That Damn Leaning Tower Plus Perugia & Assisi

Sorry about the late post but this will cover the events of two weekends with some weekly stuff in between.

Last weekend (Sept. 29) most of us in the group decided to take a day trip to Pisa to see what I now call That Damn Leaning Tower. Yes, it was actually really cool to see something that I had seen my entire life only in pictures. I thought to myself "Yup, there it is. Finally seeing it with my own two eyes...and I'm done." I especially was not down for the "take a picture of me holding up the tower!" thing. I took the pictures for the people in my group that wanted the picture, but I refused to take the cheesy touristy picture with that damn leaning tower. Now, I am not saying Pisa isn't worth a day trip. It most definitely is worth seeing; can't live in Tuscany without seeing it. But we were done in about three hours. And can I just say that there is a lot more to do than just see that damn leaning tower. First of all, the tower is at the end of the Piazza dei Miracoli (Plaza of Miracles) which also contains the Duomo, the Baptistry, and the Camposanto Monumentale. All of these places are definitely worth a visit and for 10 euro, you can get admission into all of these places plus two museums across the road. The Duomo was one of the most beautiful I had seen since coming to Italy...which is what I say about basically every Duomo.

The rest of our weekend was spent in Florence either just hanging in the Villa or walking around the city. Thus began another week of class including weekly quizzes that feel like finals, readings upon readings, projects, presentations, papers, and all the like. We ended the week with a historic walking tour of Florence. Since I'm taking Dr. Paul Contino's "Dante in Florence" class, we began our tour in the Baptistry of Saint John the Baptist where Dante Alighieri himself was baptized. We celebrated Mass in the Baptistry with the most amazing mosaics I had ever seen right above my head. Mass was ended and our director Elizabeth led us through the city, pointing out things we normally wouldn't notice.

Friday morning came and it was time for my little weekend to the region of Umbria, where we went to the towns of Perugia (the chocolate capitol of Italy) and Assisi (the hometown of Saint Francis). We arrived at the Perugia train station and were...underwhelmed at first. It was metropolitan and very similar to downtown somewhere in the not-so-good part of Southern California. We walked up and took a Mini Metro to the actual center where we saw the more typical looking Italy part of town. We walked around and saw the university, some parks, some churches, etc. But still we couldn't find where our hostel was and the main Piazza of the city. So we got on some wifi while at lunch and found directions. We walked up more to our hostel and left our bags off. We turned the corner and BAM there was the Piazza from the Google images that we were looking for the whole time. Perugia is such a beautiful little town. It was clean, small, not touristy, and we felt so safe walking around at night. The food was amazing and of course the chocolate was some of the best I'd had in a while.

The next day we trained to Assisi. I was so excited to see the town where Saint Francis lived and preached since he is such an important person in the Catholic Church, as well as a close saint to me and my family. We first went to the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary of Angels). The original chapel is still there and then the massive, white basilica was built around it. We were surprised to find out that this basilica was the site where Francis first received the stigmata and began to preach the word of God, the location of his rose garden where he would tell the turtle doves to praise the Lord, and the place of Francis' death. Perhaps the most amazing part of the church, for me, was the Rose Garden. In the middle of the closed-off garden is a bronze statue of Francis with a lamb by his feet and doves in his hands. As we were walking by, I looked up and in the walkway were two turtledoves nestled. It is said that since Francis began preaching there, turtledoves (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) would regularly visit the garden. Words can't even begin to describe how I felt seeing the birds right there where Francis told them hundreds of years ago to praise God.

We left lower Assisi and took a bus to upper Assisi where the Basilica di San Francesco D'Assisi is. This is the site of Francis' tomb. Going down into the crypt and seeing Saint Francis' final resting place was so surreal. The entire church was silenced and many people would pray and show respect to this great man. Speaking of showing respect, I really wish I could have taken pictures/video inside of these churches however there were signs everywhere saying that photography was strictly prohibited. While I'm disappointed, at the same time I understand and am happy that places like these are so highly revered that taking some pics to post on Instagram would be considered a huge disrespect.

We stayed at an amazing little B&B in the town of Bastia right under Assisi and were back home in Florence sunday afternoon. Now our group is getting ready for one day of class on Monday and then it's time for our EFT (Educational Field Trip) to Sicily!

First Week of Class: Check. Oh, and That Little Expedition to Cinque Terre...

