Reflection on the plane

The past couple days have made me realize that I am so self sufficent. I can do so much like use public transportation, speak Italian to get around, and navigate cities with only a little help from a map. I feel more like I can take on the world with my now extensive knowledge of how much I can get away with on airlines and what their restrictions are. I can plan things for myself and have become much more open to new people. Like last night for example. I became friends with the three people in my hostel room. I also realized that I know a lot more about Italy than I had expected. Of course I don't everything, but I was talking about the history of different places and nice places to see in Tuscany to my roommates. It was an interesting sensation to know my advice was appreciated.

Overall I feel like I have grown up even more than before. I feel like when I go home everything is going to either be the same or have changed dramatically. I don't think I will fit in again. People eventually get tired of hearing about your experiences because they didn't experience the growth. These feelings I have I can't explain in words. All I know is  that living in my monotonos routine of home is going to be hard. I am so not ready for reverse culture shock.

Don't get me wrong, I miss home. I have friends and family and an apartment waiting for me there, but I'm not ready to give up living life and learning all I can through experiences. I don't miss working and bills. I could do without the stress of studying and paying for college to maybe get a low paying job as a teacher. There is still so much see and experience.

Polly Glot English Camp

So for those of you who don't know, I am currently studying Middle Childhood education. So it was quite lucky of me to find a teaching opportunity in Italy. I found out about this opportunity through a friend in my program. Turns out one of the camp directors is a Sigma Kappa and she found out that one of my friends in my program, who is also a Sigma Kappa, was studying in Italy. Well my friend couldn't do it so she passed it to another friend who told me about it. Luckily, they were still looking for another female teacher so I talked to my mom and she agreed this would be a once in a life time chance so I sent her an email and she was happy to have me. The camp started in June so I had to change my flight which was super expensive. I originally didn't want to buy a return ticket because I wasn't sure what would happen, but my consulate required that I had a return flight booked. So $500 later that was changed. I swear airlines are the biggest scams out there, but you can't put a price on something like this. 

We stayed at the home of the director I contacted. She and her family live in a villa slightly inland so you can see the coast and the mountains from their. Balcony. It was nice though because all the teachers and one helper who was the sister of a teacher all stayed together. We got to bond and eat together. Plus getting to camp in the morning was easy because we didn't have to stop and get people.

We spent one week get things ready for the camp and writing up lessons plans. It was like real leason plans that I was used to writing. It was more like writing a desk lesson. Then there was two weeks of camp. We had about 40 kids at camp and I got a class of 9 boys and girls. 

The schedule started with all the teachers and helpers arriving at 8:30am. At 9:30 we would do a little introduction and practice our group dance for the show the second week. At 10am they would have an hour of class were I would teach. The helpers were high school students that spoke English well and usually translated for me when I didn't know how. Usually when I had to explain games. Then they would have a half hour break for snack at 11am. Then thirty more minutes of class. At noon we would get ready to walk to lunch at a chalet on the beach very close to where the villa was. Then we would eat until 1:30pm and go back to the bills where we would have a break for an hour. After that would be art and crafts time until about 4pm we would then go to the beach until 5:30 where the children would get dressed and eat and ice cream or whatever snack they want. Then we would go back to the villa where children would get picked up by their parents at 6:00pm.

The first week was rough because it was hard getting on the schedule. Plus Italian children are really badly behaved because their parents think their children are angels and can do no wrong so many of them try to get away things. The children are very sweet though and love to have fun. They loved to play games so I tried to play as many as possible to get them moving.

We did have two mean girl groups who would run around and cause trouble to each other. There were usually a lot of "well she said this" "well she said that". It got a little annoying after a while, but I can't say that American children don't that.

I think their favorite part was going to the sea. I would always get asked like 60 times a day "when are we going to the sea?" I got to the point where I just said later and walked away or they would keep asking.

Even though it was rough and hard work, I got very valuable experience and I'm so glad I got to be there. I really loved the family and the people. This is truly unforgettable and I can't wait to see where the rest of my life takes me. 

