When I first met my new Italian family one of the first questions that my host mom asked was if I knew how to make pancakes. So either that first or second weekend that I was here I made them pancakes for a good ol’ American breakfast. It was a lot of fun and we agreed to do it again. Well in the mean time I had asked Nicole to send me a bottle of syrup because Italians don’t know really what it is and don’t carry it in the grocery stores. But once the bottle of syrup arrived we were all kind of busy and the pancakes never really happened again until both Paola and I realized that I only had a week or so left and that we needed to have pancakes one last time. We set up a date for Sunday morning but when it came time to make them we realized that we were out of milk. So we were trying to find out when we would be able to make them again and came up with having them for dessert after dinner on Monday and this was when I told her that sometimes in America we’ll have breakfast for dinner so it wouldn’t be that strange to have the pancakes. I’m not sure if she was going off of my comment or not but for dinner on Monday we had scrambled eggs (the first time I’ve had them here) plain rice, asparagus and then of course the pancakes for dessert, lol! It was a very strange meal!
As my time here draws to an end I am finding that I’m starting to become nostalgic and that it is truly going to be difficult to leave. Today I gave my host mom a plant and some chocolates from the most amazing chocolate store as a thank you for everything. She had actually gotten me a gift as well and it’s this really cool book that is all about the castle that is here in Ferrara. We then had a really, really good talk about how wonderful the last few months have been and she kept saying that she was really going to miss me and that she loved having me live here. It was so sweet and it’s making it even harder for me to leave! But we did exchange emails and I will keep in touch with her!
Tomorrow is the final aperitivo (before dinner drinks/snacks) with the whole group plus all of our teachers and host families. I’m looking forward to it, partly because there will be free alcohol, but at the same time I have to say my goodbyes which I feel are going to be much harder this time around. It’s not that I’m going to miss this group anymore than I miss the last but that this time it’s my turn to say goodbye to Ferrara…
I do get the opportunity to show my town to my sister though as she arrives on Friday. We spend a day or two here and one in Venice then it’s off to Lake Como and the Cinque Terre. Then it’s back to Ferrara for a night so that I can pick up ALL of my luggage (I have acquired quite a bit since I first arrived in August) and then down to Rome for my final two days in Italia.
Well this will probably be it as far as blogs go. Sorry that there were not more of them but I hope that you guys have enjoyed the ones that are posted.
See you all soon!!!!
Ciao,
Kelsey
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
8 down 1 to go....
Just thought I should point out the fact that as of tomorrow I have only 1 month until I leave Italy and my feet are once again on U.S. soil!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Spring Break
Ok so I know that it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything but you should all know that I’m not a big fan of writing and right now I’m having to work on some papers that are due (yes, unfortunately I do have school work that I have to do while I’m here) so my enthusiasm for writing my blog has not been at it’s highest. Anyways a lot has been going on so this may get to be long or I may just breeze through it all….
First off most of you have seen my Spring Break pictures so I’ll give you an update of that trip.
Me and another girl that has been here for the whole year decided that for Spring Break we wanted to go to Croatia because we both heard that it is beautiful there and they are supposed to have some of the best beaches. We thought that a perfect Spring Break would involve lots of lounging around on the Adriatic Sea. We decided to hit up Slovenia along the way because we didn’t really know anything about the country and figured it wouldn’t hurt to spend a few days there! So before we left the only thing that we had planned was that we were spending 2 nights in Ljubljana, Slovenia (the capital)...
We arrive in Ljubljana on Friday night and check into our hostel and head out for dinner and drinks. While out at this pub these four guys started talking with us. They were all from Slovenia and they were hilarious! We sat and chatted with them until the bar closed and they convinced us to go out to this nightclub with them. We figured why not and headed out with them. Well this club was probably the strangest one I’ve ever been too. It’s on the top floor of a 7-story building and the front door is an elevator that is on the outside of the building. There isn’t a sign or anything on the elevator but there are just 2 bouncers and a small velvet rope. I was a little nervous at first because really what kind of club is like that but it turned out to be pretty decent. They were playing Serbian music which was the first time that I’ve ever heard it and it wasn’t too bad. One of the guys we were with described it as putting your hands in the air and unscrewing light bulbs and he was right on with his description! Ok so we go back to the hostel after a little bit and when we wake up the next morning we descover that it’s snowing!!!!!! Spring Break is NOT supposed to involve snow (at least not the spring break that we were imagining.) We decided to head out anyways and went and explored the Ljubljana Castle but after a few hours we couldn’t handle it anymore and walked back to the hostel to find our next destination. After doing some research we discover that EVERYWHERE in the Southern part of Europe is supposed to have rain/snow for the whole next week!