Seriously, what? It's only been one week?! It seems like we've been in class for about a month, at least. But no, that's not possible since we haven't even been in Florence for a whole month. As crazy as it seems, we've really only been here for about 2 and a half weeks. In that short amount of time, I've already experienced reading, quizzes, reading, presentations, reading, reading...oh and did I mention reading? Yeah, we do a lot of that around the villa. Or outside. Some find it better to do work outside the house. I will usually read out in the backyard patio. Others go across the creek and sit on a bench. Or some still will venture to a nearby park and just read. Or they'll just stay in the library/music room. Whatever floats your boat.

Now one thing I have to say is that even though school work is tough and its been a lot, I am actually appreciating it a lot at this moment. I am enrolled in four classes this semester and they all work so well together. The most exciting part is that we learning about Florence...IN FLORENCE. We are reading Dante...IN FLORENCE. We are seeing pictures and statues and buildings in our textbooks that are only 15 minutes away. That didn't really hit me until we finished reading Dante's "La Vita Nuova" in my English class. We have to go around the city and find "Dante Plaques;" they're plaques placed at important locations in the city with quotes from Dante's "Divine Comedy." I went with two friends looking for a couple and we ended up at the Ponte Vecchio, finding the plaque that translates to "At the Crossing of the Arno..." From the Ponte Vecchio, we saw the Ponte Santa Trinita. The bridge with three arches was described to us in class as we were reading La Vita Nuova. That was the very bridge Dante saw his love, Beatrice. RIGHT THERE. They were right there. I just read that two days prior. And now I am at where it happened. Wait, what?! Seriously? You can say that makes the learning experience a little more bearable.

At the end of the week, we all kind of decided to reward ourselves with a trip to Cinque Terre. We left Firenze at 5:30...in the morning. We got to the first city, Riomaggiore. And this is what we saw.

I mean, I guess you could say it was kinda beautiful.

We walked through the Via D'Amore to get to Manarola, the next town. Along with path we had the Meditteranian Sea to our left and graffiti of people professing their love for each other on the right. People also brought locks and locked then on chains to symbolize their love being "locked" in the Via D'Amore forever. Also, someone wasn't feeling the love so they posted "4 Ever Alone"... sad day.

Anyway, we lost a couple people, found some people, trained a bit, walked a bit, ate a bit, and wondered around until we got to the end of the third town, Corniglia. Our group decided to hike to the next town of Vernazza. I went for it. Without knowing it was an hour and a half hike. I wanted to die. After close to two hours of hiking, we were rewarded with a stunning view of Vernazza. We spent some time in that town, eating lunch and exploring some of the shops. We were so exhausted from that hike still that we didn't even think about hiking to Monterosso, the last town (although some from our group were able to. Kudos to them). So we trained to the last town.

Monterosso is basically the Santa Monica / Malibu of Italy. Beach town. The water was beautiful and the weather was nice. We rented a couple beach chairs and umbrellas for our group and laid out on the beach while some went into the rock-infested waters. The beach closed at six and some of us treated ourselves to a nice dinner...and a way cheaper dinner than we thought. Seafood spaghetti with the house white wine...only 10.50. And we were sitting right there next to the Sea. Couldn't get any better (or cheaper) than that.

We relaxed for a little while longer until our train back home arrived. We didn't get back to the Villa until past midnight and we were all exhausted. I didn't wake up until noon the next day. Best feeling ever.

And then we were off for week two of class...
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Italiano Intensivo

After our magical first week, we were subjected to this little thing called "Italiano Intensivo"...for those that can't translate: Instensive Italian.

The week consisted of 4 hours of Italian class a day with 2 hours in the middle spent with Italian college students from the University of Florence we deemed the uscitas. We were split into groups and went with the uscitas to various places throughout the city. Or so we thought. On the very first day, my group was assigned to go to il teatro; thinking we were going to go catch a show at the theater, we thought it a little weird that we were shepherded into the Love Music Room. Then one of the uscitas started acting a little strangely and since she was speaking Italian, no one had a clue what hell she was saying. From what we could muster, she lost the tickets to the theater, meaning WE had to become the theater. That took us like 20 minutes to figure out.

We then proceeded to play essentially icebreaker games for the next two hours, the whole time thinking we were eventually going to the damn theater. Never happened. Instead, we had to convince another person in our group that there was a train behind them by yelling TRENO!!, do some yoga poses, and say our name with different emozioni.

