Devotissimo suo, Sarah: April 2011

Ciao amici! I apologize for the delay in posting! I'm trying to combine my last two weeks here at the Villa into one blog since it's been lots of day activities and nothing too major. So here's a briefing of what's been going on:

Last Friday the program went to Cinque Terre for the day. This meant a 6am wake up call and breakfast before heading on a bus for a couple hours then a boat ride. As I have explained my obsession with water before, this was a very exciting time. The boat ride started off pretty quietly, it was chilly and we were in the bay so it was very calm. However, as soon as we entered into the Mediterranean we let out some Real Housewives of OC-esque hoots and hollers as the boat began to rock all over. After two hours we arrived in Monterosso where we were to begin the hike. Oh, I should also mention that in preparation for the hike, my friend Becca and I bought fanny packs. Let's talk about the most practical invention ever. I'm bringing them back my friends. Anyway, we were all set for the hike to Vernazza, the next town over. So about 40 of us are wandering around the trails trying to figure it out. Finally we hear from a birdie that the particular trail we were trying to hike was closed. So we found another way to get there, some sort of hike to get to the hike. At this point, completely after the fact, I can say I felt so accomplished and it was a wonderful hike blah blah. However, if you had asked me during the time, there may or may not have been tears welling. It was tough. At least the "hike to get to the hike" was. Then we found the real trail and from there it was much easier, and we had some spectacular views of the Mediterranean and the towns below us. After the hike I treated myself to a hotdog and a cold beverage, very Italian of me. After returning to the Villa that night we all completely crashed.

Fanny packs. Check.

On the boat ride.

Hiking group

A bit sweaty..

Vernanza down below!

Saturday was spent laying outside in the incredible weather. That night I realized I had become a complete tomato and was just harassed by my waiter at the restaurant that night. We went to this place called Zio Gigi's (Uncle Gigi) where the staff was so welcoming and Gigi sang to us and poked my sunburn and even gave it a kiss. He must have felt my pain. I actually have no idea if this man was Gigi or not, but it makes the story so much better.

Sunday was my first football game! (soccer actually) Most of the Villa folk went and cheered on Fiorentina even though they are one of the worst teams in the league. They played AC-Milan that night (who is one of the best) and only lost 2-1! So I guess that's pretty good right??

Heather and I ready for the game

Stadium

Becca and Heather

Monday night we had an outdoor dinner at the Villa. Everyone got all dressed up (even the boys) and Helen made us chicken on the grill. Tessa, Helen's puppy, nearly killed a rooster when she decided it was a play toy. No one really knew what to do so we just all sat there in shock. Finally one of the Professor's wives ran over and saved the day. Poor rooster.

Jason, Logan, and Paul before dinner

Fancy pants!

Villa gardens

More villa gardens

Pretty Tessa

Grace and I, matching as per usual

Camellia and I

This Friday some of us went on a hike from Fiesole (town outside of Florence) to Helen's home in Settignano. Tessa joined us as well. We got to see where Leonardo da Vinci performed his famous flying experiments and made his friend strap on the wings and plunge to what unfortunately was his death. Once again the weather was on our side and online reports of 70% chance of rain were wrong, and the day was beautiful! At Helen's apartment we enjoyed some sort of cherry juice that Bruno (the gardener, not the chef's) wife makes.

Views from Fiesole of Florence

Marker to commemorate Leonardo's flying experiments

Flying?

Some old castle

Hiker friends

Cherry juice!

