Monday, January 15, 2007 5:04 AM
hello Everyone!
First of all, photos. I realized that to see them on snapfish you have to be a member and even though it doesn't cost anything to sign up some may not want to anyway, no problem. I made an account with one of my old email accounts so you can see my pictures and not have to sign up (thought you still can if you want to of course). Just go to snapfish.com and use this:
login name: shiroi_2000@yahoo.com
password: italy
Happy viewing! I already invited that account to view all four of my albums (London, Paris, Spain, Alhambra) I have more Spain pictures on my camera that I will add later so if you want to see those you'll have to just check back with that album later (I will mention in an email when I add them). And now on to other things...
This email is going to be mainly devoted to my first day in Italy and a few other random things.
A few differences between the places I have been:
London seems to care much more about their streets' appearances. While there are practically no trash cans to be found anywhere in the streets of London there is also little to no trash to be found in the streets either. On the other hand, in Paris there are many, many trash cans lining the streets yet there is also lots of trash in the street. Curiously, there seemed to be more trash near the trash cans than just fifteen feet away. Then there is the dog poo. I saw no dog poo in London and really no dogs running around either. In Paris I saw a good deal of dog poo but few dogs. Now I am in Granada and the amount of litter in the streets is somewhere between Paris and London. The trash can are more rare than Paris but still to be found unlike in London where you either have to pocket your trash or go inside a building to throw it out. As for the dogs and their poo, there are a good deal of dogs here, either running around, on leashes or behind gates, and it shows! Granada's streets are packed with dog poo! I have no found a single place that you can stand without having dog poo within your sight (if not under your shoe). As for Pisa, all the dogs I have seen are on leashes and I have only seen one pile of dog poo, and it was on the side not in the walkway.
My experience with Pisa (this is going to be very long winded and detailed):
I arrives on a flight from Sevilla, Spain at 23:30(11:30pm). I had prearranged with someone from couchsurfing.com to pick me up at the airport and I was suppose to stay at their place for the two nights I was in Pisa. He was nowhere to be seen at the airport. I waited until 1:00am in the airport, during which times the security guards asked me what I was doing four times. I had already checked outside to see if he was there a couple times but when I decided to do this again at 1:00 I was locked out of the airport! None of the doors would open for me. I had talked to another girl who was waiting and she said Pisa was about 15 minutes drive depending on where you were going. I didn't particularly want to take that walk. It was cold (though I have been told a couple times since that I am lucky it wasn't a year ago because it was about 8 degrees colder last year - making it around 0°C instead of around 8°C. So I sat in a patio for a restaurant for about ten minutes thinking about what I should do. I started walking around the parking lot and in front of the airport building looking for someone who I could possibly hitch a ride with. This first girl I asked wasn't driving to Pisa but she said it was only a ten minute walk to the center. So I started walking. It really wasn't that far thankfully, I don't know what the first girl was talking about when she told me 15 minutes by car... maybe with traffic? I don't know.
So I found myself in the streets of Pisa at 1:30 in the morning looking for a hotel to stay the night in. The first hotel I entered told me a single room is 95Euro but because it was 1:30 in the morning he would give me a special deal for 80Euro. No thank you! That is about $110 and sleeping is not what I want to spend my money on! So I kept walking, hoping to find something cheaper. The next two hotels I went to were full. So I went to the train station figuring I could sleep on a bench in there. Then didn't have benches, instead they have those seats that are individual hard plastic that you can't lay down on. I laid down halfway on the ground and halfway on the backpack. There were already a good 15 people sleeping either in sleeping bags on the floor, sleeping the seats sitting upright or just sitting there awake. After laying there for about 20 minutes I decided it wasn't going to work, my legs were too cold on the floor and it wasn't anywhere near comfortable. So I decided to head back to the streets and look for another hotel room. The first hotel I went to was full. But as I was walking out the door three guys from Holland also went outside for a smoke, they were in the lobby and head my conversation with the hotel employee. They offered me to sleep in one of their rooms. They were a party of seven but had to get three rooms with a total of eight beds, meaning there was one not being used. I happily accepted. They were drunk but seemed to be nice enough guys. One of them went inside to tell the hotel. He came back out and said I had to pay the hotel to stay there. Another one of the guys didn't like that being that the room was already paid for and the bed wasn't being used! So he went inside and came back out saying I only had to pay 15Euro. No problem, I can do that. Now they just had to get into the room. The guy that was staying in the other bed of that room was asleep and wouldn't wake up when one of the guys went upstairs and knocked on the door. Apparently they had already been talking to one of the employees quite a bit and were on good terms with him, which was good for our situation. The guy who worked there got a master key and unlocked the room to let me in. The guy who was asleep in the room was startled by the intrusion of three of his drunk friends, a hotel employee and girl (me) but didn't seem bothered by the idea of me sleeping in the room. At last I could go to sleep. It was 3:00am.