England and Ireland

So I haven't mentioned this yet because I am really bad a blogging and nothing was really set in stone yet. I found an opportunity to be an English teacher at a summer camp in the region of Marche on the eastern coast of Italy. The only thing is that I had to find something to do for a month until the camp starts. Plus my big sister hadn't been able to find time to travel together. So I decided to tag along with two friends who were going to London and Dublin and then travel with my big, who was studying in Dublin, around southern England. 

We spent about 4 days in London and then about 9 days in Dublin until my one friend left for her internship in China and my other friend was planning to go back to Italy and stay with some friends. London was rough because the first couple days it rained. Plus it is super expensive because of the exchange rate. The place we stayed at had a kitchen so we cooked and made food as much as we could so we wouldn't have to pay to go out. We stayed about an hour outside London and took public transport in. The station was kind of far and the first day was be worked on so we had to take a bus to another station. I wouldn't have mind staying closer to the city and paying a little more than having an hour commute to the city. Also, if you are trying to get to a train in the morning during the week, plan like 2 hours ahead because the public transport will be full of people trying to get work. We almost missed our train to holyhead where we would catch our ferry to Dublin because the first two trains were full and then we caught the third one, but it was so full and we were literally squeezed in into this train. It was terrible because we had all of our luggage too. Worst experience ever. On top of that we almost missed our train because we had missed so many trains in to the city. We literally got on the train with seconds to spare.

On the bright side we did get to see some cool things in London. We went on the London eye which was nice, but not really worth 16 pounds. I would suggest buying tickets ahead of time rather than at the London eye. You get a discount and it's easier. We accidently bought fast pass tickets which were 10 pounds more. It was nice because we got on quickly, but the overall experience was only okay. I went to the natural history museum which was nice, but very much geared towards children. We saw Hyde Park and Kensington gardens which were beautiful. We saw where the prince and Duchess were living. We had fish and chips because you can't go to London without trying fish and chips. We saw tower bridge and the tower of London. We walked past the globe theater where Shakespeare preformed his magic. We saw Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guard as well as West Minister Abbey and Big Ben. There is also this art exhibition going on where different business sponsored an artist and they painted a Sean the Sheep and then they were going to auction them off and donate the money to children's hospitals. There were 50 of them and they were placed all over the city. We found a bunch of them as we walked to different places. We went to see Wicked while we were there. This was my first time seeing it and I have to say that I enjoyed it.

We took a train to Holyhead and then took a three hour ferry to Dublin where we took a bus and met our airbnb host who took us to his house. They were such a nice couple and they were very helpful. I wish we could have stayed longer with them, but we could only afford to stay there if all three of us were there. So on Sunday I moved to a hostel and my friend moved in with her friend the next night. I didn't really like staying in a hostel because people were loud coming in late at night and then it would take me a while to sleep. Plus the people above me always snored. On the up side we did go and see some really cool stuff and went to some amazing places. We went to the Cliffs of Moher on a tour through the tourist office. We saw dublin castle and went to church at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We went to a comedy club and drank and poured the perfect pint of Guinness. We went to the natural history museum and a history of Ireland museum. There is also an old jail that is full of history and they take you on a great tour for a pretty cheap price. We visited Howth and took a tour of Trinity College. We even saw the book of Kells and the old library where they have a large collection of old books as well as the lab where they restore books. We also went up to a nearby town and saw a local castle called Malahide that had a lot of history and was important it much of Dublin's history. It is even said to be haunted. It actually wasn't that expensive and the ticket included access to the back gardens. Of course we went to a local pub and got cider and a nice Irish meal at least once. We pretty much explored most of Dublin because we had so much time there. Dublin was really nice and had a lot to offer. I would recommend going to Ireland if you ever get the chance.

