School is getting busy...

School is very busy this week as teachers are trying to get tests and papers done before our first travel week. I seem to be doing homework or seminars non-stop and it's only Tuesday morning. I am excited for the travel week though, as I will be in Spain and Portugal.

Last week was my 21st birthday, so basically the whole school went out and partied for it. We went to a local pizzeria/bar and had dinner and drinks to celebrate. It was an awesome festivitie, and probably the biggest get together of the school since we have been here. Definately a different experience.

I spent last weekend in Cinque Terre on the Italian Riveria. It was beautiful. The Mediterranean was gorgeous and blue and still very warm. The 5 towns were extremely cute. Not a 'young crowd' attraction but still a must see place. We hiked and trained between the towns and made a point to make it to all of the 5 cities, Manarola (Where we stayed), Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, and Riomaggiore. All the towns had a different cuteness to them and had different draws. The hikes, which I'm usually not in to, were also beautiful. It was great to go up the mountain side above the sea and look at the cities from above and the sailboats in the distance. It was a very fast-paced weekend but definately was worth it.

Now I must cut this short and get back to writing papers and studying for tests. I have a feeling I am going to sleep for weeks straight once home with non-stop school during the week and traveling on weekends. (I'm sure that won't happen though, since I'll be excited to see everyone again and enjoy winter in Minnesota. Snow!!)

Made it to Slovenia!

This is going to be a very condensed version of my weekend. I don't think I am going to be able to keep up with writing about my excursions.

My weekend was AMAZING! We took a field trip to a WWI Memorial and a castle in Trieste and from there we were given the option to be set free or ride the bus back to campus. We decided to make it an adventure.

The WWI Memorial and Castle were a lot of fun. The Memorial even had trenches that you could go into and walk around, kinda crazy to put it into perspective. I didn't actually go into the castle because it cost more money, but I did walk around the grounds. It was right on the sea with woods and ponds all around.

We stayed until 10 pm in Trieste wandering the city until our train left for Ljubljana, Slovenia. Trieste, Italy is a beautiful city right on the sea and we were able to go out on a pier and watch the sun set.

We arrived into Ljubljana at 2 in the morning, only to leave at 2 am the next morning, leaving a total of 24 hours here. Our walk to our hostel seemed kind of sketchy. We didn't know the city, didn't know the language and didn't really know where we were going. Everything was completely fine and Slovenians are really nice and confirmed we were headed in the right direction to get to our hostel (My group was just four of us girls but there were probably about 50 of us from school that ended up there over the weekend). There also were broken bottles and graffiti everywhere on our path to our hostel so we were all of a sudden what we got ourselves into...

The hostel was very nice and there were a bunch of Brit's there celebrating a bachelor party. We pretty much got our keys and went to our room ASAP so we didn't have 8 old drunk men talking to us.

When we woke up the next morning when we woke up, we realized Ljubljana really is a beautiful city. Has a completely different vibe at night and during the day. Our hostel also was in the hotel/hostel area but not actually in the city center so there wasn't any night life by us to pass.

We wandered around Ljubljana and took a bus to Bled in the afternoon, where there is a lake formed by Glaciers. Both were very amazing places and the lake is beautiful in itself, not to mention the cute little town. We also were able to eat Mexican food in Ljubljana for dinner, which was a nice change from pasta every day for lunch and dinner.

We got back to campus this morning at about 10 am, after walking the Sunday Market in Crespano. It was a very fast paced weekend but worked out really well since we took night trains and didn't lose daylight hours and only had to pay for one night at a hostel.

The internet gets too slow here when everyone goes on to load pictures onto this blog page so here is the link to my facebook photo album with some pictures of this weekend.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006869&l=520d9&id=1279830007

Settling down

Life has started settling down here in Italy but not completely. We sure are kept busy these first couple weeks. This past week I had stuff going on Tues-Sat from 9 am to 6 pm unless we got done early. We've been doing leadership seminars, a low ropes course, travel orientation, as well as a global cultural comparisons lecture. Some days were more boring than others.

The ropes course was actually a lot of fun, although I’m a little beat up from it. We had to climb the wall as a group and I smacked my leg on the top trying to get on the platform while being pulled up. There’s nothing wrong with a few bruises, right? The ropes allowed us to be outside and it was a very nice day when my group got to go. Unfortunately, the last group had rain so they had to do it all in the gym.

