Ciao Italia!

A bit of culture shock...

2008-11-26T16:41:00.002-07:00

I turned 20 in Venice. Isn't that great? I think so, but that might just be me. I think that my favorite part was waking up and listening to my new favorite song "La Vasca". It's all about a vacation in a bathtub and it's super great. It was also pretty great when the girls pulled out a 5 euro chocolate cake with a stencil thing of space. When you pour the powdered sugar on top you get a great view of the sky! We were amazed by how good it was.

Friday morning three of us stood and watched as our group drove away on a bus towards Rome. We weren't going with them and it was so strange. I have been with those girls for almost three months and now I'm not. It was rather strange, but we had a good time in Venice for the day. Who can complain about being left in Venice? We stayed in Venice for an extra day so that we could take a night train from Venice to Zagreb, Croatia.

Croatia - I'll be honest, being woken up at 3 in the morning to men walking through your train speaking in an extremely strange language may not be my number one choice. Actually, it was kind of scary. It kind of felt like we were prisoners during some war and we were being shipped off somewhere. My favorite line of the event - Sharlie: "What if they don't have public bathrooms?" Kimberly: (Joking, but implying that we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into and things might just be different than we imagined) "What if they don't use the bathroom at all?" Sharlie honestly looked at me in fear for a bit too long. Everything is amplified in the morning...We got to Croatia at 4:18 in the morning, found a heater, surrounded ourselves with our luggage, and waited for it to get light outside. It was a great adventure in so many ways. The directions to our hostel were translated...we'll say badly. The only reason we found it was because a taxi driver took pity on us after watching us trying really hard for a long time trying to figure out where we were and what was going on. Our hostel was run by these granola, almost scary, really nice guys ("Have you rung the bell? Well you must!") Our walls were bright orange with blue and yellow suns and flames painted on them. We tried to go to a Croatian restaurant the first night. It turned out to be Italian. We were very excited to find the church on Sunday morning. It was at the top of this apartment complex thing and we had to just follow the noise that we were praying was actually the ward. We were greeted by a missionary at the top of the stairs who I assume was speaking Croatian. We replied with a timid "Hi" and then he spoke English. Very helpful. The ward was absolutely amazing. I've never met more friendly people than the Croatians. It was incredible. Church was a bit crazy though. Apparently there is an English Embassy or something nearby so there are a ton of English speakers in the ward As a result, it was half in English and half in Croatian. There was no organization to it though. The lesson itself was in both languages with another person translating into the opposite language, people would respond in both languages, random people would translate for them, then they would start translating for themselves, and then somebody would start speaking English when they had made their last comment in Croatian. There were always at least two people speaking. I think you had to know both languages to follow. Two people came up to us after church and offered to show us around the college on Monday. It was so great. We met them, ate lunch with them in the college food center and then walked around the different colleges. Turns out schools are the same all over the world but we had a great time with them.

Tuesday morning we got up said goodbye to Croatia. We were off to Hungary...

Hungary - We got to take a very Hogwarts Express ish train to Budapest and I loved it. We almost lost Lauren when she couldn't find her passport, but it was eventually found. We had at least three pairs of Hungarian officers check our passports. One person would look at the passport and jabber in Hungarian while the other would either translate for us or stare with no shame. One of them wished me a happy birthday and then in the same breath started asking if we had cigarettes, cocaine, ecstasy, heroine and a number of other things. It sounded like they were asking if we wanted these things...that couldn't have been right. We got here in one piece and so began another adventure. Budapest is HUGE!!! and Hungarian is super crazy. There is no way you could look at something at guess what says. The money is crazy. 200 HUF to 1 USD. Our hostel cost over 33,000 HUF. That is a big number! I pulled money out of the bank and it gave me bills that said 10,000. We try to adjust, but it's hard for the brain to comprehend it being ok to spend thousands on a simple meal for three. We learned a valuable lesson today. The Croatians are always ready to help you and when they tell you how to do something or where to go you can count on getting there. In Hungary the people are just as ready to help you out and love to give instructions, they just all give different ones. When you ask one person for directions they have to get at least four people involved. One to know where you're going, one to know about the transportation options, and one to hopefully speak English. They might throw another one in too just to direct things. Let's just say it took us a few too many hours and buses to get to the Statue park today. We did find a really great Christmas market this evening though. We got there on accident though so I couldn't actually tell you where it is. :)

Oh Siena...

2008-11-16T19:18:00.005-07:00

In typical Kimberly fashion it's 3:15 AM and I just finished up packing. It's been an extremely strange day full of a lot of emotions. Walking around Siena today has made me feel like I'm leaving a close friend behind. This is such an amazing city and I can't even express how sad I am to leave it. I just keep telling myself that I'll be back someday. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I will. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better experience in my life, but now I'm off to new adventures. We leave in the morning (or rather in about five hours) for Padova and then to Venice on Tuesday. We are in Venice with the group until Friday when Lauren, Sharlie, and I say goodbye and head off onto our own adventure for about a week. After coming up with a few too many options, we have decided to go to Croatia and Hungary. I have absolutely no doubt that I will have some good stories from that adventure. So, for now it's Ciao Italia!

