Venice, birthday, and Bologna

I’m sorry this has taken so long, but I’ve been so busy with classes, homework, Pitt in France stuff, and keeping in touch that I haven’t been able to sit down and write about Venice, my b-day, and Bologna.
Let’s start in Venice. For the Saturday before Martedi Grasso, pretty much everyone in our group was in Venice. I went with the day-crew who didn’t plan on staying overnight…little did we know…wait, I’ll get to that story in a minute. My group (me, Jenna, Kailey, Teresa, Olivia, and Derek) got to Venice around 2pm and spend our daylight hours finding masks and checking out glass. I wanted to buy 2 masks, but only ended up getting one. It’s green and gold and went well with my sweater  There were so many cool masks and costumes—it felt a lot like Halloween but different. A lot of the costumes were really elaborate, but some groups dressed up as things like cows, Alice in Wonderland characters, or even one of the characters from Star Wars. By the end of the night when I was FREEZING in my leggings, I wished I had dressed up like a bear or a dog in a full furry body-suit.
Teresa and Derek went to meet Andrea and Eric at the train station around 5, and the rest of us went to San Marcos to check out what was there. The piazza was PACKED, and there were a lot of cool light things (like arches and shapes, not like a light show) and in the middle was a HUGE lion made out of fruit. Don’t ask me why. We went to eat at a piazzeria nearby and toward the end of our meal, a couple drunk Spaniards came in and started talking to us. One of them kept saying how his dream was to come to America, and they both kept asking us to sit with them (in their 2-person booth…there were 4 of us as it was) then saying we could go out later. The American-dreamer grabbed Kailey’s phone while she was in the bathroom and put in his number then called his phone. We left pretty soon after that…I should ask Kailey if she’s heard from her amigo recently. Before getting back to San Marco’s, we bought some wine at the grocery store to share between ourselves. We got back to the piazza and downed two bottles pretty quickly, but the third was still in my purse. We made some new friends in the piazza too—the Incredibles, Robin, and a couple other superheroes who I can’t remember. Robin had something stuffed down his pants and kept pointing down and saying “I don’t know!” and a couple other random phrases that never explained what he was packing or why. Sometimes I’m actually very thankful for the language barrier.
We met up with the rest of the CIEE group in Piazza Santa Margherita where there was a DJ and tons of dancing ‘ragazzi’ all over the place. Jenna and I lost Kailey and Olivia, so we decided to finish the wine I had in my purse because I didn’t feel like carrying it anymore. Sam, of course, helped. Everyone was dancing right in front of the Dj and so it was really really loud but soooo much fun. Italians can’t dance so I felt right at home (anche graze alle 3 bottiglie di prosecco), and they played songs like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and my favorite of the night, the Chumba Wumba throwback from the 90s, so everyone was jumping up and down screaming “I get knocked down, but I get up again…” So many Italian guys came up to talk to us, including a zombie, a nun, and a scary Moroccan who was very aggressive and creepy. I asked Adam for help avoiding him a couple times, and after I left (I think it was him) he and Adam got into a little scuffle. By about 11, the guys were all getting pretty grabby and it was almost time to catch the 11:30 train so Jenna and I left for the station. We must have JUST missed the train, so we were stuck there (or so we thought) until 3:30, when the next train should be. After paying to use the bathrooms (one of my least favorite things about Europe), we met up with Andrea, Teresa, Eric, and Derek. The bathrooms closed at 12 and Andrea really needed to use one, so she went to the port-a-johns outside the station. There was a man there collecting a euro from everyone and there was a sign taped to the door, too, so Andrea gave him a euro to use the lav. About half an hour later, the police came out and carted him away—apparently port-a-johns are supposed to be free.
We spent the next few hours in a café nearby, and hadn’t heard anything from Olivia or Kailey since they had texted “on our way” around quarter after 12. They kicked us out around 2, so we went back to the station. When we looked for our platform for the 3:30 train, we were surprised to see that the next trains weren’t set to leave until after 5am, and that our 3:30 one didn’t exist. At this point, it was freezing, there was nowhere to sit, we hadn’t heard from Olivia or Kailey, and we were exhausted. Despite probably breaking the law, we hopped on an empty train and sat/slept there for a while. Another train pulled up and we hopped on that one next and it was still warm from its last trip. Finally we heard back from Olivia, “We’re home safe and sound!” (Insert unanimous groan). They had taken the Bologna train back at 1am, which hadn’t been listed on the ticket booth, but apparently stopped in Ferrara anyway. Finally at 6am, our train left the station with us aboard and we made it back to Ferrara around 8. Because buses to our house don’t run on Sundays, we had to call for a ride from our host dad, and then explain to Clara why we had never called and why we were home so late. Then it was bed time. It was also Teresa’s birthday, so we ate Cappellacci for lunch and our host bro brought over some sweets. Clara gave us our b-day presents, which were matching pajamas and slippers. Teresa went over to the apartments, but my clothes were all drying and my bike seat was messed up so I stayed home.

