My Past Week

Basket weaving

This past Thursday was an absolutely amazing day! After my Italian class in the morning, Monica took the 4 API girls to do some basket weaving with an older man named Lucciano. Apparently he is the only person in Tuscania who still knows how to make baskets. So for about 3 hours he attempted to help the four of his with our baskets. First, he helped us all make our bases. We had to select certain types of branches depending on the section of our basket. He had previously collected hundreds of “branches” and they were now soaking in a huge well of water in order to make them more pliable. After the base was constructed, we then began to weave. For those of you who have never weaved a basket, it is not an easy feat. We constantly used 3 branches, but once a branch would end you had to add in another one. This “switching” was the most difficult part. After we weaved the main body of the basket, Lucciano helped us with the handle and then it was complete! It was so much fun and it felt so good to see the finished product that I can take home with me and have something to remember this experience by. Probably the most memorable thing about the experience was that tons of people came by the farm to see us! People actually came out of their way to see the American girls make baskets. One woman actually had a video camera. Another woman was a writer for the Viterbo (the larger region that Tuscania is in) newspaper and is going to write an article about us! I’ll keep you posted 

Thermal Baths/Picnic

After the basket weaving, Monica took us to the thermal baths about 15 minutes outside of Tuscania. These baths are natural hot springs and is open to the public. Monica kept raving about how healthy the natural spas are because of the natural minerals that are in the water. It was very nice except that it smelled a little like eggs (sulfur). There were many different pools, and they got hotter the closer you got to the top spring. There were a lot of people at the spring but it was not overcrowded and we got our own pool. Then, Monica prepared a picnic for us! She got an assortment of pizza and panini and frutta. It was so tasty! We had a really relaxing evening and I went to bed as soon as I got home.

Friday Markets

The next morning, I woke up refreshed from my evening at the spa  Maggie and I met Mei, one of our advisors at the school, who took us to the Friday market. Every Friday morning in Tuscania there is a huge open air market. Unfortunately, this Friday it was raining, but we still enjoyed ourselves. It is pretty much like a huge thrift store, which you all know that I love! There is tons of second hand stuff, but there is also new stuff. They have everything from clothes and shoes to kitchen appliances and household decorations. It is fun to just go and walk around and see what is new (and cheap). This week I bought a coat, a cute shirt from H&M and a little sweater for 16 euro!

The Locals

Tuscania is a great little town in Italia with so many unique people. Everyone here is friendly and will talk to you if you give them the chance. They are also so willing to help you with your Italian. Not too many people here speak much English, so it is easy to only speak Italian to them. They usually look at me like I’m crazy and smile until I finally make some sense out of what they just said to me. I have definitely learned to laugh at myself and have fun in any situation. For an Italian homework assignment we had to go around Tuscania to a bunch of shops and ask them a few questions about their store and the products that they sold. This was interesting. My friend Maggie and I went around on Monday morning to about 8 shops asking various questions in very, very bad Italian. We made a lot of good friends and had a lot of laughs. I even got asked out on a date (I think… the butcher asked me if I wanted to take a walk around the town this evening). I pretended like I had no idea what he was talking about. The assignment that we thought would take 30 minutes ended up taking about 2 hours because everyone wanted to talk to us. Overall, we are having a great time in Tuscania and we really feel at home here. We saw tourists here today and were semi-annoyed by them.