This is me with my host family. Antonella didn't even say anything when I told her I wanted to take a picture with her. She just pulled out a chair and climbed on it. She's so great.

It's Bond, James Bond

2008-11-14T17:27:00.004-07:00

If you want to see where I live just go and see the new James Bond movie. Yes, we did go and see it and it was all in Italian. It was a great commentary on multiple things. First of all, I had to laugh at what I understood. Turns out that my Italian won't get me too far in the world. The words that I understood really just didn't help me figure out what was going on. I'm also convinced that I wouldn't have understood a whole lot more if the movie had been in English. I've never been very good at following James Bond movies. It was nice to realize though that most of the plot doesn't revolve around the dialogue but rather the blowing up of people and buildings. I will want to see this one in English though...see how much I really understood. The best part of it all is that the first ten minutes or so was filmed in Siena!! I walk those streets every day and we talk about that horse race on a regular basis. It was so great to see a bit of my life on the screen. Oh, and by the way, Italians have an intermission in movies. I was a bit startled when the movie just stopped halfway through and intermission flashed on the screen. It didn't know people did that.

Where to Start?

2008-11-10T11:04:00.013-07:00

It's been a crazy week full of adventures worth writing about every day (especially because it's NaBloPoMo a.k.a. National Blog Post Month as I'm reminded every so often) but I've had a hard time convincing myself to blog the past little while. You see, things have become a bit frantic here between oral exams, multiple garlic drawings, a rather large art final, and going a bit crazy trying to soak in all of Italy. I know these are all just excuses, but here's a taste of what I've been up to...

Just pretend that the apple is red...

~ Any guesses as to where we are? We're in Volterra! If you haven't read the Twilight books you are out of luck. There are quite a few dramatic vampire scenes that take place in this wonderful little city. We were there with our Humanities teacher who is Italian and he couldn't figure out why we all knew about the vampire myths from Volterra. We were a bit disappointed though because Stephenie Meyer obviously hasn't actually been to Volterra...no fountain, the piazza is actually quite small, and it just wouldn't have worked out quite like she described. The day was very fitting though. I've never seen such a large, angry cloud come at me so quickly. It was convenient though because if the sun had been out...

~ After Volterra we went to a great city called Sangimignamo. (Don't ask me to say it because ti never comes out right...there are a few too many m, n, g sounds with a few Italian tricks to throw into the bag.) It was raining but when in Italy you just learn to get over that. We ate the World Champion Gelato while here and it was truly amazing. Who knew that they had worldwide gelato competitions? Well, Sangimignamo won. They also had these great signs all over with Italian phrases on them. I'm not sure what the purpose of them was, but they were great. I'm a bit hesitant to translate this because of those reading this that know more Italian than I do, but i'll give it a shot. "Ma tu mi ami?" = "But you love me?"

~ We spent Saturday and Sunday in Florence. We had stake conference in Florence so we decided to sleep there so that we could go. It was all so great I don't even know what to say. In fact I've been sitting here for a while trying to figure out what to say and I'm at a loss for words. Good moments: buying a jacket from a great Italian man-calling America (4:00 AM their time) to get the address for our hostel-having an entire hostel called Emerald House to ourselves-creating gangster names that we now go by-walking into the kitchen to find Erin cleaning up beer that fell out of the fridge-watching Sharlie put parmasan on her pasta like she was having a seizer-hearing incredibly great music in the middle of a piazza-climbing tons of stairs to see a view well worth the climb-wandering around amazing gardens on Sunday afternoon-racing to eat your waffel with gelato faster than the gelato can melt-........

It All Started With A Box

2008-11-02T11:24:00.013-07:00

Three weeks ago I came home to a large box of love. I took the box into my room and opened it to find Halloween. I pulled out a couple of things and then stopped. Anna (my roommate) couldn't figure out why I wasn't taking everything else out of the box. I explained to her that if I were to take out everything I would never be able to fit it back in. You see, this box was from my mother and she has a way with boxes...she can fit more in them than any person I've ever met. Curiosity eventually got the best of my and I dumped the contents on my bed. Anna quickly understood my rationalization and was very impressed. I sat there staring at my new treasures with visions of Italian Halloween parties drifting through my head.

Three weeks and MANY emails and Skype calls later ("I can't find that ingredient...we need a new recipe") my mother and I had a potentially marvelous Halloween party planned. I spent way too many hours in the grocery store wandering around trying to find things that may not even exist here and pulling out my dictionary to make sure that I was buying what I thought I was. Go ahead and picture it and laugh. Imagine somebody walking around a grocery store in the US with a dictionary in hand and picture the look you would give them. Now multiply that by ten because Italians don't hesitate to show what they are thinking on their face. I also discovered the best way to get the Italians to talk to you. If you spend enough time in the grocery store and have a cart full of food that isn't chocolate or ready-made then everybody just assumes that you are Italian. Ah contraire! (Am I French now?) Despite what it may seem, I do not understand you! People didn't seem to get. I had a lady have a five minute conversation with my while I was staring at the meat trying to figure out what kind animal I was actually buying. I'm pretty sure she asked me a question...something to do with the weight and the meat I was looking at versus the meat she was looking at. That's about all I got. One lady ran into me with he cart twice and felt the need to have a full conversation with me both times. Another woman explained in full detail why I shouldn't go down a certain aisle...I'm still not sure why. Anyway, you get the idea.

