean, easy-to-use Vienna public transit system to the City Center. We were lucky because only the day before we arrived the Christmas Market had opened! So we got in the Holiday mood, sipping our cider as we walked about the tents filled with Austrian Christmas trinkets and goodies. There were also TONS of crazy cute Austrian kids that we people watched while sitting on a bench near a playground. We saw a little boy holding the cutest puppy we have ever seen so of course we made friends so that we could pet it.

The evening we had to then return to Bratislava by bus, so that we could catch our flight back to Milan. By the time we got back we were completely, and utterly exhausted in every sense of the word. I have never crashed so hard to bed, ever. We felt to accomplished after pulling off such a stunt of a weekend. In a course of 36 hours, we were actually in 4 countries (including Italy) and we actually got to see sights and explore a decent amount).

Our next trips should be no where near as chaotic since we will be staying in one city for each. We are SO stoked for next weekend in beautiful Copenhagen, Denmark (and we plan on poping over to a Swedish village as well), Barcelona, Spain, and our finale, 3 days in Paris, France. C'est la vie!

Ciao, friends, I will be home before you know it!

La Vita è Bella

I am now officially over half way done with my studying abroad adventure.

Today was a day in which I reflected on Italy and life as a foreigner in attempts to begin processing what my Italian experience has meant.

It was yet another rainy day here in northern Italy, the Milanese skies gray and gloomy as it usually is, yet somehow I enjoy Milan's rainy days better than its typically gray, non-rainy days. At least the rain gives the illusion of cleanliness. The hustle and bustle of the city is increased in its difficulty on these days, the congested sidewalks now crowded with solid and plaid patterned umbrellas, usually purchased for 2 euro from the street immigrants who sell them in the underground subways. These umbrellas are cheap and fall apart easily, I have one of my own, so of course the old and dignified Italian businessmen carry umbrellas of distinction, with carved wooden curved handles and pointed tips, like the shiny pointed tips of their shoes. On these days the buses are more crowded than usual, and they are usually very crowded. Wet bodies pack together, heightening the scent of mustiness, and the windows completely fog up so that there is no visibility of the streets as the bus twists, turns sharp corners, stops abruptly, honks its heavy horn. The rain makes the immigrant gypsies, the beggars, the street dwellers take shelter, leaving their usual begging posts and street corners. However, the rain does not prevent the Italians from dressing in their usual formal attire--in fact, it seems as if the rain makes them dress up even more. The people are walking art, in their dark wool coats and leather boots. The puddles that pedestrians are forced to jump over and dodge don't seem to hinder the choices of Italians and their footwear. But I saw the strangest thing today as I was walking down Via Carducci towards the mezza for lunch--an older Italian gentleman was wearing a shower cap to protect his balding head from the rain.

My interactions with Italians sometimes puzzle me. We (and by "we" I mean the other Americans and non-European foreigners in my program) are definitely "those weird foreign kids" when we're in big groups, walking to class or eating in the cafeteria. We dress differently and it shows, even if we try are best to blend in. We talk differently, that can't really be avoided. Our body language is different--we're awkward, we're overly expressive, we're displaced, though now that we've been here this long, I think it shows that we're much more comfortable in our surroundings than we used to be. When I speak to Italians, they ask, "Inglese?" and I say "Si" but they go on to assume that I am British, not American! So I have to say, "No, sono Americana". But I guess they just hear the English and cannot distinguish a British accent from an American one. I guess this makes sense because I would not be able to tell the difference from a Milanese accent from a Tuscan one or a Venictian one.

I am still enjoying my classes here immensely, especially my modern Italian literature class with Maria. Now we are studying Neorealism and reading Calvino's "The Path to the Nests of Spiders" which is about WWII in Italy and the fighting partisan groups, after Italy joined the Allies side and Germany has invaded. The story is told from the point of view of a young Italian boy, Pin, a street orphan with a prostitute sister, in the region of Liguria (Northwest Italy, along the rough coastal landscape). It's facinating hearing about the era in history from an actual Italian. Maria's father was in a partisan groups himself during this turbulent yet epic time in Italian history. The two main partisan groups that were fighting each other in a kind of civil war, fighting Nazi fascism, and resisting Mussolini's fascist party, were the "Reds" and the "Blue Ones" or "Ozzurri". The Reds were communists and the Blues were liberals/Catholics/Socialists. Eventually these two groups come together and write the Italian constitution, thus there is must communist ideology and influence in modern Italian society which I think many people, mainly Americans, don't realize. And this time in history was of immense importance for Italy culturally and intellectually. "Einaudi" was a publishing house located in Torino (Northern Italy, Torino and Milano were are the head cultural and intellectual centers of Italy) where artists and writers came together to resist censorship and illegally listen to London radio that told the truth about the events of the war, free from Italian propaganda. These writers translated much American Neorealistic literature of the time, like Hemingway, since the Italians wanted to identify with the symbolic and epic American ideology of freedom and liberty, as well as to express dissent and resist oppression. This process of translating was also monumental in forming the Italian language. At this time, Italians still did not have a unified language since isolated regions still spoke using the their local dialects. Yes, Dante back in the Middle Ages was the "Father of the Italian language" but it wasn't until much more recently that Italians formed a unified, common vernacular. The Italian language was always considered to be an elitist and academic language since it was used mostly in the writing of texts. So writers faced the problem of expressing themselves with a common vernacular that represented the language of the people--also, in translating American realism, a more universal Italian language had to be formed. Thus the modern Italian language was born, using elements of regional dialects as well as the classic academic form and structure of the language. This has given me entirely new insights on the language, especially since I'm in the process of learning it. It is a product of the old, Middle Ages and Renaissance old, and the New, WWII new, and a conglomeration of dialectal vernaculars. At times it is an extremely refined and elegant language, but it also can be used in a crude, simplistic, casual manner. It's expressive (along with Italian hand gestures, which are a language entirely in its own respect) but at the same time it's monotone and consistent in its intonation. Italians I've met have commented on how the English language is actually extremely expressive because of how many tonal variations we have. We can ask the question, "How are you doing?" in such a variety of ways with different connotations because we change the pitch and tone of our voices. Italian is not so. It's very rhythmic, but you never hear a high-pitched Italian voice. Even the women speak with a quick, rhythmic, yet single-toned voice that usually is very deep for females. Italians put all of their expression into their facial and hand gestures rather than their voices.

My Italian life is closely linked with the following elements: language, academics, food, fashion, socioeconomics, and the most character building city bus commute of all time. I'm craving a home-cooked meal, made by the hands of my mother, or the flavors of Mexican food which are lacking on this continent. I miss my home, my family, my friends. But here, I am surviving and even thriving perhaps with this non-stop jet-setting, train-riding, bus-riding, multicultural European lifestyle. I only have a little over a month left and I am constantly trying to soak in my surrounds--the old well-dressed Italian women who walk arm in arm down the streets, stopping to admire the artistry of Milanese widow displays, the little children and their childlike accents, the flavors of fresh, preservative-free produce and the freshest, most delicious mozzarella cheese on earth that you buy as a ball in a baggie of liquid.I want to enjoy the company of my roommates and travel buddies, and take it into account that when I drink a cappuchino at my favorite cozy little cafe, that I'm drinking espresso from the very place it was invented. I want to appreciate the intricacies of the Italian architecture that surrounds me, as relics of Renaissance history.

I have felt displaced living here as a foreigner and truly estranged, being prejudiced for being an American, scoffed at and blamed. I have been judged by Italians for my lack of effortless Italian style, yelled at by the old men on buses when I inappropriatly put my feet up on chairs, yelled at by the lunch ladies for taking too much food in the cafeteria, taken advantage of because I am foreign and fined 34 euro for a bus pass that I already purchased, and have been treated and viewed as the object of men who ask for sexual favors on my bus route or on the streets of my immigrant, low-income neighborhood in the seedy outskirts of Milan. It hasn't been easy to put things lightly. Despite the chaos of this city, this culture, the frustrations of political corruption, inequalities of women, the poor, the immigrant populations, the fragile infrastructure and disorganization, the dangers, the influence of the mafia, the fashion-obsessed consumer culture, I will survive this place and I will return to the comforts and the familiarities of my home and my culture as a more complete person with extensive international experience.

