Buon Anno!
At last! The holidays are over and the new year has come.
So much has happened! Let's get started..
-Mid terms are over! After all the stress and studying, we all got through it right in time to focus on the holidays. Dad came out to visit for Christmas and we had a great time!! My family did a wonderful job of making this Christmas feel as "home-like" as it could:
So much has happened! Let's get started..
-Mid terms are over! After all the stress and studying, we all got through it right in time to focus on the holidays. Dad came out to visit for Christmas and we had a great time!! My family did a wonderful job of making this Christmas feel as "home-like" as it could:
There were the traditional Christmas Eve pajamas from Gramma....
And this I couldn't believe: they sent my family's Christmas-tree star!!
Having that important piece of home on my little Charlie-Brown Christmas tree was so awesome..
Having that important piece of home on my little Charlie-Brown Christmas tree was so awesome..
Altogether, Dad and I had a great Christmas together..
I know I said this before, but thank you so much to all my friends and family who sent cards and presents and emails. It really did make my first (and hopefully last) Christmas away from home so much more bearable. It was still hard, but I will never forget how special and missed you all made me feel.. thank you.
I know I said this before, but thank you so much to all my friends and family who sent cards and presents and emails. It really did make my first (and hopefully last) Christmas away from home so much more bearable. It was still hard, but I will never forget how special and missed you all made me feel.. thank you.
- So, I was in the grocery store the day before my dad came and I was picking out tomatoes in the produce section. The Italians are very weird about their produce and who touches and how, so I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was when an older gentleman came over to me and said, "Signorina, per favore usura un guanto" (please use a glove), as he handed me the little plastic bag-glove provided by the market. It was kind of embarrassing, especially when I looked around and realized everyone else was wearing a glove and looking at me with side-ways, disapproving looks. So I put on the glove to pick out one more tomato and I wore it until I was completely out of the produce section (I wouldn't have dared to take it off anywhere near the produce after that)... And I will never again touch a piece of fruit without a glove... at least not in Italy...
- Dad and I did a lot of traveling while he was here. We went to Venice (a first for me!) and it was beautiful!! I loved it!! It was confusing to navigate with all the canals and strange alleyways, but it just kinda added to the charm and mystery of the island. I decided that I must go back, hopefully during Carnivale in February, when they dress up like masquerade and have a huge party for 10 days :) Anyway, here's a couple pictures of Venice..
- So funny moment for me: About a month ago, I was walking to school and realized that there were huge piles of leaves all along the side walk. They were red and orange and all kinds of shades that you don't see in Southern California. So I kicked them up and walked through them for about 100 yards down the side walk. Some people in the park were looking at me, and I laughed and thought to myself, "You would be doing this too if you never had before.." Maybe it wasn't an "Italy-specific" moment, but it was certainly a first for me. I loved it. :)
-My New Years wasn't all the razzle-dazzle as I might have hoped. Well, the first 5 mins were, at least. I got ready to go out with a couple of my friends and I was feeling pretty good. I was wearing nice clothes, got myself all pretty and great... and as I was walking out the door thinking, "oh how nice it will be to come home to this cozy little apartment tonight", I shut the door and locked my keys inside. Right now, I'm the only one out of my roommates who is even in the country right now, so this was more than a little bit of a problem. I went out that night anyway and the whole night I was very angry and upset about this whole key thing... I knew that tomorrow was a holiday and it would be close-to-impossible to get ahold of my landlord (who doesn't like to answer his phone even during regular business hours). On top of this silly lock-out business, the streets were over crowded with people and loud, unsafe fireworks (they were dropping them from the windows into the crowded streets! One went off about 2 meters from me and I could feel the vibration in my chest. The news yesterday said 8 people were injured through the night and one guy lost 4 fingers!!) Anyway, it was a very miserable night.. when the clock turned 12, I was walking down an empty alleyway with my friends, trying to get away from all the commotion. I spent that night at my friend Kelli's house and the next day tried to get ahold of my landlord (with no luck, of course), so I spent the next night at my other friend Varpu's. I only just got back into my apartment today and after cleaning up the place and myself a bit, I took some time to make sure I don't forget my keys and lock myself out for two nights ever again:
- So funny moment for me: About a month ago, I was walking to school and realized that there were huge piles of leaves all along the side walk. They were red and orange and all kinds of shades that you don't see in Southern California. So I kicked them up and walked through them for about 100 yards down the side walk. Some people in the park were looking at me, and I laughed and thought to myself, "You would be doing this too if you never had before.." Maybe it wasn't an "Italy-specific" moment, but it was certainly a first for me. I loved it. :)
-My New Years wasn't all the razzle-dazzle as I might have hoped. Well, the first 5 mins were, at least. I got ready to go out with a couple of my friends and I was feeling pretty good. I was wearing nice clothes, got myself all pretty and great... and as I was walking out the door thinking, "oh how nice it will be to come home to this cozy little apartment tonight", I shut the door and locked my keys inside. Right now, I'm the only one out of my roommates who is even in the country right now, so this was more than a little bit of a problem. I went out that night anyway and the whole night I was very angry and upset about this whole key thing... I knew that tomorrow was a holiday and it would be close-to-impossible to get ahold of my landlord (who doesn't like to answer his phone even during regular business hours). On top of this silly lock-out business, the streets were over crowded with people and loud, unsafe fireworks (they were dropping them from the windows into the crowded streets! One went off about 2 meters from me and I could feel the vibration in my chest. The news yesterday said 8 people were injured through the night and one guy lost 4 fingers!!) Anyway, it was a very miserable night.. when the clock turned 12, I was walking down an empty alleyway with my friends, trying to get away from all the commotion. I spent that night at my friend Kelli's house and the next day tried to get ahold of my landlord (with no luck, of course), so I spent the next night at my other friend Varpu's. I only just got back into my apartment today and after cleaning up the place and myself a bit, I took some time to make sure I don't forget my keys and lock myself out for two nights ever again:
with a coat hanger and some pliers, now I have a nice little key rack right on the door.
