Extra Side Note

I forgot to mention that I found out that my webshots site will only let me have 240 pictures at a time or something like that so I'm going to have to go through every couple of days and replace them all with new ones, so please try to see them all whenever you check the blog. Oh and I updated today after waiting a few days as per moms request. So check out all the new pics!

Interesting Day

Today has been an interesting day. As I said in my last post this morning, I only slept for about 4 hours last night, and then I got online and updated my blog this morning. After that I did go and take a shower and had my first breakfast at the center. It consisted of rock hard bread and jam. But it was pretty good. After breakfast I went with Wesley (the roommate) and a guy named Jason (but not the one from Arrezo) and we went to a pastry shop where I regret to say I had more breakfast, lol, and then we made our way down the main street to Cellular Planet. When we arrived we found the store not open… so Wes went into the pizzeria across the street and asked what time they were open, if they knew, where the girl that worked there proceeded to call the owner of Cellular Planet, lol. He said he’d be down in 15 minutes so we looked into a few shops to kill time until he arrived. But when he did… ahha! Yes, that is right; I now have a working cellular device! I have to check with my roommates though to make sure of exactly how you should go about calling me (they are veterans now) but as soon as I make sure I have all of the numbers and codes and what not correct ill e-mail my number to you guys.
After we got that taken care of we went back to the center and got ready for our historical tour of Castiglion Fiorentino with Paolo. We left at about 10:30 for that and the first place we went was the church right next door. Heh. Well it was absolutely gorgeous, and none of us would have guessed just from looking at it from the outside how huge it actually was! It was beautiful though and I took lots of pictures on this trip for you all. Just a side note though, it as still very cold outside today but that was nothing compared to inside the church, it was freezing! Next we went up to the loggia that is right next to the Palazzo De Municipio (which would be the municipal palazzo in English and is the main one of the city) after that we went across the street to the City Hall and then up the hill to the an archaeological site where we took a photo op and the City Library. Which was actually pretty cool, because there were two rooms we went in with hundreds of books that were extremely old. So old in fact that they were all falling apart and in browned and they actually have people whose job is to watch them and make sure that nothing happens to them at all. After we left the library we ran into the local newspaper photographer who made us all get together for a photo that is going to be in the local paper.
Then it was back to the center for lunch which was fish and was extremely good, and then after lunch we had a meeting on Italian customs. It was very interesting and we even learned why the Cellular Planet was closed this morning. After that lecture all of us in the architecture program had our first studio and boy was it um… interesting. We first found out there were not enough desks for all of us, then we listened to the professors’ introductions (that’ correct, we have two) and then we all introduced ourselves to the professors. Then they decided to drop a nice little bomb on us and told us about what they had cooked up for as far as projects go and let me tell you, I am not exactly thrilled.
We have a project due this Friday. We got the assignment today (Monday). We have an entire day trip to Florence on Wednesday. The assignment requires one plan, one section, and one axonometric, all to scale of course… and then on top of that one model that’s also to scale! Yes, that is 4 pieces in 3 days! That means I need to start on finals today?! I’m very unhappy, but I’m going to get started tomorrow along with everyone else I think. I’m too stressed about it to start today. But along with that we have 3 other projects before the end of the semester, so needled to say I believe our vacation is over…
After studio was over and I was successfully depressed I answered an e-mail and then headed to my room for a nap. (Much needed I might add after the 4 hour night) I woke up in time for dinner, which was slightly disappointing… pork, french-fries?, and a delicious pasta (the best part). After dinner I came here to blog (which is where we are currently) and talk to JB when she gets back from class and I expect to do nothing but contemplate this project and go to sleep.

Well Ciao for now I guess, I miss and love you all!

Arezzo and Relaxation

Ciao! Time to update!