We thought we were screwed until we stumbled upon some really cheap flights to Malta, which by the way was supposed to be the only spot in Europe to be sunny with NO rain!!! Of course we booked them right away! Our flight didn’t leave until Tuesday (it was only Saturday) so we had to find something to do for 3 days. We heard that there is supposed to be great hot springs in Slovenia so we looked some of them up and on Sunday we were on a train to Lasko (pronounced Lashko.) Well this is just a small little village somewhere in the middle of the mountains in the middle of Slovenia and it was such a cute/wonderful/strange little town. We checked into a hotel (note: not hostel!!!) and it was heaven!!! The hotel that we were staying at allowed us free access into the spa pools and saunas so after grabbing a bite to eat we headed to the spa. What a great way to spend Easter Sunday! Well I would have rather been with my family but this was the next best thing, lol! We woke up the next day and got massages and then headed back to Ljubljana for a night and then back to Venice to catch the flight to Malta.
Alright so Malta is a small island about 90km South of Sicily and we also discovered that it is where Europeans tend to vacation. It’s kind of like their version of our Caribbean. We somehow managed to book a hotel (for cheaper than hostel prices) in the heart of the nightlife of the island. Our first night out we turned a corner to find two full blocks FILLED with nightclubs! We were amazed!!!! We first walked down through all of them and checking them all out but we kept noticing something really strange…everyone on the street was sooooo young. We didn’t think too much of it at first but then after a little while I realized that I was at least 10 years older than some of the kids that were out at these clubs. Come to find out that you only have to be 16 to go out to the clubs there (that is actually the average age in most of Europe but in Italy they really don’t go out when they are that young so neither of us was used to it.) But anyways just because the signs say you have to be 16 they don’t enforce it. I swear there were at least a dozen kids that were only 10!!!! It was insane…and not only was there so many young kids but there was nobody that was my age. It was probably one of the strangest nights I’ve ever spent at a bar!
The next day we just spent exploring the capital of Malta and when we went out again that night we discovered that Malta does have citizens that are in their 20’s! It was much better but still filled with a lot of youngsters. On Friday we took a ferry over to Gozo, a smaller island right off of Malta. It’s not very far and when the water is calmer I bet people swim between the islands, it’s that close. It was amazing! We got ‘conned’ into taking a jeep tour of the island and at first we seriously thought we were getting ripped off but our guide took us to so many different spots all around the island and it was all so beautiful. The weather was warm that day but it was SUPER windy. That actually made some incredible waves and it was so much fun to be able to watch the waves crash against the rocks.
The next day we laid on the beach, got a little bit sunburned and then flew back to Venice. Overall it was an amazing Spring Break. I managed to have about ever kind of weather possible from snow, to rain, to sun and was also about to explore two countries that I bet over half of the US population has ever heard of!
Well I was going to write more but I think that's about all I can handle right now.
First off most of you have seen my Spring Break pictures so I’ll give you an update of that trip.
Me and another girl that has been here for the whole year decided that for Spring Break we wanted to go to Croatia because we both heard that it is beautiful there and they are supposed to have some of the best beaches. We thought that a perfect Spring Break would involve lots of lounging around on the Adriatic Sea. We decided to hit up Slovenia along the way because we didn’t really know anything about the country and figured it wouldn’t hurt to spend a few days there! So before we left the only thing that we had planned was that we were spending 2 nights in Ljubljana, Slovenia (the capital)...
We arrive in Ljubljana on Friday night and check into our hostel and head out for dinner and drinks. While out at this pub these four guys started talking with us. They were all from Slovenia and they were hilarious! We sat and chatted with them until the bar closed and they convinced us to go out to this nightclub with them. We figured why not and headed out with them. Well this club was probably the strangest one I’ve ever been too. It’s on the top floor of a 7-story building and the front door is an elevator that is on the outside of the building. There isn’t a sign or anything on the elevator but there are just 2 bouncers and a small velvet rope. I was a little nervous at first because really what kind of club is like that but it turned out to be pretty decent. They were playing Serbian music which was the first time that I’ve ever heard it and it wasn’t too bad. One of the guys we were with described it as putting your hands in the air and unscrewing light bulbs and he was right on with his description! Ok so we go back to the hostel after a little bit and when we wake up the next morning we descover that it’s snowing!!!!!! Spring Break is NOT supposed to involve snow (at least not the spring break that we were imagining.) We decided to head out anyways and went and explored the Ljubljana Castle but after a few hours we couldn’t handle it anymore and walked back to the hostel to find our next destination. After doing some research we discover that EVERYWHERE in the Southern part of Europe is supposed to have rain/snow for the whole next week!
