Day 4 in Arezzo

This is going to be a short post. I just went to a little gelato place really close by my apartment and they have really really good coffee gelato!! I have class at 4PM til 6PM, then we get a dinner break til 8PM and will be here for review session until they kick me out probably. LOL. We have an exam tomorrow morning, and then we are going to a vineyard in the afternoon so I'm pretty excited about that! I'm understanding the newest materials in class a little better than the first day, but I guess I am missing some key concepts or something, because I'm not doing that well on the work. Nothing new really. Just going to class and studying and that is about it, so I'm going to get off of here. 

Day 3 in Arezzo!!! =)

Second day of O-chem and culinary cultures of Italy classes!! I got up around 8AM to get caught up on some reading for O-chem, and read through what I thought I was supposed to have read for today. Turned out I was a half a chapter behind still. =( I went to my apartment on my lunch break though and finished up the reading for what I hadn’t already done, so I’m “caught up” again. It is going to be really hard to keep up in this class, because I’m a really slow reader and we are going over a full chapter or more a day plus our days are sort of packed tight. We generally have lecture 11AM til 1:20PM then break for “lunch” til 4PM. I like that our apartment is only about a 5 minute walk from school so I can go back on my lunch break and read. I have been so exhausted though I end up taking a short nap as well, so I can’t get quite as much done as I would like. Then we have class from 4PM til 6PM and after are free to do whatever we want or need to do. We have to walk anywhere we go for dinner so it generally takes a couple of hours to get to somewhere for dinner and back to our apartment. Then by the time I take a shower it is probably 9 or 9:30 or so, and I have a few hours until I need to go to sleep. I guess it isn’t really that packed of a schedule, but I feel like it because I don’t have time to take notes from the book as I would like as well as doing all the practice problems our teacher suggests and reviewing the things I didn’t quite understand in lecture.

We tasted some wine in class in the afternoon today and also tried some cheese with it after we tasted the wine by itself. They wanted us to smell the wine first and get an impression of what we thought.  It kind of smelled like apples to me, but had a really strong alcohol scent to it more than anything. My instructor said it was a sweet wine, but it didn’t taste sweet to me. It burned as it went down, which I really don’t like (which is why I have only had jack daniels precisely ONE time before). He said most of the wines we will be trying will likely be red wines and will be dry. I’m kind of iffy on that, because I generally like white wines that are sweet, and I don’t think I care for dry wine, but maybe I will be surprised by it! You never know. The cheese we tried was made with sheep milk and it was really good actually. It had a little of a weird after taste, but maybe with a different wine it wouldn’t be noticeable. We learned that the majority of cheese you will get here isn’t made with cow milk, so that’s a fun fact for the day.

                I went to eat at a little place really close to my apartment tonight, and I think I will probably keep going back there for meals. It is on our voucher plan, so it is free and it is one of the places that I get free water at (they don’t really serve tap water over here… only bottled mineral water, so if it isn’t included in our voucher we have to pay for the water we drink). Plus they had really good food. I tried gnocchi for the first time (have always wanted to, but the opportunity never really came up) and it was really good, and I had a little left over to take with me for lunch tomorrow. I like that, because I can just come to my apartment to eat lunch between classes instead of spending an hour or longer wasting time at a restaurant. 

                I just got back to the apartment again and I’m going to try and read through another chapter AND do all of the practice problems for the chapters we have already covered. I’m not sure if that is going to work out or not, but I can be ambitious!!

                Missing friends and family back home so much! *hugs*  

Back to my studies!

Today was our first real day back to school. We had to be at OUA around 9AM for official orientation, and they took us up to this park that is WAY at the top of a huge, really steep inclined hill. It is so pretty up there, but I am really frustrated. I feel like I'm the only one that is really struggling with all of the walking and hills and stuff, and everyone just leaves me behind or I have to put myself in pain to keep up, because my ankle is really swollen already and I am so out of shape that I can't do much physical activity without my chest hurting and feeling like I am going to pass out. I'm sure a big part of this is my thyroid disorder, but a big part is also that I am just really out of shape because I don't ever do physical activity anymore, and I am so disappointed in myself. I really miss home and I'm trying really hard to be positive and improve myself while I'm here and have a good time, but I am really struggling with it. 

Then at our first lecture today I felt even worse. For one thing I was really overly tired even though I slept fairly well last night and I kept almost falling asleep in the AM lecture. I also have basically forgotten everything we did today, which was supposed to be just review and I was just really confused on the majority of it. I've enjoyed being here and I am really glad I came, but I'm feeling like maybe it was a mistake because I'm not sure if I can do this class as a fast track course and pass it with a good grade. I think I'm too far behind where I should be and way too confused about the things  I should already know really well. Hopefully with a lot of studying I can get it though. I know I am going to do my best anyways.. and that's what counts, right? I also had a really bad migraine during and after our AM lecture (another side effect of my thyroid..), so instead of going to the supermarket to get some fresh fruit for breakfast and some snacks to keep at our apartment I ended up just going to the apartment and taking some head ache medicine and laying in the dark for 2 hours. Thankfully the afternoon class was easier for me. It was our culinary cultures class, but we talked about chemistry stuff related to the culinary class, and I didn't have any problem following along with that part of it, so that is a good thing! 

