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Wednesday, August 29, 2007
A Trip to Croatia
Our dinner with our Italian professors went fairly well. We made some really good food and (mom and dad and grandma, you'll be proud of me) cleaned our apartment like it's never been cleaned before. I even did the bathrooms (don't die of a heart attack, dad).
We've been having lots and lots of classes and our final is tomorrow. I'm excited for this class to be done. Our final is going to be tough, especially the oral part, but it'll be good to be done.
Which brings me to our plans for this weekend! We (Kelly, Allahna, Amanda and Ali and I) are going to Croatia! We're taking the boat there on Thursday afternoon and bus-ing it back on Saturday so we can be back in Venice for the Regatta Storica on Sunday (big, famous festival). We're staying on a BEAUTIFUL beach in a hotel with 2 pools (i love pools). It is going to be a ton of fun! It's a little expensive, but I'm only in Europe like this once, right?!?
Kelly, Allahna, Allison and I all went to the Biennale, which was amazing. I'm going to try to post pictures on facebook and then link them to here. or maybe put them up somewhere else. I shall investigate. The Biennale is a biannual event where artists from all over the world come to Venice and put up some kind of art. Some were good, others weird, but overall, really cool.
We also went to Murano and I bought some really beautiful earrings that I then broke. Whoops. I am going to go back and see what they will do for me. Murano was really awesome and, mom and Patti, i found a really cool place for us to see glass blowing demonstrations.
I guess that's all for now! I can't believe Colgate has started school! It's weird to not be there!!
All right, all my love from Venice,
Un bacione (a big kiss),
Xoxo,
Ally
We've been having lots and lots of classes and our final is tomorrow. I'm excited for this class to be done. Our final is going to be tough, especially the oral part, but it'll be good to be done.
Which brings me to our plans for this weekend! We (Kelly, Allahna, Amanda and Ali and I) are going to Croatia! We're taking the boat there on Thursday afternoon and bus-ing it back on Saturday so we can be back in Venice for the Regatta Storica on Sunday (big, famous festival). We're staying on a BEAUTIFUL beach in a hotel with 2 pools (i love pools). It is going to be a ton of fun! It's a little expensive, but I'm only in Europe like this once, right?!?
Kelly, Allahna, Allison and I all went to the Biennale, which was amazing. I'm going to try to post pictures on facebook and then link them to here. or maybe put them up somewhere else. I shall investigate. The Biennale is a biannual event where artists from all over the world come to Venice and put up some kind of art. Some were good, others weird, but overall, really cool.
We also went to Murano and I bought some really beautiful earrings that I then broke. Whoops. I am going to go back and see what they will do for me. Murano was really awesome and, mom and Patti, i found a really cool place for us to see glass blowing demonstrations.
I guess that's all for now! I can't believe Colgate has started school! It's weird to not be there!!
All right, all my love from Venice,
Un bacione (a big kiss),
Xoxo,
Ally
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Cleaning and groceries and the opera
hello everyone!
Again, been a while, I know. But without my computer (which should get here in the next day or so!!!) it's tough.
We've just kind of been hanging out. I've been doing a lot of cleaning lately. Whether it be laundry or bathrooms (yes, i cleaned the bathroom. try not to die of shock) or my bedroom (again, don't die) or the common rooms cause we don't really have a TV, so there's nothing for me to do except cook and clean and do my homework. Interesting life, huh? I have been trying to get out into Venice a little more. This weekend we (kelly and i) are going to the Biennale, an art festival here in venice.
We also have been doing a lot of grocery shopping. If any of you were to come now, I could give you a SWEET tour of the Venetian food stores. I know them like the back of my hand.
This past weekend we all took a trip to Verona, which is a 2 hour train ride from here. We arrived in Verona and wandered around the city for a while. We saw Juliet's balcony (!!) and walked through these BEAUTIFUL gardens, where there was a labyrinth. We dominated it. All 4 of us made it to the middle. Tee hee.
Then we saw the opera "il barbiere di seviglia" (the barber of seville) in the ancient roman arena. It was really cool to see and it was fun to watch, but the seats were SUPER hard. tee hee. But it was good nonetheless. the next day we went to two beautiful churches and the castello vecchio (old castle, literally). there was TONS of art and it was all amazing. We took the train back and collapsed! we were exhausted.