29Jan2005

Today we went on our first field trip to a neighboring city named Arezzo. We met downstairs in the lobby at about 10:30 and then we followed Matt (who works here and was our tour guide to the train station, lol) down the mountain to the train station. Once we arrived we met up with some people from the center who were already there and they passed out train tickets and we got to experience validating them, etc. Then we had to go under the railroad tracks through a tunnel (that’s how they do it here apparently) and we boarded the train from the other side. It was pretty exciting as I had never ridden on a real train before! Well about 10 minutes later we were in Arezzo, because obviously it’s pretty close. At the train station there we met up with Paolo who is one of the professors that we hadn’t met yet.
From there he took on us on a short tour of some main streets in the city and we went in a few churches. One of them was spectacular inside; it was a real gothic cathedral. Except that apparently some artists had come back in during the later renaissance and painted murals in it. But that’s history that’s neither here nor there. After a few churches our tour was finally ended and it was a good thing too. It was 1 o-clock and most of us hadn’t eaten (there’s no breakfast on field trip days, and even if there were breakfast is at 8:30am) so we were all famished.
We all kind of grouped up with people we were familiar with and found places to eat. I went with a group of guys I’ve been hanging out with and we went to Hollywood Cafe… yes that’s right, Hollywood. Leave it to us to go to Italy and find the American named place to eat in. well it was only called that because it was one of those theme places and they had posters up of old movie stars from America and what not. But it was most definitely Italian as we soon discovered with the menus.
Heh, not one of us could speak or read Italian really, nor did we have a dictionary, so when we received our menus in full Italian… well I think you can guess. We decided to stick with pizza because we knew that word and from there we had to guess at which ones to get. We figured that cheese is usually at the top of the list so wed be safe if we stuck with something there maybe? Well Jon and I decided we would both try one called Marinara we figured that was tomato and we’d be safe enough. Brett decided to go with the only one that had olive written next to it because he had a craving for olives and we were pretty sure that’s what that was. He hoped that the other two items were just sauces or spices or pepperoni or something. Jason decided on one called the Tri-something that we were all guessing was probably a three meat since those are pretty popular in the U.S. Well, we ordered and when we got our food we were in for a few shocks, lol! Marinara was exactly that. We had crust with tomato sauce and that’s it. Brett’s had olives like he wanted, but the other toppings were sauce and… sardines! And Jason’s Tri- ended up being cheese with tomato chunks on top. Brett was not thrilled, lol! So he kind of picked at his around the sardines as much as possible, but they were in the sauce and he just couldn’t do it. Jon and I were fine with ours, it was pretty good, and it was definitely sustenance, and Jason liked his okay as well.
Well while we were a group of girls that I have been hanging with pretty frequently came in and were talking to us, etc. and after we finished eating and paying Jon and I decided to go ahead and try to catch the 2 o-clock train back to Castiglion Fiorentino. The others said they were right behind us so we left and by the time we got halfway down the street we knew they weren’t and knew they weren’t going to make it. Jason and Brett like the ladies, so we figured they were chatting it up and we weren’t going to worry about it. Well we made it to the station and finally figured out where to validate our tickets at that one and which tracks to get on for the right train. We got on and had a little conversation on the way back, then after getting off met up with some other people who had been in different cars and we all started the trek back up the mountain. It was definitely easier going down, because on the way back up we were all about to die the path we were taking was so steep.
Well we got back and I replied to an email and uploaded some of my pictures and then I took a nice long nap until dinner. Dinner was pretty good, and then afterwards I tried to talk to JB for a while. I was finally able to talk to my parents and also managed to get my phone unlocked! Whoop! Well after I was finished talking to them, I went out to one of the local clubs here called the Velvet Underground. Matt and another guy that works here named Milos were DJing and it was a heck of a party. Everyone was having a good time and I hung out for a while then my roommates and I decided to go over to Roggio’s which was the bar from the other night.
We headed over there and as soon as we walked in the door we met up with Julia and Mario which were the local girl and her boyfriend we had met there the previous night. Well we ended up talking to them for a few hours and had a good time and I actually started learning some Italian. When it was about 3:30am Daniel and I headed back to the center and finally went to sleep around 4:30am.

