I AM LEAVING PARMA TOMORROW.
I wish I could write a good post about Paris and how great it was to see Sarah (and Mark!) and see all the neato sights of Paris but I really should be getting to bed. And alas, I do not think I will have a chance to write on here another time before I get back to the States, but I did want to write at least once more while I was still in Italy.
It's weird to be leaving! But right now, especially with my parents here, I am so excited to go home. I really just want to see the fam, unpack, and not worry about moving moving moving across countries for a little bit (until January when I have to deal with transporting myself and my stuff to Boston). BUT ALAS. I have 5 more days of travel with them, which should be great and lovely.
I will be sad to leave Nice, after all she has done for me and put up with this semester. She really made it a worthwhile experience for me but I am confident I will keep in touch with her and maybe even someday return to Parma. I'd like to do that actually. Fo reals.
Anyway, cheese is heavy! I am not looking forward to lugging home all my LUGgage and being laden down with My Things. Thank goodness my parents can be my sherpas! Hooray!
Love to all and see you on the 20th!!!
:D
AMORE AMORE MI AMO PARMA
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Hewwo there.
We are back from our trip to the Alps in Aosta! They were quite lovely. It was a 3.5 hour ride from Parma to Aosta, but it was completely worth it once we got near enough to see the snow-capped mountains. Our hotel was SWEET (we could open the door by pressing a button next to our beds) and what was sweeter still was our view from every window! The Alps are gorgeoussss.
Aosta itself is a bebe little town, and on Sunday we went either skiing (not I said the fly) or SNOWSHOEING (yes that was me). Snowshoeing was ridiculous, as I expected it to be, and we got so very snowy and cold. It was large amounts of fun. We had a lot of hot chocolate and went to a Christmas market where I got a Second Very Excellent Winter Hat, and got to go to mass today. My voice is still gone and I am worrying about my oral presentation of my soc paper on Thursday. Let's hope it comes back!
This week is going to fly -- I have two finals on Wednesday, two on Thursday, a movie to watch with my Italian class on Thursday, our goodbye dinner on Wednesday, and my last babysitting on Wedesday. Tonight we are having a family dinner with Nice. Friday I leave for Paris, and then when I get back I spend like one more day in Parma with my parents and then OFF TO ROME and around WE GO! My program is done in 4 days and I will be in the United States in 12!
UNREAL
We are back from our trip to the Alps in Aosta! They were quite lovely. It was a 3.5 hour ride from Parma to Aosta, but it was completely worth it once we got near enough to see the snow-capped mountains. Our hotel was SWEET (we could open the door by pressing a button next to our beds) and what was sweeter still was our view from every window! The Alps are gorgeoussss.
Aosta itself is a bebe little town, and on Sunday we went either skiing (not I said the fly) or SNOWSHOEING (yes that was me). Snowshoeing was ridiculous, as I expected it to be, and we got so very snowy and cold. It was large amounts of fun. We had a lot of hot chocolate and went to a Christmas market where I got a Second Very Excellent Winter Hat, and got to go to mass today. My voice is still gone and I am worrying about my oral presentation of my soc paper on Thursday. Let's hope it comes back!
This week is going to fly -- I have two finals on Wednesday, two on Thursday, a movie to watch with my Italian class on Thursday, our goodbye dinner on Wednesday, and my last babysitting on Wedesday. Tonight we are having a family dinner with Nice. Friday I leave for Paris, and then when I get back I spend like one more day in Parma with my parents and then OFF TO ROME and around WE GO! My program is done in 4 days and I will be in the United States in 12!
UNREAL
Friday, December 5, 2008
I had developed the unsettling habit of talking to myself while riding my bike, so I guess that fact that I LOST MY VOICE is good news. I don't remember the last time I lost my voice. Good times. Hopefully it comes back before my presentation of my soc paper on Thursday.
EXAMS ARE HURR and it is dumb. There is a lot to be studied but I am not too worried about them for the most part.
My parents leave today for Italy! They will be spending a week traveling and then a week con MOI and then we fly home! YIKES.
This weekend our BC program is going to the ALPS in Aosta for a lovely little trip. I will let you know how that goes. OH MAN. I just realized I won't be able to yodel without a voice. ALAS.
