Italy: 1 Annie: 0

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS PICTURES THAT ARE GRAPHIC

Today my sister and I were on our way to our way to Pam, the main grocery store, and as I was about to cross the street, I was looking for traffic (you really have to watch out for the Vespas, cause they will take you out). Unknowingly,  I had stepped right into an uncovered PVC pipe, and my leg fell in down past my knee, scraping some of the skin off my shin along the way.

At first, I was in a state of shock and all I could remember was pulling my leg out, feeling an intense amount of pain and the look of panic on my sister’s face. The wound was cut to the white flesh, around the abrasion a bruise was already forming and blood had began coming to the surface. Being the the Boy Scout she is, Elizabeth flagged down a car that was on the corner about to pull out into traffic. Although he only spoke Italian, obviously he knew what was going and Elizabeth through common gestures, effectively communicated to him that our hotel was right down the street. So, this nice Italian man picked me up with no hesitations and set me in the passenger seat of his car. Elle, got into the back and we were off. I kept astonishingly calm, breathing and trying to muster up as much Italian as I knew to direct him down the road. When we arrived he picked me up again and carried me to the lobby. Even in my pain, I couldn’t help but smile at the kindness of strangers.

We made quite the dramatic entrance, and after refusing to call the hospital, I just requested that my mother come downstairs to assess the damage. Sayid at the front desk gave me gauze and alcohol, and through all the commotion someone had bought me a bottle of water. After my mom came down, we made our way to the elevator and into the living room of our apartment. One of my roommates, Lauren was a Kineseology major, so she had studied first aid intensively.

I was trying to keep good spirits and even laughing a little until the alcohol was poured on, and I’ll admit, in an instant I was crying like a baby. After the worst of it was over, I had the rest of the trip to look forward to with a gimp leg.

This is How to Study

My roommate Lauren and I took advantage of the good weather today and decided to study outside on the balcony. Although we already had taken Tomlin’s test, I still had to finish my chapter summaries, study for Olsen’s test on Friday, and prepare for my group presentation tomorrow. I didn’t even burn!

Happy [insert random Italian holiday]!

This morning we had a graduate panel discussion for Dr. Olsen’s class followed by THE TEST in Dr. Tomlin’s class. By the time I had finished, I think I turned in about four pages and had a pretty bad hand cramp. I finished my exam at about 1:45 only to find out that today is some Italian holiday and NOTHING is open. Good thing we had some left over pasta from our last trip to Pam.

On the agenda for today:

• Pasta for Lunch
• Work on Chapter Summaries
• Pasta for Dinner
• Wine with Dinner
• Sleep

How I love Italy!

Eeek a test!

I don’t plan on writing much tonight, I have Dr. Tomlin’s test tomorrow and I really need to finish studying for it. It is open note and I have all of my power points printed, but I am going to re-read some of the chapters I am a bit fuzzy on. The test is 15 identification short answers, people, places, and events and then three longer essay questions, but we’ve covered A LOT of content in the past 9 days.

For some reason, when I go overseas, I get really determined to study harder. I guess it just inspires me to learn. There are so many things I have yet to learn, it’s quite sad really. I will leave you with a quote from the man who said it best:

“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.“
Socrates

Birth of Venus

Today we got somewhat of a late start. We were supposed to be in line at the Galleria degli Uffizi by 8:00 for it’s opening at 9:00, but we did not arrive until 8:45, and by that time the line was incredibly long. We decided to buy advance tickets for 12:15, and make our wat to go inside the church , only to find out it would open at 2:00. With our plans ever changing, we decided to take a bus around town.

\We accidentally got onto the longer bus tour that went up the mountain, but it turned out to be a beautiful mistake. It took us up the hill to the small town of Fireos where we were given around 30 minutes to look around. It began sprinkling just as we had gotten on, and it turned into a downpour by the time we had gotten back into town. Fortunately it was perfect museum weather. We got in line for our 12:15 spot and got in without a hitch. The Uffizi had so much to take in, it was a bit overwhelming. Room after room of sculputures and paintings, all so different, yet all so beautiful. The highlight for me had to be Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus.

Firenze

We left for Florence bright and early to catch a train at 6:45AM. Luckily our whole room was going, so we were traveling as a group of 5. We used our Eurail pass with out any hassles until we had to switch trains in Bologna. Unfortunately even with the Eurail pass, we had to stand the entire 2 hours from Bolonga to Florence. Despite the inconvenience, the scenery was absolutely stunning so it was hard to be angry.