The global cultural comparisons seminar was also fun. First it compared what Italians think of themselves and what others think of Italians and then how different countries ranked in items like pasta consumption, obesity, number of credit cards, divorce rate, etc. Some of those things were quite surprising. Belgium has a divorce rate of 76%, I thought the US was bad around 50%. The little things that you just never learn… It also talked about how Italians and Germans are CRAZY drivers. The lecturer was talking about when he lived in Germany and he would be going 100 and people would pass him and he’d always wish one day, he could be that person too. Well his friend had a car that was allowed to go fast (Something with the tires) and they were going about 200, and STILL getting past. After that, he decided he didn’t need to be one of those guys.

I also learned I am in one of the wealthiest areas in Italy, the Veneto region. The rich Italian with a Vineyard and a place in the Alps is actually quite possible here… Still not happening, I just found it funny that I am in probably one of the only areas where that image is possible. I am told to go to Asolo, the grad campus, and car watch as million dollar cars like Bugattis, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc. drive through. The Italians don’t go to University in this area as they will make more money with their family's businesses than if they went through years of schooling.

It thunder stormed on both Friday and Saturday and I thoroughly enjoyed them! We were inside both days anyways so I didn’t really mind. Today it is still raining, though. Not what I wanted… I was either going to go climb Mount Grappa or go to a Sunday market in a neighboring town where they basically turn their whole town into a market. The market is open every Sunday, so I will just go another weekend instead of doing it in the rain today. Instead, I slept in until 10 which was nice and now maybe I’ll get some reading down before classes again.

The Italians are supposed to get here today, as they start school tomorrow. I’m in an all American dorm I believe so I won’t really being seeing them. The other dorm that a few people are in will have Italians all over the place… We set up a projector that one of the students brought in the hallway of the other dorm last night and watched Wanted (It was cold and drizzly so no one really wanted to go out). So who knows if that will be okay to do once the Italians get here.

The weather is supposed to improve again for a few more weeks, at least until after our first travel break. Hopefully that’s all goes through, as I will then have nice weather in Spain and Portugal!

Hope all is well with everyone in the States! I am off to lunch.

My first view of Venice!!

Main intersection of Paderno del Grappa (Campus is in the middle of pic. Bank and ATM on the left)

Main Building (Office, TV room, large lecture hall)
There are three other buildings besides this one that we use on campus and basically that's all of campus.

My dorm hall (SGP)

Campus Courtyard

Not full schedule of classes yet...

So it turns out we only have each of our classes twice during the first two weeks. Otherwise it's all orientation type things we must attend. Even though I've only been to my classes once, I still have homework, due in a week or so.

I've probably wandered the whole town of Paderno except for some residential areas. It's pretty cute. We aren't allowed alcohol on campus or in the dorms, as it is an italian catholic boarding school, but we have two bars right across the street and two more a little farther away (About a 5 min walk)

I ended up not going out the first night but it sounds like it got a little carried away and people got overly drunk. I did go out the second night and know I am going to have to start liking wine. I had a Spritz, which is a hit drink in this region right now that includes wine. My Italian teacher told us we had to try it, just to know if we liked it. It was different, but okay. Had some liqueur and wine and orange in it. Kind of interesting.

I layed down for a nap today and ended up sleeping over 4 hours. That was probably long over due but I am all ready to go now. Maybe go out again? Who knows...

I'm meeting some great people out here and the teachers I have are all nice, so far. We'll see who my Finance Prof is. I have that at 5 tonight.

I haven't been doing much except hanging around campus and getting more settled in. They have been keeping us busy with seminars that we must keep attending. Tomorrow is the ropes course for my group and an all day thing of random adventures.

I do not know Italian yet, along with most people so that keeps things interesting. A lot of us took French so that likes to come out at random times when we are trying to speak Italian.

I have started making my list of all items I brought and am buying for my marketing class as well as their brand and where they were made. It's very time consuming and hard to read the labels on the Italian items as to where they are from.

I don't really have any new news and days will be going by very quickly once it gets rolling more. I am ready for it to cool down though so I can wear my pants and shirts instead of borrowing Steph's shorts (my room mate).