Have a lovely weekend, don't be stressed about finals if you have finals, and get excited! 20 days until Christmas!
LOVE LOVE ME
EXAMS ARE HURR and it is dumb. There is a lot to be studied but I am not too worried about them for the most part.
My parents leave today for Italy! They will be spending a week traveling and then a week con MOI and then we fly home! YIKES.
This weekend our BC program is going to the ALPS in Aosta for a lovely little trip. I will let you know how that goes. OH MAN. I just realized I won't be able to yodel without a voice. ALAS.
Have a lovely weekend, don't be stressed about finals if you have finals, and get excited! 20 days until Christmas!
LOVE LOVE ME
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Happy late Thanksgiving!
Although I wasn't at home to celebrate with my family, I wasn't alone for the holiday -- Daniel came to visit, arriving on Wednesday and leaving early early this morning. Once he got to Parma, after a couple extra train rides, we had a very lovely weekend.
Wednesday we had a chill day because poor Dan had jetlag, but we got to eat dinner wtih Nice and Fil and Sarah (as soon as Nice met Daniel she asked how McCain was). Nice had us go to the grocery store to get some vino to celebrate eating together. Very cute!
Thursday was his tour around Parma -- we got tickets to the Correggio exhibit, and went through the museum sans audioguides because I had a bad experience with a tour when my group went to the exhibit. The cool part, again, was going up scaffolding into the dome of the cathedral to see the frescoes up close. It was nice going with Dan, too, because we didn't have an agenda like I did for class so we were able to look at the inside of the Duomo as well. We had lunch at Frank Foccacia (where I successfully ordered a meat sandwich instead of a pepper sandwich this time) and ate some gelato at Milano Chocolat (yum). We rode our bikes over to Anna's, where we had tea with her and Aldo. They were so cute! Aldo kept trying to speak English to Daniel and Anna gave us cookies with her homemade jam (we liked it so much she gave us a jar to take home. SWEET). Anna told me she thought Dan was a very nice boy and that what we have continues for some time. She is too cute.
We had dinner at a lovely little place and admired the city with its Christmas decorations. I got to Skype with the fam after they ate dinner, which was great! Sad that they couldn't see me, but it was nice to see them in all their Thanksgiving glory.
Friday we had planned on going to Cinque Terre, but the weather was so terrible that we changed our plans and decided to go to Bologna instead. It was very rainy all day (although it was snowy as we walked to the Parma train station) but Bologna is a good city to spend a day in in the rain because it is filled with PORTICOES -- basically every sidewalk was covered by a loggia, so it made walking around very easy. We had MTV Italy as our guide, and got to see a couple cool sites - we had lunch in a cute little place where I had some pizza (after unsuccessfully trying to find another lunch place that our guide suggested but probably didn't exist), we went up one of the two towers (it was very narrow and very tall, but had a good view), went inside the main church (very beautiful inside, and very very interesting. Each side chapel had something different in it - we felt like we were in a museum. There was one with a Foucault's pendulum, one had a ton of different relics, one had wood carved statues that were eerily similar to the ones at the Correggio museum, etc. Pretty awesome), saw a scandalous statue of Neptune (when it was originally carved, apparently the sculptor made Neptune's "triton" a little too big...so the church fathers asked him to make him smaller. However, after he recarved it, he made it so if you stand behind Neptune at a certain angle, his outstretched thumb restores him to godly status. HILARIOUS), and went by the University, which is the oldest in the world! We got to see this Anatomical Theater, where students would watch the dissection of human corpses. The room was gorgeous, and there were two skinless statues holding up this special chair. Really cool.
When we got back, Nice asked us if we wanted to go to dinner with Fil. Despite the cold, we walked to the restaurant, which was approximately 19 miles away through a lot of slush and snow. We were freezing and our feet were soaking when we finally got there. Nice was friends with the owner of this Naples-themed restaurant, and we had delicious food (a lot of fried things) under her suggestions.