As soon as we got to Florence, we found an Tourist Information center and got directions to our hotel which was just around the corner. We were expecting trouble, because a friend of ours on the trip with us had booked the same hotel for the night before, and gave us ample warning. Equipped with patience and kindness, we were ready to face the haughty woman at the front desk. About twenty minutes later, everything was solved and we were off to discover our room. It was surprisingly spacious and quite simple with really high ceilings. I especially liked the hairdryer in the bathroom which reminded me of Ghostbusters.

We then made our way to the McDonalds to buy a hop-on hop-off bus pass. Of all the people in Italy, I sat next Gary, a graduate student from UT-Arlington. Small world, no? His friends with him were from Chicago, and California. One of the girls had studied in Florence for an entire year (Art History) and gave us some really good recommendations for local places to check out.

We rode the bus around town once before deciding where to go. The sight of the Duomo was breathtaking and impossible to do justice in pictures. It is just astonishing what the Italians comlpleted with the resources they had. We ended up walking to the Piazza where the original David statue had once stood many years ago, and an impressive replica now towers over the tourists. I  had heard that Florence was really “arty” and compared to the few places I have been, I would agree. There are artists on every corner and music filling the dead air.

Arena

Lunch with a Brit

Today my mother, sister, and I had lunch with a gentleman by the name of James Snowden. He is an exchange student from London, England who has been studying here in Verona since September. The reason behind our meeting is the English speaking talk show he hosts on a college radio station here at the University of Verona. His original concept for the show was to spread new ideas and differeny points of view on political issues around the world, but due to censorship, it has shifed to a show discussing speech, and how different cultures communicate not only with each other, but also with other cultures.

Thunder goes Booma

Today we faced our first Italian Rainstorm. Julianne and I were planning to spend the day taking our time and going around Verona to just take pictures without anyone telling us to move on to the next tour stop, or our friends telling us to “hurry up already”. But the weather had other plans in mind. I had noticed on the walk to the University this morning, that the sky looked pretty bleak. After class, we called the picture day off and I went into town with my mom and Elizabeth. We hadn’t even gotten pass the Roman Ruins to the closest Piazza before it started sprinkling,

Luckily, there were several ristorantes and cafes in the area so we popped in for some lunch. The Italian restaurants believe it or not, don’t seem to have the same variety of dishes that American-Italian restaurants have. This may be due to the fact that some dishes are regional or maybe I just haven’t found the right place.

I ordered my regular Pizza Margahrita and feeling a bit adventurous I decided to get a Mojito (it costs the same as a Coke). Needless to say I got lucky and it was delicious. After a while, I had to go to the bathroom and was confronted with this:

Now I have heard about these types of toilets in stories from friends who have traveled to Europe or Asia before, but I had yet to be confronted with one myself. My verdict: it’s not that bad people! It really isn’t as long as you have good balance and have gone camping in the woods a couple times. No worries, you’ll be just fine.

After lunch, we went into Piazza delle Erba to buy some souvenirs for friends and family.  The marble sidewalks that line the streets sure are beautiful, but when it rains, they are slick. We made our way back to a bus stop by a church, and regretting not bringing our umbrellas, we huddled together for warmth and then made our way onto a very crowded bus. And finally onto our home away from home.

To the Lake… again

Today after class I made it to the Lago Garda once again. This time Elizabeth and my mother came with. You wouldn’t believe the difference between going on a Tuesday and a Saturday. Part of me wishes we would attend classes Thursday through Monday and have Tuesday and Wednesday as “weekends” because it is so much less crowded. I suppose that wouldn’t work it there are events such as the soccer game next week in Florence, but I might just pass my suggestion along to the International Studies office.

Although it was unplanned, we happened to run into several of the girls on the trip on the way to the shore. There was a very convinent little shop set up with hats, sunglasses, swim suits, and anything you could ever need for a day at the beach or even a day in town. There was an older lady who was trying to sell me a towel with kittens on it, I suppose because it was cute and seemed like something I would like. She reminded me of my Nonnie and I was tempeted but I ended up getting a more colorful beach towel for about 6 euro.

While at the beach, we ran into several girls from our trip and decided to join them. I ended up swimming for a bit in the COLD water and then laying out reading for the rest of the time. We got assigned Chapter Summaries for Olsen’s class and Group Presentations for Tomlin’s so, unfortunately, it wasn’t as if I could simply relax.