I spent the day invading Peter and Leah's house cooking up a large storm for a lot of people. I was very grateful to have Leah around to help. You see, cooking becomes quite a bit harder when you are in a country that doesn't even have measuring devices. Everything is one big fat guess. It was oh so exciting. As usual, everything took longer than expected so we were late to the church so the party started late. It's ok though because I had two things in my favor. Not only was I dealing with Mormon standard time, I was also dealing with Italians. Everything is late in Italy so I figured it was ok that I was as well. Eventually the party began though. We had a rather large American meal and it tasted so good if I do say so myself. After we had eaten our fill and then some we began the true Halloween festivities. It was so great to teach the Italians some of our American games. We had an amazing time with our slightly altered games. We bobbed for apples, had mummy wrapping races, ate crackers (yes crackers) off of a string, had a balloon popping/candy eating relay, and topped it all off with trick-or-treating behind doors. I would have to say that it was a pretty fun evening. When you can't have a Halloween party in Park City why not have one in Italy?

Everybody was awesome and very ready to help me. Good thing too or else the party wouldn't have happened.

I'll admit, I was extremely surprised when the missionaries came out dressed as gangstas'.

I was so glad that some of the Italians were able to make it. They made it so much more fun.

You doubt that eating doughnuts on a string can be changed to crackers on a string? But what if you have really long crackers with big holes?

What's Halloween without sticking your head in a bowl of water?

The trick-or-treating behing doors actually went better than I thought it would. We turned out the light in the hall and made the kids knock on the doors to get their candy. These girls got quite into it...witched through and through.

Oh yes, I was definitely Disco Tiger Lily for Halloween. It just kind happened and it was great. I wish I had a picture of my whole costume, but my head will just have to do for now.

An Italian Weekend

2008-10-28T14:06:00.009-06:00

I'm sitting in my bed feeling extremely full after eating more than my share of Italian minestrone soup. (There were other courses as well, but the minestrone greatly outdid everything.) It has been raining large buckets of rain all day. Usually I don't really mind the rain, but it becomes a different story when you walk everywhere. Our 20 minute walk to school this morning was exciting to say the least. My feet got wet and there was no recovering after that. Cold feet=cold me. When we got to dinner Antonella told us that when it's cold we eat soup. It was a very great idea in my mind. Soup has never tasted so good. Now I'm topping it off with a few hot tamales. Can't get much better. Thanks mom.

It was an exciting weekend full of chocolate festivals and bowling with Italians. On Friday we went to Perugia so that we could participate in a full blown European chocolate festival. It was truly great and I ate quite a few amazing things. It's amazing how many things the world can come up with to make out of chocolate. By the time I got home I was full of many different forms and variations of chocolate and I wasn't going to complain. It might have been the definition of spoiling your dinner though. On Saturday we had a ward activity that was amazing. We went to a town called Poggibonsi in order to go bowling. Turns out that bowling is not an Italian past time. They don't really know how, but that made the activity that much better. I've never had so much fun bowling. The best part was watching the members get bigger and bigger smiles every time they dd well. We started giving them high fives when they did well and they got really into that and began to expect it no matter how well they did. If you ever get the chance, make sure you go bowling with Italians.

Here's the group of us that went. When we got there we noticed that some people were wearing these really great Milka horns. It was the first place we went.

Apparently when you're wearing horns charging becomes an instinct. There just happens to be an Italian landscape in the background.

We all decided that it was nice to have an American evening. It was very refreshing.

I wish I had been able to catch him in his first large celebration, but this one was pretty good. He literally jumped for joy and couldn't stop smiling.

I am a Bland of Grass

2008-10-22T14:11:00.006-06:00

I had every intention of writing about my adventures from last weekend, but new events have taken place that must be discussed. A while ago somebody decided that it would be a good idea to experiment with new methods of learning Italian and that a group of American girls that haven't even taken Italian would be the perfect group to experiment with. Last week we were informed that a few of our regular Italian classes were going to be replaced with "a great opportunity". A famous actor from Rome was going to come and work with us on our Italian speaking skills. I spent the week trying to imagine what this was going to be like, but nothing I am capable of thinking of could have prepared me for what happened today.

