Soccer Hooligans

Last night, I went to my first Bologna FC match along with Nick and Brian to watch them play against Roma. We hopped on the bus right after class, which I'm finally just starting to figure out, by the way, and ended up meeting this guy from Croatia who was pretty cool and helped us get to the stadium. Tickets were 20 euros, which wasn't bad at all. We did have a little trouble finding the right place to enter the stadium since there were no signs, but eventually we got it figured out. We ended up right next to the Roma section, and the fans were pretty crazy. The stadium was only about 3/4 of the way full, and I don't know if that has anything to do with BFC being pretty mediocre this season or the fact that it was a midweek game or whatever, but I'd say about 20,000 people were there since the stadium holds 33,000. People were lighting up flares and stuff on the Bologna side, and there were partitions in the sections made out of plexiglass, so I'm sure it can get pretty rowdy. In fact, they actually check your ID at the gate and print your name on your ticket. There was also no way for the Rome fans to come in contact with Bologna fans really, since they separated the two parts of the stadium and had the place crawling with cops. I'd say the atmosphere was about the same as a Flyers game, if that makes any sense. I thought it would be even crazier than an Eagles game, since everyone harps on how big soccer is here, but it was actually a bit tamer than I was expecting...and I was reminded very early on that I was, indeed, watching soccer with the amount of flopping and fake injuries by the Roma side. Roma ended up winning 1-0, and to be honest the game itself wasn't a great one. There were few chances by either side, and I can see why soccer isn't very popular in America (we have the real football, dammit). It was basically just a bunch of play in the middle of the field with very few runs or anything too exciting. Roma's goal came on a deflection. I guess at the very least, I can say I saw Totti play- he used to be one of the better players out there and was the only name I recognized. It was cool though, don't get me wrong. I used to love playing soccer and while I always was a bigger fan of football, it's a sport that really does take some hard work and even guts. The whole time I was there I kept hearing Mr. Farley and Kalbach's voices in my head..."When in doubt, kick it out!" Overall it was a great experience, and I'm sure I'll be back before I leave, and hopefully to mix in with the hooligans next time. No, it couldn't possibly replace me being there on opening night back in the states or watching the Flyers make another run to the finals (my boycott of the Sixers remains, but I might have to lift it next year), but hey, I'll take what I can get. Also, gotta respect a team whose fans destroy crap around the city when they lose...which the fans here have been known to do in the past.

