La Fine a Milano

Too much has happened in the last few weeks for me to be able to explain it all. I will definitely do my best. Well I am writing to you from the train station in Prague and will attempt to detail what I have done in the past two or three weeks. Last time I wrote about my experience in the French Riviera. The following week was filled with lots of work- presenting a number of projects, getting ready for exams, and beginning to pack. Trying to fit in spending time with everyone, doing everything we had wanted to do before we left, and eating everything for the last time was particularly stressful. That weekend was very busy. Usually during exam week, I hibernate in my room to prepare for exams. Well that was not really possible this time. On Friday, my Italian Fascism class held a field trip. I had actually been looking forward to this field trip all semester. A 6:30am wake-up call was not pretty. Several hours later we arrived in Carpi, in the Province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna. In Carpi, we met a tour guide who gave us a tour of Holocaust Museum. There is a Holocaust museum there in Carpi because Fossoli, the major deportation camp of Italy is just outside the city. The museum was really nice, filled with a lot of symbolism (the colors, the materials, etc)- there were beautiful quotes on the walls from famous Holocaust writers like Primo Levi. After the museum, we went to where the Jewish ghetto used to stand in Carpi and what used to be a synogogue there. Now it is just offices, but it was interesting to see what used to have been. That really is the theme for Jewish-ness in Europe- what used to have been. After the synagogue, we drove to Fossoli, one of the major concentration and then deportation camps in Italy. Primo Levi stayed in Fossoli before going to Auschwitz. Most deportees went from Fossoli to Auschwitz. I had learned a great deal about Fossoli in the class and also in my studies of Levi for a presentation, so I was particularly interested in seeing Fossoli. All of us in the class I think were a bit disappointed in our visit to Fossoli. I think we expected more evidence of what happened there, but it wasn't so obvious. The only evidence were these cabins/bunks around us, which were destroyed in this major earthquake that had hit the region. So we saw these ruined bunks, but were not able to go inside and see living conditions or anything like that. In any case it was interesting to see, and I think the tour guide planned it well: she had each of us read a quote from a famous holocaust writer who had stayed in Fossoli. We read a quote that explained some element of their life there in Fossoli, whether it was the check-in process, the line-ups or leaving to go to Auschwitz. The last part of our trip was the best though. After leaving Fossoli, we drove to this fast food restaurant. We grabbed a bite to eat and sat there for a long time. We weren't sure what we were waiting for- since we were up since 6:30am we were itching to get back home. Well, our teacher had a little "surprise" for us. At the Holocaust Museum in Fossoli, we learned about a man, whose name I forget I apologize, who risked his life during the Fascist era and ended up saving many many Jews. He hit people in his house and in his office. It was a really inspiring story. Well this man's granddaughter came to speak to us, she was a close friend of our teacher. She had devoted her life to studying the Holocaust and people like her grandfather who saved the Jews. It was a beautiful experience- to hear her talk about her grandfather's story and how it inspired her. That really made the trip.
The next day, on Saturday, I went to Lake Como with Brent. Living in Milan, only 30 minutes away from Lake Como, I couldn't not visit it and time was getting crunched so I had to go on Saturday. Well it worked out well because we had the most beautiful weather! Shiny sun and blue sky! When we got to Como, we visited the Como Duomo and then walked to get some breakfast. Afterwards, we luckily made it in perfect time to get on the ferry boat that takes you from town to town on the Lake. We were heading to Bellagio, a small and beautiful town on Lake Como- perhaps you've heard of the Bellagio in Vegas?? Well that's named after this town. The ferry took 2 hours to get from Como to Bellagio! Took a lot longer than we expected but totally worth it because we got to see the beautiful lake, the snow-capped mountains and all the giant beautiful houses on the water. In case you've never heard of Lake Como, George Clooney has a house on the lake which made it quite popular. A number of Bond movies were shot at some of the beautiful villas along the water also. Lake Como is famous for its silk. So when we got to Bellagio, there wasn't that much to do other than to walk in the little alleyways and to buy lots of silk :) In general, the lake was just so beautiful and the town was hopping with tourists. Several hours later, after some shopping and gelato, we headed on an express boat back Como and then on a train (which took about 3x as long- about 1.5 hours and was 1/3 the price= 5 euros!) back to Milano. A nice slow-paced day in a beautiful place!
