My last two weeks of living in Italy have been filled with traveling! First on May 13th, Jessica and I flew to Pisa. I think Pisa is my favorite place in all of Italy. Its a small town and you can walk to almost anywhere by foot. The square with the leaning tower is so beautiful and peaceful. There were people scattered around laying in the grass, many people posing with the tower, and a row of shops with souvenirs. We stayed there two nights, on the second day Tsveta and Emelia arrived.
The Italian two class has started and my brain is overwhelmed with knowledge! We had a week off of class before the second one started and in that week I feel like I lost a lot of what I had learned because I spent most of my time with Tsveta and Jessica speaking english. So now I really need to crack down and focus on conquering this language because the teacher is now only speaking in italian! It is tough!
here is a church in San Giovani that I visited when my administrators came to visit.
This past weekend was easter and I did some traveling to avoid getting stuck, bored, on campus! On Thursday me and several other exchange friends took a day trip to Diamante, a small town on the coast about and hour and a half away from cosenza. It was a beautiful day and it felt nice to sit on the beach and watch the waves. This town is famous for its murals on the buildings. Years ago artists couldn't afford canvas so the painted on the sides of the buildings and still today artists come to put the mark on the town.
Today starts Vacanzedi Pasqua (easter vacation)! I had my Italian lesson this morning and we learned about al ristorante (the restaurant) and how to say things like 'i like this...' and 'i don't like that...' so it will be very useful the next time I go out to eat. Every day it seems to get warmer and warmer, but still most of the Italians are wearing all black, coats, and scarves. While I am in my flip flops and tank tops. The stare at my feet, they must think I'm crazy, but the feeling is mutual.
My internet has been out for a few days now. Its been hard because i haven't had any real communication with anyone back home. But my roommates are hoping it will be back on monday.
Two days ago I went to my first italian course in italy, and to my surprise i actually understood the lessons pretty well. The class had already started about two weeks ago, but there is another one starting on march 16th for the exchange students. I still think i might go to this one just to sit in and get more familiar with the language. The teacher, mariagrazia, is very nice and very encouraging and seems like a great teacher to learn italian from. The class is three days a week (monday tuesday and wednesday) and is from 9am to 11am.
Today i went with Jessica and Dave, the new Americans, to try and get a bus ride into Cosenza. Before we left i asked my roommates how to do this. They said there would be a bus to the left at the bus station where we could buy a round trip ticket. They had me practice what to say to the man with the tickets, "Uno biglietto Giornaliero". And to take bus U4. I also took my travel dictionary which came in handy when we couldn't find the bus that was supposed to be there with tickets.
It all started thursday night at 8. I was waiting at the bus station with Husson and Rosa, we were ready to go across italy, North to Verona. Little did i know exactly how far away this was. This was a trip with a group called Erasmus, they are an exchange program and Piatro is the president. Most of the people that went were spanish but there were a few italians and one american. I slept most of the way, it was over 12 hours of trying to get somewhat comfortable in a tiny bus seat. Finally at 1030 am we arrived at our destination.
I just was working on a blog with pictures too! but i accidently hit the delete key and it made my page go back. so now i am frustrated and not going to do all the work again. But tomorrow i will. So sorry.
But at least i now have the pictures on my computer. You will see them soon.
Good night