While the whole theater thing was kind of weird, it introduced us to our uscitas who would be our guides for the week. My group was blessed to have Michele, Monica, and Martina. The three of them would lead us to the supermercato, ufficio postale, il bar (for coffee, obviously), and la libreria. Not many of the uscitas speak English but the ones that do had very specific instructions NOT to use it and ONLY speak Italian to us. So I'm sure they got a hoot out of watching us struggle with the language and stooping down to using hand gestures and help from others to get our point across to them.

At the end of the week, we had a final in our intensive Italian classes which everyone is pretty sure we all failed. To get our minds off of that, our last day was spent by having a fashion show with people dressing up in some weird Italian fashions, like B-Boy, Emo, Metalheads, Classy, etc.

This was followed by a Pizza Party at Il Pallaio Firenze, an amazing restaurant that fed us until we all almost died...

Speaking of eating until you borderline qualify of being guilty of Deadly Sin known as Gluttony, the following day we went to our Program Director Elizabeth's house for a BBQ. We were greeted by a group of Medieval-esque Italian trumpeters and flag bearers (one of which happened to be Elizabeth herself). The day was spent hanging out with each other, Elizabeth, and the uscitas in the hills of Tuscany with some of the best food we've ever tasted. Seriously, we think they're trying to fatten us all up for some devious plot. Or they're just really nice.

The weekend ended with some of the group heading for grape picking and others staying in the Villa due to either sickness or exhaustion. Much rest will be needed. Tomorrow classes begin. For real this time though.

The First Weekend

Now that the first weekend is over, I guess it's finally time to update this thing. Sorry it's taken so long, since I know all of my thousands of imaginary followers have been eagerly waiting an update on this. So much has happened, I really don't know where to start. Well, maybe I do. The beginning seems appropriate enough.

Arriving at LAX was a surreal experience. 5 days prior, I left my home in Elk Grove CA, said goodbye to most of family, and headed for Southern California. I spent the weekend with my sister and seeing friends at Pepperdine. It still hadn't hit me that I was leaving for Italy in such a short amount of time. Even at LAX, it still did not hit me that I was leaving the states to live and study in Florence for 8 months.

There was a ridiculous layover in Rome after an 11 hour flight (with some questionable in-flight meals), and then a ridiculously short flight (approx. 35 minutes) to Florence. We were tired. We were hot. Some of us were a little irritable. But then we saw our wonderful Program Director Elizabeth Whatley and shepherd us to the bus that would lead us to our Villa in Florence.

And that's when everything changed.

The feelings of being nervous, or tired, or scared, all disappeared in an instant. Thoughts of "this is actually happening" entered all of our minds.

We arrived at the Villa and was immediately greeted by Dr. Paul Contino, our visiting faculty member from the Malibu campus. We walked into the Villa and were led into, what I think we can all agree, is one the most beautiful buildings any one of us could call "home."

Although we were tired and the effects of jet lag were beginning to creep on us, we took a bus tour of the city, passing by famous sites and landmarks including the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio on the Arno River. The tour ended with a stop at Piazzale Michelangelo. We were graced with a view of a huge replica of the David and so blessed with the best view of the city. Words cannot even describe. So I'll leave you with this picture. Just let that one sink in for a minute...yeah, it definitely took more than just a minute. After staring at that beauty for a good 20 minutes, we called it a day and headed home.

The next days were very eventful, including a walking tour of the city, another trip up to Piazzale Michelangelo, a day trip to the gorgeous town of Fiesole in Toscana (about 20 minutes from Firenze), and a trip to the train station and the Piazza del Duomo. Viewing the Duomo up close and at night was unlike anything else. We proceed to go to a gelateria nearby (curtesy of Pepperdine) and took in the city. Whats that saying, again? When in Florence, do as the Florentines do--or something like that. What have you.


Exhausted. That's how everyone felt. As amazing as the city is and as much fun as we were experiencing, it was rough getting up in the mornings. Surely we would be able to sleep in on the weekend...right? Wrong. Two more days of adventures through Toscana. Those bus rides were torture. But my God...getting there and seeing Siena; I'll let the picture speak for itself. I completely and utterly feel in love with Siena. It was unlike anything I had ever imagined. Free from the hustle & bustle of Florence's crazy streets, Siena is a quiet and beautiful city with a rich history. Visiting the Siena Duomo and San Domenico to see the Relics of St. Catherine were awe-inspiring.

