Karaoke, italiano-style

A few days ago my friend Alex (James) had a friend from high school visiting, and so the time was ripe to get the gang together at a local bar, Soda Pops, for some karaoke: in italiano.

After failing miserably at several Italian melodies, we got the DJ to put on some Michael Jackson, and even convinced him to download the karaoke sing-a-long lyrics to Britney Spears's "Oops!..I did it again," at which point we put on quite a performance. The pictures speak for themselves:

Jamie, Rachel, Kara, Kelly and myself attempting "Billy Jean"

Jamie and Rachel rocking out - with a new friend

A Grammy-worthy Britney performance

Barcelona

¡Hola! and Bon dia!

I am back in Bologna after an awesome weekend in BARCELONA, SPAIN, where I was visiting my friend Lauren Engelmyer who came to visit me in Bologna a couple of weeks ago.

On Friday Lauren and I started out on La Rambla, Barcelona's bustling pedestrian-only boulevard, and stopped by La Boqueria, a huge food market that seemed to be selling every species and type of fruit, vegetable, cheese, fish, and meat. Next we headed to the edge of the city and up Tibidabo, a mountain overlooking Barcelona, where we were rewarded with spectacular views of the city (including the one above). After descending from Tibidabo we continued strolling the streets of Barcelona and looking for architecture by Antoni Gaudí, a highly individualistic Catalonian architect - we managed to pass by his La Pedrera and Casa Batlló.

On Saturday, Lauren headed off to the Salvador Dalí museum with her program, while I set out to conquer more of Barcelona's sights. I started out at la Sagrada Família, Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece. It's still very heavily under construction (it's currently scheduled to be completed around 2026, although whether this finish date will be reached is highly disputed. If completed, it will be the largest cathedral in the world). Here is a photo, although I warn you in advance that it really doesn't do it justice:

Gaudí's la Sagrada Família

Next I headed to what turned out to be my favorite place in Barcelona: Park Güell, a park and garden complex designed completely by Gaudí. Everything in the park seemed to be straight out of a fairytale - even the buildings looked like they had been transported from Hansel and Gretel.

Gaudí's Park Güell

I spent my afternoon strolling the streets of Barri Gòtic, the old city of Barcelona, and even got to check out an archaelogical excavation from Barcelona's Roman period at the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona before Lauren met me for tapas!

Saturday night we got tickets for a GIRL TALK concert at one of Barelona's largest and hottest clubs, Razzmatazz. The crowd was huge - here's a video of some of the craziness:

Madness.

Last but not least, since my friend Carly Miller (last seen when I was visiting Florence earlier in the semester) was also visiting Barcelona, we managed meet for breakfast on Sunday morning! As always, it was great to see her, and it was extra nice of her to get up early to meet me!

Barcelona was incredible, beautiful, and sunny sunny sunny, but I feel like I only scratched the surface of all there is to be seen there. Definitely a city I want to visit again!

To see more pictures from my weekend in Barcelona, check out the webalbum:

Barcelona, Spain

Enjoy!

La Indecisa Ha Decisa

Ciao a tutti!

So since there has been some speculation as to my academic activities over here, I thought I would let you all know how my final schedule turned out, and about the classes I am taking. I decided to take two classes at L'Università di Bologna and one class through my program, the BCSP. Since the Italian university classes meet so often (6 hours weekly), they fullfill a greater amount of credits than an American course normally would and thus, I only need to take three classes.

At UniBo I am taking:
Storia del Rinasciamento (History of the Renaissance)
Funny enough, this is actually a class about the ENGLISH Renaissance (the course on the Italian Renaissance was apparently run in the fall). The class is great - the professor, Enrico Gusberti, uses a ton of synonyms when he lectures, making it much easier for stranieri like myself to understand some of the more complex things he talks about. The class is also going to work with several Shakesperean works (right now we are covering Richard II), which I conveniently found copies of with side-by-side English and Italian texts! On top of that, the professor really likes me - one day after class he pulled me aside to give me a list of books to read about powerful women named Monica.

