Saturday, April 12, Sydney Staples

Saturday morning, I woke up in a hostel in Florence with seven other peers of mine. We had a cup of coffee, packed up our things and caught a train at 11:30am. We had a layover in Pisa that was longer than we had planned because we missed our train by two minutes. We debated whether or not we should visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa during our extended visit, but it was ruled out. We caught the next train out of Pisa and headed towards La Spezia, our second layover town. Our next train ride was 20 minutes long, and it took us to our final destination: Levanto. We got off the train and headed straight to our hostel to check in. Once we arrived, our group of eight split into a group of three and a group of five. I was in the group of five, and we headed to the beach! We put our feet in the water and had a mini photo shoot in the sand. Afterwards, we found a restaurant on the waterfront and we splurged a little. I ordered a dessert at the end of my meal called “Shoko Cocoa” and it was to die for! It consisted of vanilla and chocolate gelato topped with “panna” or whipping cream, chocolate chips and chocolate syrup in a giant martini glass. It was too great… By this time, the sun was setting and we wanted to watch it set over a famous hill side in Manarola. We bought a ticket for about 2.5€ one way and barely caught the train. We heard that there was going to be a train strike starting that evening at 9pm until 9pm Sunday night, so we wanted to get there and get back to our hostel before 9pm. We arrived in Manarola around 7:30pm and watched the sun set over a breathtaking town with the other group of three. We took a lot of pictures and enjoyed each others’ company. We were able to get back to our hostel, although our train was delayed by a few minutes. We changed into warmer clothes because the temperature dropped from 70 degrees to 50 degrees very quickly. A large group of us decided to walk along the beach until a little after midnight. Then we decided to get a little bit of rest, since we knew we had a long day coming. We walked back to our hostel and got ready for bed. It was a peaceful and beautiful day… And I was so grateful to see Cinque Terre this weekend for it was an attraction I wanted to see while studying abroad in Italy. Ciao for now! 

April 13

       It is a funny day about train. I felt we stayed in the train for the whole day. Since yesterday we arrived in Amalfi too late, we had to live in Amalfi for one night. In the morning, I scanned the news and found Rome was having a train strike. We decided to leave Amalfi as soon as possible by boat and spent only 30 minutes to Salorne, and then taking the train back to Napoli. (If anyone would like going to Amalfi, I would highly recommended taking the train from Napoli to Salorne first and then take the boat to Amalfi. We took the bus to Amalfi on Saturday and we spent about 3 hours on the road. Meanwhile the road of the mountain is all twisted. We all felt carsick.) We were back to Napoli in the afternoon and our stuffs in the hotel were all moved to the front desk L. We cleaned them in the hallway for half an hour. As we were in the train station, the ticket office told us that our train was cancelled, but there was another regular trains was not cancelled and we could take it back to Rome. We waited for 30 minutes with a lot of people. However, the train did not come. Rainy found out the train was cancelled and we were told to take another train, which would leave in 10 minutes, so we ran to another platform. In the train, we were so happy talking about our travelling and we did not realize we already past the station until the ticket checker came to check the ticket. We got off in a town, which we never heard about. We should be nervous, but we were not. We felt this trip was so funny. Rainy and I checked the train schedule on the wall in the ticket office and Julie went to the restroom. We found the train to Rome would come in 4 minutes. We carried three cases ran to the platform. However, when we went to the platform, there was only a couple of girls there and one of them told us the train was cancelled. OK, it was cancelled again. At last, we waited for 20 minutes for the next train that took us back to Rome. At 10.05, we got back to Rome successfully, however, we were supposed to get back at 7.10. Oh well, it was a funny experience on the train and we enjoyed getting lost together.

After a wonderful dinner at Manka’s place on Thursday night following a glass of wine at Piazza Campo De’Fiori before we went to bed, on the very next morning at 8, I hopped on the train with Christina and Julie to Naples. This is our student life in Italy--never let go one moment to experience, explore and study (we did our homework on the train :P).

