Why Padova

So everyone keeps asking me "Why Padova?" That usually comes after the question "Why Italy?" (yes, a surprisingly large number of people ask me that. But, in my opinion, that answer is pretty obvious. It's amazing, it's beautiful, the people are open and friendly and welcoming, the food is great, the language is musical, it's a country that's not America, "why not!" etc.) So getting back to "Why Padova?" ...In reality, I didn't have much of a choice because it was the only semester program I could choose to do through EAP at Berkeley with the amount of Italian I had studied. The other programs were in Bologna (only for a year) and Rome and Sienna (only if you've taken less than 1 year of Italian). I haven't been to visit Bologna yet but I've heard a lot about it and I don't think I'd like it as much. Rome was beautiful when I went but it's such a big city it feels like New York; which is awesome to visit but I personally would get overwhelmed by it all after a while. Same goes for the other big cities like Florence, Milan, etc.

After spending last night at a house party and then at an Erasmus (European study abroad program) event at a discotechque, and getting asked "Why Padova?" about 10 times, I started to try to think of a funny reason cuz all I had was "Boh, non lo so" (I don't know). Needless to say, I came up with nothing except that maybe I have a secret crush on Giotto... kind of improbable though.

However, riding my bike to class this morning, I thought: I love being able to bike 15 min to get to class. I love heading into the center (centro) to go the the farmers market, bakery, and mom-and-pop cheese and meat shops, every day on my way home to find something amazingly fresh, tasty, and really well priced for lunch (the farmers maket is open every day! except Sundays of course). I like being able to bike or walk anywhere I would want to go in 20 min or less. Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Padova is the perfect size for me; not too big to be overwhelming, and not too small to be boring. In addition, there are lots of other awesome things like fun people I've met, being able to play ultimate frisbee, having an interesting class, etc. I think how you feel about a place is based on a number of things: How you like it in general (size, activities, etc.), a little bit of good luck in living location, people you meet, and not having things stolen all of which keep you from getting bad vibes, and also your own actions (getting to know new people, trying new things, being open). I think all these things have fallen into place here in Padova, so I'm pretty excited to be here :)

Georgio Perlasca, The Book Thief, and Serendipity

One Sunday I was walking around town looking for something to do and I saw that Il Palazzo Della Ragione (the palace of reason/rightness/justice). I paid the 5 euro to go in and enjoyed the beautiful architecture, frescoes and Padovian jewelry exhibit very much. I was very happy with my visit when I saw that there was another exit. It said "Emergency Exit" above it but I could see there was a museum docent behind the door. I asked the docents by the entrance if I could go out that way and they said that I could go in there but I wouldn't be able to exit through there. So I went there and saw a beautiful courtyard. I walked around slowly and took many photos. Grumbling that the gates at the bottom were closed because it was Sunday, I trudged back up the many stairs to the main exhibition to make my way back home. But then I noticed something I hadn't seen on my way down; a plaque on the wall by the stairs. It is the one pictured above and it reads: "The city of Padova honors Georgio Perlasca 'Just Man of Nations' who in the winter of 1944-45, in Hungary, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust." Along the bottom it says: "Whoever saves a life saves the entire universe." In short, he grew up in Padova and later on saved over 5,000 Jews by pretending to be a Spanish ambassador to Hungary and gave documents to Jews to go to Spain. Read more about his heroic deeds on this biographical page. He really has an amazing story.

I was also very impressed by the sculpture in this piece. You can really feel the fright of the Jewish mother clutching her child. You can see the hopelessness and the death on the faces of the others. You can click on the picture to see a bigger image of it.

One major reason that this plaque resonated with me so is that I am reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is a book I quickly selected while at the airport to have something to read on the plane. The Book Thief is about a young German girl during the time of the holocaust who is adopted by a family and learns to read and steals books. She becomes great friends with her foster father who teaches her that all people are created equal through his actions as he refuses to join the Nazi party, houses a Jew for two years, and then is forced to join the army because he gave a piece of bread to the dying Jews being paraded around town in the snow by the sadistic Nazis.

