Final ROME days

It is officially my last day here. Not sure how I feel about all of it but I am definitely excited to get out of here and begin my long journey home. It feels unreal that this semester and all the months leading up to coming here has all come to an end. This period of my life is over and I have to go back to the real world and start thinking about the (beginning of) the end of college. What a reality check but I always expected it and am really looking forward to this transition. Being abroad has made me grow up a lot and I know I can handle plenty of problems and stress if need be.

One of the biggest things I've learned here is how to interact with people of different backgrounds, perceptions, personalities, ect- from Americans surprisingly! I never really expected that coming here but it definitely made everything more interesting. I have certainly gotten to know a fair share of interesting characters from the East Coast: a rich jewish girl from Manhattan, a loud-mouthed but hilarious son of a Boston cop, the daughter of a Southern Pastor, and a very strange-but-nice guy from Vermont (?)- just to name a few. It would make for an interesting novel, chronicling all the drinking, drama, and hookups. Maybe I'll save that for a later day.

Regardless, it is going to be WEIRD leaving all this behind into one big compartment of memories. Here I am sitting at this desk in my apartment for probably the last time. It's strange how temporary all this was; the fact that I could pack my whole life up in one bag and in a few minutes makes me confused in thinking how all this happened in only three and a half months. In less than 24 hours, this apartment will be empty and ready for the next group of study abroad students or whoever. I wonder how many others have lived here and shared their experiences in this one space. It's almost haunting to consider/think about how these students were probably oddly similar to us during their time here.

So here we go, the Final Countdown. These last few days have been just what I've needed. I've had time to relax, see some more sites around Rome, and most importantly say goodbye to quite a few people from school and my program. It will be weird officially saying goodbye to people tonight and tomorrow but I don't really feel too sad about it. Even though for many this will be my last time seeing many of them, I know that for the ones I truly have a connection with I will make an effort to see them at some point in the future. Again I can't seem to not look forward to bigger and better things (my friends at home and at UCLA), even though I know plenty of people right now are clinging on to this semester with everything they've got.  I don't think that means I enjoyed my time here any less; I just think I've been aware of how temporary this has always been and better prepared myself for the end. But that's just me. Again I have to tell myself not to be judgmental about others who may cope with situations differently than me, and that's okay.

I hope this entry doesn't come off negative; I would never want my last memories to be sour about easily the best experience of my life. I've loved (virtually) every minute here and want to remember it in the best way possible. So maybe I should stop my rambling here and say goodbye (for now?). CIAO, off to London, Chicago, and finally, HOME.

December 9, 2011. Venice and Beyond

It has been an entire week since Vince, Jeremy, and I went to Venice for the weekend. So much has happened in the course of the week, not even including the fantastic weekend we had. A couple of updates:

1. School is over! Well, for the most part. We had our last day of classes on Wednesday which ended a very busy week of a Comm paper and an Italian test, oral exam, and presentation. I'm actually quite pleased with my work and am (somehow) sitting on pretty good grades as I head into finals week. I still need to study a lot but at least I'm not worried. Either way, come next Wednesday I will be done completely!!

2. We have been busy in our last free days this weekend! It's only Friday and we've spent the last two days out most of the time. Yesterday, Neil Vince, Jeremy and I got up and saw two of the four major Parish churches in Rome. We saw the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore which was quite impressive along with the Basilica of St. John Lateran, a massive cathedral near the Coliseum. Today was even busier as Vince, Jeremy, and I rented bikes and went on a crazy ride throughout the southern part of Rome. We biked nearly 12 miles and went through the Coliseum, Circo Massimo, the Pyramid of Cestius, the Sabian Hill, and into the E.U.R. where we saw a bunch of Mussolini's building projects. It was a great afternoon and evening but it definitely wiped us out.

On to the stories of Venice. We left Rome really early Friday morning for a 7 AM flight. When we landed we could see that Venice was going to be a very cold, foggy and wet place but we at least were prepared for less-than-good weather. It ended up being a lot better than expected and only rained for a little bit of the time.

From the airport we took two buses (the first took us to a town outside Venice), and we made it to Piazzale Roma, a main bus/train station outside the main canal network. After a short walk, we made it to our hostel, "A Venice Fish," an odd name for an even weirder hostel. It turned out to be a pretty awesome and very social place and we met a lot of interesting people from the States, England, and Australia.

After checking in we went over to St. Mark's Square, the focal point of the city and easily the most famous. I was blown away by how big and beautiful it was.

So much open space. We walked around and then went into the Basilica, which was absolutely gorgeous. St. Mark's was easily one of my favorite Italian churches- the mosaics on the facade and throughout the interiors were amazing.

