Day 7: Ciao, Tuscania!

     Today I woke up, finished packing, and then waited for our shuttle to Firenze. We left at around 10:30. I had planned to sleep on the shuttle, but everything was so beautiful that I stayed awake and watched the beautiful views pass by the bus windows. At 1:15 we stopped for lunch. It was decent food for a highway pit stop, but was an absolute ripoff moneywise. I didn't really care though, because I was so close to Firenze! Most of the bus ride I was panicking about meeting the family. What if they didn't speak English or didn't like me!? Eek!

     We arrived on the outskirts of Florence at about 2:15. I thought that's what all Florence was going to look like: another hilly, farm-landish place. But when we arrived in the center at around 2:30, I realized it was a lot like your average American city. I got a taxi with Larissa to our different families. I was dropped off first, outside a building on a busy street numbered '22'. I rang the buzzer and prepared to meet the people I would be living with for the next four months.

     The door unlocked, and I lugged my bags into a stairwell. 'Hello, is anybody there?' I heard someone calling in English from above. I was met by Mafalda, the 14 year old daughter of my host mom. She helped my carry my bags up four flights of stairs to the second floor. I met my roommate, Caroline, who is 22, and my host mom, Luisa. They all seem very nice. The house is one floor, with three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. Caroline and I have a room together, as well as our own bathroom. I unpacked my bags, and then we had dinner. I was so grateful for a home cooked meal; I have been so tired of eating out every day! We had pasta, green beans, cheese, and bread. A typical Italian meal. It was delicious.

    Then Caroline and I went out and explored our new home. Firenze is literally breathtaking. We went out for an hour and a half, got gelato, and saw some architecture, like the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio. I got some great pictures. I am so happy to finally be settled!!

Day 6: Last Day in Tuscania!

     Good morning, Italia! This morning I woke up at 8 and went to breakfast. I got pineapple (ananas!) yogurt with granola, that was amazing! Then we had class at 9. Mario, our teacher, ended up getting off topic, and we talked about Adam and Eve, and Frankenstein. In the second half of our class, we watched a movie. I loved it! It was called Meditteraneo.

     Then we had the most amazing dinner. It had a beautiful view of the town (above), and the food was phenomenal (see picture below). Nick and I determined that the caprese salad that I had was the best mozzarella we had ever tasted.  Everyone had an easy night; I went back to pack after dinner, and after a little reading, I'm about to go to sleep. Buona notte!!

Day 5: First Bad Italian Food Experience :(

Today we had class from 9-12, with a break in the middle. I used the school computer to check on my email and facebook. The keyboards had the keys in different spots and I kept making spelling mistakes. The computer was also so old, it had a place for floppy disks. Most of Bentley would die if they saw technology that old!

     At 1, we went to lunch with the group and the Italian teachers. The food was way too salty and oily. Even the salad was dripping in oil and salt. Nobody could eat it. Also, they didn't have any vegetarian options except eggplant and zuccini, which they also drenched in oil. Yuck! :( There were also flies and bees everywhere, because they don't have netting or anything to keep bugs out in Italy. We left there at around 2:50 pm, and I was exhausted. I took a three hour nap. Then the usual group of four went out to Pizzeria dal pattata. I got a Margharita pizza and it was amazing. We stopped by Cafe del Duomo (which is really the only bar that people in town hang out at). It was too cold, so Domenique and I went back to my room and ended up talking until 2 am. Tomorrow is our last day in Tuscania, and our last Italian intensive lesson! I can't wait to go out to Firenze. :)

Day 4: Swimming!

So today I went to the beach with Nick. Mei picked us up at around 12, and then dropped us off. Nick and I strolled right on to the private section and grabbed some chairs. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the horizon was mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous. The sand is SO HOT! It's very dark-- it's nearly black, and it feels like you're walking on soft tar.
    Nick and I sunbathed, listened to Bob Marley, and read our books. It was super relaxing. The water was nice and cool, but it had a strong undertow. For lunch, Nick and I grabbed some food nearby, which wasn't the best- I got pizza and Nick got some sort of seafood. Then we went back to our beach chairs, and I fell asleep. Luckily I didn't burn even though the sun was beating down on me all day! Right before we left, Nick and I grabbed some gelato. It melted so quickly! Mei picked us up around 6:20.
    We waited for everyone to come back from the lake. Then Domenique, Bobby, Nick, and I, as well as the new girl who was from California, went to the park that had the outdoor bar in the modern part of town. There was a guy playing the accordion, and older people were all dancing. I tried learning the dance from afar because no one I was with would go up and join everyone else dancing. After that, we stopped by Cafe del Duomo, and then went back to my room and talked until 1:30 in the morning. It was a lovely day :). Sadly my camera decided to delete all the pictures from the beach, so I have no photos to post.

Day 3: Viterbo

     Today we had to wake up at seven in the morning, because we needed to catch an 8:05 bus to Viterbo. Cristina and Emily never woke up for it! Massimo met us at the bus stop :). The bus ride wasn't very long. The city was very beautiful, but it looked a lot like Tuscania. We visited a lot of churches and got to see where three popes were buried. Massimo told us he had a very special surprise for us, and it ended up being another church. We got a break to walk around a market. Nick and I took the opportunity to go explore a giant statue called, "The Awakening". It looked like a giant coming out of the ground. I saw a very similar one in eighth grade when I went to Washington DC, and I was so excited to get pictures of it!

     We also saw this giant statue called the Macchina di Santa Rosa. It's this 100 foot thing that weighs a ton and 100 men have the honor of carrying it on their back on September 3 every year. Apparently it's the oldest Christian tradition. The statue was extremely beautiful. I wish I would get to see it lit up on the third, but just seeing at all was certainly worth the trip out here.

