Tales from Italy ch. 5- Avventure future (Future Adventures)!!!!
Oh, Blog! There's so many exciting things going on right now!!!
To start, I've discovered two new fun facts:
1- Monika and Ryan can dance! And I don't just mean dance randomly, but I mean they can professionally dance! A few days ago when they discovered that the other knew how to dance, they got up and just... started dancing! And what's even better- swing dancing! And WALTZING! And it was all done spontaneously without any rehearsal! The rest of us just sat back and watched in awe- I wish I had had my camera (Lack of camera Fail #1). It was so stunning to watch! My favorite part is they promised me they'd teach me how to dance before the semester's over :)!
2- I need to find a means of snacking before my Italian for Foreigners class. On Tuesday, I went to Italian for Foreigners class after my Ceramics class, and despite the fact that I had had breakfast that morning, my stomach decided to be an obnoxious pain in the butt. And as my luck would have it, we had silent work. While my stomach was busy making beastly growls, I attempted to hide its ruckus by shuffling my feet and making light coughs between efforts to do my work. Monika just laughed beside me lol.
This week I also had my first Teaching Assistant jobs! Monday was simple as all it involved was establishing my schedule. Wednesday I held office hours- no one came, but it was soooo cool to see my name officially on the schedule of classes!! It looks like I'm an Italian professor here! I wanted to get a picture of it, but this was Fail #2 of not having my camera on me this week.
Fail #3 happened when Laura and I were walking down Via Mazzini on our way back to the dorms when we passed a shop that sells jeans. To our great pleasure however, the mannequins in the front window were left undressed while the shop was closed for the afternoon. There in the bright sunlit glass window stood 3 pairs of nude mannequin legs; the 2 sets of female mannequin legs stood on both sides of the 1 pair of male legs which, to make things even funnier, was turned in a manner so that he was mooning all of Urbino from the front window of this little jean shop. WHY DID I NOT HAVE MY CAMERA AGAIN?!
Lesson learned: ALWAYS have my camera on me. I never know what the day will show me.
Classes this week were also fantastic, and I have already picked my favorite and least favorite. My least favorite is my Cinema class where we sit for 3 hours listening to our professor slowly drone on in a hum of a voice that includes the trailing off words and sentences with "ummmmmms" and "uhhhhhhhs." She never gets up from behind her desk and lacks much enthusiasm in her 3 hour lecture. It's a cinema course though- how could you not be enthusiastic??
My favorite class is my Music for the Show class. I am one of 2 students -the other now being Laura- and our professor is the coolest man ever. Each class is like a private conversation between the 3 of us (I'm pretty sure we could convince him to hold our class in a coffee shop), and unlike our Cinema teacher, he shows much enthusiasm and keeps us interested the whole time- more than I am with classes I take back at New Paltz, which are in ENGLISH. Our 2 hour class flies by. One of the best parts (there are many) is he is very helpful and understanding of our attempts at Italian and helps us with the English that he knows. I asked if he taught more classes in hopes that I could take them, but alas, this is his first semester and this is his only class. We have truly found a hidden gem.
While all this is wonderful to me, the highlight of my week comes in the booking of flights! This week I managed to book a flight for Sicily next week, and tickets to the UK for my spring break! I'm so excited!!!
Tomorrow, I leave for Bologna where I will catch a plane for Sicily where Laura, Janelle, Monika, Judith, and I will have our own apartment in Palermo for 5 days! Be sure to read my next entry after I get back (and I promise to not fail with pictures that time).
For spring break, I'll be travelling with Janelle to the UK! We're flying into Edinburgh, Scotland and we will gradually work our way down through England visiting New Castle, the Manchester/ Chester/ Liverpool area, a small side trip to Dublin, Ireland, flying back into Cardiff, Wales, and finishing off with the Reading/ London area before flying home. I'm extra excited to see so much of so many places- and so many of my friends! That is probably the best part- I have friends in each of the places we're visiting which means I can save money on hostels AND have the extra bonus of seeing fantastic people the whole time!
In my attempts to book my UK flights however, I made the mistake of booking the same flight home (from London to Ancona) twice- I had two tickets in my name for the same flight home!! I had had both flights open in two tabs on my internet browser, and I guess when I booked the first one, it had refreshed both tabs, causing me to accidentally book the same flight twice. I know I should have been more careful and double-checked, but to be honest, I did. Seeing a confirmation for London > Ancona made sense to me since I did have to make that flight; it just didn't register to me that I had already booked that particular one already. All this resulted in me having to call my parents hoping that they wouldn't mind covering the 30 euro fee to fix my flight since I hadn't accounted on paying that additional cost. My parents told me not to worry; everyone makes mistakes. They covered my extra charge. I am truly fortunate to have such understanding -and the best- parents in the world.
Anyway, I'm off to pack for my Sicily trip tomorrow!