The hotel included breakfast. I definitely got a good a deal for 15Euro - a bed, a shower, a full breakfast and a couple things to go for a snack later. I left the hotel and headed to an internet cafe to find a place to stay that night. First thing I checked was couchsurfing.com to see if my "host" had written an explanation for his not picking me up. There was nothing. I wrote an email - it was difficult but I didn't include any feelings in the letter, basically a flat email stating: you were not there. What happened?
Next I found a room for 25Euro with breakfast included, left my baggage in the room and headed out to explore Pisa. Obviously I went to the leaning tower of Pisa. Then as I walked around aimlessly in the streets I came across an open air market/flea market/antique market type thing. Many of the booths were antique looking stuff but there were also a good number of clothing and jewelry booths. At one open area amid the booths was a made playing a trumpet to tune of the Queen song "we are the champions..." (I don't know the name of the song, but those are the lyrics) It was great.
I found a puzzle/brain teaser booth. I spent at least an hour at that booth playing with the puzzle toys trying to figure out the harder ones and delighting in helping a few other people figure out the ones I already figured out. The majority of the time was spent on one puzzle. Even after the man at the booth showed me how to do it, I still had difficulty. I must have shown me how to do that puzzle at least 6 times! They were a very nice couple and at the end I gave them my email, got theirs and was invited to their house in Livorno some future weekend for food and visiting. He said I can help his daughter is about my age with her English pronunciation :)
After the puzzle booth I found a jewelry booth with an amber ring I really liked. After a long time of deliberation and talking to the guy who ran the booth, Erberto, I finally bought it for 8Euro (it was 10 but he said because I am a student he will give me a deal). Then I spent the next four hours talking to the guy ran the booth. At 20:00 (8:00pm) I headed back towards my hotel intending on getting dinner on the way and then reading in my room and going to sleep. But that was not in my cards.
On the walk back to my hotel I started talking to Hasen and Idris. They invited me to go ice skating with them. We got some donor kebab for dinner and drove to the ice skating rink. I was lucky, it was the last night it was open after being there for a month. I spent about four hours there ice skating and hanging out Hasen, Idris and bunch of their friends. I found out that when there is a misunderstanding in speech, for instance when you think you heard someone say something but they really said something else and you know exactly what they really said but think that it would be funny it they had said the thing you thought you heard (you following me here?). When this happens, it is best to keep it to yourself and not share. Because when you try to explain it loses everything, at least that is, when you speak very little Italian and the other people speak little English. And when you start to explain but it doesn't work you try to just say never mind, after all it wasn't important, but they insist you tell them. I guess it is amusing trying to communicate when neither of you understand each other fully... amusing, challenging and enjoyable, yet sometimes frustrating. It was really fun hanging out with them. I went to bed at 1:00am. I turned out to be a good first day in Italy, even though it started out not very happy.
I am getting on a train to Siena in an hour and a half and starting my study abroad program tomorrow!
Ciao
address and phone number (short email!)
Thursday, January 18, 2007 6:31 AM
Ciao Everyone! I am now in Siena and I just wanted to give you my mailing address and cell phone number if you want to get a hold of me. My cell phone, if you are calling from the US or Canada is: 011393461249488 and if you are calling from pretty much anywhere else besides Italy: 00393461249488 or from within Italy: 3461249488
My address is:
Hillary Jenkins
University of California
Via dei Montanini, 101
53100 Siena
Italy
life in Siena
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 7:29 AM
An update has been demanded! I am already told a few of you some of the following things about my life here in Siena, but I'm going to write them again here in the mass email. I will try to abbreviate the happenings but no promises :-D
I arrived in Siena January 15th. I will spare the details but simply say that couchsurfing.com again did not work for me in Siena. It took some time and the help of the guy working at the computer lab but I eventually found a place that didn't cost an arm to sleep for eight hours (only 35Euro whereas other places were charging 60 plus). On the 16th I met with my school and check-in. After some paperwork I met with my homestay family. Laura and Mario are a married couple in their early sixties and Margherita, Mario's mother, is 84 as of yesterday. Laura and Mario have two sons and a daughter that are moved out, married and have children of their own. Their daughter, Margherita, has one son. One of their sons has a daughter and the other son has three children, two daughters and a son. All five of the grandchildren are between four and nine years old. I have briefly met four of them so far.