I have learned so much, and despite my struggles which had to be overcome, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Hallo Goedemorgen, Amsterdam!

Ciao! My latest European adventure was spending our post-midterms four-day weekend in Amsterdam, Holland! Wow, what a neat city Amsterdam is! It sort of reminds me of a kind of Scandinavian Venice with its canals and bridges and such. Every canal with its row houses and trees is so picturesque!

Amsterdam is probably the most bike-friendly city in the world, no joke. EVERYONE rides bikes and you're constantly having to dodge pedestrians on foot, bikes on their bike paths, cars, and these above ground trams that run through the city at all hours. We flew in to the Netherlands in Eindhoven, a town an hour and half's train ride south of Amsterdam. Along the train ride to the city we got a glimpse of what the Dutch countryside looks like and it is amazing. I had heard that the Netherlands was one of the cleanest places in the world and I believe it must be true. There are diary farms everywhere, lush green pastures dotted with cows and autumnal trees lining bike paths--it's absolutely gorgeous. The city was quite cold (it is very norhtern Europe after all) but the skies were crisply blue. And the people I encountered in Holland were the nicest Europeans yet! They would go out of their way to be courteous and friendly to everyone.

So since the city of Amsterdam has basically been built for bike riders, of course we rented bikes! We rode EVERYWHERE in the city, which is quite small actually, but we didn't really fit in as locals since they could tell we were foreigners by they way we rode. A few times we faced the wrong direction on a bus path or didn't see where the paths connected and were on the pedestrian sidewalks and such....but we got the hang of it the end and it was quite pleasant--I had been craving a bike ride for so long! It felt invigorating to ride over the scenic canals, with the yellow leaves falling from the trees with the wheels rolling briskly accross smooth pavement. It was simply wonderful. Besides city riding, we rode in Vondel Park which is Amsterdam's version of Central Park, a park that the Dutch are proud to call their own! And it deserves it because it is gorgeous with a lack in the center, long winding, wide bike paths.

We (and by we I mean Tara, Nancy, Mike, Devin & I) also got a chance to see the Van Gogh museum. I had always like Van Gogh's impressionism and thought it was nice, pretty art, but seeing the paintings in person made me look at Van Gogh in a whole new way: as a bonafide genius. This museum in particular holds the largest collection of Van Gogh's work in the world, even though it's not even half of the paintings he produced during his lifetime. Most of it is his early work (since Amsterdam was where he did most of it). I had never realized what a deeply religious man Van Gogh was (he was a pastor's son as well) and how his heart went out to the peasantry, which explains why he longed to leave the hectic and congested city to be out in the rural countryside, painting the lives of peasants and the poor. His use of color of course is well known, but seeing the paintings that I've seen prints of many times before look completely new and vibrant when seen in person. He somehow uses the same multicolors in his subject as he does in the background yet somehow, it works. It was a beautiful gallery and I will never forget the experience.

We also had a chance to view the contents of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum which is their National Gallery and holds most of Rembrandt's work which is quite impressive. Rembrandt's control of light in his paintings as it appears over his subjects is absolutely masterful. There was also a Hirst exhibit in the gallery (Hirst is a modern artist who we discussed in my art history class and does some pretty wild stuff, you should check him out). The Hirst piece was titled "For the Love of God" becuase that's what his mother told him when he informed her what exactly he was going to do with this piece. You enter into a pitch black room and in the center of the room is a glass box encasing a real human skull (the person is unidentified) with thousands of diamonds encrested into the skull and it shines brilliantly in the center of the dark room. That's all it is. Apparently Hirst is trying ot make some statement about life and death, the soul and the afterlife. Oh modern art.

Another amazing thing I had the chance to experience in Amsterdam was seeing the house of Anne Frank. I remember reading the diary of Anne Frank in middle school, but seeing the hosue and walking through it in person was incredible. The museum itself was very well organized with artifacts (including possessions in the house, the family's concentration camp cards, etc.) and short video clips with interviews of various people such as Anne Frank's childhood friend and her father, Otto Frank. The house and museum also displays exerpts from the diary and you progress through and it makes the whole experience very, very powerful. The mood of the entire museum is solumn and serious. You walk behind the moving bookcase (teh secret entrance Anne describes in her diary) that leads to the secret living space of Anne and her 7 other family members that hid from the Nazis during WWII. There are no furnishings in the living quarters (Otto Frank had asked for it to remain unfurnished) however Otto described where things were placed in the house and the museum has dollhouse-like model displays showing what the rooms looked like at the time thery were being lived in. After walking through the two floors that the family occupied, you enter into the last room which holds the actual physical diary that belonged to Anne Frank and it is opened inside a glass case. It's a cute little girl's diray with a pink cover and gold lock. Also in this room is a final message from Otto Frank in a video clip where we confesses that he never knew at the time what Anne's internal thoughts were during their time in hiding, and that it wasn't until reading the diray after her death in the concentration camp (just a month before liberation) that he realized what deep, profound feelings and mature thoughts she had about her lonliness, their situation, fear, her longings for freedom, and her courageousness in facing adversity. Otto's final statement is that, "parents never truly can know who their children are" which seems strange but true and I think children can have much more profound and deeper understanding and insights into life than we realize.

And I knwo what you're all thinking: "Yeah Dani this all sounds great...but what about Amsterdam's famous red light district and coffee houses we hear so much about???" Yes, it's true, it's a big deal there and the Dutch people are very "open" in general but really they just don't like conflict so they tend to just allow things. But this culture of Amsterdam is not really the real Amsterdam--not according to the people. The red light district and the coffee hosues are concentrated in one area of town, right next to Central Station and the Financial district, and yes it is seedy, but not nearly as intense as I think people make it out to me. Canabis products (marijuana) is technically illegal in the country of Holland yet Coffee Shops (f.y.i. they're not the same as Starbucks, folks!) still sell drugs and people do them openly in the streets (even though the rules technically are that the drugs must be used or smoked in an indicated room indoors). Coffee Shops typically sell joints and brownies, special milkshakes, but Smartshops are where people can purchase shrooms and other hallucinagenic products. The red light district was not as intense as I had imagined it to be, but it is appauling to see the women standing behind the glass windows skantally clad. When curtains are closed so that all you see is the red light shining through means that they're with a client. This area of town, though seedy, is pretty safe since so many tourists are around. Though one night I was offered ecstacy and cocaine. good times. Some of the population in Amsterdam is making efforts to change things and eventually with the rules that are in place, the drug culture will probably die out. There is a law that when a coffee shop owner dies, the shop dies with them, meaning that never again can a coffee shop be there and it can't be resold or anythig--so eventually it may die out. Amsterdam is quite the unique city--it's like Berkeley on steroids in ways.

Well that sums up some of the things I saw and experienced inthe beutiful city of Amsterdam! Next time I visit though I want to explore more outside the city and maybe take a day trip to where the tulip fields are.

Next weekend....I am traveling through Eastern Europe for a third time. This adventure will bring me to Bratislava, Vienna, and Budapest! It is bound to be crazy, we have quite the itinerary.

Ciao ciao my friends, hope all is well back in the States or where ever in the world you are reading this from! I have 6 weeks left in Europe--I can't believe it's already november!

pace & amore!

A Swiss Weekend & Obama Makes History

Ciao!