We thought we were screwed until we stumbled upon some really cheap flights to Malta, which by the way was supposed to be the only spot in Europe to be sunny with NO rain!!! Of course we booked them right away! Our flight didn’t leave until Tuesday (it was only Saturday) so we had to find something to do for 3 days. We heard that there is supposed to be great hot springs in Slovenia so we looked some of them up and on Sunday we were on a train to Lasko (pronounced Lashko.) Well this is just a small little village somewhere in the middle of the mountains in the middle of Slovenia and it was such a cute/wonderful/strange little town. We checked into a hotel (note: not hostel!!!) and it was heaven!!! The hotel that we were staying at allowed us free access into the spa pools and saunas so after grabbing a bite to eat we headed to the spa. What a great way to spend Easter Sunday! Well I would have rather been with my family but this was the next best thing, lol! We woke up the next day and got massages and then headed back to Ljubljana for a night and then back to Venice to catch the flight to Malta.
Alright so Malta is a small island about 90km South of Sicily and we also discovered that it is where Europeans tend to vacation. It’s kind of like their version of our Caribbean. We somehow managed to book a hotel (for cheaper than hostel prices) in the heart of the nightlife of the island. Our first night out we turned a corner to find two full blocks FILLED with nightclubs! We were amazed!!!! We first walked down through all of them and checking them all out but we kept noticing something really strange…everyone on the street was sooooo young. We didn’t think too much of it at first but then after a little while I realized that I was at least 10 years older than some of the kids that were out at these clubs. Come to find out that you only have to be 16 to go out to the clubs there (that is actually the average age in most of Europe but in Italy they really don’t go out when they are that young so neither of us was used to it.) But anyways just because the signs say you have to be 16 they don’t enforce it. I swear there were at least a dozen kids that were only 10!!!! It was insane…and not only was there so many young kids but there was nobody that was my age. It was probably one of the strangest nights I’ve ever spent at a bar!
The next day we just spent exploring the capital of Malta and when we went out again that night we discovered that Malta does have citizens that are in their 20’s! It was much better but still filled with a lot of youngsters. On Friday we took a ferry over to Gozo, a smaller island right off of Malta. It’s not very far and when the water is calmer I bet people swim between the islands, it’s that close. It was amazing! We got ‘conned’ into taking a jeep tour of the island and at first we seriously thought we were getting ripped off but our guide took us to so many different spots all around the island and it was all so beautiful. The weather was warm that day but it was SUPER windy. That actually made some incredible waves and it was so much fun to be able to watch the waves crash against the rocks.
The next day we laid on the beach, got a little bit sunburned and then flew back to Venice. Overall it was an amazing Spring Break. I managed to have about ever kind of weather possible from snow, to rain, to sun and was also about to explore two countries that I bet over half of the US population has ever heard of!
Well I was going to write more but I think that's about all I can handle right now.
Oh and just so everyone knows as of today, April 10, I only 37 days until I come home!!!
Friday, February 29, 2008
A date in Italy: Take Two
Last weekend I finally made it to one of the discoteca’s here in Ferrara. Last semester there were many attempts but because they don’t open the doors until midnight and you can’t really show up before 1am (nobody wants to be the first person in a club and have to dance alone!) we were almost always too drunk or too tired to venture to one. Anyways a group of about 5 or 6 of us show up and to my surprise it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The music wasn’t all bad techno like I had been told and they played almost entirely American music so it was nice to be able to sing along to the songs. At one point they even played a remix of the Grease soundtrack! While I was out on the dance floor I encountered a very beautiful Italian man with whom I danced with for the majority of the rest of the night. The whole time we were dancing and never exchanged a single word and when it was time to be done dancing he entered his phone number in my phone along with his name, Mattia, and that was that. I seriously don’t think we said a single word to each other and we danced for about an hour or so. Well of course he had me very intrigued because we didn’t say anything to each other and since he was so gorgeous I figured that we needed another encounter. As I left the club I sent him a quick little text message saying “Quando ti vado ancora?” (when will I see you again?) and after a few days of exchanging text messages a date was agreed upon and the following is a quick synopsis of our date.