It’s a different train than the one we took before. There was no specific seat, date or time shown on the ticket since it was a regular train that goes through small towns instead of a IC train or a high speed train that goes only between big cities. The regular train is also equipped much older than the IC train and the high speed train that there is no internet or electricity plugs. Two hours later, we arrived Naples. It’s a much bigger city than we expected, and surprisingly, people are much more hospitable than people in Roma. There were people came to ask us if we were looking for direction when we looked confused standing in the middle of the road. Naples is also one of the oldest cities in Italy with a long history like Rome. However, it looked much more modern than Rome to me, which was a little disappointed to me since I don’t like modern looking city. I guess Naples rarely had Asian tourist during this time of the year, especially not as a big tourist group but three girls, we literally had almost every single person stared at us on the street.

After a lunch break, we headed to the coast line where Castle dell Ovo was located. Legend had it that there was a repute sorcerer named Virgil, put a magical egg in a crystal bowl which was in an iron cage and hid it in the castle, and this egg was connected with the fate and the safety of the city. Christian and Middle East people would use an ostrich egg as the symbol of the egg during mosque in ancient time. After coming out from the castle, we sat on the big rocks by the coastline to enjoy the afternoon sunshine with gelato. Half an hour later, we walked toward the Palazzo Reale, which is the royal palace of Bourbon kings back in the 17th century. The House of Bourbon was a European royal house of French origin, and Bourbon kinds ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century, and Spain, Naples, Sicily and Parma in the 18th century. It looked quite small and common from outside, but inside was really big and luxury with many rooms that were decorated in the color of gold that served different purposes. 

A small incident happened before we entered the reale that there were five or six 12 or 13 years old looking boys that just randomly jumped next to us when me and Christina were trying to take a photo together. We actually have got used to this engagement and hospitality of Italians, but the boys took further action that they just grabbed away our sunglasses from our heads. We thought they were local children who lived nearby and were just playing together without parental guardians, but later we saw the adults who were with them but didn’t stop them from grabbing our things. It wasn’t a bad experience, but it was just a little surprising to us since we have never seen such “free parental management” in the U.S. 

We finished our day by seafood pasta and wine and we are getting ready for heading Amalfi tomorrow! 

April 10th

Today was a late start, but a long day. We all headed off to service learning individually around 12:30 since it takes about an hour to get to our schools and the teachers expected us there at 1:30. I was running a bit late, but made it there on time and thankfully they had things a bit more squared away at the preschool than the last time we were there.
I got to be in the same classroom I had ended up in last time which was really great because I had really liked the teacher even though we really can't communicate since I don't speak much Italian and she doesn't speak much English. However, we make it work. I felt like preschool was a bit chaotic today though. All of the kids definitely were just doing their own thing and not listening to the teacher. She had to count down a bunch of times in order to get the class to be quiet. It was nice to be in a 'dysfunctional' classroom though, it reminded me of my preschool I volunteer in back in the States. I can't wait to see how the next couple of months there progress.
Afterwards I headed back to the Rome Center to meet up with the rest of the group since we were watching a film with some of the other programs there. It was called Shun Li and the Poet. The film was about a Chinese woman in Italy and centered around the fact that she was trying to bring her son to Italy. It also centered around a friendship she made with an elderly Italian man who frequented the cafe she worked at. After the film, the Rome Center had asked the screen writer to come to the viewing to do a Q and A. So for about a half an hour afterwards people were able to ask him questions which was quite cool. It's not something you get to do in the states that often.
My group headed off to Manka's apartment after the film to eat some Indian food before all heading back to our apartments for the night. I'm really excited for this weekend! I'm heading to Prague and I know there are some girls headed to Naples and another group headed to Florence and Cinque Terre. I'm super pumped to hear about everyone's adventures.