Classes

I totally forgot to mention my classes…you know…the reason that I’m here ;) I am taking 16 credits while I am here, which is a lot! Luckily, I only have class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so I always have four day weekends. On Tuesdays, I have Beginning Italian from 8:30-10:10 and Ancient Mediterranean Civilization and Culture from 15:30-18:00. On Wednesdays (my terribly long days), I have Italian Cinema from 9:00-11:00, Italian Renaissance Civilization and Culture from 15:30-18:00, and Mediterranean Cuisine from 18:00-20:30. Finally, on Thursdays I have Italian again from 8:30-10:10. My favorite class is of course my cooking class, without question. It is amazing!!!! The best part is our uniforms  we look like real chefs. There are 6 of us in the class and we pretty much get together, cook dinner, and eat and drink wine the rest of the night. It is awesome! Our chef, Giordano, is a great chef who has traveled the world to cook. He is only 26 and has now settled back down in Tuscania and opened his own bakery! He is actually going to be selling his famous “biscuits” (cookies/biscotti) in the US! We all have so much fun and we make some great food. My next favorite class would probably have to be my Italian class because I get to learn the language that I so desperately need to know. Because Maria and most other people here do not speak English, I am forced to speak and learn Italian. I am slowly picking it up. At first, I only attempted the nouns and simple vocabulary, but now I am becoming braver and attempting conjugate verbs. My favorite thing to do is to go to the bar (coffee in the morning and afternoon and alcohol at night) and order a cappuccino and cornetto! I usually say, “Io prendo un cappuccino con caffé ginseng senza skeuma e un cornetto per favore”. This just means, “I would like a cappuccino with ginseng coffee without foam and a pastry please”. And you all thought that ordering at Starbucks was difficult. Mei turned us onto ginseng coffee because it is much lighter than and not as hard on the stomach as regular coffee. We also decided that the foam just took up way too much room and that we wanted more coffee.  Typically a cappuccino is 1 euro and a cornetto is 0, 60 euro. So, it is difficult to not go everyday especially because it is part of the culture. Like today, about 10 minutes before the end of class my teacher said, “Let’s stop and go to the bar. Everyone seems tired.” So we all went to get a cappuccino. It was great! Anyway, the other class that I really like is my Italian cinema class because it is so different than anything that I have ever taken before. Before this class, I had never seen an Italian film, but it was something that I really wanted to do while in Italy. So this class makes it easy. I typically have to watch 2-3 Italian films a week. I am now learning about the “neorealism” genre and learning to love subtitles. Also, I am the only person who signed up for this class, so it is now an “independent study class”! It’s awesome! My other classes are good as well, but they are just history classes. They are really long (2 ½ hours) and it is really difficult to understand my teachers. But, I know I’ll make it through 

An Average Day in the Life of Lauren

So, my average weekday is really different than back home. I wake up in my large but uncomfortable bed every morning at about 7:30 (all of the beds are hard as rocks). I take a bath because I only have a bath tub, so I usually almost freeze to death every morning. After I bath and dress I go downstairs and eat breakfast. Maria usually has something laid out on the kitchen table, either biscotti or a pastry of some kind. She also has the percolator ready to go for my morning coffee. I then select a fruit, usually a peach because Maria knows that I love peaches so we always have tons of them. I then make the 10 minute walk to school and attend class for a few hours. Around 1, I go back home to make my own lunch or I go to a pizzeria with some friends. Around 2 or 3, I go back to the school to use Skype to talk to Steve and my family. I then go to another class (if I have one) for another few hours. After class, I go home and do my homework or sit around bored waiting for Maria and Dominico to get home. Around 7 we begin to prepare dinner. Maria usually only lets me set the table or stir a sauce. Tonight was a huge victory for me because I actually washed my own plate before she came over and took the sponge from my hand. We never eat until 8 or so and we are finished and cleaned up by 8:45 or so. By this time, I am exhausted for some reason and am usually in bed by 9. I live a very exciting life…not.

My Campania Weekend!

Hello Again!

Sorry it has taken me some time to add another post, but I have been so busy! I just had an amazing weekend in Campania! On Friday we left Tuscania at 6:30 in the morning...it was awful. We had to first go to Rome to pick up the Rome LDM (Lorenzo Medici's kids, but also the other API students who go to John Cabot University (which is like 50 students). So, we were a huge group, which was kind of a bummer. But, we left Rome and went to Vesuvius, which we hiked to the very top (the bus brought us most of the way). The views were unbelievable and Napoli (Naples) and the bay looked beautiful from that far away. However, we got out of Napoli very quickly because it is run by the mafia and it is pretty unsafe (and there is garbage everywhere!). After the hike we made our way to our hotel in Sorrento (3 hours). API paid for our dinner that night and it was really good Neapolitan food. We had bruscetta (which they pronounce brus-K-etta), gnocchi, cake, and coke WITH ICE. We are already laughing at all of the simple pleasures- normal sized showers, toilet seats, ice, and the list goes on. Then we had a free night in Sorrento to shop and roam around the beautiful town.

