On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

This weekend was our long awaited program excursion. Our trip started Thursday morning, not before a test in Italian though. Margarita packed all who were going on the trip a bagged lunch and sent us on our way. Our first stop was Montepulciano. I was fooled at first by its small town appearance. I thought that we were visiting another local town that does not see too many tourists and is full of the Tuscan charm that we are used to seeing in Sansepolcro. This illusion was quickly thrown out the window when after walking up the first big hill in the town all the local signs were in English. The realization that we had not come to a quiet local town was a bit disappointing. I personally enjoy going to towns where the locals are not used to seeing Americans walking around their streets. It is in those times that I feel as if I am experiencing the true Italian culture. However, after seeing a sign I remembered that Montepulciano is the city where much of the wine that we drink comes from. This thought was in the forefront of my mind because Lauren and I had just eaten with our host family a couple nights before and they served us wine and pointed out the Montepulciano label on the bottle. As if being a leading city in the wine industry was not enough to make this town seem not so quaint and unknown after walking up to the Piazza Grande I was informed that part of the new Twilight movie, “New Moon”, was filmed in this piazza. Now I know that many who are reading my blog may not know what Twilight is so I will quickly explain. Twilight started off as a book series (4 books) and the first of the books was made into a movie last November. This movie swept across America and created a huge fan base for itself. Now, I myself am not a huge Twilight fan but I have seen the movie and am more than happy to share with any of my jealous friends, who are big fans of the books and the movies, the pictures of me standing in the same square that Edward Cullen was in. (Edward Cullen is one of the main characters of the movie and the new heartthrob of many teenage girls.) I’m not sure if the locals know it yet, but Montepulciano has now been changed forever. I will bet money on the fact that many people will go to visit the town now just because Twilight was filmed there.

La Foce was the next stop. We went to visit La Foce because those who are in Dr. Webb’s class, this does not include me, have read about a woman who lived on this property with her Italian husband and they hid people during the Second World War. La Foce is still owned by the same family but is now rented out as villas. The property of La Foce was gorgeous. There were a couple gardens on the property full of boxed hedges, rosemary, thyme, and many flowers that overlooked Val d’Orcia. The view from this property was breathtaking. You could see the Tuscan mountains and the smooth hills with winding roads within them. If I could ever afford it, La Foce would be a beautiful place to have a wedding!

From the gardens we walked about one kilometer to the cemetery. The man and woman who helped house people during the war are buried here. This cemetery was unlike anything I had ever seen. Each tombstone was full of bright colored flowers along with a picture of each person. I loved the idea of having a picture of the person on their grave because it makes the person’s life seem real and truly remembered. All of these components made this burial ground a place to enjoy remembering lost loved ones instead of feeling like death.

Soon after leaving the cemetery came: the ride to the place where we would spend the night, dinner and bed. Of course there were many laughs, memories made, and girl talk between all of these activities. The next morning brought 9 girls, 4 professors, and a driver packed in a bus for more hours than I would care to remember. Our destination was Matera in the south of Italy. The ride was not a boring one, at least when it came to scenery. Even though we were riding along a highway there were mountains along side either side of the road for the majority of the trip. We even passed Mt. Vesuvius, an active volcano to the east of Naples. I could see steam or smoke coming from the sides of the mountain. I knew that Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius were places that I wanted to go and see at some point, but after just passing by the volcano I want to be able to climb it and say that I’ve been there before the next eruption. Towards the end of our journey Lauren, Chelsea, Amanda and I broke out into song, kid’s songs that is. We recollected our favorite songs that we sang when we were children and taught them to one another and sang along with each other. I could not remember one of my favorite songs so I went with “Herman the Worm.” Herman is a worm who gradually gets bigger and bigger from eating ridiculous things until the very end when he burps and shrinks down to his normal size. I use to sing this song in the car with my aunt all the time when I was younger. Luckily, by the time we began to run out of songs we reached Matera.

