Blog thoughts

So I want to write this blog post, and I'm not sure exactly why yet. Sometimes I only want to write blogs because I feel like I enjoy writing. But I not sure of that, and another thing that I've never been really sure about is whether I'm even a good writer. Regardless here I am writing this blog post instead of watching yet another episode of Intervention. There's something about that show that I really like - another thing which I can't pinpoint.

I think a lot, and when I say that, I really mean it! Just ask my husband. I'd like to think that the only time that I'm not thinking is when I'm sleeping, but really I probably do think while sleeping, just not conciously. This becomes a problem when it comes to blogging because I have about 15 ideas of what to write about in the blog running through my head right now, and it's so hard to narrow it down to one thought to focus on writing. I can't seem to organize my ideas and so I might just leave this post brief and simple until I'm able to gather something organized to write about.

An update on life in Italy.

Hi blog readers,

So I'm at the halfway point to coming home, and I only have a week and a half left of school. This experience has been such a unique one for me. I feel like I'll be coming home with many new perspectives on culture, life, language, and language aquisition. I have had many 'aha' moments, and many frustrated moments. Overall I have gained so much knowledge.

Before I came here I honestly felt that there would never be any way that I could learn French. Now, I feel like its entirely possible. Before I came here I didn't fully know what it meant to learn language by understanding the concept of a single word rather than the english equivolant. Now, I understand that. I know more about cultural differences and how cultural differences impact language and langauge learning. I have met and gotten to know some wonderful people. I can't believe I have a week and a half left. Leaving Italy will a bitter sweet day for me.

Yesterday I got a Mediterranean sunburn, as I relaxed in the beach and swam in the sea. The sea was amazing. The salt burned my eyes, and the waves were SO HUGE. We jumped through them and dove into them, and I was actually scared to get too deep because if it got to the point where I could't touch the bottom I don't know if I would've had the strength to not be sucked deeper into the sea with the afternoon tide.

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On Friday I got to go to a Deaf event and watch this VERY animated Deaf woman tell all her stories in italian sign language (LIS) about Italian life 60 years ago. It was a wonderful evening for me. I will never forget this woman and her amazing stories. 

And on Saturday night Alessandro tried to teach me to be in the Italian military. He was going to a military reunion the next day and as he prepared his old uniforms for the day I got the priviledge of trying on all his old hats. He tried to teach me to stand at attention like the following picture, and the whole family laughed as I failed to hold my hand at exact angle time and time again. He says to me "you, no military." I finally got the angle of my hand right, and stood stiff like a board as Alessandro snapped this shot. Then he told me that I was too fat to be in the military anyways (good thing I'm already used to Deaf culture, or that might have been a huge blow to the self esteem.)

I am just about to start my Italian language class. More later.

Robyn

Some Pictures

I loved seeing Trevi Fountain in Rome. It was really beautiful!

My first Italian gelato. It actually wasn't a very good gelato, but I have eaten delicious gelato almost everday since then.

The Pantheon

On of the paintings that I studied in my art history class. Its in the vatican. I can't believe I saw it in real life!!! I didn't/wasn't allowed to take a picture of Michelangelo's, The last Judegement, so I'm really glad I got a picture of this to remember the art expeience that I had there. I could never explain in plain English what it was like to be surrounded by such prestigious works of art.

I still can't believe I stood in Vatican City!

The Colloseo. Its amazing that this building still stands.

The first weekend after getting to Siena I took a weekend trip to Venice and Florence. Here is venice from a Duomo (I'm not sure of the English comparison to this word, but it is a large church) at the top of the bell tower.

Our Gondola driver. He was pretty cool. He gave us a good discount, and pointed out some cool things. I went on a Gondola right in Venice. For real. HA!

The replica of Michelangelo's David. I saw the real one. Another surreal experience. I actually have a picture of the real one, but I feel like all of this work is unworthy of the pictures that I am capable of taking. Its just the type of thing you have to see in real life. 

Life in Siena is wonderful. Every day here is a great day. I'm loving school so much! I think I'm going to know LIS (Italian Sign Language) and Italian more than I thought I would before I got here. I already know so much. I've found that's its a lot easier to learn a signed language after you already know one. I just hope that I can retain all the information. I think I'll do some video journals on my laptop in LIS while its fresh in my memory so that I can look back at them after I leave here to remember everything. 