Couldn't take pictures inside but this postcard does a pretty good job at showing how luxurious this cathedral is! It was easy to see why the Republic of Venice was considered the most wealthy state before Italy's unification.

We saw even more wealth when we went to the Palazzo Ducale, or Doge's Palace, the residence of the Doge of Venice who was top dog at the time of the Republic. Again I was impressed with the vast amounts of wealth the state had accrued through its important trading partners in the East. After wandering through this massive palace, seeing art collections, huge bedrooms, a senatorial meeting place, an armory, and even a prison, we were quite intimidated and exhausted. When we left the weather was so good that I convinced Jeremy and Vince to climb the campanile with me because I figured it was our best shot of seeing a 360 degree view of the city. It was completely worth it. After a quick elevator ride we were at the top and could see EVERYTHING. Pictures definitely couldn't capture the views but they make a nice memory of our time up there:

After coming down from the bell tower we left St. Mark's and made our way back to the hostel, stopping at Ponte Rialto. This was the biggest bridge in Venice and it stretched over the Grand Canal so naturally

we got some great pictures.

From the bridge we stopped at Billa, a familiar Roman grocery store where we spent a lot of time there that weekend buying snacks to save money. We got back to the hostel and snacked before dinner, which was included with our reservation and was a nice touch. We met some cool Australians and girls studying abroad from Florence who were a lot of fun to hang out with. After dinner we all headed to an Irish pub near St. Mark's and it was a fun, pretty low-key night. We got to bed early which was nice so we could have another full day on Saturday.

The next day was busy, fun-filled, and easily the best of our three days in Venice. We spent most of the day with our new friends, going to a few sites around the city. After getting a quick breakfast at Billa, we headed towards the Jewish Ghetto, one of the first instances of Jewish segregation. Here, we learned that the word ghetto was derived from the Venezian word ghèto. The district was lively, relatively upscale, and had a strong sense of Jewish pride.

After walking around for a bit we headed to the water's edge to board the WATERBUS, Venice's public transportation boats that connects it to the surrounding islands. We were headed to Murano, a small island known for its beautiful glasswork.

I loved Murano and had a blast perusing through the many shops that sold many locally-produced glass products that were works of art. I of course bought some great gifts for some loved ones that I know they will appreciate.

amazing glass, endless window shopping.

After leaving Murano we sat down to a relaxing lunch with the group. We had delicious pizzas and got to talk for a while. It was nice chatting with the Australians because I don't think I've ever met a real Australian in person so I learned a lot about their country (and continent!) in general. After lunch we wandered back to the hostel for a nap before dinner and going out.

Saturday night was another fun night out in Venice with our new acquaintances. This time we went out with the hostel innkeeper himself, an odd, huge, English guy who got us a discount at his friend's nearby bar. Here we got good deals on delicious mixed drinks that needless to say, had a lot more alcohol in them than we had expected. After a variety of shenanigans, we ended up back at our hostel and still managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Our last day in Venice was nice and relaxing and once again spent the day with Australians. We grouped up with these two Aussie girls on our way to St. Mark's to get a group gondola ride to save money. This may have been our highlight because it was a really quiet Sunday and there were very few boats and other gondolas in the canals. We got a great tour of the Grand Canal, going under the Ponte Rialto and seeing one of the oldest Italian markets and the sites of where the Tourist and a recent Bond movie were filmed.

After the hour-long ride we went into a museum along St. Mark's to warm up. The Museo Correr was pretty interesting, filled with ancient art, Renaissance paintings, and various artifacts from the Medieval Era. It was pretty overwhelming and we were tired so we left after only a little while. On our way home we took a few more pictures in St. Mark's, saying goodbye to what was probably my favorite piazza in Italy.

After leaving St. Mark's we went back to the hostel, checked out, and made our way to the airport. We ended up getting there way too early (3+ hours), but we didn't care. We landed in Rome near midnight which was exhausting, especially right before a busy week of school.

Our weekend in Venice was amazing and one of my favorite's of the semester. Venice was such a beautiful place but I was also surprised at how much we enjoyed the nightlife. Being the last trip of the semester, I think we were all a bit burned out and underestimated the trip but clearly we were wrong! I couldn't think of a better way to end my travels in Italy.

IAMSTERDAM

It's been almost a week since I returned from Amsterdam and I still don't know where to begin in writing this entry about it. It was such an unreal place that I can't even begin to describe it but I mine as well try.