Well that brings us to Sunday. Sunday = the only day I have to study for exams. lol. 2 exams Monday, 2 presentations and 3 short essays due Tuesday, nothing on Wednesday and 2 exams Thursday and saying goodbye to everyone on Thursday = one hell of a crazy week. All my exams went well I think. I spent my free day on Wednesday packing and studying. On Thursday, after my exams, I took my normal after-exams week-nap and then went to the IES final concert. There were a number of amazing music students in my IES program and they held a final concert for us. EVERYONE WAS AMAZING. Chris was amazing on the saxophone, Anna B. and Joe T. had amazing opera voices and sang solos. These three each only had one song. Erin A. and Anna L. each had a solo opera song and 2 duets. THEY WERE FABULOUS. They were so animated and were really putting on a show. All the songs were in Italian of course- SO IMPRESSED. Lindsey (playing the violin) and Julie (on the viola) each had a solo song and played 2 duets as well. SO FABULOUS! They were both so amazing! We were able to hear them practicing all semester while they were in the practice rooms, but we had never heard any of them play/sing so it was so nice to actually hear them perform. After the concert, we went to the Farewell dinner. Sounds exactly what you think it would be - a major bawling experience. The dinner was at a place called Da Willy's- food was fabulous- bruschetta, pizza, pesto pasta, lasagna- everything we could possibly want. Many classes showcased papers or presentations- my photo class showed each of our final projects which was a multimedia project (I did mine on the poem by Robert Frost "Fire and Ice"). Afterwards they showed pictures from the semester and everyone started saying goodbye to each other and crying and taking pictures and then crying even more. The whole experience didn't really feel real- it wasn't sinking in that I wasn't seeing these people again. A large group of us, after dinner, walked to the Cologne, which is this really old square with like old columns where a lot of local italians come and drink and hang out. We had wanted to go there all semester, but never had the opportunity so I am glad I made it there before I left. It was nice, it was a good social setting- able to see and talk to everyone. I was there about an hour and then had to say officially say all my goodbyes to everyone. That's when I started crying. It was my last time with these people and it really started to feel real then :( Well I got no sleep that night, I was up being sad and anxious about packing and stuff.
At 6am on Friday, Anna, my roommate left. Ugh more tears. I spent the next few hours cleaning the apartment and then I had to say goodbye to Hannah, one of my housemates who left then too. After finishing packing, I met up with Arturo to get Luini (the most amazing panzerotti, remember?... from the first week) for the last time. We chilled in Piazza Duomo in disbelief this would be our last time staring at the Milano Duomo. AHHH! We walked to our favorite gelato place, Shokolat, to get gelato for the last time. AHHH! And then relaxed in Parc Sempione. It was such a nice day and it was a perfect end to my time in Milano. An hour later, I gathered my things (umm... I have 5 bags- 1 major suitcase weighing 80 pounds, my smaller roller carry-on size suitcase, one backpack, and 2 totebags!... and I am schlepping this all over Europe for the next two weeks... oh and lets not forget that I am stupid enough to try to schlep around my Parmesan cheese and pesto pasta in a cooler so that I can take it home!) and had a teary goodbye to my Italian CA (RA/housemate), Alessandra. I met Zoe at Centrale and we had Rossopomodoro for dinner before we boarded our overnight train to Vienna (more about that in the next blog post).
Just a recap on two pizzas that I had that I hadn't gotten to explain to you about. Rossopomodoro. O.M.G. Best pizza I had in Milano. Gusta Pizza in Florence was still the best but Rossopomodoro. Heaven on a plate. I got the La Verace, which was basically sauce with Bufala Mozzarella (too much yumm for one word) and basil and then they sprinkle olive oil on top. Crust was so amazing. Just it was all fabulous. Sadie and I had gotten Rossopomodoro- we ordered a liter of their house wine which was just TOO good and then had fabulous dessert there too- it was these donuts drizzled with Nutella. Best meal ever. Ok.... Pizza Ok. Pizza Ok was good. The sauce was fabulous and they really threw on a TON of Bufala Mozzarella, so that made it amazing. Unforutnately, the crust is kind of weird- it was super thin and flat- kind of like a tortilla. So, overall not my favorite, but I can't get enough of mozzarella so still ranks high in my book!
Ok well, I guess that about wraps up my time in Milano. CRY! HOW IS MY 4 MONTH SEMESTER IN MILANO ALREADY OVER!? An amazing experience...great people...great place. I am SO sad it's over, I am going to miss Italy so much. I won't miss not having dryers, not having free water in restaurants, not having ice, the crappy teaching and educational process. I will miss... everything. I will miss all the super cute dogs everywhere, I will miss standing in the metro and not really understanding anything that is said around me and getting excited if I understand something, I will miss walking everywhere and using public transportation. I will miss mozzarella (I ate a ball of mozzarella every day!), I will miss my teachers- they were all such great people, and I will miss EVERYTHING.
Ok. Well, several more blog posts to come before this experience is officially over. :(
Ci Vediamo (which means like see you- which is actually true, see you in a few short weeks!)
~E