Currently I am swamped with the stress that is midterms week so I haven't had too much time on my hands to do updates or be online. So to fill things in, this past Halloween weekend I went to Bern, Switzerland! It was beautiful, the air was crisp, and our train ride went through the Italian and Swiss Alps which was epic. Switzerland however is extremely expensive. A typical Starbucks sized coffee is 7 to 8 Swiss francs which is approximatly 6 to 7 euro. ouch. And one day we were craving mexican food and found a Swiss Mexican restaurant but it was extremely overpriced and the food wasn't all that good. Everything was fried and nothing tastes right. Europeans don't know what they are missing when it comes to a filling and fantastic traditional mexican burrito. Also in Switzerland, I visited the Alpines museum and the Einstein Haus, the very residence of Albert Einstein and where he came up with his theory of relativity. neat. And Bern has a bear pit with live bears (the bear is the emblem of the city according to their folklore) and there was a rose garden I hiked up to with sweet views of the city with the Alps as its backdrop. Unfortunately my computer's memory is full and I am currently unable to add any pictures which is upsetting. But one of my favorite things I did in Bern was attend a service at the Munster cathedral, one of the original Luthern cathedrals in Europe that was around just after the Reformation. The service was completely in German (which made reading and singing from the hymnal interesting) but I thoughroughly enjoyed the gorgeous music of the choir and enormous organ that boomed from behind the pews and echoed throughout the gothic styled, stained glassed structure. It was an awesome experience.

Upon returning to Milan, me and my roommates have been frantically preparing for midterms but lacking in motivation. It's been rough. Last night we all went to bed in anxiousness and suspense because when we woke the morning we knew that we would have the results--America would have chosen its knew president. And how relieved we are! It's been a strange but great experience being abroad at a time such as this. History is being made in my country and I'm not there to experience but I am experiencing it from a broader worldview and seeing my own country through the eyes of foreigners, of the world. It's been one of the most beneficial things that I've learned while being abroad, how focused the world is on America and how what we do and decide matters, and it is one of the most important things I will brign back with me to the States. The man who works at our favorite coffee shop that we frequent before Italian class every wednesday and friday smiled at us this morning and the first thing he asked was, "Are you happy?" I've been asked that question a lot today.

With that said, Obama sure does have a load to inherit: wars, an economic crisis, a deteriorating health system, social security and education system. It's overwhelming, but things I think will get better from here.

I have one last midterm to study for tonight and to take tomorrow afternoon and then I'm off to AMSTERDAM for the four day weekend.

pace & amour

London, London, London...

London has become one of my favorite cities hands down.

It was my second time visiting, and I will be there a thrid time since I have a layover there before I fly back to the states. The city is magical. It feels electric, alive and I love it and could picture myself living there one day.

But the best part about my weekend in London was reconnecting with old friends!! I met up with the BISP kids (British Isles Study Program) from Whitworth and had a blast. It was refreshing to see familiar faces, and though the tickets were purchased last minute and cost me and arm and a leg, it was worth every euro. I needed this as a kind of mid-semester rejuvination. The BISP students were pretty tired and burnt out since they're on the last leg of their journey and by this time they were a little sick of each other--so I provided so very needed entertainment.

The first night I flew in and stayed at a really nice hostel by myself. The next morning I went to the Lancaster Hotel near Hyde Park where I waited around a couple of hours, explore the park a bit, and met up with the backpackin' gang. We went to a Pub that afternoon, got cupcakes and crepes in Covenant Gardens, saw movie premere excitement in Lester Square, and my friends introduced me to the strangest yet most wonderful chain of Pubs/restaurants/lounges/clubs, Yeats.

The next day we got a good breakfast in the lobby (I had to be sneaky since I technically was not supposed to be at this hotel and slept in a bed with Calli) and then Devin, Calli, Tyler and I went to the Tate Modern Museum which was AWESOME. I absolutely loved it. It was a rainy day in London and we warmed ourselves at a cafe after seeing all the cool things the Tate has to offer. Overall the weekend was very relaxing and fun and renewed my love for the city of London as well as my excitment for the day I return to Whitworth. In every way this experience abroad has made me realize what quality people Whitworth produces and what a uniquely wonderful place it is.

I returned to Milan completely exhausted and had to go straight to class (I had taken a 4 am taxi cab to Victoria Station in London monday morning). Classes this past week have been a little nuts with midterms coming up and everything. I feel SO unprepared. But tomorrow which also happens to be Halloween, I am taking a train after Italian class to Bern, the capital of Switzerland where I will stay in a downtown hostel for the night. On saturay my roommates Tara and Rita will meet up with me. In Switzerland I hope to relax, study more for midterms in a coffee shop or something, breathe the fresh mountain air, eat swiss chocolate, feed the bears in the bear pit exibit they have there, see Einstein's house, and perhaps rent a bike to explore the city on. It will be a much needed weekend retreat.

I hope all is well both across the pond and in other various parts of the world. Ciao mi amicas/amicos!

Serbia, the Balkan Adventure!

It's been quite a while since I've given updates. So last weekend I took a 19 hour train ride through Eastern Europe, the Balkans, to Belgrade, Serbia with 7 other people from my program here at Cattolica.

Begrade is just like any other modern European city really, but the looming presence of its communist past is still very evident. There are still bombed out buildings left partially destroyed from the NATO bombings in the 90s that are left destroyed because the Serbian government does not have the funds to fix them. It was also very cool for me personally to see the actual places where optor! took action and marched to the steps of the capitol building. We past intensely impoverished gypsy villages by train and saw the evidence of poverty and gypsy camps in a nearby town we visited just outside of Belgrade. Overall, it was quite eye-opening to see and experience a part of Europe that is rarely visited and that has such recent historical significance.

We stayed at the appartment of Vasa, Luka's grandfather. He was the sweetest old Serbian man ever and we squeezed all 8 of us into his two room one bath apartment in a Belgrade highrise. He cooked for us lots and lots of authentic Serbian dishes which are very fatty, greasy, and meaty.

One day we visited this awesome park in central Belgrade with views of the city and the Danube river. The park had cool old ruins that we walked around and museums and park art and stuff. Also that evening we went to the apartment of Lilly, a Serbian women who used to babysit Luka when he was little. She lives with her 15 year old son, David, and her boyfriend. It was a surreal experience and I will have to explain it in person to you all sometime. During our meal there she dissed big time on the country of Australia which offended poor Tim, the Aussie in the group. But then she played Balkan gypsy music on the record player and handed us all tamborines and other instruments and taught us some gypsy dances and we danced on the wooden floors of her apartment for a while (after sipping some Ratika, an authentic and very strong Serbian drink of course).

The train ride back was pretty long and miserble and we almost missed our connection in Zagreb, Croatia, and then we had to go to class when we arrived back in Milan. Gross.

So that was Serbia....and last night (Tuesday) I attended a play performance here in Milano for my Italian literature class and it was awesome. Even though the entire play was in Italian, we could sort of follow what was going on because we read the play in English beforehand. The play was "Six Characters in Search of an Author" by the modernist author/playwright/director, Pirandello.

Also, I made an extremely spontaneous decision to fly to London this next weekend so that I could visit my dear friends in the British Isles Study Program at Whitworth. It was an expensive last minute ticket, but at this point I feel like seeing Whitworth people will rejuvinate my spirits! I'm extremely excited also because London is one of the coolest cities I've ever been to. After that I have another week of classes, then I go to Bern, Switzerland for the weekend, and then it's midterms. After midterms I go to Amsterdam, then Bratislava/Vienna/Budapest, then probably Copenhagen, Barcelona, then Paris to finish it off. Crazy, I know. And oh, I'm flat broke during the financial crisis. ugh.

Oh, and I started my Italian language class! I'm in a basic level class and there are only four of us in it! Me, my two roommates, and our friend, Devon. It's so nice to get so much personal attention from the professor and be able to ask lots of questions and practice speaking Italian. But it's throwing me off so much because I keep wanting to say things in French and my mind automatically translates things into French....so I need to work on that. It will be so helpful though to be able to communicate better in the city. Milan is the least english friendly part of Italy, surprisingly.

Ciao Ciao, miss you all!!

Dorby Den! Czech it! Praha installment #3!