After class, me and a couple of my peers went to find a place to eat that accepts our food vouchers. We settled on a place that is somewhat buffet style. One of the OU faculty told us that some students find it intimidating because there is a lot of pointing to tell them what you want. I couldn't relate to that experience though. The lady up front was really really nice, and explained the menu to us in English and the things she could not think of, she showed us and asked how to say them in English so she would know! It was actually really cool. I got a pasta with ragu, some prosciutto with mozzarella, and some diced potatoes. The pasta was really good. It wasn't too "tomatoey" and had good seasoning in it. The potatoes were "okay". They kind of just tasted like olive oil. There wasn't much to seasoning on them. Then the prosciutto was way to sweet for me. I didn't like it at all. I don't think meat should be sweet like that! On the way back from dinner I stopped at the supermarket and got some apples and pears for breakfast, some raisins (I think ... if not, some kind of dried up fruit that looks a lot like them), some kind of granola bars with nutella to dip them in (yumm), and vanilla wafers just cause I could. I also picked up some toilet paper for the apartment, since we only had 1 and a half rolls or so. 

Now I'm back at the apartment and going  to study for a while before I go to bed. I miss everyone so much! I can't wait to see you all again!! I'll post more soon. 

The pics of the building are OUA (University of Oklahoma, Arezzo!)

Leaving Rome...

From yesterday.. since it would not post at the time:

Well, today was my last day in Rome, but I have to say it was one of my favorites! I really loved the Colloseum and the ruins! They are so beautiful! I took a lot of pictures, but they really don’t give you the full effect of experiencing the sights for yourself. I actually got sun burnt, which usually doesn’t happen, so that sucks, but overall it was a great day.

We had a reading assignment that taught me some interesting things about wine I never knew. For one thing, wine was suggested to have first been produced in the Neolithic period, between 9000 and 4000 BCE! Because it had to be imported from wine-growing lands far away and the cost of importing it was high, someone who was able to afford wine would be considered to be wealthy. Because of the low availability and expense of wine, it was considered to be “worthy” of religious ceremonies. Availability of the beverage, help lower prices, which eventually allowed for wine to be a social as well as religious or “elite” drink.

We learned today while we were out walking about how and why wine and olives played such an important role in the Roman world, and even how figs figured into it. There are 3 trees planted together in the forum (this is what they call the collection of ruins next to the colloseum). One fig tree, one grape tree, and one olive tree. Even 2000 years later, the importance of these items is being shown through the symbolism of the three trees planted together. We were told that the Romans would use wine and dilute it with water, and that would allow them to drink water in new lands they were exploring without fear of the water causing them to get sick. That in combination with the calories from olive oil, and the sugar from figs allowed them to explore new lands they ordinarily would not have been able to.

I actually went out on my own to dinner tonight and navigated my way to the restaurant and back with no problems. Not that it was that hard… I just went right up the street from where I’m staying, but I still did it! I found a little Indian food place that smelled good, so I decided to try it. They had a couscous with vegetables on their menu, but he looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for it, so I told him to just give me whatever he would suggest… I think he gave me falafels in like a wrap type deal with veggies and some kind of sauce on it. It was really good, except the (what I am assuming to be) falafels were kind of dry, but I’ve never actually had falafels so maybe that is how they should be. In the Indian place I found a sort of wine cooler type drink I decided to try when I got back to the hotel. I find it funny that it is socially acceptable to waltz in to a gift shop with a beer in your hand and nobody even seems to notice here. I couldn’t imagine doing that at home. I really probably wouldn’t have done it here either, but I forgot I had it in my hand until I was already in there and realized the store clerk didn’t care.

So looked around in his shop a little bit and headed to my hotel…. I’m all packed up to head to Arezzo tomorrow morning and start classes. Believe it or not, I am really excited about getting into school stuff. I generally really like chemistry. I just hope I am better at organic that I seemed to be with the little bit of it I dealt with in gen chem. =/ Well, I am going to look over my syllabus and school information my teacher posted. I’ll post again soon!!

Day 2 in Rome!!

We went to a nice place for dinner last night after I posted. It was the kind of place that has a predetermined menu and they bring you each course without you actually ordering. I ate the appetizer, which was like some kind of tuna pasta dish I think. It was okay, but it had a strong fish taste and I didn’t really like it. Then the main course was fish and some kind of salad that I didn’t really care for… I did try to eat the fish, but I just couldn’t do it. After that they brought out dessert. It looked like maybe vanilla gelato, but I took a bite and realized it was lemon, which was really really good!

I was so exhausted by the end of yesterday, but I made myself stay up until 11PM so maybe my body can get used to this new time zone. I got up and 7 this morning and went to have breakfast here at the hotel. The breakfast here is a little different than back home. They had lots of different pastries (like chocolate covered scones). I tried what looked like a donut with sugar on it and chocolate in the middle, but I realized it was Nutella or something like it in the middle once I started eating it (also really good). They have pineapple juice that was delicious too, so I had some of that.

