e-mail I sent my dad....
umm so
Today I am in Syros.
Tommorow I leave on a ferry to go back to Athens, I will spend the night in Athens with a girl named Maria from couchsurfing.com
on tuesday the 12th I leave for London Luton, I get in about 1030 pm which sucks, but I am staying three nights in a hostel in the middle of london, I plan on seeing Les Mis and Spring amwakining and taking picture in front of the station 9 3/4... :)
on friday may 15 I leave for Southampton, england, where I will be staying with a friend named Jodie, who was a girl I met at Southwoods.
On tuesday may 19th I am going to southern france to Marsielle where I will be staying with... well thats a good question. haha I still havn't got a place yet. :/
then on thursday may 21 I fly back to england and go to canteburry to stay with my friend steph who I also met in southwoods untill the 25th of may when I head to Paris, France and I will be staying with a couple of girls from couchsurfing.com then the thursday after I am taking a train to stay with Charlotte in brussels and then on the 31st I fly to Rome, I am staying with the people I babysat for, for a night and then June 1st I will head over to fumicino and fly home! :)
there are only a couple of problems, I still dont know who I am staying with in southern france, I bought the tickets because it was only 30 bucks and I wanted to see southern france, but I cant find anyone to take me that time, stupid french people and hostels are riddiclious expensive, about 40 bucks a night. and I am kinda scared because I am by myself so I dont want to stay with a boy and there arnt that many girls on couchsurfing, but I will see what I can do and let you know asap.
also, sigh* so I think I might have to take a taxi to the rome airport because my luggage is so heavy I just don't think I can do it. I would ask the people I babysit for but I feel like its enough for them to watch my stuff and let me spend the night, you know. and then with Ghita, she already took me to the airport and I just hate to ask her again. but by that point I dont think I will have any money left. I am not sure, I will let you know closer to that point.
so that is what I am going to be doing for the next three weeks.
OH and I left my phone on the plane, so I only have my american phone, but I just realized I could buy a calling card for when I need to call people.
today was a lovely day, we woke up around 12 and went and layed on a beach. I got pretty sunburned the day before but it doesnt hurt so I think its ok. today we got sunscreen so no sunburns! :) umm the guy that we are staying with is very nice, haha tonight though I have to sleep on the floor :( but he has introduced us to all of his friends and tonight we are going to a party!!! :) which is really really cool because I guess this island is the island with a college on it so there are alot of young people! :) umm yeah. life is beautiful! Oh and I also showed him the pictures of my family when he asked me how many brothers and sisters I had, I laughed and said, its complicated and because he speaks english but you can tell he doesnt speak it all the time, so I had to show him pictures of the wedding, he said that sean was a cute boy and that we look alot alike! haha then I told him he was like 12 in that picture and he is now 14 and a little shit head. hahaha. just kidding.
I love you and miss you, only three more weeks tell I am home!!!!! :) :)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Ciao Tutti!
So my program is almost over. Today I took my Italian final and I think it went ok, idk, apperntly though I have been using more French than ever since the beging, but I think that was because I was aware that it was french, now I think that it is Italian, make sense? like I can't speak french anymore because it all comes out Italian.
But thats not the point of this blog, the point I wanted to make was about my classes, and how wonderful they have been. I mean, ok, they were hard and stressful and most of the time I didn't really want to go, but I feel so much smarter that I am going to go home sounding so pretencious, but not beause I want to sound so, but just because it was so fascintating to me and I have so many cool facts. SO I decided to write a little sysnopsis of each class, cool things I have learned etc. / this will also hlep me with my finals. haha!
OK so I will start with my least favorite, which was my major unfortunatly, but I think it was more of the teacher, not really the subject, I feel like this could be sooo much more interesting than it really comes off which is unfortunate.