My house: My homestay is going really well! Laura doesn't speak any English but through hand gestures and my learning new words, we can communicate alright. Also Mario helps with the communication working out because he speaks intermediate/beginner English. As for Mario's mother, I haven't really spoken to her besides saying "Ciao" when I come home or leave and "buonanotte" when I go to bed. She tried to ask me a question once but I didn't understand so Laura answered her. I am learning Italian, each day I learn some more and I can't wait till I am able to actually be conversational. A couple times Laura has tried to talk to me and after a few minutes she gave up and basically said, we'll talk later, after you learn Italian.
One thing I have had to get over is my severe dislike of people going into my room when I am not in it. The first day I was kind of put off for a couple seconds but then I realized that I not only do not have anything that Laura would steal, but she wouldn't anyway. Plus, it is cool that she is keeping my clean. Every day we sweeps my floor (tile-type floor throughout the whole house), empties my trash and remakes my bed. Yes, she REmakes my bed. Every day I make it and every day I come home and it is remade :) At first I didn't like that she did this, kind of like she didn't think I could make my own bed. Then I sort of had a little competition with her (only in my head of course, not out loud with her). I made my bed the way she makes my bed a couple days, but she still remade it, I can tell! So now I don't even really try. I pull the blankets up and straighten them out enough but I don't put much effort into it because I know she will do it again.
Food: The food has been very tasty. Every day Laura cooks dinner and we eat at 20:00. Margherita watches the Italian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire every night and when that is over at 20:00, we eat. I eat by far more than anyone else. It only took one meal for Laura to see that I like to eat :) Goes in order like this for every dinner: Margherita has a huge cup of some liquid that looks like chocolate milk but I am not sure if it is, along with crackers, that's all. Laura only eats the main dish which consists of some kind of vegetable (peas, salad, delicious cabbage!) and some kind of meat (fish, chicken, beef). Mario eats the first dish of some kind of pasta (tortellini, gnocchi, pasta) and also the main dish. Then I eat almost twice the amount of pasta Mario eats and the main dish. Bread, wine and water are always on the table at dinner as well. After the main dish I usually have a little cheese, sometimes Mario does but rarely does Laura. Then for dessert sometimes we have something like a chocolate cupcake, a piece of pie or a bit of gelato but generally it is fruit (kiwi, apple, orange). Last night was the welcome dinner for all the students from California. We went out to a nice restaurant and had a huge dinner. Crostini Misti (little slices of bread with toppings: tomato, mushroom, cheese), ribollita (twice cooked soup that was soo good), farfalle al pesto (the butterfly pasta with pesto sauce), salad, tacchino con patate arrosto (turkey and potatoes) and torta de mele alla crema (apple cake with creme sauce). And of course we had wine, water and bread on the table as well.
People: Other Students: I have not been hanging out with Californians. I hung out with one girl for a little bit. She is staying in a home basically across the street from me. But we just aren't the same type of people. She found some girls in the program that fit with her much better and has been hanging out with them. Before I even got here I decided I did not want to hang out with native English speakers because I want to learn Italian and speak Italian (yes, following my brother's example!). But then I figured I was being too judgmental and maybe I should give the people in my program a chance. So last night after the welcome dinner I went to the apartments were University of California students are living. Yeah, won't be hanging out with them again. It was basically the same as in California but with more drinking to get wasted (one girl left the dinner early because she was so drunk she couldn't sit up in her chair). That is not what I am here to do. I am here to learn Italian and have a foreign experience, not a Californian experience in Italy.
