So today I went to a little town called Ivrea. It is West of Milan, close to Turin. Every year, they have a giant festival which involves a LOT of oranges being thrown at people.. Heres a video:
It was truly an amazing experience... A giant waste of oranges, but I am very glad I got to see it. And I may have thrown an orange or two.. Also had lots of juice everywhere and got hit with an orange in my back. And had to block one from hitting my face. :)
I was supposed to go to Venice yesterday for Carnevale, but unfortunately I was really sick with a sinus infection I guess. But my friends were nice enough to buy me a mask.
I will post more pictures once I have uploaded them.
22 February 2009
14 February 2009
Ciao!
So the first week of classes is done. Not really interesting, just learning some Italian.
I finally took a walk around for picture taking. You can see all the pics here
They are mostly around my university, but I was just wondering around with a couple friends, so there are some random pictures as well.
Gonna try to go to Venice tomorrow. We'll see what happens..
07 February 2009
Milano
So I have been in Milan for about 6 days now. I am in a new apartment with 7 other girls, and one boy for the time being. Yes there are nine people living in my apartment right now. We have one shower, and two toilets. Its fun.
Went to orientation and such on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I had nothing to do while most other people started the beginners intensive class. So I slept, worked on my paper, and yeh...just did nothing basically. Its good.
I have an aggravating cough right now, but hopefully it will clear up soon. Today and tomorrow I am going to try to finish my paper. It is due really soon and I am still only on the 12th page. Its not hard, I just have no motivation. I am in Italy... Writing a paper is not exactly the number one thing on my to-do list..
Went to orientation and such on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I had nothing to do while most other people started the beginners intensive class. So I slept, worked on my paper, and yeh...just did nothing basically. Its good.
I have an aggravating cough right now, but hopefully it will clear up soon. Today and tomorrow I am going to try to finish my paper. It is due really soon and I am still only on the 12th page. Its not hard, I just have no motivation. I am in Italy... Writing a paper is not exactly the number one thing on my to-do list..
02 February 2009
Italians do not understand Turkish...
So I made it to Italy. I am in my apartment, which is really messy :( Apparently there are two boys already living here, and two more are supposed to come... There is one other girl, and she already wants to go home. She is going to ask if she can move. Tomorrow is orientation, but I am not really sure how to get there.. Anyways, first I need to upload the pictures from Turkey.
So I went to Ankara and my friend, Ahmet, helped me find a place to stay and helped me out a lot. His family is originally from Adana, a city in the southeast. They have wanted to take me there for a long time, so last week I went with my friend's littlest sister, Nalan. We saw all the family and did a lot of traveling. This is Ahmet:
This is Nalan:
This is Ahmet's aunt, his dad's sister:
And his cousins:
And his dad's parents:
I also met his mom's parents, his dad's brother, and a couple other people, but not sure of their relations.
So we traveled 7 hours on a bus on Monday to get to Adana. That night, we went to the aunt's hours for dinner. The next day, we returned for breakfast, then spent the day traveling around Adana. I saw a huge mosque, a rock bridge from ancient Roman times, and the family.
The next day, we traveled to Mersin, Tarsus, and Kızkalesi. Mersin is a harbor town, Tarsus is where Paul is from, and Kızkalesi has a castle in the ocean and the caves of heaven and hell. There is also Asthma cave there. So we spent 11 hours driving around and exploring. Then we went to the uncle's house for dinner.
The next day, we rode the bus back to Ankara (another 7 hours). I spent a night there, then the next night I went to Eskişehir to pick up some papers. Then waited until 2am at the bus station to catch the bus to Istanbul.
Saturday, Ahmet picked me up from the bus station at 8am. We met his friend, then went to find breakfast. We ate at this really neat building on the shore of the Bosphorus. It had an old elevator and a little roof top tower. We went to the top and it was a really goood view.
After breakfast, we picked up Ahmet's cousin who flew in from Adana. Then we drove around all of Istanbul, then up to the black sea coast. We returned to Ahmet's friend's house, ordered pizza and waited. Then Ahmet's other cousin came and then another of his friends came. We ate pizza, hung out for a little while, then drove to Taksim square. Its a really busy place. Something like 3 million people walk around there every night. We hung out there for a little while, then drove to a cafe and hung out til the wee hours of the night.
Finally, we went to Ahmet's cousins house. I met yet another aunt and uncle, then slept for 3 hours. Then, it was time to head to the airport. My bag was 35 kilos and the lady said anything over 32 was not accepted. So I took out a few things and got it down to 31.8. I got out of the charge, but not really sure how.
The plane to London was 4 hours, then an hour or so wait, then 1.5 hour flight to Milan. Finally got to my hotel around 7pm and met a guy from my program. We tried to find dinner, but almost every place was closed. Its a bit odd going from a Muslim country to a Catholic country. You have to change your scheduling a little bit. i.e. do everything before Sunday when in the Catholic country.
There are a lot more pictures to load, but I will put them online and post the link later.
So I went to Ankara and my friend, Ahmet, helped me find a place to stay and helped me out a lot. His family is originally from Adana, a city in the southeast. They have wanted to take me there for a long time, so last week I went with my friend's littlest sister, Nalan. We saw all the family and did a lot of traveling. This is Ahmet:
This is Nalan:
This is Ahmet's aunt, his dad's sister:
And his cousins:
And his dad's parents:
I also met his mom's parents, his dad's brother, and a couple other people, but not sure of their relations.
So we traveled 7 hours on a bus on Monday to get to Adana. That night, we went to the aunt's hours for dinner. The next day, we returned for breakfast, then spent the day traveling around Adana. I saw a huge mosque, a rock bridge from ancient Roman times, and the family.
The next day, we traveled to Mersin, Tarsus, and Kızkalesi. Mersin is a harbor town, Tarsus is where Paul is from, and Kızkalesi has a castle in the ocean and the caves of heaven and hell. There is also Asthma cave there. So we spent 11 hours driving around and exploring. Then we went to the uncle's house for dinner.
The next day, we rode the bus back to Ankara (another 7 hours). I spent a night there, then the next night I went to Eskişehir to pick up some papers. Then waited until 2am at the bus station to catch the bus to Istanbul.
Saturday, Ahmet picked me up from the bus station at 8am. We met his friend, then went to find breakfast. We ate at this really neat building on the shore of the Bosphorus. It had an old elevator and a little roof top tower. We went to the top and it was a really goood view.
After breakfast, we picked up Ahmet's cousin who flew in from Adana. Then we drove around all of Istanbul, then up to the black sea coast. We returned to Ahmet's friend's house, ordered pizza and waited. Then Ahmet's other cousin came and then another of his friends came. We ate pizza, hung out for a little while, then drove to Taksim square. Its a really busy place. Something like 3 million people walk around there every night. We hung out there for a little while, then drove to a cafe and hung out til the wee hours of the night.
Finally, we went to Ahmet's cousins house. I met yet another aunt and uncle, then slept for 3 hours. Then, it was time to head to the airport. My bag was 35 kilos and the lady said anything over 32 was not accepted. So I took out a few things and got it down to 31.8. I got out of the charge, but not really sure how.
The plane to London was 4 hours, then an hour or so wait, then 1.5 hour flight to Milan. Finally got to my hotel around 7pm and met a guy from my program. We tried to find dinner, but almost every place was closed. Its a bit odd going from a Muslim country to a Catholic country. You have to change your scheduling a little bit. i.e. do everything before Sunday when in the Catholic country.
There are a lot more pictures to load, but I will put them online and post the link later.
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