Finalized Upcoming Trips!

October 16-19 : Barcelona
October 19-25 : Madrid

November 5-8 : Prague

November 27-29 : Amsterdam

Venice

I am going to make this a fairly short post because I have lots of studying that I should be doing! We spent Saturday and Sunday in Venice last weekend at Paul's house and it just could not have been better! The first day we just walked around and explored the city with Paul and headed back to his house around dinner time because we were all pretty pooped from waking up at 5am! Paul took us back to his house which is about 30 minutes outside of the city in the quiet countryside. It was so relaxing, and very nice to get away from the noise. Paul had bought wine and beer and cooked us all T-bone steaks! We grilled out, drank some wine, and played with his dogs. It was nice to actually be at a home! The next day we headed back into Venice in the morning and took a water taxi out to the Island of Murano which is famous for glass blowing! Paul got us a cheap deal on a tour of one of the glass blowing places. Everything was so beautiful. After that, we came back to Venice and shopped for the rest of the day! Everything was so great, I absolutely loved Venice and hope to go back! Hope you like the pictures!

Hike up Fiesole

Last Friday we hiked up the Tuscan hills that surround Florence. I am beginning with a picture of part of the Duomo, the huge Cathedral in the city center of Florence so you can look at the landscape pictures from my hike and see how high I actually was.

It was a very awesome hike, but I am not going to lie, I was sooooo tired when we got back. And my calves were sore for 3 days. The picture of me by flowers is me sitting on the ledge looking over florence from the hotel that Michelangelo built. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it, I am a little retarded, but I can safely say this is not the last time I will hike up Fiesole (pronounced Fee A Zo ley). It was awesome. Ok, the next post will hopefully be pictures from Venice! Hope everyone is doing well.

Viarreggio

Ciao! This is me updating my blog and also stalling from studying for my first Italian quiz tomorrow! Last weekend my roommates and I traveled by train to the west coast of tuscany to the beach in a town called Viareggio. It was very beautiful, but not exactly what I expected. However, I really do not have room to complain about being on the beach in Italy... so it was wonderful. It was just a day trip that we took, most girls just laid out on the beach, but I went exploring around the town by myself as well. All the pictures that are posted today are from Viareggio.

Next weekend, we are traveling to Venice, and we are all very excited! In Venice we are staying with a friend of mine named Paul who actually used to be a regular at Upland Brewing Company for the three months he lived in Bloomington. Paul is in his fifties and is a right wing Texan! However, he is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He so kindly invited me and my three roommates to stay at his place in Venice which is about 20 minutes outside the city in the beautiful countryside where he lives with his two dogs. He has a 4 bedroom house, and lots of beds for us to sleep in. He has lived in Venice on and off for 15 years so he knows it like the back of his hand. I spoke to Paul tonight and he is taking friday off work to meet us at the train station and give us our own personal tour of Venice! He also informed me that his landlord lives next door and has a daughter who is 23 and he told her about us and she is very excited to show us the Venice nightlife. Paul told us he contacted her for that because he is too old to be "partying like us college kids". hahah. So we are all very excited to have a free place to stay, not to mention it is Becca's 21st birthday weekend!

I have plans to do some heavy traveling over my fall break which is Oct 16-26th. Becca and I are flying to Barcelona on the 16th and staying in a hostel until the 19th. From there, we will fly to Madrid and stay at Becca's boyfriend's apartment. He is student teaching in Madrid for a semester (how terrible). I will be in Madrid for 4 days. From there, I am leaving Becca and flying to Glasgow where I am meeting up with my good friend Katie Chisholm who I met at summercamp in Massachussettes two summers ago. I will then spend four days with Katie and return back to Florence on sunday before school starts monday. I am very excited!!

I am going to study now! Miss you all!
Buonasera (goodnight)
Jenna

The Origin of Swine Flu and other Pictures

Becca and I have decided that the origin of swine flu comes from Il Porcellino (the little pig). It should be one of the first pictures I posted. He is located in one of the more touristy areas in the city centre. It is custom to go up to him rub his nose, and drop a coin in his mouth, which is a fountain, and it will bring you good luck. There are thousands of people who touch his nose everyday, which is why this is where the swine flu comes from!! haha.

