The First Europeans.....

Omygoodness. Today was a day of bizarrity and giggles.

I believe the first Europeans were midgets. My apartment is made for midgets. My apartment is a building constructed in the 14 Century! When I shower, my head towers over the showerhead. I have to put my hand up above me to make sure i don't smack my head on any of the door frames. Yes, i have already been awoken by this sensation at least twice. When I come back will I be the Hunchback of Notre Dame?! One perk of the shower is that it looks out over the city and a church steeple in the distance. We are on the top floor of the apartment.

Today in Art History we met our Prof., Professor Petrioli. Last week he was out, due to being hit by a truck in Rome. YES. HIT by a TRUCK in Rome. And if you have ever been to Rome, you know how easily and frequently this must happen. He came in on crutches. He speaks with a booming thick Italian voice.
Today his lecture was on 14th Century Siena. 14th Century Siena was a huge place, a busy busy constant market and melting pot. Being part of the Francigena Road, the Road of Charlemagne, many different people came thru Siena to get to Jerusalem for the "holy" Crusades or China for the Silk Road route. Actually, Via Montanini, the street I take to class everyday was a part of the Francigena Road. Pretty cool. Can't get that from Halsted and 12 mile.....

At one point, when explaining about feudalism, he said - "Ifa youa wera rednick [redneck] youa woulda stay a rednick. Youra destiny wasa predetermined." You would stay a redneck. LOL.

He also, when describing a rich Italian man of the 14th Century he said - "Thinka, thinka I am a reech man, you know sono la padre. I am the Godfather."

When describing the men of noble status in a portrait he said, "see interpreted here isa he isa like a Brad Pitt." he was emphasizing his glamour/hotness factor to the people back then i guess. Whenever Italians want to express someone being really hot or really famous they relate it to Brad Pitt.

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The Tuscan village of Siena is divided into 17 contradas. These are sort of districts which separate one area from the next, although it is only a town of 50,000. Every summer, Siena has a horse race called the Palio. 10 districts are chosen each year to race across the Piazza del Campo. Each district even gets a blessing from the local bishop of Siena! It is a big deal. They even have their own rivalries. Today i discovered which contrada i live in - Del Necchio. It is a coat of arms of a white pearl shell, with blue seaweed around it and some yellow border.

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Me and my roomates and some others students from the program have decided to go to Venice during CARNAVALE! Sooooo excited. Instead of opting for the hostel life, we've have rented an apartment for the weekend during Carnavale. It is located behind a Gucci store and right down the street from St. Marc's!!!!

Gelato!

i had my first gelato today. me and my roomates wandered around the city seeing everything. we all decided to get gelato in the main piazza, Piazza del Campo. this is where everyone in the city goes to people watch, see and be seen. i picked bacio and ameratta flavors. the bacio was nutty chocolate flavor, like hazelnut and the amaretta was cherries, whole cherries in there. ahhhh divine. beats out ice cream.
i keep seeing this pink vespa in a shop window and am in love w/ it. the store hours here still baffle me. i feel like everything is open early, closed in the middle of the day and open at night. there is no such thing as being open 24 hours.

Culture Shock

Culture Shock - it really does exist!
I thought i would not feels this way, but i totally do. I feel like an alien. I don't know a soul in this small Tuscan village besides the 22 kids in my program. i lol i still am having issues opening and locking my damn aparment door....o geez. practice makes perfect.
i have yet to order a coffee, to intimidated.

ok one major American ignorance i had coming into this situation has been harshly shattered.
Italians, at least the ones in Siena do not care to learn or know much English. and if they do, they don't like speaking in it. I thought it was going to be fairly easy to communicate, not so.

but i am going to be taking my first language lessons and will be hopefully getting my language in shape if i ever will want to get anything done in this town! one main thing is i feel very uncomfortable and insecure in these 1st few days and i expect that to go on for some of these first few weeks.
but all the encouragement from friends and family makes me feel so much more confident!

i practice saying vorrei un cafe latte alot. i need to order coffee. it is cheap here, smells and looks amazing.