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30Jan2005

Ah Sunday morning. We had gotten in pretty late the night before so we decided to sleep in. I got up around noon and got showered. After looking around I found that most everyone was gone and was about to go hiking with a small group of people who invited me to accompany them if I liked, when the same group of girls got back from Italian Mass and asked if I wanted to go eat with them. Well I was starving and very anxiously agreed. They went upstairs to get changed and then I discovered that the group of guys from before was going with them as well.
Once they finished getting dressed we all went out and decided to go to Hermes, a little restaurant right around the corner from “The Velvet” (the nickname for the Velvet Underground) We ate lunch and Jon and I had pizza again although this time we knew what was on it because we had a dictionary. Jason and Brett tried some pasta and the girls all ate Pinini’s which are a type of sandwich. Everything was delicious and when we were finishing up the owner brought us a huge tray of free desert pastries! They were really good! When we paid we tried to tip them and they wouldn’t take the money so we left it on the table and he actually came outside and insisted we take it back. People here are incredibly friendly to us!
We went back to the center and I talked to my parents a little more and then a few of us decided to go play spades. By this time it was about 3:30 in the afternoon so we played for a while and taught one person how until half the players decided they wanted to go to an optional lecture at 5:30. So I decided to get online again and answer some e-mails. Then I decided to take pictures of the center I’m staying in until it was time for dinner and I will be posting those later today. Dinner was spectacular again, we had spaghetti, salad, roast beef, and mashed potatoes with fruit for dessert.
After dinner I watched more people play spades and then I played a little and we taught another girl to play and then when it was about 11pm everybody decided to go to The Velvet for a Bob Marley cover band they were having. I opted to stay in and talked to JB for a while on the computer and then went to bed. Well I went to bed at 1am and woke up at 5am for no apparent reason but fully awake and decided to get online. I talked to JB a little before she went to sleep (time difference) and then decided to update my blog. And here we are!
So now I’m off to get showered and ready for my first breakfast here and then I have a full day ahead of me I’m sure. I’ll try to upload more pictures later today and update again soon! For now though, I miss you all and Ciao!

Lift off!

Hello from Italy!
Well I'm here. I made it safely and it only took… a really long time, lol!