After seeing the plaque I asked the museum docent if Perlasca had been from Padova and he said yes. We had a nice conversation where I told him I was Jewish and he told me that his aunt who lived in Italy also housed a Jew during the holocaust. He said he thinks there's a movie about Perlasca called Perlasca: Un Eroe Italiano. IMDB calls it "Schindler's List II." Maybe I'll be able to find it for rent here.

I guess everything that we do and that happens to us in life is a result of many past choices, as random as they may seem, but how crazy is it that for me to see this plaque was a result of so many seemingly random coincidences? Just to name a few, this couldn't have happened without:
In addition to choosing to study Italian because the Spanish classes were full, having an amazing Italian teacher and choosing to continue studying it, and then deciding to come to Italy... I had to buy this book about a little German girl who lived during the holocaust. That morning I had to decide to try to go shoe shopping in the center of town even when I was 90% sure all the stores were closed. The store had to be closed so that I would keep walking on hoping to get some lunch at the grocery store. The grocery store had to be closed so that I would continue walking around town. My dad had to buy me the Padova DVD that told a 50 min history of Padova in eight languages. One of it's first video clips has to be of Il Palazzo della Ragione to insure that I was still paying attention and could recognize it later. Once I went into the museum and looked at all the truly amazing and unique jewelry I had to try to go out the wrong way, find that it was closed and walk back up the stairs to read this plaque. Talk about serendipity!

Here is a close-up of the signature. I can't make out the artist's name. Can any of you? If you click on the picture you will see a bigger image of it.

________________________________
Update: Stefano says the artist is Piero Perin. Can't wait to check out his website. Thanks Stefano!

A Rainbow in Padova // Un Arcobaleno a Padova

I will write this post first in English and then in Italian, you can choose which one you want to read. // Scrivero' quest'avviso (blog post?) in inglese e dopo in italiano. Puoi scegliere quello vuoi leggere.


English:
We had to write a little composition with the topic: Think about when you arrived in Padova and describe the city according to one of the five senses (sight, sound, scent, taste, touch). My composition:

A Rainbow in Padova

When I arrived in Padova, I saw many colors everywhere.

Red: The food was colorful but it always had red in it. I ate a pizza with tomato sauce, a sandwich with mozzarella, olive oil, and tomatoes, and strawberry ice cream. The color gave life to the food, to this food prepared with care and lots of time. It wasn't like American fast food that is always brown and beige.

Orange: Orange is the color of heat (In Italian, "color" and "heat" sound almost the same). Like the light of a fire in a fireplace on a cold night welcomes you into a house, Italian people welcome you into their lives. When I signed up for the Ultimate team in Padova, I could feel it. The people spoke slowly for me and gave me rides to places.

Yellow: As soon as I came to this region, especially to Padova, I felt an air of mystery. Coming to Padova is like opening a mystery novel in the center (in Italian, the word for mystery novel is the same as for the color yellow). I didn't know much about the history of Padova but I could sense that many things have happened here. I felt a little bit like a detective that has to discover what has happened, what the people were like, but also what the people are like today.

Green: In my head are fields upon fields of green. New words and grammar rules are sprouting there and growing into green trees.

Blue: When I arrived in Padova, even the air was blue. It was not just that there wasn't a cloud in the sky but that the whole city had an air of tranquility; everything was calm.
I really enjoyed my first few days in Padova.


I gotta say, I got the color idea from the book I'm reading right now: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. In addition: I never realized how hard translating is. Just translating this piece back into English, even though I thought of it in English was actually really difficult!


//


Italiano:
Dovevamo scrivere una piccola composizione su questo tema: Pensa a quando sei arrivato a Padova e descrivi la citta' attraverso uno dei cinque sensi (vista, udito, olfatto, gusto, tatto). La mia composizione:

Un Arcobaleno a Padova

Quando sono arrivata a Padova, ho visto molti colori dappertutto.