Well this was the Anthropology of Italy, which can be a hard subject in context of Italy as a whole because Italy is soo diverse. Italy wasn't even what we know of today as the unified "italy" but rather a bunch of nation states within the penisula. So each nation had its own language and culture that when mixed it became hard to mesh. However, the meshing is not like trying to mesh Nigera, they all have the basic relgion and basic latin routes so it isn't like they are trying to seperate but there is still those pedujuces. haha almost like California, where the North is so much diffrent from the south, but just a little bit more diverse. For example, in the south is where all the country farming people are and are thought of as the "uneducated" people. and the North is where places like Milan and Rome and Venice are and are thought to be more "cultured," in the sense that they are wise and sophisticaed. However in my experience even though there was a lot more to see and do in Nothern Italy, I felt like Southern Italy had soooo much more culture to it, in the sense that I could actualy feel the latin routes and it just seemed more "real" to me. However, this is not really what the course was about, just kind of a background. But we talked a lot about how Italy functions as a nation. What were sterotypes and what were major themes and concepts throughout the penisula. For example, music. How music evolved in Italy, how at one point they were listening to this weird instument that made this weird noise, and how we in our western society would consider that just noise, where those in the south acutaly consider this music. (or did anyways). and how the faishion of Italy evolved, like how italy is considered one of the fashion capitols of the world and how it is more conservative than France and how italians idolize these fashions. And just a whole bunch of random topics that I think could have been tought better.
Then there was travel writing in Italy:
This class was really interesting in terms of the disscussion topics. Sometimes it got pretty monotonous though. We basicaly went over travel through Italy starting from the 18th century to present. Which is topics like the grand tour. It was really interesting learning about the grand tour and how men from england would travel through france and Italy to get Cultural expeiences and be at the places of the grand masters, etc. and how Italy has always been a place that people consider to travel when picking deistinations. There is something about Italy that is soooo alluring, like now its the boys and the food and this feeling that once your in Italy you will be surrounded by this magic that you can't find anywhere else. Which is true when you travel here for thousands of dollars and its a vacation, but when you live here, the glamor begins to fade after a while. Then there are topics like what is an anuthentic experience, like an example is on one of the main roads in rome there is a pizza place called VIP or very italian piazza, and one must ask themselves, how Italian can it really be if the title of the resturant is in english? make sense? how tourism has changed Rome, or italy. Like how much of a culture can you really learn or apperciate when you are in like this travel bus with people who speak english and are from the US and dont really get that they are in another country with diffrent cultures. But then can one ever truely understand it? I basicaly concluded through my own experiences that, ok, tour guides are complicated because they are sooo useful for some people, I think that some people need to get out but just don't have the savy travler skills and at least they are seeing these places. But I don't think that these people can say that they understand or can begin to understand a diffrent culture. They can make judgements, that are of course extremly bias, but they can't understand the diffrences with out exploring and meeting people who live here and truely just embrassing a culture. It doesn't mean that you nessarily have to live there, but at least try to meet people and talk to them and find out the diffrences so you can outline the similarities kind of thing.
THEN there was urban which I will add later because I am about to fall asleep...
But thats not the point of this blog, the point I wanted to make was about my classes, and how wonderful they have been. I mean, ok, they were hard and stressful and most of the time I didn't really want to go, but I feel so much smarter that I am going to go home sounding so pretencious, but not beause I want to sound so, but just because it was so fascintating to me and I have so many cool facts. SO I decided to write a little sysnopsis of each class, cool things I have learned etc. / this will also hlep me with my finals. haha!
OK so I will start with my least favorite, which was my major unfortunatly, but I think it was more of the teacher, not really the subject, I feel like this could be sooo much more interesting than it really comes off which is unfortunate.