Italians: I have already made a number of Italian friends, which awesome. Twice now I have been walking on my street and I saw someone I knew! It feels good to be so new in a city and already know people and to see them around. The guy that I was suppose to couchsurf with here in Siena apologized profusely, we are now friends and all the people I know in Siena are through him (aside from my family and school people of course). A number of them want to exchange language help: I help them with English and they help me with Italian. Sounds like a good deal to me! There have already been a number of funny moments of mistranslations, I look forward to more :) I only share my favorite two so far: we are all drinking wine in an apartment and Ermanno says to me "Hillary, you drink like a spoon" what he meant was sponge, not spoon. It was really funny and because a few of the people there knew some English they caught the mistake as well and we all laughed (including Ermanno). Then also "My sister is very expensive" This can be a very bad mistranslation! Espansivo in Italian means Outgoing in English. There are a lot of words that are basically the same in English as Italian but just sound a little different so sometimes people just make the word sound English (also works the other way: English to Italian). However, this can come out not even near what you are trying to say :)
I know this email is getting long. I really do try to keep them shorter but then I just start writing...
School: I started classes yesterday. I have Italian language Monday - Friday (Lunedi-Venerdi) 9-12. On Monday and Wednesday I have Core Class (Italian history type stuff) 2:30-3:20 and Italian Culture (three sections throughout the quarter: Opera, Art History, Food & Wine) 4:30-5:20. On Tuesday I go to an elementary school about five minutes walk from my classrooms to help teach English (ESL). Third graders 1:30-2:30 and second graders 2:30-3:30. Today was my first day at the elementary school. The third graders are going to make a movie of Snow White so I introduced the characters to them. The second graders are just starting to learn English so the activity we do is pick three colors, objects that are those colors and then write a sentence using those three items. Today the colors were blue, yellow and orange and the sentence was "When I am at THE SEA I like to eat LEMON ice cream and ORANGE ice cream." Because I am helping in two classrooms I was assigned to classes that already have lesson plans. Some of the other students have to create their own lesson plans for their one hour a week teaching English. I kind of wanted that challenge but as same time but a bit intimidated...
Okay, this email is long enough. I will stop writing. If you want to know more about whatever, write me and ask me some questions.
Ciao,
Hillary
P.S. FYI Italy is 9 hours ahead of California
P.S. about pictures
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 8:04 AM
I have uploaded more pictures. http://www.snapfish.com/login user email: shiroi_2000@yahoo.com password: italy
I have more but these computers for some reason will not recognize that my camera is plugged into them :( And neither will the ones at the computer lab so I can only upload from the computer at my house and I don't like to use it all the time. So you can either periodically check to see if I added more photos or wait till I send out and email.
Ciao,
Hillary
Venice for carnival
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 11:56 PM
Every time I think about writing this letters I don't because there is just too much to write about! But know that I do think about writing them more often than I do; that is probably why they are so long, because I wait too long to write :)
Venice: I went to Venezia (Venice) this past weekend. It was great fun! At the last minute I found a place to couchsurf. My host's name was Tommato, or Tom for short. He lives in a three bedroom apartment by himself and that weekend he had eight couchsurfing girls! Me, Delphine from France, Aiko from Japan, Maria and Hiedi from ?? and three Turkish girls: Nevin, Gokcen and Seda. I arrive by train Friday evening and within a couple hours all the other girls had arrived and we were all sitting together in the kitchen eating dinner. It was awesome. Because Tom is remodeling he doesn't have water in his kitchen so we had to wash the dishes in the bathtub :) Friday night we all went out together. It was funny, one guy and eight girls! Friday night was surprisingly not happening in downtown Venice. We meet up with a couple other couchsurfers - three guys to even the genders a little bit :) including my friend Jeremy from California. While having a drink at a bar we all conversed and some of us started to dance. Around 3 in the morning we headed home.
Have you ever fallen asleep while standing? I have! While I was in Venezia we were taking the bus back to the house at about 3am and I didn't have a seat so I was standing and doing the head bob thing. All the sudden I was falling down, thankfully I was holding onto something so I caught myself before I fell completely. It made me think of the game The Sims. I like that game :)
The next day, Saturday, Tom had another couchsurfer (Alfredo) add to the house! So now there were ten people for two single beds, two full size air mattresses and one full size pull out couch-type bed. During the day Aiko, Tom, Alfredo and I went into Venice and met up with Jeremy. We all went on a gondola ride. Well, a sort of gondola ride :) We went the cheap way. For 50euro-cents we ferried across the water. It the experience that counts, not the length! It I had gone on a full length gondola ride (about 45 minutes) it would have cost about 50euro, not what I want to spend my money on. At some point in the day Tom asked me if I was okay with sleeping in the same bed as two Italian guys (him and Alfredo). I told him that as long as I am in my own sleeping bag, zipped up, that's fine. His comment to that was "You consider it a big condom" I had to write that one down so I could share, though it was much funnier at the time... :)
Saturday night we met up with a group of other couchsurfing community members. Saturday night Venice had a LOT more people out and about. After walking around for a while we settled at piazza Margarita (or however you spell it...). There is a tasty pizza place that wood fires their pizza where we ate dinner. Then, after a drink in a bar, we headed towards the stage where a DJ was supplying music, where we danced for hours. It was a great time and I met a number of cool people.
