Okay well I'm off to class for the day! And then tomorrow - the Amalfi Coast!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Fresh Berries!!!!
Hey everyone! So last week I went to Mercato Centrale where they have a huge farmer's market... we've been wanting to go for a while but it closes at 2pm and we usually have class during the week and trips on the weekend that prevent us from going. But last wednesday Caitlin and I headed over there before class and here's what we found...
Mmmmm.. appetizing right? All I can think about while looking at this pig's head is how much I want to buy pork from the vendor. yum.
Oh did you not know? They have cheese in Italy. Lots of Cheese.
Parmesan and Balsamic? Unlikely, but a delicious combination.
Oh good, I'm glad you clarified. I almost swallowed that piece of cheese! I'll put it back now.
Ooooo pretty strawberries :)
WE FOUND BERRIES!!! All the vendors sold apples and bananas but it took me a while to find these gems... and they were soooo worth it :)
Also, I got a super huge piece of bread with the intention of using it for sandwich bread throughout the week. But it didn't taste very good so... there goes that.
Okay well I'm off to class for the day! And then tomorrow - the Amalfi Coast!
Okay well I'm off to class for the day! And then tomorrow - the Amalfi Coast!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
12,000 feet of alps and 2lbs of swiss chocolate down :)
Hey everyone! So it has been a CRAZY weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland and I have loved every minute of it!!
So we start at Funny Farm Hostel. No, I'm not kidding, that's the name of the place we stayed. It had a super cool logo too..
We got in at 330am, and our guide told us we needed to sign up for activities at 830 (oh dear...). The good news is that the FF (oh yea, Funny Farm uses abrev.s) is actually pretty good, Caitlin, Allison and I had our own room and bathroom with keycard access and a deadbolt! Anyways, the next morning we trudged out of bed fully expecting to sign up for afternoon activities then promptly return to bed, but there was a skydiving trip leaving in ten minutes and the weather was only going to be good that morning - so we threw on some sneakers, grabbed some bread (that was FF's idea of providing breakfast - a loaf of bread and some jam), and headed out!
Some pictures of us getting SUPER PUMPED for skydiving:
What can I say? We were really really excited. And then... we skydived. These are images from a video they took of me skydiving, like the last picture it's really poor quality but I try my best to portray the process (it only goes up to when I fall out of the helicopter!)
Haha, like I said, it was amazing! It was so fast (40 second of freefall, 4 minutes of canopy) that it all seems like a blur now, but going from 0mph-120mph is not easily forgotten. It was pretty cold up high, but luckily we were up there during a warm patch (the only one of the weekend!) so once we hit canopy we were good again! Oh, and my ears were popping like CRAZY haha, but it was so fun that all we wanted to do after was skydive again!
The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful, we went to a pizza and kebab place, a tai place (slash motorcycle renter) and a fondue place (yum!) for our meals (sooooo good, sooooo expensive!). Saturday was a lazy day because the weather was terrible, but Sunday we rented ATVs (from the tai food place!) and drove up to some place whose name I can't pronounce where we hiked up to a waterfall!
These are our super cool ATVs, Caitlin and I were in the red one :)
Haha me driving, slightly freaked out by the windy roads and covering my hand with the motorcycle jackets the renter gave us to keep us warm!
Yea, we were basically driving grown-up size toy cars :)
The Destination: Really Pretty Waterfall
The pretty (steep!) climb up to be behind the waterfall
Caitlin, Allison and I behind the waterfall!
One of the many pretty views from up there...
Another gorgeous view...
Oh, and did I mention that the Swiss have chocolate?
And with that, I say goodnight :)
So we start at Funny Farm Hostel. No, I'm not kidding, that's the name of the place we stayed. It had a super cool logo too..
We got in at 330am, and our guide told us we needed to sign up for activities at 830 (oh dear...). The good news is that the FF (oh yea, Funny Farm uses abrev.s) is actually pretty good, Caitlin, Allison and I had our own room and bathroom with keycard access and a deadbolt! Anyways, the next morning we trudged out of bed fully expecting to sign up for afternoon activities then promptly return to bed, but there was a skydiving trip leaving in ten minutes and the weather was only going to be good that morning - so we threw on some sneakers, grabbed some bread (that was FF's idea of providing breakfast - a loaf of bread and some jam), and headed out!
