2 negatives & a pretty big positive

during the last 3 days, i've thought of so many subjects for one blog post, and i simply can't just wait for later days...so here are my thoughts/experiences (hopefully grouped into appropriate categories, under the titles that i had all day to think of while train-riding):

this is not america:
obviously. sometimes it's easy to slip up and forget, just for a few moments. being in the same city for ten days has really made me feel as if i know it pretty well. except on the way back to our apartment tonight, we think we found a quicker way to walk to class. our intense familiarity of siena is probably much to our imagination, but we know basically where we are. with this familiarity comes relaxation, and for good reason. siena is so freaking nice, and i didn't realize it until we left. the crime rate here, well i don't think there is one because there's no crime! i'm not sure if that's possible/true, but it really is quite safe. but today, we had quite the eye-opener.  after an amazing weekend in cinque terre (more on that, for sure), we headed by train (more on that, too) to pisa then to siena. so we're about halfway to pisa (reading, listening to music, dozing off) when 2 girls come walking down the aisle asking for money. at least that's how it looked, not that i knew what it was they were saying. both had a coin in their hand, and those that do that are pretty brazen, coming directly up to you, pretty close, and asking to give. ...this happens in america. maybe not so directly, and not much where i'm from. but i remember being overwhelmed by the number of noticeable homeless people in the city of san fransisco. i was 12, and i thought it was so stupid that they were smoking or drinking while holding up a sign asking for money: you want me to pay for your lung cancer? good one, buddy. well, i also remember my dad's revelation, after a man came up to his driver-side window asking for money...he said 'no.' And then asked 'why?' from then on, i've always thought: who am i to judge? if i give this man a dollar, who am i to quickly write him off, thinking that will automatically go to a fund for some kind of habit. reminding me of the "give a man a fish/teach a man to fish" parable...certainly, i'd like to be ballsy enough to say, "no, but i'll buy you a sandwich." Here it happens so suddenly (and the language barrier is so intimidating) that i've found that giving them some cents and saying a prayer for them works for me. anyway...so we're on the train, these girls approach us, i'm about to reach into my wallet when ashley, a fellow villanovan, exclaims that she took something from her purse (which was tucked between her thighs, unzipped to answer a phone call from her mom). well, that's just unacceptable. so the other 5 of us get defensive, holding onto our belongings and demanding that whatever does not belong to her get returned...well beats me if they knew english. they didn't act like it. the little theif sat in the seat across from me, as if i invited her for a nice chat. i said "basta" (enough) and that she'd better get up. we all did. we were mad. emily and caroline chased both girls through multiple cars, then managed to grab them. they screamed and jumped out the doors of the train as it was coming to a stop. what could we do? these two were at least 4 or 5 years younger - so we'd be these older girls, seeming to get rough with younger girls - not knowing the rules in italy (other than you're guilty until proven innocent) is risky business (especially since we're not citizens here). Hindsight is 20/20. we all wish we could have done something more. i envision myself standing up while they were still picking their noses around us, acting like nothing was wrong. i wish i could have stood up and grabbed her arm. but i did not. what we did do was alert someone, a conductor. she called the station at which the girls jumped off, but that station didn't have police at it, i guess she called another station? We got off at Pisa, expecting to tell the police there....if there were police there. Nope. I guess on sunday they're off, or have other duties at soccer matches or something. ...reminding us again that we're not in america. we were directed to the police around the leaning tower (our destination) ...stationed in a van, these police seemed to be laughing at us & speaking in italian to each other while we spoke to them, eventually directing us to a station 10 minutes away. newsflash, we'll go to siena. i don't think we've been happier to see siena.

miss independent:
that's how i see myself. maybe not when i'm hungry and want something from my mom's recipe box, but i've always enjoyed indepence. 6 years ago i started wearing a watch every minute of the day. when i want to know the time, i can provide myself with the answer. the day i turned 16 i got my permit. exactly 6 months later, i got my liscense so that i could take myself where I wanted, when i wanted to go there. i'm pretty sure this has led to my burning hatred toward public transportation. i've never lived in an area that depended on trains and buses and supbways and taxis (thank goodness). that's just not how i roll. it takes away so much freedom to plan your day/weekend/life around when a train comes and from where, going where and with how many stops in between. why shouldn't i just drive myself there! so obviously, i don't know what i'm doing while traveling in europe, where it's "so easy" to get around - on trains, buses and subways. ugh. so i let it up to the rest of the group. i become the "follower," which rocks my boat a little too much. when i want to solve problems and find answers myself, i've found i'm usually wrong/corrected ... something that grinds my gears even more. this weekend really got me tied in knots - transportation-wise. we took so many freaking trains! haha what platform? what time? to where? with a change in the middle? blaaaah
so in italy, you buy your train ticket at the ticket office in the station. but before you depart, you must cancel your ticket. you stick it in a little box (near the platforms) and it stamps it with a date, time and place. i think it's weird to say that you "cancel" before you actually travel. you buy and cancel within minutes of each other! if you don't and the conductor checks, you pay a hefty fine. we found out the hard way. that's right! we got fined on our first train ride because we weren't familiar with the protocol. at least he only charged us half, making it 20 euros each, instead of 40.