Saturday night I got the once in a lifetime opportunity to go out to dinner with my Italian professor, Sarg. (Sarcinelli) A group of eleven of us met her in Florence and went out to dinner. She is absolutely one of my favorite people. She's like this scary, terrifying, sarcastic, but incredibly hilarious and wonderful woman. She says the most ridiculous things and most of Italian class is spent laughing. She picked out this place called Casalingua for us to eat. Ordering was quite the event. First she explained to us all the different combinations we could have of antipasti, primi piatti, secondi piatti, cotorni, and dolci. Then we proceeded to tell her what we wanted. But she shot almost everyone's choices down and said "no you can't have that!" Tomatoes aren't in season, so why would anyone in their right mind get bruschetta? We aren't in Bologna, so why would we order pasta bolognese? She corrected our orders, but thankfully so because my ravioli was delicious. After dinner we walked her to her apartment and she invited us all in for some wine. I don't think any of us could believe we were entering the home of THE Sarg! After awhile, we left, and a few of us went to this wonderful chocolate bar. Absolutely genius. Next stop was the Duomo to sit and enjoy ourselves and our last moments in Florence (and waste some time until we could go to the....) Secret bakery!! There is this bakery in Florence that makes many of the pastries for other places, so they operate during the night. Beginning around 1am you can go to the door and a man opens the door, you tell him what you want, and for only 1 euro you can get a fabulous pastry. I enjoyed a fabulous chocolate croissant because clearly I hadn't indulged enough that night. However, it was my first experience there and I am running out of days here!! Delicious.

Lauren and Grace

Jason and I

Sarg showing us her stuffed cat, Po

And that's almost it for what's going to be happening at the Villa!! I can't believe I'm leaving here Thursday morning! I'll keep posting during my post-program plans! Here's what I'll be up to until May 17:

Thursday morning I am heading to Switzerland and Germany with Heather for a week

Saturday morning I meet my parents in Rome and spending a week with them in Sorrento, Florence, and Rome

Finally I'm meeting my grandma for a week long cruise to the tip of Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Croatia!

One month from today I will be home in Minnesota!!

So this past weekend it was off to Ireland with Camellia, Grace, and Jenna! As per usual, the trip started off with a few bumps, because what would a trip be without a little misery? As it was, TrenItalia decided to go on strike Friday, which meant instead of taking a train from Sesto to Pisa, we would have to take a bus into Florence, and then another bus to Pisa. Seeing as the trains were cancelled, and it was rush hour (or whatever this hour is since I am convinced no Italian is actually going to work) everyone and their mother, grandmother, sister, brother, cousin, and friend of a friend, was on the bus going into Florence. Somehow I get stuck in front of the ticket-stamper machine, which means I then have to stamp everyone's ticket for them since no one can get over to the machine themselves. The ride was 45 minutes of what I assume hell is like. Sweltering hot and miserable. Finally, after what seemed to be hours we arrived in Florence and got tickets for the bus to Pisa. Which, surprise surprise, was running an hour late. After looking around we did a little mental math and realized there were way more people waiting for the bus than there could possibly be room for. We made friends with an English couple, who referred to us as their guardian angels for showing them where to buy tickets before hand. Once the bus finally came we played a little game of Italian, which entailed being completely unaware of any sort of line formation and got our way right up to the front and made sure we got on that bus. God knows when the next one would be coming. We had plans of spending the day in Pisa, but decided against chancing any more transportation disasters and laid in the sun for about 5 hours outside the airport. The flight was all good and well until about the last half hour. At this point I will mention that I was feeling miserable with a cold and my sinuses were up in the high heavens with pressure. As it turns out, Grace and I must have chosen to sit in a small pocket of hell because when the plane started to descend we both began to feel unbelievable amount of pressure in our ears and all throughout our faces. Not to be dramatic, but it was the most pain I've ever felt on a plane. Which really isn't saying that much since planes don't usually cause physical discomfort, but this was ridiculous. Not to mention we had a pilot in training who put us through a near death experience in landing. Now, I'm not an expert on flying or anything, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to slow down when you land, not speed up. Aforementioned pilot hadn't received this message yet. Of course, everyone still clapped upon landing, which is an activity I just refuse to participate in. My ear stayed plugged for two days and I was nearly convinced I had lost hearing in my right ear.