Rosso: Il cibo era pieno di colori ma sempre aveva il rosso. Ho mangiato una pizza con sugo di pomodori, un panino di mozzerella, olio d'oliva, e pomodori, e anche un gelato alla fragola. Il colore dava vita al cibo, a questo cibo preparato con cura e tempo. Non e' come il "fast food" americano che e' sempre marrone e beige.

Arancione: Arancione e' il colore del calore. Come la luce di un fuoco in un camino in una notte fredda ti accoglie in una casa, persone italiane ti accolgono nelle loro vite. Quando mi so iscritta alla squadra d'ultimate frisbee a Padova, ho potuto sentirlo. Le persone parlavano italiano lentamente per me e me hanno dato passaggi in macchina.

Giallo: Appena sono venuta in questa regione, specialmente a Padova, ho sentito un'aria di mistero. Venire a Padova e' come aprire un giallo (il libro) al centro. Non ho saputo motlo della storia di Padova ma ho potuto sentire che molte cose sono successe qui. Mi sono sentita un po' come una investigatrice che deve scoprire cos'e' successo, com'era la gente, ma anche come sono le persone oggi.

Verde: Dentro la mia testa ci sono campi su campi di verde. Nuove parole e regole di grammatica spuntavano li' e stanno diventando alberi verdi.

Azzuro: Quando sono arrivata a Padova, anche l'aria era azzura. Non e' solo che il cielo era senza una nuvola ma tutta la citta' aveva un'aria di pace; tutto era tranquillo.

Mi sono piacuti molto i miei primi giorni pieni di colori a Padova.


Devo dirvi, ho scoperto quest'idea di colori dal libro che sto leggendo adesso: The Book Thief (Il Ladro di Libri) da Markus Zusak. In aggiunta, non ho mai realizzato che difficile e' tradurre. Era molto difficile tradurre la composizione ancora in inglese per me anche se l'ho scritto in inglese!


*image from: www.associazionearcobaleno.it

People (and statue) Watching at the Prato.

Taken at Prato della Valle. Doesn't the pigeon make this statue look silly? It made me smile.

Your classic idea of Italians, right? These two kids were making out the whole time I sat across sketching that bridge. They were pretty cute. Italians are way more comfortable with PDA (public displays of affection) than Americans and you see images like this all over town, on the trains, etc. Yay Italians! I think the best social/PDA rules would be closer to the Italian version; because, if both people feel happy, friendly, or loving, what can be wrong with expressing it?

There were lots of people playing with their kids near the fountain and I liked this dad and daughter best. He let her climb all over him and was acting silly and following her around.

View from near the fountain at Prato della Valle

A sketch of a view from near the fountain at Prato della Valle. If you compare it to the actual photo I took afterwards (below) you can see that I took some artistic license and did things like reduce the number of windows and remove light posts to simplify things and not make my sketch look too busy. Thanks to Michele for the nice pencil set, it's come in handy many times already!

Funny side note: most of the time I was sitting there, the kids on that bench were teaching each other how to do the Soulja Boy dance (a popular ~hip-hop dance).

Prato della Valle, Padova, Italia

The Prato della Valle (meaning valley meadow) is the biggest square in Italy and is the second biggest in all of Europe. It was originally built for horse races similar to the famous Palio di Siena. It looks really beautiful but is hard to capture by camera. See the image below for one taken from the sky. The Prato is about a 15 mintue walk from my new homestay appartment. When I was there I sketched one of the little bridges with a building behind it. See next post for a photo of it!

View from above, image from http://www.tempiodellarte.eu

Another view by me of Prato della Valle with Basilica Sta Justina in the back ground on the left.

A Few Italian Pecularities

Entrances to banks work like this: you put your bag/backpack in a locker and keep the key. You walk up to the one-person-at-a-time-entrance-door and push the button. The door swings open and you walk into a little cylindrical cell and the door closes behind you. At this time, air may or may not be blown at you ...to see if you have bomb particles ...no clue. Then you push the button for the other side of the cell and you are allowed to walk in to the bank. All the bankers I have encountered speak English.