we learned a few important things this weekend. and both of those big things put us on edge for a while afterward, both on trains. now that i've highlighted the most stressful aspects of this weekend...let me introduce the fun!

Cinque Terre - the 5 villages of awesomeness:

pictures don't do it justice. obviously, i took some and they'll be shared, but truly, the depth is no where near the same. along the coast of italy, these 5 little towns host hiking trails - the one we hiked was right on the coast. i'm talking on these intense cliffs, hiiiiigh above the rocks and blue water. and mark my words, we climbed. it was awesome. that word doesn't even describe it. we put some stuff in our hotel room (on the first town: monterosso), then took a train to the next town (vernazza) where we thought we'd meet the rest of our group, but they weren't staying the night so they had a deadline (they started hiking).

so we begin our hike, from vernazza to corniglia. word on the street is that is the hardest part of the hike, and i'll believe it. it was basically all steps, going up! (if that's one thing we've learned in italy...there are always steps and we always have to go up). luckily we met a guy hiking alone from michigan! we were chatting, and he was telling us about his trip so far with his friends, where he's been and where they have yet to go. that distracted me from all the steps. we were hiking for about 40 minutes i think, until we met up with some of the group that was ahead of us! they were the picture-takers.

so we make our way through corniglia and then keep trekking towards manarola. we met up with the entire group eventually, and hiked all together until we parted directions (the train toward siena or back to monterosso). 

before we left manarola, the 5 of us were going to continue on to the last town (riomaggiore)....until we saw people swimming right off of the trail. there was a little inlet where some fishing boats were tied up, a ramp where people had towels for sunbathing, huuuge rocks where people had towels, just to lie there like seals in the sun. WHAT A LIFE! it was too hot and sweaty to pass up this opportunity. quickly, our bookbags, sneakers and socks were off & we were swimming in the mediterranean sea. i swam to some huge rocks where i did my best seal impression, drying under the sun for a while and just resting. i started chatting with an italian (who's name i can't spell, but it sounded like "mee-kell-ay" ...mikele? i don't know)...i asked him if he had ever jumped from some high rocks that i had been watching others jump from. he said no, but then said we should. so i did! haha then amanda, caroline and jenna followed. it was absolutely surreal. i've never wanted to be italian more than i did yesterday afternoon. wearing matt's "italian stallion" t-shirt just isn't cutting it!

more pics later...jenna has the best ones from our swimming!

no carb left behind

seriously, i have not seen an obese person here. so obviously, the "no carb left behind" diet is the way to go. that's the route i've been taking (plus gelato, of course). when we got here, the first legit meals we had were pizza, like 4 times. it was either pizza or a sandwich. i haven't had much pizza since those first few days, but if i were to stop in to a pizzeria before class and pick up a piece, em found a great place that gives you a huuuuge slice and a drink for 2 euros. not bad! i've really only had margharita pizza so far, except for a little appetizer pizza that had hot dog slices on top. i'm not sure if this is available because they like it, or they think that they are appeasing americans. hot dog pizza.

we've blown through 3 loaves of bread in our apartment. breakfast for me, if it's not cereal, is toast with nutella and bananas. i've truly embraced nutella. and i'm not sick of it yet. we've even discovered nutella on apple slices...and nutella gelato. but when i'm not toasting bread for nutella or egg sandwiches, i'm toasting it for tomatoes and cheese! last night i made grilled cheese with mozzerella and tomatos. i can't count the number of "pomodora e mozzerella" sandwiches i've had since i've been here. i mean, i had 2 yesterday!

and of course, our go-to dinner item is pasta. emily made chicken and pesto pasta. we've had some bland sauce. we're trying a different sauce tonight.

pasta, bread, sandwiches, toast, pizza.