26Jan2005

We arrived at bush intercontinental airport at about 1pm and after parking and finding our way to international departures I immediately saw a few familiar faces waiting there already. We went ahead and checked my suitcase and I am glad we did because as I was getting to the counter the line started growing and by the time I was finished checking my bag it was really long. After I finished checking my bag we sat down and started waiting. My flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 4:30 and we didn’t have to check in until 3:30 and at this point it was only around 1:30-1:45ish. So mom, dad, and I sat there and waited. Meanwhile more people from the group started showing up and checking their bags and there was a long period of phone calls to tell friends and family goodbye. We were mostly waiting for the program coordinator to show up because she had some emergency information cards she was supposed to give to the group and she wasn’t allowed through security because she wasn’t getting on a plane so that’s why were waiting for her. After about an hour and a half of chatting with mom and dad, phone calls to family, and just general waiting she finally arrived and I got my emergency information card and that was it. At this point I was kind of tired of waiting in the outer area and was getting antsy to do something, go somewhere, anything. So it was about 3pm and I decided to beat the long line to the security and told mom and dad goodbye. After taking off my shoes, coat, belt, etc. and having my bag x-rayed twice, I finally went up the escalator and waived goodbye to my parents one last time.
Once I got to the upper level I wandered around through the shops until I saw a group of people I knew that were already settled into the waiting area at the gate. We talked and laughed and had a good time and after a little while I went and got some food and then almost as soon as I was finished it was time to board the plane.
We started to get on and move our way through the plane and I eventually found where I was supposed to be sitting. I was lucky and had gotten a window seat and I was really excited about that. However, some girls that were with us in the row behind me had brought an awful lot of stuff to carry-on with them and there was no room in the overhead compartments for my very heavy bag and jacket… I was not thrilled about this. So I crammed into my seat and shoved my backpack down between my legs and sat extremely uncomfortably while the two guys next to me settled into their seats. The guy to my immediate left was Beau and next to him was Jason. And we were all healthy men in our early 20s so needless to say it was a little tight. So we did our best to get comfortable, made our introductions and chatted a little before and during take-off. Once we got in the air and were able to move around the cabin freely Beau discovered that his roommate to be in Italy was a few rows back and had a seat empty next to him, so he went ahead and moved back there leaving an empty seat between me and Jason. Thank goodness! Jason was able to cram my jacket into one of the overhead compartments and we put both of our carry-ons in the now available seat between us and things became much more comfortable. We actually had room to spread out a little… well as much as you can on a plane anyway. Well some movies started almost immediately and very soon after we took off we started flying into darkness. So I settled into my seat and decided to watch a movie that I had actually been wanting to see called Without A Paddle. It was pretty funny and killed about 2 hours of the projected 10 hour flight. After it was over I watched the last 20 minutes of the second James Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan and when that was over most of the other movies were too. So people started milling about the plain and a group of us all decided to go to the restroom at the same time so we were all talking and looking out the little window at New York City below us all lit up. After I used the restroom we sat back down and about that time they decided to serve dinner. My options were mushroom ravioli and chicken something or other so I decided on the chicken. It came with rice and green beans and a little salad cover in shrimp and some orange sauce. I ate the chicken. It was pretty good and the roll was pretty good too. After dinner there weren’t anymore movies on so I sat back and listened to my new mp3 player for a while. I tried to sleep a little but it didn’t do any good because the plane was extremely uncomfortable because there were no vents and they had the heat on pretty high. So I decided to watch a movie on my laptop and that killed another 2 hours. After the movie about the first 6 hours had gone by, and they had gone by pretty quickly, but we were starting to get a little restless. I played solitaire on the little TV’s in the plane for a while and soon after a girl named Jennifer who was with our group came over and moved across the aisle into Jason’s seat (he had gone to sit and talk to some friends) and we met and chatted for about an hour about lots of different things. She’s very sweet and is the only person in our entire group who speaks Italian almost fluently. Then Jason came back and she moved back to her seat and I played more solitaire until they brought out breakfast.