When we arrived it was about 8:00pm and a bit chillier than I had expected. The first view that we had of the city of Matera after getting off of the bus was breathtaking. We walked over to a nearby wall and looked out over a city that was completely lit up. The way the houses were designed and set up were unlike anything I had ever seen. It reminded me of what I would imagine Greece to look like. “The Passion of the Christ” was filmed in Matera so it must in some ways resemble Jerusalem. After finding and settling into our hostel Bekah, Amanda, Lauren, Hannah, and I went out to dinner. We had a true southern Italy dinner: go to dinner at 9:00pm, wait over an hour for our meal, and go home around 11:30pm. Needless to say, we couldn’t wait for dinner to be over so we could go to sleep!

On Saturday we traveled to many smaller towns around the area. We went to see the town that was near and dear to Carlo Levi’s heart, Aliano. In this town there was a Carlo Levi museum and we also went to visit the house that Levi was confined to during the Second World War. It was interesting to see pieces of history and places that are studied, but once again, this part of the trip truly benefited those in Dr. Webb’s class who have read about Levi. Even though I did not know as much about the history of Aliano as those in the English class it was still interesting to see places where history took place.

Our next stop was Craco, Italy. Craco is a town that was abandoned many years ago due to a mudslide. Craco is on the edge of a mountain that looks like it is made up of many individual rocks instead of many solid pieces of rock. The city looked as if an earthquake had taken place and not a mudslide. Houses were still standing but near destroyed. What is left of the mountain is extremely cracked and according to Dr. Swabb it will only take one heavy rain for another mudslide to take place.

The last night that we spent in Matera was a little bit like the first except we went to a museum to see some of Carlo Levi’s works. After this Bekah, Hannah, Lauren and I walked around Matera trying to kill time before dinner even though we were already starving. To hold us over until the restaurants opened we went for gelato. Yes, we ate gelato in November! While walking around with our ice cream in hand we found a small Osteria that looked promising. Apparently we had good instincts because the restaurant was amazing and very reasonably priced. I ate pasta and a whole pizza! Why do I have the feeling that when I go back to the States I am going to be hungry most of the time?

8:30am was our departure time on Sunday morning. Once again we all piled onto the bus and tried our best to get comfortable. Our arrival time in Sansepolcro was 7:45pm. This included a two hour break in Paestum. Paestum is a city near Salerno. It is known its ancient ruins that were not rediscovered until the 18th century. We had two hours to visit the museum, see the ruins, and eat lunch. Therefore, trying to grasp the history of the town and its ruins was a bit difficult to do in such a condensed amount of time but I plan on doing more research about it in the near future. Though antsy, the last couple of hours on the bus were made bearable with gummy bears, a Coco-Cola, and Christmas carols that were sung by all on the bus! As I’ve said in my past entries, our weekend was amazing, but it is nice to be home!

Home Sweet Home

This past week has luckily been a calm week. After seven days of constantly being on the go for our travel break, I was grateful for a slower paced week. Just because things around the palazzo were slow does not mean that the week was uneventful. During the week the girls and I had one movie night and a game night. Hannah, Vi, Lauren and I watched Life is Beautiful during the beginning of the week. This particular movie is actually an Italian movie titled La vita è bella and is set in the city of Arezzo which is only a short distance from Sansepolcro. Unfortunately, we cheated and watched the movie in English instead of watching it in Italian with English subtitles. However, the story behind this movie was amazing. The movie shows Guido Orefice, the main character of the movie, along with his wife, son, and uncle being taken into a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. The movie was wonderful and heart breaking. I don’t want to say anything else about it because I suggest that all who have not seen this movie watch it. It was especially nice to watch the movie while here in Italy because every time the main character was in Arezzo all of the girls and I would say, “Hey! We’ve been there! I know where that is!” Already seeing and knowing the places that were shown in the movie made the movie watching experience that much more enjoyable.

On a lighter note, Thursday night was our very first game night. Sadly, we have had many attempts at organizing a game night in the past and all until this one have been unsuccessful. I am positive that all the girls would agree with me when I say that this night was a huge success. We played Catch Phrase. In Catch Phrase you are given a word: a person, place, thing, or a phrase. You then have to describe the word or phrase that you are given to your teammates without saying any part of your given word. There is also a timer involved so it is easy for this game to become intense. Everyone, including myself, had a wonderful time playing and shared many laughs and memories. It is hilarious what people will say or do in a quick attempt to get their point across.