So this last post on my trip to Prague is a few days late....

but I eventually met up with Caitlin and her friend, Kate, and we had an awesome full day! We walked the Charles Street Bridge early in the morning before it was crowded with tourists and it was still really foggy out which made it a most picturesque sight! Next we wandered more crazy beautiful streets (it's so so clean and every building has such unique architecture) and then we went to Prague Castle! We also went inside the cathedral behind the castle which had some of the most vividly colored stained glass I have seen so far in Europe (Bohemia after all is famous for it's colored class and Bohemian crystal). After touring the Castle and such we ate lunch at this cute little Czech restaurant and asked the waitress for the most authentic Czech cuisine they had. So basically the traditional Czech meal is Pork soaked in some sort of wine sauce with dumplings and this stuff that's sort of like sour kraut.

After that we found another one of Prague's incredible parks with sweeping views. We hiked up a hill with winding stone paths covered with autumn leaves until we reached a tower at the top. Up here there is the 'Hungry Wall' and a mirror maze that we went into.

Later in the day we explored more of the other park that I went to on my first day in Prague, then we went on the bridge some more and heard some live music, and went to this really neat Czech market. We walked around late into the night, enjoying the sights, sounds, smells of this incredible city! Oh and we had free glasses of wine that night which was quite enjoyable and was a relaxing way to top off an exhausting day.

The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast at the hostel and checked out, then did a tour of the Jewish quarters of the city and it was amazing. We bought tickets that allowed us to enter different synagogues and the Jewish cemetery which was one of my favorite things that I saw here. The graves were a jumped chaotic mess of stones covered with ivy and moss in a tree covered area in the middle of the Jewish quarters surrounded by high ivy-covered walls. It was a beautifully sad sight and very moving.

The Jewish Quarter was the final thing I got to see in Prague because it was then time for me to depart from Caitlin and Kate and catch my flight and return to Milan.

So I'm back in Milan now and I had classes earlier today, and I am already thinking about the adventures planned for the weeks ahead! To give you guys a heads up.....expect blogs in the future on my adventures in Croatia and Serbia, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Denmark and Sweden. Ahhh crazy. Travels every weekend! I will return to the States a changed person for sure and this has truly been the experience of a lifetime!

ciao my friends! I miss you all!

Czech it again! Praha installment 2!

Hello again from Prague! SO much has happened already today and it's only just past 3 in the afternoon here!

So last night I walked the city streets of Prague which are gorgeously lit up. I had a conversation with a Czech girl who work at a Starbucks here (yes, even here). I asked if she was from the States because she had a perfect American accent but she informed me that she was native to Praha but she had lived in Oregon for a short time and learned English. She got all excited when I told her I go to school in the Northwest and that I was from California. She said she'd kill to switch places with my life! I told her I'd gladly switch because I find Prague absolutely captivating and she didn't understand how. We come from such different worlds yet we both want to find some distant far off place to belong to--there's always some place we'd rather be no matter where we are from.

In the morning I met up with Caitlin and her friend, Kate, who is studying along with her in Hungary! We've had a jam packed day so far filled with more beautiful park sights, some cool Jewish Synagogues, and Prague Castle! I will fill in the details later....because my friends are waiting on me.....so another installment is to come!

peace from Praha!

Czech it out!! Praha installment #1

Greetings from Praha! The beautiful city of Prague, the capitol of the Czech Republic!

Holy cow. This city is extraordinary, magical, stunning! No wonder it's known as "the gem of Eastern Europe." At every corner, every street, every bridge, or every park bench, there is something unique and aesthetically pleasing to the eye in this city. The architecture is other-worldly. The canals, the parks, the monuments.....I could go on and on raving about the beauty of this place!

I think I'm truly becoming an adult as weird as that sounds (I know you're all thinking, "yeah right Dani...we know how you really are"). But no really! I booked this flight all by myself, took my bus to Cadorna Station in Milan, took the Malpensa express, changed planes in Zurich, took a bus from the Prague airport to a metro station, took the metro to the city center, then navigated my way to the hostel where I am staying tonight, and I explored the city all day today. An d I did it all BY MYSELF. And I felt totally natural doing it. I'm a little proud of this as you can tell. But tomorrow morning I'm meeting my wonderful friend from back home, Caitlin, who's studying in Budapest, and we will explore Prague more together (though it can be cool to explore solo, it's always more fun with good company!).

My favorite part of my first day in Prague was wandering in one of it's majestic parks. I crossed a canal bridge, not the famous Charles Street Bridge (I went there later), but one of Prague's many bridges to this park that's located on a hilltop. From this park are scenic panorama views of the city (the vantage points where most popular postcard photos of Prague are taken from). Since autumn is in full force here, my personally favorite season, the park just blew me away. My camera photos do not do it justice. The trees where all yellow, orange, and red, the grass a lush green, and it was that time in the afternoon when the sun is beginning to set and is casting shadows on the ground. Fall leaves where on the ground everywhere (reminding me of the fall on the beautiful Whitworth campus). The ground was damp and that fresh scent of clean air and crispness was everywhere.People were leisurely walking dogs or sitting on park benches. The park has many winding pathways that all have sweeping views of the city, the river with the great canals. It was simply to die for and it was a much needed change from the mugginess and grime of Milan.

After exploring the park, I walked across the Charles Street Bridge, walked back, saw the city center and Old Town, and eventually after much walking, I took a break at a coffee shop after purchasing a really neat Prague postcard that I'm sending to my family.

Some friends that I had met up with at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, are studying in Prague (but they are traveling this weekend so I was unable to meet up with them) warned me about Czech people. They are very quiet and soft spoken, very casually dressed (a nice change from the pretentiousness of Milanese fashion), and well, a little bit cold. I don't mean to say that they're flat out rude or anything, but let's just say I was warned. And yes, I encountered some very rude people today, startlingly rude actually, but a few people seemed genuinely friendly as well. So I guess it's hard to categorize the friendliness of an entire country. One street artist czech woman I met was very nice along the Charles Street Bridge and I bought a piece of art from her (the Charles Street Bridge has lot's of cheap, good street art).

The hostel I'm at is very nice and located right in central Old Town Square. Not bad. I'm waking up very early tomorrow to meet Caitlin and though I'm sure she'll be exhausted, we're going to have a very full day. We'll probably see the park (again for me, but I don't mind at all), walk the bridge, see Old Town, and hopefully some sweet looking cathedrals and Prague Castle!

My second Praha installment is in the making....so until then, ciao ciao!

Bonjour Nice et Monaco!

So on the eve of my 21st birthday, my roommates and I went to our favorite restaurant around the block from our appartement. The restaurant owner who is always there (in Italy, if you own a restaurant, the restaurant owns your life) has become our neighborhood friend. He gave us tons of free food and free drinks for the special night. We then looked up train ticket prices and decided to go to the south of France which is only a wonderful 27 euro for a five hour train ride. Not bad at all. We packed that evening, slept only a couple hours, then woke up early to get to Stazione Centrale. The ride there was great--we watched the Mediterranean out of the window. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the air was clean and fresh along the Italian coastline in the province of Liguria--a drastic contrast from muggy, polluted, congested Milano.

Once in Nice, or Nizza as the Italians call it, I felt so much more at home in regard to language. Since I've taken five or so years of French, I felt more confident navigating the city since I could actually read the signs and communicate more effectively. Even though we were only in France three days, I felt as if my French language skills got better in that short mount of time, and I was able to recall words that I haven't used in a really long time (it's been 2 or 3 years since I've taken French).