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27Jan2005

At some point on the flight it had switched over to the 27th, but I’m not entirely sure and I don’t feel like doing the math at all. So anyway we ate breakfast. It consisted of a roll, jelly, a little bag of granola, yogurt, a fruit cup, orange juice and water. I ate everything. And I’m glad I did as you’ll soon find out. Well at this point we were flying over land again and were going to hit the sunlight before long so I listened to more music and played more solitaire and waited to see something. About the time we were flying over franc the sun was coming up and I saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance being lit up in pink haze by the sunrise. It was pretty cool. Soon after we landed way outside Paris and after we gathered our belongings, we proceeded to wait to get off the plane.
We finally made our way out of the plane and ended up waiting on the ground outside the plane for about 15 minutes while the bus dropped off the first load of people and came around to get us. It was freezing! Eventually we ended up getting on the bus though and made out way to the airport. Once we got inside we wondered through the maze like gate following one of the professors who had apparently been there before. We went through the ticketing and security and finally found our gate and sat down to wait some more. The airport was very interesting and I took some pictures of the different architectural details while we were waiting. Our fight ended up being delayed an hour so I had plenty of time to wander around and take them as well as bag sitting while other people in the group explored and so on. Finally we were called to board the plane and so we gathered our bags and headed to the plane.
It turned out that Jennifer was sitting right behind me and a woman from Manhattan was sitting two seats over from me. Jennifer was going to trade seats with whoever sat next to me so we could talk more, but no one ever showed up and she never got the chance. However up until take-off I chatted with the woman from Manhattan. She was very friendly and talkative and interested in what I was doing and where I was going. She was amazed that I was from Texas because she said I didn’t have a southern accent that she could hear. Interesting. Well I did manage to nap on and off in the plane on the way to Roma, (Rome) but it wasn’t exactly comfortable. At some point the drink cart came by and the woman poked me to tell me I had just missed it, lol! That was nice of her. This flight was a little more comfortable because I could adjust my own a.c. and between napping I caught glimpses of the Swiss Alps which were amazing, and group of mountains that I think were in northern Italy which were extremely beautiful and very interesting looking. We were supposed to get lunch on the flight but for whatever reason no one did so that’s the first meal we missed. Finally we landed in Rome and this time we exited into an actual gate.
Things went pretty quickly in Roma. The group got together pretty fast and then we got our bags and met the rest of the group who had traveled over on their own. We all got our luggage and headed out to the bus where I helped the poor guy loading all of our luggage onto a van. Everyone was kind of dropping it off their luggage behind it and this one guy was loading it up all alone looking a little distraught, so I helped pitch them up to him until we had them all on. I assumed I was going to be the last person on the bus at this point, but once I got on and they did role we discovered that 3 people were missing, 3 people I knew, so I went with one of the professors back into the airport to look for them. We finally found them all and two of them hadn’t gotten their baggage for some reason. I believe they were still in Paris, and are supposed to be delivered in the next day or two.
We finally got on our way with the bus ride and again I did some napping. However, not before we saw a police car go by that was a LAMBOURGHINI! We were all in complete shock at that site and joked about how we doubted there were any people that tried to outrun those cops. I sat next to a girl named Brittany on the bus and we chatted for a little bit, but mostly we both slept. 3 hours later we arrived in Castiglion Fiorentino. We were supposed to stop at a halfway point on the bus ride for a restroom break and a bite to eat, but somehow that stop didn’t happen, so that made two meals we missed. (Now you know why it’s good that I ate my entire breakfast) well when we got off everyone’s baggage that had ended up on the bus was piled and they loaded it up on a truck while the group took the short walk into town to the center. (the bus was too bug to go into the town on the narrow streets) well the truck made its first trip but there were still bags left so I volunteered to wait with a girl named Anne who works at the center and we watched the luggage and waited for the truck to come back around. She was from California and had been in the same program that I’m in 4 years ago, and decided to come back and work for them here. So we talked and she told me a lot of interesting things about the town and the center etc. and finally the truck came back. So we helped the 2 guys with the truck load up the rest of the bags and then Anne and I walked back to the center. It was freezing outside and it had been snowing and at this point it was about 6:30 I think.
We got to the center a few minutes later (it was supposed to be a 10 minute walk they told us, but it was real like 3) and I grabbed my luggage and Anne showed me to my room. I met me roommates Daniel and Wesley and then it was downstairs for our first meeting. We had a meeting that lasted about 45 minutes and went over some general information about check-in and dinner. And then as soon as the meeting was over we went to dinner. And oh my gosh, the food was delicious! I mean absolutely amazing! It had been talked up quite a bit to us back in the states and we were all quite impressed to realize that it was living up to its name. We had pasta first, with kind of a broccoli pepperoni sauce and it was fantastic. Then the main course was salad, chicken, and potatoes and they were probably the best potatoes I have ever had. The chicken was extraordinary and the salad was pretty good too.
After dinner I decided to use the computer lab and try to talk to JereBeth a little if I could but my battery was low from watching the movie on the plane and soon died. At this point I discovered that I didn’t have an adapter that I needed to charge it and I was getting pretty upset. I wrote an e-mail to JB explaining what had happened (since we kind of got cut off) and then to my parents telling them I was safe. I didn’t have my address book on the school computers so I had to just send the e-mail to those three because they were the only ones I knew. At this point I didn’t really know what to do so I decided to go see about checking in. well I was able to, but just by the skin of my teeth. Our program coordinator had told us that we could pay some of the fees with a credit card, but that turned out to be false information and I spent pretty much all the cash I had on checking-in. while I was checking in I was talking to one of the professors who is here and we were discussing my problem with the laptop. The problem was that I didn’t have an adapter for my power chord that turned a 3 prong chord into a 2 prong chord that I could use with my Italian converters. He suggested I simply break off the 3rd prong to use here and just get a new one when I get back to the States. I hadn’t thought about that, but it sounded like it was worth a try because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to find an adapter like that over here and I didn’t want to be without my laptop at all if possible.
Well I gave it a shot and lucky for me it worked, so I’m good to go for now as far as my laptop goes. I ended up being able to talk to JB for a few hours before going to bed for the night.

