Castles, Conversations and Mohawks

The view from San Ginesio was superb. We got an amazing group shot with everyone together at the top of the city walls over looking the mountains. San Ginesio is higher (altitude) than Macerata, so it was a little colder there…we even got a glimpse of some frost! We toured the city which was similar to Macerata, but on a much smaller scale. We visited a church in San Ginesio too, and got to walk down below the church into the crypt. There were fresco’s discovered down there that had been painted before the plague… so quite some time ago. A fresco is basically a painting that is drawn on a wall. But here is a picture of one on the wall of the crypt.

This is the Abbey. It’s a monastery just outside of Macerata. It used to house nearly 80 monks, but now only about 7 I think. The corridor on the second flooris where the monks sleeping quarters are located. Below it is the chapel where the pray. Then below that are all these tunnels that lead out of the Abbey, so in case soldiers were to attack the monks could get out. We made our way through them… it was kind of creepy.

We ate our lunch at the Abbey. I guess the monastery is a popular place for tourists, but since it was the off season there was really only about one restaurant open so our options were limited. The food was very good, but I felt like since there were so many of us, I didn’t get enough to eat. Lately, I have realized that’s how it is here: I am either starving or stuffed. There is never a nice medium. Oh well, not mad.

Our next stop that day was Castle de Rancia in Torentino. The castle was very nice, and had a long spread of rolling hills around it; very picturesque. In the castle occured a famous pact where Napolean and the Pope made an agreement for Napolean to occupy land in northern Italy in exchange for the Pope to rule the area of Le Marche. They were also setting up a wedding show while we were there, where different wedding planners can show off what they have to offer couples. Some very interesting things and lots of rushing people! We got to see the dungeon where people rotted and were beheaded, as well as the roof where you could see all the land and the moat that surrounded the castle.

After the getting lost a bit in the castle, we found our group and boarded the bus to enter the city center of Tolentino. A very interesting clock gave information to people while in the town square: the time, date, phases of the moon and day of the week.

Then we visited a church that is so far the biggest I have seen while in Italy. I think it was the church of Saint Nicholas.... but I'll have to double check that. The inside ceiling of the main church area, above the pews, had large figures of different saints and the Virgin Mary and Christ and the diciples. They were fairly large, human like almost, it was impressive. We also got to see more fresco's. The one pictures below is of Saint Nicholas. It tells of his life and how he was saint-like throughout his childhood and into his adulthood. If you look closely too you can see where people have put graffiti. Not destroying the picture- but this grafitti was from people back in the 1800's who would come to this church and write their wishes for Saint Nick on the walls of his fresco. I saw handwriting from people from England that came here to ask for help from Santa Clause, I mean... WOW! Talk about an impressive letter to Santa.

After exploring the church more and realizing how tired I had become, we sat at a nice little cafe where I got some AMAZING hot chocolate and waited for our bus. Once home we fill our bellies with grilled cheese (with our favorite- gouda) and yummy nutella and fruit.

Saturday morning we woke and got ready to venture on the bus to Cityper- a mall just outside of town that has a large grocery store in it. While walking up the street to the bus stop, we came across an elderly lady. She asked (in Italian) if we were University of Macerata students. To our surprise we understood what she was saying and replied with a jovial, "Si!" Then we continued to talk to her and introduced ourselves and where we were from and then found out that she knows our director, Filiberto! We really only understood about every 3rd or 4th word, but it was so exciting to have a conversation with a local!! Her name is Yoanna, and lives just down the street from us and we think she's a landlord for some of the people in our group too.

Once we were at the grocery store we found mad discounts to which we were very excited about. We got a bunch of off brand products in order to save money, my favorite being Jovial Soda. Jill and I also found these great soup mixes that all you have to do is add water- finally directions we could understand! After filling our hand held baskets with as much as they could fill, we made our way to the cheese aisle, to obtain our gouda. But alas, after much searching we could not find it! Me on one end, and Jill on the other of the aisle, she asked, "Should we just try a new cheese?" A little white haired man next to her turned with a wide grin and whispered, "Go for it!" Clearly this man knew we needed to explore more than the world of gouda and gave us a little nudge. So we got some cheese that will be good fruit, some brie and some marscoponi... both of which we have found to be delicious.