Handicapped entrances are not very prevalent. Evidence: a guy in a wheelchair was at the entrance when I walked out of a bank. I asked him if "I would like to tell them that you are here?" And he said, "yes please". As I was walking into the little cell again, I turned around and corrected myself and said "oh, would you like..." he said yup and laughed as the cell door closed. Then inside the cell I realized that I should have actually used the formal form! ...silly but "mistakes welcome!" (Papa/Yamamori Sensei). Then they let him in through a special side door.

Toilets almost always have two flush buttons, one for a little flush and one for a big one. For the toilet to flush better, simply press the button and release quickly ...unlike in the states when you would usually hold it down longer. In all private bathrooms that I've seen there is also something that is between a toilet and a sink near the toilet. It is like a wide shallow sink with running water that is shaped like a toilet and is low to the ground. It is used to wash up, probably instead of taking a shower. It is also great for washing your feet in after you get back from walking around in sandals.

One type of sandwich, most similar to the American-white-bread sandwich is called a tramezzino here and the bread never has a crust. They must cut the crust off before they sell the bread. Sounds like something you'd do for a spoiled kid ...but then i never did like the crusts much myself ...heh.

Nutella (chocolaty-hazelnut spread) is their peanut butter and peanut butter is hard to find.

At the farmers market, you can't pick your own fruit or even touch anything.

At the grocery store, you have to use a plastic glove to pick out your fruit and veggies. And then you weigh them yourself on a scale and press the number that is found on the sign by that fruit and it prints a price tag for you.

You almost always have to pay for a plastic bag. It is 5 centessimi (cents)per bag. It is funny how this makes Italians bring their own bags. While in America, we are basically charged 10 cents extra for all our bags each shopping trip at stores like Ralph's etc. This is not evident on the bill, but if you've ever brought your own bags and bagged your own items, you know that they take 10 cents off of your bill. Funny how the same rule, in two different ways results in different responses.

Also, the farmers market here happens 6 days a week and Italians almost never buy more than they can carry at a time. You rarely see shopping carts being used in grocery stores. ...meaning they go to the store often and get lots of fresh food.

At the shoe store, you cannot just take your shoe size and try it on. You have to ask the sales person, even if the boxes are on the shelf in front of you and they will open the box and hand you the shoes. Silly but maybe this reduces theft?

At gelaterie (ice cream places) they don't really do the whole tasting-before-you-buy thing.

At hotels you have to leave your key at the front desk when you leave your room. It is mandated by the Fire Marshall so that if something happens, they know who was in their room and who was out. Kind of smart but also kind of annoying but keeps you from losing your keys or getting them stolen.

For breakfast they usually have a pastry and a cappuccino or espresso with lots of sugar (you have to put sugar in it, otherwise it is so bitter that it's undrinkable). A classic Denny's breakfast is basically unheard of.

The pizzas here are really amazing. I think it's the cheese and the light tomato sauce. Seems like the uniformity of cheese spreading on top is due to using cheese crumbles instead of grated cheese.

Kebab places are popular and delicious.

The only mozzarella you can buy here is a ball or balls of it in water and it is really cheap, even accounting for the unfavorable exchange rate.

Their name for the forehand throw in Ultimate Frisbee is tre-ditta meaning three finger. Their word for break is buca meaning hole. An outside-in throw is called a parabola meaning parabola. To give someone a ring on their cell is fare uno squillo sul cel ...cute huh?

Hand-washed Laundry

What do you see? A simple washing machine? No.... it is a beautiful luxury! Recently I had my first experience of hand-washing laundry. Granted, for that first time, I only washed 3 pairs of underwear, a pair of socks and a shirt but still... It took me a good 30 min and I totally spilled half the water out of the sink onto the floor; but it was actually kind of enjoyable to watch my gray socks become white once again because of the effort I had put into cleaning them.

