whoops...2 months of recap

So clearly I've been doing a great job at keeping up with this... In all fairness, my best friend from high school and I decided to start a blog together as a way to keep in touch while I'm abroad, so I've been much more faithful to that blog than this one (although we've kind of let things slip in the last two weeks...). Since it's been so long (just hit the two and a half month mark!), I figured I'll just hit you with the highlights and then add a bunch of photos (everyone enjoys those so much more anyways).

In Bologna:
Orientation for my program was a BLAST! We had one language class that met for two and a half hours each day. Tuesdays were almost always reserved for day trips and on Wednesdays we usually had a cultural excursion in the morning followed by a cultural lesson in the afternoon. Day trips included a trip to the Tenuta Bonzara (a vineyard just outside Bologna) for a pasta making tutorial and dinner (with wine, of course) and a hiking trip up a nearby hill for a picnic with a spectacular view of the whole city. We also went on longer Saturday trips to Ravenna and Urbino, both cute and quaint towns.

During this time, we were in a hotel for the first two weeks until we found apartments. My time finding an apartment was a challenging one. I found one I loved; however, at 2:00 p.m. the day before we had to check out of the hotel, the landlord told me that they actually would prefer someone who could stay in the apartment until the end of September 2014. HUGE disappointment! I mildly panicked, jumped on the website where apartment listings were posted, made an appointment for 4:00 p.m. at another apartment, and by 4:30 I was confirmed to live there. Fast-forward a week to when I've already moved in. I come home from a Saturday night out with friends. My two girlfriends walked with me home on the way to their own. When we approached my door, there was a group of people hanging out on my doorsteps. Apparently there is a garden right across the street where cocaine is often sold and this group of five could not wait to experience their new purchase. Yup, they were snorting cocaine off the actually steps of my house. I asked them to please take it elsewhere and then proceeded to call the cops once I was safely inside my room. Let's just say I immediately starting looking for a new home and moved out 3 weeks later. I now live in a lovely apartment with a fashion stylist (SCORE!). I have the entire second floor to myself and it is in such a nice and convenient area. Definitely worth all the aggravation.

Now, I have definitely settled into life here and am enjoying time with friends. Classes have been alright (it's hard to compare to Mount Holyoke). Most classes only last 5 weeks and then you wait until the final, which is self-scheduled and can be taken as many times as you would like until you achieve a satisfactory grade. This means that I am already done with one class and the classes I am taking through my program finish in the next two weeks. I have a lot of reading ahead of me, so I'll definitely be on the lookout for some good study spots in town!

The vineyards of Tenuta Bonzara

We learned how to make tagliatelle, but the teacher demonstrated a few other shapes

Our turn!

Munich:
At some point in your life, everyone needs to experience Oktoberfest. The first week in October, two friends and I boarded a plane for a weekend of beer, laderhosen, and bratwurst. It was so much fun! I'm not a huge beer drinker (gotta blame that one on parents who love wine), but German beer is definitely better than others I have tried (I don't think I can ever be a Bud or Bud Light kind of girl). Although beer might be the star of the festival, the atmosphere was by far the best part. People would stand on tables to demonstrate their skills (or lack there of) at chugging beer and everyone chants drinking songs in unison. Plus, when everyone is tipsy to wasted, making friends is so easy. We met people from all over, including (surprisingly) many Italians. Saturday was filled with festivities, but my group decided to have a quieter Sunday before our flight, which included more German food and lots of sightseeing!

Once you get into a tent, you never leave because the lines are so long. We spent all day at Hofbrau House.

So much beer -- it took me like an hour to finish that!

Munich Town Hall at night

English Gardens

Florence:
Florence is only a half an hour away on the train, making it the perfect day trip! We went with the intention of shopping (hello leather!) and enjoyed (mostly) perfect weather for walking around and haggling (it was supposed to rain all day, so we were thrilled when it didn't). The only cultural experience of the day was a stroll inside the Duomo, but we have already promised a trip back to hit up the museums.

On the Ponte Vecchio

My friends, Sarah and Elizabeth, heading towards the Duomo

Ceiling of the Duomo

Rome:
Boston and San Francisco will forever be my favorite cities, but I have found my new international love: Rome! The art and architecture are unparalleled and the food was delicious (I found a new favorite go-to meal in cacio e pepe). We took the train in Friday night and enjoyed a nice, long meal in Trastevere. Saturday was jam-packed with activities! We started at St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican and afterwards moved on to the Spanish Steps. We ate lunch nearby and walked down to the Colosseum, hitting several more stops on the way. In total, we calculated that we walked 12 miles! I definitely earned my gelato for the day!

Madeleina and Elizabeth's Italian roommate said we look like a girl band in this photo. I think we just look like goofballs :)

Madeleina, Elizabeth, and I in front of the Trevi Fountain! We went twice -- once during the day and again at nighttime.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Sorry I've been so absent -- my goal is to post a lot more frequently!

Baci,

Morgan

P.S. Click here if you'd like to check out me and my friend's blog!

P.P.S. Click here if you'd like to check out a map of all the places I've been. I'll be adding to it as I go on new adventures!