Sunday we had decided that since nothing was open we would have a Gilmore Girls marathon and give me a mohawk... oh yes, you read correctly. During our time in Italy we have decided that we each are going to create a portfolio for America's Next Top Model. Although all of us involved in this endeavor are below 5'3", we knew it would prove to be good fun and keep us creative. Anywho- Sunday was my first photo shoot. My roommate, Jill, is a hairdresser and majoring in photography so she knew what she was doing. She started by giving me cornrows up the sides of my head to leadup to a row of long hair in the middle of my head where the mohawk would be. (Don't worry Mom, there was no shaving my head) With about 10 pounds of hair gel, and 2 million squirts of hairspray we were able to create a mound of hair that had height I never thought was possible. Although I don't have pictures on my computer yet, don't fret, I will soon post the outcome of our ridiculousness. Ciao bella!

Eventful dinner leads to missed trains

Last Thursday we were invited to our guest Professor’s house for dinner. Megan makes a mean lemon bar, so after getting the recipe from her we miraculously found all the ingredients in a local grocery store we hadn’t been to yet. So we baked the lemon bars and they came out delicious. We sliced them up, so that no one could tell we had a taste test already, and brought them over to the professor’s house. At half past seven we rang the doorbell and were greeted with a warm kitchen a delicious smells wafting down through the apartment. Dom, our professor, showed us around the apartment that the guest professor gets to live in all semester. We were of course jealous that they had a shower you didn’t have to hold up to use… lucky. Then we began dinner with some antipasta, a selection of cheese, pears and olives. Kim, Dom’s wife, shared with us her trying day of getting locked out of the apartment earlier that day and then having to put everything back at the grocery store because they didn’t accept credit cards. It was good to know that we weren’t the only ones who suffered from lack of communication skills.

Dinner was good and afterward we played a six hand euchre. Being from Michigan it was just assumed that I already knew how to play Euchre, but alas, people have neglected to teach me to play my entire life! So, I finally learned how to play. Although mostly confused at what I was doing, my team won :)

On our way home from dinner, I began getting this deep groan within my stomach. At first I thought, oh no, upset stomach. But upon finally reaching our humble abode, I was doubled up in cramping and felt like death was on its way. I tried a hot shower to loosen up my body (who knows why I thought this would work) but nothing helped and I just turned into a wrinkly raisin. I loaded up on tums and pepto and called it a night. We had another excursion of Macerata for the group the next day and I needed to be well rested.

The night was anything but restful. Getting up a million times during the night to rush to the bathroom only left me more confused and in pain as my body refused to do anything to rid myself of some poison I had digested. The alarm to wake up came quicker than I’d hoped and I struggled to put on clothing on stand up straight. Trying a few laps around our apartment to see if I could properly stand up only left me with a resounding, “Stay in bed!” Tearful that I would be missing out, my roommates assured me they would take many pictures so that I wouldn’t miss a thing. I crawled back into bed as they left and didn’t wake up again until 4pm.

I got up and slowly began to function as a human again. I was able to keep down some bread and boy oh boy did it taste good. By the time my roomates got back I was sitting upright and couldn't wait to see the pictures from their day. According to them, I didn't miss much. The only thing that would have been nice to see is the view from the clocktower, but they promised to take me up there the next time we have a weekend off.

Saturday morning rolled around and I felt 100% better, it's amazing what fluids, bread and a lot of sleep can do. Mmmmm, oh how I love sleep. We met everyone at the train station in the morning, which apparently is just down the road from our apartment, and took the train to Civitanova. Civitanova is a town right on the Adriatic Sea and has a great fish market. We got a private tour of the fishing boats, harbor and an inside look at the fish market that works like a miniature Wallstreet. Then Filiberto lead us to a restaurant right on the beach. We had lunch there that consisted of about 7 different courses- all of which were delicious! I've never tasted seafood so fresh. Some of the clams still had sand on it, but it was all so good! We were served clams, mussels, squid, gnocchi, salad, egg noodles, smoked tuna and french fries to top it all off. The meal was concluded by a cup of espresso and then a delicious cup of lemon sorbet to cleanse the palet.