The game night and movie night were a great way for everyone to relax and take a deep breath. We all enjoyed our travel breaks but we were all exhausted. This past week was a time to sit down and breathe easy for a moment and enjoy each other’s company. Needless to say, it was nice to just spend time at home. I am extremely grateful to live in a house with such wonderful women.

On Saturday morning it was back to traveling. Everyone, including our professors, went to Gubbio for the day. Gubbio is the archenemy of Sansepolcro during the Balestra, but rest assured Sansepolcro did beat Gubbio this past year! Jokingly, all of us had a funny feeling about going to Gubbio. We all knew that we were not allowed to like it. Unfortunately for us, Gubbio is a beautiful place. We started the day off by visiting a mausoleum. This place is to remember and honor 40 innocent people who were dragged and shot against a wall by German soldiers in 1944. The wall that these people were lined up against before they were shot is still standing today and is untouched. You can still see the bullet holes in it. This experience was a unique one. I love that while here in Italy we are not just taught history but we get to go see it for ourselves. Hannah said it perfectly earlier in the semester when she was referring to our art history class where we were actually seeing the pieces of art that were learning about, “This is so much better than slides!” I couldn’t agree more!

After seeing the mausoleum we decided to see the High City. The High City is up at the top of a mountain and you must take the finicular to get to the top. I didn’t think twice about going up to the top until my roommate, Lauren, pointed out to me what the finicular really looked like. In my mind I was picturing the Mini Metro that is in Perugia. It’s a nice closed in cable car, with seats, that takes you safely up to the center of the city. The finicular, however, is not the Mini Metro. I would more appropriately call it a metal contraption. It is basically a ski lift that you stand on instead of sitting. Literally, you must hop onto a metal circle while the men running it close the door for you. Heights make me nervous and the idea of a standing ski lift was a fear that I overcame after arriving at the top of the mountain with my entire body still intact and a little moral support from my co-rider Bekah!

The view of the city from the finicular was stunning. The lower part of Gubbio was very much larger than Sansepolcro. Inside the walls, Sansepolcro is a very compact town. Gubbio is much more spread out. Sadly, there was a lot of fog and most of the pictures of the view did not turn out great. What’s new in though? As I’ve said before none of my pictures do the actual view any justice.

After a calmer and still safe ride back down the mountain it was time for lunch. Bekah, Hannah, and I split up from the rest of the group and found a pizzeria. Bekah began talking to the owner of the restaurant and he told her that we were the first Americans to come into his restaurant since before Italy switched from the Lira to the Euro. All the other Americans don’t know what they are missing. The food was delicious! I got my signature margarita pizza and burnt my tongue in the process of eating it, but it was so good that it didn’t even matter.

There was about an hour of time left after lunch before we had to be back on the bus. Us three girls wandered around Gubbio and took lots of fun pictures. We found a place that had very modern looking houses and was much different than what we are used to seeing. In this same place the sun was just right for taking fun shadow pictures of ourselves. These turned out great and will be added to my collection of unforgettable Italy moments!

The last stop in Gubbio before heading home was to see one of the most scientifically “cool” places in the world. We went to a rock where iridium was found. Iridium is not found in its purest form and usually comes from meteorites. After finding iridium in this rock scientists and geologists began looking in other places around the world for iridium and have been able to find a few other places containing it. What was the most interesting to me was you could see holes everywhere in the rock. These holes are a result of people coming and taking rock samples to study. This may not seem all that interesting but when you stop and think how many people have come all the way to Gubbio, Italy to see this rock and study it, it’s amazing. Seeing the different layers of rock also caught my attention. It was fairly easy to distinguish between the different layers because they were different colors. Also with this rock you could see how plate tectonics have shifted the rocks not just up but upwards and diagonally over the centuries.