Weekend/Venezia

Sorry for the lag in my blog posts, it's becoming harder and harder to get this done with schoolwork piling up and traveling almost every weekend. It's so busy here that the time just blazes by. We had a heck of a weekend here, though. Thursday night, we went out to try to find a club but nothing was really going on. Friday was a bit better. Pete and I woke up and walked into the center of Bologna searching for panini at around 1PM- I made him try the prosciutto since that's one of the things Bologna is really known for. Plus, the sandwich shop has great bread and its a huge sandwich for only 2 euros. We ended up getting lost in the city for about 3 hours in parts that I'd never been to before. Luckily, the city is laid out like one giant wagon wheel, so even if you're lost all you have to do is try to find the towers and head in that direction. It was a great day out. We ended up spotting these stupid/ridiculous tracksuits at the huge open air market that they have here every Friday and Saturday. For 15 euros, we got to walk around looking like jagaloons for about 4 hours...so even though I might be getting more independent over here, I'm still basically a child- No need to worry back home. At about 8 we headed to Beth's apartment because some of the girls were making dinner- pretty much in Pete's honor but it was great to have a well-planned meal...our meals in the apartment are usually slapped together based on whatever we pass in the grocery store that looks good at the time. We went out again on Friday, planning on waking up around 7 to head to Venice on Saturday. Well, my phone is broken and Pete's alarm was set to London time, so we didn't end up waking up until around 9:30. We rushed to the train station with Beth (we brought her so it didn't have to be a man-date in one of the supposedly most romantic cities on Earth...people would have looked at us funny), but ended up booking an 11 o'clock fast train for 30 euros that would get us into Venice much earlier than whatever regular train we could have caught at that time- in theory. It turned out that our train ended up being delayed for an exhausting hour, but then again we did have time to actually grab a coffee and some breakfast so it wasn't all bad. We ended up getting to Venice at about 1. I know I say this every other new post, but Venice was THE PLACE. It's amazing, and probably the most different way of life that I've been able to see so far here in Europe. I did my usual scheming to live there full-time as we walked around, but then I realized I've never operated a boat in my life, so I'd be screwed. It's an unbelievable place, and both Pete and I were surprised that so many people gave it such a bad rap. If you are ever in Italy, Venice is a MUST SEE. Granted, some of the sections are unbelievably crowded and touristy, even on a nice February weekend, but overall the experience was so worth it. There are literally no cars in the city, and no roads. They have some large and some small walkways, all separated by canals. Gondoliers are everywhere. Unfortunately a gondola ride is about 90 euros per hour, so we decided it wasn't worth it and took some pictures of gondolas instead. I immediately got us lost in the city, since that is my favorite way to "discover" any new place that I visit, but eventually we made our way to San Marco (St. Mark's) square, with St. Mark's Basilica, St Mark's belltower, and the Doge's palace- and also a ridiculous view of the lagoon and surrouding area (check out my pictures on Facebook, some of my best yet). Venice is actually constructed right on top of the lagoon, being supported by wooden beams, many of which are several hundred years old- and is sinking. Tourism is their major industry, and has been for a long time. It's pretty evident with all the shops and restaurants throughout the city. My roommate John probably described Venice the best, as one giant tourist trap, but one of the few that are actually worth it. Everything is expensive because it's such a hassle to get supplies to the city. I honestly can't figure out how a city built on the water can function, but historically Venice has been one of the most successful cities/regions in Italy. We were really hungry when we finally got to St. Mark's at around 2:30, so we decided to go get some pizza very quickly before heading back. Unfortunately, that plan backfired, as I took the bait of a waiter waiting outside a restaurant who said they had pizza. We ended up waiting inside for over an hour, and a 9 euro pizza for each of us ended up actually costing around 17. Live and learn I guess, but I got "Frutti di Mare" or seafood pizza with calamari, clams, mussels, and other seafood so it wasn't a complete loss (I felt like I had to get seafood somewhere in Venice). We headed back to the square, where thousands of people were just milling around. Everything in the square is really compact. We tried to go into the Basilica to see the tomb of Mark (yes, that Mark), but for some reason most areas of the basilica had closed at 2. We went into the Doge's palace instead, which was a home for "the Doge" or duke of Venice, who was a symbolic figurehead with no political power, and who was only allowed to go outside of the palace on certain occasions. To give you an idea of how big/fancy it was, there was a specific room designated for visiting philosophers to do their philosophizing in. It was unbelievably decorated, with gold plating almost everywhere, and was an homage to the days when Venice was an important trading center. These days, there is no true economic activity outside of tourism, as I understand it, but Venice was once one of the major powers in Italy, if not all of Europe, and was one of the only cities in Italy to largely remain autonomous in a time when foreign countries had divided up almost every other region (we are learning about this in history class). After the palace, we basically just walked around, taking in some of the sights of the beginning stages of Carnivale (which really starts to kick off this upcoming weekend, the amount of tourists will be insane). I couldn't get over all the boats and the spectacular views. It's the coolest place I've ever seen, and even better than I imagined. We hung out until the sun began to set eating gelatti, then decided to catch a waterbus down the Grand Canal, which is basically the "main street" of Venice. The waterbus was really crowded, but we ended up meeting some Americans from California. We decided to catch the 7 pm train back to Bologna, which of course ended up being a hassle when the ticketing machine ate our 20 euro bill. We eventually made it though, even though I was reluctant to go back. I came back and was so exhausted that I didn't even go out that night after our 2 hour train ride. Even though the day on paper was a disaster and I ended up spending massive amounts of money, I didn't even care because Venice is so amazing. My words will never do it justice, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE look at my pictures...they might be able to give you a fraction of an idea of how amazing the city really is. I woke up on Sunday (Pete's last day) and made omelets for the two of us before we walked into the center of Bologna. I took Pete to the Archaeological museum and the Medieval museum, as well as the commune building and tried my best to pass on some of the info about Bologna that I learned on tours, but I'm sure I didn't do it justice. It was a miserable, cold, and semi-rainy day, but we still had a good time and accidentally went to about 15 minutes of a mass inside San Petronio. There was also some massive boy scout meeting in Piazza Maggiore, with thousands of kids chanting and singing...weird. Pete left at around 8:30 to hop on his 9:30 flight...cutting it a bit close. All in all, it was a great weekend, and I'm glad Pete came and got the chance to see a little bit of Italy. He said it was extremely different from London, and a nice break. I'm looking forward to seeing London through, from what he told me about it. This week, I'll just be doing the same old stuff...working out and trying to get work done before firming up weekend plans. I'll be traveling somewhere though...no wasted weekends here in Italy. I can't wait for the next city, because I have yet to be disappointed. There's no Cleveland here in Italy...every town has its own unique history and culture. Part of me wishes I had a whole year to see and do everything that I want while I'm here, but on the other hand I'd miss America too much.