On Tuesday, Martedi Grasso, it was MY birthday, so I woke up at 6 am to skype with Mom and Bel. Nanananana, today is our birthday! Mom said I would be getting a surprise that day, and after my 3 classes (ugh), I went up to the office to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers  There were pink roses and other pink and yellow flowers that I don’t know the names of, but I was so excited to bring them home. Instead of attempting to carry flowers and my school things home on my bike, I brought my flowers to my host-family’s shop and asked if they could bring them home for me. Clara was so cute and liked the flowers almost more than I did! Now they’re downstairs sitting on the dresser right as you enter the front door.
I went to the cappellacci cooking class where we learned how to make the pumpkin mix, cut the pasta dough, form the tortellini noodles, and cook the pasta. After aperitivo, we ate dinner at the restaurant. The first course was gross and I don’t even know what it was. Next we ate our own cappellacci (Claras is so much better!) which was decent, and then finally we ate steak and French fries for the last plate. I also had about 7 glasses of wine, so by the time we were ready to leave I was stuffed and feeling really tipsy. At Tsunami (the college hang-out bar) I didn’t get anything to drink because my stomach hurt (entirely too much food), but I did talk to some Italians because they were being really friendly. Usually they’re hard to talk to and seem unfriendly, but that night it was really easy.
Almost there…Bologna…last weekend we went, but I want to go again when it’s not raining. At first it wasn’t, and we checked out the outdoor market (nothing compared to Trieste quality-wise, but it was GIGANTIC) then ate lunch and went to the piazza. The Duomo was closed for another half-hour, so we went in search of a gelateria, sans success. We found a cool group of churched built over a pagan temple, but it was closed too. We went back to the piazza and the Duomo was open (and free!) so we went inside. The interior was gorgeous, but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. There had to be at least 20 prayer-alcove-things with beautiful paintings and some of them lit up. On the floor the meridian (?) was marked and there were astrological symbols along it. We met up with the other half of the group and went through the Duomo a second time, then went to the ‘leaning towers’ of Bologna. This, I admit, was my idea (thanks to my guidebook!) but I regretted it about halfway up the tower. We climbed 498 rickety, uneven stairs all the way to the top, but it was even worse going back down. The view from the top was incredible, but I could have appreciated it better if a) it wasn’t raining and dreary b) I wasn’t so afraid of the tower toppling over or c) I didn’t have the walk back down to look forward to. Looking back it really was worth it, but I probably won’t be doing it again anytime soon.
Next we tried to check out the university, but there wasn’t anything to it and we were kind of disappointed. We couldn’t find the art museum, and the bar we stopped at on the way back to the center of town was overpriced, staffed by a barista who had gotten up on the wrong side of life that morning, and didn’t have any food for aperitivo. On our walk back, we saw so many good aperitivos through the windows, so at least if we go back later this year we’ll know what to look for. For dinner, we tried to find an inexpensive place that would serve the local specialties, and finally settled on a cute little hole-in-the wall restaurant with a very sweet owner. A lot of us got the Bolognese special, tagliatelle with ragù sauce, and either tiramisu or cannoli for dessert. Everything was so delicious and the owner gave Adam a ‘bacio’ when we left. Because it was so crappy out, we decided to head back early, but wanted to stop at a bar on the way. There were none. So we took the 10:30 train back and some people went out to the dance club place in Ferrara. I fell asleep in Adam and Raff’s room until about 1am when I headed home.
Tomorrow we leave for Sicily and we’ll be there for 5 days! I’m really excited for some warmer weather and to check out somewhere I probably wouldn’t have been able to go to otherwise. Our classes are all cancelled until Monday, so we don’t have to worry too much about work which is sooo nice. I’ll post about that soon after I get back. Then Mom and Abbey come, yay! I hope everyone is doing well back home, and thanks to everyone who send me an e-card or a card here (or a facebook message)!

Classes and Trieste

Classes are HARD. Especially the ones taught in Italian with Italian readings…even culture and translation (which is in English) is going to be tough because our teacher is not an easy grader. We have quizzes in every class, every time, on whatever the assigned reading was. Each class is 2 hours long without a break and in my history and art classes there are only 2 or 3 of us and the professor talking for those 2 straight hours. I miss my easy 50-minute language classes with easy homework and class discussions!
Anyway…this weekend I did absolutely no work because I left on Friday for Trieste and didn’t get back until Sunday at 7:30. I paid for that today, and have no intention of not doing work again before I leave. Trieste may have been worth it though. We saw the most amazing piazza I have seen so far (and it’s even prettier at night than during the day), ate great gelato and great food in general, went to an outdoor market with crafts and food and clothes, saw the ocean, visited a castle, went up into the mountains and hiked some trails through the woods, listened to some percussion performance at a help-Haiti rally in the piazza and saw lots of cute kids dressed up for Carnivale, and to top it off, experienced SUNLIGHT for what may have been the 6th time since I’ve been here. And it was sunny again today!
I should have pics posted on facebook by Friday, but I have to go through them and pick out the best ones since I took 400 and it would take forever to get all those up. I have to post them this week though, because I’m sure I’ll take even more on Saturday in VENEZIA! I still need to buy a carnivalw mask, but hopefully they have some at the market here in Ferrara on Friday. Wooooo carnivale! It’s going to be CRAZY, but so much fun, and I cannot wait to see all the masks and costumes and insanity!