Communications: Sometimes I focus so hard on one part of what was said to me that I forget the other part. Then when I ask for it to be repeated instead of repeating it they say something different or switch to English :( Having Mario (my host father) is a blessing for when I am confused but sometimes I wish he did not know English because often times if Mario is around instead of Laura (my host mom) repeating what she said in Italian she looks to Mario for a translation.
I went to a dinner at Eleanora's home a while back. I was sitting at the table with still with my jacket on, as I usually tend to do for even though I get really hot while walking, when I am sitting somewhere I seem to be colder than others. My friend comments on me still wearing my jacket. So I reply that the only reason he isn't wearing his jacket is because he has three layers on, two shirts and a sweater and also the guy sitting across from me is wearing layers. The guy sitting across from me (I don't remember his name) didn't speak much English. He gets up from the table, goes to his room (he lived there) and comes back wearing a different sweater. I ask him why he changed. Somehow from what I said and the way I acted it out with my hands, he got from it that I said if he changes his sweater I will take off my jacket. It was funny. At that point I took off my jacket, even though that isn't what I said that is great that he would actually do that. :)
They love the movie Willow here!! ha ha ha In the movie willow the baby is named Elora. And the word "allora" is an often used filler word in Italian. Just a little joke :)
Okay I have been saving this email as a draft for way too long so I am going to send it and type the rest of my notes up for another email. Also, this way it isn't as long as it was going to be!
a few random things
Sunday, March 18, 2007 3:33 PM
This time a short email...
Language is so interesting. There are all these rules and then there are all the exceptions to the rule. Here is one that I enjoy: "The egg" (singular) is masculine while "the eggs" (plural) are feminine (il uovo vs. le uova). Also there are so many words that mean the same thing, and also words that differ based solely on double constants (which make a significantly different sound in Italian) and then there are of course words that sound similar. The other day at dinner there was a vegetable that I didn't recognize. I tried to ask it is was a type of cabbage, but instead of saying cabbage I said horse. My host mom's facial expression was great "what!? horse! no!" Then there are of course the different saying each culture has. An example, in English when you say something that you don't want to 'curse' yourself with and now have it come true because you said it ( i.e. "I have never broken a bone") you say "knock on wood" afterward, or you actually do the action of knocking on a piece of wood if it is near. In italian they say (or do) "touch iron."
Movie titles are a funny thing. I wonder what/who decides the movie titles. Some stay in English while some change to Italian. But they hardly ever are the same title. For example, Bruce Almighty changes (pretty much) to One Week As God.
I haven't watched much TV here, except the occasional last few minutes of the Italian Who Wants to be a Millionaire right before I eat dinner. So I am not sure how much the commercials vary but the other day we (an italian family and I) were talking about commercials and he was saying how ridiculous the commercials are for diseases and their medications. His exclamation was "jesus christ you have cancer!!" It was really funny the way he said it :)
When fighting in Italy you cannot punch your opponent. You have to slap each other. Punching is considered attempted murder, or so I'm told by a guy from the US who got in a fight not knowing this rule and had a discussion with the police.
People walk so much slower here. Then on top of that there is either the large number of people in the streets so you can't weave around them or a group of people stretched out across the street so that there is just barely not enough room for anyone to get by. Often times it is annoying because I walk a good deal faster, but most of the time it really doesn't matter because I pretty much always am early for whatever I need to do :) I think the slower walking speed has a good deal to do with the reason why italians bundle up so much. Seriously, they wear at least three layers. I wear a t-shirt and a jacket and burn up in my 15 minutes walk from my house to my school. I have to slow down so I don't sweat a bunch.