We left Siena and travelled to another small town in Tuscany, San Gimignano. Smaller than the other places we visited, San Gimignano is a medieval town known for its many towers. Another quiet place with a gelateria claiming to be "The World's Best Ice Cream." So naturally I checked it out. And it came pretty damn close.

I am so in love with this country and there is so much I have yet to explore.

It also came to my attention as I was writing this that the chronological order of some of the above days might be wrong. That is because I honestly am getting everything mixed up. I cannot believe that at the time I am publishing this post, I haven't even been in Florence for a full week. It feels like we've been here forever, in the best possible way.

That Time I Applied for My Visa

So today I made the trek to San Francisco to apply for my study visa at the Consolato Generale d'Italia a San Francisco (Italian Consulate). I had all my paperwork in order per the checklist given to me from Pepperdine. I went through the whole process of gathering everything from that checklist. For some reason unknown to me, I decided that was okay. It did not occur to me to check the SF Consulate page. Seems their checklist differed a little bit. I didn't figure that out until I got there. You can say I was a little stressed. More accurately, I was sweating bullets and felt like vomiting. What was comforting me a little is the fact that the SF Consulate does not take appointments so worse case scenario, I'd just go back another day.

Getting into the building, I presented the Consular with my packet and the documents I had. He inspected every single piece of paper I had on there and I was just waiting for the moment where he told me that I was missing something or that he couldn't process my application. Finally, he stopped going though my papers and said, "you're missing a photocopy" (my heart sank) "Just go down two blocks to the UPS store, photocopy this letter and bring it back. You won't have to stand in line and we'll get you out of here as soon as possible." HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders.

Applying for this visa was so stressful but once he stamped my application and said "okay great, we have everything, thank you" I felt so relieved and accomplished. This is just one step closer to Florence! (70 days and counting!)

The Real Purpose

So maybe I should explain this little detail. A couple of years ago when Pepperdine's International Programs Office created an official Media Coordinator position, one of the big duties of the IPMC was to create and manage a blog that would be updated for the school and family/friends to see what the group was up to. This job has been removed and replaced by the monthly Check-In videos and end of the year Photo Collection.

Although I am doing this on my own, I do like the original intent of the IPMC blog. So while this will be partially personal with my own posts, I will include group events, stories, photos, and videos on this blog.

I feel like this is an excellent way for family and friends to stay updated on our activities next year.

Again, this blog is personal and of my own doing. This blog is in no way officially affiliated with Pepperdine University or it's International Programs Office, particularly the Florence, Italy 2012-2013 Program.

Thank you.

Just an introduction

So I decided...what the heck? Let me start up this blog to document what's going to happen when I study abroad in Florence during my sophomore year at Pepperdine University.

Of course, this brilliant idea came to me at about 3am and here I am, 3:38 am, writing this first post.

Now, I'm not even sure who the intended audience of this is...or if there even will be one. I mean, this is linked to my Google+ account and God knows I only have like 5 friends in my "circles" or whatever. That being said, I'm going to post on this in hopes that people will read it. And if not, I'm going to pretend they are; just like how I'm doing right about now!

Believe me, this'll be a lot more interesting come September when I, along with 44 (give-or-take) other Pepperdine students, depart LAX and head to Italy for a whole academic year!

Why am I writing this right now, though? All the way in the middle of June? Well, the answer is simple: I'm way too excited to just sit around these next 75 days until we leave (yes, I am counting down the days). Oh man, I've been downloading travel apps to my iPhone like crazy. Can't use them yet, but I have them!

Anyway, I should promote this or something. I can't be the only one reading this (#foreveralone). Shameless Facebook/Twitter self-promoting plugs to come...once this'll actually get interesting, of course. I really don't know how this all works but I guess this is also linked to my YouTube channel, which if you're reading this (but I know you aren't), you should subscribe to that, too. As the Florence 2012-2013 Media Coordinator, I will be posting many MANY videos of our time abroad. It'll be awesome. Trust me.

Well, you're bored already, aren't you? Don't lie to me. I'll end the first post here with the promise that this'll all be so much more interesting in a few short months. Until next time, nobody! Somebody.......?