One Month

Can't believe a month has already gone by...it's flying. There's already not enough time to do and see everything that I planned, and I intentionally basically made no plans. Pete got in from London today, so we're going out tonight and then probably to Venice on Saturday. I bought a couple of beers for tonight at the grocery store. One's called Franziskaner Weissbier, which is one of my favorite beers of all time, and it's been brewed since 1397. The other has been brewed since 1074, and I have to say the German wheat beers over here are unbelievable. I wasn't planning on going to Munich originally, but Pete and I have already started making plans to go to the spring version of Oktoberfest in Germany. Out to grab some pizza, and hopefully this time in Italy slows down just a little bit.

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day...especially to Hols.

San Leo, Urbino, Assisi

Well, this post is long overdue, so another warning ahead of time: it's going to be a long one. Friday morning we woke up at around 7:30 to head off to Urbino and Assisi. Unlike with Firenze, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from either of these two cities except that I was familiar on a very vague level with St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan order. I'm also starting to learn that you can pretty much close your eyes, put your finger down on a random spot on a map of Italy, and go there and have a great time. Case in point: we made a little stop on our way to Urbino, which I want to say was about a 2 hour bus ride away, about 45 minutes into our trip at this tiny village basically named San Leo. On the itinerary it said we were only stopping there for an hour, so I assumed it would be mostly to grab a sandwich and have a bathroom break, like we tend to do in the podunk towns of America. WRONG WRONG WRONG. The town was freaking awesome. Only about 2000 people live in this tiny village which is situated at the top of a cliff, like one of those posters you always see from Europe of places that you assume don't actually exist. We could see the Adriatic Sea miles away, and to our left was a bunch of mountains...or as I call them, the greatest sledding hills of all time. Seriously, I wish a brought a stinkin' sled here because it would be insane. At the very top of the cliff, there was a pretty big fort/castle, and we decided to bypass the road and hike up the side of the hill on this zig-zag path in shin deep snow. After my feet went numb it wasn't really that bad, and I'm glad we did it. We made our way up to the castle, which apparently was used in WWII, judging by the extensive gun collection in one of the rooms. They had a bunch of torture chambers and stuff like that, which was cool but pretty creepy at the same time. The castle was built in the 1400's or so, but most recently was used as a prison through WWI. If you're going to pick a place to be haunted, this place would rank right up there. It was really cool though, and we got some fantastic views of the village beneath us and the whole Italian landscape, which is really unlike anything I've seen before. The mountains here are crazy. I don't think I've ever done more in a single hour in my entire life. We really stretched our limited time out in San Leo, and still got yelled at for being 5 minutes late to the bus. The whole time, I was plotting out ways in my head to open up a fruit stand or something and just never go back- it would be the ultimate simple life in a small town, and its a beautiful way to live. Well, they managed to rip me away from my little town and dragged us off to lunch, which I'm glad they did. I've already said this once this trip, but the lunch we had was one of the top meals of my entire life. They made it rain out there. Bologna is in the Emilia part of the Emilia-Romagna region, and by this time we had made our way to Romagna. Their food is a little different, just like every region's food in Italy varies. They all will tell you that they have the best food in Italy though. Romagna made one heck of a case. We ate in a mill built in the 1400's that was later converted to a restaurant. The meals here are all supposed to be 3 courses, but it felt like we ate about 20 courses. The first thing we ate was fried lard, which sounds gross, but actually isn't too bad once you get past literally being able to feel your arteries clog. Then came the pasta, at least 3 different kinds, and gnocchi, with everything being covered in cheese. The lady running the restaurant kept coming up to our table and bringing out more and more pasta, which we would finish, but we begged her to stop. She didn't listen. There's nothing quite like being force fed by an Italian woman...I don't know why they think we're all so skinny, we come from the fattest nation on Earth. But, we obliged her and continued to eat. Then, came the deli meats, which are eaten as the main course around here. It's always so stinking good. They brought out prosciutto, bologna, salami, anything that you can think of really, and it's always cut so thin and ridiculously fresh. It looks smoked, and for a split second every time I always question whether or not I'm eating raw meat, but that's just how its made here. At that point, we were seriously about to draw straws to see who would have to eat what. Just when we finished that part, they came out with dessert, which was biscotti and some other kind of cookie with chocolate in it. Of course, these were amazing too. Then, they brought out lemon water ice, which was the real deal. Rita's is forever tainted for me now. Finally, they brought out coffee (espresso), which was accompanied by liquor to cleanse our palates. I probably took a little more than I needed to cleanse out the old palate. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the steady stream of wine, made right across the street from the restaurant, which was in these giant jugs. We must have gone through about 5 of them throughout the meal. It was red wine with lunch, and this very, very sweet wine with dessert that almost tasted like apple juice. The whole thing was on Dickinson's dime to boot. After that meal, I slept most of the rest of the way to Urbino. Urbino is a pretty cool city, situated up on a hill just like most of the cities we've seen so far, and there's a pretty big palazzo right inside the city walls that we visited. Inside, there was an art museum, but to be honest it was nothing special that I haven't seen in the past two weeks. I feel bad even saying that, because if I hadn't been to Florence or living in Bologna, Urbino would have been an awesome place. It was pretty small though, and there wasn't much going on from what we saw. That being said, we probably didn't see enough of the city to give it a fair assessment, but out of all the places I've seen so far it was my least favorite. The hotel we stayed in was nice at least. They cut us loose at about 7 after we checked into the hotel, and I ended up going to an arcade right across the street with Mohammed and some of the girls just to mix it up, and to whoop up on somebody in the driving game they had. Most of the people in the arcade were our age or older too, probably just college kids. Afterward, we went out to a few of the bars in the town. There was almost no American presence in the town whatsoever, so that was good at least. The highlight of the night for me was singing "Living on a Prayer" at a karaoke night at one of the bars. I used my beautiful singing voice to woo about 14 Italian supermodels, Bon Jovi style. The guy running the karaoke night came up and hugged me after I was done though, so I must have done a good job. In the morning, the hotel had a nice little breakfast, which was way nicer than any continental breakfast I've had in the US (they had real pastries, but it did make me miss Little Debbie a bit). We finished up and made our way to Assisi. I thought Florence was the coolest town I've ever been to, but I'm starting to realize I can't really make distinctions like that anymore. Seriously, I can't pick between Florence, Assisi, or even San Leo. I always catch myself inventing these little impossible plans to give up my life in the US and live off the grid in one of these Italian towns. If I could write or something I'd probably be facing a real dilemma. Assisi is one of those towns though. That place is awesome. It's another town based high up on a hill overlooking a valley, which we later found out was built that way because of the mosquitoes that brought malaria when the valley was still a swampland. Assisi is another really old town, dating way back to the Roman empire. It's most famous for St. Francis, but also St. Clare (Chiara), who founded the Poor Clares (the woman's version of the Franciscans). Only about 3,000 people live on the top of the hill in Assisi, with about 25,000 more living in the valley. It's a big spot for religious pilgrims, and there were plenty of nuns and friars walking around the city. We saw St. Francis' basilica, learned all about his life, and saw his tomb. We also saw the body of St. Clare, which has not decomposed, even after close to 800 years. We also got to see a lot of relics of both St. Francis and St. Clare, and it was a great experience, even though I'm not Catholic. The basilica is the first ever gothic church in Italy, and had the first stained windows in all of Italy, as well as the first examples of the use of perspective in its frescoes. It was just a really cool place overall, and I hope my pictures can do it any justice at all. We left Assisi at around 5, and got back to Bologna at around 8, so it really wasn't a bad ride. I ended up meeting up with Ben, a British kid who Nick and Brian met, at about 12 to go out. We went to a pretty cool club. They were serving this 10% beer called Dragoon, which the Brits thought tasted like motor oil, but I come from the land of Natty so it tasted fine to me. I had a great time messing around and dancing, and I even got into this weird dance competition with about 8 people in a circle in the middle of the dancefloor, which if you ask me I won. It was hilarious. Also, white people not being able to dance is a global phenomenon. Yesterday, I woke up and had a pretty lazy Sunday, and today I just had my history class.

Sorry for the delay/length of the post

New pictures up on Facebook for anyone that's interested

Mike

Urbino This Weekend

Nothing to report really, except I'm leaving in 5 hours to go with my class to Urbino and Assisi for the weekend. Expect a massive blogpost on Sunday or Monday, with a ton of pictures.

