We left Milan in the morning and traveled what felt like all freaking down on two different trains back to Orvieto. We definitely had an interesting train ride when we were on a slow train to Bologna. We were sitting in one of the back cars when all of a sudden the roof starts leaking on Brandi!!! Then it moved onward to leak on me! It honestly looked like we were a bunch of prego ladies whose water had just broke.
Eventually we made it to Orvieto. We arrived right before the last cable car made it's ride up to the top of Orvieto, phew!
It was amazing the feeling I had when we got to the top. It felt like home. I was so excited to go back to our tiny little apartment and to see our little Diagon Alley street (I think the street we live on looks like Diagon Alley. Really the whole city of Orvieto looks like it came straight out of the Harry Potter movies). It's amazing to me that I had only lived here for a week, and this little city that was so foreign to me prior, has become so familiar, familiar enough to become my home. I am starting to recognize people as I walk down the streets, some of the restaurant and cafe owners know who I am, I don't even get that when I'm at home in Mesa, or even on campus!
When I first came here I was missing home and the people connected with home, and I thought I would never have a connection with Orvieto that so many of the past students have told me about. Now here I am, one week into my five week study abroad and my connection is stronger than I ever could have pretended to have.
We were STARVING when we got home, so we immediately went to a restaurant and got pizzas. I had the Diavola (spicy salame, mozzarella, tomato sauce) and ate just about every bite of it. If you've ever been to a restaurant with me, you probably know I am the queen of not finishing my meals and taking them to go.
When we got back home we got to do laundry because Alba came and fixed our washing machine! I was so relieved! Here's the thing about Italy people, they are way too cool for school. So cool that they do not believe in dryers. You know what that means? We have to hang dry EVERYTHING! I had no idea how long it took for things to hang dry (especially when you're not in an oven like Arizona) so I threw 3/4 of clothes in... foolish Sydney. But at least the washer is too small to fit all my clothes, that would have been really bad...
Monday June 1, 2015
First day of Monday classes, so that's exciting. I'm so happy that I don't have any morning classes because that means I get to sleep in on school days! Nothing is better than sleeping in people. I used to not be able to help it, but this time change helps a lot haha.
When Danielle got back from her 9 am class, the three of us went to this little pastry shop for breakfast. They had macaroons there, and that totally reminded me of my sister, McKenzie... I doubt macaroons would make it through 17 hours of travel but if it did I would bring those as a souvenir for her.
After breakfast we went grocery shopping because we figured it's probably not very cost effective to eat out for every single meal (even though every single meal is super delicious). Grocery shopping is much better in here than in the States because it's so freaking cheap. We got snacks, and dinner stuff and drinks. Not one of us spent over 15 euros, it was awesome.
Also let me just tell you all how much I love Italy. Why? 1: Red bull is freaking 99 cents at the market. Tell me what could possibly be better than that? 2: Blood oranges (or red oranges as they call them here) are all the rage. Blood orange juice is everywhere! If you recall once upon a time, I found an obsession with a blood orange ginger lemonade at Cafe Rio a couple months ago. Well the fresh juice here isn't QUITE as good as that concoction, but it is pretty dang close.
I spent most of the early afternoon before class working on my assignments due for my advanced photojournalism class. When it was time Brandi and I went to class. The classroom we are in has the worst acoustics, it is so hard to understand anyone in that room. And the wifi sucks, so we spend half the class waiting for things to load. But I don't mind really.
After all the classes for the day, there was an optional Survival Italian class. Practically everyone from the program went to it, even people who are in higher level Italian classes. It was really helpful though. A lot of people here speak english.... well broken english... but it's nice to have some magic words in your pocket to help communicate better.
Afterwards we had dinner and then contemplated going to a club with the rest of the students that night. I am usually apathetic to going out to bars and clubs (obviously because I don't drink), but if my roommates want to go, I'll go for the company. Well tonight the call was on Brandi, and she decided she would rather stay in, so we all did and worked on various things for school and traveling and other fun stuff.
Tuesday June 2
I didn't get to sleep in quite as much today because my roommates and I really needed to buy our train tickets for our beach trip this weekend. Turns out the travel agency was closed because I guess it's a holiday here, so I totally could have slept in. But I'm not bitter about it, it's good to be productive. We went and got breakfast at Montenucci AKA the internet cafe.... but the thing is the internet there sucks, so i don't understand why they advertise themselves as the internet cafe.
After breakfast I worked on my multimedia neighborhood slideshow for my photojournalism class and then went to class, finished the project and it is now posted to my blog. What fun. Class was rough today because the wifi was even worse, we really didn't even learn anything until the last twenty minutes of the two hour class.
