Spring Break: Innsbruck, Bavarian Alps, Munich, Sevilla, Canary Islands!

As promised, here’s my blog post about my two week, three country, five city, 21st birthday spring break. I think I’m still recovering from the exhaustion… but it was well worth it.

The break started out with my family, after we had spent the weekend together in Bologna and Florence, as I described in my last post. After that, we headed out of Italy, cramped-but-surprisingly-not-arguing-yet in our rental car, and my official spring break began.

First stop: Innsbruck. We took one evening and the next day visiting our friends, the Thene family. The Thenes used to live in Linden Hills, Minneapolis, and Marissa and Claire were good friends at Lake Harriet. They now live in an enchanting little town called Nutters, right up the hill from the valley that Innsbruck is in. It was exactly the type of town that you picture when you think, ‘Austria.’ The smell of cows, cute little houses, mountain views every where you turn. I felt like if someone had started yodeling, it would have been completely appropriate. Anyway, it was lovely to see the Thenes. We got to stay in their beautiful house for the night, take a walk in the mountains, and the next day we walked around Innsbruck for a couple of hours. Even in the rain, it was a charming city with literally 360 degrees of mountain views. I also loved hearing the Austrian dialect- especially coming out of Marissa!

Sisters in Innsbruck

That afternoon we drove another hour or so and crossed the second border of the trip- we were now in Germany! In the Bavarian Alps, to be exact. When I caught the first glance of Schloss Elmau, the castle/hotel where we spent many weekends my 8th grade year, I got goosebumps. Even though a lot has changed there, it brought back so many memories. Even the smells were the same! Again, it was rainy and foggy, so we could barely see the mountains, but it still felt magical. We took advantage of the Elmauer Alm hike up the nearby mountain (although we were disappointed to see that the bar at the top was closed), the spa, and my Uncle Keith’s beautiful apartment just for hanging out with the family. I think that day was one of my favorites of my whole spring break. And lucky me, I get to go back there again with friends at the end of June!

Schloss Elmau & foggy mountains

Last but not least for the family portion of the spring break was a weekend in Munich. It was awesome being with my Keith, Regine, Aaron and Adam, as always. And it worked out well timing-wise, because we all got to celebrate my favorite Jewish holiday, Passover, together! I was also thrilled this time around to be able to meet up with Ella, our old exchange student from high school. It was so fun to catch up with her since last seeing her on her visit to Madison my freshman year. Hopefully I will get to see her again in Bologna (hint, hint, ELLA!) before I head back to the states! As well as seeing Ella, and my awesome friends Jessy and Hami again,  I also got to see my old tutor from 8th grade, Reha! I absolutely loved reconnecting with Reha- we laughed about memories of her, Claire and I spending girls weekends together while my parents went out of town. She was a huge help to me learning German and getting to the point I am today, and now she’s about to become a real live teacher. I know she’ll be great at it, and hopefully next time I come to Munich (in June) we will be able to spend some more time together. I am so grateful that I have a place so close to Bologna where I can go, see friends and family, and feel so comfortable and at home. Not to mention that Munich is such a great city on its own- I’ve decided I would love to live there again someday.

Dad in Marienplatz in München

Little cousin Adam showing off his iPod touch and his new FC Bayern hat.

Mom and Ella in front of our favorite yellow church in Odeansplatz

After the family left, I definitely suffered a bit of homesickness. Thanks to a delicious Easter brunch at my Aunt Regine’s parents house, though, I got over it pretty fast. After a super fun night with German friends, and a trip to the movie theater (aforementioned awesome Hunger Games), I headed off to Part Two of my spring break, which started out in Sevilla Spain!

Unfortunately I was only in Sevilla for a little over 24 hours, but I saw a fair amount in the little time I had. I saw the cathedral and climbed the giralda, the tower inside of it, getting an awesome view of the city. I saw beautiful parks and gardens and even a flamenco dancing performance in a tapas bar. But most importantly, I saw my lovely friends who live in Sevilla! My Wisco-Tour-Guide-Friend who has already been mentioned in this blog multiple times, Cara’s, host family was nice enough to host me at their apartment for the night, and it was really cool to see and experience Cara’s life there. I also got to catch up with my high school and college friend and ex-roomie, Lauren! She’s been studying abroad all year as well, so it was great to exchange stories. Thanks to Cara and Lauren, I got a very authentic view of the city of Sevilla. I loved it. We then met up with my American friends from my program, Christina and Ramie, as well as Michely, who flew in the next morning, and that evening head out to the Canary Islands!

