Today is a pretty quiet day so far in Frascati. It's pretty wet and sticky today, so we (the roommates and I) are just staying in town, going to the grocery store, using the internet cafe and cracking open our textbooks. Our classes officially start tomorrow, but the weather outlook for the rest of the week also predicts wet and rather dismal weather. Despite that, we'll probably still have a great time as long as we have umbrellas!
The internet cafe is also a dollar store of sorts (or rather, euro store) and they have lots of cheap and very useful items here, cleaning supplies and shampoo and Q-tips. I had bought a 4 euro hairbrush at the regular grocery store, and when I saw they were only one euro here, I was like, RATS! At the moment, there are four Russian or Hungarian boys here, in their twenties, and they're playing obnoxiously loud Lebanese music. It's kind of amusing though, it's like annoying people back at home playing really loud rap music.
This morning, we woke up a little bit late, around 9:30 AM, although most of the other people in the hotel were still dead asleep, and probably still are now even though it's noon. Sunday is breakfast buffet day, and it is a very luxurious assortment of bland, prepackaged pastries and cereal and dented fruit. Still, the coffee here in the hotel is REALLY good, even the self serve coffee. There's really no such thing as bad Italian coffee, and the roommates and I have decided it's completely unnecessary for us to go and buy coffee when the stuff at the hotel is perfectly good. A cup of coffee in town or in Rome costs about 2 or 3 euros, which is equivalent to about 4 or 5 dollars. It's actually more expensive than a generous amount of gelati, which is hysterical because we Americans fork over so much money to get ice cream from a shop. The average gelati store charges about 1.50 to 3.50 euros for varying amounts of gelati, but even a 1.50 portion is pretty decent.
Going off subject for a bit--gelati here is really seriously good. It's a lot creamier than regular ice cream, and apparently they make it fresh every single day. It's just really delicious, but it melts a lot more quickly than regular ice cream too, so you have to eat it really quickly.
Back to this morning, the person who took care of setting up the breakfast and dealing with cleaning the rooms was a woman, Julia, who is from Romania. This particular hotel hires a lot of Romanians, and they actually come from Romania and get jobs here and learn Italian. Now, Julia is in her 50s or so, and she was really sweet. She was utterly baffled at my being barefoot in the hall, and couldn't understand how I wasn't cold. The Italians here are a bit thin-skinned, they think 70 degrees is freezing weather. We did our best to converse with each other, and we were trying to tell her where we were from, that it was hot there, but this didnt translate well. So I beckoned for her to come with me to the front desk, where there is a large world map. I pointed to the approximate location of Louisiana on the map and flapped my hands, indicating how hot it is there. Even at this point, she kept looking at my feet, so I thought maybe I better put on some socks to placate her. I didn't want her to keep worrying about my bare feet. It must be some cultural thing here!
Julia was absolutely wonderful! She wrote down that she was "50 ani" (50 years old). I told her, "No!!!" and she shrugged and said, "Yes, yes." We really were genuinely interested in learning how to speak each other's languages, and she set aside her duties and sat with us in the room for about a hour, and Kate, Mica, Julia and I conversed and looked in our dictionaries and told each other how to say the name for a certain thing in Italian or English. Now I can say, piache sperce, and amo sperce, "I like your shoes!" and "I love shoes!" Bwaha. We couldn't figure out how to tell her that Louisiana has a very sort of swampy climate, so I drew a picture of a stereotypical swamp with cypress trees, alligators, storks and a Cajun shack. It just sort of went on like that and again, there was lots of body language involved. Julia was very patient with teaching me where to put the stress on a particular word--for instance, piache, "I like," the accent is on the second syllable--and it usually is for most Italian words. It's pee-AH-chay. I also picked up "buono/buona."
Running out of minutes already, so I'll just focus on having a relaxing day before our intense classes begin.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Continuing from the last post...
Yesterday, after the art store, there was just a lot of general exploring of the town of Frascati. It is so pretty and there are so many interesting little stores. I am having difficulty trying to figure out how to find the apostrophe on this Italian keyboard, so I am avoiding contractions whenever possible. Lots of different and neat little stores for all sorts of things. Stationery stores, bookstores, lots of pizzerias--a pizzeria is not always necessarily a pizza place! Sometimes it is a sit down restaurant. I had dinner at a local restaurant, had tortinelli bolognese.