We walked up this road called Viale Michelangiolo which is where one of the David duplicates is located. It was by far one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my entire life. Hands down. So all the pictures posted that overlook the city are from there.

We started class yesterday. Both of our intstructors we had yesterday were very kind and spoke pretty good english. Except in our Italian class, there is no english spoken because that is how most foreign languages are taught at the college level. Class is long (3 hours) and the classroom is hot, but nonetheless it does not feel like class... at all. Our second class is Italian life and culture. In this class we learn some history of Italy, Art, we get to go to an Italian Opera on October 14, as well as meet the City Mayor, and some other small day trips such as going to the farmers market etc. It all seems very fun.

I cannot believe how much our navigation skills have improved in the past 2 days. I do not carry a map around anymore unless I am going somewhere outside the city centre. And from here, we will only get more comfortable! Alright, I have to go do my Italian homework before class.
CIAO!

Esselunga Madness

Today we had our first Italian grocery shopping experience! One of the main supermarket chains in Italy is called Esselunga. First of all, we probably picked the most inopportune times to grocery shop... Saturday morning. The grocery stores are only open from 8am-1pm on Saturdays and I will start off by saying that you have never seen a mad house until you go to an Italian grocery store on Saturday morning. We are very fortunate to have the grocery store literally around the corner from our apartment. As we approached the store our two Minnesotian roommates were a little confused as to how to go abouts getting a shopping cart. Luckily, Becca and I, being the great experienced bargain shoppers that we are (having such experiences as shopping at Aldi and Save-a-lot) knew that you had to slip a euro into the slot on the shopping cart to release it from the cart train and you get it back when you return it.
So first of all, I have never seen so many people in one place! Ok... I have, but never in a supermarket. It's funny because there is no "excuse me" or "sorry" when you are in the way or run into someone. No.. you better barge your way through that market or you're not going anywhere. EVERYTHING is in Italian, so thank god we had a dictionary to look up whether we were grabbing chicken or turkey lunch meat. Esselunga has their own generic brand of food so I was able to grab the cheap version of most items. In orientation yesterday we learned that the second phase of Culture Shock is depression/ hostility.... I think I made it. I am hostile about Italian supermarkets for the following reasons:

1.) NO BUTTER
2.) Soda is more expensive than liquor
3.) A box of tampons is 7 euros
4.) I don't know whether I am buy lotion or conditioner because I cannot read Italian
5.) No cheddar cheese.... anywhere
6.) Did I mention there is no butter?

Ok... So it really wasn't that bad but how the hell am I supposed to eat pasta without some god damn butter?? This is where we are supposed to develop a sense of humor, laugh it off, and emerge ourselves into the Italian culture. The checkout lines are hilarious. You wait in line for close to 10-15 minutes. In doing so, you get ran into close to 50 times because you're obviously in the way, old women and men straight up jump in front of you in line and mumble something in Italian which probaby is something like: "Get out of my way you American bitch", as the person behind you in line is ramming their cart into the back of your heels. The woman checking me out does not speak English (which is extremely common I have found out) so when she tries to tell me something about the tomatoes I am buying I have no idea what she is saying. Finally, she gets frustrated and just puts the tomatoes behind her so I guess I wasn't buy tomatoes. I think they weren't heavy enough to ring up, but I really have no idea. She points to the total I owe and as I start to get my credit card out she rolls her eyes and kind of shrugs her shoulders and thats when I quickly grabbed cash instead. People get very frustrated when you try and use your card, I guess its just a huge inconvenience in their day. I ended up purchasing tortellini, spaghetti and sauce, some fresh vegies, breads, jam, some canned and jarred items, 4 bottles of wine, some lunchmeats, swiss cheese (light), and some other shit I don't remember all for just 45 euros so it really wasnt that expensive. We put all the wine (8 bottles) and two bottles of alcohol in my 60 liter backpack that I brought, bagged up the rest of our food in plastic bags (which cost 4 cents each) and high-tailed it out of that crazy ass mad house!

It really wasn't that bad, but I will never go on Saturday ever again. However, nothing can seem that bad when we get to return to our beautiful apartment with views such as this: