Update + A Day in the Life

Ciao a tutti.  So a few things have happened since I last posted, but most of this month was just was just normal for me.  I have a solid routine that I do everyday, and I am living a normal life here (other than not speaking Italian of course).  Let's just jump right in.

Update

In the beginning of March, I got to go to Rome for the weekend with my brother.  We left Saturday morning, on what was supposed to be a 2 hour train ride.  BUT, of course, stuff went wrong.  We rode for about 30 minutes on the train, and were told to get off in a random town.  There, they had a bus waiting for the people going to Rome.  Apparently, something was wrong with the rail, and it couldn't go any further on that line.  So bus it was.  We though that would be it, but then our bus broke down... twice.  Luckily, the driver got it started each time, and we arrived in Rome at around 2:00 p.m.  Giorgio and I navigated the subway system, and went to our hotel.

Some cool town on our way to Rome

Our hotel was just outside of the Vatican, so it was somewhat easy to find.  We got checked in, and then immediately went to the Piazza San Pietro in the Vatican.  We decided the lines were too long to actually go inside, so we just saw the outside.  It was incredibly beautiful.  It is weird to think that that building had been standing since the 1600's.  You certainly get a new perspective on history when you are actually standing in front of these things.

View of St. Peter's basilica from St. Peter's square

From there, we spent the night roaming around Rome (see what I did there?), seeing some of the sights.  We went to see the Piazza di Spagna first, and that was really cool.  Then we went to the Pantheon, but it was closed by the time we arrived there.  Giorgio knew of a really good gelato place near the Pantheon, so we went there.  It had to have had at least 50 flavors of gelato to choose from.  I can't remember what I got, but I remember it being really good.

Piazza di Spagna stairs

The monument in Piazza di Spagna

The front of the Pantheon

After the Pantheon, we went to see Fontana di Trevi, but it was under construction so it there wasn't much to see.  By then it was around midnight, so we went back to our hotel to sleep.  The next morning, we got up early and went to Piazza San Pietro to see the Pope.  He does a little speech (only about 15 minutes long) every Sunday, and the Piazza is packed with people to see him.  I'm not a Catholic, but I think everyone should experience this at some point in their lives.  He was so enticing and down to earth that it was easy to listen to him, and not feel like he was superior.  You get a certain vibe being in the crowd that's indescribable.  Very weird, but very cool.

Fontana di Trevi and some happy girls taking selfies

There's a pope there. I promise.

Piazza San Pietro and all the people who went to see the Pope that day.

After the Pope left to do whatever Popes do, we went to Colosseum for a tour.  Yet another thing that everyone should see in their lifetimes.  The Vatican was weird to see, but the Colosseum was even weirder.  It is almost 2000 years old!  I can't even comprehend that much time.  It was built just over 100 years after Cleopatra, maybe 50 years after Jesus.  Once again, standing in front of something that old made me think differently about history.  Once our tour of the Colosseum was finished, we took another tour through the Roman Forums.  I got really annoyed with the tour guide (super pretentious history major), so Giorgio and I went off on our own.  It was cool to see what was left of ancient Rome.  Mussolini destroyed most of the Forums when he was in power, so very little of it still stands.  But still, it was very cool.  Some of these structures date back to the 8th century B.C.; 800 years before Christ.  Even now as I write this I am still amazed at how old that is, and the fact the I got to touch it.  Absolutely incredible.

Giant building in the Roman Forum.  No idea what it is.  I ditched the obnoxious tour guide long before this.

Panorama of the inside of the Colosseum

Outside the Roman Forums

From the Colosseum, we went back to the Pantheon to look inside.  I don't know much about the history of the building, but I know it is really old (go figure),  There wasn't much to see inside the building other than Raphael's tomb.  This building was built about 100 years before Christ I think, so about as old as the Colosseum, but 700 years away from the Forums.  This was more or less the last thing we saw before we got on a bus back to Pescara.

The giant ceiling inside the Pantheon

Raphael's tomb

Other than Rome, the month was pretty quite.  However, on St. Patrick's Day, I went to an Irish festival with some friends.  You have not lived until you have heard Italians covering Flogging Molly.  So many accents.  The festival was a lot of fun, but super crowded, so we didn't stay very long.