Within the first ten minutes of this "lecture" I found myself lying on the floor listening to an Italian actor tell me to close my eyes and feel my birth. "Feel your birth! Now let your hand feel your birth." I was confused to say the least. Feel my birth? As in when I was born? That's the only birth I know and hate to break it to you, but I don't remember what it felt like. Birth is pretty painful...am I supposed to be in pain? I was extremely confused by the whole experience and what the purpose was, but it just got worse. "Now feel a Greek birth." Wait, is a Greek birth different than the rest of the world's? And why am I thinking about this at all? By this point I was laughing a bit uncontrollably, but it was just the beginning. We then stood up ("don't stand up too quickly!"), closed our eyes, and envisioned a bland of grass. I quickly figured out that he was referring to a blade of grass and wondered where we were going with this one. We spent a while creating a detailed image and then we become one with our bland of grass. We then spent the next hour (yes, the whole hour) being a bland of grass. First we just felt the movement of the wind blowing on the bland in our hand, but quickly we began to feel it in our whole body. Just imagine it: twenty girls, Peter, and our Italian teacher in a room with our eyes closed (when you weren't looking around to see if everybody else was swaying back and forth like you) imagining that they were a blade of grass in the wind. We got occasional tips and guidance such as "Change the strength of the wind. Change the direction of the wind. Imagine the color of your bland!" This all went on for an extremely long time and I was prone to burst out in laughter periodically. I spent a lot of time trying to maintain control and actually concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing, but that's usually when it became the funniest. I would just get to the point where I WAS the bland of grass and then I would realize that I was just imagining myself being a blade of grass and I would lose it. It was a vicious cycle.

After we were allowed to open our eyes and come back to reality we were told that this image and color that we created is our color for the letter "i". We then learned how to say it correctly, but I'm not sure i'm capable. I just couldn't get it good enough for him. He always made me say it multiple times and then ended up just walking away with a not so hopeful look on his face. We then spent a few minutes feeling our births again before our break and I finally understood when he told us all to "take a birth together". Birth actually means breath. I almost had to excuse myself as a result of the laughter that followed this realization.

When we came back from our break we became storm clouds and the sea in order to learn our colors for "o" and "a". We tossed balls around to each other saying these vowels. We learned motions we should do with our hands as we said each sound and went around the circle making hand motions and noises at each other. We spent more time being blands of grass and feeling our births just to make sure we still had it down. When he asked me what color my grass was and I told him it was bright green he informed me that I must be young. Was he talking about me or my blade of grass? I guess I won't ever know. I could go on and on about these three hours of my life...they were unlike any experience I've ever had. It kind of felt like a strange version of yoga and i'm just not sure how it's supposed to help me learn Italian. After three hours we learned how to say three vowels. Seems a bit strange to me. It was all very comical though. I honestly couldn't ever stop laughing. It was all made that much better by the fact that the literal translation of this man's name is drink the water. Who does that?

Last week Peter and Leah had some of us over to their house for lunch. It was so nice to be in a house and be completely comfortable with our surroundings. We just sat there for a long time loving having the kids running around and actually being in a home with a family. To make it even better, Leah made us a Mexican meal. It was so great.

I saw the leaning tower last week and I was actually quite bothered. It is definitely leaning, but it is extremely small. I don't know why, but I always envisioned it being really tall. It isn't.

On our way home from Pisa and Luca Elizabeth and I got Happy Meals. It's amazing how good a Happy Meal tastes after a two months in Italy. I'm not about to complain about the food I eat here, but a cheeseburger every once in a while just makes the world complete.

Top Of The World

2008-10-15T14:46:00.007-06:00

We went to visit the bank in Siena today. Who knew that a bank could be so cool and that when they said "bank" they actually meant art museum. The two are very similar...I can see where the confusion would come from. Anyway, we climbed to the top of the tower on the bank and got to see all of Siena at once. I heard myself comment that I am on top of the world, but I don't think I realized how true it was. Not only was I at the top of the world of Siena at this moment but I am at the top of my world. I'm living my dream and I love it.

This is a picture of where I live. See that valley? If you go all the way down that and out the door or the city wall you get to my house. I think it's the most beautiful place to live.

Here's a close up of the valley. I guess close up is relative, but when something is this big it's hard to get much closer.

Who's Next?

2008-10-12T13:21:00.009-06:00

It all began at 5:45 in the morning on Friday. Or maybe it started the night before when I set my alarm for 5:15 and wondered why I was going to be leaving my house so early to catch a train. It was a bit of a strange feeling walking for half an hour to the train station when it was still very dark outside. It was worth it though. 22 of us went to Cinque Terre this weekend and it was amazing. Cinque Terre is a group of 5 towns that are connected by train, boat, or hiking. It was absolutely incredible, especially because of the weather. It has been the perfect temperature here the past few days and it was even better in Cinque Terre. We spent the weekend in our swimsuits on the beach. Ironic that it was snowing at my house... It was so nice to just be able to sit in the sun and not have to worry about the large pile of blank paper at home waiting to be drawn on. We did have our fair share of exciting experiences though. After a while people began to walk around in fear of who was going to be next. It started when we were swimming on Friday. There were seven of us at this point and six of us were swimming and enjoying life very much. After a while we decided to swim back to shore where Sharlie was watching us. All of a sudden one of the girls yelled out that she had been stung by something. We swam around in a bit of panic. Everything became a bit more frantic when another girl was stung and then the first girl was stung again. Try and imagine what happened next. If you imagined pandemonium you are very correct. We all proceeded to swim back to shore as fast as we could but we weren't exactly sure what we were swimming from. I was half laughing and half freaking out. For those of you who have seen me around fish just take that and imagine that the fish was ACTUALLY trying to get me, it wasn't just a figment of my imagination this time. We made it back without any more problems, but it was pretty entertaining, especially for Sharlie who had no idea what was going on but just had to sit and watch pandemonium erupt. Everybody is ok now though. Over the course of the trip we experienced many other small issues. Believe it or not, a cat actually peed on my backpack. It was quite the experience that has only accentuated my dislike for cats. Another girl tripped and twisted her ankle quite badly and then our train coming home stopped in the middle of nowhere for an hour. We aren't exactly sure why we stopped because we didn't understand what was going on, but something about a broken train car on the track and waiting for the police. To top it all off, we found out today that Peter (our program director) got bit by a snake on Friday. Turns out it was a potentially lethal snake and he ended up in the hospital for a night because the venom had started to spread into his chest. He's fine now though. His hand is extremely swollen, but he seems to be acting normal. All in all, the weekend was an adventure but we had such a good time. A little adventure makes everything more fun.