I miss Bevan a lot!! But I do think that it's easier for me here because I am so occupied all the time, and Bevan is still living our normal life without me there. I go to class usually from 9am to 5 or 7pm, and its always a full day. 

I have more picture, but I thought I'd just put a few of my favorite moments here for now. Thanks for reading my blog. I hope all is well over there!

Much love! 

So I went on the train to Venice yesterday. WOW!!!! Something to add to my list of the hardest things I've had to in my life: leaving Venice. That city was actually magical. I felt like I was in a dream world all day long. I think if I were to do anything different if I were to go back to venice, I would choose to go at a much less touristy time of year. That's all. And yes, I rode a gondola!!! The public transit is a system of all boats. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I feel like I don't even have adequate thoughts to put towards the whole experience, it's just beyond human comprehension, and yet people live there. Our gondola driver was born and raised in Venice. Can you imagine?

I stayed in a beautiful hostel there on an island. I arrived at night, and it was a beatiful walk through the city to our transit boat to get to the island. I woke up really early with my roomate Farah and we went with a few others up a church tower, took our time walking along the street, enjoying the smell of the sea, and the waves crashing on the buildings. We walked to the market, and wandered around. Then we made our way to a local restaraunt to try a famous Venice sandwhich that the man at our hostel check-in recoomended. It was like a deep fried pasrty thing (actually like a salty elephant ear) with mozarella and anchovies inside. and yup... I ate it. And it was really good!!!

We walked around some more, took some pictures, and then we went on a Gondola ride. It was so beautiful.

At the end of the day some people got on a train to Milan, and three of us (including me) went to Florence. (I'm not so interested in over priced goods, and I don't feel the need to see Milan this time around) Now I'm sitting in my Hostel in Florence. Its an amazing HI hostel just outside of the city in the midst of a beautiful forest. You can choose to camp here or get a room. Its in an old Villa, and it has some beautiful old architecture, statues and ceiling paintings. I'm so happy to be here.

I can't stop thinking about my mom. I think about her all the time. I know she would love to see everything here. She really has a love to travelling, specifically in Europe. I would love nothing more than to show her all of these things that I have seen.

I know the last posts have been brief. I will go into more detail when I get back to Siena and I have more time. Right now I'm just travelling and it gets a bit rushed when I'm trying to see a whole city in one day and then running to catch a train to see another city the next day.

Love you all.

Leaving for Venice

This is going to be a short post, but here it goes.

So Im leaving in a couple of hours to go to Venice and Florence for the weekend. First Im going to head to the hospital with my roomate. Last night she went for a run and came back with swelling the size of a golf ball on her ankle. Alessandro (our host person) called it a meatball. HAHA!

Im staying in a hostel in Venice that I have catch a boat to get to. Um..... crazy!!! I will write about my host family later. They are a cute old couple who don't speak a lick of English. Its been so interesting and fun trying to communicate with them. They live with their adult son (he's 50), Alessandro,  who has a vision impairment. I can't wait to tell you all more about them, and our time with them so far.

Off to Venice.

Much love!

Day Three - Rome to Siena

Day three of my trip, from Rome to Siena

June 9th 

12am Italy

What a day!!!!! Liz and I woke up early again. Got our two small buns and jam for breakfast and then headed to the spanish steps. We were right on top of them yesterday and somehow we completely missed them. So we went back this morning so that we could actually see them, and walk up them. It was a success. Then went back to our hotel room to kill some time before we had to catcht he train to Siena. We left our hotel at 11:30am and walked to Termini Station to catch our 12:45 train to Siena. We got to the station around noon, and we ate lunch there, and waited for the board to tell us which platform to catch our train. We caught our train on platform 1E which was a much longer walk than I was expecting. We thought that we might run into some other students from our program on the train, but we didn’t see anyone until we had to transfer in Chiusi. We took the tarin with them the rest of the way to Siena, but we didn’t really talk to them because they were sitting behind us, and one of the girls was chatting up an Italian guy. HA! (rolls eyes!) The train ride was pretty uneventful otherwise. We got to see all of the countryside which was so beautiful. We rode through this rocky areas - like rocky hills -  and had to go through tunnels about every 5 - 10 minutes or so. the tunnels were uncomfortable because they put this weird kind of pressure on our ears that kinda hurt a bit. (So after the 3rd tunnel, I was pretty done with tunnels, especially at a rate of one tunnel per 5 - 10 minutes!).