Sevilla

Lauren, Michely and I in the royal gardens in Sevilla

The Canary Islands were incredible, of course. Our first day was in Maspalomas, on the south end of Gran Canaria. It was pretty touristy, chock-full of Germans, but the beach was absolutely stunning, and that was the one day we had gorgeous weather. So obviously we soaked up the sun on the beach all day, had a lovely picnic, and then explored the sand dunes at the corner of the beach. It was like walking in the desert! In our bikinis! We slid down the dunes, climbed up them, and at one point had views of the ocean almost from all sides. The one side that wasn’t ocean, there were more dunes and then some epic-looking mountains! Needless to say, a gorgeous sight.

Maspalomas beach

Sliding down sand dunes!

That next night we had an overnight ferry ride, uneventful but very cold and not a wonderful night of sleep, obviously. But it was worth it! We spent two and a half days in the northern town of Corralejo on the island of Fuerteventura. Stunning beaches, a charming little apartment with ocean views from every window and a cute town with a pretty fun night-life! The only downside was that it lived up to its name, which means strong wind. But on a lot of the beaches there were little stone structures to block the wind, so we still got to be sunworshippers at least a little bit each day. It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend. And the last night in Fuerteventura, I got to celebrate my 21st birthday! I was so content to be with three great friends, in a beautiful location, even though turning 21 isn’t quite the same event as it would have been in the U.S. I really couldn’t complain, though. My first technically legal drink was a corona and my friends bought me a cupcake and some sparkly light-up bunny ears for midnight. I completed my goal of making friends with a surfer (Corralejo is famous for its surfing), and I got to dance to terrible European dance music all night! What more could a girl ask for?

View from our apartment on Fuertaventura

the four of us outside of our apartment

On Flag Beach in Corralejo, famous for its hundreds of kite surfers!

21st birthday at midnight!

The trip included a LOT of traveling, from buses to boats to sleeping in the airport on our last night. But it was worth it. I came back exhausted, tanned, and barely ready for two weeks of straight studying.

But this was a couple weeks ago! Now I have completed three out of my four final exams and they all have gone swimmingly. I still have a couple more stories to catch up on, including a crazy night on an Italian party bus, and a weekend trip to Prague, and there will be plenty more visitors and travels coming up soon. Stay tuned!

Visitors, Visitors, Visitors

One of the best parts about living somewhere interesting for a year is that lots of people use it as an excuse to travel and come visit you! It’s also pretty convenient that so many students in their spring semester of junior year of college decide to study abroad at the same time, so we can all visit each other and have free places to stay. This combination of things led to three consecutive weekends of visitors this past month. I’ve been so busy being such a good host (and then doing some more traveling of my own, surprise surprise, that blog post coming soon after this one), that I haven’t had a chance to keep up on my blog posts! To make up for it- here’s a long one. But please read it all- I promise its worth your while!

My first in this string of visitors was the one and only Julia Bither, my best friend since 6^th grade. Julia came all the way from New York University to spend her spring break in Italia, and I think its safe to say that we both loved every minute of it. We had some much-needed best friend catching up time, and I finally got to off show my new life here to a close friend. Having her visit also provided a great excuse to go out for a lot of excellent meals and have ridiculous amounts of gelato and crepes (from my favorite late-night snack spot, “Bombocrepe”). It was such a pleasure to finally get to introduce my closest friend from this year, Michely (Brazilian roommate) to a friend from home- and even with the language barrier, they got along great. As Michely so perfectly put it, “Julia, I can’t understand 50% of what you say, but I like you!” Julia was open-minded, flexible, and willing to try everything, even when she was still jet-lagged from her sleepless flight over. She was so supportive about my life here and it made me really proud to show her how comfortable and established I’ve gotten in my new home.  It was sad to see her go, but I look forward to more adventures with her for those couple weeks while we’re both back in Minneapolis this summer. Maybe someday we’ll actually live in the same place again! Either way, our friendship has lasted two different years of living on different continents, so I’m not too worried about it.

