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!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
I'm Leavin' On A Jet Plane!
This is officially my last day on U.S. soil for 17 weeks!!! I'm putting the finishing touches on packing and such, but I still won't believe that I'm actually leaving the country until I step onto the airplane. I'm learning of more and more friends that will also be studying abroad in Europe whcih is exciting--it'd be nice to see a familiar face once in while. I'll have friends in Budapest, Grenoble, Rome, Great Britain, and Germany!
Goodbye, U.S., next time we meet I'll be 21, I'll know more Italian and I'll be a whole lot more travel savvy.
PEACE
Goodbye, U.S., next time we meet I'll be 21, I'll know more Italian and I'll be a whole lot more travel savvy.
PEACE
Thursday, August 14, 2008
6 more days
I arrived back home in hot sunny California on monday and have been sick with a nasty headcold. Hopefully I will be fully recovered by the time I depart for the trip! I've been laying low while home feeling incredibly lazy, but hey, at least I'm watching the olympics so I don't feel too bad about it. I haven't spent much time processing the summer yet. I don't feel like doing anything academic whatsoever so I don't feel like school should be starting up again--which makes everything feel even weirder that I'm not going back to Whitworth for the entire semester. This summer I was surrounded with such a loving and supportive community of great people and now all of a sudden I'm going to be dropped into the middle of a bustling city where I don't know anyone and I don't even know the language--that's a bit scary but also exciting. I'm at the stage now where the packing process must begin and now it's seeming more and more real that I'm actually leaving. I suck at packing so hopefully I can think light! It's crazy how much I'm noticing all around me, whether it's in the media, or architecture, or at stores, restaurants, how much I can see Italian influences in our culture. It's everywhere! And I feel absolutely blessed that I have the opportunity to see the real thing!
So I meant to learn some basic Italian phrases this summer. I didn't have any time so I learned nothign. uh oh. oh well.
So I meant to learn some basic Italian phrases this summer. I didn't have any time so I learned nothign. uh oh. oh well.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Present Moment
I'm almost two weeks away from leaving for Italy! But I am REALLY going to miss camp and living here and growing alongside the wonderful people I work with. I've decided that if it is at all possible I want a career that is mostly relational--not working nine to five behind a desk and a computer. I find complete peace and satisfaction in having mandatory mud pit time as a part of my job description and leading hikes and skipping stones on rivers. I've considered working here at Tall Timber next summer but it's hard to say now--I have no clue where I'll end up or where I'm headed in life and I'm completely content with that.
It seems as though right now I'm at the prime of my life. I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world. I'm currently typing this while looking out the window at one of the most gorgeous sights I know of: the Cascade mountain range and the remoteness of Tall Timber. I'm living here in a community of incredible people who I've gotten to know this summer and love a whole lot. The work here has been a blessing in every way. I love waking up in the morning and walking from my cabin and to the lodge as the sun is rising over the mountains. I love watching kids scream for joy as they're covered head to toe in mud. I love cooking over an open fire on a river and having dirty feet constantly. I love being suspended sixty feet in the trees on a ropes course and helping kids conquer their fears. I love laughing with people until my side aches and the how all my clothes smell after campfires. And just when I thought my summer couldn't be any better, I'm going to be living in Italy for seventeen weeks. What!?! Is this really my life!?! And then when I get back to Whitworth, I'll be living in a house with six incredible friends who I love dearly. And who knows after that. But no matter where I am, my thoughts go out to other places. I'm alwasy wondering what my friends and family are doing in the Bay Area, what friends are doing on the East Coast, in Vancouver BC, in Uganda, India, Spokane, Seattle, Austin, Tacoma, SoCal, Reno, Berkeley, San Francisco, Portland....but I feel so incredibly blessed to have all these amazing people in my life even if they are spread out all accross the world. I wouldn't expect anything less from my friends! Saying goodbye to camp is going to be incredibly hard, but I need to keep reminding myself that my life is going to be one adventure after the next for the next year or so--I should at least embrace it for all it's worth.
Last week after Primary camp myself and five others road tripped to Spokane and it was fantastic all around. It was weird to visit campus knowing I wasn't going to be there for so long, but it was so worthwhile to visit, even just briefly, with people there. We also went to Manito which is beautiful in the summer time and had lunch at camp Spalding (yes we left camp to visit, yes that's right, camp) and it was super fun. Watching Across the Universe while laying on Lizzie's trampoline in her backyard under the stars on a Spokane summer evening was jsut perfect, not to mention the food her parents made for us. Though the drive along highway 2 from Spokane to camp is dull and lame, I immensly enjoyed talking the entire way back with Lizzie and Dan. This is what summer should be all about: being outside and dirty, long conversations, long car rides, and laughter. That's good enough for me.