I have gotten better at staring at strangers. At home I would always look away when someone saw I was looking at them. But here no one does that, if you catch someone staring at you, they don't look away, they just keep staring. Therefore I have adapted this way of doing things and now stare just as much as other people :) I like to people watch and not having to look away when they catch you makes it so much easier :) ha ha
Italians have a great set up for shopping carts. Seriously, it is brilliant, I don't know why I have never seen it in the US, someone should think about doing this. There are the cart holders in the parking lot, just like in California. But to get a cart, you must put one euro into a little a slot, and that releases a chain that attached the cart to the holder. Then after you are done with the cart, when you attach the chain back to the cart, you get your euro back. This is a great way to stop people from just leaving their carts where ever in the parking lot. Most people want that euro back! Sure there are a few who don't care about one euro, but for the most part... But wait, there's more!! Not only do you have to put your cart back into the holder to get your euro back, but you have to put your cart in the first slot! If you try to put it in any available slot apart from the furthest one up the chain doesn't reach to where you need to attach it your cart. Genius I say! :)
Okay, short and sweet this time, like I said. Maybe I will write a story in the next email. But really, if you want to hear stories, the best time in is person :) I have added a lot more photos since last time I mentioned them in an email. Check them out: http://www.snapfish.com/login use the login email address: shiroi_2000@yahoo.com and the password: italy
a little bit of catch-up on travels
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:19 PM
As many of you know, I am a procrastinator when it comes to writing things, especially papers! I have been working on this email for about a month now and I today I have decided to actually get it finished :) Also, new pictures are available on snapfish. login: shiroi_2000@yahoo.com password: italy
About a month ago two of my friends from Santa Cruz, Phoebe and Christine, came to Italy. We met up for a fun filled weekend in the Napoli area. We stayed in Aversa (just north of Napoli) with two amazing hosts, Ale and Luigi. Christine, Phoebe and I spent a day in Pompeii that was awesome. Pompeii has been my favorite place in Italy, by far. I love exploring old, abandoned, falling apart houses and this was a whole city of them!! Plus the company made it even better :) Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of Napoli because it was raining. However our lovely hosts came to Napoli with a car to meet up with us after our day of Pompeii. They drove us around Napoli giving us a short tour of the town. That night we all went out together. They took us to a very unusual place in Aversa. There is a road in which people drive on trying to pick up on each other. The road is bumper to bumper, slow moving cars and when you get to the end, you can see there is no reason for the traffic, there is only traffic for people to try to find a "date." Ale told us that once you find someone, through talking to them from your car to their car as you are driving in opposite directions, you meet up at this cafe. We went to the cafe and had a couple beers. After you meet the person, you can decide to "get to know each other a little better" by driving about two blocks away and parking your car along with no less than forty other cars. The majority of these cars have newspaper pasted to the windows, while some others have different assortments of clothing covering the windows. Many of the cars are rocking, despite the fact that they are turned off. Wow!
After a couple beers in the cafe we went to another bar where we danced for a while. We had planned on perhaps hiking Mt. Vesuvius the next day, which we laughed at the next day. After staying up till about 4 in the morning and having to take an afternoon train up to Firenze the next day, hiking a volcano was out of the question! We had a great weekend :) Here are a few quotes:
"I search it on the internet: a place that nobody knows" - Ale
"I am boiling from all the burping, booze and bodies" - Christine, sitting in the back middle seat of the car, while we were driving around Napoli and having a burping contest.
"Make me a pleasure" this is had actually been said a couple times by Italians I have met, the word pleasure being confused with the word favor; do me a favor is what is meant by this :)
"I can't dance yet, I've got a bottle in my boobs" - Christine, when we got to the second bar for dancing she still had some beer in her bottle, which she placed in her sweater so she could bring it into the bar with her.
I took an optional cooking class a couple weeks back. The night before the class I told my family that I wouldn't be at dinner the next day because of the class. We cook food and then we get to eat it. To this Mario said we will have to go to the hospital after. I asked him why? And he said "Perche voi cucinate" Which translated to Because you all are cooking. I like my dinner conversations with my family :) I will miss them.
I went to Perugia. No, I didn't eat any chocolate, I didn't know that Perugia was famous for its chocolate until after I came back to Siena. See, generally when I travel I do not research about the place. I prefer to just go there and see how it goes, let people suggest things to do or just wonder around. While I was in Perugia, sitting on some steps that many people sit on in the evening I saw a very amusing sight. I wish I had taken a picture, but I was in such shock that I didn't act fast enough to get my camera in time. Picture this outfit: v-neck yellow shirt, a crochet like beige sweater, peg-leg white pants (perhaps jeans?) and "Cat" boots ... on a man! It was great
Telephone service in Italy is only by minutes, there are no monthly plans. Because of this many people have multiple phones, each from a different carrier. It is not uncommon to see someone with at least two phones. Once while I was on a train three of the four people in the cabin I was in had two phones in their laps.