My big was finally done with school so we were able to finally go on our adventure that we had spent time planning. So we hopped on another ferry back to England and our first stop was Cardiff which is also the capital of Wales. We didn't spend too much time there, but I went to the Doctor Who experience and we walked around the city. We stayed at a nice hostel although we had two strippers staying in our room and they were really loud when they got in late plus when they were getting ready to go to work. We also discovered. a nice pie place as in meat pies and another place called Nando's which serves Portuguese bbq. Our next stop was bath where we saw the famous roman baths. It felt like home seeing the familiar architectural design as Italy. We also happened to arrive at the start of their annual international music festival and got to enjoy different artists all over the city.
One night for dinner we were told about this famous restaurant that has been making these famous buns that no one can seem to copy right. They are the lightest and fluffiest bun ever and they tasted so good. It was a great choice for a restaurant. I wish I could have more of those buns though. We also saw the royal circle and the Jane Austen museum. They even had a cute little botanical garden and a nice trail along the city. 

The next morning we left for Portsmouth along the southern coast. This is just a cute little seaside city we decided to stop by. They had a nice little museum that was free and had all different kinds of little exhibits plus and exhibit on Sherlock Holmes. There is also a famous trail that takes you along the coast and you get to see different parts of the protective wall that was used by the military. The trail ends at a big shopping center and where there is a huge tower you can go up and get a great view of the bay and the city. We decided instead to take a short boat tour of the bay and see it from the ground. I wasn't really sure at first, but it wasn't as bad as I thought and for 7 pounds it was a good deal. 

The next day we hopped on a train to Oxford. This is a really cool city and I would l love to go back and continue exploring because there is so much to see. What we did see was the natural history museum and the Pitt Rivers Muesum. I really liked these museums. They were amazing in their own ways and they are both free plus they are attached so less walking is needed. You could literally spend hours in there because there is so much to see. The Natural History Muesum had lot of skeletons of dinosaurs and current animals and they also laid out different animals by Phylum and had common subphylum. They gave each a description and provided examples. I think that was my favorite part. The Pitt Rivers Muesum was essentially started by a guy named Pitt Rivers. He started off as an anthropologist but decided to go into archeology and started a collection between a big inheritance, what he found over the years, and what people brought him back from their adventures. This Muesum is full of interesting items. It is almost overwhelming how much their is to look at. There are items from all different cultures and from places al over the world and all different time periods from early human history to more recent. They have it set up in sections such "humans depicting animals" or "Human view of the human body" which was an unusual choice, but because there was such a wide variety of items it actually makes sense and makes the museum more organized. The Muesum is three floors of items you may or may not have seen before. They have an audio guide where they highlight a few important pieces, but I didn't get it. I'm sure it would be worth it though. After that my big wanted to go take a tour of the university campus, but I was too tired so I rested a bit and then walked around a little. I saw the library, but didn't go in. I saw a couple of the famous resturants. We also saw the River Thames before stopping for dinner. Then we went back to our hostel and where we relaxed.

We only stayed one day in Oxford before hopping on another train and arriving in Central London. This is also the last day of my England adventure with my Big. We checked in at our hostel and then went to the Victoria and Albert Muesum. This Muesum is free and is huge. It had exhibits on the history of fashion, medieval art, and statues to pottery. It is seriously huge. After that we went to the aquarium. Itwas 26 pounds which was more than I was expecting, but they had a wide variety of animal species and really cool atmosphere. If anyone decides to go, I would check before hand if you can get a better priced ticket. We did a little walking and enjoyed the city before heading back and relaxing before dinner.

I was kinda sad my adventure was over. I always hate saying goodbye and I'm really bad at. I like to keep the attitude of until next so hopefully I will be able to go back one day. At least though I was going back to Italy so that was a positive thought. Siena has really become my home in four months and it's comfortable because I know where everything is and I know people and I can get around easily. I don't even want to think about leaving Italy because it's just too soon. Luckily I still have 5 weeks, but I have learned that time flies when you are having fun. I mean four months flew by in the blink of an eye. How long can 5 weeks last?

Until next time. My next post will be soon.

