| Italy here I come again! |
[05 Jun 2006|10:05pm] |
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I just found out that I got the scholarship/intership thing to teach English in Italy this fall! I will be somewhere (they haven't told me where exactly - I'll be getting a letter from the school that I'll be based out of once I confirm that I still want to do this) in Lombardy. I was worried that I wouldn't get it after the trouble I had with the consolate not recieving my original e-mail, but all looks to be good now!
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[31 May 2006|03:45pm] |
Well, I've graduated! No more college for me. Graduation weekend was wonderful - I'm glad we have a weekend of events rather than being just tossed into a long commencement ceremony that you can't wait to get out of. On Saturday was the Laurel Parade. All the seniors dress in white and carry a chain of laurel to the grave of the college's founder at the center of campus where we sing. Before we march, earlier classes march in front of us (also dressed in white with a hat or something else in their class color which is the same thing for everyone in the class) and have interesting and funny signs about their time at the college. By the time we start marching the other classes are already gathered at the end of the parade route and cheer us on welcoming us into the chain of alumnae that have come before. There were alumnae present from all the way back to 1931 (I hope that if I reach that age I will be able to speak as beautifully and clearly as the member of the 1931 class that spoke at the meeting). The whole thing was surprisingly moving. I was holding back tears when we reached the alumnae (you walk by family gathered to watch first). I swear I didn't used to be as emotional as I have become.
That night was Baccalaureate which I also really enjoyed. Vinny Ferraro's speech was very good - not just the same repeated graduation fare. One of the sign language ladies was amusing to watch - she got really into it. After that was canoe sing. Some members of the class row on lower lake in canoes with lanterns and row kind of in formations while everyone else is on the shore and sings.
Commencement was good. I was a bit disappointed by the main comencement speaker, but I enjoyed all of the honorary degree recipients' speeches. As a whole commencement weekend was fulling - much more so than my high school graduation and an appropriate end to the past four years.
Now what I have to do is figure out what I want to do next. I will probably have the opportunity to work for the government starting in the winter, but am i sure that that's what i want to do? I've applied to teach English in Italy (somewhere in Lombardy) in the fall, hopefully I'll get it! If I do, I'm definately going. Plus, I also may have a second job there if I get into the program. There are other things I'm considering too, like going back to school for interior design or eventually going to grad school for Italian.
I'm thankful for these great past four years, all my friends (*hugs*), the opportunities I had, my professors, and everything I've learned. Thank you everyone.
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| Stampare |
[26 Oct 2005|08:43am] |
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I couldn't find the "Stampare" button in Word this morning when trying to print my paper. I got really confused for a few seconds before realising there was an obvious reason for this. The word is Print in English.
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| Back at school |
[06 Sep 2005|04:58pm] |
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I'm at MHC, but I left my laptop at home (genius, I know). If you need to talk to me, call my cell phone since I also don't have a campus phone at the moment. At least the Abbey computer room's computers are good.
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[13 Aug 2005|06:54pm] |
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RenFair with Stephanie (not me, another one) today!
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(lick a penguin)
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[30 Jul 2005|04:57pm] |
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I love knowing other languages, even knowing a little bit of one opens so much of the world for you.
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[26 Apr 2005|09:08am] |
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La differenza - Che farò |
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I went to Perugia and Assisi this weekend. Perugia was a great city (with underground escalators through the old -Roman, I think- city since the town is built around a hill with the roads winding around it making direct walking from the bottom to the top difficult without the escalators). I wouldn't mind living in Perugia, the surrounding area (Umbria) is beautiful and it's a young feeling city with the Perugina chocolate factory (which I visited and ate too much chocolate at) just 10 minutes outside the city. I also went to Assisi, which was beautiful despite the hoards of tourists and pilgrims. The Basilica of Saint Francis is now one of my favorite churches in Italy, just the feeling of calmness and happiness I felt in there despite all the people would put it high on the list and then you have to include the the frescos by Giotto (who did the Capello degli Scrovegni here in Padova) and all the other beautiful artwork in there. We had a free tour of the city (nearly everyone taking the tour was from Padova or the provincia of Padova) and the tour guide was incredibly nice and interesting. She was a former archeologist and she gave a ride back to Perugia from Assisi so we didn't have to take the train since she was going to Perugia herself. I'll put pictures of the trip up soon.