It was a bit of a strange feeling to be on a train so early in the morning, but you do what you need to. Things like this make me wish we had better public transportation at home.

It really wasn't hard to entertain us this weekend. We were mostly just really happy to be in the sunshine and warm.

The views were absolutely incredible and pictures don't do it justice. Every time I looked around I was stunned. I love the combination of hills and ocean. You can't get much better.

We spent a lot of time swimming and being on the beach. Here is my general feeling about the Mediterranean after spending time in a couple of different locations on the coast. I love to look at the water. It is amazingly clear and such a great color. I don't particularly love being in it though. Turns out I don't appreciate being able to see everything (rocks, fish, plants, other strange things) that is under me. I find it hard to relax this way.

We got up pretty early on Saturday so we could spend some time in the cities before we had to go home. It was incredible to see Cinque Terre before most things were open and all the people were out. It was a truly beautiful place.

Oh Lament

2008-10-08T10:00:00.002-06:00

As I sat in Italian today I finally realized why I didn't understand what Enzo was talking about. I never learned anything in my English classes in the way of grammar. I'm pretty sure that my teachers tried, but it just never clicked. Or maybe I just never really cared. That might be it. Whatever the reason, I don't know my grammar and that causes problems. How am I supposed to figure out what's going on in Italian when I have no idea what's going on in my own language?

Somehow, it's all made better by the fact that I just drank a whole thing of milk in about a minute flat. I never knew that cold, pasteurized, NORMAL milk could make a person so happy.

Always Remember

2008-10-05T03:22:00.004-06:00

I had an extremely unique experience yesterday that I will never forget. At 4:00 we went to the church and were able to watch the Relief Society Broadcast from last week. Following that we were able to watch the first session of General Conference live. Our whole group plus the four Elders were in one room watching it in English and the Italian members were in a different room. When we first started ours something went wrong so we had to start it over a couple of times. As a result our broadcast was about five minutes behind the other room. As we were sitting there listening to President Monson speak we heard a huge commotion going on in the hall. There was a lot of screaming and we were extremely confused. Elder Welch went out to see what was going on. He was gone for a couple of minutes and then came back with a huge grin on his face. We had no idea what was going on, but he just told us that everything was fine. A couple of minutes later we understood. When President Monson announced that five new temples are going to be built everybody in the room gasped. As each new temple was announced there was a different reaction from the group. I just want to tell you about two of them. One of the girls in our group is from Kansas so when the Kansas temple was announced she literally screamed for joy. It was really neat to watch her over the next few minutes. The amount of emotion she felt as a result of this information was really eye opening to me and it got me thinking. Nothing will ever compare though to when the temple in Rome, Italy was announced. I wish more than anything that I could accurately describe to you what went on and the feeling that was in the building. First there was our excitement. We have only been here for a month but I was amazed by how excited I was for these members. Honestly, I really don't know them but I just know that they deserve this temple so much. Then there was the reaction of the missionaries. I've never seen four 20 year old boys so excited about anything in my life. I will always remember the looks on their faces and the excitement that they obviously felt. The most amazing thing of all was the spirit that the reaction from the Italian members brought to the rest of the meeting. I wish that I could have been in the same room as them, but just being in the building with them seemed to be enough. They were so excited in a way that I can't describe. It caused me to think about my life a lot. I have multiple temples within 30 minutes of my house and I obviously just don't understand all of the blessings that a temple can bring. I thought I understood, but I learned otherwise. These people truly know and recognize the blessings of a temple. They can see what it brings to a person's life when they are able to attend the temple. As I sat and listened to the prophet and apostles speak over the next two hours I learned and gained so much. How amazing is it that we have the opportunity to learn from these men? I've never fully understood how in touch they are with the world and what we need. It's amazing to me that I could grow up in Salt Lake with so many amazing church sites, opportunities, and strong members around me but it takes me watching Conference in the Catholic capitol of the world to fully feel the spirit of it. I will never forget being in Siena when the first Italy temple was announced.

My Adventures of Late

2008-10-03T11:36:00.015-06:00

You know those days when you feel like telling about what you're doing won't do it justice? I've had a few of those this week. Instead of trying to do the days justice, I think I'll just post some pictures and give little snippets of information. Maybe that'll help you understand more.