A few random things that I learned while I was in Panarea. I was there for six days and I only had one day and two afternoons of sun! Therefore, I spent a lot of time in David's house (my host while there). One of things that I read while there was a National Geographic in which I found the following little bits of interesting information that explains a lot:
-According to research conducted by the University of Southern California, chronic liars, cheaters and malingerers average 22% more white matter in the prefrontal cortex and 14.2% less gray matter (neurons). Therefore, pathological liars are prone to this behavior... or perhaps through their behavior they change their brain, I am not sure...
-Exercise works wonders for some couples. Also doing novel things because novelty triggers dopamine in the brain, which can stimulate feelings of attraction. In other words, if your hearty flutters in their presence, you might decide it's not because your anxious but because you love them...
-If you just jog in place and then meet someone, you're more likely to think they're attractive.
-According to anthropologist Helen Fisher of Rutgers University, NYC and colleagues Arthur Aron and Lucy Brown, the serotonin imbalance in your brain when you have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and when you are in love are very similar. People with OCD or who are in love have an average of 40% lower level that people without.
The chemically altered state induced by romantic love is akin to a mental illness or a drug-induced euphoria.
Antidepressants jeopardize love; people on antidepressants can actually lose their ability to feel like they are in love.
Oxytocin is a hormone that promotes a feeling of connection, of bonding. Without oxytocin, when the euphoria of a new relationship dies down, the relationship is much harder to keep.
And another quote: "This lot couldn't organize an orgy in a brothel" - said by David, this is a saying referring to disorganized behavior.
While in Catania I met a Polish girl and she told me that in Poland the women are not suppose to pour the drinks if there is a man present. It is okay with beer because people just do their own thing with their beer. But especially when drinking vodka the women cannot pour the bottle. If they want more they have to say some kind of comment like "oh we should have another drink" or something a little less straightforward but meaning that the guy should pour another.
This past weekend I went to Geneva, Switzerland. It was awesome! If could definitely want to live there, at least for a little while. The city has parks all over the place. You will be walking along on the street and than all the sudden you will come across a grassy park. Some are large and some are small but they are all kept very pretty. I like how they aren't just grass as well, most of them have little rows of flowers standing in the grass. Also, Geneva has some awesome playgrounds. Really cool playground equipment in the old style of wood, not the all plastic big ugly ones that have replaced so many of the old playgrounds in California. Another great thing about the city is that it is so international. You can hear all kinds of languages everywhere you are: Portuguese, Spanish, English, French... However, there were a few things that I didn't like about the city. First of all, it is so expensive! I went to a sushi restaurant and looked at the menu to find that one roll costs about 30 Swiss Franks and edamame costs 9! I get edamame free with the meal at my favorite restaurant in CA! So that would be sad to not be able to eat sushi without paying an arm and a leg. Secondly, stores are all closed by 19:30. If you want to go shopping for food after you work you need to book it to the store. If you want to cook something last minute, you have to use what you have because running to the store later in the evening isn't possible. This happened to me the first night I was in Geneva. I was going to cook for my hosts but the store was closed :( I still cooked for them, just not the first night. I made curried veggie soup. I would have put tofu or chicken in it but the tofu in the store looked gross and meat is expensive, so yeah. It was tasty, it made me miss Thai food even more. Can't wait till I get to go to my favorite restaurant in Cameron Park again!!
3 6 9 : Three kisses: In Italy people kiss each other twice as a greeting, first on the left cheek, then on the right. In Spain the greeting is also two kisses but starting with the right cheek and then the left. I am told that in Poland it is three, starting with the right, then left and then right again. But in Geneva it was really confusing. I saw a few people kiss three times, starting on the left, then right, then left again. But then people would do two, or just one, or four! I think it is because there are so many people there from different places (at the least people I was hanging out) that there is no norm. Six floors: In Geneva there is an ordinance that within the main city no building can be more than six floors high. I thought that was pretty cool. It is especially nice for the people that live in the top stories of buildings just outside the main city's border because they have a view over the enter city. Nine o'clock: In Geneva (maybe all of Switzerland too but at least in Geneva) you cannot buy alcohol in a store after 9pm. You can buy it in a bar or a pub or club or someplace where they over charge you, but you can't buy it in the few shops ( i.e. a mini market the about the size of a bedroom) that are still open at 21:00. I have no idea why, I thought this rule was very weird.