There are laundry machines here, as well as laundr-o-mats but they are very expensive. 4 euro ($6) for a wash, and 3 euro ($4.50) to dry. Even if you don't dry, it is still expensive. When I move into my home-stay next Monday, I'll get to use their washing machine once a week for free, so I am just holding out until then. But really, it is not so bad. I kind of like doing my own washing, feels like you're more reliant on only yourself. In addition, it's not like I am too busy here with only 3 hours of class per day. However, I haven't done much serious washing, but I probably should soon. I think I will get faster at it as I do it more, since the first time I didn't really have much idea as to what I was doing.

If you all have comments on this post or any others, feel free to post them here, just below each post.

Liza goes to Pisa! (and Florence)

One day Bongo says to me, Liza we have to go to Pisa. Remember when you were a little kid in elementary school and you would say "My name is Liza, no not LiSa, Liza like the leaning tower of Pisa!" Well... we are in Italy and the time has come to visit the monument with your (rhyming) namesake!

So off we went to Pisa with Paola, Chloe, Talin, and Lisa (unfortunately her name doesn't rhyme with Pisa (but she can always go see the (Mona) Lisa in France.))

We got off to a late start getting out of the dorms at 7:35 instead of 7:15. We booked it to the trian station but weren't going to make the 8:03 ...until we caught the bus! Once on the EuroStar (the king of all trains) we relaxed. After grabbing some MacDonalds (expensive!) at the station, we switched to a TrenItalia train from Florence to Pisa. Then we hopped on a bus and arrived at destination #1.

The leaning tower of Pisa. It may not sound that exciting. Who cares right? Its just an old tower that's sinking and leans to one side. That's what I thought, until I saw it. It was SOOOOO COOL! It was just ...wow wow wow! You just have to be there. It's leaning so much. I don't know how to describe it better but it's so neat! We didn't go up because it was expensive but we did get lots of souvenirs nearby including a pair of fArmani (fake Armani) sunglasses, a fGucci belt, fUfficial national Italian soccer team jerseys and a "PISA" key chain for me (my hopes are that one day a conversation similar to this one may occur:
-"Whose keys are these?"
-"What do they look like?"
-"They say PISA"
-"Oh, maybe they belong to Liza!"

After a mini pausa (break) we took the train back to Florence. It had some technical difficulties but it was a pretty ride. Once we got into Florence we headed to the David. It cost $10 to see the real statue but it was worth it. It's huge. It's more than 3 people high counting the base. I learned that the hands and feet are disproportionately big compared to the body. You could see tiny details in the sculpture; veins in the hand, dimples on his knees, muscles on his ribcage. It was captivating. We couldn't take pictures but I got one later of the copy that is in some piazza nearby.

Then we went to see the Duomo. It was the first dome built since the Romans used this long-forgotten technique. Unfortunately we came just after it closed and weren't able to go up it to see the beautiful view of Florence. We took pictures of the church attached to it and also Brunelleschi's bronze doors of passion at the baptistry right nearby.

After finding out that the Uffizzi gallery was closed as well, we went to see the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) over the Arno. It was totally picturesque as the sun was setting.

All in all it was a great trip considering we were able to cover Pisa AND Florence all in one day. We should looked up the schedules before we left and mapped out where we would walk so that we wouldn't have wasted time doing that but for a first trip, it was just great!

The Kinder Egg... Signals the Downfall of Humanity?

Some of you may not be very familiar with the Kinder Egg. Translating from German to mean Kid egg (think kindergarden;) this is a popular treat for kids. My siblings and I first had it when we were in Austria (right before coming to America in 1990). Ever since then, it's always been a special treat brought from Europe. The egg used to be wrapped in foil and was a chocolate shell with a little yellow capsule-like container for the toy which may have had many different parts so you could build a car or a frog or a trash can that picks up "trash" when you set it on top of the "trash" (yes, weird, it was one I had from Germany a while ago and we couldn't figure what it was for). If you've had it before, you know it's better than a chocolate treat because theres a toy!

