Le Distrazioni

So, I will go ahead and apologize on how long it has been since I have posted.  I have literally done so many things in these past two weeks.  I am living in Italy, so I can't really apologize for not wanting to sit down and type up a blog, when I could be out exploring.  Can you believe that I have been here a month now? It has completely flown by!  In the past month, I have seen more sights than people see in their lifetime.  I love this country and culture more and more everyday.  And I get sad to think I only have 2 more months here!

Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence

To catch up on the past 2 weeks, I will begin with my Florence and Venice weekend.  Thursday February 3, we had a day trip to Florence for our Art History class.  I had been to Florence a couple years ago with Ms. Doss's trip, so it was really neat visiting a place for a second time.  Of course with my luck, we had another mishap at the train station.  The original plan was to meet our professor around 2:00 in Florence, but a group of us wanted to catch the earlier train, so we could grab lunch and walk around before our class met. Well, we got out of our first class late, so that put us running to the train station to  catch this train.  Most of the group split into pairs to the automatic ticket machines, but I was the odd one out so I went on by myself.  I clicked right on through picking the cheapest train to Florence.  We quickly ran out to the platform and we are all looking at our tickets to figure where to go.  We then realize that we have different tickets, so we split getting on our correct trains.  Beka, Emily, and I get on our train and sit down laughing about how we always have mishaps at the train station.  The ticket man comes up and punches my ticket and then grabs Beka and Emily's, and immediately the look on his face tells us they have the wrong ticket.  However, instead of paying the fee he just tells them to check better next time.  Thankfully they came with me anyway, because I would have had no clue what I was doing by myself because this train actually went to the wrong train station in Florence.  So, we had to take a cab to the right one, to meet the rest of our group.  We finally got to the place we needed to be, but barely had time for lunch.  So we grabbed a quick gelato and met with our professor.

A classic view of Venice

After a wonderful afternoon of exploring Florence, It was time for Beka and I to depart for Venice!  Before returning to the train station, we stopped at the leather market and I finally bought my Italian leather journal I have wanted so badly!  I couldn't wait until Venice to finally write in it!  A few hours later we finally departed for Venezia!  When we finally arrived, we walked out the doors of the station and you  could hear the water hitting against the sidewalks.  We found the correct water bus to the hotel and we were more than ready to find our Best Western Albergo in San Marco.  We arrived to the San Marco piazza and with the help of a police officer finally found our hotel.  My feet were absolutely killing me by then, so we crashed for the night. Thank God for Continental Breakfast!  Finally we had a full breakfast (or at least European style).  We had cereal, pastries, yogurt, fruit, nutella, and American coffee!  A wonderful way to start the day in Venice.  So for Friday, we got dressed and literally walked most of the city.  Being offered a gondola ride every 5 minutes was tempting, but neither of us were willing to pay 80 euro.  Pizza and pastries for lunch and then the Hard Rock for dinner.  Tupelo chicken tenders have never tasted so good!  The servers loved that I was from Mississippi and immediately made the connection to Elvis of course.  After dinner Beka and I walked around some more and found a jazz club/bar and decided to check it out.  We sit down at the bar and order some drinks and then we look up and there are hundreds of bras hanging from the ceiling.  Come to find out, this bar was famous because girls could exchange their bras for t-shirts.  Don't worry, neither one of us got a "free t-shirt."  Saturday we got up and explored some more and did some shopping!  Saturday we went to an opera.  The show was the Barber of Seville!  Being all in Italian, we surprisingly understood what was going on and enjoyed it very much.  The musicians were so talented, at one time the lights flickered off so they could not read their music sheet; however, they continued without any error.  It was a classic Venetian experience!

Beautiful countryside of Malta

Even though, being in my dream city of Venice, I was ready to be back in Bologna!  With Florence and Venice being such a tourist trap, we never were able to use our Italian, everyone spoke English with us!  I was glad to be back where I was one of the few Americans and English speakers.  Before even being able to settle down, we left for Malta the very  next weekend.  Malta, was an interesting experience you could say.  Being in the middle of the Mediterranean, the sights were absolutely gorgeous.  Being a previous British colony, English was spoken almost everywhere.  However, "Malta-zuma's revenge"  hit almost have of our group.  From the carsickness on the bus through the countryside, to not feeling so well after a meal we all had our time that we just wanted to lay down.  Thankfully we all got over it and made it back safely to home sweet Bologna!