I needed to go to a cafe after class so I could finish uploading my video on vimeo with better wifi. I stopped by a new place on the way home. I didn't just want to steal their wifi and not order, so I got a hot dog stuffed with french frys ketchup and mayo. It was pretty good, but didn't make my stomach feel to dandy afterwards. But no vomiting.... yet!
On Tuesday night Alba organized for some high school Italian students to hang out with us at a cafe so we could practice our Italian and so they could practice their english. I had no desire to try and pretend to speak Italian to them so we just talked in english. They were so adorable and so gorgeous. They were so fascinated by all things about the United States, but especially about cheerleaders and how in Arizona we have pools in almost all backyards. They kept saying they were no good at speaking english, but I could understand them just fine. It was much better than me trying to pretend I know Italian.
Wednesday, June 3
Wednesday was our trip to Rome. I was really excited to go but also pretty bummed. I shall tell you why. There are around 100 students in the program and so to be more effective we were put into three different groups: The Colosseum, The Villa Borghese and The Vatican. I was originally in the villa borghese group, but I switched with someone so instead I went to the Vatican. I wanted to see all three and more in Rome! So I was kind of bummed I would only be going to one place. I was ESPECIALLY bummed because Lizzie McGuire never went to the Vatican, so I couldn't even recreate any scenes like I would have been able to do if I went to the Trevi Fountain or to the Colosseum. But I am planning on making a trip to Rome at the end of the trip so I can do everything I was not able to do on Wednesday.
So the first stop on the tour turned out to not be the Vatican. We went to the pantheon first. It was pretty but not quite as cool as the parthenon which I went to 3 years ago haha. Then we went to the fountain of four rivers. I liked that one because of how the artist represented the people from the four different rivers from the four different continents. For instance they made the South American one look almost more like an animal than like a human, just because they had very limited knowledge fo South American people. We also went to a French church that I thought was really pretty. But I think a lot of the churches and cathedrals look pretty similar (at least on the inside with all the artwork).
It was very hot during the tour but these girls still look gorgeous
Ceiling of the church
I found this painting while we were walking to the tour bus, I thought it was awesome
After the break THEN we said arrivederci to Italy and went to Vatican City, the world's smallest state. It was really beautiful and I am happy I changed to this group... BUT there were SO many people. I was literally shoulder to shoulder with people the ENTIRE time and people were so pushy and rude. On top of that, it was freaking hot and humid so I was sweaty and sticky and I just did not feel top notch at all. On top of that, we were given an alloted amount of timethat we were allowed to be in there. So our tour guide had to skip a lot of things and rush everything. Moral of the story, it was kind of hard to enjoy and appreciate everything, but I tried my best. When we were outside with less people around, it was a lot better and I could actually enjoy it even though I was dead tired.
I was really hoping the Pope would pop(e) [I'm so funny] out of nowhere so I could take a selfie with him. Turns out I was a few hours later because that morning he addressed the people of Vatican City.
Afterwards we rode the bus back to Orvieto, and then went to dinner. I wasn't all that hungry so i decided dessert for dinner was a necessity so I got a chocolate cheesecake and it was DElicious.
Avery: Dad was making a lot off turkey balls yesterday, he really loves those things
Me: I know he eats those all the time, it's crazy
Avery: HOW DID YOU KNOW?!?!
That girl is crazy, but quite a hoot. I tried to explain to her that even though it was morning time in Mesa, it was night time in Orvieto and she just did not get it.
Thursday June 4
I had to wake up real early this morning to go to the farmers market which starts at 6:30 am or so. For my advanced photojournalism class we have an assignment to photograph and collect natural sound from the famers market that happens every Thursday and Saturday for a multimedia piece. Since I'm not going to be in Orvieto on Saturday, I wanted to spend as much time as possible at the market today so I could get good variety. I needed to go early in the morning so I could get a decent amount of photos with pretty lighting because once the sun comes up completely it's very harsh and that is no good for photos. So that was my morning. I did take a cappuccino/hot chocolate break with one of my classmates Julianne. So that was exciting. Julianne and I also ran into our professor, Kim Newton, and he took a picture with us and said he would post it to his instagram. #lifemade
When I felt like I had enough, I met Brandi at the travel agency to buy some train tickets. Tomorrow the whole program is going on a field trip to Siena, but we are extending the trip and taking a train from Siena to San Vincenzo where we got an AirBnB. We will be spending all day Saturday on the beach, and that honestly sounds too perfect now that Orvieto is heating up. We got cheap train tickets too, and our AirBnB is cheap, so i am a happy camper.
The rest of my day has consisted of editing photos from Rome and editing photos from the Farmers market... oh and I did have class... but I spent most of the class editing anyway.
Brandi just told me that the program is 1/3 over today! I AM IN SHOCK! Time is going by too quickly now!
Great job, Rain. Your blog is "amazing"--to quote Mom.
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