However... things have changed! The egg is now wrapped in a plastic coating that you pull apart to show two separated halves. One with a little spoon attached to it and a toy inside and another with chocolate-y goodness inside. The toy is very simple and has gone from cute and quaint (and just plain silly in some of the German cases) to media-full. It's been taken over by advertising! The Simpsons are inside my Kinder egg! Go away Simpsons! I just want my plain old quirky German toy! Stop eating my brains out with your advertising!

But... the reason for the separation inside the egg... to protect those kids that would just take a bite of the whole egg, giant yellow capsule and all? Eric, another UC student on EAP here, had a great image of it while we all chatted during our lunch at the piazza: some kid bites into the egg, sues Kinder and Kinder makes a new "idiot-proof" egg... or so they thought (evidence to the contrary: bottom right corner of the above picture). Anyway, whatever happened to survival of the fittest and the smartest? If you can't figure out that a Kinder egg has a toy inside, maybe you shouldn't be eating them...?

Anyway, anyone know a good lawyer? I seem to have gotten some plastic bits in my chocolate-y half and in my tummy...

Mercato Aperto and The Epic Hunt for Food (as it shall hereforth be called)

On Saturday we went to the mercato aperto (open air market) in the Piazza delle Erbe (pictured below). People in the picture from the left: Me, Katie, Theresa, Carly, Lisa. I bought a lot of fruit including green figs (pretty cheap), apricots, apples and others. At these markets you cannot choose the fruit yourself, you tell the owner/worker that you want "un mezzo kilo" (a half kilo) of whatever, and they pick and bag it for you. I figure this is because Italians are so picky and insistent that they'd pick all the fruit over and fight over it and the owners would loose too much money on unsold bruised fruit (from the Italians throwing it at each other in frustration that someone cut in front of them in line). Actually, I think it's a health regulation, because even in grocery stores you're supposed to wear plastic gloves when you choose your fruit/veggies. Anyway, at the beginning I couldn't figure out how to say a quarter kilo so I kept asking for a half kilo of everything. Finally I remembered and it helped. Fun fact; supposedly that open air market isn't there just on the weekends, it's there daily! Talk about "slow food!" I'm excited that my home-stay home will be so near these beautiful places! After the market we wandered around a bookstore and then went to a super market to stock up on food and get stuff for lunch. After eating in a small piazza, we had some gelato and walked home. All in all, we probably walked around for 4 hours today. But it seemed that it was less than we had walked the night before...

The previous day: Friday; we had our written and oral "placement" exams (they are not really placement exams because they just want to see what level we are at and what we need to work on). I think both exams went pretty well for me. I got to check out the UC study center as well, which has a whole bookshelf of books to borrow that previous students left where I found guides to Paris and Venice and Europe as a whole, in addition to a novel for ages 10 +up that I've already read 3 pages of. There is also a collection of stuff that previous students left like ethernet cords, blankets, clothes, pans, etc. So I also picked up a sleeping bag, some clothes for ultimate flair and a sweet semi-bling (translation: kind of over the top) purse. Later on, Katie, Theresa, and I went for a 20 min run around town (Italians don't do this ...ever. They think you are very weird if you run around on the streets). We went down by the river but this guy who was in his driveway stopped us and told us we shouldn't continue in that direction because he had seen some sketchy guys come by recently (either that or that it was a bad area of the river (was hard to understand)). We thanked him and headed around the other way which turned out to be perfect as we got to run by our classroom and cafeteria and made a nice loop back home. Then we showered and set out in search of....