Today I'm not in the best of moods. There's no reason I shouldn't be feeling ok - I just had a good weekend and I'm wearing my pretty new pink shoes,but I still feel kind of crappy. I'm worried that I don't have summer work plans or real future post-graduation plans like other people do, I'm worried about my housing for next year, I'm sad that I left my penguin pajama pants at the hostel in Perugia (which was very nice for a hostel - there were even frescos on the ceiling and a great view of the city), I am suddenly bothered by the fact that I'm single (my because more than half my program here is involved in fairly serious relationships), I'm sad that I'm going to have to leave this country in a bit more than a month, I'm stresses that I have my oral exam for my photojournalism class at the University of Padova, a presentation for my EU class, and my final paper and presentation for my Modern Italian history class all next week.
I guess I should make a list of things that are good so I don't dwell on the things I wrote above: I'm wearing my cute pink shoes, it's a beautiful day out, the happy and perfectly content to the point of giggling feeling that I sometimes get just walking around town here, I'm going to be able to do an idependant study with my Arabic professor next semester, I think my Italian is really improving, I bought Breakfast at Tiffany's in Italian yesterday, I've been to some amazing places this semester, the fact that random strangers can be wonderfully nice and really make a place great, I'm reading a children's (actually YA if they had that here) fantasy book in Italian, I ate so much chocolate this weekend (I'm including monday in this weekend since it was a national holiday here in Italy and everything was closed so it felt like a sunday), watching the Italian countryside go by from a train window, Italian pop songs.
That's enough for now, there's more that I could probably put in each catagory, but I should go to the library to get a book (more difficult to do in Italy than back in the States) before the library closes. Ciao tutti!
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[18 Apr 2005|10:42am] |
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I updated my pictures with most of the ones I took over spring break. I still have more to put up, but that's enough for today.
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(lick a penguin)
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[14 Apr 2005|05:48am] |
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Le Vibrazioni - Sono più sereno |
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A bit of a longer update today. As I said in the last update Spring Break with Susan in Puglia, the heel of the boot, and a bit of Basilicata was very good (except for Bari, which was terrible, but only half a day). The south of Italy is beautiful and different from the north. People are very friendly and go out of their way to help you, but are also poorer than their northern counterparts. We nearly missed the plane getting there (thanks to a number of transportation problems, we ended up at the airport just 15 minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off) Matera, our first stop after Bari, was incredible. It was actually a place that I had been wanting to visit for a while (since I read "Cristo si è fermato a Eboli"/"Christ stopped at Eboli" in Ombretta's Fascism class - a highly recommended book)and it was definately worth the visit. It's one of my favorite places that I have visited in Italy. I also had the best cappucino that I have ever had in Matera. Our hotel was inside the actual sassi - very cool. From Matera we took a bus (there wasn't a train there and the transportation system works oddly and irregularly in southern Italy, or at least that was my experiance)to Taranto, a port city, in order to take the train to Brindisi where we would be staying for the next few days. While waiting for the bus in Matera, we talked to a lady who was taking the same bus who helped us figure out which bus was ours (there were about twenty buses coming and going and I don't think we would have found the right one without her) and who scolded the bus driver when the bus came 15 minutes late and the bus driver insisted that he was on time. We ended up having about an hour and a half in Taranto since that was when the next train would arrive. So we had a bit of time to relax and take a walk around. It was the perfect amount of time to do it, anymore would have been too much (I'm glad we didn't spend a night there) and less would have been rushing it. Like Matera, we thanked Taranto for not being Bari.
We then headed to Brindisi where we had a great experiance with our hostel (we ended up stating there an extra day) and then headed the same day to Ostuni, which is (at least the old part of town) a beautiful whitewashed city on a hill. From there we headed back to the hostel where we had dinner in a family-style sort of way with the owner of the hostel and the other people who were staying there.
The next day we tried to get to Alberobello, but we missed the train and so rearranged our schedule and went to Lecce a day early (this was when we added the extra day to our stay in Brindisi since we were originally going to stay for two days in Brindisi and two days in Lecce) and just come back to Brindisi that evening since it's only a half hour train ride. Lecce in beautiful, baroque, and golden colored at sunset. They also have great gelato for 1.50 euro for three big scoops. Lecce seems like it would be a great place to live. We headed back to Brindisi after and got back a bit early so we went to the tourist information office (wonderful and useful places - if you're in Italy use them since they give you free maps and information) to see if there was another way to get to Alberobello. The guy in the office was very helpful and called different places trying to find us the quickest and easiest way to get there from Brindisi. After he did that for us he asked if we had walked around Brindisi since it is also an interesting place. When we told him we hadn't but we're planning to do it after we finished talking to him. At that he started giving us free books and maps of Brindisi and the region to help us. I have to agree with him though, Brindisi is a nice place that I don't think gets enough credit. People only think of it as the crossing point for the ferry to Greece and don't stop to take a look. They have a Roman column that marked the end of the Apian Way (there used to be two, but they gave the other one to Lecce around the time of the plague when after praying to the patron saint of Lecce the plague ended in Brindisi), a number of old churches (one we visited was from the 11th century), and other interesting things in it's historic center.