Saturday Dan and I walked around Parma a bit (we got gelato at Mickey Mouse, and then wandered around a mini-market. An old man was manning this free wine tasting booth and when we got close with our bowls of gelato he told me this specific kind was good with ice cream and poured it in our bowls. Only in Italy. It wasn't bad, though), missed the train we wanted to Milan and ate lunch at a creperie (delicious bruschetta!). We finally got to Milan, dropped off Dan's bag at the train station, and manuevered our way through the Milan Metro to get to the Duomo piazza. There were 9 million cops around with riot gear and we never found out why. We went inside the Duomo with hopes of going up the dome, but as there was a mass going on, we were not able to do so. The Duomo is GIGANTIC (one of the biggest 4 I think?) and very beautiful. We also looked at the Galleria, a huge area of swanky shops covered by a glass ceiling. MTV Italy told us that one of the mosaics on the ground which had a bull on it brought good luck to whomever dug their heel in and spun around, so we did that. We looked at the outside of the Opera House and tried to find somewhere to eat but did not want to get ripped off, so we headed back to the train station to catch a bus to Malpensa. It was rainy and crowded in Milan (very similar to NYC) and Dan had an early flight the next morning.
When we got to Malpensa airport, we couldn't figure out how to get to our hotel, so we decided to take a cab. I asked a cabbie if he was free and after he asked where we were going, he called the hotel himself to get their free shuttle to come pick us up. That would never happen in the US. We finally got picked up and had dinner at the hotel (I felt bad that Dan's last dinner in Italy was in a hotel restaurant, but it was actually decent) and went to sleep. This morning we got picked up at 5:15 am to get him to the airport for his 6:55 am flight. It was hard saying goodbye -- after not seeing him for 3 months it was such a short visit of 4 days -- but we'll see each other in a little more than a month. I slept on the shuttle and train ride back, and listened to a CD on the Discman Dan gave me (since my mp3 player can't charge on any computer except for my broken one). When I got back I slept for 5 more hours, and then went over to the villa to bake Christmas cookies with Steph and Nate. We made our own frosting and cut out cute shapes but they did not turn out at ALL. I will post a picture later because they are quite hilarious.
I only have 3 weeks left in Italy! RIDICULOUS. 2 more weeks with the BC kids here! There will be a lot of work to do this week (preparing for final papers and presentations and exams) but this next weekend our whole program is going to the Alps in Aosta for a ski trip! I am very excited. We also have a group-wide Christmas Party at Anna's which I am stoked about.
I hope everyone's Thanksgivings were marvelous!
Home stretch, man!
<3
Although I wasn't at home to celebrate with my family, I wasn't alone for the holiday -- Daniel came to visit, arriving on Wednesday and leaving early early this morning. Once he got to Parma, after a couple extra train rides, we had a very lovely weekend.
Wednesday we had a chill day because poor Dan had jetlag, but we got to eat dinner wtih Nice and Fil and Sarah (as soon as Nice met Daniel she asked how McCain was). Nice had us go to the grocery store to get some vino to celebrate eating together. Very cute!
Thursday was his tour around Parma -- we got tickets to the Correggio exhibit, and went through the museum sans audioguides because I had a bad experience with a tour when my group went to the exhibit. The cool part, again, was going up scaffolding into the dome of the cathedral to see the frescoes up close. It was nice going with Dan, too, because we didn't have an agenda like I did for class so we were able to look at the inside of the Duomo as well. We had lunch at Frank Foccacia (where I successfully ordered a meat sandwich instead of a pepper sandwich this time) and ate some gelato at Milano Chocolat (yum). We rode our bikes over to Anna's, where we had tea with her and Aldo. They were so cute! Aldo kept trying to speak English to Daniel and Anna gave us cookies with her homemade jam (we liked it so much she gave us a jar to take home. SWEET). Anna told me she thought Dan was a very nice boy and that what we have continues for some time. She is too cute.
We had dinner at a lovely little place and admired the city with its Christmas decorations. I got to Skype with the fam after they ate dinner, which was great! Sad that they couldn't see me, but it was nice to see them in all their Thanksgiving glory.
