What? huh? where am I? what time is it???
Ciao!!!
So I'm back from my summer abroad experience in Italy! 5 weeks went by FAST but I'm glad to be home, even though I'm pretty severely jet lagged still. I have about 320 pictures, a select few of which I'll try to post in a couple of days, when I get up to Davis and my own computer that actually functions normally. Here are a few tidbits from my trip:
I speak some rudimentary, rudimentary Italian, and it's interesting what you pick up first in a language when it's not being taught to you with any structure, just by immersion. Mostly, I know food words and transportation words. I can't stop saying ciao and prego. Latin came in pretty helpful fo monuments and whatnot, but I still got stuck a lot with long phrases or lots of abbreviations.
I got ridiculously tan: sometimes I see myself in a reflection out of the corner of my eye and don't recognize myself because I got so dark.
I can't beleve how lucky I was to be in Rome when Italy won the world cup. A huge crowd completely filled the entire Circus Maximus to watch and cheer together on the gigantic screens. The riot police were kinda scary though: that's definitely the most automatic weapons and armored vehicles I've ever seen in person. It was really the coolest thing ever.
Don't let anyone fool you--- food in Rome is TERRIBLE. awful. disgusting. I went to a full range of restaurants, from the cheap tavola caldas to the touristy places, to the fancy pants formal restaurants, but the food was generally quite bad. Capri had good food, and so did Sicily, but the food in Rome was the blandest, least fresh, most tasteless slop ever. I had cannelloni for lunch one day that looked like someone ate a can of spinach and cottage cheese on a bet and then threw up on the plate. I paid 20 euro for it. Disgusting. Italy just isn't too much of a restaurant culture, like america is- the best food is in private homes, but obviously it's a bit hard for random americans to get inited to a family dinner.
I instinctually pack insanely light (the interior of my ONLY suitcase measured about 18X24X8", plus a backpack) and live cheaply (I'm not so into souvenirs) and I'm really glad for it. Lots of other people were encumbered by two or even three vary large suitcases and squeezed for money after buying lots of cheap crap, which was the source of much schadenfreude on my part. They may not have been constantly doing laundry or have worn the same two skirts at least twenty times altogether, but I could actually carry my shit around.
My mom painted my room while I was gone, and I admit that I don't like it. It's a flat, very light, sort of greyish blue, and while it complements the white beams and my furniture well, it makes the floor look altogether too red. She also got new bedding and emptied out my bookcases, so it looks like I don't live here at all anymore, which makes me sad. All the light blue, tan and white make it look like a guest room in a grandma's house. Of course, I had to tell my mom I liked it.
Speaking of parents, It's my parents' anniversary today, I think 27th or 28th, I can't remember exactly. Yaaaaay mom and dad.
I am in Marin until probably monday, at which point I will return to davis for a job interview. If I get the job, I probably won't be back in Marin for a while, so any interested parties should hang out with me today or tomorrow, if they know what's good for them.
va bene for now, ciao!
So I'm back from my summer abroad experience in Italy! 5 weeks went by FAST but I'm glad to be home, even though I'm pretty severely jet lagged still. I have about 320 pictures, a select few of which I'll try to post in a couple of days, when I get up to Davis and my own computer that actually functions normally. Here are a few tidbits from my trip:
I speak some rudimentary, rudimentary Italian, and it's interesting what you pick up first in a language when it's not being taught to you with any structure, just by immersion. Mostly, I know food words and transportation words. I can't stop saying ciao and prego. Latin came in pretty helpful fo monuments and whatnot, but I still got stuck a lot with long phrases or lots of abbreviations.
I got ridiculously tan: sometimes I see myself in a reflection out of the corner of my eye and don't recognize myself because I got so dark.
I can't beleve how lucky I was to be in Rome when Italy won the world cup. A huge crowd completely filled the entire Circus Maximus to watch and cheer together on the gigantic screens. The riot police were kinda scary though: that's definitely the most automatic weapons and armored vehicles I've ever seen in person. It was really the coolest thing ever.
Don't let anyone fool you--- food in Rome is TERRIBLE. awful. disgusting. I went to a full range of restaurants, from the cheap tavola caldas to the touristy places, to the fancy pants formal restaurants, but the food was generally quite bad. Capri had good food, and so did Sicily, but the food in Rome was the blandest, least fresh, most tasteless slop ever. I had cannelloni for lunch one day that looked like someone ate a can of spinach and cottage cheese on a bet and then threw up on the plate. I paid 20 euro for it. Disgusting. Italy just isn't too much of a restaurant culture, like america is- the best food is in private homes, but obviously it's a bit hard for random americans to get inited to a family dinner.
I instinctually pack insanely light (the interior of my ONLY suitcase measured about 18X24X8", plus a backpack) and live cheaply (I'm not so into souvenirs) and I'm really glad for it. Lots of other people were encumbered by two or even three vary large suitcases and squeezed for money after buying lots of cheap crap, which was the source of much schadenfreude on my part. They may not have been constantly doing laundry or have worn the same two skirts at least twenty times altogether, but I could actually carry my shit around.
My mom painted my room while I was gone, and I admit that I don't like it. It's a flat, very light, sort of greyish blue, and while it complements the white beams and my furniture well, it makes the floor look altogether too red. She also got new bedding and emptied out my bookcases, so it looks like I don't live here at all anymore, which makes me sad. All the light blue, tan and white make it look like a guest room in a grandma's house. Of course, I had to tell my mom I liked it.
Speaking of parents, It's my parents' anniversary today, I think 27th or 28th, I can't remember exactly. Yaaaaay mom and dad.
I am in Marin until probably monday, at which point I will return to davis for a job interview. If I get the job, I probably won't be back in Marin for a while, so any interested parties should hang out with me today or tomorrow, if they know what's good for them.
va bene for now, ciao!