Sunburning in the South of France

     Guess where I went last weekend?? I went to Nice and Monaco in the French Riviera! OMG! How beautiful! On Friday, after Italian class, Stephanie, Victoria, Chris, Sadie and I took a very long train ride to Ventimiglia, Italy, and then another train from Ventimiglia to Cannes. We reserved an apartment in Cannes. The apartment was a bit smaller than we expected, but it was beautiful and in a great location. We got to Cannes late that evening, grabbed some yummy food at the small grill next door to the apartment. Funniest thing happened- we wanted to buy a bottle of wine, but we didn't know where a local supermarket was. We asked the lady at the grill where a supermarket was, and she responded by asking what we needed. We responded saying we wanted to buy a bottle of wine; she says hold on, gets her keys and says follow us. We follow her to the shop next to the grill that was closed; she opens it up and lets us buy a bottle of wine from her store. She was so nice! Also, this was the best bottle of wine we've like ever had. It was like grapefruit flavored white wine! Yum! In any case, we had a nice night overlooking the beautiful French Riviera! 

    The next morning, we took a train into Nice. We wandered around looking for crepes. The city was just beautiful- all the buildings were bright and decorative. We finally made it to the Promenade- just breathtaking. We stumbled upon the Cours Saleya flower and food market. The smells were overwhelming... the flowers, the fruit, the herbs. I smelled strawberries so sweet and tasteful- it was amazing. We got crepes at a small restaurant overlooking the water! Nutella and banana crepe... could it get any better! OMG. We went out onto the beach... which I wouldn't really call a beach. It was a rock beach- with these huge stones. Was not comfortable to walk on and definitely didn't look comfortable to lay on. Regardless, Chris, Victoria and Stephanie decided to lay out and soak up the sun. Sadie and I decided to ride bikes along the Colonnade. Took us a while to figure out how to rent the bikes, but once we managed to figure it out, it was so worth it. Just a side note, being where everyone was speaking French- it was HARD! Harder than getting around Italy- I didn't understand anything. Well, we rode our bikes along the Colonnade. It was so much fun- the weather was beautiful! The sun was shining and the wind blowing in our hair. We were so nervous- hadn't written bikes in so long- and there were pedestrians, other bikers, and cars everywhere. It was really scary, but we managed to get the hang of it. The sun was hot and strong! When we got back to the beach, everyone, particularly Chris, was so BURNT- so red! Poor things. Turns out actually, we all got really burnt- it didn't even feel that hot out; the sun was just so strong! We were so tired out from the sun and hurting a lot, so we took the train back to Cannes. Oh god, this story is so sad. So- so far no one had checked our train tickets, and they were starting to add up and get a bit expensive. Sadie and I decided to buy the tickets anyway. But of course, one of the few times that the others didn't buy a ticket, the man came and checked our tickets. Poor things had to pay 35 euros, even though the ticket only costed like 6 euros. When we got back to the apartment, we made a big pot of pasta for dinner and fell asleep nice and early. 