We left the hotel to walk to the Vatican at about 8:15 this morning. It is about an hour walk to get there and it was hot outside, so I was sweating and worn down already by the time we arrived. Inside the Vatican is beautiful. Words cannot even describe it, and the pictures I took do not do the beauty and justice at all! The Sistine chapel was phenomenal. You are not allowed to take pictures and the guards are very serious about it! There was a lady sitting near me who had taken a couple & he opened her tablet and made her delete them all, then told her “no photo!” and walked off. Next we got to see Saint Peter’s basilica.

After walking around and taking a few pictures in there, me and another girl got separated from everyone else in the group and never did find them, so we just found a little shop with a map and wandered around Rome for the rest of the day, shopping and site seeing, with no particular agenda. It was pretty fun actually. I bought several souvenirs for friends and family, and even got myself a couple of things too! We went through the bargain market, which was kind of interesting. I have never bartered before, but you can there, although I didn’t.  We came back to the hotel for a little while, then we went out to dinner.

We went to a place really close to our hotel that was having a special with bruschetta appetizer and since we both like bruschetta figured, “why not give this place a try?” The bruschetta was really good, and a little different than what I usually get back home. What I got here was served as 1 big piece instead of several small pieces as I usually get in Oklahoma and it was covered with a lot of olive oil too. Also, the toppings were full of flavor, rather than just plain with minimal seasoning (if any) as I have received back home. The special we got was another some-what predetermined meal. We got to pick out of 3 entrees (we chose to get lasagna, but I don’t even remember what the other options were to be honest). Then got to pick out of 2 “2^nd” courses, which both contained veal. I have always been adamant that I would never eat veal, but I tried it anyways, because, “I’m in Rome, why not?!” I’m happy to say that I have concluded I do not like it. It kind of tasted like wild turkey or something like that. I don’t think I will eat it again. Then they brought out a big cup of mixed fruits (pineapple, kiwi, and apple [I think]) that was SO sweet, but really good also. I have gotten so used to the fruit I get from the grocery store at home that usually isn’t very fresh, I forgot how good it can be when it is fresh.

I’m really excited about tomorrow. We are going to the Colosseum, which is one of the biggest things I really wanted to see while I’m here… So I am going to go to sleep so I’ll be rested tomorrow and have plenty of energy to walk around and see some more exciting sites in Rome. 

PS
I tried to post this last night and wifi wasn't working. :) So this is my post for yesterday. Not from today. Lol

First day in Europe!

Well... I left Oklahoma Thursday, May 29th at 12:15PM. I had a short about an hour and a half layover in Washington, DC. I did not know my flight from Ok to DC gate checked your carry on bag, so when they took it and told me "they'll give it right back", I had no idea that meant they would give it back when we arrived in DC 3 hours later. I left my medicine I needed to take and my gum in that bag, so I was feeling like crap by the time I arrived in DC. They did give me my bag "right" back... as soon as I got off the plane 3 hours later.... Lol. Once I took my meds and got some food I felt quite a bit better.

Then it was off to Rome on a 9 hour flight! I have not ever been on an international airplane before and that was pretty cool. They are HUGE!! I was really excited and planned to sleep for a good majority of that trip so I would be ready to be up all day when I got to Rome. My excitement faltered however, when I realized there was going to be an infant child riding along RIGHT next to me, who's mother has no respect for others personal space. This little girl kept hitting my arm and pulling my shirt down and she grabbed my coffee and stuck the little green starbucks stopper in her mouth before I even realized it & her mom says, "Do you mind if she does this?". So needless to say ... I've pretty much been up since 7AM on the 29th in Oklahoma time ... which is about 22 hours or so! 

I arrived in Rome this morning around 8:30AM, which is 1:30AM in my bodies clock. We had to take a quick train ride to the other side of the airport, then we got on a bus ride that took about 45 minutes to get to our destination. From there we had to walk a few blocks over with our luggage (which 1 of my bags is like 50 lbs. lol). We got to the hotel and had to wait for our rooms to become available since it was so early. After a brief wait, they got us checked into rooms and said we could get settled in. This room has 4 beds in it and it seems so small having all this furniture crammed in, but its a nice little place regardless and I can't wait to go to sleep tonight!! 

After check in we all went and walked around for several hours. I love the architecture here and I got to see a lot of really unique stuff. We went to the Fontana di Trevi, which is breath takingly gorgeous.. And we walked around to see a lot of different places. We just kind of wandered all over (what I think is) "down town" Rome. Our professor said getting out in the sun would help reset our bodies clocks so we can feel less tired tomorrow. I really hope it works because I am exhausted right now! Plus I also rubbed a huge blister in my foot from wearing flip flops for all that walking and they are burning really bad 

Now we have a "welcome" dinner to go to in about 5 minutes, then I am probably going to crash for the night. I'll write soon and keep you up to date on my adventures in Europe! =)