From left to right- Michely, me, Julia, Gabe, Christina.

Julz after our climb to the Church of San Luca

Julia and I outside of my favorite gelateria

I told you we've been best friends for a while! Julia and I in Europe together 7 years ago, when she and her family came to visit me and my family in Germany. This photo is taken in the Bavarian alps.

My next visitor was a newer friend, Cara Ladd, a fellow tour guide and travel/language lover from Wisconsin. I just got to be good friends with Cara last summer in Madison, but I’ve now seen her three times since she got to Europe in January! It turns out we’re pretty compatible travel buddies. The first time I saw her was our VIP trip to Barcelona, and the second time, I got the pleasure of showing her around Bologna! I showed her the standard sites and loved hearing her commentaries and comparisons between Bologna and the charming Spanish town where she’s studying, Seville (stories about my visit there in the upcoming spring-break blog post). We also took a day trip to Venice, which was as charming as always, especially with some bright sunshine and a boat trip to the small island of Murano, which is famous for its glass blowing. Cara was so enthusiastic, took great pictures, and we talked so much about UW that I actually started to get excited about coming back. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely make the most out of these last few months. But at least I have an awesome school to go back to for senior year!

Cara and I outside of that same gelateria... clearly I like to show everyone the place where you can get Chocolate cake gelato!

Getting coffee in Venice

Cara is also an awesome photographer- this is one she took of me in front of the Grand Canal in Venezia

Another flashback! Me in Venice for my 14th Birthday. Not much has changed, huh?

Back in Bologna, Cara also got to experience an Italian graduation party. My closest Italian girlfriend here, Federica, happened to be graduating the weekend Cara was here. She and a friend had a joint party in one of our favorite clubs, DJ’d by our friend, Fabio Fortuna DJ. Even though it was a blast, it was bitter-sweet. Federica has been a huge part of my experience in Bologna. I met her last year, while she was doing the opposite exchange of mine- she’s a University of Bologna student who did a year abroad at UW Madison! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to know her well in Madison, and that’s something that I regret a lot today. But this year, she welcomed me with open arms into her city and her life here. I got to know her really well, and felt truly accepted by her group of Italian friends. It was so sad to say goodbye to her—in fact tomorrow she’s heading off to China for three months! No doubt that she’s on the road to do great things. Hopefully with our common love of traveling, languages, and the Badgers, we will cross paths again soon. Luckily, even though she’s gone, her friends have still made an effort to stay in touch and keep hanging out. This welcoming attitude and effort to reach out to international students is something that American college students could learn from Italians. This year has made me want to be much more attentive to that when I return to school in the States.

Federica and I at aperitivi before her graduation party

Anyway, back to my visitors. My weekend with Cara was wonderful, and it was great to know that I was going to see her again soon in just a few short weeks. The next arrival was a little bit bigger of a group- the whole Gruen-Tolman clan! I was practically bouncing up and down when my family arrived, I was so excited to show them around. We spent a full weekend in Bologna, ate great food, again, too much gelato, and I got to go out on the town with my wonderful sister. We then went to Florence, continued with the too much food thing, and saw some of the art that Claire and I had both studied this year in our Art History courses. We then came back to Bologna for a night before we started on our road trip to Innsbruck, Schloss Elmau, and Munich (but those I’ll talk about in the next post). The morning before we left on our trip, though, we had one last activity. Simon accompanied me to the middle school where I go once a week to teach English. I thought that since Simon was the same age as the kids I work with, it would be a really interesting experience for them to meet each other. It turned out to be a great experience indeed. The Italian kids all brought souvenirs, pictures and CDs to share and give to Simon, to show them their culture here in Bologna. They were so enthusiastic about meeting him, and Simon in turn was curious about their lives and willing to share his life with them. At one point, while he was talking about his hobby of playing instruments, a student in the class handed Simon a guitar. I turned to Simon, not expecting him to accept, but I guess my brother is growing up faster than I’d like to think, and with that has come an awesome performing presence! He didn’t hesitate for a second- grabbed the guitar and started playing songs and singing for the class. What a heart-throb! Needless to say, he had multiple facebook friend requests by that afternoon. I hope that they will stay in touch, and hey, maybe Simon will come back to Bologna to learn Italian and meet them again! I was so happy I was able to witness this exchange and facilitate this cool opportunity for Simon and the Italian middle schoolers.