-Cori

London

Dublin

Cliffs of Moher

Howth (pronounced hoth)

Malahide Castle 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

England trip

Cardiff 

Bath

Portsmouth

Oxford 

London pt 2

My Last Month in Siena

So March came and went and I was starting to feel the pressed for time. I only had a month left and so much to see and do as well as papers to write and presentations to finish. There just didn't seem to be enough time to do everything that I wanted to do in a small span of 30 days. Luckily, I was able to get one last trip in during Easter weekend where my three friends and I went to Naples and Pompeii. That was an amazing trip and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to go.

We left Friday afternoon by way of Blah Blah Car which is a website similar to Uber where people post where they are coming from and going and you ask to join them and pay them a small fare for driving you. We happened to pick a very busy weekend to go, but the traffic was moving well so we were able to make it in a little over 5 hours. We had to go in two separate cars because there were four of us. We were able to make it and reunite together to get to our Airbnb host which happened to be a really nice hotel near the train station. Unfortunately, that side of Naples is the trashy side so we thought that Naples was a really dirty city until we explored a little more. That night we went to one of the oldest and most famous pizza places in Naples and boy was it good! We waited two hours, but it was so worth it. The menu is simple; you order a pizza with or without cheese and a drink. That's all they offer. On the bright side it is cooked in a wood burning oven right in front of you and is made to order so when you get it, its super fresh. The best part is, it's only 4 euros and a little over 5 euros with a coke. As you can tell we ate a lot of pizza in Naples.

On Saturday we made our way to Pompeii and Herculano. Pompeii is huge and beautiful, but most of the artifacts have been taken out and spread around to different museums. When you go, you'll see a lot of empty buildings. Some places still have the artwork and stone work and it was very beautiful. Most of the frescos were badly faded or destroyed when the city was buried. We were able to find the amphitheater and go inside which was probably one of the highlights of the tour. Most of Pompeii is under going restoration so we couldn't see a lot of parts nor did many places explain what they were.

After lunch and a short train ride to Herculano, we explored another city also affected by Vesuvius, but not so badly damaged. It used to be a port city although when you arrive, you'll never be able to tell since it is rather far from the coast. When you look down in the hole you'll see dry docks for boats. These dry docks are also where many people fled to for protection against the volcano and where they suffocated and died. Although you can not go right in front of them as you walk out to leave, you'll be able to get a good view into them and see all the bones that had been found. The rest of Herculano is much better preserved than Pompeii. They still two or three story building almost completely in tack with stairs and such. You obviously can't go up because they are not stable or there is no actual floor up there, but it is still really cool to see how much survived. They have artwork and stone work and theaters. They even have a building that has wood beams that have become petrified wood. That means that over time the wood was slowly replaced with minerals but the structure stayed the same. You can still see the tree rings. Although Herculano was smaller, I personally liked it better.

So if you want to stay in Naples and still visit Pompeii and such, it is really easy. There is a special train line that goes from Naples to Sorrento. The different stops are clearly labeled so you just need to decided where to get off. To enter Pompeii and other places, you'll need a ticket. They have a deal where if you pay 20 euros, you can get into all 5 ruins and it lasts for three days. Herculano and Pompeii are rather expensive to get into. Two of the three other places are less expensive, but not as big, and the third place is free all the time. So its up to you. If you plan on doing all the ruins, this is a good idea.

On Sunday, since it was Easter, two of my friends and I went to a cathedral for service. We looked around on the internet for a church close by that was having an Easter service and we were able to find one. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs and none of us were really prepared for this weather. Even though the church wasn't that far, we were drenched by the time we got there. Since it was an old stone church, there was no heating inside so we had to sit there wet in a cold church. It wasn't the most fun experience ever, but the church was very big and beautiful on the inside. There was lots of art work and architecture. Afterwards we went out for lunch at a caffe and pretty much relaxed in our hotel room until the evening when my one friend and I walked around and found one of the castles close to our hotel after the rain finally stopped. We then found dinner as well at a small restaurant near our hotel and continued to relax at our hotel.

