Day 2, Sunday- May 25, 2008
Buon giorno! Today was another day given to us to get situated in Italy. I awoke around 8am, pulled myself out of bed stumbled to decide what to wear and get into the Tiny bathroom we have in our room…literally the whole bathroom might be 3ft by 3ft with a shower, sink, toilet and a little mirror…this is just another reminder of how lucky we are in the states (or I am at my apartment I have two whole sinks to myself…ha) They don’t serve breakfast here…Italians don’t eat a hearty meal at this hour, as we do but there is a tiny shop located downstairs off of the dinning hall that offers coffee, little breakfast foods like cereal and fruit and drinks for later in the day. After eating a small breakfast of croissant, an orange drink and a banana I wandered around the building/courtyard and town alone until our meeting/orientation time at 1030am. By the time I decided to walk the town I only had 15mins or so, so I didn’t go too far but I did get to walk by the beautiful church located right next to us and watch the Italians walk in for Mass this Sunday morning. Two other people have talked with me about going to a church service while here- they saw the cross in my necklace (thanks mer) and asked if I went/would want to go, excited to have believers around me and attend a catholic church in Italy, I said yes!
Back in Santa Charia at our orientation mtg we were talked to by the two head women of the school, they told us about the train lines, the community and events and the history of the school- all very neat. I will write a more detailed blurb about this and a lot of other things soon…But anyway by the time that was done and a mtg with the RC’s (resident counsels) all pervious students here- neat people, more later here too…we were free for the rest of the day.. Crazy to be completely free in this foreign country…we did however do an impromptu historical mini tour with Ann (art history teacher) through town…after that I ate my first Italian meal, well dinner last night was real Italian food, but this I had to order on my own, ha. I stared at the menu for a bit…um…um…I was thinking…I decide to go with Panzenella…which was described as a moistened bread with onions, cucumbers and veggies…It was FANTASTIC…I ate it soo fast…I must say I was so proud my entire table ordered different food while the whole table next to us, even the teachers ordered pizza…blah…step out of the box people, come on, ha…ok ok just kidding. I also had my first glass of wine with this meal…the white house wine, it was great!! After lunch we wondered the town a bit more…I must say for only being here less than 24hours I feel like I know the town really well. I’m not afraid to go out alone and wonder, I know I can get back to Santa Chiara. In town this weekend there is so much going on…there’s a medieval festival going on this weekend and next, today there was a local market and also this car show. It was so funny we walked through this car show and saw all tiny cars but they had these huge speakers they kept blasting American music. I couldn’t help but giggle and dance a bit J. After walking I returned to the school to sit out in the courtyard and read a bit…that didn’t last long for I quickly was joined by more student and talked to them. We eventually decide to return to the town for some afternoon gelato. And I ordered it all on my own, in ITALIAN!! I was so proud. Un piccolo cono…haha “a small cone.” Anyway we then made it down to the church close to us and explored it…it was so amazing inside, the walls, the pews, the confessionals, the alters...just nothing like anything in the US. We then wandered into the museum next door, the guy inside immediately knew we were from Santa Chaira and though he only spoke Italian he was so sweet and kept trying to talk to us J and the paintings were beautiful and old, ha. (Hopefully soon ill learn more about paintings so I can say so much more than that statement…Nap time came soon after this for me and I remember dreaming about speaking Italian, funny. Dinner tonight was traditional spaghetti and then veal and mash potatoes and fruit…I could get used to this. Even though the food sounds like things were used to its soo much better. After dinner we walked the town, which really comes to life at night, and went to then medieval festival and grabbed a beer at the “man bar”/ bar 2000, ha. Its called this cause when you walk by only men are in there but we saw two girls we knew in there and the beer was cheaper than the place we were headed to so that’s were we went. I’m home now laying in bed…about to pass out, our first day of class is tomorrow at 930… its going to be a full day of class and Italian lessons…EXCITING! Ok more updates coming…
Arrivederci
No comments:
Post a Comment