On Wednesday he met me in one of the piazza’s and we walked to a nearby bar for a drink. Because we never exchanged words at the disco I had no idea if he spoke any English or not and not surprisingly he doesn’t. I actually really enjoy this fact about him because it was the first time since I have arrived in Italy that I was forced to speak entirely in Italian for a whole evening. And much to my surprise I actually did quite well. Of course we didn’t have any intense conversations about politics, religion, philosophy, etc. but either way it was a success. While at the bar I learned that he also enjoys playing pool and so after our drinks we were off to a pool hall. He took me to the largest pool hall I have ever seen in my life! There were at least 30 tables!!! We played for a while and then it was time to return home. He is 25 years old and lives just outside of Ferrara in his own apartment. This fact is pretty surprising because in Italy it is VERY uncommon for an unmarried man/woman to live with anybody besides his or her parents. Mom, you should take note of this fact because it means he must have some money because it’s really expensive to live by yourself here. So either he gets paid exceptionally well or his family has money. Speaking of getting paid he does have a very good job...he is a fireman!!!! I don’t know why but when I think of professions in Italy I think of pretty much everything but a fireman. I mean, I know that they would have to have them here but still, do you understand? Anyways I just found a guy with two of the some of the most ideal qualities you would look for in a man: he’s both Italian and a fireman.
I asked him if they have fireman calendars in Italy as well and he said they do. It seems as if the image of a fireman is something that is universal and that all women like to look at them.
Besides my date I have been extremely busy lately with school and school-sponsored activities. Last week they hosted another wine tasting dinner and when you think of wine tasting you think of a good time. This was anything but! The way it was set up was that we were going to try 6 different wines with a course for every wine. Now you think 6 wines, 6 Italian courses, hmmm what could be better, right? Well your wrong! First off we didn’t get our first course until we had been at the restaurant for over 2 hours and then when it did come out you will never guess what it was. It was a small pile of crab puree with a slice of grapefruit and tabasco sauce drizzled on the plate! SERIOUSLY who would ever eat something like that!!!! It was by far one of the worst combinations of food and pretty much every plate was collected with all of the food remaining! After that the courses did get better but they were all very small portions and when you combine no food with lots of wine of course you will end up with drunken people! The whole thing lasted for 6 hours with us not leaving until 2am and I had class bright and early the next morning! I wasn’t too impressed! The only good thing that came from the evening was at the end they gave us each a chocolate castle that is the same castle that we have here in Ferrara. It’s pretty cool!
Following are some pictures from the wine tasting. Unfortunately I don’t have any of my Italian fireman but I have a feeling that I will be seeing him again…
Our awful first course.....
On Wednesday he met me in one of the piazza’s and we walked to a nearby bar for a drink. Because we never exchanged words at the disco I had no idea if he spoke any English or not and not surprisingly he doesn’t. I actually really enjoy this fact about him because it was the first time since I have arrived in Italy that I was forced to speak entirely in Italian for a whole evening. And much to my surprise I actually did quite well. Of course we didn’t have any intense conversations about politics, religion, philosophy, etc. but either way it was a success. While at the bar I learned that he also enjoys playing pool and so after our drinks we were off to a pool hall. He took me to the largest pool hall I have ever seen in my life! There were at least 30 tables!!! We played for a while and then it was time to return home. He is 25 years old and lives just outside of Ferrara in his own apartment. This fact is pretty surprising because in Italy it is VERY uncommon for an unmarried man/woman to live with anybody besides his or her parents. Mom, you should take note of this fact because it means he must have some money because it’s really expensive to live by yourself here. So either he gets paid exceptionally well or his family has money. Speaking of getting paid he does have a very good job...he is a fireman!!!! I don’t know why but when I think of professions in Italy I think of pretty much everything but a fireman. I mean, I know that they would have to have them here but still, do you understand? Anyways I just found a guy with two of the some of the most ideal qualities you would look for in a man: he’s both Italian and a fireman.
I asked him if they have fireman calendars in Italy as well and he said they do. It seems as if the image of a fireman is something that is universal and that all women like to look at them.
Besides my date I have been extremely busy lately with school and school-sponsored activities. Last week they hosted another wine tasting dinner and when you think of wine tasting you think of a good time. This was anything but! The way it was set up was that we were going to try 6 different wines with a course for every wine. Now you think 6 wines, 6 Italian courses, hmmm what could be better, right? Well your wrong! First off we didn’t get our first course until we had been at the restaurant for over 2 hours and then when it did come out you will never guess what it was. It was a small pile of crab puree with a slice of grapefruit and tabasco sauce drizzled on the plate! SERIOUSLY who would ever eat something like that!!!! It was by far one of the worst combinations of food and pretty much every plate was collected with all of the food remaining! After that the courses did get better but they were all very small portions and when you combine no food with lots of wine of course you will end up with drunken people! The whole thing lasted for 6 hours with us not leaving until 2am and I had class bright and early the next morning! I wasn’t too impressed! The only good thing that came from the evening was at the end they gave us each a chocolate castle that is the same castle that we have here in Ferrara. It’s pretty cool!