First order of business, let me tempt you with some of the amazing food that I have eaten this week. It has been a week of plenty. In cooking this week we did a vegetarian menu and it almost convinced me that I should be vegetarian. The top item is a crepe filled with cooked vegetables in a light sauce with both a cream and tomato sauce on top. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The next is an apple torte. The recipe was actually created by the chef we work with and it was incredible. (Apparently he has a book of his recipes being published right now, a purchase you should all consider making.) The bottom picture is in Florence. Leah, Peter's wife, found this shop there that makes the best bread. Although I was not particularly hungry at this point, I found it incredibly easy to consume all of the bread. To top it all off, I had a strawberry and cream tart today. I don't have a picture, but do you really need one to know how good it was?

This is how I've felt all week. I'm pretty sure that 75% of my time has been spent with my head back as far as it goes. Italy can't be good for your neck! It sure is worth it though.

Long story short, we got lost in Florence. Are you surprised?

All in all, today was amazing. We visited Buonconvento and Monte Olivieto and it was an ideal Italy day. The first picture is a view from Siena where we waited for our bus. It was rough. The second and third are views of and from the mentioned cities. We also got to eat lunch at this awesome restaurant. We had an awkward amount of money left in our budget so Peter took us all out to lunch. It was so fun to all eat together.

To top off your taste of my week, here's a picture of our whole group. It's not very often when we are all together and have enough time and a good location to get a group picture.

Unexpected Good is the Best

2008-09-28T14:20:00.011-06:00

People in my group all seem to be in a bit of a flurry trying to see everything in Italy there is to see during every spare moment. Every weekend people run off to different places and return excited to share their adventures from some little city in Italy. Personally, I have been content just soaking up all of Siena. A group of us spent the weekend seeing what there is to see in Siena and I loved every second of it. There is something to be said for seeing cathedrals and works of art that you have studied and seen countless times, but seeing something for the first time that you've never seen before is wonderful in its own way. I really don't know much about the churches and sites in Siena so when I walked into the Duomo Cathedral or the Museo Dell' Opera I was just stunned. People shouldn't go through their life without seeing and doing what I did this week. Here are a few pieces of life in Siena for you.

Wednesday Market - Every Wednesday morning there is a HUGE market in the city. We usually have class on Wednesday morning, but this week it got moved to Friday so we decided to take advantage. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't it. Honestly, I felt like I was in Mexico. This market went on and on in so many directions and you could buy anything from flowers to clothing to kitchen items. At one point I was actually lost in the market and had no idea how to get out. The atmosphere was super fun though.

Oratorio Di S. Bernardino - This is a church that we didn't know actually existed. You walk down this little tiny road and then all of a sudden there is this huge church. There is a museum that has a whole bunch of old art work in it that I've never seen before. Sometimes it's frustrating that all the information for these places is in Italian so we can't actually figure what we're looking at, but it was neat anyways. Here's a picture outside the front of the church.

~ Duomo and company - This was one of the most amazing things that I've seen before. I walk past the duomo everyday on my way to school, but this weekend was the first time that I actually went inside. There are many different parts to the duomo: the Battistero, the Cripta, the Museo Dell 'Opera, and the Cattedrale. We weren't exactly sure what was going on in the crypt. We expected to see evidence of people being buried there, but mostly it was just cement rooms with paintings on the walls. It was pretty interesting anyway. The baptistery was amazing though. I just wandered around in awe of the art around me. I also loved the Museo Dell' Opera. This is where they keep some of the paintings and sculptures that used to be in the Cathedral. The art is amazing, but we had to draw one of the sculptures for art so I felt a bit of anxiety every time I walked into the room. Hate it when that happens. The Cathedral was by far my favorite though. It is one of the most ornate places I have ever been before. The walls are all made of black and white marble in stripes and there are amazing paintings everywhere. My favorite part though is that the floor is completely covered in mosaics of scripture stories. We are lucky to be here when we are because the floor isn't always uncovered. Nine months out of the year it is covered to protect it, but lucky for us we aren't here during tourist season. I could have sat in the cathedral for hours, but I eventually left knowing that I can come back again.

~ Random views of the city - For lunch we went and got some really good sandwiches from the market and then wandered around to find someplace to eat them. We happened upon a park that had an amazing view. Minus the pigeons that were attacking, it was perfect.

~ The view on my way home - As I was walking home the other day, I realized yet again how amazing it is to live in Italy. Here is what I see as I walk to my house.

Best Not To Know

2008-09-21T15:38:00.002-06:00

I don't know what the protocol for cooking Italian food for study abroad students is, but I think I've started to figure it out.

~ First week: Serve them food that they expect. Lots of pasta, tomato sauces, bread, cheese. They will fall in love with the food and will expect good things from then on.

~ Second week: Serve one course of food that they expect (still the pasta, cheese, bread) but throw in a few unexpected, but good surprises. Make them wonder if they really know what "Italian food" is. Confuse them even more by throwing in a Chinese appetizer one night. It's sure to cause a sensation.

~ Third week: Start serving them things they really wonder about. Serve lots and lots of fish of all kinds, especially kinds where they wonder if it's cooked or raw. To top things off serve them a whole dinner of fried "things". Fry enough things that look strange that they don't even want to know what it is they are eating. You know you've done your job when one girl turns to the other, asks what they are eating, but then thinks better of it and decides she doesn't really want to know until after it's gone. If at all possible, spy on the girls when they go back to the room to see if either of them happen to look up pictures on the internet of all the fried creatures they just consumed and then wish they hadn't looked at all.