All in all, having the family around was pretty cool too. It was fun to be the leader of the family, showing them around Bologna, being the one who had to plan and order for everyone and everything like that. But I was relieved once we left Bologna, and I could fall right back into my comfort zone and let Mom and Dad take the reigns. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to them once they left- I don’t think I’ll ever get over crying when I have to part from my family. Just a couple more months until we’ll be back together in Minneapolis, though. And in the meantime- thank goodness for Skype!

The siblings in Piazza Santo Stefano

Okay, so I guess I need to get more creative with where I take my visitors. But hey, good gelato is good gelato!

Simon playing guitar with Italian middle schoolers as his audience

I hope you all are well on all parts of the globe. I promise in the midst of my finals studying I will write my next blog post- about my Spring Break/Birthday travels to Austria, Germany and Spain!

A presto, un bacione,

Sarah

Three Awesome Trips in One Awesome Blog Post

Okay, so, enjoying the beautiful weather and all my crazy traveling are leaving little time for blog posts. Since I know I won’t get around to posting an individual detailed description of all of my trips, I’m going to talk a little bit about each of my past three excursions.

First off- Venezia for Carnevale! This was kind of an impromptu adventure. I went on a day trip with my art history class to Padova (to see the Capella degli Scrovegni by Giotto, a beautiful pre-Renaissance masterpiece) which was already 3/4 of the way to Venice from Bologna, so afterwards we figured we might as well check out the famous Carnevale in Venice! I went with my American friends Christina and (my new roommate) Sam and we met up with my Brazilian roommate Michely and my Italian roommate Ettore, as well as a group of some other Brazilian friends. It was a fun, goofy group, and we definitely made the best of the little time we had in the magical Venezia. It was just starting to get dark when we arrived, so unfortunately we missed a lot of the day time festivities, parades, etc. But there was still plenty going on by night! All evening we wandered the streets, people watched, bought masks, drank wine, listened to music, yelled, sang, danced, and laughed. It was a Venice I had never seen before. Yes, packed with tourists as usual, but something about everyone being in costume made it feel different and even more enchanting! Or maybe that was just the wine talking…

Anyway, we stayed there until about three in the morning, and after a little misunderstanding about which station our train home was leaving from, a little bit of panic and a little bit of sprinting to catch the train, we finally (very sleepily) made our way back to Bologna. Needless to say, I slept very well for the next couple of days.

Me and my mask and my face-paint in front of a classic venice canal

Four roomies in Venezia!

 

The next notable adventure was to Barcelona, España! I could very easily write two entire blog posts about this trip alone. It was fabulous. I met up there with a bunch of my tour guide/information guide friends from school in Wisconsin. Within the group there were two living in Barcelona, two coming from Sevilla, one from Prague, one from London, and me. With this group, we could have been in the middle of nowhere and still had a blast. It was so great to compare and contrast everybody’s abroad experiences and to hear about what I had been missing in Wisconsin (since most of them just got to Europe in January). But we also were not in the middle of nowhere- we were in the incredible Barcelona! I had been looking forward to seeing this city ever since our good family friends the Cramers got back from living there for a year (way long ago- before I lived in Germany)…. And it lived up to all my expectations! My first day I had many hours to myself before the rest of the gang arrived. Obviously, the second I got off the plane, I got my ocean-loving-self straight on the train to the water. I wandered the marina for multiple hours, listening to street music, taking too many pictures, and again, people watching. Then I strolled up the main pedestrian walk-way, La Rambla, taking in all the languages (tons of Italian and German… awesome), people, art-work and buildings around me. I ended up at the Cathedral in the gothic quarter, which is where I waited to meet up with my friends.

The next couple days were a blur of tons of Gaudi (stunning, my favorite was Park Guell, where we climbed to the highest point and watched the sunset), amazing food (paella and tapas were the highlights), clubbing (we went to a club with 8 rooms with 8 different DJs!) and just an all around great time. The weather was beautiful, we had two amazing guides showing us the city from their point of view, and I came back to Bologna at the end of the weekend exhausted and content.