But we were in Dublin!! And from this point forward, God decided to be real nice to us the rest of our trip. After checking into our hostel we realized we were famished and headed to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen for dinner. I think it took us approximately 5 minutes to decide we loved this country and did not want to leave. Saturday morning we woke up and saw that there was a free walking tour at 11, which we decided could be interesting. Since these can be hit or miss, we planned some escape routes, involving accidentally falling behind if it was no good. But the tour turned out to be fantastic, we got to see pretty much everything we were hoping to, including the Dublin castle, which really isn't much of a castle at all. After the tour we got some lunch and then wandered the streets, in and out of quite a few bookstores since we were all just ecstatic that we could find books in English! We had a bus to catch to Galway at 7:15, and since it was a bit rainy and wet outside now, we decided to take a cab, which of course kicked us in the ass. We got stuck in tons of traffic and I probably could have crawled backwards to the bus stop. But you live and learn right? We think we're still on the living part, seeing as we don't learn much as we seem to make the same mistakes time and time again. But we made it in time and were headed off to Galway!

Sunday morning we got up and headed back to the bus station for our Cliffs of Moher tour. This turned out to be my favorite day I think of my entire semester thus far. Our tour guide, Desmond, had to be at least 70 years old, but he was as lively as a little kid. He sang to us, talked at least 90% of the time, and told us all sorts of stories. Including that oysters were an aphrodisiac, and he had 2 dozen last night, so watch out ladies! He really was quite the ladies' man. He also told us about sheep-cows that go "moomaaaa," which he finally admitted were just alpacas. Every time we passed sheep he would slow down and ask us if we wanted to take pictures, then honk his horn and wake all the poor sheep up. Desmond just laughed away. I think I want to be like him when I am older. Giving the same tour day after day for 18 years, and still able to make himself laugh. We were so lucky to have beautiful weather all day. In addition to the cliffs, we stopped at many other places along the way. For lunch we stopped at this pub where we all ate chicken goujans (spelling?) and fries, then went next door for some fudge. We could have probably ended the day there we were all so happy. But thankfully we didn't, because right after we went up to the cliffs which were just absolutely beautiful. After the Cliffs, we went to another set of cliffs, which if possible were even more spectacular. They were smaller, but still just as great. After we got back we were completely exhausted. We grabbed some Quiznos (cue major excitement) for dinner and went back to the hostel and watched When Harry Met Sally. Now if we don't know how to live on the wild side, I'm not sure I know who does.

Monday morning we spent just walking around and exploring Galway with Jenna's friend who is studying abroad there. She showed us her campus and we walked along the water. The weather was pretty nice out, despite the gale winds. We went to lunch at this little place called the Couch Potato where everything was served on a baked potato. This bode well for me considering baked potatoes happen to be on the list of foods I love. That afternoon we took a bus back to Dublin. We had made reservations at this place called the Arlington Hotel for dinner and an Irish music and dance show. First course I had some sort of funny soup that sort of resembled and tasted like melted baby food. Grace thought I was being ridiculous, so I made her eat it because the waitress thought I would love it. I didn't want to disappoint. Thankfully, my "bangers and mash" and apple pie were both delicious. The music and dancing were both very entertaining. Since Desmond made us listen to Galway Girl umpteen times on Sunday, we requested the song.

Tuesday, our last day in Ireland, we spent exactly how it should be. We went on a tour of the Jameson Distillery. In the beginning of the tour, our guide asked for volunteers who wanted to be involved in a taste testing of various whiskeys at the end of the tour. Grace and I shot our hands into the air probably before he even finished asking. We got to try Jameson, a Scottish whiskey, and Jack Daniels. He described all the different aromas and tastes we were supposed to notice. I'm not so sure I did. But I got a certificate of completion and you can bet that baby will be hung right next to my diploma! Aren't you proud momma? After the tour we decided it was necessary that while in an English speaking country, we see a movie. That, and I was craving popcorn and we really didn't have anywhere else left we wanted to see. So the movie theater it was for Source Code. Interesting movie. I was confused for most of it, but really can't complain too much since my man Jake Gyllenhaal is the star.

After the movie it was about time to head back to Italy. Probably in some sort of divine compensation for the misery on the travel into Ireland, getting back into Italy was smooth as glass. Our flight even landed 20 minutes early so with a little bit of sprinting, we were able to catch the last bus into Florence and got home more than two hours earlier than we had expected! So, Ireland was probably my favorite place I've gone thus far. I think I'll return. Cheers!