     On Sunday morning, we woke up nice and early, burnt and in pain and looking absolutely ridiculous! We headed to Monte-Carlo, Monaco. EEEK! We made it to Monaco, with all of our bags and to our surprise, there was no bag check, so we had to schlep our bags around the city all day. It was rough! In any case, we started walking around Monte-Carlo, heading to the Prince's castle first. We had to walk up this really big hill to get to the Prince's Palace. We were definitely on the struggle-bus- but we made it! We had a beautiful view overlooking the harbor. We saw the Monaco guards outside the palace- they wouldn't let me take a picture with them. The little streets outside off the square outside the palace was so cute. The buildings were colorful and bright. There were so many vendors selling Monaco souvenirs. I ended up falling in love and buying a polo shirt that says Monaco polo team- its so cute and perfect for me!! The man was so nice at the store- he also gave me a Monaco poker chip for free because he saw me eying it! We walked back down the hill and headed to the Monte-Carlo casino. It was a rough walk because we were schlepping our baggage up and down hills and it started to rain on us! Of course it was raining- it always rains on us! We got to the casino ... I have never seen so many fancy cars in one place in my life! I saw: ferraris, bentleys, a rolls royce, a Lamborghini, Porsches! Of all colors- yellow, cherry red, etc! OMGGG! Everyone around us was well dressed and beautiful! We saw the Hotel de Paris by the Casino. We were not allowed to bring our baggage into the casino, so Sadie waited outside with the bags as we went into the Casino. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! I guess it looks like how all the movies portray it, but it was still so cool! I watched some people loose lots of money playing blackjack and watch Chris and Victoria play some of electronic slot machines. SOO COOL! I left shortly after to relieve Sadie of bag watching duty, while she went inside to look. Everything in Monaco was so expensive- we went to look for gelato and would have had to pay like 3 euros for 1 scoop of gelato.. NO NO NO! OMG! Because of the rain, our sunburn, our bags, we decided to take an early train from Monaco to Ventimiglia and waited in the Ventimiglia train station for a short time before our next train to Milan. 

    Overall it was a fabulous weekend in an amazing, beautiful place. I definitely want to come back to this area and explore more of the towns- I really would have liked to see Cannes, and to see Antibes, etc. This was my last trip of the semester with my IES people! :( so sad. So many great memories and adventures in the past semester with these people. 

    Well, now I am back to homework and exam crunch time. BOO! I am getting so sad- last week to be with these IES people. So much to do- so much work to do, so much still left to see in Milan, so much food to still each, and so much fun to still have with my friends.

   Wish me "in boca al lupo" (good luck- literally from in the wolf's mouth- kind of like our break a leg) on my exams. and I will respond "creppi" :) My Italian teach, Renata would be so proud :)

Ciao for now. xoxo,

~E

Don't Worry I Didn't Turn into a Leprechaun!