Nice is a beautiful city! It felt so much more quaint and friendly than Milano and the people seemed more casual in this touristy beach town. We stayed at an awesome little hostel where we made friends with our hostel roommates. There was Sarah who was a 27 year old elementary school teacher from Switzerland who was on break and traveling teh Cote D'Azur, South of France, by herself. There was also Salpin, a 34 year old from Hamburg Germany, though she is Turkish by heritage. Salpin ended hanging out with us in the city of Nice and in Monaco for the weekend and she was tons of fun to have along. She too was on vacation and traveling by herself and we had lots of great discussions with her. We talked about everything from European and American politics to veganism and vegetarianism (she herself is vegan). One night we went to an organic gorchery store, bought some pasta, sauce, bread and vegetables and brought it all back to the hostel and cooked ourselves a meal in the hostel kitchen. I loved the kitchen at the hostel! There were so many people, both young and old, cooking and sharing meals together and all sharing leftovers and talking in different languages. We also met Claudia at breakfast one morning--a young Brazilian girl who has spent the last couple of years living in Ireland and now she is moving to Dubai. She's moving to Dubai to learn Arabic and to overcome any stereotypes she holds, or so she told us. She was extremely kind and I admired all of these women we met while in France who are living independently, traveling alone just because they want to. There was something so free-spirited about these women and there were things I greatly admired in all of them and learned from their lives. So basically, I really live the vibes that hostels have goin' on!

While in Nice, we climbed to the top of this hill where there was a park with a waterfall, some ruins, playgrounds, a Jewish cemetary, and breathtaking views of the city and sea from all angles. That day we also hung out at the beach (despite the fact that we were inappropriately dressed and not wearing beach attire of any sort) and relaxed as we watched the gentle waves of the bluest water I've ever seen. We wandered some of the city streets, ate delicious French crepes with nutella, and looked at some cool street art and used books in an outdoor market. Later on that evening, we went to this place called Le Six. We spotted this place during the day, and there was a sign saying it was a musical pub so we thought we'd check it out. Well as it turns out, Le Six is not so much a musical pub or piano bar as we were expected, rather it was a very contemporary erotic gay bar. Oops. So we left and walked along the seaside where there was some live music playing. There were these really old drunk guys dancing like maniacs to the music and my roommates Tara danced with them as we watched and laughed heartily. By then we were very tired, went back to the hostel and crashed. The next day we had breakfast then took a very crowded bus ride with beautiful views of teh coastline to the Kingdom of Monaco. Monaco is technically under its own juristiction, it's not a part of France and it has its own ruling Monarchy. So we visited the famous Palace on the hilltop with more incredible views of the sea from this little park and botanical garden. Later we grabbed some lunch accross from the docks where all the multi-million dollar yachts are parked, then went to the train station and rode home. The train ride was pretty legit (we had our own box all to ourselves where we could fold the seats down into beds and close the curtains).

Overall my time in France was very relaxing and refreshing--we didn't want to come back to Milano and go to class the next day. Next week I'm going to Prague which is exciting--it's one of the places in Europe that I'm actually most excited to explore. Even though I'm just about flat broke, I feel so incredibly blessed to have these opportunities to travel!

c'est la vie!

ciao!

21!

Hello all!

So I am officially 21 years old! woohoo! It's bizzare to be celebrating a birthday here...especially when I am already old enough to drink here in Europe!

After class I am going out to dinner with the roommates to a restaurant around the block where the owner has become our friend. Afterwards, there's a birthday party going down at another friend's appartment....then this weekend....hopefully we'll be headed to France! Celebration!


Ciao Ciao! I will write of the birthday/weekend adventures next time!

Munich, Deutschland & Oktoberfest

Guten Tag!

WOW. What crazy times I've had in Munich, Germany.

To begin the adventure, I had to wake up in my appartement here in Milan at 5:00 am, catch the 6:00 am bus, ride to Cadorna Station where I rode the Malpensa Express train to the Malpensa airport (whcih takes 40 minutes) then got on my plane, changed planes in Zurich, Switzerland, then arrived in Munich where I took the S Bauh 8 to Ostbanhof Station, got lost and couldn't find my roommates, and then just took a taxi to the address of the appartment we were crashing at, found the roommates, then ate some darn good German food. Crazy. My life here is mostly all about transportation it seems.

So to backtrack a bit, the scene from my airplane window seat going into Zurich was incredible. I took a Swiss International flight there (which was awesome by the way because they give you a big bar of Swiss chocolate on every flight). The plane flew surprisingly low and it was completely clear so I had a perfect view of the captivating Italian and Swiss Alps! I've never in my life seen such a majestic sight! I really really want to take a trip to Switzerland now and spend some time there--and the city of Zurich looks so peaceful and green with beautiful countryside. I miss being around mountains so much since being at Tall Timber last summer--and the Alps look like killer mountains, blowing away the Cascades! It's amazing!

The city of Munich also surprised me. I didn't realize how green and lush Germany was. Munich almost felt like a European version of Seattle--the weather was very similar and also, it's an incredibly environmentally conscious community with biofriendly grochery stores and all. There was a mix of modern, sleek buildings, usually made of glass, and the beautiful old architecture of course. They refer to Munich as the "village of one million people" meaning that even though the city is large, it's a close-knit community in many ways. The people I met in Germany were incredibly friendly and it's a very English-friendly place. Some Germans explained to me that all Germans have to have a lot of english education and that they think it's very important (they also told me that they look town on other countries that don't emphasize english, such as the French who they told me tend to be isolationists).

The Munich metro system consists of the S Baun and the U Baun and they are fantastic! Once you get a hang of the German names of stops and stuff it's quite simple to use and it's very clean to ride. By the end of my five days there I was an expert.

The first day in Munich after meeting up with my roommates, we ate some delicious German cuisine at this restaurant owned by this really sweet German lady. The appartment we stayed at belonged to this guy, Ali, who is friends with Felix, a boy that once stayed at my roommate's house and who she has stayed in contact with. The boys were both once students at UC Berkeley and were super nice and fun to hang out with!

The next day we woke up and headed for Oktoberfest. Holy crap, Oktoberfest. It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen/experienced. It looks like a big giant German carnival--there are rides, neon lights, horse drawn carriages, and brawtworth stands and lederhosen everywhere. And of course, all the beer! There are enormous tents lining the streets that you wait possibly hours to get into--inside the tents are where you fight for a table (if you don't already have a reservation that you've made months in advance and paid rediculous amounts for) and only then are you albe to order your enormous stein of beer (which holds enough liquid equivilent to about 5 very alcoholic American beers) and it costs 8.50 euro. We got into the Paulaner tent (each tent is a different brand of German beer) and it was a good tent to be in since there were mostly authentic Germans and it wasn't overrun with tourists. The sight in the tent is almost unbeleiveable. People start drinking at like, 9 am and the fest doesn't end until 11:00 pm....and people just keep drinking more and more and the crowds get rowdier and rowdier. Oktoberfest is hundreds of thousands of drunk people in one area, literally. Nothing ever would happen like this in the States because of all the liabilities I'm sure. In the evening I saw tons of cops and people passing out and on stretchers needing medical attention which was frightening--but when you think about it, an event where 6 million people come to drink in tents all day long and not drink hardly any water and eat only salty German pretzels....there's bound to be problems. There's also live music in the tents complete with fun and festive German drinking songs that we didn't really know the words to. But for some reason, the Germans are OBSESSED with the beggining bass line of the White Stripe's song "Seven Naiton Army" and it was sung by the drunken crowds about once every hour. So weird. But basically Europe seems to be ten years behind the States in music. My roommates and I bought and wore drindls to get in the Oktoberfest spirit which was fun. Everywhere you look there are women wearing them in all colors and men and boys in their lederhosen. Love it.

After my roommates left Munich for Frankfurt, I was to meet up with Sarah Mier and Sarah Baresh, friends of mine I knew in high school, along with two of Sarah Baresh's roommates studying with her in Prague, Jill and Holly, and Srah Mier's friend from UCLA, Renee, who is studying in Florence. Before meeting up with them at the hotel we reserved I wandered the streets of Munich on my own for a while and saw the sights. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and took lots of pictures of the amazing buildings, beautiful parks, and German cathedrals, including the beautiful Glokenspiel of Munich. I eventually meet up with the girls at the hotel (all six of us were staying in one room with one bed to save precious euros which made for an adventure with plenty of cuddling in the night). With this group I spent two more days at Oktoberfest and by the end I was pretty Oktoberfested out. One day is tiring enough....yeah I was at the fest for three. Hardcore, I know. But there are many stories to tell.

