a five page e-mail to jason

Allora...

Hello Faithful Followers.

I know I have failed miserably at writing in this thing. I am not sure why I thought it was a good idea, but I thought I would be better at it.

My very good friend Jason sent me my first real piece of snail-mail on November 6th. It is now November 24th and after 18 days, I have finally finished writing him back. For today, I am going to post an edited version of the letter I wrote back to Jason, written in a lighter gray. Maybe it will give you another glimpse at what I do here and why I find so little time to commit to this blog. Thank you, again, to the 3 of your who check my blog every single day... I don’t know who you are but my sitemeter reports that you are out there and I am sorry I have left you with nothing to read. Here goes:

Ciao Ragazzo!

It means “hey boy”, but that's what they say to everyone here, like one of our Italian friends just walked by and I am sitting with my female friend, she said Ciao Ragazze! (Hey Girls!) Before I continue with this letter, I must warn you: nearly months in Italy has really taken a toll on my English Language skills, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc.

Things in Italia are amazing... for the most part. I am eating so much Italian food, clearly, but yeah, pasta and/or pizza EVERY SINGLE DAY... breakfast, lunch, and dinner... except they don't really do the whole breakfast thing here... MAN! I miss my egg and cheese sandwiches from the snack bar. Actually, I ate pizza for “breakfast” today or whatever you call the first meal at 11 am. (When I first wrote this I said, I am eating some margherita pizza right this minute.) Do you see a common theme? And UGH! I haven't broken any more toilets recently, but if I continue with the pizza/pasta thing, it will probably happen again, haha. (Jason had inquired about this... I broke a toilet seat earlier in the semester by sitting on it while washing my feet in my bidet.)

Traveling: let's see how well I can do this, my memory is going blank right now, I have so much to think about. First off, when I say we, I usually mean my two best friends here, Christine and Caitlin. They are my two closest friends in this program and we travel almost everywhere together. I have been to: Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Geneva (Switzerland), Brussels (Belgium), Milan, Zurich, Luzern (both Switzerland), Venice, Paris, and then a few other towns close by, you probably wouldn't recognize the names at all. I loved almost everywhere we’ve traveled so far, minus Milan. We went to Paris for my friend Christine’s 21st birthday because she is obsessed with France and all things French. She was so happy to spend her birthday eating baguettes under the Eiffel Tower.

We (Christine and Caitlin) are going to Germany and Austria this “weekend”. We leave Wednesday afternoon on an overnight train to Munich. We will then take a short train to Salzburg, Austria to sing “Sound of Music” songs with the Von Trapp family for Thanksgiving Day. Then we will head back to Munich for some great beer, yummy gummy bears, and the world famous Christmas markets. I am sad that I will be missing Thanksgiving, but I guess I can’t complain that I will be in Europe instead. The following weekend we are going to Barcelona, Spain for my friend Caitlin’s birthday. I am really praying that our next two trips go smoothly, transportation wise. We have had quite the share of missed flights and transportation strikes. UGH! I will have to keep you updated on this.

I would love to tell you more about each trip, but that would take days. I will have to tell you more when I get home. I guess I will quickly tell you about Rome. (Jason specifically asked about this.) We went to Rome one of our first weekends here, so basically, 7 or 8 years ago (it seems like that, anyway.) We went for just the day: saw the Colosseum, the Forum, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. We didn’t do the Vatican and such because it takes a whole day to do that trip. Besides, I went there in 2004 and my family wants to go there again in December, so I thought it’d be better to hold off. A few weeks later we went to Rome just to go shopping at the mall, since there are no stores around here for inexpensive clothes. It’s crazy how living here I think going to Rome is no big deal. People are like, “Are you crazy?!?!?!”, but you have to think, it’s just like going to Boston or New York City for the day or something.

(Jason wrote: How are the discos (bars)? They should just call them bars.) The "discos" are pretty fun, but usually full of drama... reminds me of SNHU but add in a language barrier. It's AWESOME! (not.) We (all the USAC kids) usually go to this one disco called TRY. Everyone dances to the really crappy music. There is a fine selection of 50’s to 80’s American tunes that we find impossible to dance to, or weird Italian music that we don’t know the words to. The last time I went, they played “Jitterbug” (wake me up before you go, go) twice- that I know of. It’s crazy. There are lots of creepers that we need to look out for. When I finally post pictures you will see what I am talking about. They usually lurk around and LOVE hopping into our Kodak moments. (side note about weird music – we went to a house party the other night and attempted to show them what we like to listen to at the bars at home, someone selected “Soulja Boy” and we proceeded to teach them the dance. They thought we were crazy and could not comprehend the madness.)