I had a fantastic weekend in Dublin 2 weekends ago! I enjoyed Dublin and Ireland much much more than I expected to. We left Thursday night on a Ryanair flight (one of the notorious budget airlines); I didn't think it was nearly as bad as everyone talks it up to be. We arrived in Dublin late Thursday night and took a bus and then a taxi to where we were staying. We reserved through airbandb a room at a charming house of a lady named Adrienne. She had gotten such positive reviews, we just had to stay with her. She was the cutest and nicest lady I have ever met! She greeted us at the door, offering us tea and scones! She was so nice to wait up for us and was just so helpful the entire time. We hadn't eaten dinner, so we much appreciated the DELICIOUS HOMEMADE SCONES and JAM! OMG. Let me just say this was the best jam I have ever eaten in my entire life! Adrienne was so nice- she offered to take us to the bus station very early the next morning so that we could catch our bus to Cork to visit Blarney castle. We had the most charming rooms, and we snuggled in our comfortable beds with a heated blanket! So heavenly! It was so hard to wake up and get out of bed early the next morning.
Our Friday in Dublin was fabulous! We did a day trip from Dublin to Cork and the Blarney Castle. We woke up super early and caught a bus to Cork (Adrienne gave us croissants in the morning and then drove us to the bus station). Cork is in the southern-western part of Ireland; it was about a 3-hour bus ride. We arrived in SUNNY (woo!) Cork and took another short bus ride to Blarney Castle, the home of the Blarney stone! The grounds of Blarney castle are just beautiful! Everything in Ireland is just so green and luscious. During the bus ride, although I slept through most of it, I got to see the BEAUTIFUL GREEN countryside of Ireland. Blarney Castle is basically an old ruin. We got to climb through the castle and see what it would have been like in the castle. At the top, (having to go through tiny doorways and up tight spirally staircases!) we had a beautiful view of the Irish countryside. SO  GREEN! At the top of the castle, we got in line to kiss the blarney stone! With this kiss, I got the gift of eloquence. J I definitely need that! You lie on your back and the man there, holds you and lowers you down (you are upside down hanging!- there are grates there to protect you since one time someone died). He lowered me down and I kissed the Blarney Stone (where thousands of others have kissed…ick!). I wasn’t really sure what to expect- but it really just looks like another rock/piece of stone. A little shiny and smooth- but nothing I would have been able to pick out as super special. Overall, the whole experience was SUPER FUN! After exploring some of the other parts of the grounds of Blarney, like this garden full of poisonous plants and a little cave, we decided to head to lunch. We took the bus back to Cork and explored the little city. It was a really cute city; reminded me a lot of the shopping streets I had seen in Copenhagen. Just super quaint. We ate at the English market, under Adrienne’s recommendation. The queen ate there when she visited Cork, so it was bound to be good enough for us. Lol. We each picked food from different stands- so many options of a variety of different foods, although most of the stands were for raw meat. After some food and exploring the little shopping area of Cork, we took the bus back to Dublin. Slept again for most of the ride, and arrived back in Dublin around 6pm. We didn't have a map of Dublin and didn't know how to get back to the apartment- oy... so after getting lost for 2 hours (even though we were actually only 15 mins away from the house if we had just walked a little further in the opposite direction), we finally made it back to the house. Exhausted from the tiring, yet amazing day, we napped in our heated beds and then ordered burritos for delivery and had an early night.
On Saturday, we began our tour of Dublin with the Guinness factory. I don't like beer so the taste testing part of the tour wasn't as exciting for me as it was for other people, but it was interesting to learn how beer is made and see how Guinness has evolved over time. Have you ever associated Guinness beer with the Guinness book of world records? Well you should... pretty cool! We got our beers at the end of the tour at the top of the factory, at the Gravity bar. There are windows surrounding the entire bar, so you can see a great view of Dublin! We had a nice sunny day; we relaxed and looked out at the Irish countryside, while Chris and Sadie drank their and my beer. Drinking at 11am... normal I guess. The Guinness beer is different than other beer I've tried- it's got a very rich flavor and is very thick. Also, we had to wait two minutes in the middle while the beer was being poured for the beer to settle. It was interesting to see it turn a different color after it settled. Also, the lady that poured the beer, drew an Irish shamrock in the white froth at the top- super cute! After buying lots of souvenirs, mainly for all the guys in my life, we headed into the center of town. We walked on the Trinity college campus. Wow, the school is beautiful; has an ivy league feel to it, with the stone buildings and green quad area. The Book of Kells is in the Trinity College library. After waiting in line to enter, and learning how expensive they were charging