I met all kinds of interesting people at both Oktoberfest and in Munich in general. We talked to lots of Germans of course, Austrians, Irish, English, Italian, French, Swiss people and a New Zealander. I've really enjoyed having discussions with Europeans about what they think of America (most of the time they say they think America is a great place and that Americans in general are unfairly stereotyped). Also, Europeans in general know A LOT about American politics and keep up regularly with what's going on with current election news. The Germans loved us when we told them we were American, but they loved us even more when we said we were from California (the men, mostly). And I got many curious questions when I told them I was from San Francisco regarding the homosexual population. Oh sterotypes, no surprise there.

In summary, Oktoberfest lives up to it's infamy times ten--it's one of the craziest festivals in the world, I'm sure of it. And of what I've seen of Germany so far, I love it! And I love what I've seen of its people and really want to go back and see more while I'm over here!

There are many more stories that I have about the fest and Munich, but it's too much to really contain in a blog. And some are just better shared in person so ask me later.

Now I'm back in Milano and I started classes today (finally). It's so weird that I haven't had class in so long so it feels good to get back into some sort of routine. I had Art History of the Renaissance focusing on Leonardo Da Vinci this morning and I think it's going to be more challenging than I had anticipated--but so far it seems awesome. We have field studies where we go visit sites in Milan that Leonardo made or took part in (including of course, The Last Supper). Leonardo is a big aspect of Milanese history, so it's cool that I get to take a class on him right here in Milan. I also had a literature class that is a comparative course on British Lit and Italian Lit that incorporates lots of history, poetry, film studies, etc. (basically it's a lot of Dante versus Chaucer) and it seems like a good class too. Tomorrow I have Masterpieces of Italian Literature in Translation, and later in October I begin my Italian language course (which is long overdue becasue I still can't speak Italian which has proven VERY difficult while living in Milano). With classes and homework and such during the week, I also am trying to plan my weekends which will mostly consist of traveling, traveling, and oh yes, traveling. I hope to go to either Switzerland or France to visit a Whitworth friend next weekend, and then after that I'm going to Prague!

It also happens to be my 21st birthday this thursday, October 2nd. So that's weird. I feel super old.

Ciao ciao my friends/family! You are all wonderful and I miss everyone A LOT.

L'oggi era un buono giorno! Bravo!

Ciao!

So I woke up this morning, thinking to myself, today might potentially be yet another stressful day in Milano. I needed to register for classes (which has been a frustrating and disorganized mess with the Cattolica, my University) and I needed to pick up my ATM card (for Milanese public transit) which could involve hours and hours of waiting in lines and language issues. Also, since I don't officially start classes until next week (most people are taking a pre-intensive Italian class and I am not, so my classes haven't started yet) it's been a little awkward having so much idle time. So I've been filling my time with exploring the city of Milan and traveling (I leave for Munich on Wednesday) and my roommates are already in Germany so I've had the appartment all to myself for a couple of days. With all this said, I wasn't expecting today to be as good as it was--but it was a great day in Milano.

First off, it was a clear and crisp autumn day which is a precious thing in Milan since most of the time it's overcast and hazy. I took the 57 bus as usual to Cadorna station in order to retrieve the precious ATM pass. This pass allows me to use all metro lines, buses, and trains in the city by swiping one single card, instead of constantly having to go into Tabacchi stores to buy one for one euro. It's a student pass which I had to fill out tons of paperwork in Italian for two weeks ago. It costs 17 euro to renew every month but it's totally worth it. The whole process has been a little agonizing. Today I went to pick it up and had to wait for about an hour and a half in a crampt and chaotic room down where the underground metro is and patiently wait for my number to be called. I showed thme the reciept and my card was given to me and I felt a great sense of acheivement. Seriously, I walked out of that station with such pride--I feel like I'm actually starting to conquer the ways of this chaotic city.

So there was an extra spring in my step as I strolled down Via Carducci, my victory lap as I approached the University where my next potentially stressful endevour awaited me. Registration for classes and looking at class scheduling and time tables as well as the communication wiht the university has been absolute hell. So I was extremely relieved when I entered Lea's office (the coordinator for ISEP/IES students) and she went over my classes with me and registered me for all the ones that I needed to get in to. Wonderful!

So after that success of the day, I thought I'd go to park. And just to make my day even better, Devin, an American friend in my program that I've made here joined me. We strolled through Sempione park which is a beautiful oasis in the middle of Milanese craziness. Autumn is in full swing all of a sudden here and all the leaves are turning color. We sat under some trees, talked about life in Italy thus far and all the weird cultural subtlties we're discovering that make us similar and different to Italians. This park in particular is sort of Milan's version of Central Park. There's always events going on in various places, concerts or currently, an international film festival that sets up huge movie screens every evening. Elderly people, families with young children, and couples, business people, students, are always meandering the park pathways. There's benches for people watching everywhere and gelato/pannini stands too. Little kids may be kicking around a soccer ball, people are reading in the grass, people are jogging, or there's couples expressing way too much PDA in the grass. At the end of Parco Sempione nearest the Duomo there is an old castle called Castello Sforzesco that's really cool with a big courtyard that's always open to the public and there's a big fountain in front of it for more people watching.

After an afternoon at the Park, Devin and her roommate, Rita, joined my at my appartment and we went to a restaurant around the corner from my place for cocktails. I have been to this restaurant a couple of times and the owner is the coolest ever! He is so nice and gives us lots of free things and discounts every time I'm there and he's so incredibly hospitable. He knows that my roommates and I are new to the neighborhood and don't know our way around so he gave us his number and says that if we ever need anything at all that we can ask him. The restaurant seems to be popular with the locals and it's such a hole-in-the wall little place, you would never assume the food was so good and the service so friendly. So I think this restaurant is officially "our place". It's quirky, the owner is always giving out free bruchetta and free little candies or big bowls of popcorn. And there's alwasys funny American R&B or Hip-Hop music playing. Anyways, my 21st birthday is next week (ugh, I'm so old!) and the owner said he'd buy me a drink.

Overall, it was a very pleasant day in Milan, probably one of my best yet despite how ordinary it may have seemed to most people. In my experience so far, I've learned to find great pleasure in the little things, taking it one day at a time, and noticing all the little details that make this a true cultural immersion. I find joy in little victories like getting a transportation pass that I've stressed over or having a conversation at a cafe with an old Italian man about politics in America. It's all in these little everyday things that I'm learning so much. I know I will return to the States a changed person, and that navigating any city in the States will be a piece of cake compared to Italy! No language barrier, no problem!

Very early Wednesday morning I leave for Oktoberfest in Munich and I am so pumped! I change planes in Zurich, Switzerland, then I will meet my roommates in Munich, Germany and join the beer festivities in all its glory!

Until next time...ciao ciao!

Firenze

I just got back yesterday from wonderful couple of days in Florence! It was my second time visiting this beautiful city and I would go again--it's no wonder it is considered one of the best cities in all of Europe!

Me and my roommates, Tara and Nancy, have not been too savvy when in comes to trains. On the way to Florence, we accidently sat in first class and were kicked out. On the way back from Florence, we ran to the station in the cobble stone streets in our italian boots thinking we were going to be late, but instead we got on an earlier train to Milan which was not the train we purchased our tickets for. oops. So we sat next to the bathrooms between traincars with all our backpacking stuff and had to get off in Bologna, wait an hour, and get on the correct train to Milan. We found humor in our dejectedness and shame as we sat on the train with no actual seats--all a part of the adventure!

While in Florence we walked everywhere and crashed on the floor of an appartment of some other students studying there. We enjoyed red wine and a home-cooked meal at the appartment, shopping and barganing in the markets, and viewing the statue David. It was my second time seeing the David (lucky me!) and still, it was awe-inspiring!

Another highlight of our time spent in Florence, we found an edgy little hair salon and decided to get chic Italian haircuts. I chopped a lot of my hair off which I've been wanted to do since last semester but never had the guts to do it. I figured short hair would be easier for traveling and fun to do while here in Italy.