...i do miss beef.

dove il lavanderia?

ok so i did laundry last night. the washer is very small. loading through the front, it looks to be about the same size, but it's not very deep. so it wasn't a huge load, but i got underwear, jeans, shorts and a hoodie in there. emily did a load before i did, and to her dismay, there was a huge puddle of water left after the door unlocked. she had to hang her sweatshirt in the shower with a pan sitting underneath to catch all the water. i found a knob (one of many on the front of the machine) that had a spiral on it. i figured that meant spin...so i turned it from no spin to the lowest number (400...), i'm guessing that was emily's problem. so i get my clothes out, and the italian thing to do here is hang it on laundry lines outside the window. it's like a pulley system, so you hang, pull the rope, and hang, then pull the rope, then hang, ya know what i mean? ok so i'm doing my thing. hanging my laundry outside like i'm so cool, so local...when it was hard to pull on the rope. why, you ask? well a pair of shorts that i hung got caught on an electrical wire that is perpendicular to the laundry line. not ok. it was getting dark and hard to see, and i'm trying to get my shorts back when bam. they're off the line and onto the big wire, and it's pretty far away from my window. i sulked for a long time. how am i gonna get my shorts back!! so i go into the fridge and get out a can of black olives that i bought. i was saving them for another time, but i was in a bad mood...due to the shorts situation. turns out, those olives were not pitted. so i have to eat around the pits and it's SO annoying. (like seeds in clementines. they really just prevent the enjoyment of the moment). more grouchiness. so i'm looking around my room, trying to find something long i can use to poke at my shorts and there's this pole hanging across the heads of our two beds that a cushion hangs from (it is a nice little backrest when i'm sitting in bed). so i take the cushion off and test the pole. not long enough...i'm talking just inches too short. haha so i wait until it's light out. after lunch, jenna stands behind me holding my feet as i'm hanging out the window, like...waaay out the window.  jenna starts laughing, i start freaking out because she's laughing while holding my feet so that i dont topple head-first out of the window. it seriously could have been out of an "i love lucy" episode. the shorts would just have to be ricky's...and i'd have some 'splainin to do! it was ridiculous. but regardless...i got the shorts! finally! then i immediately laid down on my bed to watch the lost finale with jenna while drinking sangria. success, i'd say.

can you see them? the green shorts off the line. sheesh!

side note: thanks to my mom's fervent attention to my pictures of the day, we are now aware that our "detergent" is actually fabric softener.

oh, the places we've been (already!)

siena (obviously): our home for the next 5ish weeks.

it's a little weird to think that when we go away on weekends, coming home will be returning to siena. our 'home' in italy. our 2 bedroom, one bathroom, communal kitchen apartment. the streets are so narrow and the mopeds are so ferocious. but the moped-riders wear helmets, so it's all good. gelateria's are everywhere. it's absolutely amazing. i've made it my mission never to repeat a flavor for as long as possible. (ultimately, until june 28th...totally do-able.) so far i've had strawberry and chocolate, pompelmo (raspberry, i think), after eight (which was thin minty) and yogurt flavor with berries in it. all of them were so unique, and intense! i just don't know how they do it! i want to investigate the process and how it differs from ice cream. i'm torn. i simply cannot choose between the 2. (boehringer's owns my ice creamy soul, for sure).

walking through siena, i have to restrict myself from taking pictures of every street corner, every alley, every city sight. everything is so picturesque, everywhere we turn.

conad city: siena's grocery store.

i've only managed to get there once...when some of our fellow villanovans average 3-4 trips per day (the male apartment). it's underground, so we take an escalator to get groceries. i can't imagine this in shillington. for one thing, conad is not even a tenth of the size of giant or redners. and the carts are smaller too. the baskets have two handles: one that flips up to carry on your arm or you hands, like i'm used to. and another handle flips the opposite way so that you can drag it along behind you (similar to carry on luggage or those annoying bookbags some kids used in middle school). this is the main grocery store, so it's interesting to relate the amount of groceries bought here as at home. seriously...americans would definitely bitch if they had to use the carts here, or had to carry their bags up the escalator instead of carting their groceries directly to their cars. i haven't really grasped onto the organization within conad...i'm not sure there's a definite set up. i do know that there are 4 pasta sections, sometimes they're just a shelf below razors or cookies. i bought wine...my first experience buying alcohol. it wasn't momentous or anything, but upon reflection, it is kinda cool to say. pretty pumped to drink that sangria though.