Finally catching up to today... I was woken up by the other girls for breakfast. I actually had woken up at two in the morning earlier today, since my sleeping habits still werent quite adjusted to Italy yet, so I had to take two Tylonel PMs to get back to sleep. So I was pretty groggy for the first few hours this morning. This morning, after breakfast, I came to the Internet cafe and typed up the previous post. Afterwards, Kate and I (Kate came with me to the cafe as well) went back to the hotel room, and Mica, Kate and I-- and we got Natasha at the last minute-- got ready to go to Rome. We spent a considerable amount of time waiting for the bus, gave up on it and bought tickets for the train instead. We got to Termini train station, and Termini is a lot more massive than I thought- I had only seen a small part of it before! Huge and chaotic, and it apparently is the central grand station for all of Italy. We kept an eye out for gypsies here--they will do sneaky things like throw yogurt in your eyes to make you drop your stuff so they can steal your items. All of us were pretty well prepared, and we were holding onto our stuff really tightly so no one bothered us.
We got bus tickets to take us to Travestere, an older, medieval section of Rome. We really didnt know what we were doing today, and when we got there, we just mainly wandered around. We had dinner at a very nice cafe, and Mom will be shocked... I ate a gnocchi platter with mussels. Yeah, I ate mussels. Oh, and also, the other day I ate sausage and mushroom pizza. Yes, I ate mushrooms. I have decided that while I am here, I want to try new things and try not to be picky. I am avoiding tomatoes, but that is because it gives me acid problems. My lunch was a mere five euros for this fantastic mussel platter, and then after that we explored a bit until we found a bit of a piazza.
In the piazza was this old, old small cathedral called S. Maria of Travestere. It had all kinds of lovely things on the interior, solid massive granite columns with Ionic features, intricate mosaic patterns in the floor, frescos and oil paintings all over the place, a coffered ceiling with gold gilt, frescos directly on the ceiling, trompe l'oeil (paintings designed to fool the eye into thinking the item depicted is real and three dimensional), life-sized and beautifully sculpted angels in the round perching on top of windows, stained glass, small niches on the sides with their own paintings and objects -- these were all sort of shrines that you could worship. The church was really great to look at, and it by no means is the best one in Rome.
After the church, we wandered around a bit more and settled in at a coffeeshop/gelati place. I indicated that I wanted the 2.50 cup for gelati, and then he asked me if I wanted it in a glass, indicating a parfait glass. I assumed he was just going to give me the 2.50 amount in the glass, as we were eating outside at one of the tables. The waiter brought out this ENORMOUS glass of chocolate chip gelati with two wafer crackers stuck in it, and it was delicious, although I had to share some of it, there was just simply too much of it to eat. Gelati shops are everywhere, and apparently it is more or less a daily staple in the diet of Italians. But no Italians are really fat at all, they care deeply about their personal appearances. It turned out the gelati was six euros, and so that means I paid $10 for ice cream. Rats. I know now to ask for it specifically in the paper cup or the cone, but at least they brought me a large amount of it so it's not like I got ripped off or anything. I just finally found the apostrophe key! During the gelati and coffee break though, there were people smoking on either side of us, and some ash must have gotten into my eye, because it started itching like madly, and Natasha told me I actually had white stuff on my eyelashes. They actually told me I was getting hives around the corner of my eyes because I was rubbing it so much. It got better about after a hour and half of trying to leave it alone.
After the gelati and coffee, we decided to start heading back for Frascati since it was getting pretty late in the afternoon. We found the bus stop after some more wandering (after directions by a street vendor and a warning to watch out for pickpockets). We were vigilant and got back to Termini train station and back to Frascati without any problems. I took a shower while the other roommates went out to put more minutes on their phone. I came back to this Internet cafe to make this post. So in all, a pretty nice day--the most important thing about today was that we were able to start getting comfortable with knowing how to get around on public transportation.
Tomorrow I would really love to do something like go out to some smaller but famous town like Pisa or Ravenna or Assisi for one of the famous chapels there. Today, I was horrified to find out that the chapel of St. Francis in Assisi was apparently destroyed in an earthquake two years ago. This particular church was completely covered in murals by Giotto, one of the most famous artists of the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, and apparently it is completely gone now.