More Class

Today not much happened outside of class, and in fact the highlight was class. We got to discover some of the subject matter firsthand for my Wine, Food, and Culture class, which I'm hoping happens a lot more. Other than that, some old routine. Homework, gym, then we're planning to go to a free German buffet and 3 euro beer party through ESEG tonight, then its off to Urbino on Friday.

Learnin Stuff

Today I had about 4 hours of class time, nothing special except I realized I really don't know as much Italian as I thought I did sitting my Italian 320 class, where not one word of English was spoken the entire time. That class is either going to be sink or swim. Truth be told, I was never very good at Italian in the first place, but the reason I'm here is to learn I guess. I have about 4 assignments to do in each of my classes combined this semester, so its really just going to be about not getting lazy and keeping up with the readings. For lunch I found a great sandwich place that cranks out the panini for 2 euros each, and it just about tasted like a Wawa hoagie, with fresher ingredients and better bread of course. After class, I wandered down to Via Zamboni and got myself a membership in an exchange student program they have here, ESEG, which gets you into a lot of clubs for free. It's probably just a way for club owners to get you in there and have you buy a bunch of drinks, but I've usually been smart enough to just go to the grocery store and buy some great Belgian and German beer for really cheap before going out, so I don't plan on falling prey to their scam. Next week, I'll probably join the ESN, which is a more academically oriented program that provides cool trips around Italy for a fraction of the original cost. I'm planning on signing up for a trip down to Naples with them in April after I join. Other than that, I've began to start settling into a routine. I don't feel so much like a tourist here anymore, although I did take a wrong turn today and end up down a strange alley with about 10 homeless guys hanging out around the vents. One of them breathed directly into my nose, but after I recovered from the shock I was able to re-orient myself and make my way to the bank to pick up my stipend. I don't walk around with my hand on my wallet anymore after I realized that the Italians aren't all raving criminals trying to rob me blind. Shoot, I didn't even get pickpocketed in the Florence train station, a place which is notorious for that sort of thing. Tonight will just be another night getting settled in. I'm planning on making a stir fry for me and the roommates and then heading to the gym before doing all my reading and passing out. I'm already halfway done my week before heading out to Urbino this weekend with Dickinson, which should be another good time. That's about it for now.

Weirdest Super Bowl Ever

Last night I went over to Mohammed's apartment with John to watch the Super Bowl...at 12:30 AM, on basically the Italian version of UPN or whatever they call it these days. It was the weirdest Super Bowl I've ever seen, with Italian commentary that I actually could decipher fairly decently, but no commercials unfortunately. We left around 2 or 2:30 and headed back to our apartment to try to watch on the internet. By about 3:45, I was spent, and I decided to take the risk of missing a Steelers comeback and go to sleep, which proved to be the right move. Today was the first day of class, and I only had one today that started at noon, so needless to say it was a relaxing day. I tried to buy some school supplies, but I have to wait for our stipend because they're so stinking expensive here. Even a book made at the copy shop for my history class was 30 euro. Outrageous. Although, my spirits picked up when I walked right by an old lady with a mustache on the street on the way back. So you know, win some lose some right?