After our tummy's were content we headed off to explore the shopping options. Time passed rather fast as we tried on ridiculous sequin tights and took pictures of our attempts at fitting in to the European fashion. Amanda and I went off to look for some more clothes. Once we were satisfied with our purchases we checked our schedule of the train times home and headed our way to the station to pick up the 6:30 train. But to our dismay, the train never arrived. Either it was very early, or just decided to never show up. Trying to read the train schedule posted was a disaster so we finally asked the help desk when the next train to Macerata was coming. (I clearly have no idea how I managed the train system by myself to get here, obviously it was a miracle) We were then told the next train was leaving at 8pm. Oh joy. With a tired body and soar feet we thanked the man and made our way over to the pizzeria across the street. Pizza- always a comfort food to make any situationi better. We downed a couple pieces and then sat there waiting for time to go by. We left the pizzeria 20 minutes before 8pm, just to be sure we would make it home. While waiting for the train this Italian woman came up to me and asked if this was the train to Macerata. Only understanding a few words I just nodded and smiled and replied with a generous, "Si." Clearly she was in the same situation as us. But then she asked another questions, to which I guessed at and once again replied with, "Si." .... I sure hope she got home okay, whoops.

We boarded the train, plopped down into seats and made our way home safely. What a good day, God bless the train system.

My 21st Birthday :)

As I write this now I am no longer a 20 year old youngin', but am instead an ancient age of 21. Oi vey, how did time fly so fast?

The day (Tuesday, Jan. 15th) started off nicely with a bounding happy birthday from my roommates at the stroke of midnight. After a peaceful sleep I woke to a warm shower and a hair dryer! School went well... and of course people wishing me a "happy birthday" made the day even better. Then we made plans to eat dinner at a chinese restaurant, something that many people said they craved. However, after attending La Maruglia I am pretty sure no one will be wanting Chinese food for the rest of their time here. Everyone showed up and we enjoyed great conversation and.... interesting food. We got fried rice, which wasn't fried, lemon chicken that tasted like pure lemon and fried chicken that tasted like rubber. Ymmm.

However, I do have to say that although this place knew nothing of what sweet and sour chicken is supposed to taste like, they sure do know how to do dessert. For my birthday dessert I got fried nutella. (Apparently they love frying things there) Although this may sound disgusting, it taste DEVINE! It's like the angels in heaven got bored one day and decided to invent something for humans to get a glimpse of heaven. If you have never had it, I can really only do it justice by attempting to describe its taste as an elephant ear with Nutella spread over it. So good!

Then we went back to our apartment and busted out some music. I also got to talk to my mom and dad, which was great! My dad called after dinner though while I was at my apartment, so I excused myself and went into my bedroom. When I finished the phone call and tried to get out of my room though I found myself unable to get out! (The door was being held shut by people) Finally I flung the door open to find the entire apartment dark and eerie. Seeing a faint glimmer from the kitchen I made my way down the hall and to my surpsie everyone was there holding a cake with candles glowing upon it! They all sang me happy birthday and I got to make a wish and blow the candles out. It was exactly what I need to make the night perfect. Nothing like friends and cake to complete a fabulous day.

Turns out my roommates had made the cake the day earlier and hid it in the fridge... obviously I was oblivious to this. But the night was fun, delicious wine, fantastic cake and hilarious attempts to recreate the Willenium CD. All in all I am pleased with life!

Our Apartment

Here is our living room. We have some good channels like MTV and movies, except everythings dubbed in Italian... so its pretty funny. We have hardwood floors in our bedroom as well as here in the living room, which is quite the luxury in Italy! It helps to keep the room warm. The rest of the place just has terracotta tiles, very cold! Oh, and although we have a washer in our apartment, we don't have a dryer... and pretty much no one in Italy has a dryer. But at least we have a sweet drying rack :)



Here is our bedroom. I share a room with Amanda, my bed is the one nearest the wall with a picture of NYC above it. We have a nice view from our window of the surrounding neighborhood and a basketball court below. We also each have a desk and a closet for our clothes.