On the bus ride to and from Travestere, we saw all kinds of really fantastic things-crumbling thousand year old ruins, assorted archaeological sites, the Column of Trajan, a brief snatching view of the Colosseum, this ridiculously large building completely covered in all sorts of monuments (which I'll find out the name of later9, more aqueducts and so on. So today was really just a sort of introduction to how Rome feels! I'm looking forward to our organized class trips starting on Monday where we'll definitely be going to specific places.
Italians are just like they are in the movie--they talk very seriously about anything and use a lot of hand gestures and body language. It's really cute to watch. It's really easy to tell the difference between Italians and tourists. But the Italians don't really look down on tourists that are dressed badly, they apparently only care if other Italians are dressing badly. Interesting.
Also, my sinuses hate Italy. They definitely flare up whenever I'm outdoors. When we had walked into the cathedral earlier today, I had been sneezing nonstop, but after a few minutes inside, that ceased until we left. But having allergies is a small price to pay for being in this stunning area.
Finally catching up to today... I was woken up by the other girls for breakfast. I actually had woken up at two in the morning earlier today, since my sleeping habits still werent quite adjusted to Italy yet, so I had to take two Tylonel PMs to get back to sleep. So I was pretty groggy for the first few hours this morning. This morning, after breakfast, I came to the Internet cafe and typed up the previous post. Afterwards, Kate and I (Kate came with me to the cafe as well) went back to the hotel room, and Mica, Kate and I-- and we got Natasha at the last minute-- got ready to go to Rome. We spent a considerable amount of time waiting for the bus, gave up on it and bought tickets for the train instead. We got to Termini train station, and Termini is a lot more massive than I thought- I had only seen a small part of it before! Huge and chaotic, and it apparently is the central grand station for all of Italy. We kept an eye out for gypsies here--they will do sneaky things like throw yogurt in your eyes to make you drop your stuff so they can steal your items. All of us were pretty well prepared, and we were holding onto our stuff really tightly so no one bothered us.
We got bus tickets to take us to Travestere, an older, medieval section of Rome. We really didnt know what we were doing today, and when we got there, we just mainly wandered around. We had dinner at a very nice cafe, and Mom will be shocked... I ate a gnocchi platter with mussels. Yeah, I ate mussels. Oh, and also, the other day I ate sausage and mushroom pizza. Yes, I ate mushrooms. I have decided that while I am here, I want to try new things and try not to be picky. I am avoiding tomatoes, but that is because it gives me acid problems. My lunch was a mere five euros for this fantastic mussel platter, and then after that we explored a bit until we found a bit of a piazza.
In the piazza was this old, old small cathedral called S. Maria of Travestere. It had all kinds of lovely things on the interior, solid massive granite columns with Ionic features, intricate mosaic patterns in the floor, frescos and oil paintings all over the place, a coffered ceiling with gold gilt, frescos directly on the ceiling, trompe l'oeil (paintings designed to fool the eye into thinking the item depicted is real and three dimensional), life-sized and beautifully sculpted angels in the round perching on top of windows, stained glass, small niches on the sides with their own paintings and objects -- these were all sort of shrines that you could worship. The church was really great to look at, and it by no means is the best one in Rome.
After the church, we wandered around a bit more and settled in at a coffeeshop/gelati place. I indicated that I wanted the 2.50 cup for gelati, and then he asked me if I wanted it in a glass, indicating a parfait glass. I assumed he was just going to give me the 2.50 amount in the glass, as we were eating outside at one of the tables. The waiter brought out this ENORMOUS glass of chocolate chip gelati with two wafer crackers stuck in it, and it was delicious, although I had to share some of it, there was just simply too much of it to eat. Gelati shops are everywhere, and apparently it is more or less a daily staple in the diet of Italians. But no Italians are really fat at all, they care deeply about their personal appearances. It turned out the gelati was six euros, and so that means I paid $10 for ice cream. Rats. I know now to ask for it specifically in the paper cup or the cone, but at least they brought me a large amount of it so it's not like I got ripped off or anything. I just finally found the apostrophe key! During the gelati and coffee break though, there were people smoking on either side of us, and some ash must have gotten into my eye, because it started itching like madly, and Natasha told me I actually had white stuff on my eyelashes. They actually told me I was getting hives around the corner of my eyes because I was rubbing it so much. It got better about after a hour and half of trying to leave it alone.