Firenze

I'm sitting here on a ridiculously nice Sunday afternoon (it's gotta be close to the 60's and not a cloud in the sky) desperately trying to find a place to watch the Super Bowl tonight. I don't think I've ever missed one, and if I can help it I want to find a place where I can at least watch the first half. Also, classes are starting tomorrow, although I'll actually be spending a lot less time over at the center now. Nothing can compare to last semester, so all things considered this semester should be a breeze. So anyway, I went to Firenze (Florence) yesterday, and pretty much our whole class decided to go except for a few people. It's definitely the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life, but it was also my first trip outside of Bologna in Europe. I took about 150 pictures yesterday, but unfortunately I ran out of space on the blog to upload pictures without paying. For all 6 of you keeping track of this blog, from now on any pictures that I post will be uploaded to my Facebook instead. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning after getting about 4 hours of sleep the night before and headed to the train station for my 6:45 train. It was still completely dark when we left, and by the time the sun rose we were in the country next to this ridiculous mountain range that pretty much runs all the way through Tuscany (Florence is the capital city of Tuscany). The mountains were like nothing I'd seen before, but if I could make a comparison to my past experiences it reminded me a little of West Virginia, except if there were 700 year old towns at the base of the hills. The mountains were much more sharp and jagged, though. The train ride lasted about an hour, and we got out at the Santa Maria Novella station, which is notorious for pickpockets. Ma, I never thought I'd use your money belt but I put my passport in there, so congratulations. Everyone else was making plans for the day, but I kind of figured I'd just float around and see what I liked, and maybe even get lost for a little bit since those usually end up being the best days, rather than just following a strict schedule. We got out and saw the old cathedral of the SMN, which was pretty but we have enough really old churches in Bologna that it didn't really grab my attention. Then we walked toward the center-everyone wanted to use the maps, but I kind of just wanted to sniff the places out, man style. Turns out I was right, by the way, although there's a giant tower and dome in the middle of the city to guide you. Before we even got there, I guess I stumbled upon Erin's apartment from when she was studying in Florence. She told me to look out for some statue of a boar, and I basically tripped over it when we were wandering around- I took a picture of a building that looked pretty old and cool and it turned out to be her apartment building. Weird. We headed towards Il Duomo (the dome) di Firenze, which is the most beautiful building I've ever seen. It's like a skyscraper, and the tallest building in the center of town. The outside has blue stripes and so many statues- I can't really describe it that well so just check my facebook out for the pictures. We found a little bar to grab some breakfast, and then the girls wanted to head to the Uffizi. I wasn't sure if I had a reservation or not, so I just stayed back by the Duomo, and basically wandered around  the center for another hour or so until Nick and Brian met me at the church. We went inside and down to the basement where there were some graves, but we really didn't know anything about it so it was kind of a ripoff. Brian and Nick really wanted to climb to the top of the Duomo, but at first I wasn't really into it, I kind of wanted to climb up the tower instead. I'm so glad I let them talk me into doing the Duomo though, because it turned out to be one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. The church was started in the late 1200's, I believe, and wasn't finished until the 1400's. I wikipedia'd it, and apparently it was the largest dome in the world until the modern era, so it's true because Wikipedia is 100% right, all the time, no matter how much your professors want you to find information in so called "books." I've said this 100 times on facebook already, but most people will recognize this church from Assassin's Creed. What's really crazy is those bars that they have in the video game, which you assume were just put there to help you climb actually exist. To be honest I've only played the game over at Petey's so I really don't know much about it, but I knew enough that I was able to successfully climb up the outside of the building all the way to the top, and use my Eagle Vision to scope out a good place to get lunch. Then, I jumped into a bale of hay and stabbed a dude selling pots because he looked at me funny. No, no, no, I took the steps. It was awesome though. 