speaking of food. we had a three course meal @ a fancy restuarant this afternoon. pork wrapped in proscuitto, potatoes, lobster raviolli, bruschetta, polenta. mmmmmmmm.

the grocery stores here are delicious. all the products are so fresh! and not that expensive, great quality, of course.

i found an Australian pub in town tonight. Guess what it was called? The Walkabout Pub. No joke. this is definitely a good sign people.

the trip getting to Siena was INSANE. it really tested my self reliancy.
first was a plane trip from detroit to frankfurt. i sat next to a turkish couple who knew no english. they had come to the US for a month to visit their daughter who just graduated from EMU. Can you imagine! what a trip that would be. I told them congrats. Oh, the only way i learned this info, was because their daughter tyed out a sheet with all this info on it. also with translations of food names.
they laughed when i attempted to say chicken. the guy asked me if i was planning on going to turkey. i said greece would probably be the farthest east i could go. then he muttered something under his breath, probably anti-Greek. lol.
the frankfurt airport made sense but was an unending worm hole of passageways. i felt like was walking forever. when i go to the terminal, the gate changed, so i had to go find my new gate.
once i took off from frankfort to rome, i landed and got my baggage. then i had to find a taxi. one guy offered me 90 euro ride. hell no. the other, equally shady, offered 65. so i went w/ him. when we got to his "taxi" it looked like a nice car he was renting out. i asked him to show me his credentials, he laughed and raised up his neck tag card so i could see his Co. ID. still not connvinced but dying to just get to a homestay, i went along. The ride was fine and the guy was not shady. I assume he ripped me off on the price but i had to get to the bus stop in time to reach Siena.
at the bus station NO ONE knew english. i had lots of sign language. i got there 50 minutes early, just missing the 2 o'clock ride. I almost didn't make my 3.30 bus. I had to use the bathroom and figured there would be one on the bus. nope. i asked someone this info last minute. 10 minutes till the bus came i was FRANTICALLY searching for a rest room. i found a super shitty one. just gross. i then darted out and was being yelled at in italian. ????? i looked back scared and saw that i had to pay to use the restroom. What a weird concept - a public restroom with a price tag.
luckily i got to the other side of the platform just in time. i then had to put my 56 lb. beast of a bag under the bus luggage part. three Roman dudes were looking at me, laughing there asses off. they thought this struggle was hilarious. i looked over started to laugh back and then motion for one to get his ass over here and help me. they sent over a 14 year old boy and he helped me lift it.
on the 3 hour bus ride, i met Claudia. she is from a small town outside of Rome. she teaches arts and music @ a Siena kindergarten. she was an angel! she helped me find my way to the hotel I had to stay at w/ the program for the night before we got our apartment.

once at the hotel, i crashed. AMAZED that i actually did a 26 hour trip on my own and actually managed to get to my destination.

i am continually shocked but i still believe this is going to be the best experience and i am sticking with it. fake it till you make it.

- peace and love to all.

FREAK OUT!

I am so freaking charged and ready to get outta here.
*...leaving on a jet plane...*

but i have found myself waking up in the middle of the night realizing how much more needs to be done for this trip. Ah! it never seems to end. On top of all that I got a sinus infection! I can't believe it. All cold season Sept-Dec I never got sick once. And, of course, God chose this week to pull my leg. Ogeez. Will be seeing the doctor later today.

Slowly but surely it is coming together.
I think the next 72 hours I will try to make somewhat restful, besides all the running around I have to do. Rick Steves calls this "sacred time".

i need shoes for walking around. and some toiletries, but in a small package since I plan on buying everything else when I get there.

I also must read thru some of my Italian books.
One good thing is that I was given some "key phrases" in my program packet on how to get around the FCO Rome Airport. It tells me how to say "I would like a ticket to Siena" in Italian. Vorrei un Biglietto per Siena.

This entire thing has yet to hit me that it is a real 3 month leave. I keep thinking that I am going on a 2 week vacation. At least that's how it feels....