After the gelati and coffee, we decided to start heading back for Frascati since it was getting pretty late in the afternoon. We found the bus stop after some more wandering (after directions by a street vendor and a warning to watch out for pickpockets). We were vigilant and got back to Termini train station and back to Frascati without any problems. I took a shower while the other roommates went out to put more minutes on their phone. I came back to this Internet cafe to make this post. So in all, a pretty nice day--the most important thing about today was that we were able to start getting comfortable with knowing how to get around on public transportation.
Tomorrow I would really love to do something like go out to some smaller but famous town like Pisa or Ravenna or Assisi for one of the famous chapels there. Today, I was horrified to find out that the chapel of St. Francis in Assisi was apparently destroyed in an earthquake two years ago. This particular church was completely covered in murals by Giotto, one of the most famous artists of the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, and apparently it is completely gone now.
On the bus ride to and from Travestere, we saw all kinds of really fantastic things-crumbling thousand year old ruins, assorted archaeological sites, the Column of Trajan, a brief snatching view of the Colosseum, this ridiculously large building completely covered in all sorts of monuments (which I'll find out the name of later9, more aqueducts and so on. So today was really just a sort of introduction to how Rome feels! I'm looking forward to our organized class trips starting on Monday where we'll definitely be going to specific places.
Italians are just like they are in the movie--they talk very seriously about anything and use a lot of hand gestures and body language. It's really cute to watch. It's really easy to tell the difference between Italians and tourists. But the Italians don't really look down on tourists that are dressed badly, they apparently only care if other Italians are dressing badly. Interesting.
Also, my sinuses hate Italy. They definitely flare up whenever I'm outdoors. When we had walked into the cathedral earlier today, I had been sneezing nonstop, but after a few minutes inside, that ceased until we left. But having allergies is a small price to pay for being in this stunning area.
May 14, 15 and 16
Well, the trip started off with a startling event. Mom and I were leaving my apartment at six in the morning to head off to get some coffee and breakfast, and then go to the airport. We were turning a corner to go to the main street behind my apartment when mom spotted something on the ground. It was an unconscious, young small man, we thought he was dead at first. He was barefeet and had foam around his mouth-it was pretty shocking and we called emergency services. They got there in less than 5 minutes so we left him in good hands. It was pretty scary and alarming though. It would have been quite ominous if we found a dead person to begin my trip with!
Most of my flight went smoothly, I didnt have any trouble with my transfer in Phil. The air line attendants were really nice to me and I was one of the first ones to board the plane to venice even though I was in boarding group number 7. Two older women who happened to be sitting with me and talking to me also got to come on with me, because they happened to be with me! They were rather pleased about this. they were two really nice older ladies, both widows, and both kept referring to me as so sweet and brave (because of doing simple things like informing the airline attendants that I was deaf, so I would need to know if there were any announcements or anything else important). I didnt sleep a wink on the 8 hour flight though, because it was just darned uncomfortable, and when I did finally try to nod off to sleep, I pushed my seat back just one inch, and the boy behind me started kicking! And he was in his mid twenties at least. I turned around, gave him a hard glare, and said, rather than asked, Is there a problem? The kicking stopped after that but just couldnt get back to sleep.
We landed in Venice, and we happened to be quite late. I found this out because when I exited the plane, there was an airline woman waiting for me, she was quite friendly though. She took me on a shortcut through the airport and in a cordoned off area, scanned my bag and had me walk through a metal detector. At this time, I didnt now that I was actually being rushed through customs and immigration. She stamped my passport, but I didnt even notice. I guess they assumed I knew I was going through it quickly--its possible that they did this because I was deaf. This led to a bit of a heartache at the Rome airport though. When the smaller plane that I was on landed in Rome, we walked off the plane and onto a shuttlebus, which took us to Terminal B... and when I got there, all I saw was the luggage claim area and large signs over several doors saying, "Way Out." I was getting really confused at this point because I didnt know I had already gone through immigrations and customs, and my list of instructions indicated this was my top priority at the Rome airport.