436 steps to the top, but when you're about halfway you get to stop and look down into the church see the paintings on the ceiling. The people inside the church looked like ants...and we were inside. It was crazy. I'm still afraid of heights...I know its pretty lame, but so is Brian, so we were both starting to get dizzy. We walked the rest of the way up- sometimes the stairs were spiraling, and sometimes they were ridiculously steep going straight up. We finally made it outside to the top, and the view was outrageous. You could see everything in the entire city. There were hills to our left and right, with really nice houses scattered throughout. You could see down to the Arno River, which cuts right through the city, and in the distance, miles and miles away, you could see a giant snowcapped mountain. I have a picture of it on facebook, but it's hard to make out. It looks like a white dot among the hills, but in person it was much clearer. The weather at this point was great, too, even though it was freeezing in the morning and I decided to believe the weatherman and wear shorts. I could have stayed up there for the rest of the day, but we had a reservation to see Michelangelo's David sculpture at the Accademia at 1. We basically ran down the stairs and made it on time to use our reservations to skip the long line that was snaking around the building...there was no line I just made that up, and we got made fun of by the security guard for making reservations in the off-season. I'm just going to preface this by saying that I really am not into art, and it's never been a big priority of mine, but after seeing all the famous sculptures and paintings over here, I'm finally starting to understand why people are so fascinated by it. Granted, I'll still be spending my Sunday afternoons watching da Iggles instead of going to the art museum when I get back, but while I'm here its good to take in all the aspects of the culture. The David is anatomically perfect, down to the veins in his hands and neck, the flex of the hamstrings, and the posture of the body. It is also HUGE. I seriously don't understand how Michelangelo created something so perfect out of a block of marble. We stayed in the Accademia for about an hour, but really looking at the David for about 45 minutes. To be honest, it wasn't even worth seeing the other sculptures in the museum, because after just having seen the David, everything else looked so much worse. We left the museum, and at that point we were starving. We headed to a little restaurant, where we ordered some liver as an appetizer, which wasn't bad, but not great either. I tried it just for the sake of trying it. I got some awesome pasta there as well, and Nick, Brian, and I headed across the street and got some gelatto, because Florence is famous for doing their gelatto a little differently than the rest of Italy. It was good, just like all the food here. I'm convinced that there's no bad food in Italy. After that, we went to the Uffizi museum. I wasn't able to really appreciate it because, like I said, I'm not really that into art. I did recognize a few paintings though, which are really world famous, like "Birth of Venus," "La Primavera (Springtime)," and one that I didn't recognize, but was painted by Da Vinci. Firenze is the home of the Renaissance, the rebirth of culture and knowledge in the middle ages. Even though it was difficult me to appreciate the artistic value of the paintings, I could appreciate their historic significance, so the Uffizi was really cool. Also, there was a cool terrace that gave you a pretty decent view of the center of town, and there was a spectacular view of the river below from inside the museum. After the Uffizi, running on 3-4 hours of sleep, I was beat. We stopped by the Duomo one last time so Brian and Nick could meet their friend, and I left for the train station. There was a communist rally going on right outside the train station, which got me pretty nervous since I was wearing a football shirt with English writing, but the police had them pretty well roped off. I bit the bullet and paid 24 euro for a fast train, which was fine since I had only paid 6 euro for my train into the city. It cut the time in half. It was an amazing day, and the first time I'd left Bologna since I've gotten here. All in all, Florence is just a fantastic place, and I'd be hard-pressed to name another city with more cultural significance in the world, although you could name places like Paris, Rome, Athens, etc. The city was absolutely beautiful. One thing that I did find to be both a positive and negative about the city though, was its strong American presence. We found a place that served freaking cheesesteaks, and I was really tempted just to try it, like I tried McDonald's earlier. I didn't though because I didn't want anything to make me mad in Florence. For me, Florence is a great place to visit, but I'm not so sure I'd want to live there. In Bologna, I'm not saying it's impossible to see Americans, but its pretty rare and when you do meet one it's a big deal. In Florence, Americans were everywhere. So for a day visit, that made it incredibly easy to get around and see everything we wanted to. But, I feel like it would be pretty easy to just get by there without immersing yourself in the culture and trying to learn the language, which for me is why I came to Italy in the first place. Is it prettier than Bologna? Absolutely, and there's so much to see. When Americans romanticize Italy, Florence is exactly the type of place they're thinking of. I can see why Tuscany is so famous- but with that comes a lot of tourism, which in turn affects the culture of the city. By no means is Bologna's culture unadulterated, in fact its quite the opposite, with foreign students traveling here for 1,000 years to study. I guess the point I'm making here is that you can have the experience in Florence and learn the language and all, but it takes less of an effort to do that in Bologna because you're constantly forced into unfamiliar situations. Regardless, it was a great day, the most beautiful city I've ever seen, and I can't wait to see what else Europe and Italy have in store for me. I'm rootin for the Pack tonight by the way. Prediction GB 24-17