Hangin by myself at the Marina

Park Guell

Sunset over Barcelona

The whole VIP gang in Barcelona!

 

Tapas!

The third and most recent trip I took was to Paris to visit my friend from high school, Amanda. I was so excited to have this little fashionista show me around Paris, especially because, having been there already (with my family in 8^th grade), I didn’t feel the need to see all of the tourist attractions. I was looking forward to just getting a peek into her life there, and that’s exactly what I got to do! I can say with complete seriousness that this weekend was very very focused on one of my favorite past-times- EATING. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday walking from one food/drink/coffee/dessert venue to the next. I also walked past the Louvre, through the Tuileries, under the Eiffel tower, up to Sacre Coeur and around Montmartre. But the highlights were definitely the things we ate.

The night I arrived I got a Croque-Madame and some yummy drinks. On day one I had my first of many pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant), a macaroon, a baguette, a three-cheese plate with salad and wine and a meat plate. Day two consisted of more pastries, mussels and french fries and white wine, a butter-and-sugar crepe and, finally a burger. I KNOW some of you will probably give me a hard time for that last thing, but it was a delicious burger in a good restaurant- and I swear you really can’t find that here in Bologna!

All in all, I had a wonderful time with Amanda, catching up, laughing about high school and reminiscing about being dance team captains together. It was great reminder of home and a charming weekend together!

 

Croque-Madame

Cafe + Pain au chocolat + People watching from the window

Mussels and french fries

Since I’ve gotten back from all of these trips, my days have been filled with school, tutoring English and teaching English at the middle school, going out on the town and enhancing more Italian friendships. Now that it’s gotten nice outside I’ve started running and hanging out in the nearby park, buying summer-y clothes, and joining the Italians in my favorite Bologna activity: in Italian: fare un giro. This is a phrase that “google translate” translates into “tour,” but I would say it’s more like taking a stroll. Its what Italians do best; just walking in the city center, or walking in the park, window-shopping, grabbing a bite to eat, drinking wine in the streets and the piazzas at night, etc. I’ve gotten so used to this casual, laid back way of hanging out with friends, and I’m really going to miss it when I get back to my busy life in the states. So for now, I’m just enjoying every minute of it.

 

I promise I’ll write again soon. Next on the calendar: lots and lots of visitors and my huge 5-city spring break trip!

In the Dolomites

Well these past few weeks have been quite the whirlwind, and I am way behind on my blog posts. There’s tons to write about, with numerous travels, classes starting, and then many classes being cancelled because of a giant unexpected snowstorm in Bologna! Well, it wasn’t that giant, by Minnesota standards. But the Italians sure didn’t know how to handle it. Luckily, I still got to squeeze in some travels in between all the train and flight cancellations. Two of these travels were into the Italian alps, both beautiful and fun but completely different trips.

Snowy Porticoes in Bologna

The first trip was to a town called Bolzano, in the region of South Tirol, which is in Italy but used to be part of Austria. So, as you may guess, my favorite part about this trip was that Bolzano is a completely bilingual town- everyone there spoke both German and Italian! All of the street signs, billboards, labels, menus, etc. were all completely bilingual as well. Talk about an ideal situation for me! It was definitely a little bit confusing for the foreign language section of my brain, switching back and forth between the two languages is actually really difficult, even though they’re not similar at all. But I still loved the experience of being able to speak whichever language came to my brain first. I went with my two closest girl friends from my study abroad program, Christina and Jess. We spent three days together in Bolzano. Day One consisted of a walk around the town, a ride up a nearby mountain in a funicular to a beautiful tiny town with an awesome view of the surrounding mountains, some of the most delicious coffee we’ve ever tasted, bought for us by a nice local man who was interested in hearing about our travels and telling about his life in the town, and then a relaxing time in the hotel’s spa. Day Two was for snowboarding! While Jess stuck around to explore the town more, Christina and I took a bus to a nearby ski mountain and enjoyed our first Italian snowboard experience. It was incredible! The only mishap of the day was missing the last bus back to the town. We were going to have to wait another half an hour out in the cold and then switch buses in a different town to get back to Bolzano. Just when we thought we were going to be the very last people left in that parking lot in the dark, a car with two guys and all of their snowboard gear in it stopped next to us and offered us a ride. Turned out they were students from Lithuania studying at the University of Bolzano, meaning they were studying in THREE LANGUAGES; German, Italian and English. My mind just continues to be blown by these multi-lingual people I keep meeting. Where speaking three languages in the states usually impresses people at least a little bit,  here it is really no big deal. In any case, it was an interesting conversation and ride home. Combined with the man who had bought us coffee earlier in the weekend, as well as a friend of a friend who took us out on the town that night, we had a pretty good impression of how friendly people were in this town! The next day we had a nice walk around the town and then headed home. All in all it was a great way to unwind after our exams.