Tuesday, April 8th

Tuesday, 4/8/14: James Norris

This officially concludes my second week in beautiful Roma!  Today, we went to our schools and were introduced to the children that we would be working with for the rest of the quarter.  I know that most of us were excited, and the children definitely were as well.  When we came to the classes, we were bombarded with questions about where we are from, what types of food we eat, what language we speak, and so on.  I was at the Pisacane Elementary school, which meant that there was a smaller population of Italian students and a very large population of 1^st and 2^nd generation immigrants.  In my 5^th grade class, a group of Italian college students were giving a lesson on world religions.  They began by reading the kids myths from various religions, split them up into small groups of about four, and then had them act out the myths!  I had a great time watching their learning process, as some of the students took to the task of memorizing narrations and others worked on choreographing their short stories.  At the end of the class, each group took turn presenting their plays, and we laughed with them in enjoyment!

When I got home, I realized that this was by far the most exhausted I had been since I arrived in Rome.  Maybe it was the compounding of days or that I missed my daily cappuccino, but I have a feeling that these children are going to wear me out every time I see them!  They have so much energy and are filled with such excitement that it is impossible not to be laugh and be happy with them.  Regardless of the language barrier, we found ways to joke and communicate with one another.  I think I can speak for most of us in saying that we have already formed some form of attachment to our classes.  I can’t wait to go back!

James Norris

April 9, 2014

“Oggi e mercoledi.” Today is Wednesday. This is what we learned from the Italian class. The interesting thing is the words lunedi, martedi, mercoledi, giovedi, venerdi, sabato, domenica are all related to the ancient Greek mythology. What we learned in the Italian classes recently are all common in daily life. Yesterday we went to elementary schools do the service learning. I assisted in second grade. The teacher and students seemed not good at English. Every time I said some Italian words, they showed very excited for me. I wished I can speak Italian at the moment. As they asked me when my last service learning was, it was so hard for them to understand the months and weekdays in English. That is helpful for me to learn the numbers and dates in today’s Italian class. After the morning class, the other two girls and I went to the forth library, this is my first time to go to the library in Rome Center. The floor is quiet and the view through the window is beautiful. I found people in Italian like to put the plants on the top of the building. There are many green plants hided in the red roof.

The library is tiny and only have few computers, but I think that is enough for students in Rome Center.

The class in the afternoon, we talked about the experience yesterday. I was so happy to hear different stories from other classmates. I feel very lucky because even teachers and most students cannot speak English, they all kept using body language and smiles to tell me they like me so much. They had many questions about me, and like to teach me Italian as well. The other two girls and I planed the trip to Naples this weekend in the night. I wish we can have a good weekend:)

April 7, 2014

Monday is always the most "lazy" day in weekdays, we all wake up a little bit late this morning. But the good thing was that we found a closer way to Rome Center in the morning. Rainy, Julie and I always left home earlier in the past week morning, however, we were always later than other girls. We thought that might because they walk fast. We got the real answer today. Since we were late, we followed Sydney to try another way and we only used 15 minutes to walk to Rome Center instead of half an hour. Elders always say “All Roads Lead to Rome.” That is right. Rome has too many small streets and narrow alleyways!

In the Italian class, we began to learn some common verbs in Italian. More and more nouns we have to remember as well. The interesting thing I found was that languages always have the common things and if you learn more languages, it would be much more easier to understand a different language. For me, I can speak Chinese, English and some Germany. When I learned Italian, I felt it was easy for me to understand some rules and remember words. Wish we can use Italian to communicate before we leave Rome.

I would say life is better and better in Rome and we became to get used to this city. I feel so glad to see this city in every moment. I still remembered my first impression about Rome is the city like Paris and New York, that people are busy and hard working. City is big and streets are crowded. In fact, I do not have any good feeling for such big cities. However, as we found the good food, friendly people and beautiful places in this city, I changed my mind in the past week little by little. I am looking forward knowing more about this city, this country in these two months. Ciao!