I usually "pre-game" before going out at night. (For you old folk, this is the term used for drinking before going out to drink.) It's like 2 euro for a bottle of wine at the store, and the discos charge MINIMUM 3.50 euro for a mixed drink with less than a shot in it. NO THANK YOU. If I do get a drink, I usually just get a sex on the beach. They don't understand much of the other drinks I enjoy from home. However, I recently discovered a mixed drink that kinda reminds me of a mojito but strawberries instead of mint leaves. Sometimes we get shots called Tequila Boom-Boom. It's Tequila and seltzer water and the bar tender bangs it on the bar to make it really fizzy. It's fun.

They call it a disco because they have bars here... they go to the bar to get a caffè, aka a shot of espresso. They stand up and drink it really fast. It's DISGUSTING! I usually get a cappuccino con cioccolato (cappuccino with chocolate) straight from the vending machine. It's actually good, but it is also the size of a shot, maybe a double shot, definitely Dixie cup sized. They don't have regular coffee here and there is NO WAY they have iced coffee/caffè anything. So, when we (only Christine and I) went to Zurich we went to Starbucks to get some frappacinos. Yeah... $6.20 (USD) for a TALL. I am embarrassed that I stooped to that level. Oh well, I needed an iced caffeinated beverage, we were desperate.

Back to the subject of traveling: I went to Geneva on my own while most people went to Florence and around Tuscany with USAC (the school program that I am here with.) I went to Geneva to visit some old family friends from NJ. I didn't want to go with the group because it was like $450 and it's all the exact same places I am going with my family and BOBBY! (so excited about this) in December.

Not sure if you, readers, are aware that my family is coming to "pick me up from school." My parents, brother, grandmother and boyfriend, Bobby, are coming out on December 19th, my last day of class. We will spend the night in Viterbo, pick up our rental cars, and head to Tuscany for the next week or so. Just so everyone knows, Tuscany is not a specific location, it is simply the region within Italy. Major cities in Tuscany that you may have heard of include Florence, Sienna, Luca, Pisa, and Volterra [shout out to my fellow Twilight lovers]. We will, then, head back to Viterbo, drop off the rental cars and head into Rome to finish up our trip visiting all the most important things: Colosseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican and St. Peter's. We return back to the States on December 30th. Christmas in Italy! How exciting?! I am so happy that Bobby found a way to come with my family. It is so special that my family is willing to have him come with and a huge step forward in our relationship. It also means a lot to me having him come. You may think, "What? You are going to be home right after your parents come out, what's the point, can't he wait a few more days, he already waited 3.5 months". Well, I found it important that he come visit me for a few reasons. First, Bobby is Italian. In fact, he has family here. We recently found his uncle on facebook and have even started to make plans to visit them. If Bobby weren't Italian, or if he didn't have family, I probably wouldn't have found it so necessary for him to come. Same as if I were studying in a different country. Also, I wanted him to see where I have been living for the time we've been apart. I wanted him to be able to actually visit the places I've told him all about. Ok, on with the letter.

So... My living situation is decent, not amazing. I live in the dorms. Rent is amazing, something like $200 (USD) a month, so $800 for the semester. I have a single room with my very own bathroom, bidet and toilet seat included. I say toilet seat included because all the public bathrooms are like 110% against toilet seats. So anyway, there are only 7 USAC students living in the dorms. Caitlin and Christine live across the hall from me, so I just leave my door open and chat with them. There is another group of study abroad students in the dorms called ERASMUS. It stands for something... not sure what, but it is a European exchange program. It's ridiculous; they get PAID to come study in Italy. Rough life, huh? There are kids from Spain living down the hall from us. They pretty much never have class, so they are up ALL night. They love to make tons of noise; it's really annoying. The most annoying thing they do is roll their chairs down the hall. They will put the stuff they want to transport on the chair and roll it. Clever and convenient, yes, but obnoxious as hell, a bigger yes. They also love to call each others' phones (grammar check please.) They continue to let the phone ring several times, hang up, and call again, because maybe, just maybe, the person might now be there. UGH!! There aren’t RAs or whatever so there is no one to ask them to be quiet, and of course the language barrier isn’t helpful. There are quiet hours posted, but I guess since it’s in Italian they don’t understand. I mean, why would you assume a sign with the hours of 23:00-9:00 and the word “silenzio” means BE QUIET from 11 PM to 9 AM.

As for amenities in the dorms, I am a little annoyed. We have wireless that works like underneath dial-up speed. You need a password to log-in, similar to SNHU, and it's wicked annoying because you get logged off like every half hour or so.