I went through the "Way Out" doors since there was no other apparent exit, and I got even more anxious when I saw it was just an area leading to taxi pick ups, restaurants and so on. I didnt want to be an unauthorized immigrant or something and I was getting really nervous--it didnt help that I hadnt slept in over 24 hours or eaten in over 12. I went to a booth that said "Information" to ask for help, but the women there just rudely dismissed me, shouting, "No English." I was taken aback, but I wandered around the terminal a little bit, trying to find any indication of customs or immigration. Finally I went back to the information booth, the tears starting. I always wondered why it has to come to tears before anyone at a major airport will help you? I struggled to find my little book of Italian phrases in my tightly packed carry on bag, and wrote in Italian, "Please help me. I am sorry. I am deaf. I need to find immigration. I am on my own." (mi spiace, cerco dogana, sono ipoudente, viaggio da sola.") They finally seemed to get it, but they didnt understand what I meant by "sono ipoudente" until I pointed to my ears and cried. After that, there was a lot of anxiety. I think me telling them I was deaf and alone and that I was in tears made them feel really bad, and just as rightly they should! A man came to help, although he didnt speak more than a few words of English too. The women were more concerned, and made body language motions indicating, "Calm down, it is ok!" and I indicated more or less back to them that I was trying, by taking big sighs, nodding and trying to smile. I followed the man and a young lady from the information booth back to where I had gone through the way out doors, and they spent a considerable amount of time talking with the Italian police and showing them my ticket and passport. I was pretty nervous by this point.
then we went upstairs and to another part of the airport and actually found someone who spoke passable English. He had a really heavy accent though, so I found it very difficult to understand him verbally, and he had a hard time understanding me too because of my deaf accent. So we did a lot of writing of simple phrases, and there was much inspecting of my ticket and passport. I wrote down that I thought I had missed a step somewhere, that I missed going through immigration somehow. Finally they opened up to look for a stamp in my passport, and the man said, "You have the stamp from Venice!" Realization dawned, and I was like, "Ohhh..." and I wrote down, "I got confused! I did not know I got a stamp!" This was the easiest way to tell them that I didnt realize I had gone through customs and immigration already, I couldnt give them that much detail. I told the man to please tell the other people (there was an MP there too) and he did so, and everyone started cracking up. I think they were just relieved we had gotten to the root of the issue! I was really relieved that they werent angry about me causing a lot of worry for no reason. A lot of body language was used to try to communicate, and I did my best to show them my relief, there were hands patted reassuringly on arms and so on. Then I asked the first man, the one who didnt speak much English, if he would please take me to the train station (I pointed it out in my Italian-English book). He wholeheartedly and enthusiastically did so, and I said grazie about ten times to the other people involved.
I didnt want to fool with having to fork over a hundred euros to some taxi driver that I might not understand and possibly be scammed by. The train station turned out to be a breeze, and really cheap. The only possible place for concern was the Termini station, which is the midway train station between the Rome airport and Frascati, where I had to change train. I was warned there were gypsy children who engaged in scams to allow other people to steal stuff from you by distracting you with maps and so on, so as soon as I got off the train, I scowled and tried to look as unpleasant and gangster as possible. No gypsy children approached me, and I avoided anyone that even remotely looked gypsy or suspicious in the slightest bit. The ride to Frascati was absolutely lovely, saw grapevine fields and an old Roman aqueduct and rolling hills. I arrived in Frascati around 2PM, it is slightly under a hour train ride from the Rome airport. Frascati is actually on the top of a small mountain so the train kept climbing higher and higher into the Italian landscape. Really great. By the time I got there, I had to climb a thousand freaking steps with my 25 pound bag, and I found my hotel when I saw two classmates. They helped me check in, and then I ate a panini, and then I went to bed at 5 in the afternoon and woke up around six the next morning.