..Mexican food! Little did we know that so epic an adventure could happen to four young girls out on a Friday night just looking for some comfort food like they used to eat at home... So we set out on a hunt for Mexican food. It was pretty close to the main piazzas (which are about 20 min away) so we found it fairly quickly. Unfortunately the entrees were ~15 euro. which is about $22. We weren't very excited about this so we decided to try the one other Mexican place that was on the list we got from out teachers. After another 15 min walk, we realized that it didn't exist. Either that or the street it was supposed to be on stopped and then continued elsewhere, but we were too sketched out about the small dark streets and decided to find some food on the way back. By this time we were getting pretty hungry; I'm sure many of you can attest; four hungry (and cheap) girls prowling the streets looking for food after a workout, is a dangerous dangerous thing, especially if I am one of the hungriest. Every pizzeria and ristorante did not fit our one constraint: cheap. Finally, we got back to the piazza delle erbe, having checked out many restaurants on the way and found GIANT slices of pizza for 2,50 euro! Katie and I got the vegetarian one with lots of veggies that had just come out of the oven. We sat at the fountain that is pictured above and, started devouring our prey. Of course we both burnt our mouths a bit on the just-couldn't-possibly-be-more-tasty pizza. Theresa and Lisa were smart and got flavors that weren't quite so hot. On the way back we got gelato and had some pretty tired legs when we finally were able to lay down on our beds for a bit. Thankfully though, we decided that the combination of the run and the walking burnt all the calories from all that gelato! This must be how Italians stay so thin and why you can find 60 year old women riding their bike to do their daily shopping. Fun fact; supposedly that open air market isn't there just on the weekends, it's there daily! Talk about "slow food!" I'm excited that my home-stay home will be so near these beautiful places!

*Piazza delle erbe at night photo found at bedandbreakfastpadua.it

No Frosted Flakes For Me, Thank You!

It is past 2am here. Can't sleep because I took a 3 hour nap at 6pm. It is such a weird feeling because this probably only happens to me once every two years. I am usually such a good sleeper! I guess I am too excited. Can't stop translating my thoughts into Italian.

Today I bought a SIM card for my phone. I am so proud of myself! The lady at Media World (it is like Best Buy) even compared all the plans with me. She was really nice and just told me how it was. She could see that I was new to this whole speaking italian thing but she didn't baby me, she'd tell me a feature of the plan and then if I didn't understand, I'd ask. I really appreciated it. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the rechargeable cards for my service provider (Wind) so I will have to look for one at the tabbacheria ("smoke shop").

Tabbacherie are amazing. They are so much more than a smoke shop. These are the major places where you buy bus tickets, and cell phone minutes.

Anyway, on to the topic of this post. A little story for you, as told to me by my sister, many years ago. When we first came to this country, my sister and brother were in high school. In ESL class, lots of kids made fun of each other about many things, but most importantly; how cool you were. So at one point, my sister Dina, was asked, (imagine a taunting 14 year old voice) what kind of cereal she ate at home. She desperately tried to think of a popular one she might have seen on a commercial on TV. "The one with the Tiger" she said. "I bet you don't even know the name of it! I bet you eat plain old Corn Flakes!" replied the kid. Dina was horrified.

It was true, we did eat corn flakes for breakfast, but there is nothing to be ashamed of for that. So, this post is about the differences in the food that I ate at home and what many Americans probably ate, and even though it wasn't "cool" at the time, it sure is all the rage here in Italy. I've been pleased to discover many of my favorite foods in just the few days that I've been here. At our group dinner we had "russian salad" which, in russian, is called winter salad (peas, potatoes, eggs, mayo, and somtimes pickles or green apples). I've also had tuna and cabbage with sour cream/mayo. Which is similar to a dish called "Tuna in a winter coat" (silodka pad shubi). At the super market today, I got a small containter of what looked like my moms famous eggplant dish "Eggplant caviar." It was even just like she makes it --less cooked with more chewy pieces rather than being like a paste. But the biggest difference I noticed was at breakfast today. We are provided a semi-continental breakfast each day at these dorms while they function like a hostel until school starts. So at breakfast today, while everyone was saying, "aww, they only have plain old corn flakes," I was thinking "wow, these corn flakes are even better than the Trader Joe's brand ones!"