Amsterdam, from what I've seen, is a utopia. It is beautiful, well-functioning, and has such a strong sense of freedom with its government and the different lifestyles people live there. Europe has once again blown me away with their easy public transportation systems and Amsterdam was great in particular. The city is designed with a huge network of roads and canals that allowed for easy transportation by walking, biking, driving, and taking the various tram lines throughout the city. Amsterdam is one of the top cities in the world for bicycling and that was obvious because EVERYBODY was riding one. It was like a college campus but expanded into a vast urban area. Along with the canals the city had some of the most beautiful parks and open areas I have ever seen full of sprawling lawns, flowers, and of course more bike paths.

One of the other great things about being in the Netherlands compared to Southern Europe was that the language barrier is basically a non-issue because English is EVERYWHERE. It was like a miniature America, well I guess more like a mini UK. It was such a welcoming feeling being able to get around very easily and not feel rude for not speaking the local language. This only made me more excited for London and of course the U.S.A.

Now to move on to the story (or a much abridged version at least). It all started Thursday morning at 3:30 AM when Vince and I left our apartment to get to the airport to catch our 6 AM flight. Of course we got to the airport with plenty of time to wait around (literally about 2 hours), but we were too excited to complain. We landed at 9 AM to a wonderland known as the Amsterdam Schipol Airport. It was beautiful, very modern, and had some pretty abstract sculptures and art. Already we had a grand impression of the city, just from the airport alone. First things first, we stopped at the STARBUCKS that greeted us as we got into the main waiting area and treated ourselves to an Americano-style coffee. I must say, even though I like the dark, concentrated espresso shots of Italy, I still enjoy getting an actual "cup" of coffee that is more watered-down but is a lot smoother. It's funny how we nearly forgot there was another option to the strong shots offered here.

VENTI AMERICANO

From the airport we took a very high-tech train ride to the Amsterdam Centraal Station (Dutch spelling is really strange) and made the short walk to our hostel. It was a nice clear morning and our first sight of the canals was unbelievable.

Our hostel, despite its snarky staff and small, cramped room, was in a great location in the heart of the city. Just across the canal was probably our favorite street in Amsterdam in that it had bars, places to get food, a supermarket, and of course a wide selection of "coffeeshops." I won't go into too much detail about the last thing mentioned but rest assured Vince and I enjoyed our ability to take part in that very special part of Amsterdam's culture. From there we took a good walk and saw even more of our surrounding area:

Beautiful city.

After eating lunch at Wok to Go, a Panda Express-like place that reminded us of our American cuisine, we decided to rent bikes and take a self-guided bike tour to get more-acquainted with the city. From our experience, we quickly learned that biking in Amsterdam looks a lot easier than it actually is. Just to go from one place to the next (most of the time we didn't even know where we were going), we had to navigate along bike paths and through intersections dealing with other bikers, people, cars, and MULTIPLE sets of traffic lights. In one hilarious instance, Vince accidentally crashed into a Dutch guy on his bike (it was the other guy's fault at least) and was completely fine and had no problems with the rental bike. The other guy's bike, on the other hand, was completely tweaked and could no longer be ridden. We had no idea what to do other than leave the scene after Vince apologized multiple times and even offered to pay for the repairs. All we could do was laugh about it over the course of the entire weekend.

Along the bike ride we went through the Vondelpark, an immaculate urban park full of playgrounds, ponds, gardens and could easily be biked through.

After the bike ride we were glad to be alive but felt incredibly tired from the long day so we took a nap and ended up sleeping for 5+ hours. When we got up near 11 PM our main goal was getting food which we suddenly realized would become our version of a "Thanksgiving Dinner." We went to the gourmet and highly-exclusive Snack King where we feasted on french fries and BBQ chicken wings. Not quite turkey with the family but somehow it didn't feel THAT weird.

Easily the most unusual Thanksgiving EVER.

From our dinner we did some more walking at night and tried to find some bars to go to but it was pretty late and on a Thursday night so not many people were out. We ended up going to bed pretty early to rest up for another long day.

On Friday we devoted most of our time to seeing museums. We got up on the early side and went to the Anne Frank House. This was an amazing experience and it was unlike any museum or exhibit I have ever been to. Even though it is a reconstruction, we got to walk through the house where the Franks and many others had been in hiding for years before being caught near the end of the War. Along the way we got to read testimonies and diary entries of Anne, her other family members, and friends of the Franks' who have survived. The House was such a powerful and moving place, much like Dachau but on a more personal basis. The information presented and the experience of walking through all the rooms really gave us an understanding of what it was like to live in such a precarious situation. Even though I never read her diary (I want to now), I felt like I somehow knew this girl and her family and could even relate to her struggles. Of course I've never lived through such turmoil but at least her difficulties in growing up are relatable to my experiences.