The trip to Gubbio was a good mix of instructional time and leisure. I truly enjoy the opportunities I have to see science and history for myself. It is always nice to see and experience a new city. Gubbio is a beautiful town and I left with great memories of it. Just don’t tell all my Sansepolcro friends! :)

Back to something that feels normal

This past Friday all of the girls in the palazzo started their service learning. Our service learning is a component of our Italy Today class that we take with Sara Andrini. All our service learning takes place in the local schools in Sansepolcro. The idea of helping out in the schools was formulated as a way for our Meredith community to give back to the community of Sansepolcro. I was told that my service learning would take place at a nearby elementary school. I had specifically asked to be at an elementary school given that I am working towards my K-6 licensure back home, and I felt as if I could truly benefit from experience in as many different types of schools as I can possibly work in. I was excited to see what similarities and differences there are between American and Italian schools and how significant these differences would be.

During a semester at Meredith I usually have two to three internships a semester in local schools and more times than not I have a job either Nanning or working at a daycare. Therefore, I am accustomed to working with children on a regular basis. Not working with children for almost 3 months now I have felt like a piece of me has been missing. I have loved observing the children here and even the parent-child relationships, but I have felt myself longing to be able to have the opportunity to work with the children not only in the US but while in Italy as well. Needless to say, the opportunity to work in a school while living in Italy brought much excitement as well as a subtle feeling on uneasiness. A first day interning in a new class always brings a small amount of anxiety but this time there would also be a language barrier. I was nervous that I would not understand the students or that I would not know enough Italian to effectively communicate or that the students would not understand me. The thought of the language barrier that would be present in the classroom made me nervous but I knew that it was nothing that I could control so I decided not to let it cause too much anxiety.

From the moment my first day of service learning started, the differences between American and Italian schools were apparent. To begin, the school that I go to is located on the roof of the local shopping mall. As someone who worked at the front desk of school walked me down to the classroom where my teacher, Ms. Casa, was teaching I found myself quickly scanning the building. There were classrooms full of students and coat racks full with children’s coat racks in the hallways; so far nothing on the inside separated an Italian school from an American school. When I arrived to Ms. Casa’s classroom I was warmly greeted by both Ms. Casa and many smiling facing. I immediately felt welcomed and all my anxieties ceased. I was greeted with a very loud, “Hello!” by all the students.

After becoming reacquainted with Ms. Casa, she explained to me that the students, who were around the age of 7, were working on English prepositions. The students were given sentences in English such as, “The dog is under the chair.” They then had to draw a dog under a chair. Ms. Casa asked me to walk around and see if any of the students had any questions. Let me just say that every single one of those students can draw much better than I ever could. Once all the children were done drawing and coloring the pictures of their prepositions, I was told to go around and put a mark on each one of their papers. The marks were to be short comments such as “Great Job! Excellent! Good Work!” I felt extremely uncomfortable putting a mark on the children’s work because I felt like I did not have the authority to do so.

After finishing in their workbooks, Ms. Casa split the class up into two groups to play a game. She asked me to explain the game to the children but I had no idea myself what the game she wanted them to play was. The game turned out to be a variation of tic-tac-toe. One team was the lions and one team was the tigers. Ms. Casa drew a tic-tac-toe board on the chalkboard and the lions were X’s and the tiger’s were O’s. My job was to hold an eraser and a book in my hands. I had to but the eraser either on the book, in front of the book, behind the book, under the book, in the book, or near the book. The students, one student from each team, then had to tell me where the eraser was in proximity to the book. Whichever student got the entire sentence right (i.e. “The eraser is under the book.”) got to put their letter (either and X or an O) on the tic-tac-toe board. I had never seen tic-tac-toe used in this way before and thought that it was a great idea that I could use one day when I am in the schools back home. This game went on for about 15 minutes and the students stayed intensely involved the entire time. Before I knew the class time was over.

The entire day went by extremely fast. The language barrier ended up not being a huge issue, which I was truly grateful for. I was amazed at how much English these 7 year olds knew. There were only a few times throughout the day that the students and I hit a couple bumps where we were not understanding each other. However, if there were no bumps in the road or obstacles to conquer it wouldn’t truly be a learning experience. I am very excited about what the next 4 weeks of service learning will hold.