Le Frontiere Della Cittadinanza (The Frontiers of Citizenship)
This class is about the modern definitions of concepts such as "citizenship," "borders," and "identity" in a globalized age. It's very interesting, but a little hard to follow - the professor speaks pretty quickly and has a tendency to ramble (and spit). At first I was really worried that I wasn't understanding enough, but then I talked to some Italian students and it seems like they are having almost as much trouble as I am.

At the BCSP I am taking:
Corso Avanzato di Lingua e Cultura: La Stampa Italiana (Advanced Language and Culture Course: The Italian Print Media)
This class is awesome - we are working with Italian print media: newspaper articles, magazine articles, editorials, etc. It's really great because we are actually getting a feel for what the important issues and "hot topics" are not only in Italy, but in our region of Emilia-Romagna, and in Bologna specifically. There is also a grammer review/exercise component, so we get to brush up on our Italian.

At first it was a little hard being in Italian-mode in the classroom 100% of the time, but I'm happy (and surprised) to say that now it's coming quite naturally! :-D

Vienna and Bratislava

Grüß Gott and Dobrý den!

Hi everyone! I am back in Bologna after one of my most travel-intensive weekends yet, which I spent in VIENNA, AUSTRIA and BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA. I traveled with two friends from my program: Alex James (a fellow Cornellian) and Teresa Guerriero. Getting there was half the fun: we took a train to Milan, a bus to Bergamo, a plane to Bratislava from Bergamo's Orio al Serio airport, a cab to the Bratislava train station, a train to Vienna, and finally a tram to arrive at our hostel in VIENNA on Thursday night. Whew!

On Friday we were up bright and early to see the sights in VIENNA: we started off at Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), the highest point in Vienna's skyline. We then spent the afternoon at The Belvedere Palace, a baroque palace complex built by Prince Eugene of Savoy in the early 1700s.

Teresa and I in front of the Belvedere Palace

The palace was beautiful, but I would have to say that the galleries inside the palace are what impressed me most: they housed an incredible collection of great art, including Gustav Klimt's The Kiss, which I had never seen before. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I enjoyed the work so much that I pulled this picture off the web to share it with you anyway:

Gustav Klimt's The Kiss

After leaving The Belvedere, Alex, Teresa, and I decided to indulge in a time-honored Viennese tradition and pastime: the café. We headed to the Hotel Sacher, home of the famous Sachertorte, a chocolate cake and one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties, whose recipe is an extremely well-kept secret. We paired it with some Viennese Apfelstrudel (apple strudel) and the Hotel Sacher's signature coffee, complete with shots of chocolate liqueur. How do you say "YUM!" in German??

The famous Sachertorte! Fun fact: on "Sesame Street," the Count calls the Countess "my little Sachertorte!"

On Saturday we headed to Schönbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Hapsburg monarchs. The palace and the grounds were absolutely stunning - the gardens and arboretum were amazing even now, in early spring, and the grounds are home to an imperial zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn, the oldest zoo in the world! Inside the palace we got to tour the over-the-top imperial apartments and learned about the extravagant tastes, marriages, and of course, gossip of the Habsburg monarchy!

Sunday we packed up and headed to BRATISLAVA for a day-trip. Now during our train ride to Milan on Thursday, a woman had overheard us taking about doing a day trip to Bratislava and came over and introduced herself to us. She explained that she was from BRATISLAVA, but was currently in Italy teaching at a language school in Forlì, a small city southeast of Bologna. She said that a one-day trip to BRATISLAVA would be a perfect amount of time, and that she had many recommendations in order for us to make the most of our day. She was even kind enough to write everything down, effectively making a complete one-day itinerary for us!

We wound up following her itinerary turn-by-turn, and she never steered us wrong. We had a Slovak delicacy, steak tartare, at the Café Roland she recommended, and followed her bus directions to Slavín, a war memorial in the hills of the city, which she had underlined as a MUST.