for entrance, we decided not to go in :-\ After a quick bite to eat, I separated from Sadie and Chris and walked to the Jewish museum. I had seen signs all over the city for it; I figured it would be closed, but wanted to check it out anyway because it was the only available time I would have for it. Besides, the Copenhagen Jewish museum was open on a Saturday. Well it was closed... bummer. But at least I found it. Sadie and Chris went to the coast during that time. We met back up and then went to the Temple bar area to meet up with other IES people for dinner (Brent, Joe, and Joe's sister). We wandered around for a while, but it was a Saturday night so every bar was packed and there was no room for us. We ended up just grabbing food at a fast little shop. We then began our pub crawl. :) We started at The Temple Bar of course! This was just great! The music was fabulous- it was really packed! The players there hold a world record for longest time playing guitar- like 6 days I think. SO COOL! The music was an acousticy, folky, country spin on some pop rock songs. Really fun! Boy do the Irish love their beer- most bars barely offered any other drinks. Everyone was drunk! People of all ages! and they were drunk early! Here in Milan, people don't start drinking or partying until 12 maybe 1 am. People were drunk by 10 pm and the pubs all closed by 1 or 2am! SO DIFFERENT! After a good amount of time at The Temple Bar, we walked down the street to Auld Dubliner. Phil, from Skidmore, was also in Dublin that weekend and came with two of his friends to meet us! It was so great to see him! We chilled at Auld Dubliner and listened to the fun live music. After a while, we parted ways and I met back up with the IES people at a different pub. On the way there, I SO COMPLETELY RANDOMLY ran into Ellie, from Skidmore and on the riding team with me! So random and so great to see her! RUNNING INTO TWO SKIDMORE PEOPLE IN ONE CITY! CRAZY! It was so exciting! So funny, that from such a small school, I still have contacts all over Europe because everyone is studying abroad this semester! I met the IES people at the bar and then we walked to another pub to try to find Chris, another IES person. We walked all the way to the other side of the city! No luck. We ended our pub crawl back at the pub next to The Temple Bar, called Farrington's. Funnily enough, the singer and guitar player from The Temple Bar was singing there now, so we ended up hearing their set twice. We had the best time at Farrington's. The people at the table next to us were college-aged Irish people, who knew how to Irish dance. They got us and were having lots of fun. We clapped for them and then decided to join in. They tried to teach us how to Irish dance. We were singing and stomping and clapping and dancing and twirling. It was just such a blast.We ended the night as the pub was closing, at 2am and were just happy to have had such a great time.
Sunday morning, Chris went to mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Sadie and I woke up a bit later and started the morning with a fabulous breakfast that Adrienne had prepared for us. OMG... she made crepes and with some of her mother's amazing jam. It was SO delicious! Adrienne was just the sweetest; we talked with her over breakfast about the places we've been and are going and we just loved being with her. In general, we found that everyone was just the nicest in Dublin. Everyone was helpful, even if you didn't ask them for help; everyone was just so nice and jolly. WE LOVED THEIR ACCENTS! and we loved the subtle differences in the words they used. Everything is just grand :) Sadie was in heaven seeing so many red heads! After breakfast, Sadie and I did a whirlwind tour of Dublin, as usual. Both St. Patrick's cathedral and Christs Church were holding services by the time we got there, so we went to find Dublin Castle, which unfortunately was closed because a major meeting was happening there. We bought some souvenirs and then walked by Trinity College again and then on  Grafton street, the major shopping street in Dublin. The city is just so bright and clean and there were street performers everywhere. I took a picture with a leprechaun and made a wish!

At the end of Grafton street, we ended at a really nice park, St. Stephen's Green. It was just so nice to see so many families and children out playing. We then went back to St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christ's Church to go inside. It was really beautiful- I really liked all the celtic symbols around the church, like on the floor tiles. This and Christ's Church had a different feel to those churches I had seen in Italy. Less extravagant in some ways, but still absolutely beautiful. The outside of both of these churches are just amazing. Christ Church looks like a fabulous castle, right out of a movie. We were so exhausted by the end, it was a struggle to walk back to Adrienne's house, but we made it and just in time to pack up and get to the airport to go back to Milan.
I really enjoyed Dublin- the people are just so nice, the atmosphere is fun, and it just seems really down to earth. I would really like to get back to Ireland to visit Cliffs of Moher, which Brent and Joe got to see on their day trip.
Overall, it was a fabulous trip. Really different than the other places we had travelled to yet!
Only 7 days left in Milan! Getting really sad and scary!
~E