The next day, another friend was leaving in the early afternoon, but we really wanted to climb to the top of Vesuvius. The park opened at nine so we got up early and road the train to the Herculano stop. There you can either ride a bus run through a tourist place which wasn't open when we got there or there are plenty of taxis that will take you up there for a little bit more. Overall it takes about an hour to get up there and about an hour to walk up to the cone. We took a taxi up there because for some reason the bus was not running yet. Luckily it wasn't raining like the day before. When we got up there, it was a total change in temperature. It was cold and snowing slightly and extremely windy. We did not bring the right clothing with us and were all cold, but we were already there and were going to have to pay the taxi driver so we went up anyways. I think it took about an hour to hike up and then back down through the freezing wind and snow. It was cool to be at the top of Vesuvius and see down across Naples and Pompeii. You can see the coast and the Mediterranean sea from there, plus I got to be right on top of an active volcano. It was an adventure for sure. Also, word to the wise: if you ever decide that this would be a great idea (as you should) bring warm clothes! Even in the summer it is still freezing. It is a tall mountain and therefore does not play by the same weather rules.

After almost freezing to death we made our way back to Naples to grab a pizza from the famous place before my friend had to leave. We didn't wait as long as before, but it was still a wait to get in. My friend had just enough time to get her pizza before having to run to catch her blah blah car back to Siena. After a lunch my last friend and I decided to go to the Natural History Museum because they are known to have many artifacts from Pompeii and Herculano there. On our way, we happened to pass the Duomo of Naples and took a peek inside. It was not as grand as Siena, but still large and beautiful. It is worth a peek inside. The Natural History Museum is this huge historical building that used to be someone's mansion. It is now filed with works of art from all over the world. They had a lot of unique exhibits, but like I had heard, the museum also had many artifacts from Pompeii and Herculano. There was even a room dedicated to all the different penis artifacts that these people made. Yes you saw that correctly. It was not autocorrected or anything. These people did not really worship penises but it was an important symbol in their culture. I'm not going to lie, that part was really weird. There was literally thousands of sculptures and paintings representing penis'. There was an awkward moment where we were looking at something when we first got in and then a man came up and was looking at what we were and he got a surprised look on his face and kind of chucked when he realized what it was. It was kinda funny, but mostly just awkward.

After the museum we walked around a little bit and then went to find dinner. So pretty much more pizza because why not.

On our last day my friend and I decided to just walk around the city and do some window shopping. We also found a market and walked around it. My friend was able to find a nice pair of shoes for her boyfriend for super cheap. Other than that we didn't really buy anything, but we did see the sea and the bay. We also found another castle. This one was better preserved, but it cost money to go inside so we saw what we could and then moved on. After that we went and had dinner because you have to have one more pizza before leaving Naples for good. Then that was it. We left to go find our blah blah car home and then we had the longest car ride of my life. Since it was a long weekend and  everyone was leaving to return home and the highway was really full of people and it wasn't moving very well. At 1 am I was finally able to lay my head down to sleep.

Only to get woken up four hours later to go to Rome with my religion class. Yes I got only four hours of sleep. I guess that's what I get for ditching a day of classes, but I wasn't about to miss out on an adventure to Rome and the Vatican. Plus I had to go because it was mandatory for my class, but you know, details details. We left at 6:30am from Siena and arrived at about 10 to the Vatican where we got to see the Pope give a speech. It was an interesting experience because I never really saw myself ever going to see the Pope, but what better place to see him than in Italy. After his speech we got to go inside the basilica which is enormous and very grand. For those of you who don't know, the Vatican is extremely wealthy. They not only get tax breaks and a small portion of taxes, but wealthy people with no heirs would give their whole estate to the Church making it very wealthy place. So the basilica is mostly made of beautiful marble in all different colors and patterns. When you step inside it is just amazing how large and grand it is. You almost forget it is a place of God since it is so elegant. The basilica has tombs of famous priests and popes. The are very decorative and rather beautiful. They take being dead to the whole new level. It was a very a really cool place and I wish we had had more time to see more in the Vatican.

After that we were free to roam around for a couple hours before the three hour journey home. I went with Juan Carlos and a couple other people and we walked along the river and saw a few different sites. We also found this hole in the wall gelateria that had amazing gelato and so many different flavors. The outside was covered with colored glass and it looked so beautiful. I will have to go back for sure. Other than that there wasn't much time to do too much. We had to get back in time for dinner. Maybe one day I'll come back and explore Rome in its entirety.