Me at Slavín, a memorial monument and cemetery for Soviet Army soldiers who fell during WW II while liberating the city of Bratislava from Nazi German troops

It was awesome to get to see BRATISLAVA through a local guide, and it definitely made our time there much more enjoyable!

To see more pictures from my weekend in VIENNA and BRATISLAVA, check out the webalbums:

Wien, Austria

Bratislava, Slovakia

New Webalbums

Ciao a tutti!

I finally got the chance to catch up with my webalbums - click below to see pictures from my day trip to VERONA or my trip to VENEZIA for Carnevale!

Verona

Venezia

Enjoy!

When Spain and Poland Invade

Ciao a tutti!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have two great friends, Natalia Olbinski and Lauren Engelmyer, come to BOLOGNA to visit me! Natalia is currently studying in Krakow, Poland, and she and I are friends from our CCD classes and junior high school. Meanwhile Lauren and I met through our sorority at Cornell, and she is studying this semester in Barcelona, Spain. Both of them arrived on Friday, ready to eat, drink, and experience la vita Bolognese!

From left to right: Lauren, Natalia, and Rachel - out for aperitivi in Bologna on Friday night

We spent Friday walking around Bologna, and then met up with Rachel for aperitivi around dinner time. After eating, we joined some other friends from my program and took Natalia and Lauren out for a night on the town in Bologna!

Saturday, while Natalia headed up to Venice to meet some friends from her university, Carnegie Mellon, Lauren, Rachel, and myself headed to FERRARA, a nearby city in the region of Emilia-Romagna and the home of my (and Rachel's) Italian professor at Cornell! After an incredible lunch at l'Osteria al Brindisi, the oldest osteria in the world (and where Copernicus used to sip wine after classes!) we spent the day exploring Ferrara's Gothic Duomo and il Castello Estense, a 14th century fortress with a moat and dungeons! Click below to check out the webalbum from FERRARA:

Ferrara

On Sunday we reunited with Natalia and celebrated La Festa Delle Donne, national women's day (which is apparently as big a deal as Mother's Day or Father's Day)! Many bars and restaurants around Bologna were offering ladies' specials in honor of the holiday, so we took advantage as much as possible!

It was definitely refreshing to spend a weekend at home in Bologna, and really great to see some familiar faces from home. I thoroughly enjoyed showing Lauren and Natalia my city and introducing them to my new roommates and friends...so I am now searching for cheap flights to Barcelona and Krakow so that they can show me their respective cities before the semester is over!

Check out the webalbum to see more photos from Natalia and Lauren's weekend in Bologna:

Lauren and Natalia's Weekend in Bologna

Enjoy!

Cena Party

My Sunday night got a little bit better when I received the following mass Facebook message from none other than Ms. Rachel Ensign:

"Hi everyone! So, like the good hardworking Italian students that they are, my roomates have gone on vacation in the middle of the semester (one has been gone for the last 20 days) and left me alone. I was thinking that it might be fun to have a big dinner here tomorrow night where everyone brings something (food or wine) and we eat, drink, and enjoy each others company. 8pm would work best for me- could you respond saying if you are coming and if so, what you are bringing, so that there doesn't wind up being 10 bottles of wine and no food, or, perhaps even worse, a lot of food and no wine.
-Rachel "

So yesterday evening some friends from my program and I got together at Rachel's apartment for what turned out to be a really fun dinner party. Everyone brought a different dish of some sort and we shared stories from our various weekend adventures while eating, drinking, and being merry! Some photos from the evening:

Some of the girls at our dinner table

Lauren, serving up some of Teresa's delicious tortelloni!

The whole group! Gotta love that self-timer function

Good times with great friends - couldn't ask for more!

HO VINTO

I have won my long and arduous battle with customs and FedEx in Milan!!!

Could not have done it without my Mom or Danielle, the incredibly helpful housing coordinator at the BCSP. It was a team effort!

Finally have a new camera!!