On the funicular up the mountain with Jess and Christina

At Oberregen, the ski place near Bolzano

My second trip to the mountains happened the second week of February, and was a very different type of vacation. I traveled up on my own to a tiny town outside of Trento to meet up with my Uncle Keith, Aunt Regine and cousins Aaron and Adam to join them for a couple days on their week-long ski vacation. We stayed in a beautiful hotel that was situated in a little valley in the Dolomites, used as a golf course in the summer time. It was an exhausting two days for me, since my body is definitely out of snowboarding-shape. But I loved it! There were fabulous views, delicious dinners, and a luxurious spa. Mainly, though, it was great being with family. My 13 year old cousin, Aaron, goes skiing every Saturday with his school, so obviously was just zooming past me on the slopes. Even though he made fun of me for being slower than him, I still had fun watching him go. His younger brother, Adam, at age 4, is a great skiier already, too! I also enjoyed getting to show off my Italian to the family, since normally it’s me struggling with German in front of all of them who speak it perfectly. They insisted at each dinner that I receive the Italian version of the menu and speak Italian with the waiters. Even though I wished it could’ve been a longer trip, I was so thankful that I was able to make this vacation with them work out. I feel so lucky to have family nearby, who I’ll probably end up seeing at least once a month until I leave Europe!

Adam and I on the slopes, after his race!

Keith and Aaron at a cool pizza place on top of the mountain.

All in all, the Italian Dolomites have treated me well this winter. But now I’m ready for some warmth!

The Dreaded Oral Exam

This past Wednesday, I took the final exam for my literature class at the University of Bologna. In case you missed my many facebook updates and tweets complaining and stressing out about it, I’m going to describe what it was like.

The way University classes work here, is that they have one exam that you take for the entire 100% of your grade. You can take the exam as many times as you want, and you can put it off for as long as you want. It’s an oral exam, one on one with the professor or one of their assistants, and they can ask you pretty much whatever they like. At the end of the 10 minute or 15 minute or hour long exam, they sit, think for a moment, then tell you what grade you got, right on the spot. You can either take it, leave the exam, and be done, or leave it, come back a month later, and take the exam again.

I knew about this exam before I even got to Italy. When I signed up for my University of Bologna class I purposely picked a professor who is known to be very sympathetic to foreign students in his exams. But none of this prepared me for how nervous I’d be when the day finally arrived.

I had been studying for about 15 days, pretty much every day. I am so lucky that we have family friends who live here in Bologna, because this provided me an awesome place to study every day! I’d wake up in the morning, pack my bag, and take the bus to Domenica and Leonardo’s house. They let me use one of the bedrooms as a silent study spot for as long as I wanted, and even made me delicious meals for study breaks. If you’re reading this, Domenica, thanks so much for everything! I studied so well in that atmosphere and coming to your house almost felt like coming home after those 15 days. Grazie mille!

By the day of the exam, I felt relatively prepared. I had studied everything that I understood, read and re-read all of the books, and practiced talking about their themes and motifs out loud to myself in Italian. So on Wednesday morning, when I arrived at the faculty building at 9 am, when my exam was scheduled, I felt pretty calm and collected. That feeling didn’t last. Upon arriving in the room where the exam was being given, I saw a crowd of probably 70 students trying to squeeze in, overflowing into the hallway, waiting to hear the professor address everyone. When he finally did, he read off half the names of the students registered for the exam, and said everyone else should come back after noon, because there were just too many people. So I wandered aimlessly for a couple of hours, trying to study tidbits but mostly just getting more and more nervous as the minutes passed. When I came back to the exam waiting room, the feeling of nervousness exuding from all the students in the room was almost unbearable. People were twitching, bouncing their legs up and down, taking deep breaths, frantically paging through notebooks and quizzing each other. The place where that calm and collected-ness had been in my stomach was now replaced with a growing sense of panic. And I still had to wait three more hours.