A settimana prossima quando ritornero`! (Until next week when I return!)
CIAO!
To start, I've discovered two new fun facts:
1- Monika and Ryan can dance! And I don't just mean dance randomly, but I mean they can professionally dance! A few days ago when they discovered that the other knew how to dance, they got up and just... started dancing! And what's even better- swing dancing! And WALTZING! And it was all done spontaneously without any rehearsal! The rest of us just sat back and watched in awe- I wish I had had my camera (Lack of camera Fail #1). It was so stunning to watch! My favorite part is they promised me they'd teach me how to dance before the semester's over :)!
2- I need to find a means of snacking before my Italian for Foreigners class. On Tuesday, I went to Italian for Foreigners class after my Ceramics class, and despite the fact that I had had breakfast that morning, my stomach decided to be an obnoxious pain in the butt. And as my luck would have it, we had silent work. While my stomach was busy making beastly growls, I attempted to hide its ruckus by shuffling my feet and making light coughs between efforts to do my work. Monika just laughed beside me lol.
This week I also had my first Teaching Assistant jobs! Monday was simple as all it involved was establishing my schedule. Wednesday I held office hours- no one came, but it was soooo cool to see my name officially on the schedule of classes!! It looks like I'm an Italian professor here! I wanted to get a picture of it, but this was Fail #2 of not having my camera on me this week.
Fail #3 happened when Laura and I were walking down Via Mazzini on our way back to the dorms when we passed a shop that sells jeans. To our great pleasure however, the mannequins in the front window were left undressed while the shop was closed for the afternoon. There in the bright sunlit glass window stood 3 pairs of nude mannequin legs; the 2 sets of female mannequin legs stood on both sides of the 1 pair of male legs which, to make things even funnier, was turned in a manner so that he was mooning all of Urbino from the front window of this little jean shop. WHY DID I NOT HAVE MY CAMERA AGAIN?!
Lesson learned: ALWAYS have my camera on me. I never know what the day will show me.
Classes this week were also fantastic, and I have already picked my favorite and least favorite. My least favorite is my Cinema class where we sit for 3 hours listening to our professor slowly drone on in a hum of a voice that includes the trailing off words and sentences with "ummmmmms" and "uhhhhhhhs." She never gets up from behind her desk and lacks much enthusiasm in her 3 hour lecture. It's a cinema course though- how could you not be enthusiastic??
My favorite class is my Music for the Show class. I am one of 2 students -the other now being Laura- and our professor is the coolest man ever. Each class is like a private conversation between the 3 of us (I'm pretty sure we could convince him to hold our class in a coffee shop), and unlike our Cinema teacher, he shows much enthusiasm and keeps us interested the whole time- more than I am with classes I take back at New Paltz, which are in ENGLISH. Our 2 hour class flies by. One of the best parts (there are many) is he is very helpful and understanding of our attempts at Italian and helps us with the English that he knows. I asked if he taught more classes in hopes that I could take them, but alas, this is his first semester and this is his only class. We have truly found a hidden gem.
While all this is wonderful to me, the highlight of my week comes in the booking of flights! This week I managed to book a flight for Sicily next week, and tickets to the UK for my spring break! I'm so excited!!!
Tomorrow, I leave for Bologna where I will catch a plane for Sicily where Laura, Janelle, Monika, Judith, and I will have our own apartment in Palermo for 5 days! Be sure to read my next entry after I get back (and I promise to not fail with pictures that time).
For spring break, I'll be travelling with Janelle to the UK! We're flying into Edinburgh, Scotland and we will gradually work our way down through England visiting New Castle, the Manchester/ Chester/ Liverpool area, a small side trip to Dublin, Ireland, flying back into Cardiff, Wales, and finishing off with the Reading/ London area before flying home. I'm extra excited to see so much of so many places- and so many of my friends! That is probably the best part- I have friends in each of the places we're visiting which means I can save money on hostels AND have the extra bonus of seeing fantastic people the whole time!
In my attempts to book my UK flights however, I made the mistake of booking the same flight home (from London to Ancona) twice- I had two tickets in my name for the same flight home!! I had had both flights open in two tabs on my internet browser, and I guess when I booked the first one, it had refreshed both tabs, causing me to accidentally book the same flight twice. I know I should have been more careful and double-checked, but to be honest, I did. Seeing a confirmation for London > Ancona made sense to me since I did have to make that flight; it just didn't register to me that I had already booked that particular one already. All this resulted in me having to call my parents hoping that they wouldn't mind covering the 30 euro fee to fix my flight since I hadn't accounted on paying that additional cost. My parents told me not to worry; everyone makes mistakes. They covered my extra charge. I am truly fortunate to have such understanding -and the best- parents in the world.
Anyway, I'm off to pack for my Sicily trip tomorrow!
A settimana prossima quando ritornero`! (Until next week when I return!)
CIAO!