Merry Christmas! Fröhliche Weihnachten!
Once again, I will make apologies for not updating any sooner, and I will once again provide you all with empty and meaningless promises that I will try to update more often. I'm sorry, but I guess this "blogging" stuff just isn't my style, although I will really try to write a little more often, if not for you guys, then for myself, because I know that in several years I will be very happy to have these memoirs of my study abroad experience in some kind of virtual concrete form.
With that being said, MERRY CHRISTMAS! FROEHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN! And BUON NATALE! This update is coming to you live from ITALY, buona l'Italia, dove ho la dolce vita, etc. Woah... flashbacks to July, right? This is actually the third time I have returned to Italy since my summer course in Florence ended, and I'm not coming back just because my friend Eugenio is here (although he's a big reason), but also because I just absolutely love it here. I love the people, the landscape, the countless things to do and see, the culture, the FOOD... and let me tell you, Eugenio's mom can cook! Even though I am in northern Italy in Verona, near Milan, the things that come out of her kitchen are exactly like the things in the south of Italy. Mmmmm... lecker.
As you can see, I am in a very good mood now. This post is obviously much happier and more energetic than my last one. I admit that sometimes I get a little depressed, but I think that happens to anyone who is adjusting to a new life in a new country, especially when the language spoken isn't even your native tongue. But now, I feel great. Maybe it's that silly Christmas spirit?
I want now to write about some silly adventures that Eugenio and I had in the past few days with public transportation. Usually, everything runs very smoothly in Europe, but whenever Eugenio and I are together, we always end up having crazy adventures, and I guess this includes buses and trains. So anyway, a week before Christmas, Eugenio had come to visit me for a week in Germany, and as a Christmas gift, I bought him and me tickets to a Wir Sind Helden concert in Karlruhe, a really awesome German band which you should listen to even if you don't understand German (you can even listen to all their songs for free on their website! And they have an English version of the website! :)
The concert was supposed to start at 8:30, and we planned to arrive in Karlsruhe and about 7:55. So we went to the bus stop near my dorm, which happens to be on top of a big freaking mountainous hill, and it also happened to be snowing very hard that day, so lo and behold, no buses could make it to the top of the hill! We ended up waiting about half and hour for a bus, causing us to miss our train at the train station. But luckily, we found another train that could take us to Herrenberg, where we could take another train to Stuttgart, where we could take another train to Karlsruhe. So we caught the train in Tuebingen just in time, only to get out in Herrenberg, run to the next train, and see it slowly start to pull away in front of our eyes, without us in it. So we were stranded outside in the cold snow in Herrenberg for half and hour until the next train came to take us to Stuttgart. We arrived in Stuttgart, only to see our next train slowly pulling away before our very eyes, once again with us NOT in it. So we found another one (much more expensive, by the way), an hour later that took us to Karlsruhe. But can you believe that with our luck, after we got on this train, a voice came over the loudspeaker and said that due to technical difficulties, the train was being delayed 30 minutes? We got to Karlsruhe at 9:30, an hour and a half after we planned, but luckily, Wir Sind Helden had a support group that opened for them, and they started playing exactly when we arrived, so we didn't miss anything! It turned out to be an awesome concert, and when I am back in Tuebingen, I will try to remember to post some pictures.
Our other adventure with public transportation took place in Italy, when Eugenio and I were traveling back to Verona to his house. Our plane had landed in Milan, and we found a train to Verona at the main station (we were a little nervous because apparently terrorists want to bomb Milan sometime soon). When we got on the train, we had a little confrontation with a beggar who forcefully took our bags from us and put them in the overhead compartments for us, and then asked for money. I of course refused, especially since I was actually fighting with her to keep my bags away from her, and Eugenio also refused, so she got down our her knees and started kissing Eugenio's feet. Really. When he still refused to give her money, she threatened to spit on him, and I'll just say that some "words" were exchanged very quickly in Italian. Afterwards, she got off the train and spit on our window.
A little while later, after the train had started, a fight broke out in our cabin. I'm not really sure what it was about, and neither is Eugenio, but they had to stop the whole train and take the people off. But instead of being logical and starting the train again once the troublemakers were off, we had to wait more than an hour for the police to arrive. I'm not sure what the logic was in that, especially since the police didn't even question anybody on the train about what they saw, but as Eugenio said, "That's Italian logic."
And now I am here, enjoying an Italian Christmas, and I really couldn't be happier. Two days ago, Eugenio and I traveled to Sued Tirol, or Alto Adige, a region in the northern-most part of Italy, very near Austria, where more German is spoken than Italian. We visited a Weihnachtsmarkt there, which was really fun, and I heard the AWFUL dialect of German that is spoken there... much worse that Schwaebisch. I will stay here in Verona until after New Year's... studying for my Italian midterm that I have as soon as school starts again!