Yesterday was my first fully refreshed day in frascati. I found my interpreter and the teachers! They had come in around midnight after I had come in and had a terrible traveling experience. I went to the grocery store first thing in the morning and spend a good two hours in a little Italian grocery store. It was pretty fun, I actually drew pictures when I couldnt find something I needed, and that worked like a charm. There was also this little, tiny hunched over Italian woman who grabbed my arm, chattered in Italian and pointed to something at the top of a shelf, it was pretty obvious she was saying something like "Young lady, get that for me!!!" I happily obliged. I got assorted inexpensive 1 pound bags of snacks like graham crackers and toiletries and so on. I tried to use whatever snatches of Italian I could, because if you are in another country, you should try to speak their language. In the checkout counter, the woman be hind me in line was very friendly and asked me where I was from in English. We chatted, I told her her town was just absolutely beautiful, (bella). Then she leaned forward, and asked with eager anticipation, "Obama or Clinton?" McCain wasnt even a consideration here. I was like, "Wow! Well if I have to pick, Id say Obama" to satisfy her. The rest of the day was spent with my two classmates, Mica and Kate, who are also my roommates, and very good ones indeed, or my interpreter Natasha. We found a wonderful art store, and I have made friends with the woman in the art store, who insists I help her with her English if she helps me with my Italian. I purchased some nice art supplies there so I could color Italian landscapes, and when I went for a return visit with the other girls because they wanted art supplies too, I asked for scissors, and the lady gave them to me free of charge. I was shocked! She taught me to say "forbiche," (for-bee-chay) which is Italian for scissors... I have to know this for the next time I go back there!
I am at an Internet cafe, and running out of minutes. I will continue this post later! I am keeping everything written down in a journal so I can remember everything to post here.
Love to all, and ciao!!
Most of my flight went smoothly, I didnt have any trouble with my transfer in Phil. The air line attendants were really nice to me and I was one of the first ones to board the plane to venice even though I was in boarding group number 7. Two older women who happened to be sitting with me and talking to me also got to come on with me, because they happened to be with me! They were rather pleased about this. they were two really nice older ladies, both widows, and both kept referring to me as so sweet and brave (because of doing simple things like informing the airline attendants that I was deaf, so I would need to know if there were any announcements or anything else important). I didnt sleep a wink on the 8 hour flight though, because it was just darned uncomfortable, and when I did finally try to nod off to sleep, I pushed my seat back just one inch, and the boy behind me started kicking! And he was in his mid twenties at least. I turned around, gave him a hard glare, and said, rather than asked, Is there a problem? The kicking stopped after that but just couldnt get back to sleep.
We landed in Venice, and we happened to be quite late. I found this out because when I exited the plane, there was an airline woman waiting for me, she was quite friendly though. She took me on a shortcut through the airport and in a cordoned off area, scanned my bag and had me walk through a metal detector. At this time, I didnt now that I was actually being rushed through customs and immigration. She stamped my passport, but I didnt even notice. I guess they assumed I knew I was going through it quickly--its possible that they did this because I was deaf. This led to a bit of a heartache at the Rome airport though. When the smaller plane that I was on landed in Rome, we walked off the plane and onto a shuttlebus, which took us to Terminal B... and when I got there, all I saw was the luggage claim area and large signs over several doors saying, "Way Out." I was getting really confused at this point because I didnt know I had already gone through immigrations and customs, and my list of instructions indicated this was my top priority at the Rome airport.
I went through the "Way Out" doors since there was no other apparent exit, and I got even more anxious when I saw it was just an area leading to taxi pick ups, restaurants and so on. I didnt want to be an unauthorized immigrant or something and I was getting really nervous--it didnt help that I hadnt slept in over 24 hours or eaten in over 12. I went to a booth that said "Information" to ask for help, but the women there just rudely dismissed me, shouting, "No English." I was taken aback, but I wandered around the terminal a little bit, trying to find any indication of customs or immigration. Finally I went back to the information booth, the tears starting. I always wondered why it has to come to tears before anyone at a major airport will help you? I struggled to find my little book of Italian phrases in my tightly packed carry on bag, and wrote in Italian, "Please help me. I am sorry. I am deaf. I need to find immigration. I am on my own." (mi spiace, cerco dogana, sono ipoudente, viaggio da sola.") They finally seemed to get it, but they didnt understand what I meant by "sono ipoudente" until I pointed to my ears and cried. After that, there was a lot of anxiety. I think me telling them I was deaf and alone and that I was in tears made them feel really bad, and just as rightly they should! A man came to help, although he didnt speak more than a few words of English too. The women were more concerned, and made body language motions indicating, "Calm down, it is ok!" and I indicated more or less back to them that I was trying, by taking big sighs, nodding and trying to smile. I followed the man and a young lady from the information booth back to where I had gone through the way out doors, and they spent a considerable amount of time talking with the Italian police and showing them my ticket and passport. I was pretty nervous by this point.