(Below is a look at our bedroom desks and closets)






This is our bathroom. Soooooo much nicer than the hostel's "bathroom." We have a tub and a shower head, only the shower head isn't attached to the wall, it's hand held... so it makes for an interesting shower at times. The toilet is kind of awkward to go to the bathroom on though because the bidet is right across from it!








Here is our hallway. The front door is right behind me taking the picture. And on the right (not shown in picture) is our bedroom. On the left, across from our bedroom door (also not shown) is the living room. Then up ahead to the right is the bedroom door to our other roommates, Bridget and Jill. And straight ahead is our bathroom door. Then to the left of that is our cozy kitchen. And here in the hallway we have a nice little rack for our coats.... oh how cute!

And here is our kitchen. The fridge isn't shown, but it's about as big as I am. Unfortunately no dishwasher, but we do have an oven! We tried cooking a big dinner for a bunch of people Friday night, but as it turns out we are anything but chefs. I tried to make these instant mashed potatoes, but they turned out like babyfood...eww.

We're also just down the road from the supermarket. So, when we went to get some groceries for the dinner it was a little nerve racking, not knowing what to expect. They had most things that they do in America, only everything is in Italian so I just did a lot of guessing by pictures. I found Frosted Flakes though, so thank goodness! And then I found the fresh fruit, ymmmmm. So I had my banana's at the checkout line and was trying to fit in acting like I knew what was going on. Then she held up the banana's and said something to which I replied with a nervous, "Huh, what? Sorry?" Come to find out, you have to weigh your fruits and vegetables and print out a scanning sticker for the cashier. Dumb me failed to see that when I originally got the fruit. So then after some charades I figured it out and ran back to the scale, got the sticker and then ran back to the line. All the while Italians giving me glares and muttering things I hope to never find out. Needless to say, I am still summing up the courage to go back grocery shopping tonight, wish me luck!

Catching up

Thursday January 10
Breakfast this morning consisted of prepackaged toast and really interesting jelly and tea. I must say, for a country that has such amazing food they are definitely missing out on breakfast. And since our days are so packed with walking I definitely could have used that extra energy! We started off looking at some historical landmarks of Macerata, such as different churches and shrines and piazza’s (a piazza is like town square, but there a multiple piazza’s here). I learned that in a church you can tell what saint a town focuses on. It is located on your right when looking at the altar, there will be a painting and the saint that is in it tells a story about what is important to the town. We also saw a Shrine to the Virgin Mary. After the black plague, those who survived wanted to create a shrine to her to thank her for sparing their lives. The towns people got a Lord to cover the expenses and created a beautiful shrine for the Virgin Mary (or as they call it, Madonna). In the hallways of the shrine there are also places of specific worship where people give a silver heart when praying. It represents that although you cannot give your real heart because you would die, you give a symbol of your heart to her.

We also found out our housing placement today. I am living with Bridget, Jill and Amanda- she’s the girl who is from Allendale. We live on Manzoni, which is outside the city walls and fairly close to the SuperMarcado. We also have a pretty nice view of the city and it isn’t too far from school.

For dinner tonight we went to La Volpe e l’Uva on Via Berardi, I guess that means something about a wolf and a grape… I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know once I learn some Italian. Oh, apparently at dinners pasta isn’t the main course. That’s a little fact that would have done me some good to know. As I loaded up on seconds of the pasta for dinner, I then found out that we had another course coming. During dinners they first serve you bread, then a pasta dish, then some meat, then some salad. They also gave us some sweet bread for dessert and the option for some coffee (which is actually cappuccino) at the end of dinner. I must say, they sure do know how to stuff us full here! While I had always heard the wine “flows like water” here, I have now seen this first hand. They constantly refill glasses with wine that is so fresh your teeth, tongue and lips are stained purple from the red wine. Which, of course, makes taking anything you say seriously next to impossible.