After the Anne Frank House we met up with our friend Jon from our program and had a good ol' American breakfast served at our hostel. From there we walked towards the Museumplein, where the Van Gogh Museum is located. This was a great area! It was basically one giant lawn and was probably the biggest open space we got to see in the city.

We made our way into the museum and it was quite remarkable. Right off the bat I was impressed with its modern architecture but of course the art was the main attraction. I was in shock with how prolific Van Gogh was in only his 10 years as a painter. I always thought he had been given too much attention in Art History but seeing so many works up close in person really proved me wrong. He was definitely a genius and ahead of his time. It was a very special exhibit that brought us really close to the paintings and we got to see the details in his brushwork that were so unique. Both the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museums were easily two of the best museums I have ever been to and that says a lot about Amsterdam not being just a party, Vegas-esq kind of city.

After Van Gogh, Vince and I walked home but stopped at an American classic, SUBWAY. Even though they have a few in Rome, I never had the urge to get it because it seemed weird to eat something so "Anglo" in Italy. In Amsterdam, of course it tasted amazing and my Subway club sandwich made me feel right at home. When we finally got back to our hostel we took another nap to rest up before the night. Again we woke up pretty late (like 10:30 PM) but wanted to at least try and go out and drink so we went to the bar across the canal and had a good amount of Jager-bombs and beers. It still didn't seem like a very busy night but at least we got to talk to the bartender and the people around us. It was once again another great, laid-back kind of night, much unlike the usual nights here in Rome.

Our Saturday was a blast and probably our favorite day in Amsterdam. We got up and went right to the HEINEKEN EXPERIENCE which was basically the Disneyland of breweries. With our admission we took a self-tour and learned about the company's founding, brewing process, and its current global marketing business as the #1 international beer. We even got to go on a "ride" and got to be brewed in a virtual reality simulator which was hilarious.

The best part of the "experience" was getting to taste the Heineken fresh from the tap.

From Heineken, we wanted to go to the Oosterpark, another urban park highly recommended to us. It was a nice long walk along one of Amsterdam's largest canals and we got to cross the Toronto Bridge, right over a huge body of water.

Once we got to Oosterpark we were amazed by how beautiful it was. From the entrance we saw a skatepark, garden, and part of the lake that constituted much of the park. Vince and I spent quite a bit of time walking around such a spectacular park, even though the weather was less than great.

When we got back to the hostel we rested and warmed up for a bit before heading out to grab some dinner. This time we got to know one of our hostel roommates, Matt, who had been traveling alone and was looking to meet people while in Amsterdam. He gave us the idea to go get all-you-can-eat Dim Sum in the Asian part of town and it was of course delicious. After dinner we ended up at the same bar as the night before because it had good drink deals and we liked the atmosphere.

For our last day (Sunday) we kept it pretty simple. We got up and ate breakfast in our hostel before heading out into the city. We planned on going to the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum of Art but unfortunately it was in the middle of a major reconstruction and only had a limited collection on display. Instead we went to the Rembrandt House which a great museum nonetheless. We got to take an audio tour through the house where Rembrandt lived, painted, and collected art. It was a really beautiful and extravagant house and it was such a shame that he went bankrupt during his lifetime and basically lost it all. Either way it became clear to me why he was considered a genius of his time through his paintings and innovative work with etchings. I had no idea how revolutionary he was with the technology in printmaking itself that contributed to his great abilities as an artist.

Seeing the Rembrandt House in person definitely affirmed my reasoning to consider him to be one of my favorite artists of all time.

After Rembrandt we did some more walking and perusing in the various shops along the way before getting dinner at this Argentinean restaurant (there seemed to be many in Amsterdam). This meal, though quite expensive, was hands down the best meal of the weekend. We all ordered steaks and a bunch of sides and it was unreal.

Excellent last supper.

The night came quickly and we soon faced our unfortunate departure time, early that morning (more like the middle of the night) It was depressing to leave, particularly getting out of bed at 3 AM and making our way out of such a magical place. By 9 AM that morning we were back in Rome and right back into the swing of things here.

What a weekend. Again I am blown away by the diversity of Europe. It really is a world of its own. Amsterdam was so unique and unlike anything else on this planet. Even though I am in love with this continent, I am equally if not more thrilled to go back to my own country. I have nearly three weeks to go which seems like not much time but there is a LOT to do: my last papers/assignments, VENICE, final exams, LONDON and finally I arrive in Chicago just in time for Christmas. It all seems a bit intimidating but I know I can do it. Here comes the beginning of the end.