Friday we had planned on going to Cinque Terre, but the weather was so terrible that we changed our plans and decided to go to Bologna instead. It was very rainy all day (although it was snowy as we walked to the Parma train station) but Bologna is a good city to spend a day in in the rain because it is filled with PORTICOES -- basically every sidewalk was covered by a loggia, so it made walking around very easy. We had MTV Italy as our guide, and got to see a couple cool sites - we had lunch in a cute little place where I had some pizza (after unsuccessfully trying to find another lunch place that our guide suggested but probably didn't exist), we went up one of the two towers (it was very narrow and very tall, but had a good view), went inside the main church (very beautiful inside, and very very interesting. Each side chapel had something different in it - we felt like we were in a museum. There was one with a Foucault's pendulum, one had a ton of different relics, one had wood carved statues that were eerily similar to the ones at the Correggio museum, etc. Pretty awesome), saw a scandalous statue of Neptune (when it was originally carved, apparently the sculptor made Neptune's "triton" a little too big...so the church fathers asked him to make him smaller. However, after he recarved it, he made it so if you stand behind Neptune at a certain angle, his outstretched thumb restores him to godly status. HILARIOUS), and went by the University, which is the oldest in the world! We got to see this Anatomical Theater, where students would watch the dissection of human corpses. The room was gorgeous, and there were two skinless statues holding up this special chair. Really cool.
When we got back, Nice asked us if we wanted to go to dinner with Fil. Despite the cold, we walked to the restaurant, which was approximately 19 miles away through a lot of slush and snow. We were freezing and our feet were soaking when we finally got there. Nice was friends with the owner of this Naples-themed restaurant, and we had delicious food (a lot of fried things) under her suggestions.
Saturday Dan and I walked around Parma a bit (we got gelato at Mickey Mouse, and then wandered around a mini-market. An old man was manning this free wine tasting booth and when we got close with our bowls of gelato he told me this specific kind was good with ice cream and poured it in our bowls. Only in Italy. It wasn't bad, though), missed the train we wanted to Milan and ate lunch at a creperie (delicious bruschetta!). We finally got to Milan, dropped off Dan's bag at the train station, and manuevered our way through the Milan Metro to get to the Duomo piazza. There were 9 million cops around with riot gear and we never found out why. We went inside the Duomo with hopes of going up the dome, but as there was a mass going on, we were not able to do so. The Duomo is GIGANTIC (one of the biggest 4 I think?) and very beautiful. We also looked at the Galleria, a huge area of swanky shops covered by a glass ceiling. MTV Italy told us that one of the mosaics on the ground which had a bull on it brought good luck to whomever dug their heel in and spun around, so we did that. We looked at the outside of the Opera House and tried to find somewhere to eat but did not want to get ripped off, so we headed back to the train station to catch a bus to Malpensa. It was rainy and crowded in Milan (very similar to NYC) and Dan had an early flight the next morning.
When we got to Malpensa airport, we couldn't figure out how to get to our hotel, so we decided to take a cab. I asked a cabbie if he was free and after he asked where we were going, he called the hotel himself to get their free shuttle to come pick us up. That would never happen in the US. We finally got picked up and had dinner at the hotel (I felt bad that Dan's last dinner in Italy was in a hotel restaurant, but it was actually decent) and went to sleep. This morning we got picked up at 5:15 am to get him to the airport for his 6:55 am flight. It was hard saying goodbye -- after not seeing him for 3 months it was such a short visit of 4 days -- but we'll see each other in a little more than a month. I slept on the shuttle and train ride back, and listened to a CD on the Discman Dan gave me (since my mp3 player can't charge on any computer except for my broken one). When I got back I slept for 5 more hours, and then went over to the villa to bake Christmas cookies with Steph and Nate. We made our own frosting and cut out cute shapes but they did not turn out at ALL. I will post a picture later because they are quite hilarious.
I only have 3 weeks left in Italy! RIDICULOUS. 2 more weeks with the BC kids here! There will be a lot of work to do this week (preparing for final papers and presentations and exams) but this next weekend our whole program is going to the Alps in Aosta for a ski trip! I am very excited. We also have a group-wide Christmas Party at Anna's which I am stoked about.
I hope everyone's Thanksgivings were marvelous!
Home stretch, man!
<3
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
FIRST SNOW IN PARMA!
I was actually not excited about it because the prospect of walking to Soc at 8:15 in the morning in SNOW was no good.
We did see a snowman, though, so that was baller. I want the snow to go away for the weekend, though, so we can ride bikes around Parma.
I'll keep you all posted.