Well this was the Anthropology of Italy, which can be a hard subject in context of Italy as a whole because Italy is soo diverse. Italy wasn't even what we know of today as the unified "italy" but rather a bunch of nation states within the penisula. So each nation had its own language and culture that when mixed it became hard to mesh. However, the meshing is not like trying to mesh Nigera, they all have the basic relgion and basic latin routes so it isn't like they are trying to seperate but there is still those pedujuces. haha almost like California, where the North is so much diffrent from the south, but just a little bit more diverse. For example, in the south is where all the country farming people are and are thought of as the "uneducated" people. and the North is where places like Milan and Rome and Venice are and are thought to be more "cultured," in the sense that they are wise and sophisticaed. However in my experience even though there was a lot more to see and do in Nothern Italy, I felt like Southern Italy had soooo much more culture to it, in the sense that I could actualy feel the latin routes and it just seemed more "real" to me. However, this is not really what the course was about, just kind of a background. But we talked a lot about how Italy functions as a nation. What were sterotypes and what were major themes and concepts throughout the penisula. For example, music. How music evolved in Italy, how at one point they were listening to this weird instument that made this weird noise, and how we in our western society would consider that just noise, where those in the south acutaly consider this music. (or did anyways). and how the faishion of Italy evolved, like how italy is considered one of the fashion capitols of the world and how it is more conservative than France and how italians idolize these fashions. And just a whole bunch of random topics that I think could have been tought better.
Then there was travel writing in Italy:
This class was really interesting in terms of the disscussion topics. Sometimes it got pretty monotonous though. We basicaly went over travel through Italy starting from the 18th century to present. Which is topics like the grand tour. It was really interesting learning about the grand tour and how men from england would travel through france and Italy to get Cultural expeiences and be at the places of the grand masters, etc. and how Italy has always been a place that people consider to travel when picking deistinations. There is something about Italy that is soooo alluring, like now its the boys and the food and this feeling that once your in Italy you will be surrounded by this magic that you can't find anywhere else. Which is true when you travel here for thousands of dollars and its a vacation, but when you live here, the glamor begins to fade after a while. Then there are topics like what is an anuthentic experience, like an example is on one of the main roads in rome there is a pizza place called VIP or very italian piazza, and one must ask themselves, how Italian can it really be if the title of the resturant is in english? make sense? how tourism has changed Rome, or italy. Like how much of a culture can you really learn or apperciate when you are in like this travel bus with people who speak english and are from the US and dont really get that they are in another country with diffrent cultures. But then can one ever truely understand it? I basicaly concluded through my own experiences that, ok, tour guides are complicated because they are sooo useful for some people, I think that some people need to get out but just don't have the savy travler skills and at least they are seeing these places. But I don't think that these people can say that they understand or can begin to understand a diffrent culture. They can make judgements, that are of course extremly bias, but they can't understand the diffrences with out exploring and meeting people who live here and truely just embrassing a culture. It doesn't mean that you nessarily have to live there, but at least try to meet people and talk to them and find out the diffrences so you can outline the similarities kind of thing.
THEN there was urban which I will add later because I am about to fall asleep...
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
when in doubt upload to blogger
,
t
I bet you are wondering why are these pictures on here, what is so specail about them.
Well, because I am once again using M. Word Trail, all of my docments get saved as Docx. which in other words is not good and I cant send full papers via mail. So i have to download these pictures onto the interweb and then fix them at the computers at the school. :)
the little girl that gets pictures a lot shes the girl that i baby sit for.
and the first picture of the coloseum, thats where the school for the little boy is. craaaazy huh?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
sunset in Palermo
Palermo beach
gates to Heaven
the hike to the AMAZING veiw
Vulcano, if you look close there is like steam at the top of the moutain i.e. its a valcano
the really windy side of the island
My sad sad shoes, my friend kelsey said that I should take a picture of these shoes and send them to my family and ask for more money haaha
Lucious Green on Lipiri Islands
Lipiri...
our super awsome mini car, I actualy really want one of these
the boat ride to Lipiri
At the shores of Naples
Park of moments thoughts
Cappucino Naples style
These lemons were the size of my head.
Pompeii!
Sorento, the water is just sooooo amazing
The Popes residence during the summer
oil and vinager, my new love
photo shoot
lovely lake
Umm lets see.