The next morning we woke up and took a hydrofoil over to the island of Capri (prounced KA-pri); however, before we boarded the boat there was a huge storm. We were all standing outside without jackets or umbrellas and the wind, rain, and HAIL were gracing us with its presence. Once we arrived on Capri the rain stopped and it was beautiful weather. We had a free day to explore the island. We took a lift up to the main city of Capri and did some shopping, we took a bus up to the smaller city of Anacapri (less touristy) and had an amazingly secluded lunch, and then we went down to the bottom and sat on the rocky beach for a few hours. When I say rocky I don’t mean sandy with some rocks. I literally mean there were only rocks, tons of rocks. It was really cool but painful. There was also so much sea glass, which of course I collected. The Mediterranean Sea is just as beautiful as you would imagine. I had no idea that it was actually clear. You can see your toes! (Also, I forgot to tell you that Thursday LDM Tuscania took us to Lake Bolsena, the largest volcanic lake in Europe. It is about 15 minutes from Tuscania and it is gorgeous! Again, it is SO clear and beautiful). Ok, then after the beach we got back on the hydrofoil and it began to rain again (surprise, surprise). Then we had a wonderful free night in Sorrento. I bought SO much stuff…a.k.a. I got a lot of Christmas shopping done. Then we had a beautiful dinner with all of the LDM people- Tuscania and Rome (about 10 people)- at this restaurant where we were serenaded and I was kissed by an old man who works there (seriously!). Then we had gelato of course!

Sunday we left the hotel and drove to Pompeii! It was actually a lot cooler than I had imagined. Then we made the 5 hour trip back home. After being surrounded by people in the big cities we have determined that we hate tourists and we hate the big cities. We are so content being the only Americans in Tuscania and living in a quiet town with nothing to do. The constant noise and busyness were awful! This week I just have class and we have a free weekend, which we are so excited about. Also, on Thursday Monica is going to take us to learn how to do basket weaving!!! We are so excited! I will post more pictures soon! I love you all!

Lauren

Introduction

The Flight

Hello Everyone!

Well, after months and months of waiting, getting things approved, packing, and saying goodbye to all of my family and friends, I am finally in Italy. However, the trip here was not as pleasant as I would have liked. The flight was very long and was full of turbulence. As a result, I got motion sickness and passed out about 25 minutes from the airport. I immediately felt better and was able to get off the plane and collect my baggage without a problem. Then, I met my site director (Monica) and the rest of the API crew (API= Academic Programs International). We all put our stuff on a large bus and began the 1 hour drive to Roma. My first step off the bus in Roma was immediately followed by vomiting in the street in front of my hotel. Not Fun!

Rome

For the next two days, I was unable to eat and drink anything other than bread and water, which is a total disgrace in Italy. However, God is great and I was feeling well enough to participate in all of the outings. We saw so many awesome things in Rome! We went to the Colosseo, the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican museum, and St. Peter's Basilica Our hotel was gorgeous and I made some great friends. There are only four API Tuscania students: Me, Katie, Maggie, and Melissa. They are all awesome girls and we have had so much fun together already. On Wednesday, we finally made our trek to Tuscania (pronounced- tus-con-ya): our new home. It was the first day that I felt 100% since my arrival, and it could not have come at a better time.


Tuscania (Tus-con-ya)

Well, my new home is absolutely the most beautiful place that I have ever been. Not only are the views breathtaking, but the architecture is so "authentically Italian". I feel like I'm in a movie all the time. The first stop off the bus was my house: the home of Maria Carla and Dominico. They are absolutely wonderful people who spoil me rotten. Maria does my laundry, cooks dinner, and buys me anything that I ask her about. Also, she doesn't let me clean up anything. When I asked her if I could help she told me, "No, I'm your mama". I eventually told her (in really poor Italian), "Maria, if I eat, I help". She chuckled and sheepishly said, "OK". The only difficult thing about living there is that they speak no (very little) English. However, my Italian is improving quickly. I have learned a lot already-- mostly vocabulary-- so I probably sound like a 2 year old most of the time, but it gets my point across. They are so sweet and I could not have asked for better people.