After dinner tonight we decided to head out to experience the night life of Macerata. Thursday’s are the most popular night to go out, and as we left dinner we saw café’s everywhere just packed with people. Another side note: bars and cafés are nearly the same thing. They both serve pastries, coffee and the like. There really are no places that exclusively serve alcohol or anything like that. Our Professor Filiberto told us that no one here really drinks to get drunk, that alcohol flows so freely because people are responsible with it, unlike Americans. So, we decided to go to Café Centrale in one of the main Piazza’s in town. I had been there yesterday during the day to get a latte (which was delicious might I add), so tonight it was much different than what I had experienced earlier there. They have a loft so we all went up there to hang out. It was really fun for all of us to get a chance to sit and get to know each other, and they were playing some American music which was very nice to hear.
Another interesting thing I learned while visiting different cafés here is that you order, and then either drink standing up right at the bar there, or they serve it to you at your seat. But they don’t have any coffee’s to go like a Starbucks would, and you don’t pay them until after you’ve finished your drink. There is also a charge for sitting at some places, so it’s always interesting to find out when you aren’t expecting that. But everything here is at a much more relaxed pace. People aren’t always rushing from one place to the next, but rather enjoy their time socializing with one another. A very nice change of pace from America!

Friday January 11th we started off the morning with an interesting little breakfast pastry pie and then packed up our stuff to leave the hostel later in the day. I also decided to take a shower this morning… which was anything but pleasant. Although I was no longer a smelly mess, it was a bit of a task to shower in a room where the sink, toilet and shower are all part of the same room. Let’s just say, things got a little wet and I’m not even sure if I got all the shampoo out of my hair.

We left the hostel this morning and explored some more of town, but mainly focused on areas outside of the city walls. There is this magnificent structure that has five of the main poses of statues and is sometimes referred to as the “Jackson Five.” We also got teas, cappuccino’s and tea at this little bus stop café. It was kind of chilly outside today so it really helped to warm us up! And we got to move into our apartments today!!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Bonjourno!

After some airport stress, I have made it to Macerata! I left Tuesday from Detroit to Chicago, but of course the flight was delayed 2.5 hours. After finally landing in Chicago, I freaked out that we were landing at the time that my flight to Munich was supposed to be taking off! So, I became the person who was sprinting across the terminals while other people take their time and laugh at my struggle to run while carrying an oversized purse bounding from side to side and threatening to break. But by some miracle of God, I made it to my plane in time! They were just about to close the gate when I came running up to them. Then making my way down the endless aisles of people in an enormous jet, I found my seat and proceeded to sweat profusely after my airport workout.

The flight to Munich was not that bad, we had individual screens in front of us that we could either watch movies on (I watched Ratatouille) or we could watch a map with our plane flying its route. It was pretty cool; it gave the time left, miles traveled, altitude and whatnot. I tried to sleep on the plane, but probably only got a couple of hours. We were fed twice: dinner and then breakfast right before landing. The man I sat next to was with his daughter and they were going to Germany to visit family. He is originally from Germany and met his wife while she studied abroad there- she's from America. He was nice and recommended I visit more than just the Munich airport if I got a chance to travel.

Once at Munich I had some time to kill before my flight to Ancona, Italy. The airport in Munich was totally in the middle of nowhere, but then once you got inside you felt like you were at a mall! There were so many stores and shops and cafès, it was crazy. Then I was able to get some money from an ATM, which was a little difficult at first since I don't know German.

My flight to Ancona was farely short. We got a little box of snacks during the flight. Mine had this pretzel type circle bisquit thing, but was seasoned with what they use on sausages.... it was weird. Then there was also a chocolate chip biscotti, not so bad. And then they also gave us 3 slices of meat and a thing of cheese, toppped off with a Italian flag. Rather funny looking. The woman who sat next to me spoke Italian to the flight attendant as I fumbled for a simple thank you- "grazie." Then, unexpectantly, the woman next to me turned to me and said "Are you American?" A little embarressed I said yes and then she went on to tell me that she is from Great Britain. Yipppeeeee, finally a person that speaks english! Then we spokesome more and I learned that she met her husband in Italy while she was studying abroad there...(weird, two people already have married people they met while studying abroad). So she has lived in Italy for a while, in a town on the coast just south of Ancona. And she has two daughters who also both married men from different countries. Then, and here's the best part: she then asked if I was going to go skiing and I was like uhh maybe. And I asked her if she skiied. She then told me that yes she does and that her and her husband own a chalet in the French Alps and are going there in a few weeks to spend a couple months there. (holy moly!) So, I was like, well then you must be able to ski a lot then. And she goes, "Oh not that much any more now that I'm older. I only ski about an hour or two a day.