We finally arrived at the Siena train station at 16:30 (they use army time a lot here) and there were a clear group of people sitting around in a circle signing back and forth. So I went and joined the group, and met some of the other students, and got my Italian phone. We all got a welcome package with a map of Siena, a bus pass, a paper with a desctiption of our host family, and some other random things. Then we just all waited around chatting until our host family came to pick us up. I discovered that my roomate is Farah, the only other Canadian who a I met a month before this trip when she stopped in Toronto on her way to backpack around europe before this trip. I was pretty happy to be paired with her because I already knew her, and we have this Canadian bond! We were the second last group to leave the train station, and we didn’t even get picked up by our host family. We actually ended up taking a taxi to our house with one of the school staff (not because our host family forgot, or didn’t want to come get us, but because of the following description). We arrived at a beautiful new condo, and walked in to a sweet old woman, and her old husband who live with their cat, Pippo, and their son, Allessandro who has a vision impairment. They don’t speak a lick of English, and it has been WAY TOO much fun getting to know each other. We have just been laughing all night as I flip through my Italian - English dictionary, and Farah and I stumple over one word sentences. I cannot believe how much Italian I have learned in ONE night. Amazing amounts! The woman, Emma is so funny!!! She just laughs at us, and mimicks Farah because everytime Farah thinks she understands what someone is saying she says, “oh oh oh oh oh!!” And then the woman will point and laugh and say, “oh oh oh oh oh!” and then I start laughing at them both because its just such a funny situation. 

Alessandro showed us around the neighbourhood, where we could catch the bus, and what not. And then we came home and were fed a fantastic home cooked italian meal! Beggining with a pasta and meat dish, and then pork roast, and peas with bacon in it. We had a gelato drumstick for dessert...yummy! Then we chatted the night away until 23:30, laughing, and working through choppy phrases. I’m exhausted from thinking so hard about what each italian word could possibly mean for the past 4 hours straight. I think I’m going to be further along in Italian by the end of this trip than I thought I would be. 

Day Two

Here is day two from my journal for you.

June 8

9:46 pm Italy

So today, Liz and I woke up fairly early today. I found it kinda hard to convince myself to get out of bed, probably because it was 1am in Toronto. However, I am surprised that I haven’t really felt jet lagged AT ALL so far. How strange compared to when Bevan, Maret and I got to Helsinki! Maret could attest to my jet leggedness when we got to helsinki. I was such a mess! (getting a little side tracked) So anyways. Breakfast was from 8 - 9am and I think we got there around 8:30. We were served a small bun with a dish of jam for spreading and coffee or tea. I had tea....and my bun. We ended up asking for another bun because we were not quite satisfied with one. 

After we finished out two smal buns....with jam...... we headed straight for Rome. The plan - walk our way across the city to the Vatican, and hit the Trevi Fountain on the way,  and then go back across town again to the Collaseum. As we were walking to Trevi fountain we hit a few smaller landmarks on the way. We also got to go into the Pantheon, which was really cool. When we were standing outside the doors of the Pantheon taking pictures there were these guys standing outside dressed as old Roman soldiers, and offered to have their picture taked with me. He told me that it would cost me one Euro, and I kinda chuckled a little, and then he looked and me with this straight face and said, “really.” I laughed again, thinking he was doing one of those things that old men in Canada do where they make these silly jokes about paying for strange things. (keep in mind this is all happening very fast) So the guy called his costumed soldier buddy over for our photo op, and Liz took the picture with my camera and snapped the shot. Then as she was giving my camera back to me one of the soldier guys took my camera from her and took a close up picture of just me. I actually turned around and walked away without paying because at this point because I didn’t know any better, but as it turns out... he was being serious!!! The only reason I realized it is because as Liz and I walked to the entrance, the soldier guy started coming towards us and calling for me, and she turned to me and said, “I think they were being serious.” So I turned around and begrungingly took out one Euro. I bet they were gypsies. (We actually ended up seeing more costumed guys at the Colloseo (I’m gonna start writing that in Italian because its the only way I know how to spell it properly) who were offering pictures with them for money - no, I did not fall for that trick twice.)