LOVE
the abominable snowman
I was actually not excited about it because the prospect of walking to Soc at 8:15 in the morning in SNOW was no good.
We did see a snowman, though, so that was baller. I want the snow to go away for the weekend, though, so we can ride bikes around Parma.
I'll keep you all posted.
LOVE
the abominable snowman
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Another excellent weekend!
On Friday, the entire BC program went to Verona for the day, which I was looking forward to but turned out to not be that fun, mostly because I was very frustrated with the people who were leading us around. Caterina, our coordinator, was in the US at BC and couldn't come with, so she had a couple of our Italian teachers accompany us, and they were just very disorganized and not fun to follow around a city. Despite that, highlights include: Juliet's balcony (which has a statue of Juliet that you are supposed to rub her boob for good luck, which I did not do...and then got POOPED on by a PIGEON!), delicious pastries for lunch, and...yeah it was a fine day. Oh well.
From Verona, a couple of us ventured on to Venice, which was MUCH MORE satisfactory. We got in around dinner time on Friday night but decided to find our hostel first. The hostel was unmarked, as many hostels are, but the weirder thing was that even though all 7 of us booked together we wanted different rooms...and these different rooms were in different buildings. Okay. As the manager guy was giving us our key he told us that for breakfast we had to come to the main hostel place and ask for a ticket and then bring that to the Chinese restaurant down the block and we'd eat there. Obviously.
We found a place to eat that was pretty cheap -- I had spicy pasta, one boy in our group had CUTTLEFISH, and the waiter kept making eyes at us. HOORAY! That was really fun (not the creepy waiter) and it was good to sit after our travels.
Jeff's cousin is studying with Wake Forest in Venice, so we went to the house that all the Wake kids stay, eat, and have class in (which seems really weird now that I think about it). The house was soooooo nice it was ridiculous. They were all very nice and welcoming, and DAVE PREDICTED THE SCORE of the BC/Wake game that happened yesterday! HE GOT IT ON THE NOSE. It was awesome.
We got lost going back because Venice is essentially a maze in Disneyland (it is impossible to comprehend that people live there and that it is a real place to live) but finally found our hostel and went to sleep. The next morning we were saddened to find out that our breakfast was NOT at the Chinese restaurant (it was actually closed), but at a bar next door. Alas.
WE WALKED AROUND ALL OF VENICE ON SATURDAY. Here are some things we saw: Rialto Bridge, San Marco Square (where Dave, Steph and I went up the elevator on the belltower, and I had an adventure with pigeons. San Marco is infamous for the ridic amount of pigeons that hang out there, and all these sketchballs come up to you and shove food in your hand so the pigeons land on you and take a picture. We didn't have any interaction with any of those people but I was hungry and wanted to eat the bread I brought, but every time I took the bread out pigeons were like "WHOA HEY THERE KRISTIN" and I got scared. I threw a bebe piece far away from me to get them away and they SWOOPED like swooping things and ate that thing up in miliseconds. So I decided to throw the entire loaf of bread at them to see what would happen, if it would be like piranhas in the movies. So after some dodging of pigeons to get the windup, I CHUCKED that loaf of bread and pigeons got mad excited, but then a seagull was like "AHA I am so huge and terrifying this bread is MINE" and scared off all the pigeons. And then a man picked up my bread and broke it up and threw some more. The end), we went on a waterbus, and basically saw adorable streets and canals, saw all the Murano glass we could bear to see, and Steph and I had these AMAZING pastries that were more than delicious. SO GOOD.
We caught a train back at 7. The train was supposed to last for 3.5 hours, but we spent the first hour just being happy and talking. We only had one ticket, and the thing said we would get to Parma via 4 other cities. We stopped in Bologna and everybody and their moms got off. We started looking around, wondering if this was the last stop, but that wouldn't make sense because every other time we've taken trains and had to switch we have gotten 2 tickets. So obvi we wouldn't switch for this either. Jeff and Dave got off the train and checked a schedule, seeing that there was another train that would get us to Parma, and they suggested we get off. We were going to gather stuff and get off when the train started moving again, so we figured we would figure everything out in the next station. However, the train never gained momentum and it soon became evident that the train was not going anywhere but instead going to park for the night. Once it stopped, we got all our stuff together and tried to start walking towards the front of the train where the conductor was, because all the doors to get off the train were now locked. It was a very long train and before we got up to where we needed to be all the lights went out. We yelled at someone to hit the Emergency Open lever, and we tumbled off the train. There was a creepy man standing near the front of the train and we walked quickly away from him, towards the real station. Steph stopped because she thought she left her wallet on the train. Erin and I booked it so fast to the platforms, and managed to not get hit by any trains passing by. We finally got on a train to Parma, and the rest of the night was uneventful. It was one of the more scary things I've experienced in Italy...being stuck on a train with no way out and no one going up and down the cars to check. GOOD TIMES.