Um.....are you kidding me? Talk about living the dream!

So we landed in Ancona and I got my luggage and said goodbye to my new baller friend and got a taxi to take me to the train station. While fumbling with my luggage I purchased a train ticket to Macerata... which I then found out that it actually stops in Civitanova and I have to hop onto a different train. So I validated my ticket and then went outside to find what platform I needed to pick the train up at. From what my ticket said, I had about 30 minutes until my train was to arrive, but it failed to mention what platform to pick it up at. And not being able to decipher to schedule posted outside I went to the help desk. Banging my oversized luggage thru the door I desperately tried to ask the worker for help and where to pick up my train. She told me it was on platform 8 and I better hurry. Panicking, I walk outside only to realize my platform is waaaaay across from the station beyond a bunch of other railroad tracks. Looking to my right I realized I had to take stairs downstairs and underneath the tracks to get to my platform.

Boooom, boooom, boooom went my luggage and my sanity down the stairs. Heaving it down the tunnel I was for sure I could hear my train leaving. Then I realized that although I thought going down the stairs was rough, going UP the stairs was going to be next to impossible. Lifting my three bags I went up one step at a time with aching muscles . Thank God a man was coming up the stairs as I was about to give up and offered his help. We hurdled it up the rest of the stairs and I managed another "grazie." Rushing to the train I hoped was mine, I dragged my luggage up the stairs into the train and plopped my bags on the nearest seat available. Unsure of my luck, I asked a man if the train was going to Civitanova. He said yes it was- YIPPEEE!!!! I sat back and tried to relax, only to feel the glares from the locals with thoughts that were probably like, "Stupid American, so much luggage!"

I got off at Civitanova and then tried yet again to read the schedule of arriving trains. Of course- I had to go down stairs and thru a tunnel an up stairs again to reach the correct platform. A train came rather quickly and pretty sure I had read the schedule correctly I climbed into the new train. Taking up another 2.5 seats with my crap, I had to make sure I was on the right one because the time on the ticket an the time it had shown up was waaaay off. I asked a girl across from me and she said I was on the right train.

Looking out the window as we rode through the countryside I was a little skeptical about what I was getting myself into. While it was gorgeous, the towns we were passing weren't was I was hoping for in Macerata so I began to get a little discouraged. But then the little towns we were passing disappeared for a while and all there was was amazing hillsides and mountains.

Then, there it was!!!! We arrived in Macerata. The train station was a little small, but after exiting it and getting a taxi we began to drive around the city to get to the hostel. AMAZING! The walled in city is gorgeous and has so much history. The rich texture of the walls and creative architecture was breathtaking. The people drive absolutely insane and get around curves that I have never even seen attempted before. The winding roads kept leading to something new until YAY we arrived at the hostel- Osilo Ricci. I got checked in, was given a key to my room (where 2 others from my group are staying in too), sheets, blanket and a towel. I got settled in and then waited for one of my teachers to come get me to lead me to where the rest of the group was. Since I arrived a little bit later than everyone else, they had started on a tour of Macerata. Dom Carisit, the visiting professor from Ball State University, came to get me and took me to the rest of the group. I met everyone and fit right into the bunch.

Everyone is so nice and we are all astounded at how beautiful it is here. It is foggy outside so we aren't able to see past the city walls, but I hear that we are surrounded by mountains and rolling hills and it is breathtaking. And we can see the Adriatic Sea from the city too- I can't wait until this fog goes away so I can see it!!!