Some pictures of us getting SUPER PUMPED for skydiving:
What can I say? We were really really excited. And then... we skydived. These are images from a video they took of me skydiving, like the last picture it's really poor quality but I try my best to portray the process (it only goes up to when I fall out of the helicopter!)
Haha, like I said, it was amazing! It was so fast (40 second of freefall, 4 minutes of canopy) that it all seems like a blur now, but going from 0mph-120mph is not easily forgotten. It was pretty cold up high, but luckily we were up there during a warm patch (the only one of the weekend!) so once we hit canopy we were good again! Oh, and my ears were popping like CRAZY haha, but it was so fun that all we wanted to do after was skydive again!
The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful, we went to a pizza and kebab place, a tai place (slash motorcycle renter) and a fondue place (yum!) for our meals (sooooo good, sooooo expensive!). Saturday was a lazy day because the weather was terrible, but Sunday we rented ATVs (from the tai food place!) and drove up to some place whose name I can't pronounce where we hiked up to a waterfall!
Another gorgeous view...
Oh, and did I mention that the Swiss have chocolate?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Just a Teaser...
Since the rest of the world is awake right now (while I'm about to pass out from pure exhaustion) I thought I'd leave you a little taste of what's to come in my next post...
Now, the quality is poor (it's a picture off of a video that i illegally took of another video)... but that's me skydiving out of a helicopter into the Swiss Alps.
SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, family, I'm all in one piece and completely safe :) the worst side effect was how long it took my ears to pop afterward haha...
love you all! goodnight!
Now, the quality is poor (it's a picture off of a video that i illegally took of another video)... but that's me skydiving out of a helicopter into the Swiss Alps.
SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, family, I'm all in one piece and completely safe :) the worst side effect was how long it took my ears to pop afterward haha...
love you all! goodnight!
Monday, September 20, 2010
Ferroequinologist
I am a proud ferroequinologist.
As I learned from watching way too many episodes of my new favorite comic detective series, Psych, this means I am a train enthusiast.
I love riding trains. I love being able to read without getting carsick, I love that I can walk around if my legs feel cramped, I love that I can buy food or water whenever I want in case I get hungry or thirsty, I love that my friends and I can have a whole compartment to ourselves, and I love that I don't have to breathe in the sickly stale air of an airplane while doing this.
I do not, however, like booking hotels. I'm not sure if there's a word for this, I'll have to watch more Psych, but booking hotels turns out to be quite exacerbating. You have to think about budget - of you and your friends - you have to think about location (distance to the center, to the activities you plan on doing), you have to think about ease of transport from where you are to where you want to be, you have to figure out how to get European hotels to let you have four people in one room, you have to read reviews to make sure the hotel isn't falling to pieces, you have to decide how much stock to put into each review and weigh the options of ignoring a comment and living in a rat-infested swamp for a weekend or taking every comment too seriously and end up paying for a five star hotel. But the weekend is over, the hotel I booked worked out fine, and we got to go to a Deadmau5 concert and an AC Milan soccer game while in Milan this weekend, and that's what really counts :)
So here's the beloved stadium! Did I mention it was pouring? There was shelter in the seats, but with the wind it didn't help too much... thankfully by the time the game started the rain has cleared out :)
This was for FAC Board - we abroad-ers try to take as many pictures in our FAC shirts in as many cool places as possible :)
But over my FAC shirt I was wearing my new AC Milan jersey! Number 7! Go Paco (he didn't play this game)! L-R: Caitlin (roommate), Susan (suitemate), Allison (roommate), Me, Julie (friend from Duke on the program)
Somehow the Milan team knew we were missing our Duke Blue Devils, so they came out with their mascot... tiny baby devil?