     We went to a lunch that ended up taking 2 hours. It was good food, but I was happy to leave Viterbo after that. I fell asleep on the bus back and then took a nap in the hotel as well.

     Tonight we went back to Cafe Duomo, and there was a live DJ, as well as an outdoor bartender. A lot of younger people around my age were out and it was a great environment. I learned how to say "I need to leave now" in Italian, because a lot of guys were talking to Domenique and I, and we didn't want to talk to them. Another vital phrase. We went back to the hotel at 1 am. I'm bumming because I can't get internet on my computer in the hotel and everyone else can. I hope I can at my host family's house! Buona notte!

Day 2: Buon Giorno, Italia!

     Today, I woke up at 7:50 am, which is 1:50 am America-time. Yuck! Breakfast was downstairs in the hotel. I had granola and coconut yogurt, which is officially my favourite flavour of yogurt! After breakfast, all the Bentley students went to our Italian lesson rooms, and then as a whole explored Tuscania. It is an absolutely beautiful cplace. We saw the church at the Acropolis, and we drank water from a natural running pipe, even though I was dubious at first. It was actually really cool, even though it doesn't seem like a big deal. We explored with our teachers until 11, and then Nick, Domenique, Bobby, and I when to the modern part of town and found this really cute and delicious pizza shop. Here, I got my first italian mini-lesson. I learned how to say "a piece of", which I'm sure will prove useful in the future.

     After lunch, the four of us hung out on my room's patio, and then went to Italian class from 2-5. I learned all about the different types of coffee and how to order each one. At the end of class, I was extremely exhausted. Almost everyone went to the hotel and took a nap until dinner. At dinner I tried an olive for the first time! It was decent. Completely impertient to my day story but just thought I'd throw that in!

     All the Bentley kids went to Cafe Duomo after to get some drinks. I got a Green Jamaica. What is that, you ask? Well, only the best drink ever!!!! It has midori, banana juice, pineapple juice, and peach vodka. It is the best drink! It was such a great bar; it was next to a giant fountain. After spending an hour or two socializing, a few of us headed back to our rooms. I hate living from a suitcase; I can't wait to get to Firenze and get settled!

Day 1: Arrival in Rome and Travel to Tuscania

     I arrived in Rome, Italy in one piece! The plane instructions were all first given in Italian, then in English. This was pretty exciting, I felt like I was already getting a taste of the culture before even leaving the tarmac. The man who was sitting next to me noticed that I spoke English and was studying from a little Italian book my sister gave me. He called over his daughters (Sonia and Sophia), and we ended up talking for like an hour and a half. They were so nice, and we were both curious about the other's culture. They helped me with my phrase book. After our lovely plane food (which, of course, I forgot to inform the airline that I'm a vegetarian so I got a roll and cheese, yumm), the dad made the girls go to their seats to try and sleep. I ended up falling asleep too, and woke up with only 25 minutes of our flight left!

     After our flight landed at 7:30 am, and Nick and I got our bags (I was so happy that my luggage didn't get lost; I was so nervous about that!), we went to where the customs sign was, and there was no customs!? We spent a solid five minutes looking for it, but we didn't find it :( Which meant I didn't get my passport stamped, sadly :(. We had a lot of time to kill once we decided there wasn't a customs to go through. We sat down on a bench and took turns washing up the best we could in the airport bathroom. Two Bentley kids (Jeff and Christine) found us, and we got to know them in the next 3 hours that it was just us four in the airport.

     I grabbed a tomato mozzarella panini at the airport, and let me tell you, this was no Panera Bread. This was Chef Express: Italian food. It was good for airport fast food. We didn't get picked up until 11:50 am! We were so tired and bored at this point, and we had to lug our bags to our bus, which was quite a long distance away. Then we had to wait another hour until everyone arrived at the bus.

     I fell asleep on the bus, and when I woke up, we were stopped at another Chef Express. I fell back asleep, and when I woke up again, it turns out the bus had broken down, so we had to wait three hours for that to get fixed. We all went inside and people bought sandwiches and waters and ice creams.

It turned out we were only a twenty minute busride from there to our hotel, Hotel Tuscania. I am rooming with Jill Bouchard for this week. We showered, then had orienation, saw some of the town, and then ate at a restuarant. The restarant had a pasta course, a veggies course (grilled with oil and bread crumbs), and a brownie dessert. It was delicious.

This is the pasta dish, with zucchini!

And this was the veggies course. The top left were really really good potatoes!

And finally, the dessert! I was a little apprehensive to try it at first (what was that yellow stuff!?) but it ended up being like a brownie covered in cream. Delicious.

Then we went out and explored on our own a little. I got to get on the internet, which was nice. Now it's midnight and I'm going to try and sleep!

Day 0: Leaving Boston!

     I am just about to begin my study abroad experience to Florence, Italy. I have been counting down the days since February, and I can't believe it's finally here. Packing was absolutely miserable and I tried to leave most of it until the last second. But in the end, here I am, sitting on an Alitalia airplane, about to go to Europe.
     While waiting in line with my whole family to check in my bags, Nick (my friend from school), walked into the airport and joined me in line. Apparently we were going to be on the same flight, and we had no idea! We got our boarding passes, and Nick went through security while I stayed back with my family to grab a hot chocolate and say goodbye. It was sad, but I'll be back soon enough.

     When I went through security, the guy checking the bags had an attitude problem, and yelled at me for forgetting to take my laptop out of the bag. After waiting 5 minutes, though, I eventually got through. I went to Duty Free to buy a host present, and bought them chocolates with Boston wrappers. I got a call from Nick while I was in line saying that they were calling final boarding call!! I literally ran to the terminal. Luckily I was not late, and am now comfortably seated in a middle seat in the middle section of the plane.

Arrivederci, America! See you in 4 months!