Following are some pictures from the wine tasting. Unfortunately I don’t have any of my Italian fireman but I have a feeling that I will be seeing him again…
Our awful first course.....
This is how bored we were....notice how I won!
Some people tried to look so smart...really we didn't learn anything though
Me and Liz before going out to the disco
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
An Ordinary Life
I have been living in Italy for just over 5 months now and it has finally hit me that I’m actually living here. I mean last semester I had the excitement of getting here and exploring but as with anytime you move somewhere new that excitement wears off and you start to get into a routine. My life here is good, different, but good. My class schedule isn’t too bad, I only hav one class a day and on Thursday’s that class doesn’t start until 3pm so I can sleep in after a night of partying on Wednesdays (that’s the night that all of the university students go out here.) The greatest thing lately has been the fact that I’m now playing pool on a regular basis again. There is a pretty decent pool hall that is fairly close to my house and I’ve been going with one of the guys from the program about 2-3 times a week. There are 8 tables in the main room but there is this back room that also has some tables that I’m kind of curious about. The thing with that room is that you have to be a member in order to play there and it’s all these old guys that are always in there and they all bring their own cues and I really want to find out just how good they are. I think they just go in there and drink and talk and don’t really play all that much and are just in there to ‘look’ cool but that’s only a theory. I bet I could totally take them at a game of 9-ball, lol!
Last week was Carnevale in Venice and of course I went. It was a lot of fun but a little different then what I was expecting. We got there around 3:30 and hunted for masks until we each found the perfect ones. Then of course we started drinking! By about 8 or 9 most of us were pretty well hammered but it made the night a whole lot more interesting. There was a huge concert in San Marco and there was this amazing band that performed. I don’t know what their name was but it was a group of 4 really hot girls and they played the fiddle and just had a really great sound to them, kind of an Irish/bluegrass/country mix (ok that sounds kind of odd but take my word for it, they were amazing.) I really wish I knew their name because I would totally go and see them again. Anyways the best part of the evening came when everyone, and I mean pretty much everyone that was in Venice and not just in our program, decided that they had to catch the last train out at midnight. It was this huge crowd that was basically running down all of these tiny little streets. It was a little crazy. Then one of the girls from the program decided she wanted to feel how cold the water was in the Grand Canal. She started to walk down these marble steps that lead directly into the water but the very first one was covered in algae and she slipped and fell in!!!! There were some Italians that immediately started singing and clapping this song that they have for when tourists fall in the water (it goes something like Shit, Shit, you fell in!) She was completely soaked from head to toe and smelled so bad!!!! Poor girl, but it has to be by far the funniest thing that has happened since I have been here.
Last week was Carnevale in Venice and of course I went. It was a lot of fun but a little different then what I was expecting. We got there around 3:30 and hunted for masks until we each found the perfect ones. Then of course we started drinking! By about 8 or 9 most of us were pretty well hammered but it made the night a whole lot more interesting. There was a huge concert in San Marco and there was this amazing band that performed. I don’t know what their name was but it was a group of 4 really hot girls and they played the fiddle and just had a really great sound to them, kind of an Irish/bluegrass/country mix (ok that sounds kind of odd but take my word for it, they were amazing.) I really wish I knew their name because I would totally go and see them again. Anyways the best part of the evening came when everyone, and I mean pretty much everyone that was in Venice and not just in our program, decided that they had to catch the last train out at midnight. It was this huge crowd that was basically running down all of these tiny little streets. It was a little crazy. Then one of the girls from the program decided she wanted to feel how cold the water was in the Grand Canal. She started to walk down these marble steps that lead directly into the water but the very first one was covered in algae and she slipped and fell in!!!! There were some Italians that immediately started singing and clapping this song that they have for when tourists fall in the water (it goes something like Shit, Shit, you fell in!) She was completely soaked from head to toe and smelled so bad!!!! Poor girl, but it has to be by far the funniest thing that has happened since I have been here.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
It's not always a spoonful of sugar....