My Dorm Room

Bongo in Italy. He misses Boomi (the other monkey). "How is he ever going to meet a hot Italian monkey if I don't take him out with me?" (asks Dave). I guess I'll have to take him with me to some places around here.

Bed. Floor to ceiling window and desk (with internet!).

View of the courtyard out of my giant window. "Che bello!"

First Day in Padova: Gelato e Pizza e Vino!

Once we check in at the dorms we were each assigned our own rooms (singles with a jack-and-jill bathroom that you share with the person in the room on the other side). Then we were free to do what we liked and we went out to lunch. I had eaten some bread and salami I had brought from CA but tasted a delicious kebob sandwich that a friend got for only 3,50 euro nearby. Then we went in search of gelato since some of us had just arrived and hadn't tried it yet. We found a yummy place and got some. We didn't ask for tastes because we weren't sure if that was customary or not. I went with my two favorites (since I probably would have gotten them after trying 30 other flavors anyway) - chocolate and plain yogurt. The yogurt was the best I've ever tried but the chocolate was only ok. Maybe I am used to a sweeter variety?

After lunch we came back and finished unpacking. Then we all went out to dinner with the study center staff. A restaurant that had a large seating area in the back (to fit all ~40 of us). There was a set menu with cold dishes: risotto with ham and tomatoes, spinach wrap, "Russian salad" (was just like my moms makes! loved it!) and then some plain pizza (my first in Italy!) ...the pizza was amazing. The cheese is more chewy than any mozzarella and then tomato sauce looks like barely cooked squished tomatoes on a delicious thin crust. I didn't think I'd be able to notice the difference but wow!, I can see why Italians get snobby about their pizza!

After the dinner, we headed out to find some fun. With the lack of open-container laws in all of Italy, we bought a bottle of wine for 1,80 euro and started off to one of the main piazzas. In this photo are some Italians we met at the Piazza delle Erbe (Piazza of herbs). In the plain turquoise shirt is Katie and in the black is Teresa, some friends from EAP. The others are Venetians: Rinaldo (shaved head), Davide, Davide (they have matching tattoos with a "D" in them (because they're such good friends!), and Irene. Irene spoke English pretty well and she helped us all communicate because the guys all spoke a venetian dialect (sounds totally different, they basically only say half of every word, skip some words and even have some very different vocabulary!) But when she got bored of translating, we were left with just these guys. They said it took some concentration but they spoke regular old Italian to us (that is the language you learn in all the schools, regardless of the local dialect) and slowly but surely we all were able to communicate and chat, we even joked (a bit)! After two hours of really concentrating on our Italian, we headed back home, proud of our initiative and conversational skills.

First Night in Italy

My first night in Italy was spent at the Camping Della Serenissima campground/hostel in a small province of Venice, Italy. After taking the Bus from the airport to Maestre, I took another to this camp site. It was pretty easy and I found my way around quickly. Here in Italy, you cannot buy your ticket on the bus. You have to get it at a tabbacheria (smoke shop) or a bar (cafe/bar). Then you validate your ticket when you get on the bus at a little kiosk behind the driver. No one checks these tickets but if the bus authorities get on to check tickets, you can be fined.

A view from my walk. The bathrooms were right near this. They were huge and clean with seperate sink stalls, showers, etc.

One of the bungalows like mine. Outside of which I got eaten alive by mosquitoes and then had to sleep covered in toothpaste (to stop the itching), but I got to sleep for 13 hours! Best way to fix a Jet Lag situation.

My private room. 6 x 5 yards. Cot bed was a little saggy but didn't make my back hurt. Left out a half eaten trail mix bar and the ants got to it. But I think it distracted them from my expensive chocolate bar and salami, so that was good.

I used the modem connection they had at the bar to let my family know that I had arrived safely because the calling card totally didn't work. Even the Italian receptionist girl couldn't figure it out. All in all was a good stay. Caught the bus from 300 meters away straight to Padova and then took a cab for 5 euro to our dorms.