Finished Orientation

Finally finished our 2 week orientation today, and I'm not going to lie, I feel pretty oriented. My Italian definitely improved after going to class 3 hours a day for 2 straight weeks. I'm finally getting used to the city, but I'm still not sleeping. I did take a 3 hour nap today, though. Hopefully that helps because I have to catch a train at 6:45 in the morning to Florence tomorrow- a lot of people decided they didn't want to pay for a hostel if Florence is only an hour away. I'm trying really hard to book some trips right now- I can grab a train to anywhere in Italy for really cheap, but international travel out of Bologna is a bit of a nightmare. Anyway, its off to the gym and then basically straight to bed.

Opera House

As usual, I left my camera back at the apartment today, which was pretty disappointing because we got to tour around the opera house that was built in the mid 1700's, I'm pretty sure. It's funny how buildings like that seem new these days to me. We heard some Pavarotti recordings this week in class, and you can go for 10 euros in the cheap seats, so I'm actually pretty excited to go. Plus, if I get my fill after an hour or so, for such a cheap price I can say I went and leave without feeling bad about it. We also went to this really cool music museum, with lyres and lutes and all different kinds of instruments. Apparently, at the age of 14 Mozart studied music in Bologna for a summer, and had to take an exam for some type of certification to be able to play liturgical music. They had the original exam on display, which he surprisingly didn't actually do that well on. There was also the only existing copy of the first music book ever printed on display from 1501. My favorite part of the museum, though, was the section dedicated to eunuch singers, especially since we were in that area at the same time as a group of 10-12 year olds on a field trip, who were (hopefully) blissfully unaware of the concept of castration. Unfortunately, it was our last guided tour around Bologna. I've enjoyed them all, even though we saw a lot of things that wouldn't have piqued my interest at all at home. It's just a great way to get a sense of Bologna's history and culture, and it adds a lot of context to us living here. A lot of my classmates just weren't that interested- I feel like they'll regret not opening up to new experiences here later on- it's usually just about finding the next club or place to eat. Don't get me wrong, I love finding great kebabs around the city (more on them later), but I just feel like even though I've kind of been in a shell culturally for so long, now is the time to appreciate the museums, art, and music. I'm not planning on coming back to the states as a finely cultured young gentleman or anything, but I feel good about opening up to new experiences and move outside my little box that I've become comfortable in. Personally, I know that I would regret not forcing myself to do that later on in life. Now anyway about this kebab business, and this is something that really needs to be addressed, kebabs are the ballz. My roommates are 100 percent convinced they're going to make millions by turning kebabs into fast food in America. It's a cheap way to get a huge amount of food, and they're like the burritos of Bologna. Little kebabaries (yeah I just made that word up) are literally everywhere and I've had them for lunch the past 3 days. Its made with the same bread as a gyro, or you can kind of get a burrito style too. We load them up with sauce and everyone here puts french fries on top. The meat is awesome too. It's lamb, I know- like I said I'm trying to have new experiences and that means eating a baby sheep every once in a while. Anyway that's my piece for today. I won't be able to post for a while because tomorrow I'm (hopefully) leaving for Florence so expect one on Sunday.

Groundhog's Day

Its the hap-happiest season of all! Happy GROUNDHOG'S DAY!!!! It felt like this day would never come, but at last old Punxutawny Phil has brought gifts to all the good little girls and boys. Last night, I went to a special Groundhog's Day Eve mass at the San Petronio basilica so I could beat the rush of churchgoers in the morning. But everyone knows that Groundhog's Day is really all about family, and taking time to reflect...yeah not much happened today. I just kind of slept through a movie in class about some hometown pizza joint that ran a McDonald's out of town in Bari, and then we went to a modern art museum. I think they should just go ahead and call it what it really is, a museum of objects people crapped out when they were high on methamphetamines. I especially enjoyed the ridiculously pretentious explanations for the angst the artist felt and the secret meanings he was striving to portray in their scribblez that resemble the "drawings" that nursery schoolers take home. One piece of "art" (read: festered monkey dung) was a bunch of belts tied together...sweet. So that was a tremendous waste of time. Modern art is sooo dumb, for real. We're going out to celebrate Nick's birthday tonight- it's soooo cool that he shares his birthday with Punxutawny Phil- but before that I have to go to the GYM and do LAUNRDY! Best GH Day EVERRRRRRR!!!!!

Universita di Bologna

Today we had another little tour around Bologna, and this time was to get a history of the University of Bologna. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera again, but the university dates back to 1088 AD, and is actually the oldest university in Europe. It is also the oldest independent university in the world, even though it was taken over by the papacy sometime in the 1500's. Technically, I'm a student there, so I just got my ID card today. We took a tour of the original main building, which I believe was constructed originally in the 1400's- students and professors rented rooms for class throughout the city in the beginning. Today, it is actually a public library, and was the site of a bombing in World War II. We got taken into a really ornate wooden classroom with all kinds of wooden statues carved out honoring past professors and doctors in the past- then quickly figured out it was the human cadaver dissection theater. The building has two huge halls, and supported 3,000 students at the time of its construction. After that tour, we made our way to the museum of the University of Bologna, where we saw all kinds of nature collections, medical instruments and models, scientific equipment, and human skeletons that have all been used as teaching tools throughout the university's history. Overall it was a really interesting tour, and even though I'm not really taking classes at UniBo like I had originally wanted (I would basically have graduated from their business program already), it's still pretty cool to be connected to such a historic university. This is definitely a city centered around academics. I've also been told that a couple of my professors actually teach at the university too, and I'm going next Tuesday to join their exchange student program, so it really is a pretty strong connection. For dinner tonight I made myself a meal of chicken and accidentally bought smoked salmon. I threw it on the stove for about 10 seconds each side anyway and it turned it ridiculously well. Even when I mess up cooking here every meal is still pretty stinkin good. Tomorrow I'm going to buy a train ticket to Florence and then try to find a laundromat...its like they don't exist here.