then we went upstairs and to another part of the airport and actually found someone who spoke passable English. He had a really heavy accent though, so I found it very difficult to understand him verbally, and he had a hard time understanding me too because of my deaf accent. So we did a lot of writing of simple phrases, and there was much inspecting of my ticket and passport. I wrote down that I thought I had missed a step somewhere, that I missed going through immigration somehow. Finally they opened up to look for a stamp in my passport, and the man said, "You have the stamp from Venice!" Realization dawned, and I was like, "Ohhh..." and I wrote down, "I got confused! I did not know I got a stamp!" This was the easiest way to tell them that I didnt realize I had gone through customs and immigration already, I couldnt give them that much detail. I told the man to please tell the other people (there was an MP there too) and he did so, and everyone started cracking up. I think they were just relieved we had gotten to the root of the issue! I was really relieved that they werent angry about me causing a lot of worry for no reason. A lot of body language was used to try to communicate, and I did my best to show them my relief, there were hands patted reassuringly on arms and so on. Then I asked the first man, the one who didnt speak much English, if he would please take me to the train station (I pointed it out in my Italian-English book). He wholeheartedly and enthusiastically did so, and I said grazie about ten times to the other people involved.
I didnt want to fool with having to fork over a hundred euros to some taxi driver that I might not understand and possibly be scammed by. The train station turned out to be a breeze, and really cheap. The only possible place for concern was the Termini station, which is the midway train station between the Rome airport and Frascati, where I had to change train. I was warned there were gypsy children who engaged in scams to allow other people to steal stuff from you by distracting you with maps and so on, so as soon as I got off the train, I scowled and tried to look as unpleasant and gangster as possible. No gypsy children approached me, and I avoided anyone that even remotely looked gypsy or suspicious in the slightest bit. The ride to Frascati was absolutely lovely, saw grapevine fields and an old Roman aqueduct and rolling hills. I arrived in Frascati around 2PM, it is slightly under a hour train ride from the Rome airport. Frascati is actually on the top of a small mountain so the train kept climbing higher and higher into the Italian landscape. Really great. By the time I got there, I had to climb a thousand freaking steps with my 25 pound bag, and I found my hotel when I saw two classmates. They helped me check in, and then I ate a panini, and then I went to bed at 5 in the afternoon and woke up around six the next morning.
Yesterday was my first fully refreshed day in frascati. I found my interpreter and the teachers! They had come in around midnight after I had come in and had a terrible traveling experience. I went to the grocery store first thing in the morning and spend a good two hours in a little Italian grocery store. It was pretty fun, I actually drew pictures when I couldnt find something I needed, and that worked like a charm. There was also this little, tiny hunched over Italian woman who grabbed my arm, chattered in Italian and pointed to something at the top of a shelf, it was pretty obvious she was saying something like "Young lady, get that for me!!!" I happily obliged. I got assorted inexpensive 1 pound bags of snacks like graham crackers and toiletries and so on. I tried to use whatever snatches of Italian I could, because if you are in another country, you should try to speak their language. In the checkout counter, the woman be hind me in line was very friendly and asked me where I was from in English. We chatted, I told her her town was just absolutely beautiful, (bella). Then she leaned forward, and asked with eager anticipation, "Obama or Clinton?" McCain wasnt even a consideration here. I was like, "Wow! Well if I have to pick, Id say Obama" to satisfy her. The rest of the day was spent with my two classmates, Mica and Kate, who are also my roommates, and very good ones indeed, or my interpreter Natasha. We found a wonderful art store, and I have made friends with the woman in the art store, who insists I help her with her English if she helps me with my Italian. I purchased some nice art supplies there so I could color Italian landscapes, and when I went for a return visit with the other girls because they wanted art supplies too, I asked for scissors, and the lady gave them to me free of charge. I was shocked! She taught me to say "forbiche," (for-bee-chay) which is Italian for scissors... I have to know this for the next time I go back there!
I am at an Internet cafe, and running out of minutes. I will continue this post later! I am keeping everything written down in a journal so I can remember everything to post here.
Love to all, and ciao!!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Test post
This will be the blog I am using while in Italy. I'll be posting records of all my adventures there (or misadventures, if necessary).
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