We had our midterm last week. I did well. I can't believe we've been here 3 weeks already! and we've learned A TON of italian! we all try to speak it with each other and with real italian people, but the sad thing is that often, people will respond in english cause our accents are bad and we look american - especially my friend kelly who has red hair and pale skin. tee hee.
i guess that's it for now! this friday night we are making dinner for our professors and speaking all in italian. wish us luck...
all right, lots and lots of love from venice!
xoxo,
ally
Again, been a while, I know. But without my computer (which should get here in the next day or so!!!) it's tough.
We've just kind of been hanging out. I've been doing a lot of cleaning lately. Whether it be laundry or bathrooms (yes, i cleaned the bathroom. try not to die of shock) or my bedroom (again, don't die) or the common rooms cause we don't really have a TV, so there's nothing for me to do except cook and clean and do my homework. Interesting life, huh? I have been trying to get out into Venice a little more. This weekend we (kelly and i) are going to the Biennale, an art festival here in venice.
We also have been doing a lot of grocery shopping. If any of you were to come now, I could give you a SWEET tour of the Venetian food stores. I know them like the back of my hand.
This past weekend we all took a trip to Verona, which is a 2 hour train ride from here. We arrived in Verona and wandered around the city for a while. We saw Juliet's balcony (!!) and walked through these BEAUTIFUL gardens, where there was a labyrinth. We dominated it. All 4 of us made it to the middle. Tee hee.
Then we saw the opera "il barbiere di seviglia" (the barber of seville) in the ancient roman arena. It was really cool to see and it was fun to watch, but the seats were SUPER hard. tee hee. But it was good nonetheless. the next day we went to two beautiful churches and the castello vecchio (old castle, literally). there was TONS of art and it was all amazing. We took the train back and collapsed! we were exhausted.
We had our midterm last week. I did well. I can't believe we've been here 3 weeks already! and we've learned A TON of italian! we all try to speak it with each other and with real italian people, but the sad thing is that often, people will respond in english cause our accents are bad and we look american - especially my friend kelly who has red hair and pale skin. tee hee.
i guess that's it for now! this friday night we are making dinner for our professors and speaking all in italian. wish us luck...
all right, lots and lots of love from venice!
xoxo,
ally
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Thunder and Lightning
We've been in Venice for almost two weeks now. I can't believe it! It feels like forever some days, though. Like when we're walking through the seemingly unending mobs of tourists in San Marco. Boooooo tourists.
Not really much has been going on. As of right now, I lead a pretty mundane life. Consists of the following: Get up, shower, walk to school, stop at the cafe next to school for my morning cappuccino, class, lunch, walk home, do work, eat dinner, watch my show at 8:30, more work/read, bed. Lame, i know. But there are SO many tourists around that I don't really want to leave my house, so we just all hang out together, which is nice too. We can go to a lot of the museums and stuff after the tourists have gone, so we're waiting.
We did get to go on a little trip this weekend. We went to Burano and Torcello. Torcello was the first settlement in the lagoon in the 6th century, I think. We got to climb a HUGE clock tower and you could see all the way to the alps. It was beautiful! Then we all went to Burano (famous for its lace - I got a hanky with an A embroidered... it's very beautiful) and had dinner. Burano was BEAUTIFUL and the famous painted houses only added to the charm of the sleepy summer city. We also were treated to some traditional Italian songs by these old men who were all sitting around a table outside of a cafe and singing. One of them was playing an accordion and they just sang. We watched for a good 45 minutes. We had an amazing dinner all together (paid for by Colgate, yesssss) with an AMAZING seafood risotto. It was SO good! And then came back ot the island.
Tomorrow is Ferroagosto, a national holiday, so everything's closed and we don't have class! Yay! I think we're all planning to go to the Lido (beach) tomorrow. Should be a good time. Tonight, I htink there are fireworks! (I love fireworks!)
I guess that's all for now.. My 10 person dinner turned out pretty well. Not my best, not the worst either. I plan to practice a lot so I can cook for everyone when I get home!!
Lots and lots of amore di venezia,
Xoxo,
Ally
Not really much has been going on. As of right now, I lead a pretty mundane life. Consists of the following: Get up, shower, walk to school, stop at the cafe next to school for my morning cappuccino, class, lunch, walk home, do work, eat dinner, watch my show at 8:30, more work/read, bed. Lame, i know. But there are SO many tourists around that I don't really want to leave my house, so we just all hang out together, which is nice too. We can go to a lot of the museums and stuff after the tourists have gone, so we're waiting.
