Monday, Monday, Monday!

Buon Giorno!

It is Monday and the start of a new week, but the very last day of February. Currently I am working on planning out the months after the study abroad program, since I will staying an additional three: May, June and July. I have a few people who have stayed in Italy before that know of people and spots that I should check out, but it is mostly an open book.

My main travels will occur when my best friend gets here, June 2, and we'll travel most of Europe together hitting the following:
Milan (she flies into)
Barcelona
Paris
London********
Amsterdam
Berlin
Prague!
Athens
and then to Rome, Florence and back to Milan

So quite the adventures.

Why did I star London? Because of this badboy:

A Chipotle has been built there, and I have been dying without my burrito!! Everyone over here in Italy knows how much I miss the burrito, and I think I've converted a lot of people to the Mexican Grill of Goodness.

This is Britney, the friend that I will be traveling with:

We have known each other since the seventh grade, so I believe a little over ten years, and now we will be traveling to all the places we heard and learned about in Mrs. Laubacher's Honors World History class oh so long ago.  Specifically, a Jewish concentration camp in Germany, so if anyone has any recommendations, let me know. Otherwise, it will be a light hearted adventure meant to see the European nitch of the world!

I look forward to her arrival the most, and hope that I can be Italy's best tourguide when she gets here. hahaha.

So here is the week in blogs (which will post every day at 3:00 am PST):

Tuesday: Postcards and Mailing Address

Wednesday: "DAYTRIP: Siena"

Thursday: "DAYTRIP: San Gimignano"

Friday: "L'Università per Stranieri Dante Alighieri" (The blog about the university I'm attending)

Saturday: "DAYTRIP: Carnivale di Viareggio"

If anyone has anything in particular they want to me to blog about you can send me an email (elkgrovealex@gmail.com) and I can also answer any questions about Florence, or find out some information while I am here. March I hope to accomplish 31 individual day-blogs, so get ready for a wild ride!

Ciao ciao. :)

Exams and Daytrips...

Ciao Blog Buddies,

I've been slacking on my updates and I apologize! I know I'm a bit behind schedule, the good news is, that I am up and running again. The Florentine Flu has vanished!

Favorite Daytrip so far: Siena, absolutely my favorite Italian city with Lucca as a close second. I haven't been to Cinque Terre, Rome or down to Sicily, but I am planning on accomplishing that soon. The weather in Italy isn't terrible, just happens to be freezing, even when the sun is out. Knowing me, of course, I wear the minimum amount of clothes (though no shorts)... My Italian language instructor thinks I'm crazy every time... haha.

Today I just got back from a day trip to Viareggio, and took my first European train. I was nervous, considering the motion sickness I experienced on the plane, but it went smoothly. It is about 1 hour and 30 minutes away from Florence.

In Viareggio, we went to a Carnivale, in which many of the Italians dress up with a parade. But... more on this day trip later, when I upload all the pictures. Same with Friday's trip to Siena!

Hmmm...

So I have to admit that I have had my culture shock experience, it has faded, but every day you are reminded that you are no longer in your own country. With vacations you have the thought of returning home in a week or two, but living here, is something else. Especially when no one really speaks your language, and you do not understand common things like the radio, television, or conversations in the street - lots of confusion goes on in the brain. The Italians make it a little easier, as they are used to tourists and are patient enough to try to explain using hand gestures and strange words that are not literally what they mean, but somehow get the meaning across.

An example was getting my haircut! I didn't know how to say short, but not too short! So "piccolo" which means small, and I used my hands to describe the kind of hairstyle I wanted. I asked him if he spoke English, and they (his associates) laughed at me and said no, :(, hahhaha, but you get that a lot.

It was one of the best haircuts I've ever had! He used scissors the whole time, and took nearly thirty-five minutes doing it. Everything was perfect!

And it was only 10euro, which is about $14 back home, which is what I typically spend. My hair is easy, but he made it such an art, haha. (Though I was really nervous the whole time! - You know me!)

Well, it is about 11:00 pm my time, and after a day at the Mediterranean beach, I'm exhausted. Not to fall short on a picture, here is Brea and I enjoying the scenery in San Gimignano !

Ciao!

Florentine Flu!

Blog Buddies, I have returned! I was down with the Florentine Flu. Nasty thing, and I learned first hand that you never want to get sick in a foreign country. The "farmacia"s of Italia, are not the best, and their medicine is much more expensive for a lot less. haha, which is to be expected, I guess. But if you travel, cover your bases, and bring some of your own: NyQuil, Ibuprofen, etc.

It's pretty funny/sad, because out of 126 people that are here in our program, all of us are sick... ALL of us. lol. Once a week we are all in a lecture hall, and its soooo scary, because everyone is coughing. And in this session, we have a local speaker, we knocked her out the second week, and she "came back from the dead" this week.

I've also had two major tests this week worth 20% of my grade in each class, so I've been out of touch with reality. But good news: I have two day trips this weekend!!

So excited! It will take me a while to get back into the swing of things, but I have some cool blogs planned. The blog about my school should release Friday! And we are smooth sailing from there.

Cheers! And good day!

Dan, Me, Gaby!

(My roommate gave me a cup full of ibuprofen, and it was such an amazing turnaround!)

First Day Trip (Part Three): Wrap-Up

Ciao Blog Buddies!