My roommate's family came to visit as well this week. My host mom wanted to make them dinner so on Thursday I got to meet her whole family and my host mom made a delicious meal. It was really nice to meet her whole family and watch everyone try to communicate, but I kinda missed home a little. I knew all my friends and family back home were busy doing stuff and I wanted to be there to do these things with them.

The next week SIS took us all to the beach. We were all so excited and it was the talk of the week. We all got up early on a Saturday and walked through the cloudy and cold streets of Siena in beach clothes. We got several concerned looks as we made our way to the bus stop. Luckily for us, the weather at the beach was perfect. It was sunny and warm and no rain! The water was very cold, but a very beautiful color blue. A group of like 25 of us played volleyball and that was a lot of fun. We even got gelato to finish it up. After a wonderful afternoon, we all had our last dinner with the Lewis and Clark students because their program ended two weeks before everyone else. All the teachers came and we enjoyed joking and talking with each other as a big group. We had a great semester together and we all got along pretty well for the most part so there was a lot of hugs and crying because who knows when we are going to be able to see each other again.

And like that all the Lewis and Clark students left Siena either returning home or going on an adventure in Europe. It was sad because a lot of friends left and also our program was ending as well. Who knew a semester could go by so quickly! There was so much to do and so much planning to be made that everything got hectic the last two weeks. I had to say good bye to my two classes of students that I taught English to. It was especially hard to leave my fifth graders because they always enjoyed when I came in and taught/played games. They gave me hugs and said goodbye and it tore at my heart.

After that, I had two final papers to write and the second CILS test to take and finals to study for. Everything happened so fast. The papers took longer to write than I expected because not only were they 2000 words for Art history and 3000 words for religion, but it had to be written in Italian. So I had to write very basic sentences about my topics and it took forever to write enough to get to the minimum. For the CILS test, I was taking a level up from the rest of my class because I was offered the chance to try the higher level test. I was super worried about taking it because all the practice packets I tried were very difficult and I struggled with them, but the actual test was difficult, but not as much as I imagined. So in the end I am certified as a B1 level Italian speaker. Pretty good for only being here for less than 4 months and coming to Italy with zero Italian experience. Finals week was rough and stressful just like back home. Reading and rereading notes, preparing presentations, trying to remember everything that was discussed throughout the semester. After each test was done and as I turned in my final papers, slowly the stress began to lift off my shoulders. The new stress now was to pack my life into a few bags. I had accumulated a lot of stuff as well as presents for people back home and now had to consider how to pack everything. After some struggle and a lot of rearranging, I was able to get everything squished into my suitcases.

To finish off the program the rest of us had an avertivo at Bruce's amazing apartment overlooking Piazza del Campo and enjoyed a nice afternoon together. I also climbed the Torre del Mangia which is the famous large tower on Piazza del Campo where you can see the whole city in a panoramic view. Luckily it turned out to be a nice day and were able to see for miles all around the city. It was beautiful and it made me love my second home. It also brought sadness from the fact I was going to have to be leaving soon. Leaving is so hard!

So that was April and like that it was done and over. All the goodbyes were said. People went home or continued traveling. I went my separate way on May first with a couple friends as we took on London and Dublin Together. (see next post for more info)

Cori

The remainder of March

After spring break, March flew by. Spring break was the official mark of being half way done with our program which was really scary! I couldn't believe how much time had gone and there was still so much I wanted to do. School was in full swing and keeping me busy with tests and homework. My Italian had improved a lot and we finally started to talk about other tenses and get into the nit picky grammar that Italian has to offer. Although we had just gotten back from a trip, SIS still had some other activities for us to continue to demonstrate the beauty of Siena and of Tuscany.