They aren't guests, they're family.

2008-09-19T15:51:00.006-06:00

I've had an interesting couple of nights here in Siena. Last night one of Antonella's friends ate dinner with us. She has been staying here for about a week, but we haven't had any real contact with her until last night. I have definitely heard her though. She can talk like nobody I've ever heard, although it may just sound like more because I have no idea what she's saying so it sounds fast as well. I have woken up all week to her talking and fallen asleep to her talking. Dinner was no different. From the second she came in the room she tried to engage Anna and I in an Italian conversation. We did pretty well considering how little vocabulary we know and how fast she was talking, but the longer she talked the less we understood. We even heard Antonella telling her at one point that we don't know Italian very well, but that didn't seem to faze her. Anna and I did our best to keep up with the conversation, but who knows how much we actually understood and how much we just made up. By the time we got back to our room we both just collapsed. It's exhausting pretending to know a language. The whole experience was worth it though because of one of the things we did understand. Antonella's friend was saying something about as being guests at a Bed and Breakfast. Antonella promptly stopped her and informed her that we aren't guests, we're family. It made my day. As for dinner tonight, I've never been so grateful for the TV in my life. Anna wasn't at dinner tonight so it was just me and Antonella. I've become pretty good at giving simple answers to questions, but as far as starting or intelligently continuing any conversations, that just isn't an option yet. As a result, Antonella and I had multiple two to three sentence conversations that were all started by her. The TV is always on at dinner and it saved me tonight from many long pauses in the conversation. Italian news has never been quite so interesting to me.

We went to Florence yesterday and it was amazing. Now that we've seen Rome, Florence, and Siena I think we are all grateful that we live in Siena. It is a much quieter city and seems to be easier to be at home in. None of us are going to complain about the fact that Florence is just over an hour away. It seems to be the perfect setup. We didn't have tons of time because we spent most of the morning following Peter around trying to orient ourselves (no small feat for me) and then spent the afternoon in the Uffizi listening to Peter talk about a few of the works. All of it was amazing though and I'm so excited to go back. After we had had our fill of the Uffizi we went to get some lunch and I had an awesome panini with wild boar salami on it . Who would have thought? After lunch we wandered over the Acadamy to see the David. That was another of those wow moments. It was truly incredible and I could have sat there forever. I decided that would like to go back in time and watch Michelangelo carve the David. Wouldn't that be amazing? We didn't have time to see much else so we got some gelato and then wandered around a leather market. Florence is my kind of place.

We didn't get a chance to go into the Duomo this time but even just seeing the outside was amazing. Let's be honest, can it get much better?

This is a view of Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge that wasn't bombed during the War. It was so fun to walk along it and just look. It's not really a good idea if you don't like crowds though. There are lots of little shops all along it and it can get a bit crazy.

Here is a view from the bridge itself. Welcome to Italy!

After walking around all day, it's always nice to sit down and do a bit of people watching. Here we were waiting to meet our group to go back home but we got to watch people do chalk pictures on the sidewalk while we were waiting. There's never a dull moment in this neck of the woods.

Just Add Oil

2008-09-15T14:58:00.006-06:00

I'm pretty sure that's the recipe for everything here in Siena. When in doubt add oil. Even when you think you don't need oil, you should probably add oil anyway. My cooking class began last Friday and it has to be one of the better things in this world. The teacher is a famous cook in both Rome and Tuscany. He doesn't speak English so we have another teacher there to translate. We were each given a book with all the recipes we will be making while we were here and then we got started. I think that taking a cooking class in Italy should be on everybody's list of things to do. I am also required to spend a certain amount of time cooking with my host mom each week for my cooking course. This is quickly becoming a very entertaining and enlightening activity. Seeing as Antonella doesn't speak any English we speak very slow Italian and point a lot. Thank goodness that I at least have some idea what I'm doing in the kitchen or else I'd be in a lot of trouble. It has been so much fun to cook with her though and I've learned a lot. I have yet to make anything with her that doesn't involve olive oil, and when I say olive oil I'm not talking about small amounts. I am amazed by the amount that is in every recipe. I can't even imagine how fast Italians go through it, but so far the food has generally been amazing so they must be doing something right. The other trick is that she doesn't ever use a recipe. She has never ending knowledge about cooking or something. Maybe she just studies the recipe a lot right before I come in so she looks impressive. Regardless, we make good food. Here are a couple of the things we made in my cooking class.

This is Scaloppine and Zucca Gialla Alla Griglia. We also made ravioli ricotta e spinaci al pomodoro which was great. It was definitely a positive eating experience.

If you haven't ever had panna cotta, I will have to make this for you when I get home. It was divine.

This is how I've spent most of my weekend. It has been pouring rain for four days. Initially it was nice because it cooled things off, but now it's just outright cold and we are all a bit sick of the rain. At first we stayed inside thinking that the rain would stop soon, but apparently not. We finally just got over it and wandered around Siena anyways. My rain coat has been a life saver.