As you can tell I have had many distractions, "le distrazioni",that have hindered me from posting.  But to say the least I am enjoying every single minute of this journey.  It isn't just a physical journey around Europe.  Just in the past month I have discovered so much about myself.  I have made bonds with people around me that I know I will never forget.  Just thinking that I am leaving in May absolutely scares the hell out me.  I have gotten so comfortable with my surroundings and I haven't honestly been this happy in oh so long.  Traveling the world has always been a dream of mine, but now I am living some of it out now and don't want to stop living this fairytale.  There is something really unique about living in a culture different than your own.  Adapting  to the language, the day to day routine, and other habits makes you take a critical perspective of your own country.  It will either make you appreciate it more, or you may find that you prefer the lifestyles of the one you are experiencing.  The Italian culture is definitely one of kind, and I fall in love with it more and more every day.  I am living this experience "toto corde" (whole heartedly).  When I have to leave at the end of this semester, I don't want to leave with regret.  One of my Italian friends made the comment the other night that what we do in life is just a distraction from the end.  But we both agree that naming life experiences "le distrazioni" is not a bad thing.  It is how you engage in these distractions and apply them your life and the ones around you.  Maybe everything this semester is just a distraction for when I have to return back home, but I can't hesitate to engage in everything and everyone around me.


Off to live out my Dolce Vita!


J

Non andiamo alla discoteca!!!

This post is to share some of my funny occurrences while here in Italy.  So get ready, don't judge me, and enjoy!

My favorite phrase I have learned on this trip is the above, "Non, andiamo alla discoteca!"  This originates to our first night out in Bologna.  Four of my friends and I went to Via Zamboni (the University district) to meet some Italians some of us had met the night before.  We went to one of the bars, Irish Pub and the people we were meeting were not going to be there until later, so we got a few drinks and went and sat down at a table.  As I am waiting at the bar,  I unfortunately made eye contact with some guy.  Somehow, that was his invitation to come and talk to me.  He did not speak any English and he had a friend that was interested in one of my friends.  They follow us to our table and sat down with us, it was a very safe pub so we were not worried and the rest of our group was coming soon.  We come to find out that they are Tunisian, and their names were Omar and Fabio, what a pair?  Of course they had mastered how to say how beautiful we were and any other compliments.  Then it came to asking us to go to the discoteca (the dance club).  We politely declined and said that we were meeting  some people here later.  Being persistent, they continued asking us to "andiamo discoteca?"  Then this is finally where we had to forcefully decline by, "Non andiamo alla discoteca!"  The Italians of our group finally showed up and got rid of our Tunisian friends for us.  We enjoyed the rest of the night talking to some of the nicest people we have met here.

My next funny experience is what inspired me to write this post.  Recently with all the paperwork and shopping using my debit/credit card I have had to use an ID a lot.  I glanced in my wallet and could not find my driver's license, so I would just use my passport (it is a better ID for overseas anyway).  After thinking about my license, I realized that I must have  left it back home.   So at dinner one night we are talking about purchasing soccer tickets, and how an ID was required.  I mentioned that I wish how I would have packed my license so I did not have to worry about having my passport on me.  My friend Emily asked, "well what did you use to get into the casino in Interlaken?"  I literally dropped my fork and covered my mouth.  The whole table just looks at me and I immediately realized where my license was.  I could picture it sitting there on the counter after checking in, and I never put it back in my wallet.  We immediately all burst into laughter and realized there was nothing I could do about it now.  So, Mom and Dad, if you get my license in the mail and it is post marked from Switzerland, you now know.  I sent an email to customer service of the casino, but I haven't heard back yet.  The sad thing is we didn't even do anything in the casino, we sat at the bar and realized it was the most depressing casino ever.  One Asian woman was winning really big, but she literally just sat in chair with no expression whatsoever.

The infamous casino

This next story did not happen to me personally, but it is definitely a lesson for us all.  One of my friends here was having a rough day, so she went into this random church she saw as walking through Bologna.  She goes in and starts praying and as she gets up to leave, this woman comes up to talk to her.  The woman did not speak much English,so my friend just kept smiling and nodding saying, "Si si si!"  Next thing she knows, she has signed up for a choir!  The woman gave her the directors name and told her what time to be back the next day.  This is a perfect story of how to be careful, with phrases you do know in the language!

I am sure that I will have more funny stories to come, and I can wait to share them.  This Thursday after the art history trip to Florence, Beka and I are going to Venice for the weekend.  We are staying in a hotel right in the heart of the city next to San Marco Basilica.  I have always dreamed of Venice, and when I was younger I said I would live there.  This is my first time there, so I am more than excited.  Who knows, I might find my new home this weekend?  Check for my pictures after this weekend!  My Dolce Vita is is finally being lived out and becoming richer in experience every day.

Ciao!

J