First on the list was the Cinta Senese farm. This is a special kind of Pig only found in Tuscany and specifically around Siena. These pigs are large with the distinct black and white coloring, where the black is on the front and back part of the pig with a white stripe down the middle (See photo below). You may be asking yourself, "Why is this pig important?" And my answer to you is "That is a great question. Thanks for bringing it up." These pigs are completely natural. They are given large amounts of space to run around and forage in the woods. They are only given a little bit of not foraged food and the ingredients completely regulated by the organization who over see these types of pigs. They are vey well taken care of and are well protected. These animals were almost completely wiped out, but they have been careful taken care of and watched over. They are important to the economy and the farmers really love what they do. These are the most natural meat products you can buy. They are very expensive and there is a limited amount meat to go around so if you want to make sure that you are getting actually Cinta Senese meat, there is a tracking number that comes with every piece and every pig is given a number as a piglet. There is a site you can take the number and punch it in and you can find whole histories and genetic trees for the meat you are buying. This is a very special business and they are very serious about making sure that these pigs stay natural. Fun Fact: These pigs have been around for hundreds of years. There is a painting in the Museo Civico called "Bouon Governo" (Good Government) where there is a small cinta senese pig painted in the landscape. Very cool!!!

 



The next activity SIS had planned for us was to take a guided tour of the underground aqueducts. If you didn't already know, Siena has a very elaborate and well built aqueduct system that catches the pockets of water that settle on top of the thick rock layer underneath the city. These systems have been working for hundreds and hundreds of years and continue to work today without any mechanical intervention at all. The system runs completely on its own. It was actually pretty amazing to see such an amazing structure that has lasted through the years. These aqueducts used to lead to wells and water gardens of the rich as well as fill the many fountains around the city. The water is clean, but not filtered to our standards today. The main fountain in Piazza del Campo is filled with the water from the aqueducts. There are even two places on the outside of the fountain where you can fill up a water bottle or wash off your hands. Fontebranda is another fountain and it also happens to be right across from where my school is! I like this fountain a lot because it is cute and quaint and there are lots of places to sit out in the sun and enjoy the sound of the running water. I don't have any pictures of this because it was too dark. Many of the wells today are closed, but the tunnels still send water to gardens. Fun fact: While we were walking in the aqueducts, at the points where water would be diverted to peoples houses, there were hand written plaques with the name of the person and some information about their water. They even had had drawn maps f how the tunnel goes.

On Friday, a member of the teaching staff who is a high up member in a contrada took us to their museum. Most of the time you can't just go into a contrada museum. Usually you have to know someone or be apart of the contrada. The museums store the history of the contrada's winnings and usually holds different uniforms and old equipment from past years. When a contrada wins, they receive a piece of artwork created by an artist either local or foreign. They have even had famous artists create art for them. They have museums to show off this art. Usually it is a piece of long silk/fabric painted and decorated. The museum we visited was in the Turtle contrada. Their museum is very new and very modern. They had just redone it a few years ago. The silks were amazing and very beautiful and some of them were very old. They even had artifacts, equipment and uniforms from past years. They had pictures of all the different flags they had throughout the years. The nice thing about their museum is that it also has their workshop where they repair their flags and uniforms and they store all their equipment. The flags are all hand painted with their symbol which can be extremely expensive if you have it done by outside people. Many times they try to train artistic people within the contrada and have them paint it. Either way, it was a simply amazing museum. The contradas are very important social aspects of being sienese as well as being a long running local tradition.

Lastly, to finish of the month of March, we went to the Opera. It was actually a dress rehearsal because the tickets were cheaper. The name of the opera was La Traviata. Everyone got all dressed up and we looked fabulous! It was nice to be able to put on makeup and feel all classy going to the opera. This was actually my first opera and it was in Italian, so I didn't really know what to expect. The singing was amazing and very beautiful. The set was really cool and the costumes were amazing. They had the words in both Italian and English which was pretty helpful so I could see and compare both languages. The only down side was that it was a dress rehearsal so they kept stopping and redoing parts of the scenes. It did take away from the show I think plus they skipped over part of the second act. According to the SIS staff, it has never been that bad before since they've been going to it. Overall it was a cool night and I think everyone had a lot of fun.