We did get to go on a little trip this weekend. We went to Burano and Torcello. Torcello was the first settlement in the lagoon in the 6th century, I think. We got to climb a HUGE clock tower and you could see all the way to the alps. It was beautiful! Then we all went to Burano (famous for its lace - I got a hanky with an A embroidered... it's very beautiful) and had dinner. Burano was BEAUTIFUL and the famous painted houses only added to the charm of the sleepy summer city. We also were treated to some traditional Italian songs by these old men who were all sitting around a table outside of a cafe and singing. One of them was playing an accordion and they just sang. We watched for a good 45 minutes. We had an amazing dinner all together (paid for by Colgate, yesssss) with an AMAZING seafood risotto. It was SO good! And then came back ot the island.
Tomorrow is Ferroagosto, a national holiday, so everything's closed and we don't have class! Yay! I think we're all planning to go to the Lido (beach) tomorrow. Should be a good time. Tonight, I htink there are fireworks! (I love fireworks!)
I guess that's all for now.. My 10 person dinner turned out pretty well. Not my best, not the worst either. I plan to practice a lot so I can cook for everyone when I get home!!
Lots and lots of amore di venezia,
Xoxo,
Ally
Thursday, August 9, 2007
A Long Time!!
Hey!
I know it's been what feels like forever (at least for me) since I updated last, but I am without a computer and have been pretty busy this last week or so. I am using my roommate Amanda's computer right now. She's awesome.
So, update! We have been in classes all week and it's been crazy! We've done one chapter every 2 days, which means that now we're in the middle of chapter three. It's A LOT of Italian to learn in a short amount of time, but the nice thing is that a lot of it is VERY similar to Latin and Greek, so it's easy for me to pick up. I know it's been harder on some of the other people because they haven't had as much experience with languages. Thank God for the classics!!!
We have class in the morning from 9 - 1 (4 hours!!) and then have the afternoon "free" to do wahtever we want. I put that in quotes because usually our afternoons are consumed by doing work, as we have a lot of homework each night. However, we have managed to spend at least one afternoon at the beach! Yay. We also do a lot of walking to the grocery store and back. I think I am going to invest in a rolling bag so that we dont all have to carry everything everywhere. It's a long walk from our apartment to the grocery.
Speaking of our apartment, we are RIGHT next to a restaurant. Literally, our window overlooks it. You would think that was great, except when they're up LATE on the weeknights (late for me = 12 now) and making lots and ltos of loud noise. Plus the big drink delivery on wednesday mornings. That's a lot of fun. Oh well. We're getting to be pretty good friends with the waiters there, though. They say Ciao to us all the time. It's pretty awesome.
I made dinner last night - chicken and musrooms. I rocked it! It was pretty good. I messed up a little bit, but everybody liked it. It's also very hard to cook for 10 people, which is what I was doing, so.... But i am proud of myself!
Hm - here's the NOT so good part about living in Castello, where I live. We're RIGHT NEXT to San Marco, which is the BIGGEST tourist destination in Venice. So, in order to get to and from school, we have to walk through San Marco. In the morning, it's not a big deal because there's no one up yet. In the afternoon, however, the square is PACKED with tourists and pigeons. We have to barrel our way through. And that's just through the Piazza itself. Forget about the side streets!! To get to our apartment, we have to cross the canal that the bridge of Sighs crosses, so EVERYONE stops and takes pictures. They STOP in the MIDDLE OF THE BRIDGE!! It's awful. What takes 15 - 20 minutes in the morning takes 30 - 35 just because of all the people. Out of control! I can't wait until August is over and they're all gone! Then we can have Venice to ourselves! Tee hee.
I think I am oging to plan a trip to England to see Emma and Kate, two CODAS that I met in Barcelona. They sent me an email and said they're already excited for me to come and I hadn't even planned it yet!! Tee hee.. I can't wait
Oh! The other thing aobut our apartment is that we are on top of a gelateria - a place that makes the gelato for the place that sells it. So when you walk into our apartment, it always smells like mint gelato. Mom - you'd love it!!