Lets start with Midterms, YAY! so haha, I got my midterms back, B, B aaaaand the class I thought I was going to get an A in, C. haha. Shows you never really know, right? So I am pretty sure I am going to get out of here with Straight B's which I am JUST fine with thank you very much. And this is the hardest program I have ever been in soo all B's sounds great.
But after mid-terms I was home alone for like 4 days. It was weird. I mean I am like a inside person, I love my moments of aloness because I feel like I can think more, but when you are alone for so long, its kinda sad. It was ok though because one day I went to this Lake that the pope resides at during summer with two friends, and then Sunday I went to Tivoli by myself just to check it out. I must say, I really like getting out of the city, I can see why most people in NYC have a summer home, somtimes its just to much, its unexplainable, but its just nice to get away.
However, on Monday I left for Sorento off of the Amalfi coast. Now, if there is one thing in your life that you need to do, it is to go to the Amalfi coast. Well, ok, it pretty much looks just like Palos Verdes, but that doesn't make up for the fact that the people there are soooo nice and it was just soooo amazing for me to be on somthing that looked and smelt like home. But at the same time it was diffrent, it was just so beautiful. Must suck though during the summer with all the tourists, because it would be really awsome to go there and for it to be like it was for me, just 15 degrees warmer and it would be so nice! But during the summer, there would just be to many peoplee. Anyways, I am going there for part of my honeymoon, btw, whenever that will be. (/Barcelona, Nice, and the Canery Islands.)
OK! then to the part where I wasn't by myself.
Naples:
hahahaha, o man that was a shocker. I mean like I had herd from friends like, o yeah Naples isn't safe, just get pizza in Naples, Naples is so dirty blah blah blah. but for me I am one of those in through the ear out the other because I always like to think it can't be THAT bad. haha oooo it is, I mean ok it really is just very dirty and there are like a lot of homless people and when I was there at first, for like a couple of hours it was cold and like Italian men were being Italian Napolian men and didn't stop staring/honking so I was a little tense. HOWEVER, once Kelsey came and we met up with our couchsurfing friend, things were a lot better. Him and his friend took us all around Naples in their car we went on this wonderful drive down this hill that just showed off all of the coast and I just swore I was in California. I mean, ok, I know I am in Italy blah blah blah, but I can't help but miss California. It's just so weird how Italy is like my place of residence, but it isn't my home. How attached we can get to home. Well anyways, we turned in early because we were both just soooo tired.
The next day was suppose to be our "sight seeing day" but I mean it was just like a lot of buildings and monuments that we have seen allready, I know it sounds bad but I don't really regret not walking around for hours and hours. Instead me and Kelsey went to a grocery store, bought stuff for lunch and just sat at a park in the GLORIOUS sun and just talked and then we talked some more about life and how scary it is and how in high school everything seemed so much easier than what it was. Then we got into how in high school we were both so driven! I mean with school yes, but with our passions, we felt more alive in high school then we do now and neither of us really understood that, we thought it was because we were boyfriendless and lonely. But it really isn't, its because we lack that passion in our life not the passion from a boy but from doing stuff!!! I mean, sure I can work and go to school and hang out with friends and be totaly busy, but thats not enough. I need to feel the acomplishment from rehersal again, I need to sweat my ass of and then put it all out there and feel the rush of endorpahins that is so natural and not from drugs or alcahol. I mean I know I can get satisfaction from learning about diffrent cultures and teaching at a school and just living an ordinary life, but I wont be happy. I will feel like I didn't take any risks and I played my life safe, which I know is what I should do. But I can't, I mean yes it could turn out bad, but at least I know I tried, right? Because it could also be really really good. I know that I should get a bussniess degree and make lots of money, in fact I want lots of money a lot of the time because I feel like that will make me happy. But I know it wont. I know that after I buy that dress or that skirt, I will only be happy for a little bit. I want the real life happiness and passion that I just don't know how to obtain right now with the path that I have chosen. So I am going back to my roots, to when I was at least ok, when I had a passion and a life and then I will see from there.
Anyways, sorry that turned into more of a life rant than I really needed it to be, this whole year has been like that. But I felt like I needed to share because that was what happened in Naples.
Then we went to Lipiri. OMG was that not one of the most amazing places EVER!!! So me and Kelsey took the night train from Naples to Lipiri, I was really suprised at how well I slept, but it worked out. We arrived to Lipri at like 8 in the morning and once we got there we were just to excited to sleep. We stayed in a hotel room that during the summer would cost 400, we stayed for 60!!! and it was sooo worth it. We rented like this mini car thing and just drove it all over the island, like it was so much fun. We stood on this cliff that I seriously thought I was standing at the gates of heaven it was so magestic and so real. It was just so rejuvinating and totaly worth it! and we climbed down the cliff to the beach through lush greenary and I repeat again, it was just soooooo worth it. haha and then by like 5 we were tired, so we went back to the hotel, made dinner and we were alseep by 8.
Next morning we spent our day lying in the sun at the black beach on the island vulcano. We wanted to go into the hot springs, but since we had to check out of the hotel we didnt really have a place to wash off afterwards and we wernt in the mood for smelling like sulfar the rest of the day. So we just layed in the sun. again. just layed in the sun.
Then we went to Palermo. I really like this city, it had such a cooler vibe than Rome, Rome is just so stuck up and blah. Palermo had like vibes and a culture. Except for like the 42493284932 teenages that seemed to RULE the city. Me and Kelsey were walking through and were like seriously... are we in high school again. AND everyone was paired off and had no shame in showing there love for each other in front of all the other miserable singles. haha it was really funny though. What a fun city to live in when you are like 15. BUT as a 19 year old, it was also really amazing. I mean we went to this club and it was hot and sweaty like an island and there was just this really awsome latin vibe. Haha the guy that drove us around that night, well we were in his convertable somthing really expensive and Italian car and like he told me about how his mom is nobility and his dad is the cheif of the hospital, so this guy is loaded. He however did not buy us one drink, how lame. But its all good because he drove us around and he was sooo nice. Untill the end. Well since we had like a 9 oclock flight we just kinda decided to stay up all night, which worked out well (enough). Umm so he was waiting with us at the train station and like ok he was a really nice guy, but at the club I got these huge vibes that he was gay, I just thought he was gay whatever. wellll
So haha we are waiting and then he goes on this rant about how all the americans he knows are fat and like how Italians are so fit (ask me to do the accent and motion when I get home). And so me and my two friends, who are american as well, are just kinda flabber ghasted, I mean we started speaking really fast about how he just called us fat. and he was just like what what, whats wrong. It was just really insulting, I mean I just didn't know what to say. And THEN he starts asking me about the pants and the shoes that I was wearing asking if that was "fashionable" in the states and went on some dumb rant about how much better Italian crap is. Except he said addaias was an Italian brand, when it is in fact a german brand. So at this point we are just like on our last wind to stay awake so we are all giggly and just like can't beilve this is happening. and THEN he goes on to talk about how Italians make love at like 13 blah blah blah and how its weird that most americans wait untill they are 17 or 18. so he then called us unpassionate.
HAHA so Then he comes up to me and says, like I think that you are really beautiful and curvy and I love red heads and blue eyes, so pretty blah blah blah, and in Italy I kiss you because I like you. CRAP! I was just like, you called me fat, unfashiobale, unpassionate and now you want to kiss me!!!!!!!!!! O man me and Kelsey went on for like 2 hours about how sick we are of these Italian men!
Well anyways we came back home and overall it was a very amazing trip. I really cant wait for next month. This month will just suck, I have 3 10 page pappers to write and just crap to do. and no money. so I wont be going anywhere. But its ok because the 3 week trip I have is going to be AMAZING!
I am going to
Greece (Steph if I could get Jims e-mail that would be really nice)
to the
UK
to
France
to
Brussels
to
HOME!
:)
can't waaaait
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)