It is only three weeks into the new semester and I can say that I have already had more doubts about being here and homesickness feelings than I ever had the whole of last semester. Last semester was all about arriving in a foreign country and having the experience of a lifetime; I thought that the second semester would be similar but so far I’ve been mistaken. This last month, I would have to say has been one of the hardest months that I have experienced ever. I don’t want you guys to get the wrong idea because I do truly love Italy and living here has been amazing but I have asked myself on numerous occasions lately ‘why am I still here?’ I won’t go into why I’m having all these feelings because I know that to an outsider they would sound petty considering where I’m living and what I’m getting to experience but living in a foreign country for a year isn’t always as grand as you would imagine. Sorry that this blog isn’t as happy and exciting as most but I felt that it needed to be said. I don’t want any pity or you guys to feel sad for me...although a phone call or care package wouldn't be too bad, lol :)
On the lighter side I’m going to Venice on Tuesday for Carnevale!!!! It’s going to be CRAZY and I’m sure that I’ll have some amazing stories from it. Also I was informed that this last Thursday was Fat Thursday…I have never heard of this day before and when my host mom informed me of this I thought that maybe she meant to say Fat Tuesday but nope in Italy they also have Fat Thursday…kind of interesting.
On the lighter side I’m going to Venice on Tuesday for Carnevale!!!! It’s going to be CRAZY and I’m sure that I’ll have some amazing stories from it. Also I was informed that this last Thursday was Fat Thursday…I have never heard of this day before and when my host mom informed me of this I thought that maybe she meant to say Fat Tuesday but nope in Italy they also have Fat Thursday…kind of interesting.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
When in Rome...do I have to eat peas???
Last week I moved in with an Italian family. I had briefly met them before Christmas so I feel that made the move a little easier but really how easy is it to move in with a family you don't really know, especially since I don't really know their language either. Anyways my new family is amazing! There are some downside to living with a family but for the most part it's a pretty good setup. Ok so who are they???
The mom in the family, Paola, is very, very nice. She works in the Castello Estense but I'm not quite certain exactly what she does there. Either way wouldn't it be cool to say that you went to work everyday in a castle??? She speaks some English which I think has made the transition a lot easier.
There is also the dad, I couldn't quite catch what his name was when we were introduced and his position in the family I'm still not clear on. I know that he is the father of my new little brother but not my new sister. He does not live in the house and he works at night, again doing what I have no clue. I'll make sure to post an update once I know a little more but as of right now this is all I know about him. But either way the few times that I have seen him he has always been very nice to me.
The daughter, Diletta, is 18 and also very, very nice! The first night I moved in she took me out with her and her boyfriend and it was a lot of fun. They actually took me to play pool!!!! They had no idea that I loved to play so it was quite the coincidence!
The little boy, Giorgio, is about 6 or 7 and boy does he have a lot of energy. He can be really sweet but also quite annoying but I guess that goes along with the age.
My new house is amazing!!! It's in town which I cannot even express how wonderful that is alone but the best part is that it is only 2 blocks from my language school. It is a part of an apartment complex but you can't really tell. It is two stories and pretty modern in decorations but still has some old qualities to it. For example in the dining room there are still the original doors, pretty impressive since it was built during the Renaissance. I have a room downstairs next to the daughters and it's ok but not anything special. They are in the process of building a bathroom downstairs and when that is done it'll be so nice. It's supposed to be finished next week but in Italy that really means in about a month or two.
The other amazing part about living with a family is the food! Paola is an excellent cook and it's so nice to have my meals prepared for me instead of me having to cook something, lol! Every morning I wake up and there is coffee made and some bread with Nutella, can't really get much better than that!
Now I'm sure that you are wondering about the title of this blog because really what does eating peas have to do with my new home...Well like I said before Paola is an amazing cook and by living here I've been able to try some amazing new Italian dishes that I never new existed BUT there is also some downsides to that. On Wednesday she was getting ready to make dinner and she asked me if I like seafood and of course anyone that knows me should know that I LOVE seafood, so I was very excited for dinner especially after she started cooking it and the house started smelling so delicious. We sat down at the table and she dishes up my plate and serves it to me and it took every inch of will power not to start gagging. On my plate was not only the squid, which I really do love, but also there was a MOUND of peas!!!!! Now when I say a mound I mean my WHOLE plate was filled with them with a little bit of squid mixed into it. I HATE PEAS and sitting before me was a least a whole can of them!!!!! Being new in the house I couldn't just say "hey I don't like peas can I have something else," no I had to eat them and eat them without letting them know that I didn't like it!!!!! It was the hardest thing I've had to do since moving to Italy, lol!!! But I decided that it is karma because that same day for class we had to create some sentences using some new words that we were working on and no joke this is the sentence that I created "I piselli sono molti cattivi" - Peas are VERY disgusting....