Needless to say, by the time my name was called, I was a mess. I was convinced that I had studied all the wrong things, that I knew absolutely nothing about any of the books, and that my Italian all of a sudden had gotten ten times worse. I followed one of the female assistants into the office of the exam. It was basically just the professor’s office- with three desks- the professor’s and his two assistants’, all of them giving exams at the same time. (You would think that University of Bologna being the oldest University in the world, they would have figured out a better system by now. Comunque. Anyway…) The exam itself is a blur, I know that I answered well to the questions on the first book, the one I understood the most (and not coincidentally the one that had been transalted into an English version). After that, I know there was a lot of stumbling and mumbling and forgetting basic Italian words. I tried to skip around the hard questions in order to talk about a topic I actually understood. I showed that I had read all of the books and, at least on a basic level, comprehended what they were about. It turns out it was true what they said about this professor and this class- they were very sympathetic and understanding to foreign students. I guess this assistant was just impressed that even spoke Italian, and pleased that I had attempted to read the books… or maybe she was just in a good mood, because she gave me an A-. When she said the Italian grade: 28, I was surprised and so relieved. I was still in shock and shaking from adrenaline for the rest of the afternoon. But I had done it!

It was frustrating to know that if I had read these books in English, or if I was better at Italian, I would’ve actually understood them and actually deserved the grade I got. But clearly taking a literature course in a foreign language is no small task. I felt very accomplished and proud, and couldn’t wait to call Mom, Dad, and just as importantly, Domenica, to let them know how I did. Then I headed off into the mountains for a relaxing weekend with my girlfriends. More on that later!

Home(s)

Wrote this post yesterday in the midst of my travels. Now I am safely back in Bologna. Here goes:

Happy new year! As I write this I’m sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting for my flight back to Bologna. It’s been in an incredible break. I spent about two weeks in Minneapolis with a long new-years weekend in Madison in between. I got to see so many people that I love back in the U.S. There was a lot of just sitting around in my house with the fam, doing yoga with Mom, hanging with old friends and other relaxing activities. Except for this past weekend: Simon’s bar mitzvah! He did a wonderful job and the weekend was a complete success- tons of family members in town (which is a rare event, since our family is so spread out around the country and the world), lots of great food and great times. Simon is so grown up and smart–I’m so proud to be the big sister of such a cool guy, even though I still would prefer that he stay my 4 year-old baby brother like he will always be in my mind. It was definitely difficult to leave after such a great get-together. But then again, let’s be real, we all know that I always have a hard time leaving home.

Speaking of home, I’m starting to realize how many places I can call home these days. Obviously Minneapolis is the closest to my heart, with my house and my neighborhood and my family and my dog and everything familiar. There, I feel 100% in my comfort zone. But going to Madison, seeing my friends and getting back into old routines felt pretty home-y too. And now as I head back to Bologna, I think about how I’ve said in other posts that when I come back from a weekend trip in another European city, it really does feel like coming home when I return to Bologna. I have an apartment and friends and routines there too! In a way, because I get so comfortable and happy in all of these places, having so many different homes makes it really difficult to ever leave anywhere. My mom always gives me a hard time for having transition problems. But what I forget is that even though I’m sad about leaving wherever I am, I should also happy to be getting to where I’m going, because its also home! Just of a different variety.

Nice to finally see some snow! And my puppy, of course.