There actually is a crew of us from Minnesota, mainly from the metro area, they just don't go to the U. People love my accent though, since it is the strongest and of course when asked where I am from I have to say the "o".

I am off to attempt to do homework now before my class tonight. I am probably forgetting a lot of details to inform you all of but I am just not sure what there are.

Beginning of the Adventures and loving it!

Wow! Has it ever been quite the adventure… (But yes, I am finally on campus. Safe and healthy (now))

It all started leaving Minneapolis. We had a few issues on the plance. Technical issues included the air conditioning and not being able to open the air valve to start the engine so we were stuck on the plane for about 45 minutes. But don’t you worry, there was plenty of entertainment on the flight to keep us occupied.

Right in front of me was this guy… Well, he was EXTREMELY drunk and he also had to buddies on the plane as well. They were all scattered around and all wasted. I never saw the third one but the two guys talking weren’t even sure if he made it on. One guy was in charge of the luggage so all bags made it on the plane, but that wasn’t their biggest worry either.

The guy in front of me decided he had a problem with the guy next to me (Who seemed like he was having a horrible day already). So he called his friend (which is when I realized there were a few of them on the flight) and was like “Man, there’s this dude. I’m about to fuck him up, man.” And so on. Blurting it out loud so everyone on the plane could hear him talking about kicking this guys ass. From what I could recall it was cuz the guy next to me wanted him to put his seat forward a little bit while we were waiting on the plane. The other guy comes over and finally finds his friend and is trying to figure out where he put his bag, while the one that put them on the plane had already forgotten… So someone on the plane was smart enough to say look on the other side after they were searching for about 5 min, and there it was. One of the flight attendents finally came and moved the guy in front of me to another part of the plane and I’m guessing was told he’d be kicked off if he didn’t calm down. You can sense the relief on my section of the plane when he was finally moved. The rest of the plane was peaceful and we made it to Amsterdam safely.

I met up with a couple other guys in my program at the Amsterdam airport and we flew to Venice together. We also met another couple people in our program that were on the same flight as well. We seemed to be running into people in our program everywhere as a lot of us stayed in Venice last night (Sunday).

We got off the plane and took the bus to the train station, where our hotel was. As we are walking to our hotel, it decides to rain. No biggy, right? Well… Then it starts to down pour. Our hotel was only a couple blocks from the train station but we hung out at a store front under an eave waiting for it to pass. We made it to the hotel quite easily and didn’t get lost. (Good thing I had the name of the hotel and the close up map of where it was cuz the guys I met up with couldn’t even remember the hotel name. I didn’t either, which is why I wrote it down before leaving.) I think my dreams about getting to Venice and not having a passport and not remember the name of my hotel or directions helped a lot for that part. Otherwise who knows… We may have been wandering for a while. Or searched it on the internet, but that’s too easy.

We met up with the rest of our crew at the hotel and settled down (4 guys, 4 girls) before heading into Venice for the night. We went into Venice around 18:30 (Gotta practice military time) and had spaghetti and beer on the canal. We hung out and chatted for a while and then decided to start walking and wandering around Venice. it’s all windy streets, so we put some distance on. We decided we were really tired and needed to go to sleep so we should turn around and go back. Well, going back wasn’t so easy. We didn’t want to back track but then we ended up getting lost. It was Sunday night so only restaurants were open so we no longer had crews of people to follow. We would stop and try to locate us on the only small map one of us had along… Took some time. We realized we needed help getting back when we started walking in circles. We heard English, so that was our chance to ask. The lady was great. She was so happy to see fellow Americans and more than happy to tell us our way out. We got fairly close to the train station but just weren’t getting there since we would always run into dead ends and turn right when we were supposed to be finding narrow, creepy road ways that turned left. As we were making our way out from where we got stuck, we seemed to gather more Americans that were lost in our area. We collected at least three more while navigating ourselves out and just told them to follow us (since we had directions now, just had to find the roads. We really only needed to take a left, right, left and we were where we needed to be). It was great and we no longer felt completely ridiculous as all of us Americans were getting lost. We finally got back to our hotel around 23:30-24:00 I believe…