Roomie picture! Caitlin, Me, and Allison in our seats
The teams shaking hands (red and black striped are the good guys)
More (ridiculous) friends! L-R top row: Chris (BC), Matt (Duke), Matt (NYU)
So even though we tied 1-1 it was a really fun game, I got into it by giving all the players nicknames:
#9: Nonove --> Sinove, 'nove' means 9 in italian, he started out as "no - nove" because he missed a really easy goal, but then got promoted to 'si-nove' when he scored our first (and only) goal of the game
#10: Calveci, a mix between "calvo" meaning 'bald' and "dieci" for his number, 'ten'
#11: Fancy Feet, he was wearing bright yellow shoes
#23: OJ. He was wearing orange shoes
#27: Ouomo: O for "oh wow, what great footwork" which turned into "oh wow, you just very obviously pushed those other players to the ground" and 'uomo' simply means 'guy'
#77: Doubs short for double, because he was my number (7) but twice. He turned out to be my favorite.
#80: Dreads, because he had dreadlocks. Matt (duke) pointed out to me later that he just had really long hair, but I like to think he had dreadlocks.
So the game was really fun with me yelling nonsense nicknames out to the players, and an older man near us shouting obscenities to the entire field in italian (which matt would occasionally translate for us)
With the downpour and the unfamiliarity of the city, getting there was quite an adventure, but I learned a lot about speaking around my missing vocabulary to get the point across. I ended being our translator that trip because Caitlin and I are the best speakers in the group, and I'm more aggressive about asking natives (motherly looking natives, as my mom taught me, not sketchy guy natives) for help and directions. So my italian has already improved quite a bit and I'm glad I have the chance to use it!
That's all! Hopefully our trip to Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend doesn't get rained out, and I'll have a host of new photos and stories then!
ps. I also love kebabs. And jumping onto moving trains, which I also got to do this weekend.
As I learned from watching way too many episodes of my new favorite comic detective series, Psych, this means I am a train enthusiast.
I love riding trains. I love being able to read without getting carsick, I love that I can walk around if my legs feel cramped, I love that I can buy food or water whenever I want in case I get hungry or thirsty, I love that my friends and I can have a whole compartment to ourselves, and I love that I don't have to breathe in the sickly stale air of an airplane while doing this.
I do not, however, like booking hotels. I'm not sure if there's a word for this, I'll have to watch more Psych, but booking hotels turns out to be quite exacerbating. You have to think about budget - of you and your friends - you have to think about location (distance to the center, to the activities you plan on doing), you have to think about ease of transport from where you are to where you want to be, you have to figure out how to get European hotels to let you have four people in one room, you have to read reviews to make sure the hotel isn't falling to pieces, you have to decide how much stock to put into each review and weigh the options of ignoring a comment and living in a rat-infested swamp for a weekend or taking every comment too seriously and end up paying for a five star hotel. But the weekend is over, the hotel I booked worked out fine, and we got to go to a Deadmau5 concert and an AC Milan soccer game while in Milan this weekend, and that's what really counts :)
But over my FAC shirt I was wearing my new AC Milan jersey! Number 7! Go Paco (he didn't play this game)! L-R: Caitlin (roommate), Susan (suitemate), Allison (roommate), Me, Julie (friend from Duke on the program)
So even though we tied 1-1 it was a really fun game, I got into it by giving all the players nicknames:
#9: Nonove --> Sinove, 'nove' means 9 in italian, he started out as "no - nove" because he missed a really easy goal, but then got promoted to 'si-nove' when he scored our first (and only) goal of the game
#10: Calveci, a mix between "calvo" meaning 'bald' and "dieci" for his number, 'ten'
#11: Fancy Feet, he was wearing bright yellow shoes
#23: OJ. He was wearing orange shoes
#27: Ouomo: O for "oh wow, what great footwork" which turned into "oh wow, you just very obviously pushed those other players to the ground" and 'uomo' simply means 'guy'
#77: Doubs short for double, because he was my number (7) but twice. He turned out to be my favorite.
#80: Dreads, because he had dreadlocks. Matt (duke) pointed out to me later that he just had really long hair, but I like to think he had dreadlocks.
So the game was really fun with me yelling nonsense nicknames out to the players, and an older man near us shouting obscenities to the entire field in italian (which matt would occasionally translate for us)
With the downpour and the unfamiliarity of the city, getting there was quite an adventure, but I learned a lot about speaking around my missing vocabulary to get the point across. I ended being our translator that trip because Caitlin and I are the best speakers in the group, and I'm more aggressive about asking natives (motherly looking natives, as my mom taught me, not sketchy guy natives) for help and directions. So my italian has already improved quite a bit and I'm glad I have the chance to use it!