With my Madison buddies- Lauren, Kelsey, Mary and Christina

So happy to be back in Madison, that's the Red Gym and Memorial Union behind me

Claire and I practicing our part for Simon's Bar Mitzvah

An afternoon walk around Lake Calhoun with Mom, Dad, John, Tevah, Rebecca (photographer) and others

So as I sit here at my gate in Amsterdam, jet-lagged, groggy, dreading my upcoming University of Bologna oral exam, and still a little sad about leaving Minneapolis, I have to remember that I will be thrilled to be back in Bologna once I get there. I know it’ll take just a few minutes until I’m right back into the swing of things, my routines and habits there. And I know (and don’t even want to think about) how hard it will be when I have to leave my home in Italy! Luckily, that’s not until July. I’m not even half-way done with my awesome year of abroad adventures. So far potential trips for this semester include: Budapest, Vienna, Spain, Prague, Greece and Portugal.  It’s going to be a great semester!

And now I'm back under the porticoes of Bologna!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are also learning to appreciate all of your different homes. Let’s make this great, 2012!

Holiday Season in Europa

I’ve been seriously slacking on my blog entries, and I apologize! It’s not because of a lack of adventures, in fact, it’s the opposite. I’ve had an incredible month since I last posted. With less than a week until I go home for winter break, I am realizing how thankful and thrilled I am that I get to come back to Italy and continue my study abroad experience for another seven months or so.

Like I said at the end of the last post, I’ve spent most of this past month in good old Bologna (with a few exceptions), and had a blast. I’ve gotten a lot closer with a couple groups of friends, that include Italians, Brazilians, Portugese and Americans. I’ve been finishing up with classes for the semester (my last exam is tomorrow) and I’ve got one more weekend in Bologna for the year of 2011. Thank goodness I’ll be here for a good portion of 2012 as well!

Two good (goofy) friends, Michely (Brazil) and Federica (Italy)

Like I mentioned, there have been a few little excursions away from Bologna. One weekend I went to Milan to visit my good friend from Minneapolis, Emily. It was so good to spend some time with someone I’ve known more than just a few months. We exchanged many stories about our experiences in Italy and I got to see a little bit of the city of Milan, as well.

Emily and I in front of tne Duomo of Milano

The next week, I made a quick day trip to Florence to see another good friend from home (and from Madison), Lauren! She’s studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain this year, but was doing a trip around Italy that week. I was thrilled to see her as well as another friend, Stephen, who walked us around the beautiful but rainy Florence for a day and taught us a little bit of art history. Talking to Lauren made me just itch to plan a big trip to Spain next semester, once it gets a little warmer. I also can’t wait for both her and Emily to visit me here, in Bologna, so I can show them my life here too!

Lauren and Stephen in front of the Duomo of Firenze

The grand finale “viaggio” for the semester was a city I have been dying to see for a long, long time. BERLIN! Just got back from there this Monday- exhausted but so thrilled to have finally seen the capital and one of the most historically fascinating cities in Germany. Highlights of the trip included a 3 and half hour walking tour of the city by an amazing Irish tour guide named Barry. He taught us a ton, made us laugh throughout the whole tour, while at the same time approaching pretty sensitive topics in a really tactful and interesting way. As a tour guide myself, I was impressed and also very curious about the possibility of becoming a tour guide in a foreign city after graduation. Definitely adding that onto the list of things I want to do in my life. Other favorites things: numerous Christmas markets, finding a Bavarian restaurant and finally drinking a full Radler, going to a famous techno club with a native Berliner, and seeing the East Side Gallery.

All in all, Berlin was one of my favorite cities I’ve seen so far this semester (the others being Palermo and Bologna of course). It’s big and fascinating, with tons of history and art and a very youthful vibe. Plus I got to show off my German to my American travel buddies all weekend!

Ramie, Jess, Christina, Zoe, Bo and I in front of the Brandenburger Tor

The girls and our hot chocolate in one Berlin's many Christmas markets

Me and my Radler!

In front of one of my favorite parts of the East Side Gallery

This week, a little worn out and without a voice (as always), I’ll be doing some final studying, saying goodbye to the semester kids from my program (so sad), packing and preparing to go home on TUESDAY! Looking forward to seeing the fam, friends, and eating some delicious chipotle burritos. For those of you who will be in the area, I’ll be in Minneapolis from December 20^th to January 9^th, with a quick trip to Madison over new years in the middle. Hope to see as many of you as I can!

Either way, I hope you all have peaceful, happy holidays with your families and/or friends. A dopo!