florence (firenze): about an hour's bus ride away from siena
we're going to florence as a group on thursday, but a smaller group of us decided to go this weekend to take a bike tour of a winery. we get off the bus and leave the station, but the directions that the guide gave us to get to his office started from the duomo (cathedral)...the question was: how do we get to the duomo from the station? well, after "dove il duomo?" and plenty of calls to keith, the director, we found our way. late, but ready. after our tour, we were taken back into florence from the winery. florence is completely different from siena. apparently, the cities competed to be the bigger market in italy, and florence won. siena kept its medieval style as florence advanced.  Some wished that we lived in florence instead, but siena's cozier. less metropolis-y. we had to find the bus station from the tuscany bike tours office...not easy. we ended up running throughout florence (making even more of a spectacle of ourselves, we already were wearing shorts, sneakers and t shirts which got us strange looks, and we have signs on our foreheads that say "american." people just know)...so we're running, but tired from biking, so we're running at different speeds, losing each other, turning at different spaces. we end up not only looking for the bus station, but looking for each other throughout florence. we know all about that city now. it all worked out. we got home later that expected, sat on the bus station floor for an hour, but sat together and rode home together. good (tiring) times.

chianti vineyards: tuscany bike tour!

not only did we bike around, but we got to tour a castle where a count and countess live. it's a family business of theirs, making wine and olive oil. since most of the action starts in september, we didn't see much going on, but we saw how the wine is bottled and where it's preserved. we also saw were the holy wine is aged, in huge oak barrels. we saw the machine that presses the olives, separating the oil and the water that is released from the pressing. fun fact: there is no other ingredients in olive oil. to change the taste, one just uses different olives! also, another fun fact i learned, red wine is 2:2 ratio of red and white grapes, but pink wine is white grapes with the red grape skins. after the tour, we got bikes, were "fitted" to them, got our helmets and complementary water bottles (full of water, thank goodness)...and were on our way! the first 45 minutes were generally downhill, this gave us the opportunity to focus on the scenery instead of the biking. i had to keep reminding myself that i wasn't looking at a hollywood backdrop: this is the real deal! this is tuscany! we stopped and ate a great lunch: salad, penne & tiramisu. however, that little food baby was surprised when we started biking again. hello! the next 25ish minutes was mainly flat roads. certainly not downhill, but still fun. then we got to the bottom of a hill. (i think i heard it was 950m long)...a van met us to take our bikes and our bodies to the top of the hill...2 other girls and i decided to bike it. (what could we lose?) i made it up the whole thing...i was pretty proud of myself! correction: i was extreeeemely proud of myself. biking is not the same as running, obviously. transportation from florence to the winery and back: an 8 passenger van. not the best thing to ride in on twisty european roads. we had an incident in the morning. and i could have an one on the way back. i had to pee soooo badly! haha...it's never boring. that's what i've discovered.

let the wild rumpus begin!

...we made it! we're not sure what day it is or what time it is...but we're here and ready for adventure. that may be overestimating it...right now we're ready for sleep!
i feel pretty incompetent that i don't know italian. i can't even blame it on the jetlag...but let's just hopei learn the important stuff quickly. luckily we live with some women that seem very, very nice. we've met one from brazil and one from austria, both here to study italian in siena. thank goodness they know a little english, too! i'll count the number of stairs that we climb to get to our apartment. it's pretty ridiculous, but the view is worth it, i'd say. we'll see what i think after a week or so of climbing them!

...ok it's officially 111 steps. good times. but window pics are soon to come. jenna, em, caroline and i just spent 20 minutes moving from window to window taking pictures as the sun is setting.  and for the record...gelato is amazing. a had strawberry and chocolate in a cone. the flavor is just incredibly intense. it could not get any more distinct!
one pretty big dillema: we have no idea how to unlock our front door. we tried and tried (and then i videotaped more trying...hoping we can laugh about this later)...until we knocked on our neighbor's door for help. with one swift flick of his wrist, a pull and a push, BAM. door open. then i tried again. no dice.

anticipation

one week! a week from right now will be my last night in my bed, in my home, in my state, in my country for 5 weeks. i will have just finished the last new episode of lost before the series finale...and i can't watch the finale in italy! (there's got to be a way...)
my goal, for now, is to write a little blurb every day...we'll see how that goes. i'm not expecting too much, since it'll all be different than what i'd expect anyway!
am i nervous about not knowing any italian? not really...i have my 4-semester-italian jenna...and what else is there other than vino, spaghetti, linguini, tortellini...must i go on?