Anyway, I hope this works. My roommates have had some trouble with remembering keys as well, so hopefully we can all benefit from some kind of order to the keys...
Anyway, I hope this works. My roommates have had some trouble with remembering keys as well, so hopefully we can all benefit from some kind of order to the keys...
-I uploaded a LOT of pictures onto flickr today. I have even more (if you can believe it) but downloading them takes some time. Hopefully I will be totally caught up in the next day or two. You will notice that none of the new pictures have captions, and for that I am sorry. However, if I added captions, I would never get them all up (there are so many!) and I would rather you all see them with no captions than not at all. Anyway, if you view them through the "sets" on the right hand side of the page, it should at least give you some indication of where they were taken because of the set heading and little blurb. Anyway, enjoy the new pictures! The newest sets include pictures of: My Apartment, Rome, Urbino, Siena, Perugia and Pisa. The ones of Venice aren't quite up yet, but they will be. :)
January is going to be fun... We are going to the opera, La Boheme, on the 23rd, and then another trip with the school to Verona and Northern Italy on the weekend of the 26th. Then in February, the Fall semester will be over (I know, it's strange) and John will be coming out here to Italy for a visit on the 10th. This is going to be a lot of fun! In the meantime, I have a lot of homework to catch up on and a lot of painting to do!
During the holidays here, there has been a word written on almost everything that I'd never heard before. I couldn't find it in my Italian dictionary and when I did find out the English equivalent, it didn't clear up what it means exactly to the Italians. I see it on street signs, in window shops and then today, even the little old man who opened up my apartment said it as a response when I wished him a "boun anno." All I really knew was that this little word makes me feel warm and fuzzy and full of good thoughts -- but I didn't even know why!! So I went inside (after being let in) and looked into it even further. Turns out, it is a word they use to express goodwill, best wishes and good luck. I suppose they use it now mostly during the holidays, especially the new year, because of the feelings of fresh excitement and new adventure...
So, now I will share this new phrase with you. To all of you back home who have just finished up your cozy holidays with your families, to you who have reached out to me so warmly and with such love, and to anyone who looks to this new year with excitement and adventure: "Auguri"
January is going to be fun... We are going to the opera, La Boheme, on the 23rd, and then another trip with the school to Verona and Northern Italy on the weekend of the 26th. Then in February, the Fall semester will be over (I know, it's strange) and John will be coming out here to Italy for a visit on the 10th. This is going to be a lot of fun! In the meantime, I have a lot of homework to catch up on and a lot of painting to do!
During the holidays here, there has been a word written on almost everything that I'd never heard before. I couldn't find it in my Italian dictionary and when I did find out the English equivalent, it didn't clear up what it means exactly to the Italians. I see it on street signs, in window shops and then today, even the little old man who opened up my apartment said it as a response when I wished him a "boun anno." All I really knew was that this little word makes me feel warm and fuzzy and full of good thoughts -- but I didn't even know why!! So I went inside (after being let in) and looked into it even further. Turns out, it is a word they use to express goodwill, best wishes and good luck. I suppose they use it now mostly during the holidays, especially the new year, because of the feelings of fresh excitement and new adventure...
So, now I will share this new phrase with you. To all of you back home who have just finished up your cozy holidays with your families, to you who have reached out to me so warmly and with such love, and to anyone who looks to this new year with excitement and adventure: "Auguri"
posted by Susan | 9:52 AM
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