This morning we met up and went to a little Christmas festival in the streets of Parma -- it was so cute! We had free samples of cheeses and salamis, and saw all these Christmassy gadgets. Very very cute! Also, everyone in Parma is so nice. We had a bad experience with a mean bus ticket issuer in Venice, so it was good to be back in a place where people actually smile.
AND THEN!
After that we headed to the Villa around 12 and started cooking for our THANKSGIVING EXTRAVAGANZA! A bunch of kids decided we wanted a Tgives feast because we're all travelling (or having people visit <3) on Thursday, so we each made something. Jeff made pieces of turkey and a whole chicken, stuffing from scratch, a pumpkin pie and an apple pie; Nate made mashed potatoes; Steph and I made cookies and I brought the biggest loaf of bread I have ever seen (that I bought at the Christmas market earlier); Erin made broccoli and green beans; Dave made a Canadian chili that was delish; and we had vino. Steph and I made placecards for everyone (I drew turkeys on them!) and we had a HUUUGE table in Nate's kitchen. It was SO CUTE and SO FUN to spend hours cooking together and then having a FEAST. We have SOOOOOOO MANY leftovers...the entire chicken and a ginormous pot of mashed potatoes. Round two is tomorrow. But it was great, we listened to Christmas music and felt very holidayesque.
So! Short week this week -- we have hot chocolate with Caterina tomorrow night and I think we're watching Christmas movies on Tuesday, and then Wednesday DANIEL COMES TO PARMA and life will be magical. Also, I used Steph's computer to upload a lot of pictures, so check out the webshots!
Love to all, hope life is wonderful!
On Friday, the entire BC program went to Verona for the day, which I was looking forward to but turned out to not be that fun, mostly because I was very frustrated with the people who were leading us around. Caterina, our coordinator, was in the US at BC and couldn't come with, so she had a couple of our Italian teachers accompany us, and they were just very disorganized and not fun to follow around a city. Despite that, highlights include: Juliet's balcony (which has a statue of Juliet that you are supposed to rub her boob for good luck, which I did not do...and then got POOPED on by a PIGEON!), delicious pastries for lunch, and...yeah it was a fine day. Oh well.
From Verona, a couple of us ventured on to Venice, which was MUCH MORE satisfactory. We got in around dinner time on Friday night but decided to find our hostel first. The hostel was unmarked, as many hostels are, but the weirder thing was that even though all 7 of us booked together we wanted different rooms...and these different rooms were in different buildings. Okay. As the manager guy was giving us our key he told us that for breakfast we had to come to the main hostel place and ask for a ticket and then bring that to the Chinese restaurant down the block and we'd eat there. Obviously.
We found a place to eat that was pretty cheap -- I had spicy pasta, one boy in our group had CUTTLEFISH, and the waiter kept making eyes at us. HOORAY! That was really fun (not the creepy waiter) and it was good to sit after our travels.
Jeff's cousin is studying with Wake Forest in Venice, so we went to the house that all the Wake kids stay, eat, and have class in (which seems really weird now that I think about it). The house was soooooo nice it was ridiculous. They were all very nice and welcoming, and DAVE PREDICTED THE SCORE of the BC/Wake game that happened yesterday! HE GOT IT ON THE NOSE. It was awesome.
We got lost going back because Venice is essentially a maze in Disneyland (it is impossible to comprehend that people live there and that it is a real place to live) but finally found our hostel and went to sleep. The next morning we were saddened to find out that our breakfast was NOT at the Chinese restaurant (it was actually closed), but at a bar next door. Alas.