The kitchen situation is crappy. We aren’t allowed to have any kitchen appliances in our rooms, so we have to use a communal kitchen. There are two fridges and an industrial freezer. The freezer REEKS like fish. The fridges are jam packed, to the point where we can barely close the door and I can’t quite place a comparison for the foul smell. It sucks because people have taken my food a few times. GRRR! As for the ability to cook... there are 5 hotplates. That’s it. It takes about 45 minutes to boil a pot of water, so cooking anything is pretty much out of the question. It’s not terrible though because right down the street is the “cafeteria”. We can either get a pizza, which is so big I can barely eat half, or a meal for 2 euro (today this is about $2.52.) The meal consists of a pasta, meat, side or salad, piece of fruit, bread, and water. You get the last four with a pizza too. ONLY 2 EURO!

Then there is the laundry situation. There is ONE machine for the 130+ students. You can MAYBE fit 2 pairs of pants and 3-4 t-shirts in at a time. The loads take 2 hours, no joke. It's really awesome. Then, there are no dryers here. So, you have to plan to wash your clothes in advance so that they will dry in time and all my clothes are stretched out and "crunchy" feeling. Sweat pants are no longer "comfy clothes". I guess with that comes the phrase, "you get what you pay for." Overall, the dorms are pretty nice, just very different from SNHU. Check the pix on my facebook (or the hyperlink above). Speaking of... I really need to get on top of adding facebook pix. The ones I have posted are from... like the first two weeks.

Classes? First off, there is so much history and art here. (I told Jason he'd be going nuts, since he's a History major.) There are so many courses based on this stuff, however I skipped out and took the classes I needed to finish my major, including Macroeconomics online, barf. Classes meet once a week, except for language. It’s kinda crazy and annoying because we always meet on different days, at different times, in different locations. It really makes me miss the structured life in America.

Ok, so I just finished taking Italian language. It was split into two-eight week sessions. In the first 2 months I learned more Italian then I learned Spanish, in 3 years. This could be because we had class for 2 hours 3 times a week. I have learned sooooooooo much! But, yeah, sorry if my grammar is really bad, I have been speaking too much Italian lately, which I guess is a good thing, but I really start to get sick of it sometimes, especially when I am tired. (Oh man, look at my terrible run-on sentences.)

Then, I am taking a culture class. We learn about the Italian culture and its history, obviously. We talk a lot about culture stereotypes and basically it’s a disaster of a class, like most of them. I really don’t feel like explaining right now.

Another class I am in is called “Italian Cities: History through Architecture” or as I like to call it, Rock Class. It’s really stupid. Our teacher only speaks Italian and so we have a translator and it causes class to move soooooo slow; it takes twice as long as it should. All we do is go on field trips and look at church, after church, after church. Then we are expected to memorize the many rocks of the church and spit it back out to him. And to think, SNHU is accepting this as a history course. What would Coop-a-loop and Reeds think of this? (These are the nicknames I use with Jason for the two main history teachers at SNHU.)

Next is my cinema class. This class is... interesting. We watch clips from movies and learn about their styles or what not, then we watch a movie in whole. The class is 4 hours long! We’ve watched 1 or 2 good movies, but mostly they are just WEIRD! It’s crazy how differently people can use a camera to capture completely different things and with entirely different techniques, telling such unique stories. The only bad part about watching the movies is that you have to read all the subtitles. This makes it very hard to follow along and it also makes it very difficult to stay awake. Sitting in a dark room, reading a movie, after staying up late the night before, not good. SNHU is accepting this course as a literature course? I guess it makes sense, since I spend so much time reading the movies and not so much watching them.

Now, I saved the best for last. My final class is a cuisine class. We have this class only 5 times, which is so, so sad. It’s my absolute favorite. We go to class and give a report on a certain region that we are assigned, for example Lazio, the region Viterbo is in. We talk all about the history, foods and wines of the region. We then get washed up and begin the fun: cooking! We usually cook a 5 course meal, but really we watch the teacher cook, sometimes just helping with cutting and mixing. We did get to roll our own pasta and make our own raviolis a few weeks ago. The reason we don’t get to help more in the kitchen is because our class takes place right in our teacher’s home. I am in class with 10 other people and we just have the best mix of personalities that mesh well together, it makes for some amazing dinner conversations. I am so lucky to be in this class because there is another section of the class and I guess it is just full of awkward silences...

Then there was a bunch of silly memories and salutations, and whatever. So, when I wrote this e-mail for Jason, it was 5 pages in Microsoft Word, single spaced, Arial font, size 12. It probably took me over 3 hours to write in total (which includes time for re-reading his letter, bathroom breaks, etc.) and over three weeks to complete. Anyway, I must be off, I have tons of homework to do. I really don’t like the STUDY in study abroad. It’s really just getting in the way.

