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.