WE WALKED AROUND ALL OF VENICE ON SATURDAY. Here are some things we saw: Rialto Bridge, San Marco Square (where Dave, Steph and I went up the elevator on the belltower, and I had an adventure with pigeons. San Marco is infamous for the ridic amount of pigeons that hang out there, and all these sketchballs come up to you and shove food in your hand so the pigeons land on you and take a picture. We didn't have any interaction with any of those people but I was hungry and wanted to eat the bread I brought, but every time I took the bread out pigeons were like "WHOA HEY THERE KRISTIN" and I got scared. I threw a bebe piece far away from me to get them away and they SWOOPED like swooping things and ate that thing up in miliseconds. So I decided to throw the entire loaf of bread at them to see what would happen, if it would be like piranhas in the movies. So after some dodging of pigeons to get the windup, I CHUCKED that loaf of bread and pigeons got mad excited, but then a seagull was like "AHA I am so huge and terrifying this bread is MINE" and scared off all the pigeons. And then a man picked up my bread and broke it up and threw some more. The end), we went on a waterbus, and basically saw adorable streets and canals, saw all the Murano glass we could bear to see, and Steph and I had these AMAZING pastries that were more than delicious. SO GOOD.
We caught a train back at 7. The train was supposed to last for 3.5 hours, but we spent the first hour just being happy and talking. We only had one ticket, and the thing said we would get to Parma via 4 other cities. We stopped in Bologna and everybody and their moms got off. We started looking around, wondering if this was the last stop, but that wouldn't make sense because every other time we've taken trains and had to switch we have gotten 2 tickets. So obvi we wouldn't switch for this either. Jeff and Dave got off the train and checked a schedule, seeing that there was another train that would get us to Parma, and they suggested we get off. We were going to gather stuff and get off when the train started moving again, so we figured we would figure everything out in the next station. However, the train never gained momentum and it soon became evident that the train was not going anywhere but instead going to park for the night. Once it stopped, we got all our stuff together and tried to start walking towards the front of the train where the conductor was, because all the doors to get off the train were now locked. It was a very long train and before we got up to where we needed to be all the lights went out. We yelled at someone to hit the Emergency Open lever, and we tumbled off the train. There was a creepy man standing near the front of the train and we walked quickly away from him, towards the real station. Steph stopped because she thought she left her wallet on the train. Erin and I booked it so fast to the platforms, and managed to not get hit by any trains passing by. We finally got on a train to Parma, and the rest of the night was uneventful. It was one of the more scary things I've experienced in Italy...being stuck on a train with no way out and no one going up and down the cars to check. GOOD TIMES.
This morning we met up and went to a little Christmas festival in the streets of Parma -- it was so cute! We had free samples of cheeses and salamis, and saw all these Christmassy gadgets. Very very cute! Also, everyone in Parma is so nice. We had a bad experience with a mean bus ticket issuer in Venice, so it was good to be back in a place where people actually smile.
AND THEN!
After that we headed to the Villa around 12 and started cooking for our THANKSGIVING EXTRAVAGANZA! A bunch of kids decided we wanted a Tgives feast because we're all travelling (or having people visit <3) on Thursday, so we each made something. Jeff made pieces of turkey and a whole chicken, stuffing from scratch, a pumpkin pie and an apple pie; Nate made mashed potatoes; Steph and I made cookies and I brought the biggest loaf of bread I have ever seen (that I bought at the Christmas market earlier); Erin made broccoli and green beans; Dave made a Canadian chili that was delish; and we had vino. Steph and I made placecards for everyone (I drew turkeys on them!) and we had a HUUUGE table in Nate's kitchen. It was SO CUTE and SO FUN to spend hours cooking together and then having a FEAST. We have SOOOOOOO MANY leftovers...the entire chicken and a ginormous pot of mashed potatoes. Round two is tomorrow. But it was great, we listened to Christmas music and felt very holidayesque.
So! Short week this week -- we have hot chocolate with Caterina tomorrow night and I think we're watching Christmas movies on Tuesday, and then Wednesday DANIEL COMES TO PARMA and life will be magical. Also, I used Steph's computer to upload a lot of pictures, so check out the webshots!
Love to all, hope life is wonderful!
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