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28Jan2005

well we were supposed to have breakfast today from 8:30 – 9:30 but my roommates had come in after 2am (they went to one of the local bars and had some fun) and I was exhausted so we all slept through till about 9:45am. Well we got up because we had a meeting at 10, so we went down there and heard more orientational type stuff and afterwards we split up into groups to go on a tour of Castiglion Fiorentino. I took tons of pictures on the tour and some people from the group were messing with me about it, but I don’t care, I want as many as I can get to remember this experience. The city was beautiful and we saw a lot of very friendly people. Apparently they love us in this city and it really showed.
After the tour we had another meeting then lunch and then some free time.
Lunch was again phenomenal. We had some type of pea or bean soup that was pretty good, sausage wrapped in a croissant type thing, quiche, and salad again. Oh and we had fruit for desert with all of our meals so far. Well after lunch I was still wrecked from the traveling so I crashed for 3 hours and then took a shower. I was a little late to the next meeting because of my shower but it was okay.
After that meeting we had about a half hour to kill before a short movie and then dinner. So I joined up with two other people who needed two go to the ATM’s and we hiked our way to them and I got to take out some Euro. Then we came back and sat through a half our film about Florence, which is going to be our first field trip next week. After that was dinner which was yet again a delicious experience., We had another pasta with carrots and zucchini then the main course was another salad, spinach and what we think was turkey and it was all spectacular. (Well I didn’t eat the spinach, but the rest was) I decided that while over here I am going to try to be more open to trying new things, and I haven’t always known exactly what I am eating, but so far I haven’t regretted it at all. Once again we had fruit for dessert. After dinner I went back to my room and my roommate and I tried to address my cell phone issues. (He just so happened to work for t-mobile for like the last year or two as a dealer) But we were in my room and I didn’t have internet access and it was getting late so we decided to worry about it later. We were invited to go out to the bar and I decided to go this time, but before we got there the group we were with decided to go to a different pub instead. When we got there we were pretty much the only people around so we talked to the bartenders a little and some of the people in the group got some drinks and then we looked around the pub. It was a really cool place. When you first walked in it was kind of like you were on a pirate ship or something in the bar area because they had nets and oars and big ship steering wheels hung up and it just had the ship atmosphere. The whole place was kind of underground cut into the mountain and as you went back there were a series of smaller rooms that had different themes. One had like Russian looking artwork and one was something I don’t remember now and then the second to the last was very Americanized with an American flag, and western artwork and so we decided to sit there. The funny thing about the whole experience was that there were TV’s in every room but they were blaring American music and American music videos. It was interesting, lol. After I while we were talking and one of the girls went back to the bar to get another drink and when she came back she brought a local girl with her that she had met and we all talked to her and she spoke a little English. So for the next hour to an hour and a half we all chatted with her and her boyfriend and tried to understand their Italian and they tried to understand our English, but after about that hour and a half I was getting a little antsy. I didn’t really understand any of the Italian, I’m afraid I really don’t have a flair for languages at all. I am not picking up any of it… and the people I was with were starting to drink a little more and were getting loud so I left and said goodbye and came back to the center, well I was going to get on the internet and try to talk to anyone online, but the internet has been down. Therefore I am writing this entry in word as we speak and will transfer it when I get a chance. The internet has actually started working again, but the two laptop connections are currently being used so I will get online and take care of business when it’s my turn. For right now though I do believe I have finished telling everything about the last 3 days and my back is getting a little sore so I think I shall end here. I love you all and I am having a great time, and I can’t wait t o see what else is still to come. Please feel free to e-mail me if you like, I will check it whenever I can, and also feel free to go and look at the pictures I am posting on the picture site. Goodbye for now!