So that's what I've been up to this month.  I am going to Florence in a few days over Easter break, so I'll tell you about that next time.  But, some people have asked what my daily routine is on exchange, so I will tell you!

Day in the Life

6:20-  Try to wake up.

6:40-  Try to wake up again.

6:50-  Actually wake up.

This is my dirty room.  It only looks like this 60% of the time.

7:00-  Get ready for the day, assuming there is hot water.  Recently, I've been taking ice showers, but I don't know the words to tell my family, so I've just been going with it.  Exchange in a nutshell.

7:20-  Maybe eat some breakfast.  Usually, I just eat a few biscotti (cookie things) with a glass of milk.  Big change from the big American breakfasts I'm used to.

7:45-  Catch the bus to school.  I wish I could post a picture of the bus, but I think it would be kinda creepy to take a picture of everyone on the bus... so I'll pass.  Imagine a bus so full of people that your face is pushed up against the window, and then more people get on.  That's my morning.

8:15-  School starts.  Usually Italians stay in one class all day, but I rotate to a bunch of different classes, so classes depend on the day.  I think I've talked about Italian school before, but I'll talk about it in the next post again maybe.

My school schedule.

1:15- School ends.  On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Satudays, I just catch the bus from school to home.  On Wednesdays and Fridays, I walk into Pescara Centro to my Italian course.  I have an Italian tutor that helps me with all of the grammar and other stuff I don't understand.  Lesson usually go for about two hours.  I will usually go to my favorite Pizzeria on the way for a quick lunch.  I like that place a lot, because it's not very popular, so I'm usually the only one in there.  At this point, the owner know me, and we try to have conversations where I speak Italian, and he speaks English.

My "home-base" class room.

Italian verbs

2:00-  When I don't have my course, I go home for lunch with my family.  Lunch is equally as important as dinner here, although we don't usually have guests for lunch.  We eat a lot of seafood and pasta.  I've only had real seafood one before I came here, and I've been missing out.  The stuff looks weird, but 99% of the time it is delicious.  If we don't have seafood, we usually just eat pasta with tomato sauce.  They think it's simple, but it is probably my favorite meal.  Put some shaved Parmesan on top... ohhhh.

2:30-8:00-  Free time.  Usually, I take a nap during some of this time.  School is really tiring when you have to work to understand anything.  If I don't do that, I will watch a movie, read a book, surf the web, or study.  I want to study more, but unfortunately I don't understand Italian well enough to really grasp the concepts yet.  I've just been studying Italian really.  Sometimes, during the night, I will go into Pescara alone or with some friends.  We usually just grab a coffee or something and talk.  Some of them help me study as well.

9:30-  Dinner time.  Favorite part of the day.  We almost always have at least one guest over.  Again, we eat a lot of seafood and pasta.  However, we also eat a lot of meat too.  The mains ones that we eat are chicken and beef, like America, but sometimes we eat lamb.  Sounds weird, but really good.  In Abruzzo (the region I live in), we have a thing called Arrosticini (ah-row-sti-chee-nee), which is like a lamb kabab type thing.  I think I posted a picture of it in a previous post, but sweet Jesus it's good.  We don't have it often because it's really expensive.  Every meal is accompanied by salad.  I've been told it's only in Abruzzo that we use Olive oil and salt as dressing, but I think all of Italy does that.  Very simplistic, but very good.

After dinner-12:00ish -  We usually talk with our guests and watch a movie after dinner.  Sometimes, people will be at the table for 2-3 hours after dinner talking or playing cards.  I am almost always the first one to go to bed.  I don't really even know how late everyone stays up.  Not sure if I want to.


Well that's my typical day.  Very different from my American life, but also very similar.  You learn when you go abroad that your life changes in a lot of little ways, not one big way.  Italian culture and American culture are not so different in the big picture, but small things, like the kind of coffee you get when you are with your friends, are different

If any of you want me to write about something specific, or have any questions, please tell me by commenting on my blog, facebook posts, or sending me an email. (colingran@gmail.com)

A dopo!