We arrived back in Milan in the evening and still had to ride the metro to Cadorna Station then take our 57 bus for 40 minutes or so to where our appartment is located. We do not have an ideal commute to say the least. Today we woke up, tried to figure out how to register for classes (which has been a very frustrating process with our university), got some lunch, and I saw Tara and Nancy off as they took the bus to stay in a hostel for the evening to wake up early and fly to Munich. On Wednesday I will be meeting them in Munich (I have to take the bus at 6am, then take a train to the airport, then change planes in Zurich, Switzerland, then I get to Munich). We are staying with a friend of a friend in Munich then I will be meeting up with two friends I knew in highschool, one is studying in Germany, the other in Prague, and we will partake in Oktoberfest celebrations until Sunday when I fly back to Milan and start classes on Monday. Huzzah!

My time here so far has been great but also strange and irregular. Since I haven't started classes yet and I'm not in a routine, I haven't found my life's rhythm like I typically do at Whitworth. Things will be crazy with having to commute in the city to class everyday and then planning traveling/backpacking expeditions for the weekends. For now I feel somewhat displaced and disconnected being so far away from the family and friends that I miss so much, but I just have to brace myself, embrace the adventure, and look forward to the day when I can be home again as a more experienced, independent, and traveled individual. I'm sure the big adventure will be all over before Ieven know it.

Ciao ciao from Milano!

My City Life

Today I felt.....independent.

I woke up in my appartment alone (my roommates were in Cinque Terre visiting a friend for the day). I got dressed, grabbed nutella on toast for breakfast, then walked around the block to wait at the bus stop for the 57 Cordona, the bus I take to town everyday. I got on the bus, held on tighly as the driver squeezed around busy Milanese streetcorners, ignoring all caution. I walked all over the city, running errands, taking pictures, enjoying the sights and sounds. I had lunch at the University cafeteria (which is very good by the way). In a way it's like Saga, students do the Saga stare, tray in hand, but the food is incredible. There is always a heaping pile of fresh pasta, roasted peppers, spinach, cheeses, yogurt, an assortment of fruits.

After lunch I went shopping in the city. I had to pick up a backpack and few other things. During the afternoon as I was strolling through the Piazza del Duomo, Milanos central Piazza, this Italian man who I would say was thirty-something, came out of no where and struck up a conversation with me. His english wasn't very good and I don't speak Italian except for a few words. At first I thought, ok what does this guy want from me. He asked me about where I'm from and we talked in short simple sentances about San Francisco. He asked what I was studying at the University, and when I say "english" people get confused, and I don't knwo the italian word for literature, so he didn't know what I was talking about at all. He told me all about Milanese weather in the fall and winter and that he works 8 hours a day. I started to get anxious and wanted to come up with an excuse to leave when he started asking me about where my appartment was in the city. So I headed towards the metro as he followed me, and I took in a sigh of relief when I noticed he wasn't going to follow me down the steps. As we parted ways, I said, "it was nice to meet you, Guiseppe" and went in for the handshake. Instead, he ignored the handshake a laid a big wet one on the face. It was gross. But funny. I think all he wanted to do was kiss an American girl.

I took the metro to Cadorna station, then waited for the 57 bus going in the opposite direction, then got on, Radiohead in my ipod. I got back to the appartment exhausted from all the day's walking. Next, it was time to go to the local grochery store just around the block from my appartment. I love the wway italians do supermarkets. They are small, but they have everything you need. And everyone seems to know each other there. I even like the way the italians package their fruit, cheeses, and slices of meat. I thought I was racking up quite a bill, piling my basket high, but it came out to only be 17 euro. I purchased the following: a package of sliced swiss cheese, mozzarella balls and 6 tomatoes for a caprese salad, a package of lettuce and mixed greens, a bottle of basalmic vinegar, Ace juice (orange, carrot, and lemon flavored juice that's really good), apricot yogurt, some toasted bread things for nutella, foccacia bread, and frozen spinach and cheese filled fried thingys. Not bad.

It's so bizzare that my first experiences of truly living independently in the city are not even happening in my own country! At the store people would ask me things in Italian and I felt so bad and so stupid just starign back blankly. I was told I look very Italian today...but I'm sure if they watch my actions more closely they would see I have no idea what I'm doing! It's in the little things like hesitating to pick up your grocheries after purchasing them because you're waiting for them to be bagged, then in a split second you realize, "wait, gropcheries are bagged in America. Here, you bag them yourself and you probably only get one bag to do it."

Now my fridge is stocked, my packages are stowed away, there's laundry drying and I'm meeting some friends for evening entertainment. What a life.

Ciao!

Tentative Travel Thoughts

Wednesday September 24th fly to Munich (or to Frankfurt and take the train to Munich) for OCTOBERFEST with Sarah & Sarah. Return on the 28th.

September 29th, CLASSES BEGIN.

October 2nd. MY 21ST BIRTHDAY. Devin & Calli come to visit from the UK?

October 10th to 12th, three day weekend. Visit Caitlin in Budapest or meet up in Prague?

Visit Annie in Grenoble soemtime????

November 8th to 10th, three day weekend and midterms over. Anyone want to go to Amsterdam?

December 6th to 7th/8th, meet Caitlin in Paris.

December 20th FLY HOME.

These are some tentative plans, people let me know what works, what doesn't work, additional ideas, etc.

Other possible desired destinations: Berlin, Switzerland/Austria, Bratislava, Spain???

Ciao Milano!

Whoa, hold the phone, it's been a crazy long time since I've updated the ol' blog. My sincere apologies, it's just been so so crazy lately! So since I last posted I have done the following in a nutshell: been to Rome (saw the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, etc), been to Naples (sick nasty) in order to get to Pompei and the beautiful island of Capri (saw the blue grotto, the bluest water in the world), and moved in to my appartment in Milano. The past weeks have been filled with excitment, apprehension, frustration, homesickness, lonliness, fun, learning, growing, discovering....a whole mixture of emotions.

A few highlights:

On the train to Rome, my mom's camera with 600 photos was stolen which sucked a lot. Pickpocketing is a favorite pastime here in italy.

I moved into my appartment in Milan which is decent enough--kind of in a sketch area and I have a half hour bus ride commute to get to campus. I live with three other American girls and so far we're having a good time trying to figure out life here together.

I had orientation at school. In the States, orientation for school is an organized ordeal that involves paperwork, instructions, that kind of stuff. Here in Italy, orientation involves chaos and chaos management. Point A sends you to point B who sends you to point C who sends you back to point A who then gets angry and yells at you in Italian. People do not wait in lines. Pedestrians do not have any sort of right-of-way. You fill out lots and lots of paperwork in Italian that is confusing and excessive. You apply for bus/metro passes that you pick up in 10 days....or 2 weeks....or...who knows. People take long lunch breaks and longer siestas. Everything closes down on Sundays. Politics are extremely corrupt and nobody likes the president. Taxis drivers may charge you 25 euro for a one minute taxi ride. People love soccer. And fancy things Italians love bad American music--they blast it at the nightclubs. They are obsessed with designers to the point that it's sickening. Some are very warm and friendly, some stuck up and rude. A lot of them tell me it's there dream to come to America. Italy is a lot of things, but if you try to make any sense of it when you're here, you will utterly fail.