The next day we again attempted to get to Alberobello armed with the instructions given to us by the tourist office guy. But, continuing the theme of transportation problems, we missed the train again. Since this was our last day to go to Alberobello and since it was one of the places we were most looking forward to seeing we decided to try to get there anyway. We took a train that stopped in the small city o Francvilla Fontana. We had an hour there some we decided to take a walk around town. We stopped in a small shop that was labled "Dolci tipici di Francavilla Fontana" (typical sweets of Francavilla Fontana) and decided to go in and try some. We asked the guy behind the counter which ones were the dolci tipici and he happily took us over to the section of the counter where they were kept and asked us why we were in town. We told him, while eating one of the tasty chocolate and hazelnet candies that he gave us, that we were trying to get to Alberobello. He told us that his town was also very nice and that we should look around it if we had time. He gave us another candy and told us to wait in the store a minute while he ran to his car. He left us alone in the shop for a minute and came back with a map of the town that he gave to us to keep. When we tried to pay for the candies he told us they were on him since we were visiting. We saw some of the town using his map before we took the train again (this time a small regional train instead of the usual TrenItalia trains). We finally made it to Alberobello, which is partially made of a white cone shaped houses called trulli. You can see trulli all through the region though in fields and among the trees. To get back to Brindisi we took a shuttle with some friendly Swiss ladies first to a city called Monopoli (haha) and then took a train back to Brindisi where the owner of the hostel picked us up in the hostel's van.
The next day we were off to Lecce again to check into the hotel (which had called us to tell us that they had moved us to a different place) and head off some other place. On the train we were trying to figure out where exactly our hotel was and the guy who was in the compartment with us asked if he could help us. He told us that he was from Brindisi and studies in Rome, but was in Lecce visiting friends. He ended up walking us nearly all the way to our hotel (quite a bit out of his way) and telling us information about the city as we walked. At our hotel we found that we had been given a huge room with a king sized bed and two twin sized beds. We made sure that we were only paying the low price that we had been quoted over the phone since the room was huge, but there weren't any problems. We wanted to go to Capo Santa Maria di Leuca, the southernmost point of the heel, but we would only be able to get there and not come back since the last bus/train left at 12:30 in the afternoon. So we headed to Otranto which was beautiful. We ate orechietti there, which is a pasta that is typical of the region.
The next day we came back to Padova, where Sami was coming to visit! (Hi Sami if you're reading this!) She stayed until Thursday morning and while she was here we went to Padova (obviously), Monselice, Treviso, and Venice (plus some random little city that Sami went to on her own). We went to Murano, the glass blowing island while we were in Venice, which was great.
This past weekend we went to the area of Valdobiadene to see how they make wine, cheese, and salami. It was fun and the area was beautiful.
Yesterday I bought a pair of sparkly pink shoes at a shop near the Duomo. This morning there was a cat looking in at me in the kitchen from the neighbors balcony while I was having breakfast.
I'll put new pictures up soon. Ciao.
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[04 Apr 2005|10:43am] |
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Break in Puglia was fun and the area is beautiful, but apparently I am living no where in the fall. Maybe I'll take the studying abroad again more seriously...
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(lick a penguin)
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| New pictures |
[15 Mar 2005|06:50am] |
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Pink Martini - Sympathique |
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I put new pictures of Vicenza and Bologna up. Plus a picture that I'll post here too in honor of the name of this journal ("Lick A Penguin" for those who access this through through their friends pages - probably everyone who looks at this, actually - and therefore don't know the name).
It's in Pinguino Blu (no, I didn't leave the 'e' off), a Gellateria in Padova.
I told my parents that they need to move to Italy if they want to see me again since I don't think I want to go back to the States.
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| Padova |
[07 Mar 2005|11:14am] |
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Isabelle Boulay - Parle-moi |
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I posted new pictures this time of the city that I actually live in over here in Italy. I want to do art or some kind of crafts over here and I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't bring any of my stuff over here with me. My host mother told me that they sell yarn for cheap in the mercato in Piazza della Frutta on Tuesdays so I'm going to go tomorrow to try to find some. Aside from that everything over here is good.
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| Athens |
[01 Mar 2005|11:46am] |
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ΕΛΛΗ ΚΟΚΚΙΝΟΥ - Θα Περιμεω |
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Athens was wonderful. I want to go back to Greece one day. Plus it was so nice and warm. I didn't even need a jacket. This is another not a real update, but I did post new pictures.