The mom in the family, Paola, is very, very nice. She works in the Castello Estense but I'm not quite certain exactly what she does there. Either way wouldn't it be cool to say that you went to work everyday in a castle??? She speaks some English which I think has made the transition a lot easier.
There is also the dad, I couldn't quite catch what his name was when we were introduced and his position in the family I'm still not clear on. I know that he is the father of my new little brother but not my new sister. He does not live in the house and he works at night, again doing what I have no clue. I'll make sure to post an update once I know a little more but as of right now this is all I know about him. But either way the few times that I have seen him he has always been very nice to me.
The daughter, Diletta, is 18 and also very, very nice! The first night I moved in she took me out with her and her boyfriend and it was a lot of fun. They actually took me to play pool!!!! They had no idea that I loved to play so it was quite the coincidence!
The little boy, Giorgio, is about 6 or 7 and boy does he have a lot of energy. He can be really sweet but also quite annoying but I guess that goes along with the age.
My new house is amazing!!! It's in town which I cannot even express how wonderful that is alone but the best part is that it is only 2 blocks from my language school. It is a part of an apartment complex but you can't really tell. It is two stories and pretty modern in decorations but still has some old qualities to it. For example in the dining room there are still the original doors, pretty impressive since it was built during the Renaissance. I have a room downstairs next to the daughters and it's ok but not anything special. They are in the process of building a bathroom downstairs and when that is done it'll be so nice. It's supposed to be finished next week but in Italy that really means in about a month or two.
The other amazing part about living with a family is the food! Paola is an excellent cook and it's so nice to have my meals prepared for me instead of me having to cook something, lol! Every morning I wake up and there is coffee made and some bread with Nutella, can't really get much better than that!
Now I'm sure that you are wondering about the title of this blog because really what does eating peas have to do with my new home...Well like I said before Paola is an amazing cook and by living here I've been able to try some amazing new Italian dishes that I never new existed BUT there is also some downsides to that. On Wednesday she was getting ready to make dinner and she asked me if I like seafood and of course anyone that knows me should know that I LOVE seafood, so I was very excited for dinner especially after she started cooking it and the house started smelling so delicious. We sat down at the table and she dishes up my plate and serves it to me and it took every inch of will power not to start gagging. On my plate was not only the squid, which I really do love, but also there was a MOUND of peas!!!!! Now when I say a mound I mean my WHOLE plate was filled with them with a little bit of squid mixed into it. I HATE PEAS and sitting before me was a least a whole can of them!!!!! Being new in the house I couldn't just say "hey I don't like peas can I have something else," no I had to eat them and eat them without letting them know that I didn't like it!!!!! It was the hardest thing I've had to do since moving to Italy, lol!!! But I decided that it is karma because that same day for class we had to create some sentences using some new words that we were working on and no joke this is the sentence that I created "I piselli sono molti cattivi" - Peas are VERY disgusting....
Friday, January 4, 2008
A Christmas Story....
I was fortunate enough to spend this Christmas in one of my most favorite places in the whole world! The best Christmas present I could have asked for was a plane ticket back to Portland to be able to spend the holiday with my family. Unfortunately, we decided this at the last minute so for me to get from Ferrara, Italy to Portland, Oregon it was one of the craziest and longest trips of my life. My journey was almost like it came straight out of the movies because of what I had to go through in order to surprise my niece and nephew on Christmas morning.
Me leaving Ferrara
That will be one Christmas morning that I will never forget!
Me leaving Ferrara
I left Ferrara at 2:30pm on December 22. Because I was trying to save some money I took one of the Intercity trains, these are usually the cheapest but also the longest because they stop at many different towns. Another feature of the Intercity trains is that you are not assigned seats so when you get on you just pick whatever seat you can find. Well….since it was only a few days before Christmas the train was completely packed and when I mean completely packed I mean there were probably at least four times as many people on the train as their were seats, seriously I’m not joking!!! I, like most everyone on the train, was not fortunate enough to claim a seat and had to stand with all of my luggage in the end section of one of the cars. It’s difficult to explain but for those of you who have not been on a train before this is the area where you get on and off, transfer to another car and also where the bathroom is. It’s not a very big area and there were about 9 of us standing in it with all of our bags. It is also a very busy area because people are walking through it all the time. We were crammed into this tiny little spot and every time someone had to walk through it we all had to rearrange our bags and our selves in order for the person, who also would have luggage to haul through, could somehow squeeze themselves through. It was like this for 4.5 hours! The upside was that I became friends with the people that were sharing this spot with me and by the end of the trip we were like family. They were all very nice and helpful and they all wanted to be my boyfriends. Oh Italian men!