All in all, things are going well. We are all getting along really well and enjoying ourselves - despite the tourists. My Italian is improving - I can say simple sentences now! Woo!
That's all for now I guess! A long post! I am going to try to post more often, I promise!!!
Love love love you all!
Xoxo,
Ally
I know it's been what feels like forever (at least for me) since I updated last, but I am without a computer and have been pretty busy this last week or so. I am using my roommate Amanda's computer right now. She's awesome.
So, update! We have been in classes all week and it's been crazy! We've done one chapter every 2 days, which means that now we're in the middle of chapter three. It's A LOT of Italian to learn in a short amount of time, but the nice thing is that a lot of it is VERY similar to Latin and Greek, so it's easy for me to pick up. I know it's been harder on some of the other people because they haven't had as much experience with languages. Thank God for the classics!!!
We have class in the morning from 9 - 1 (4 hours!!) and then have the afternoon "free" to do wahtever we want. I put that in quotes because usually our afternoons are consumed by doing work, as we have a lot of homework each night. However, we have managed to spend at least one afternoon at the beach! Yay. We also do a lot of walking to the grocery store and back. I think I am going to invest in a rolling bag so that we dont all have to carry everything everywhere. It's a long walk from our apartment to the grocery.
Speaking of our apartment, we are RIGHT next to a restaurant. Literally, our window overlooks it. You would think that was great, except when they're up LATE on the weeknights (late for me = 12 now) and making lots and ltos of loud noise. Plus the big drink delivery on wednesday mornings. That's a lot of fun. Oh well. We're getting to be pretty good friends with the waiters there, though. They say Ciao to us all the time. It's pretty awesome.
I made dinner last night - chicken and musrooms. I rocked it! It was pretty good. I messed up a little bit, but everybody liked it. It's also very hard to cook for 10 people, which is what I was doing, so.... But i am proud of myself!
Hm - here's the NOT so good part about living in Castello, where I live. We're RIGHT NEXT to San Marco, which is the BIGGEST tourist destination in Venice. So, in order to get to and from school, we have to walk through San Marco. In the morning, it's not a big deal because there's no one up yet. In the afternoon, however, the square is PACKED with tourists and pigeons. We have to barrel our way through. And that's just through the Piazza itself. Forget about the side streets!! To get to our apartment, we have to cross the canal that the bridge of Sighs crosses, so EVERYONE stops and takes pictures. They STOP in the MIDDLE OF THE BRIDGE!! It's awful. What takes 15 - 20 minutes in the morning takes 30 - 35 just because of all the people. Out of control! I can't wait until August is over and they're all gone! Then we can have Venice to ourselves! Tee hee.
I think I am oging to plan a trip to England to see Emma and Kate, two CODAS that I met in Barcelona. They sent me an email and said they're already excited for me to come and I hadn't even planned it yet!! Tee hee.. I can't wait
Oh! The other thing aobut our apartment is that we are on top of a gelateria - a place that makes the gelato for the place that sells it. So when you walk into our apartment, it always smells like mint gelato. Mom - you'd love it!!
All in all, things are going well. We are all getting along really well and enjoying ourselves - despite the tourists. My Italian is improving - I can say simple sentences now! Woo!
That's all for now I guess! A long post! I am going to try to post more often, I promise!!!
Love love love you all!
Xoxo,
Ally
Friday, August 3, 2007
More Venice
Not too much to say today. We have all been getting moved in and all those kinds of things. we went grocery shopping yesterday and then we went to the Rialto market today and bought tons of fresh veggies and fruit. We are going to have a big feast tonight! We bought some fresh flounder (it was whole, but the nice man fileted it for us) so we are having pasta with sauted vegetables, white wine, flounder and a fresh fruit salad for dessert. It's going to be yummy!
We start classes on monday and we are excited! It will be good having a routine, i think. I also got to do laundry yesterday, which was nice. I may take my camera out and take picures today, not sure, we will see.
Hope everyone is well and getting ready for the end of summer!
Lots of love from Venice!
Xoxo,
Ally
We start classes on monday and we are excited! It will be good having a routine, i think. I also got to do laundry yesterday, which was nice. I may take my camera out and take picures today, not sure, we will see.
Hope everyone is well and getting ready for the end of summer!
Lots of love from Venice!
Xoxo,
Ally
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