Yet Another Long Overdue Update

Wow, that seems to be the theme the last few entries, huh? And this time I actually had things to say. Go figure.

So, I guess starting at the beginning is as good as any other, huh?

For Halloween, which was FOREVER ago, I went to the Padova deaf club with my CODA friends (both named Paola). We had a blast. There was a “haunted house” in the basement and so we just hung out and chatted. It was surprisingly easy for me to communicate with the Italian deaf people, but I still had to have Paola translate sometimes. Anyway, it was a whole lot of fun!

Last week (Friday morning) we all boarded our train from Mestre to Pompeii. Because Colgate is OH-SO-GENEROUS, we took the InterCity instead of the EuroStar. For those of you who are not familiar with the Italian train system, allow me to explain the difference between the two. The EuroStar is a fast train, stopping at only the biggest stops and includes a plug at every seat, spacious seating and a dining car. The InterCity (as you may have guessed) stops at almost every city between Venice and Pompeii. Let me tell you, there are a lot of them. And there’s no plugs, small seats and no dining car. Long story short, we were on the train for about 10 hours. It was awful. The EuroStar would have taken about 2 and half hours less. Ugh.

We finally got to Pompeii and walked to the hotel, which was right outside the ruins. We quickly discovered that there’s not much more in Pompeii other than the ruins. Fine, I guess. We all settled in and fell promptly asleep, as we were all EXHAUSTED. The next morning, we visited the site and hung out there. Then all came back to the hotel, had a lovely evening and turned in for the night. The next morning we went to Herculaneum, which is a site just like Pompeii, but smaller. It was pretty cool. Then we went to Naples, which I am convinced is the worst city in the world. It’s SO sketchy and people steal things. It’s very scary. In Naples, we had pizza, which was better than all the pizza I’ve had in Venice to date. Amazing. We went to the archaeological museum and then had to bravely find our way back to Pompeii. We got on the train with a bunch of rowdy, drunk guys coming back from the soccer game. It was awful. We got back to our hotel in Pompeii and went to bed early so we could get ready for our trip to Capri the next day.

We had a free day on Monday and so a bunch of us went to Capri for the day. We walked around the back of the island, which is much prettier than the front of the island. We got chased by a homeless man at one point. It was really crazy. I’ve posted all the pictures on Facebook, so you should be able to see them. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the island is wonderful. Although I am glad I got to go, I kind of wish we would have had our free day in Rome instead of Naples because there was so much in Rome that I wanted to do, but never got the chance to. Oh well.

The following day we got on a train again and left for Rome. Arrived fine in Rome and walked to the hotel, which was nice. They also had free wireless, which was really good because almost all of us had to register the next night from midnight to 3 AM. Oh, registering for spring classes. How fun. By the way, and this is a bit of a digression, but here’s the list of classes I’m taking next semester: Homer’s Iliad, Vergil’s Aeneid, a class on Comparative Cosmologies, Shakespeare, and an independent study on the Bacchae by Euripides. It’s gonna be a busy, but good semester. I’m excited. Anyway, back to the good stuff. We went around Rome all afternoon and then that evening went to the Hard Rock Café for Molly’s birthday. It was SO nice to have American food again! I had a hamburger slathered in BBQ sauce. It was amazing. The next few days consisted of us getting up early and going around Rome for class. It was kind of rough because all we wanted to do was appreciate Rome, but we had to take notes all day, every day. I mean, I got to spend 3 days in Rome, so I’m not really complaining, but it was still a bit annoying. During our time off from class, I got to go see the Vatican, which I LOVED. The last day we were there was the only bad weather day and we went to the Colosseum. Then, I got on a train to Bologna, and then a plane to London and then another plane to Manchester!

I arrived in Manchester and Kate and Emma (CODAs) were waiting with open arms to pick me up. We had a lovely reunion and went to a bar for a beer or two. Really nice place, cozy and intimate. The next day we just went around their little town and got ready to go to the Deaf Club that night, where there was Snail Racing. Very complicated. Involves betting and animated snails. Hysterical. We also participated in some deaf karaoke. I loved it, basically. Tee hee. The next day we went into Chester, which is an ADORABLE town about 20 minutes from Kate and Emma’s. It’s got this really cool mix between small town and city. It’s very intimate, but at the same time has a really nice shopping center. I also got to have a Gingerbread Chai Latte while I was there. Oh, Starbucks, how I missed you! On Monday, I got dropped off at the airport to make my way to Dublin!

I got into Dublin and arrived at our hostel, which was right in Temple Bar. It was a really nice place and we had a nice room. I hung around the city, walking around and stopping in at different cafes waiting for Amanda to arrive. I went to the airport to get her and the Colts game was playing on the TV! We lost, but it was still nice to watch a little bit. J Amanda and I made our way back to the hostel where we both turned in.

The next day we did a TON of stuff in Dublin. We started out at Trinity College, which was a beautiful campus. Headed over to to the Dublin castle, where we took a tour. It was nice, but not amazing. Then we went to the Jameson Whiskey factory, which we loved! We volunteered to do a whiskey tasting after, which was a lot of fun. I didn’t realize how much better Jameson Whiskey is than Jack Daniels. We even got certificates saying that we’re “Certified Whiskey Tasters”. Cool, huh? After Jameson, we went to lunch and then wandered the city for a bit. Went to St. Patrick’s cathedral and looked around in the park. That night, we went to the Arlington Hotel for a “traditional Irish feast, music and dancing”. It was really cool. We had an awesome dinner and then got to watch Irish dancers and listen to an Irish band play. We went back to Temple bar and hung out there for a while and went back to the hotel to go to bed. We met the other people who were staying in our hostel room with us. 3 guys from Oklahoma (in their 30s?). They seemed really nice and everything. Before we went to bed, one of them said to us “Oh, (insert name here I can’t remember) if he snores, just hit him. We were in another hostel last night and these French girls asked us if we could sleep in shifts.” Now, I thought they were just kidding, exaggerating. They were not. I have NEVER heard anyone snore that loud in my life. It was terrible. Between the two of us, Amanda and I probably slept for 4 hours. I wanted to cry. The next morning, on almost no sleep, we went to the History Museum of Dublin, which was really nice, and free to boot. Tee hee. Went to the airport and caught our flight back to Venice.

I’ve been back in Venice since last Wednesday night, just kind of hanging out with everyone. I did all my laundry and I’m catching up on homework and other things as well. Overall, a good trip. I enjoyed myself very much! Now, I’m trying to get ahead on work so that when mom and Patti and Syd come I don’t have to spend all my time doing work! I’m very excited for them to come!

I guess that’s it! Good update, huh?

Lots of love from Venice,

Ally