Ok, so I finally make it to the Rome train station at about 7pm and I hop on another train towards the airport. My flight was not scheduled to leave until the next morning at 10:30am. Now you’re probably thinking “why is Kelsey going to the airport a full 15 hours before she is scheduled to take off?” I’ll tell you…there was no train from Ferrara to Rome that would get me there early enough in the morning so I had to go the night before. And again I was trying to save some money so after doing a little research I discovered that the Rome airport was a decent enough place to spend the night. I got to the airport and set up camp on a bench that had five seats and no armrests!!! It was a perfect bed for the night. This might sound a little crazy to you but I want you to know that I was not the only one sleeping in the airport that night. In fact the airport was full of people who were planning on sleeping there and by about 10pm there was not an empty bench within site (I didn’t wander around for fear of losing my amazing spot.)
Flying over the Alps
In the morning I got on my plane and was headed to Amsterdam! Because my trip home was last minute the best flights were already booked. The wonderful ticket agent that I spent a good amount of time on the phone with was able to get me from Amsterdam to American with no problem but she couldn’t get me from Italy to Amsterdam that easily. As a result I landed in Amsterdam the day before I was scheduled to depart for the States. This was ok with me because I’ve always wanted to go there and with a full night layover it was perfect. This time I booked a hostel though so that I wouldn’t have to sleep in the airport again.
After checking into the hostel at around 3pm, I headed out to check out some of the sights that Amsterdam has to offer. I was walking around and across the canal from me I spotted a strip club type place. Because this was my first sighting of anything like this I stopped and took a picture. I was standing there looking across the canal I forgot to pay attention to what was on my side of it. As I turned to my left I was startled to discover three very young looking, practically nude girls just standing in the window right next to where I was standing. I know that that is what the Red Light district is like and I have no problem with that but I didn’t realize that I was in the Red Light district at that moment and it’s a little shocking to all of a sudden see almost naked girls in a window less then 100 feet from you. I quickly walked away so that I could regain myself and try and stop laughing at how shocked I was and then just walked around some more. Now I was tired, sick (I forgot to mention that I got a somewhat bad cold the day before I left Ferrara which made traveling even more annoying) and alone so my experience in Amsterdam was not one that most people would envy. I just walked around for a few hours then returned to my hostel for a good nights sleep. I had to be up at 5:30am to go back to the airport and since I was already sick I figured I could use the rest instead of a night out partying.
My favorite picture from Amsterdam
The rest of the trip went smoothly. I left Amsterdam at 10:20, arrived in Minneapolis at 12:30, had a 2.5 hour layover there and then finally was able to get on a plane that would take me to Portland! I landed in Portland at 4:30pm where Nicole was waiting to pick me up! If you count from the time I left Ferrara to the time I landed in Portland (do not take the time changes into account so 4:30pm in Portland is really 1:30am in Ferrara) you will discover that my trip home took me almost 60 hours!!!! At some point during this 60 hour trip I was able to calculate that my total travel time from leaving Ferrara and getting to Portland and then leaving Portland and arriving back in Italy was about 80 hours total (you can see my trip back was MUCH shorter.)
I was only in Portland for 120 hours. That means that I spent way too much time traveling and not that much time in Portland!
The kids had no clue that I was coming so I didn’t get to Wendy’s house until after both of them had gone to sleep. When they woke up in the morning they went into the living room and were checking out what Santa had brought them. I was hiding in the kitchen at this point and it was so hard not to just run out there and give them hugs but I had to wait for the perfect time to make my grand entrance. Just as I heard them start talking about opening up the packages that were under the tree I walked in holding the presents that I had brought back and said something along the lines of “Here are a few more for you guys to open.” I will never forget their reactions. Both of their mouths just dropped open and neither of them said a single word or moved a muscle! I finally convinced them to come give me a hug and after hugging me for a couple of seconds Faith took a step back and just said “Kelsey???” We all thought that the kids would go crazy when they saw me but instead they were both in complete shock. I don’t think they would have been in any more shock had Santa Clause walked into the living room that morning.
That will be one Christmas morning that I will never forget!
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