My prediction is that I will get there, the first 2 weeks will be a whirl wind.
The 3rd week I will get homesick a bit.
Then I will begin to get used to it.
And OF COURSE by the time I will master it, I will be thinking, and saying to myself:

"But I just got here! I don't wanna leave."


My boyfriend, Alex, bought me an iPod Nano this Christmas. I finally got to look thru all the things he uploaded onto it last night. He put all the Planet Earth episodes on for me and some movies I like. But the thing that really got to me was all the music! He put all "our songs" on there and I started bawling! Like a shot right to the heart. I am going to miss him. He is a great person that I am so lucky to have in my life.

I was bitching a couple of nights ago about all the stuff I had to do and Alex stopped me and said, "you are doing something that most people never get the chance to do."

His comment definitely brought me back down to earth and made me realize this opportunity my family and hardwork has given me. His simple comment made me realize that whining is very stupid and selfish. I thought about the people who are just concerned with feeding their kids and possibly being able to take them on a weekend trip to Port Austin or something, with what little funds they have. My bitchin was then put to rest. This is why I love Alex. He definitely knows when I deserve a beneficial verbal face slap back into reality.

And my friends!
Luckily, some of my friends will actually be in Europe studying the same time as me. Two are in Rome and one in Brussels. Good timing people.

I saw the deer this morning from my backyard. I wonder if they have deer in Siena?
I know they don't get that much snow! ;)

MagicJack!!!! Heaven in a USBport....

Ok. So for a couple months I've been really confused about the phone issue. My parents insist that I be able to communicate with them in case of emergency. Because even though there will be an ocean between us they will feel better hearing my helpless voice over a landline. So, after months of wondering what was better, I found the BEST THING EVER INVENTED at RadioShack today. It's called MagicJack. It is a USBport which you plug in, into your computer/laptop. The other wire comes from it and is a phone jack. You use the internet as your airwave and thereby save ALL your money! The wireless internet acts as the landline phone communication. So, basically I have found a way to call home, cell phones and anyone else who owns a device in the world...FOR FREE. I am so happy. Originally I was going to go with Skype, because everyone else was, but with Skype you have to buy a webcam (if you don't have one) and a headset along with it. The MagicJack was $39.00 at RadioShack. The webcam and the headset were $50.00 together. Also, with Skype if you call a land line or cell phone the call is 5 cents/minute. With the MagicJack is complete free.

I now have an international number to go along with it. :)

Now all I have to consider is when I need a phone outside, not connected to a landline. I think I will purchase calling cards and use pay phones when I am in those types of situations, like if I need to meet up with someone at a trainstation or airport or something.

Christmas

Today is the day of my 21st birthday. I can now legally drink and go to bars and stuff. Because i have never done any of that type of stuff before this day. Balderdash. I here the taste of liquor is quite sharp. Can't wait to try it. mmmm.
Christmas. Yes, 21 years ago today i was born. It's quite different having your b-day on Christmas. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to compete for attention against Jesus Christ? Like a snowball's chance in hell. He knows soooo many more people than me, it's just ridiculous.
But there are two things that no one else has who is born on a day besides the 25th:
1. i will never be alone on my birthday. i will always be surrounded by friends and family.
2. i will never have to work on my birthday.

I just want to thank the Lord today all day long. This year my family has remained healthy, safe and happy. I have been blessed with such a rich life and cannot believe how God continues to bless me each and every day. I am a true advocate of the Polyanna effect. I am bursting to the brim with gladness.
I hope all of you have a heart warming Christmas, with many hugs, lots of FOOD and drink - 21! - and relaxation. I pray that this coming year blesses all of us with many more gifts. A second roller coaster ride is on the horizon. Get your cameras ready.

much peace & love -


Savannah

Courses in Siena!