I wish everyone back home a very Merry Christmas, and a happy new year. I miss you all, but I have to be truthful when I say that where I am is MUCH cooler than where you are. :)
Ciao.
With that being said, MERRY CHRISTMAS! FROEHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN! And BUON NATALE! This update is coming to you live from ITALY, buona l'Italia, dove ho la dolce vita, etc. Woah... flashbacks to July, right? This is actually the third time I have returned to Italy since my summer course in Florence ended, and I'm not coming back just because my friend Eugenio is here (although he's a big reason), but also because I just absolutely love it here. I love the people, the landscape, the countless things to do and see, the culture, the FOOD... and let me tell you, Eugenio's mom can cook! Even though I am in northern Italy in Verona, near Milan, the things that come out of her kitchen are exactly like the things in the south of Italy. Mmmmm... lecker.
As you can see, I am in a very good mood now. This post is obviously much happier and more energetic than my last one. I admit that sometimes I get a little depressed, but I think that happens to anyone who is adjusting to a new life in a new country, especially when the language spoken isn't even your native tongue. But now, I feel great. Maybe it's that silly Christmas spirit?
I want now to write about some silly adventures that Eugenio and I had in the past few days with public transportation. Usually, everything runs very smoothly in Europe, but whenever Eugenio and I are together, we always end up having crazy adventures, and I guess this includes buses and trains. So anyway, a week before Christmas, Eugenio had come to visit me for a week in Germany, and as a Christmas gift, I bought him and me tickets to a Wir Sind Helden concert in Karlruhe, a really awesome German band which you should listen to even if you don't understand German (you can even listen to all their songs for free on their website! And they have an English version of the website! :)
The concert was supposed to start at 8:30, and we planned to arrive in Karlsruhe and about 7:55. So we went to the bus stop near my dorm, which happens to be on top of a big freaking mountainous hill, and it also happened to be snowing very hard that day, so lo and behold, no buses could make it to the top of the hill! We ended up waiting about half and hour for a bus, causing us to miss our train at the train station. But luckily, we found another train that could take us to Herrenberg, where we could take another train to Stuttgart, where we could take another train to Karlsruhe. So we caught the train in Tuebingen just in time, only to get out in Herrenberg, run to the next train, and see it slowly start to pull away in front of our eyes, without us in it. So we were stranded outside in the cold snow in Herrenberg for half and hour until the next train came to take us to Stuttgart. We arrived in Stuttgart, only to see our next train slowly pulling away before our very eyes, once again with us NOT in it. So we found another one (much more expensive, by the way), an hour later that took us to Karlsruhe. But can you believe that with our luck, after we got on this train, a voice came over the loudspeaker and said that due to technical difficulties, the train was being delayed 30 minutes? We got to Karlsruhe at 9:30, an hour and a half after we planned, but luckily, Wir Sind Helden had a support group that opened for them, and they started playing exactly when we arrived, so we didn't miss anything! It turned out to be an awesome concert, and when I am back in Tuebingen, I will try to remember to post some pictures.
Our other adventure with public transportation took place in Italy, when Eugenio and I were traveling back to Verona to his house. Our plane had landed in Milan, and we found a train to Verona at the main station (we were a little nervous because apparently terrorists want to bomb Milan sometime soon). When we got on the train, we had a little confrontation with a beggar who forcefully took our bags from us and put them in the overhead compartments for us, and then asked for money. I of course refused, especially since I was actually fighting with her to keep my bags away from her, and Eugenio also refused, so she got down our her knees and started kissing Eugenio's feet. Really. When he still refused to give her money, she threatened to spit on him, and I'll just say that some "words" were exchanged very quickly in Italian. Afterwards, she got off the train and spit on our window.
A little while later, after the train had started, a fight broke out in our cabin. I'm not really sure what it was about, and neither is Eugenio, but they had to stop the whole train and take the people off. But instead of being logical and starting the train again once the troublemakers were off, we had to wait more than an hour for the police to arrive. I'm not sure what the logic was in that, especially since the police didn't even question anybody on the train about what they saw, but as Eugenio said, "That's Italian logic."
And now I am here, enjoying an Italian Christmas, and I really couldn't be happier. Two days ago, Eugenio and I traveled to Sued Tirol, or Alto Adige, a region in the northern-most part of Italy, very near Austria, where more German is spoken than Italian. We visited a Weihnachtsmarkt there, which was really fun, and I heard the AWFUL dialect of German that is spoken there... much worse that Schwaebisch. I will stay here in Verona until after New Year's... studying for my Italian midterm that I have as soon as school starts again!
I wish everyone back home a very Merry Christmas, and a happy new year. I miss you all, but I have to be truthful when I say that where I am is MUCH cooler than where you are. :)
Ciao.