Ferrara

So Friday we took a day trip to Ferrara because none of us had school and we're in Italy so we can just take day trips to really beautiful places! The train ride only took 25 mins and cost only 5 Euro. Number one cool thing about Ferrara: there's a medieval castle with a drawbridge and a moat and everything. We even went into dungenons whose doors were actually smaller than me! Here's me on some cannonballs -->
If you click on this pic you will notice two things: (1) I got a haircut, and (2) my super cool new European tennis shoes.

After the castle we ate lunch at this tiny place that was of course super cute. I ordered a trio which made me feel a little like I was at Olive Garden, but believe me, this was no Olive Garden. I had ravioli filled with brie, tortellini filled with pumpkin (a Ferrara speciality), and melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi with veggies.

We walked around a bit and found this <-- really fun cannon. After, we went to the Duomo. It was quite beautiful but I've decided I prefer smaller churches to grand cathedrals. The smaller ones have more detail and feel homier.

Finally, before catching the train, we decided to have some gelato. Before I came to Italy I thought gelato was gelato, but man was I wrong! The gelato we had in Ferrara was average at best...but we've already found 3 AMAZING gelaterias in Bologna. I've decided I'm going to stop wasting my money on mediocre gelato and save it for the good stuff.

One more pic of all of us after feeding the fish in the moat:

Luigi

Last night we were invited to a dinner party at Alessandro's friends house, outside of the center of the city. She lives with her parents, so obviously the place is WAY nicer than ours are. It was a two story apartment with a library, a balcony, and such a beautiful view of the hillside littered with cute houses. The walk there was a bit long, but totally worth it because it was very picturesque and there was food waiting to congratulate us at the other end! We had special pasta (not just Barilla) that they had bought hand made with pesto and prosciutto and of course wine. It was quite yummy.

After dinner I was out on the balcony with Shawn and Francesco (Shawn's roommate's brother) while they were smoking because I loved the view. I've gotten quite better at conversational Italian and it's amazing the kind of conversations I'm actually somewhat capable of carrying on! So were just chatting about various things such as a winter trip to the Alps when I made a comment about how beautiful the view was and Francesco twisted it into me commenting on how beautiful the two boys getting off their Vespas below us were. He said I should yell down to them and introduce myself. So I started getting embarassed of course and hid behind Shawn...then Francesco yelled down to them, "Hey, Luigi!" And I thought he was just being rude and yelling some sterotypical Italian guys name...but no...the guy was actaully his friend Luigi...and so Luigi looks up and greets him...and then Francesco tells him to come up because there's a girl on the balcony who wants to meet him. So pretty much the embarrasment just continued throughout the night. For the record, Luigi--not that cute. Anyways, I just played it off and we all finished the evening with an exchange of Italian/English tongue twisters.

California Girls

I have a lot of catching up to do with you guys! First things first: I have lights and gas! The toilet still doesn't work...but who REALLY needs to pee, right? That's just a luxury some of us can't afford.

The girls moved in on Tuesday...and so did their parents. We had no idea they were even coming, let alone spending 3 nights. So that's been interesting because they speak no English and have interesting stereotypes of us California girls. One of the moms, the first night, subtly explained to us that they're dangerous people out there and we need to make sure to lock our doors and not bring home strange men. Hehe. Of course, we're not the girls who have single rooms and boyfriends living in town (as do their daughters).

But as we (attempted) to talk more, they really warmed up to us and by the end they were super friendly, cooked us dinner, and invited us to Calabria, which I think I might take them up on for Christmas!

Speaking of traveling, I'm hoping to go to Amsterdam to visit Kristen for about 4 days in 2 weeks. It's going to be a challenging (and always expensive) journey all by myself, but I'm really looking forward to it! It'll be SO worth it once I get there. And I'm trying to get Britt to come too so I think it'll be a great trip.

I finished my language course today!!! I had a quiz Wed, an oral presentation Thurs, and a final oral exam Fri. So it's been a difficult week juggling studying with a house full of people. But I'm done! And now it's the weekend of celebration because we're in between programs. One of my classes starts Monday and the other the following week...it should be very interesting commencing with courses at the U. of Bologna. My Italian has gotten exponentially better since I've been here but I still feel like a newbie. We mix words up all the time but it's usually pretty funny.

For example, last week, Shawn (the boy from our program that moved in next door) bought these new tight black pants and we were making fun of him for it because he had asked Charlotte to carry his camera in her purse since it wouldn't fit in his pocket. Charlotte wanted to comment that he could only fit his lighter in his pants, but what she actually ended up saying was that he could only fit his washing machine in his pants! Che divertente.

Due Torre

Bologna's biggest monument is Due Torre, these two giant towers that are very recognizable as Bolognese. We went up them today (before a very large Chinese cena) and it was incredible. We had to climb up 498 stairs to get to the top, but the view was spectacular and so was the weather. We took lots of pictures and took in the beautiful 360' view of the city and the hillsides. There's a superstition that if you climb the tower you won't graduate...but i figure I'm ok because I'm not graduating from UNIBO (U. of Bologna)! But ya...the pictures are great and the view was even better. Whoever comes to visit me...we'll have to take a trip up there!