After traveling throughout the various cities and towns of Italy, I have come to the conclusion that all its places are distinctly Italian, yet distinctly something in of themselves. For example, a man in Capri told me "Why are you studying in Milano!?! That is not the real Italy!" A Sicilian here in the north told me the south and the north are different worlds, but he prefers it up here....there is more economic opportunity. Milan is industrious, modern, cold and cloudy most of the time. Rome is ancient, hot and humid, slower paced. Capri feels like a tropical paradise where as Naples on a nearby shore is a hell hole--the crime and chaos is so overwhelming, the scene from the hectic streets is both appalling and mesmerizing. Florence is smaller, cultured, and contains fabulous art. Venice has a style that is distinctly its own, but it feels like a cultural disneyland when rundown with tourists. Tuscany and Cinque Terre are blissful, quaint, relaxing, more like the Italy I have always imagined. Overall, Italy is not as glamorous as I think most Americans perceive it to be--it's just like any other place really in some ways. But then sometimes I change my mind and think this place is on another planet. I came to Europe thinking I would hate America and be more critical of it than I already am, but I don't think I will be. I am learning to appreciate how America is orderly. Yes, it's ridgid at times and beaurocracy sucks but at least there's order, things somewhat make sense (maybe only because that is the culture I know best). But still, as controling as America can be, there are a lot of advantages.

I've had some great conversations with international students here. I've met people from France, Germany, Belgum, Sweden, Austrailia, Chile, Argentina, Korea, Japan, Portugal, and a whole lot more that I can't think of right now. I've enjoyed discussing cultures and politics, differences and similarities. Being a foreigner is humbling and talking with students my age from other countries is enlightening, broadening my worldview. I know my experience here is going to be one of the most challenging, eye-opening, and maturing of my life. I feel ten times more independent of a human being than I was when I got on the plane in San Francisco. Figuring out how to navigate the city of Milan has proved very challenging and everything here is expensive. Someone told me Milan is ranked as the fifth most expensive city in the world. Yikes.

As for travel plans....I am going to Octoberfest in Munich, Germany the last weekend in September! Yes! My birthday is October 2nd....I turn 21 here in Europe. I am going to Paris to meet a friend the first weekend of december, and I also want to visit the same friend in Budapest, Hungary as well as meeting up in Prague, Czech Republic. On my list of travels is also Monaco and Cannes, France, Amsterdam, Netherlands.....I wish I could go back to London but I may have to save that for another trip.

I'm still waiting on pictures. While traveling around Italy, my mom and brother took all the pictures so they need to send them too me. Until then, you just have to trust that I'm telling the truth!

Ciao Ciao my friends! Love from Milano!

Venice, Florence, Pisa, & Siena

Wow....a LOT has happened since Milan.

Sorry, friends, no pictures yet. I left a cord back in the luggage I am storing at the train station in Milan, so I have not been able to put any on the laptop yet, but they are coming!

Also, my facebook is having issues (the italian computers that I am using in hotels are also having issues) so it may be a while until I can contact any of you via facebook, thank you for all the messages!

Currently we are in Siena, and it is a GREAT city! So pretty! Sadly I spent 4 hours in the Siena hospital today (the pneumonia came back). It was an interesting experience to say the least. I got a prescription for antibiotics but the pharmacies were all closed so I will get the meds tomorrow. One nice perk, italy has universal health care and forigners do not pay for anything when they go into emergency. That was nice.

Anyways, besides sickness, Italy is incredible. Every city we have seen has so much character and are so distinctly different from each other yet they all contain what feels like the essence of Italian-ness. Venice was so so beautiful--every building has character--but I would not want to study abroad there only because it is so overrun by tourists and feels sort of like a cultural Disneyland. In Florence we went to two amazing museums (I cannot recall the names but I kept the ticket stubs, I was feeling very sick at the time so forgive me for memory lapse). We saw the David, Birth of the Madonna, huge collections of priceless artwork. We took a daytrip from Florence to go see Pisa which is a pretty small town. The leaning tower is indeed, quite leaning. The Duomo in Pisa is a good one, very beautiful. In Siena we saw the hospital for a long long time, but had a lovely dinner in the main sqaure (Piazza Campo). Siena is very hilly and captures medieval italy. It is one of my favorite cities so far. Tomorrow we are wine tasting in Tuscanny and seeing more of Siena, then we leave for crazy Roma! After exploring Rome for 4 days, we will spend a night in Capri, then we will finish off the tour in Cinque Terre (which I am anticipating the most just because EVERYONE tells me it is there favorite part of Italy). I ask for some prayers for my health, that I am fully healed in time for school to start and also that the transition to life in Milan would go smoothly logistics wise and that my roommates are solid people.

Peace & Love to you all! Ciao!

The Start of the Adventure: London & Milano!

Hello my dear friends!! So myself and the family made it safely to Milan. We spent about a day and a half seeing as much of London as we possibly could. London is so beautiful and hectic! It reminds me very much of a bizzare version of San Francisco. Compared to Milan, London does not even feel anything like Europe since with no language barrier, it is very easy to navigate. Our hotel was very central, walking distance from Westminister Abbey. We toured the Abbey (which was incredible and I will never forget it), Parliment\Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Trafalger Square (where they had a big screen showing of the Olympics in China), and we did the London Eye! We walked and walked and walked and very unfortunately, I was still getting over my sickness (mild pneumonia, yes I have pneumonia yet again) so at times it was painful jsut sitting on a conjested Underground train. I could not sleep at all on the flight over and we arrived in London and started our day at 7 in the morning. London is an awesome place and I would definitely consider living there one day is I could ever afford it!

We arrived in Milan late last night and took a crazy taxi ride to our hotel which is also central, very close to the Duomo. I have not formulated my opinion on the city yet--it is different than I expected. I feel very disoriented here and the language barrier is much more difficult that I had anticipated but it has made me very excited to take my Italian language course so that I can communicate effectivly. The Duomo is the most incredible structure I have ever seen. We toured it today and walked up onto the rooftop overlooking the central Palazzo of Milan. Milan is shaped like one giant circle. Old structures and architecture are mixed in with modern urban and industrial architecture which is quite strange. Milan is a city of industry and productivity--it is Italys financial power house and as Rick Steves says, "for every church in Rome, there is a bank in Milan." Milan was heavily bomed during WWII and when Musolinnis facist regime ruled, some of the architecture reflected that. In some parts of the city you sit out in a cafe and it feels as authentically Italian as one can imagine, but in other parts, it is gray and blocky, desolate, feeling as if bombs are going to drop on you at any moment. It is a strangely beautiful place. We ate gelatto three times today and it puts Americanized gelatto to shame! I also tasted Italian pizza, wine, and espresso, today! People here dress impecably though I must admit that I prefer the fashions in London more. A man in front of the Duomo tried to scam my brother and I by grabbing our hands and putting seeds in them, allowing the hundreds of piedgons to bombard us. The man kept telling us to take a photo so after we took the picture he said we had to pay up. We kept telling him no and he followed us for quite some time with persistence. Eventually we shook him off but we have learned to avoid tourist tricks! My mother is really terrible at talking with forigners! Joe, my brother, has an excellent sense of direction and I am impressed at his ability to navigate the metro. As for me, I am a slow learner but I know I will get the hang of it.
We also went to where my appartment is located today. Unfortunately, I have to transfer on two cable buses (which is very similar to the MUNI system in San Francisco) and take the metro, so it will take about 40 minutes just to get to campus every day which is pretty lame. But the campus is incredible and the streets surrounding it are fabulous. The campus is right at St. Abrose Basilica.

Right now I am feeling good but I am disoriented, sleep deprived, and somewhat apprehensive about the upcoming semester. I am worried about the commute and getting lost when I am here alone in the city, but most of all I am nervous about connecting with a community of students. I hope that my roommates are international exchange students like me and that they are friendly, adventurous with a desire to travel around Europe like me! I have no idea where to buy grocheries, or even what shampoo is in Italian. oh god. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought. I am humbled being a foriegner.

Tomororw we take the train to Venice and the vacation continues. I wonder what cultural mistakes and blunders we will make and what interesting and exciting things we will encounter!

I already miss you all very much! To my future hosuemates at Whitworth--I hope the move-in goes well! Please keep me updated with Whitworth happenings! To my friends abroad--good luck with everything and I hope to visit some of you (except you guys in Uganda, I hope all is well!)To my camp friends--I miss you all and I miss the quiet wilderness in the midst of this bustling city. And to the rest of you, I hope you are all well and expect postcards (eventually).

Ciao!