I will try my very best to update this again soon, maybe expanding upon some topics mentioned above. Is there anything you would particularly like to know about? Let me know.

Ciao for now!

a glance at my never ending "to-do" list

This all started as an away message for AIM, but it became way too long, so here it is, a semi-descriptive blog post or maybe a quick glimpse at my everyday life, more specifically my Thursdays. This "to-do" list is a combination of my original to-do list for today and all the things I ACTUALLY did today. It makes me look like I was semi-productive. TRUTH: I was not, at all. It also has been slightly altered to be appropriate for most audiences. I chose to include some things from Wednesday night, but please be aware that I only go out to the bars once a week... this first part is not a usual routine. Some of the items on this list have been here since this summer... pathetic. Where does the time go?

A guideline to understanding what I have written here: The time at the beginning is the time I am/was supposed to start a task. The (optional) means I could do/ did do this instead of what I am/was supposed to do. Chances are that these optional items were not on my actual to-do list for today. I will use GREEN as a way to highlight the items on my to-do list that have actually been completed.

november 06, 2008 to-do list: (starting from midnight)

drink wine
go to the disco
receive a free drink for being blonde
dance like an idiot
go to sleep by 4am
10:00 wake up
(optional) hit snooze until 10:45
shower quickly
(optional) get the worlds worst charlie horse
10:30 walk to school
(optional, 11:15) gimp to school
11:00-3:00 cinema class
(optional, 11:50) arrive late to cinema class
watch a 2.5 hour mobster movie in italian
(optional) understand the concepts of the movie so you can talk about it next class
check mail
read ridiculous letter from jason
reply to letter and send... ok, begin to reply
work on macro discussion board response.. ok, read the db
5:00 international gathering aka. ERASMUS feast
(optional, 6:00) arrive in Italian time
eat yummy chili and delicious pumpkin pie!
macro discussion board attempt #2
(optional) facebook for the 12944th time
e-mail bobby... or start to at least
7:30-8:00 take the long walk home
(optional, 7:44) two minute train ride home
settle down
SERIOUSLY DO WORK
2:00 talk to kappas/listen in on pledging!
get a good night sleep

[the rest are either things i did in the time i was supposed to be "seriously doing work" or items that have been on my continuous to-do list]

take adderall
suffer from an extreme case of ADD
make a list of things you did/meant to do today
blog – seriously, and with good details of everything
post a phony blog, i.e. the letter i wrote to jason and this silly to-do list
talk to sorority sisters – bettina, shannon, and kerry – ON THE PHONE!
imagine kerry in a towel
talk to THE sierra gomes.
eat candy corn and jolly ranchers
be wasteful: drop a piece on the floor
help others with their homework, instead of doing my own
talk to pledges/now sisters (CONGRATS!) about pledging
talk to the wifey
eat grilled cheese
italian cities research for class tomorrow
send 2 page e-mail to bobby 5 hours later
organize e-mails
organize notebook
respond to various facebook messages from the past month, oops.
practice Italian/make a vocab list of good words to know
pack for day trip to bagno vignoni and weekend trip to venice
watch an amazingly beautiful lightening storm off in the distance
love bobby every minute of every day

Clearly you see where my priorities are... I haven't even packed for tommorw's trip, bus leaves at 9am. Maybe this gives you a little hint as to why I have slacked on this whole blog thing. It also really doesn’t help that I don’t have real free time, I just seem to find things to do when I should be doing work and blogging never makes it in there. Actually, nothing on my continuous to-do list ever fits into that procrastination period, unless I were to add FACEBOOK to that list. Honestly, “blog” goes on my to-do list EVERYDAY! Alright, well, the little clock at the end of this entry is NOT lying to you. It’s 4am here and I think I should get some sleep... or maybe pack? I have a big weekend ahead of me. In case you missed it in my list, I am going on a class trip to Bagno Vignoni tomorrow and then we’re taking the overnight train to VENICE!! I am excited for so many reasons, but especially because I can finally find some gifts for people, it’s been so difficult to find anything that a person would really enjoy.

I am so sorry and thank you all who continue to check in, I will get to it. Really. I will. The more you bug me about it the faster I will get to it. I’ll be like OK! BASTA! I’ll do it! (basta means ENOUGH! STOP IT! THAT’S ALL!)

*EDIT: The items in bold red are things that have been done since the original update. It is now 7:30am and I still have not gone to sleep.