The next morning would be great, right? Pack up and head to campus? No, not so much. I felt like I was gettind dehydrated on the walk but once I decided to buy water we didn’t pass another store. Only restaurants and I didn’t feel like dealing with it. So in the morning? I was SICK! (I’m thinking because of dehydration and plane food combined) I woke up around 5:00 and felt nauseaus but just layed there until 8 when I was supposed to get up to take the first shower. I thought sleeping longer it would go away… Not my luck. I took a shower, went to breakfast and drank some orange juice. I couldn’t remember acqua meant water in italian so I didn’t know how to ask for it (We were being served). Orange juice? BAD idea… I sat for a little bit and then went back to the bedroom and BAM! To the bathroom I went. I was now vomitty sick. Luckily, I had only had liquids so it wasn’t too bad. Although, it wasn’t all at once. It was in increments when I felt gross. So I was pukey sick all morning, last time was on the train to Bassano del Grappa at about noon. No fun, but then I was all better and ready to get to my room.

Everything has been good since. I am actually sitting in my dorm room typing this up. I am in one of the smaller rooms but it’s still not that small. It’s MUCH bigger than T-Hall. We only are in our rooms for studying, no TV or anything so a big room isn’t compeletely necessary. We have our closests, bathroom, shower, book shelves, bed, night stand. It’s pretty well furnished. It’s a very cute small campus. Makes me wonder why I went to such a large school when I like small petite things. There are two dorm buildings (I believe) for us 92 students and then 2 buildings with classrooms in it (Although one building isn’t completely ours, only a couple rooms, as it is an italian boarding school. There also is the main building with the office and events set up in, which is outside my window.There is a rec center we have access to that I believe is for the whole town (of 2,000 people). It has a couple pools (one small one) and the regular rec equipment. It is right under a tunnel from Campus, so very convenient. I have not been inside yet, but it is my mission to spend some time over there this semester. I guess we’ll see how classes go… It’s Very cute, very little. My first class starts tomorrow at 8:30. I have 8:30 classes every day. Good thing I was getting up early this summer, hopefully it stays.

I am all unpacked and set up in my room. Didn’t forget too much, that I know of yet. It is very mosquito’e’ as we found out last night, so I will need to get some bug spray (Yes, I know I wrote it on my list that I made with everyone and yes, I still forgot it). I also need to buy some summer clothes, as I didn’t bring shorts (besides cotton work out ones). Luckily, I grabbed a few tanks and can just wear my under tanks. It is much hotter here right now than I expected. Definitely still shorts, T-shirt weather. Even at night. Doesn’t seem like it is going to cool down much, but at least when it does, I have my jackets and gloves ready! I didn’t forget those J.

I also have been having moments of AHH!!! What have I gotten myself into I want to go home, this is too long moods and then other times where I am very excited. Right now? I am in my happy mood and ready to go. When I was sick, I wanted to be home and curl up in bed and not train/bus around Italy… Typical mood while sick.

Tonight we have dinner, a welcome orientation and a welcome party. Hopefully I won’t be up TOO late as I must remember I actually have class tomorrow morning… Classes? Who takes those, we all just want to be here and travel and not have classes…

I will have internet in my room by tomorrow, hopefully. They somehow lost my form but I was able to fill out another one and they will set me up. I am heading over to the comp lab to post this (That is if they found the missing key to open it).

So far, as you can tell, it has been quite the adventure but I’m sure it will calm down as we now must get into the groove of being on campus and going to class. But I have a busy schedule ahead of me these next couple days…

All for now, more stories to come.

Oh yes, and mother, I figured out who was in Finland with a passport. It was a girl from Minneapolis who goes to Oregon and her parent’s go to Fenstad’s resort every summer and she happened to go with this year. She was part of my crew at the hotel last night. Small world, huh?

Also, this is where I’ll mainly be placing stories instead of sending multiple emails to multiple people. Especially these first couple weeks their won’t be much personal contact as I am trying to meet more people and be… studious?

Italy Bound

So, today I am off. My plane departs at 9:15 PM and I have a layover in Amsterdam before reaching Venice. I won't get to Venice until 4:30 tomorrow afternoon (local time). 

I will be in touch with everyone once I settle in and get my internet working. I don't actually get to campus until Monday evening and I'll be starting classes Tuesday.

More soon!