 

sorry, it's been a while

As many of you know, I have been crazy busy apartment hunting. We are staying in a hotel for 2 weeks, and, in that time, we have to find a place to live for either the semester or the year (depending on length of stay). Bologna, being a university town, has posters all over the city. We spent the first night in Italy at the WIND store getting Italian SIM cards and phone numbers. The next few days were filled with snapping photos of posters and calling all that sounded interesting to us. I had little luck with these posters, as the spaces tended to be cheap, but also not very nice. One of my friends went to a place advertised on a poster and was horrified by the condition of the space. Apparently a group of Rastafari men lived there, and one was so keen on practicing his English that he refused to speak to her in Italian. He kept asking, "I speak good English, no?" and when she said jokingly that it wasn't perfect, he claimed she was the one who spoke poorly. Oh dio mio!

After deciding that posters were an utter failure, I reverted to the internet. Bologna has a popular website for posting available rooms in apartments, so I scoured that for options. I found a bunch and went on a ton of visits. I found a few that were desirable, but a couple unfortunately fell through. Right now I'm crossing my fingers that I'm selected to live in a single with one other housemate. She's from Napoli and the apartment is the nicest I've seen so far. Wish me luck!

Despite stressing about where I'm going to sleep for the next 10 months, I've spent a bunch of time exploring the city. Food here is incredible! (although not so cheap when you think about the conversion). My favorites have been gnocchi alla sorrentina at a cute place on a street off the Piazza Maggiore and tortelloni di zucca (pumpkin tortelloni) at a place near my hotel. Also, the pizza here has been amazing across the board (except the 24-hour take-out places we've tried late at night). And the gelato is other-worldly! Before leaving, I noticed that most of the gelato I tried in Boston was a bit icy. Here it is unbelievably creamy! My favorite flavor is one with a thick layer of nutella on top of the creamy gelato; it's heavenly!

I keep forgetting to take photos when I'm out, but here are a few of my pre-departure and first week here in Italia!

Packing for a year!

All ready to go to the airport

Last Starbucks for a while...better get two!

Vino with in-flight meal. Hello Europe!

Flying over the Alps and finally over Bologna

Strawberry and lemon gelato—so good!

Group activity: Bus tour of Bologna

View of Bologna. I love all the red roofs!

Cute church I stumbled in to

Gelato bars...so pretty and so yummy!

pre-packing daydreams

I have less than one week. Six days to be exact. Have I started packing yet? Not quite. I consider myself to be a speedy and efficient packer, though, so I'm not panicking yet. I'm still hovering between eagerness and nervousness. This gray area, so to speak, makes for a perfect daydreaming mindset. So many have shared their personal excitement for me with advice and suggestions on places I must visit during my 10 months away. Like a chipmunk, I've been storing them away for a time I felt was much later; however, said time has come. Devon (my brother) asked me recently if I've created a list of things I wanted to do and places I wanted to see. I felt that to be a silly exercise; I'll have so much time overseas, why confine myself to a list of expectations? Yet, the closer I come to my departure, I'm beginning to realize that perhaps a list of goals, so to speak, might be worth manifesting. I've always benefitted substantially from to-do lists, and creating a year long "to-do list" might be, if for anything else, worth referencing throughout my trip to see how my impressions and research compare to the reality. What I have so far is...

1. Visit Grasse, France (per the earnest request of Sharon). Said to be the birthplace of perfume, this small town houses several of the pioneering perfume companies. In addition, I was surprised to discover that it was also the birthplace of a favorite Rococo painter of mine, Fragonard. Seeing as I'm in the market for a new fragrance, this has definitely made it to the top of my itinerary when I visit France.
2. Emilia-Romagna is the food capital region of Italy. And Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna. So this makes Bologna the food capital city of Italy. Local produce fills the alleyways at daily markets. Dishes like tortellini and pasta al ragù (known as pasta bolognese to outsiders of Italy) are regional specialties. Anyone who goes to Italy expects to eat well. Being the cooking enthusiast that I am, I want to be able to share my good-eating with those who could not traverse the Atlantic for a visit; hence, a cooking class is most definitely in my future.
3. Although I'm not yet 21, my dad's passion for wine has inspired my own affinity. Although I prefer vino to most other beverages, a tentative invitation to Oktoberfest means I might need to switch of teams for a weekend. We'll see if I leave with a new favorite drink...
4. The first and only opera I've ever seen was on a seventh grade trip to NYC. Half the class fell asleep, including my 65 year old English teacher. I admit, it was quite a challenge not to succumb to slumber (but in all fairness, we were winding down from a long day that included walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and back). I feel that a second experience will fair much differently. And what better place to watch an opera than in Verona?
5. Italy has an obviously strong reputation for food and dessert; but for pastry, one cannot deny that the finesse of the French gets it done the best (especially when it comes to macaroons!). The debate is between Pierre Hermé and Ladurée for premier creation. Guess I'll just have to judge for myself...
6. Italy varies greatly between regions. Seeing as I'll be living in the north, I simply must take a trip down to the south to experience the uniquely different atmosphere. Italians from outside the region use Southern Italy as an escape from their normal lives, and the Amalfi Coast seems to be the place to go for such retreat. A place of particular interest to me is the Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto) just off the island of Capri. I've also been told that the Amalfi Coast is the place for handmade, custom sandals, so everyone now knows what I'll be wearing daily next summer!

My list is relatively short, but I'm interested in more suggestions. My options are open and the possibilities are endless. For now, I just need to start worrying about how I'll manage to fit 10 months of clothes into two suitcases...

Baci,
Morgan