Today I am going to wrap up the first day trip to Lucca and Pisa, the whole trip started at 8:30am on a Saturday morning, and we returned around 6:30 pm. A lot of walking, bike riding and sightseeing this day. Victoria made a comment about how on all the Italia signs, the people are always running. And its true... you see the little stick figures running upstairs, downstairs, across the road (which makes sense, because you will be hit if you are not on sidewalks... lol ), but this was the first time, the stick figure was just nonchalantly making his way to the Leaning Tower. And it deserved attention!

First Video is the amphitheater of Lucca, which is a fully enclosed space of buildings. (Which you can see), its kinda cool to be standing inside of. I've noticed that I moved a bit faster than I probably should have, and it has the possibility of making you dizzy. So if you are prone to dizziness, maybe just take my word for it. haha ;)

Second Video is inside the baptistery building of Pisa, and it was built in such a way that allows vocal echoes? I forgot the term already! Any ways, its kinda cool. I turned my phone off right when everyone started clapping and shouting "Bravo, Bravo!".

Inside of here:

That is pretty much it for today! Friday's blog will feature the school I'm currently attending, and what it looks like through and through. I'm pretty stoked that so many people have taken interest, and I think next week I'll start producing some quality blogs with more information and attention to detail. lol.

I miss my familia and friends! And. CHIPOTLE. I'm not sure I can stress that enough. :P

Ciao for now!

Brian, Cameron, Tyler, Me, Andrew, Nick, and Mike - The Guelfa House. lol

First Day Trip (Part Two): PISA!!

Buon Giorno Blog Buddies,

I thought the McDonald's sign with the leaning tower of Pisa was hilarious! Of course they are going to sideline next to one of the world's most famous structures, and I was very tempted to get that Big Mac (but I resisted). The bus to Pisa was much less enjoyable than to Lucca, as we did a bunch of roundabouts in order to get back onto the right freeway. And the inside of the bus cabin, reminded me of the inside of a plane, so I was feeling a little queasy. It didn't help that Italian drivers accelerate into roundabouts, and brake hard to allow a few vespas ahead of them.

I noticed nearly every city has a toll booth going into and when you exit, making personal car trips an expensive venture. Not to mention gas runs about $7.89 a gallon? They compute it into liters here, so its a bit tricky to figure it out.

Any ways! Pisa was full of anticipation because everyone wanted to grab a cliche photo of holding it up. (Which I did take, but as you all know about now, that I travelled thousands of miles, only to have a cell phone camera. Which I guess in the grand scheme of things is silly, but I think it has taken rather fine photos.... Any ways, my friends all took my picture with their cameras, and none of them have uploaded it Facebook or sent it to me yet. Not sure why I needed all this in parentheses, but there you go.)

This is the first thing you see, when walking into the Piazza







The closest building is the Baptistery, where to this day, babies are still
 baptized into the Catholic Church.
The second building being the Il Duomo, the main church of Pisa,
and the third building: The Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The Baptistery:



Il Duomo:

And finally:

The tour guide told us a cool way of looking at the buildings, plus the nearby graveyard. Babies are born and baptized through the first building. Worship and live their lives through the Duomo (church), then come to rest inside of the graveyard. And they are all in very close proximity together. The graveyard was just over a fence, but we didn't pay to see it. :(

Random fountain, just outside the Leaning Tower

Huge Marble steps leading up to the Duomo building

Random shot, before going INTO the church building. :D

The interior of the church was extremely beautiful and this is where the cell phone shots get a little grimy, and do not really show the true glory of what is inside.

Pisa was one of my favorite places, Lucca being my first outside of Florence. I have a third part of this day trip which has some videos (SHORT snippets of two cool areas in both Pisa and Lucca).

Best wishes to my sister who is currently in Oakland donating bone marrow and saving a woman's life right now. Love you Alicia. :)

First Day Trip (Part One): Lucca!

Buon Giorno Blog Buddies!

Lucca was the first stop of the Day Trip, and we had to be prepped and ready to go by 8:30 am. The jet lag had started to dissipate a little, but it wasn't that bad. If you know me, I hate getting up before 11:00am, and usually these early mornings are difficult and I'm never on time.
But I arrived with enough time to try a sugar donut with chocolate in the middle... BEST THING EVER. ahhh. But I haven't had it since, and its been a week. Go me!

The bus we took was built by Mercedes, so it was one of the nicer models, but sitting up front is NEVER good. Italian driving is probably the most intense thing I've been through, but judging by some of the other foreign countries from the Amazing Race, I kinda knew what to expect. I'm going to try and get a video of what it is like driving in Italy... haha. Here is Victoria and I on the way there:

Any ways, Lucca has a small town feel to it, with Italian culture thriving. Fashion is stressed and articulated in Italy, everything has to be in perfect order. In Lucca this was very apparent, as Prada, Gucci, Armani, etc were all dominant. Every child, and I mean, every child, is dressed concisely, and without deviation to designer clothing. A little vain, perhaps, but I love it. Self-image is so important here. I think I will do an entire blog about Italian fashion, because some stuff, is soooo weird.

After we arrived, we decided to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate, before renting bikes to take around a high-path that overlooked and circled around the city. This was probably the best 3 euros I've ever spent thus far, because it was so much fun!!!

Here are some pictures!
(Once again, these are the cell phone pictures... until I can get the chord to upload, I am limited!)

Nice little example of Globization






I was one lucky guy, riding with these three! From the left: Lauren, Victoria, Brea
And here I am (I lost control of the bike on the third count... haha... typicalalex)



As you can see, an Italian family... well groomed, and the child equally so, if not better than the parents. lol


All right, for my next blog can you guess where I'm heading off to?
(I'll give you a hint... its not the golden arches....)