Next week I am counseling for Senior High camp (so weird, I feel super old) and it should be epic. We have an all-camp square dance, beach day, banquet night, and loads of classic camp good times. Then I fly home and I hope to see as many friends there as I can. A semester is going to be a freaking long time to be away but it'll fly by I'm sure. Everything goes by too fast it seems.
It seems as though right now I'm at the prime of my life. I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world. I'm currently typing this while looking out the window at one of the most gorgeous sights I know of: the Cascade mountain range and the remoteness of Tall Timber. I'm living here in a community of incredible people who I've gotten to know this summer and love a whole lot. The work here has been a blessing in every way. I love waking up in the morning and walking from my cabin and to the lodge as the sun is rising over the mountains. I love watching kids scream for joy as they're covered head to toe in mud. I love cooking over an open fire on a river and having dirty feet constantly. I love being suspended sixty feet in the trees on a ropes course and helping kids conquer their fears. I love laughing with people until my side aches and the how all my clothes smell after campfires. And just when I thought my summer couldn't be any better, I'm going to be living in Italy for seventeen weeks. What!?! Is this really my life!?! And then when I get back to Whitworth, I'll be living in a house with six incredible friends who I love dearly. And who knows after that. But no matter where I am, my thoughts go out to other places. I'm alwasy wondering what my friends and family are doing in the Bay Area, what friends are doing on the East Coast, in Vancouver BC, in Uganda, India, Spokane, Seattle, Austin, Tacoma, SoCal, Reno, Berkeley, San Francisco, Portland....but I feel so incredibly blessed to have all these amazing people in my life even if they are spread out all accross the world. I wouldn't expect anything less from my friends! Saying goodbye to camp is going to be incredibly hard, but I need to keep reminding myself that my life is going to be one adventure after the next for the next year or so--I should at least embrace it for all it's worth.
Last week after Primary camp myself and five others road tripped to Spokane and it was fantastic all around. It was weird to visit campus knowing I wasn't going to be there for so long, but it was so worthwhile to visit, even just briefly, with people there. We also went to Manito which is beautiful in the summer time and had lunch at camp Spalding (yes we left camp to visit, yes that's right, camp) and it was super fun. Watching Across the Universe while laying on Lizzie's trampoline in her backyard under the stars on a Spokane summer evening was jsut perfect, not to mention the food her parents made for us. Though the drive along highway 2 from Spokane to camp is dull and lame, I immensly enjoyed talking the entire way back with Lizzie and Dan. This is what summer should be all about: being outside and dirty, long conversations, long car rides, and laughter. That's good enough for me.
Next week I am counseling for Senior High camp (so weird, I feel super old) and it should be epic. We have an all-camp square dance, beach day, banquet night, and loads of classic camp good times. Then I fly home and I hope to see as many friends there as I can. A semester is going to be a freaking long time to be away but it'll fly by I'm sure. Everything goes by too fast it seems.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Parades & Good Old Fashioned Country Livin'
My second week of working at camp has been completed, junior high adventure camp. The week had its ups and its downs from working in a mosquito infested craft shed during the afternoons, to driving golf carts everywhere, to playing intense games of Can-Can, playing in a mud pit with approximately 60 campers plus staff, and putting on one fabulous impromptu 4th of July parade and making hundreds of " 'MERICA!! " jokes in a single day. A solid week overall. Tiring, but solid. Next week I counsel for Junior camp (3rd to 6th graders) and I'm concerned about my energy levels being on the low side. But regardless, I can't think of a better way to spend my summer that being in the mountains. I star gaze almost every night and it never gets old. Going to Italy seems so far away but in reality it happens in a matter of weeks and I'm afraid I won't have much time to process all that went on and all that I experienced here at camp before I leave for an even bigger adventure. I'm now at the stage where I'm realizing that I am going to be gone from Whitworth and not see Whitworth people for a significantly long time and that it'll be harder on me emotionally than I thought. To quote an Explosions in the Sky album title, "all of a sudden, I miss everyone" --no matter where I am.
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