Hey all,

So today i was getting extra excited and looked at my courses i will be taking, for the 100th time. Here's a sum up if you're interested:

ITALIAN LANGUAGE LEVEL ONE:

Italian Language Level One is a course for students who have never studied the language before. The main goal of the course is to give a basic knowledge of the Italian language through the development of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

CROSSCULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS/CROSSCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES:

Living in Siena offers you two important learning experiences. The first (more obvious) one concerns Italian life and culture, specifically as it is lived out around you in Siena day by day. What is important to people here? What patterns are woven into their lives? What about their history, their hopes, their daily dilemmas? The second learning opportunity involves coming to understand the cultural baggage that you have (inevitably) brought with you to Siena and the implicit assumptions that you use in understanding Sienese life. The juncture of these two learning experiences is the focus of this course. Class activities include films, local fieldtrips, small group tasks, guest speakers, role plays, opportunities to meet Italian students, and cultural interpretation by the instructor. Learn how contrada membership shapes social interactions and opportunities for Sienese people, lifestage by lifestage. (Short video on the Palio). Visit to CASTELLO DI BROLIO and wine tasting at FATTORIA di BROLIO (Half day excursion).

o my gosh. wine tasting. cannot wait. I am living in the Chianti region!

PICTURING PEOPLE – ITALIAN ART AND SOCIETY DURING THE RENAISSANCE:
Explore Italian art during the Renaissance. Examine the way Italian culture & society is reflected in the works of the artists of the day.
Visit to the Santa Maria della Scala Museum.

i really hope i get to go to Florence many many times over. Florence's art alone I feel like i could get lost in for eternity. And "The David". Hot.

FOOD AND CULTURE IN ITALY:
Food! What could be more basic to life than food? Food is the hub from which the complexities of culture can be studied. A marriage banquet, religious ceremonies, national and regional holidays, coffee breaks, a dinner with friends, all of these are examples of events in which food is the focus of meaning and groups gathering together. For humans, eating is not a simple biological act; food and nutritional status are influenced by the environment, social traditions, religious beliefs, gender roles, status and aesthetics, among other factors. Consequently a large part of the course menu is devoted to analyses of the social, environmental, and symbolic aspects of food and culture in Italy. Many excursions are relevant to this topic and as indicated above it would be ideal to teach this course in conjunction with a cooking class or a series of cooking lessons. The most appropriate excursions to amplify the course material will be to local markets, small shops, restaurants and factories which abound in the region. It will be very appropriate to make similar trips to other areas in the country in order to compare availability of food items, local food systems and eating practices. It would also be appropriate to include trips which would provide a rural-urban contrast in food patterns, market systems and possibly restaurant styles. Agricultural settings: Vineyards, farms and orchards. The surrounding countryside will provide ample choices for excursions and walks which can be used to experience the variety of micro habitats that have been transformed by humans. Chianti, for example, is a region in which the landscape has been sculpted by history of agricultural change as well as social transformation.
I will encourage students to explore local food ways as much as possible and they will be required to maintain a Food Journal throughout the quarter. This journal will serve not only as a means of recording their own personal food practices away from their customary eating domain, but it will also serve as an ethnographic tool for recording their observation of local diet and food ways. Siena is famous for a variety of pastries/ sweets and different types of bread distinguish
different regions as well as provide urban/rural and social class contrasts.
B. It would be ideal if students were able to experience some local celebrations. The choices will depend on the season in which the class is taught and the practicality of attending. The following is a brief list to provide some idea of possibilities: Santippolito Di Vernio - (March): chestnut-flour polenta and spaghetti, Easter Celebrations (April).
The National Museum of Pasta – weekend excursion Located in Rome, this museum focuses on different stages of pasta making.

Anyone who knows me and my family knows that we are obsessed with good food. We love food. I love food. Honestly, sometimes i get worried i will come home 200 lbs. heavier and earlier than expected because I will have eaten soooo much food and will have spent all my money on it! Hopefully i will be able to indulge moderately? wow. Hardcore Oxymoron there... Haha. Because that's possible!
The cooking classes that coincide w/ this seem like a fabulous idea. Also, Siena has open air markets on the weekdays that I hear kids skip class over. Fresh produce! The highlight for me seems to be the visit to the Roman Pasta Factory. :)))) i am salvating right now.