That's all! Hopefully our trip to Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend doesn't get rained out, and I'll have a host of new photos and stories then!
ps. I also love kebabs. And jumping onto moving trains, which I also got to do this weekend.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Lucca e Mercato Centrale e Viaggi! (e Sushi)
Hey everyone! So this weekend we took a day trip with our school to Lucca, Italia! It was pretty amazing. And it was really nice to start going places and seeing new things! Here are some photos from our time there:
So our trip was really fun. We got a guided tour for an hour and a half, and then just got to explore ourselves for the next four hours, it was perfetto! Today was really fun as well, we finally went shopping on those streets that have all the tents (is that the right word to describe them?) set up, right near Mercato Centrale:
So great! And now we're finally starting to plan some trips- here's what's on the agenda so far:
This weekend: Milan
Next weekend: Interlaken, Switzerland (Paragliding anyone?)
Then... Amalfi Coast, Rome (hey there caitlin amanda!), Perugia (Chocolate Festival!), Pisa and for fall break a tour of Eastern Europe hitting Turkey, Budapest, Prague, and Vienna! I'm SO excited!!!
It's so amazing that I get to live in this spectacular place that not only contains so many gems itself, but gives me access to all of Europa!! I promise to take a TON of pictures on all these amazing journeys, and I promise to attempt to remember what I'm taking pictures of (all old buildings start to look the same after awhile haha)
Oh, and we ordered in sushi tonight for dinner. I expected the worst but it actually wasn't half bad! Maybe you can get decent ethnic food outside of NYC...
That's all for tonight! A full week of classes and then the real traveling begins!
American Food I Miss:
Shredded Cheese
Oh the wonderful streets of Lucca :)
The Duomo in Lucca! Not quite as pretty as the one 7 minutes from our house in Florence, but actually really intricate and amazing...
Each column of the Duomo is crafted with a different design made by many different artists of the time
A really big really pretty clocktower
Shout out to mom and dad :)
Another wonderful building in Lucca, the top half (seen here) very colorful and ornate, while the bottom half is very plain and white
Oh, and did I mention there was a Medieval Festival in town? No?
Well, here's some further proof. None of us bought anything, but it was really cool to see!
L-R: Vivien, Caitlin, yours truly, and Allison, enjoying a wonderful sunny day :)
The gorgeous tree I took a nap under in Lucca's favorite napping spot! True story - we saw a bunch of Italians napping there so we used our purses as pillows and took our italian siesta!
Eating gelato - what else?
Shout out to Dad - guess how this street name is pronounced? BOO-YA!!!!
So our trip was really fun. We got a guided tour for an hour and a half, and then just got to explore ourselves for the next four hours, it was perfetto! Today was really fun as well, we finally went shopping on those streets that have all the tents (is that the right word to describe them?) set up, right near Mercato Centrale:
Gina!!! I found you a pug!!
So many pretty scarves...
Pretty Necklaces!
Flags as a Tent Cover
It was 2 euro too much but we almost got this as a room decoration... see the fine print? GLOW IN THE DARK!!
So great! And now we're finally starting to plan some trips- here's what's on the agenda so far:
This weekend: Milan
Next weekend: Interlaken, Switzerland (Paragliding anyone?)
Then... Amalfi Coast, Rome (hey there caitlin amanda!), Perugia (Chocolate Festival!), Pisa and for fall break a tour of Eastern Europe hitting Turkey, Budapest, Prague, and Vienna! I'm SO excited!!!
It's so amazing that I get to live in this spectacular place that not only contains so many gems itself, but gives me access to all of Europa!! I promise to take a TON of pictures on all these amazing journeys, and I promise to attempt to remember what I'm taking pictures of (all old buildings start to look the same after awhile haha)
Oh, and we ordered in sushi tonight for dinner. I expected the worst but it actually wasn't half bad! Maybe you can get decent ethnic food outside of NYC...
That's all for tonight! A full week of classes and then the real traveling begins!
American Food I Miss:
Shredded Cheese
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