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!