I realized recently that I didn't have a single picture with my roommate in it so we took one the other night in the piazza. This isn't the best picture, but it'll have to do for now. Her name is Anna Hawkins and she's a costume design major and BYU.

Classic Dinner Conversation

2008-09-10T14:54:00.003-06:00

Before we eat anything for dinner Bernardino and Antonella explain to us what we are eating. They tell us both in Italian and English so we learn but also understand. Usually it works quite well, but we had a complication this evening. There is a type of cheese that Italians eat with honey or a type of jam. Bernardino explained what everything on the table was in English, but when he got to the jam he could only say it in Italian. He said it was a kind of fruit, but he didn't know what it was called. I didn't think that naming a fruit could be so hard, but between the two of us, it took about 10 minutes of discussion to come up with it. These were the hints I got.

- It is green on the outside and red on the inside. (I guessed watermelon.)
- It has lots of little kernels on the inside. (I guessed pomegranate, but that isn't green on the outside.)
- It grows on a cactus. (Am I really supposed to have a guess from that?)
- It's little. He showed me the size. (Oh, well that narrows it down a lot.)

Any guesses? I smelled it, I looked at the bottle, I guessed random fruits hoping I would get it, and eventually we gave up and decided to look it up after dinner. About five minutes later Bernardino's girlfriend, Maria, came up with a brilliant way for me to know what it was. She asked if I knew who Adam was, as in Adam and Eve. When I said yes they talked about when they were in the Garden and they were naked and then they were embarrassed. At this point I was so confused and just hoping this would help and not make it worse. She then asked me if I knew what kind of leaves they used to cover themselves up. Thank goodness for the Bible. They used fig leaves. Turns out I was eating fig jam. Who knew that one day I would use the Bible to translate from Italian to English? Classic.

Confidence

2008-09-09T05:28:00.000-06:00

Confidence is something that I have had to muster up multiple times in the last week. Turns out that Italy can be a rather intense place sometimes. My most recent adventure was getting the flu. I really don’t advise doing that when you are living with a woman who doesn’t speak any English and you are a 20 minute walk to her house. Every intention I had of calling home and posting just didn’t work out for me.

Traveling around Rome and the Amalfi Coast was amazing. I saw so many things that literally took my breath away, but we were all kind of excited to get to Siena so we had a home base. It is nice not to be living out of a suitcase and not to be living the frantic tourist life. I have definitely had my share of exciting experiences since I’ve gotten here though.

Here is a brief overview of the past week...

As I'm sure you can all imagine, packing became a bit crazy right there at the end. I ended up having to take out a few things to get the right weight, but it all worked in the end. Here I am at the airport ready to go, kind of. When Mom hugged me I had a strong wave of the what am I doing feeling.

One of my favorite things about Italy is the water fountains. They have these really cool fountains all over the place that just spout water. It makes me happy every time I see them. None of the boring metal fountains from the US.

Don't worry Mom, I did throw a coin into the Trevi fountain. Hopefully that means that I will return to Rome some day. Apparently I was really excited to be throwing the coin.

Here is a picture of a lot of the people I am with. Not all of them ended up in the picture, but it's the best I can do for now. The girls are really cute. Of course there are a few girls with stronger personalities that I don't always understand, but we've had a good time.

I could post so many pictures of the amazing things that I have seen, especially in Rome, but that would be way too much. I started to get on overload a bit with all of the things I was seeing. Truly amazing.

This is a picture of the Amalfi Coast where we stayed for three days. It truly was amazing and a kind of beautiful you don't see other places.

Believe it or not, I am actually drawing here in Italy, and I'm doing it a lot. It isn't quite as bad as a thought it was going to be, but we'll see how it goes in the future.

I don't have any great pictures of Siena yet, but I will post some later. The woman I am living with is so nice, but it is definitely hard. I have found myself wondering what in the world I am doing more than once. It's a bit exciting because we are actually living in a Bed and Breakfast, but you do what you can. Ciao from Siena!

Rome Rome Rome

2008-08-31T14:01:00.000-06:00

I have to be fast because I have to use an internet cafe for now and people are waiting, but I just thought you should know that I am alive and loving life. How can you get much better than Rome? It would be hard to. I may go into more detail later about the first few days, but here is a few things I have learned.
- Lufthansa is a German airline thus EVERYBODY speaks German. I did not realize that until
I was one the plane and I really think I was one of ten Americans. Just in case you did not
know, I only speak English no matter how many times you speak to me in German. I could
have used having Mom or Stephanie around, but oh well.
- The Frankfurt airport is insanely large. I would suggest that nobody ever has less than an
hour to get to their next flight because you will not make it. Kind of crazy.
- It is hot in Rome. Very very hot and sticky, but great. You just come to accept the fact that
you are nast all day. Great fun.
- Honestly, church is hard when you do not understand what they are saying...ever. It makes
it even more hard when you are still trying to get over jet lag. I do not suggest it.
- It is the best feeling to be walking around the city and you turn a corner and you think...
HOLY COW there is the Pantheon, or the Column of Trajan, or some amazing church.

Life is good...I do not think anybody can compete.