Pictures from Verona and Venice to come soon!!

:-D

Interlaken, Switzerland

Ciao, tutti! Or shall I say...Grüezi!

I am back from my skiing adventure in the Jungfrau region of INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND, an amazing place and what I think is about as close as you can get to heaven on earth.

Jamie and I rode a train to Florence Thursday evening to catch a bus up to Interlaken - the train tickets to Switzerland were really expensive so we ended up booking our trip through Bus2Alps, a travel company that runs trips for study abroad students all over Europe. We hopped on the bus right at the train station with around 40 other American students that were studying in Florence, and settled in for the 7 hour ride up to Interlaken.

Friday morning we were up bright and early to rent our gear, and then boarded the bus and 2 trains necessary to take us to Kleine Scheidegg, the base of the area where we skiied the first half of our day. The commute was long, but well worth it - we climbed about 6,000 feet in those 2 hours and the entire ride was through the beautiful and breathtaking snow-covered Alps. We took many trains to get up the mountain throughout the weekend but our rides were by far the most memorable train rides of my life - it was amazing how the tracks wound up and down the mountain, and we really got to see the Jungfrau region at every level. Sure beats the V train!

Jamie and I skiing at Kleine Scheidegg on Friday

That afternoon we worked our way down to ski the Männlichen and Grindelwald areas before catching a train back to Interlaken from Grindelwald. The weather was pretty good and the snow was great too, but nothing compared to Saturday, when we headed up to Birg via 2 buses, a train, and 3 gondolas to ski the Schilthorn Peak. We covered a considerable amount of trails on the peak and it was about 40°F, not a cloud in the sky, and the peak was covered in packed powder. Simply put, a skiier's paradise.

Me after our snack break on the Schilthorn Peak on Saturday.

On Sunday I took an early train up the mountain to ski the morning in Kleine Scheidegg while Jamie explored Interlaken with some of our hostelmates. If you want to check out the trail map and get a better sense of the areas we skiied throughout the weekend, check it out here.

Now, Jamie and I are pretty advanced skiiers, and assumed we would be some of the more adventurous and daring girls on the trip. We assumed wrong. Interlaken is apparently the MECCA of adventure sports, so while Jamie and I were content to stick to skiing for the weekend, we shared our room at the hostel with 4 other girls and of the 6 of us, not only had all of us been skiing, but 3 had gone skydiving by the end of the weekend, and the others had gone canyon diving/paragliding/extreme sledding. To each his own!!

All in all, I definitely think my first trip fuori l'Italia (outside of Italy) was a great success. I could not have asked for a better ski buddy than Jamie, and am really glad we got to ski Interlaken together. We both agreed that the lack of Italian took us by surprise - Jamie and I are so used to hearing and speaking it all the time that we were a little unprepared for how lost we would be without it. Interlaken is in a German-speaking region of Switzerland, and I know exactly three words in German: grüezi (hello), lederhosen (knickerbockers), and bahnhof (train station). Needless to say, we were a little lost at times during the weekend! But I must say, it was great to put into perspective with the times I have felt "lost" in Bologna, which I now realize were relatively mild. It is definitely gratifying to realize how comfortable we have become with living in Italy. :-)

OH! And last but not least, I had a small accident getting home...although I was able to ski the Swiss Alps without any falls or scratches, leave it to me to find a way to end the weekend with a bang. While walking to the taxi stand in Florence, I tripped, fell, and landed on my face. 100% faceplant into cobblestones. Just as painful for me as it was for my camera in Verona. Our trip leader, Mike, was nice enough to run and get some ice, and I'm happy to report that other than a couple of bumps, bruises, and scratches, I'm totally fine. I think I feel a little worse than I actually look, which is a plus. Jamie has a pretty priceless photo of me icing my entire face in the cab...probably not going to post that one, LOL!

Check out the webalbum from our weekend in Interlaken - perhaps the best webalbum yet:

Interlaken, Switzerland

Enjoy!