Another conversation worth sharing: My host, Juan from Chile, said that I have courage to stay in an apartment with a Chilean and three Brazilian guys that I don't know. To this Kiao, one of the Brazilian guys, said that I don't have courage, I have crazy. We all laughed :) Oh yeah and another thing I thought was funny, while we were walking around Saturday night (Juan, two girls from South America and myself) we passed by a brothel on which the windows had big words posted "LIVE GIRLS" I commented that it is good they are alive, because that wouldn't be cool if they weren't... The others I was with either didn't get it or choose to not share my joke. Either way, I was amused :)
And finally, my last few comments! While waiting in the airport for my flight there were a few people with a dog. They people were talking in Italian but every time they gave the dog an order they would say it in English. Though easily explainable, I thought that was interesting.
Okay, that is enough for right now! I fly back to California May 23rd. I am excited to be back! :) For those of you living in California, see you soon!
Baci,
Hillary
P.S. Why are airplanes almost always white?
most likely my last travel email... for this trip
Friday, May 11, 2007 4:19 AM
Ciao Tutti!
I don't have a whole lot to say in this email; the past couple weeks have been fairly quite. Yesterday I took my last written exam. Then this morning I finished school with a 15 minute oral exam. I leave Siena tomorrow, which brings mixed feelings. I am happy because this means I am that much closer to be reunited with those that I miss most. But at the same time I am a little sad because this also means that I will closing this chapter of my life. This has been my home for four months and now I am moving again. I will miss my Italian family the most. They are awesome. Wednesday I bought Laura some tulips at the market and when I gave them to her she said I shouldn't have because I am a student and don't have a lot of money, but she was happy :) Then Wednesday evening my friend Mana came to my house for dinner and she brought a bottle of wine as a present to my family for having her over. Laura told her the same thing she had told me a couple hours before, it was funny.
I went to an opera a week ago! I have wanted to go to an opera for some years now. I am not sure, but what I think sparked the desire was seeing the movie Pretty Woman. And ironically enough the opera that I saw in Rome was the same opera she saw in the movie! My whole program went together (about 55 people including the teachers). We all had box seats too! It was a little like prom before the opera. Everyone was dressed up and too many pictures were taken while we waited for the time to go inside. About half an hour before it began I went to a bar (or if you are from California you would call if a cafe) with my teacher and a couple other students for some coffee. I don't know if it was the caffeine, the adrenaline from the excitement of finally getting to see an opera or both, but when it began my heart was racing. Even though the opera house was like a sauna and I wasn't totally comfortable, I loved the opera. I definitely will be going to another one some time.
Tuesday I went horseback riding with Mana. I finally got to see the view of Tuscany that is shown in movies and is the image that people generally see in their mind's eye when they think of Tuscany. We rode for three hours, it was a lot of fun. But I paid for it the next day, and the next. My back was killing me! Thankfully it is finally feeling near normal today.
Karaoke! I really like karaoke. I don't do it enough. (For those of you living in the Placerville area, do you know of anywhere that has karaoke so I can go this summer?) Two weeks ago a friend told me they have karaoke every Wednesday at a bar in Piazza del Campo. Why I was not informed of this sooner, I don't know! but at least I got to go once! Karaoke is different in Italy then in the US... well at least Siena vs. California. In California one person (or a small group) stands in front of a crowd and sings into a microphone while everyone watches. In Siena, there were three microphones floating around a crowd of about 20 people who were all standing and singing together, reading from one TV screen. Then in another part of the bar there was another TV screen and about 30 more people sitting at tables all singing together. Then there is karaoke in Japan! I have never been there but people have told me that the popular way of doing karaoke in Japan is renting a small room for you and some friends and just singing with each other, no strangers.
And now I am done for now. Tomorrow I leave Siena :-/ I will be staying two nights in Firenze; early Monday morning flying to Amsterdam and staying there for five days. Then next Friday I will be flying to London, staying there for five days and at last returning to California! For those of you hanging around northern California, see you soon, and for all the rest of you, keep in touch!!
---Hillary
Photos can be viewing at www.snapfish.com Just log in using the email address: shiroi_2000@yahoo.com and the password: italy
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