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| I'm going to Athens tomorrow! |
[23 Feb 2005|11:20am] |
Yes, as the subject line says, I'm going to be going to Athens tomorrow for the weekend! One the more impulsive things I've ever done. We just went online and bought tickets and booked a hotel. My final exam for the intensive month is tomorrow, then I take the bus to the Venice airport and off we go! Wish me luck.
I put some pictures up a few days ago of my trip to Verona and I might put up some Milan ones later today: here.
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| Quick update |
[10 Feb 2005|11:55am] |
This is just going to be a quick update, I'll post more on Monday (I'm going to be going to Verona tomorrow, so I won't be going online). Carnivale was a lot of fun. I went to a wine and cheese tasting thing last night at our center that was given by one of the program directors. We might go to a beautiful vineyard where they make the wine in the spring.
If you want to see some pictures go to the blog I made for them.
Ciao!
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| In Italy! |
[02 Feb 2005|12:40pm] |
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I've been in Italy for a few days now (although at times it feels like I've been here a lot longer or that I'm not even really here yet). I went to Venice yesterday, which was beautiful, and I'll probably post pictures tomorrow.
Padova is a cute city. It's bigger than the guide books would have you believe though. Each morning when I head to class I walk over a bridge, past little old ladies in fur coats riding bicycles, I pass Armani (or at least two of his stores) and other expensive stores that will do nothing to break my pathetic addiction to Vogue magazine.
This morning I walked around the piazze where that had markets selling fruit, vegetables, and clothing. I bought a bag for class since I only brought a purse with me to Italy that isn't big enough to carry books in. I also stopped at one of the many newstands in town to buy a paper and a magazine (magazines are, by the way, cheaper than at home - unlike most things).
Right now I'm sitting in the Boston University center in the computer room waiting for a few people to get here so we can go to a mensa (cafeteria) for lunch. Padova is, if you for some reason wanted to know, the sister city of Boston. They're here now so this is it.
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[24 Jan 2005|11:29pm] |
Just a few more days until I leave (2 or 3 depending on how you count). I got the family that I'm living with. I'll be living on the same street as most of the language and linguistics buildings at the University of Padova. I've got one suitcase packed, although I'll be able to fit more in it if I need to. I hope I'll be able to sleep on the plane (I'm sure I will be - I can sleep through anything once I fall asleep) since Thursday looks like it's going to be a long day - I have to be down in Yonkers at 10am for a funeral, then back up to Mahopac by 2pm to load my stuff into the car and pick Chris up from school, then drive out to Long Island to go to the airport - my flight leaves at 7pm, but I have to get down there and go through all the stuff at the airport and say goodbyes so that'll take a while. Then I land the next day in Paris around 12:30 and switch planes to go to Venice where we'll take a bus to Padova and listen orientation stuff for a while until they bring us to a piazza where we meet our host families and then go to our Padova homes.
I bought a book for the plane today and picked up a few things I might need. I think all of the worst drivers in Putnam and Westchester were out driving today though. Ack, suburban ladies who can't see over the steering wheel and men who think that because they are in a truck sort of thing they are winter snow warriors should not be driving SUVs/trucks that are the size of small houses. Aside from them though, it was nice to go out after being inside for the past few days. Plus going to a bookstore is never a bad experience.
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[16 Jan 2005|11:16pm] |
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I really am bad at updating this. I think I did it once this semester, but I want to do it more now since I am going to be going to Italy (in 11 days!). It's weird because it's finally starting to sink in a bit that in less than two weeks I will be on another continent. I now have a passport with a visa attached, my plane tickets, and various other forms that say yes I have insurance and a place to live in Italy (although I still don't know where). I'm excited, but I am starting to get a bit nervous now. I haven't started to pack yet, but knowing me I won't start for a while yet.
It's been nice being at home and not doing much. I made a necklace and wood-burned a box earlier today, although no one reading this (if there is anyone reading this) probably cares. I've been in a crafty mood and I want to sew something. I was wondering if I should take some of my craft stuff to Italy with me.
Earlier I was trying to figure out what I want to take when I get back to Mount Holyoke next year. Weird I know - I'm not even sure what I'm taking next semester in Italy and I'm planning for next year. But anyway, I was thinking that I definitely want to take an art class and I was thinking of even taking Russian. I realize that Russian starts at 8:35 or 9:00 depending on the day, but I figure that unless I work for the government and they pay for me to take language classes, I probably won't have another opportunity to take Russian once I graduate and I've wanted to take it for a while now. Plus, I woke up for work all summer without any problems and I had to be up earlier than I would have to be for Russian. Aside from those two things I would take an Italian class and do an independent study for Arabic. Besides the waking up early part, it sounds like a fun schedule.
Another random thing - I want to take kick boxing.
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