The Pantheon was beautiful, so much art, and sculptural work. Truly amazing! It was really difficult to take pictures inside becuase it was a very dark room, but I realized that pictures would NEVER do it justice. We went on to the Trevi Fountain, which was a really beautiful fountain, such beautiful sculptural work. I would definitely go back there. Then we went to the Vatican, and on our way we ran into the river, and the Castle of Sant Angelo. We didn’t go in because we had to pay, and we were too cheap to pay to in a castle that we’d never heard of. But walking up to it was fun anyways. The Vatican was SO CRAZY!! Actually fairly similar to what I was expecting. I had to buy a shirt before we went in because I was wearing a tank top, and you have to have sleeves and short to at least the knees to go in. I actually packed a shirt this morning before we left for that very reason but then forgot to repack it after I tore apart my bag to make sure that I had my camera. So I went to the closest place and bought one of those I <3 [insert city] shirts. We went into the main cathedral (I actually can’t think of the name) GORGEOUS!!! Words, pictures, nothing can compare to the things I saw there. Sometimes it was almost useless to take pictures inside either because it was too dark or just beyond what 20 megapixels could ever portray. There was also these special rooms to the sides that were set aside for prayer. We totally went in and sat in a pew and watched the preists and others praying. Once we got to the Vatican we had to go find the Sisteen Chapel which was actually in a museum. we had to pay to in, which I wasn’t really expecting. We got in the museum and started walking through it, first it takes you trough this modern building which was built for tourist reasons, I’m sure. Then we walked outside to this courtyard (Dad - the grass was freshly cut and there were CLUMPS in the grass :0, at the SISTEEN CHAPEL, DAD, CLUMPS!!! Anyways, then into this other building, and older chapel thing. We walked through and there were all kind of sculptures, art, and everything. We had to walk through this really long corrider of art, paintings, sculptures (not that I’m complaining here - it was beautiful, just unexpectadly long) where around every corner you thought you were going to walk right into the Sisteen Chapel, but you never get there. Suddenly, when you least expect it. You’re IN the Sisteen Chapel. Tears flow. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I don’t even have words to write about it. Vision is truly a different source of beauty, one that sometimes words aren’t even worthy for, and this is one of those times. I could have spent hours in that one room. 

Regardless of my inner protest, we left the chapel. I wish I were there right now though.

We left the vatican feet sore, and achy by now. I ate some pesto linguini at at place across the street, and we headed for the Colloseo - on the other freaking side of the city (remember, aching feet!) We walked and walked and walked even further. We ended up taking the very very long way around to the Colloseo because we got really turned around at one point, and then we finally arrived. By this point its 6pm. When we got there another tourist in the line up came and said that she was informed that they were closing in 15 minutes, but that we could buy a ticket today to come see the Colloseo tomorrow. We decided to do that because it meant we wouldn’t have to wait in line. When we got to the ticket booth, we asked when they were closing and they said we had to be out by 7:15. Well, that’s not a problem. We had more than an hour. That tourist woman must of had her time zones all messed up! So we went in, checked it out, and had plenty of time to take our time and take some pictures. Then we left and went to Termini Station (the main transit hub - like Union Station in TO) to buy our train ticket to Siena for the following day. Mission accomplished. Buy dinner. Done. Take it back to our hotel, shower, eat - check! We got here around....Maybe 8pm, maybe 9. Now we’re exhausted. I got my camera battery charged. Wrote my journal for the day. Now I must sleep. We have a busy day of communting ahead of us tomorrow.

Oh, and also. As I repacked my backpack tonight I discovered Bevan’s shirt that I put in a ziploc bag to preserve his scent. It was like heaven!! Better than the Vatican! I miss my love!