My Friend Jenny and I

My friend Rahel and I

My friend May and I

My roommate Melissa and I

The stage of the opera

May at the opera

My friend Karsen and I

Rahel at the opera

Spring Break in Europe

We had a 9 day break from school after finishing midterms for classes and completing the CILS test. I was so excited because I was going to be staying with two friends. I met them when they came over as international students to Baldwin Wallace to study and we become close. They left last spring at the end of the semester and I couldn't be more excited to see them after so long!

My first stop was Umea, Sweden to visit Emilia. After a bus two trains and three planes, I finally made it! Although Umea isn't a huge tourist city, there was still plenty to do plus Emilia cooked me a lot of traditional Swedish food. By the way, we do Swedish meatballs totally wrong. She showed me around her city and we went to an art museum. I met some of her friends and saw where she studies at University. We also went to this other museum that had different art and exhibits. One of the exhibits was about the evolution of skiing and that was super cool being a skier and all. We were going to go skiing at a nearby mountain, but she had hurt her arm the week before from soccer so we found other things to do. I was only suppose to stay until Wednesday, but my flight got delayed too far in advance for me to catch my second flight because of the strike ending the day before so I had to reschedule it for the next day.

When I finally did arrive in Paris, France, I had the most amazing time. I was sad that I only had two and a half days there, but it was such an experience. I would for sure go back again! I went to the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Basilica di San Denis where they have many kings, queens, and royals buried, The Palace of Versailles, L'arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Plus my friend took me around to see some other things as well. The Disney store in Paris is to die for. It is so fancy and also full of everything Disney and a great place to stop. Overall, I did a lot of stuff in a short period of time. I mostly just hit the main tourist attractions which made me very touristy, but it was an amazing experience. I can see now why people love Paris so much. The metro and train system was rather easy to figure out and the trains were very consistent. There was usually another train every 15-30 minutes.

It was truly an experience to see things I have always heard about and seen in picture. I had never thought I would be standing in these places and seeing all the amazing history that I spent hours studying about. I'm not going to lie that I got a little emotional at being able to say that I've been there and seen that. I mean how often to you hear people say, "Oh yeah, I've been to the Palace of Versailles." It's just not that common. Not to mention being a social studies minor and having a love for history and being able to stand in the presences of where huge historical events happened and where famous people had stood was true bliss. I almost couldn't contain myself. When I saw the hall of mirrors or saw a famous painting in person, I would just continue to be amazed at how close I was to great things. In the Musee d'Orsay I saw Van Gogh paintings and I almost lost it. I have never been able to see them in person, but he is my favorite artist of all time.

I just want to thank my friends Emilia and Samantha for letting me stay with them and feeding me for the most part. I appreciate that they took time out of their schedule to show me around and tell me about their city. I am truly blessed to have such amazing people in my life who are here for me.

After experiencing all these thing for myself, I want to give some tips in hopes to make your travel experience hopefully great.

1. The Louvre is a labyrinth. It just goes on forever. I know I didn't see everything while I was there. You need at least two days to get through everything, but it is worth it. Even though I am not a huge art fan, I was so glad that I went and experienced it. It does take a little while to get in so plan accordingly. I went for about half a day and saw a good amount of stuff. They have a little bit of everything from everywhere. Also go see the Medieval Louvre which is an underground part where they have the old castle walls exposed!
2. Musee d'Orsay is a more modern art museum. It is inside an old train station and has lots of interesting art from many different styles of art. Even if your not that much into newer art, I think you should stop by. It is worth checking out.
3. The basilica was not some place I was aware of before hand, but my friend suggested it and I have to say that even though it was a little bit out of the way, it is an easy thing to go in and out of in an hour or two. Plus how can you pass up a beautiful medieval church where kings had their ceremonies and where many famous people are buried???
4. The Palace of Versailles was a have to on my list and I don't regret it. Although it was a huge building there isn't that much space and I got blocked in by these two huge guided tours that filled the space making it hard for me to take pictures and see thing in general. I waited for them to leave and get ahead of me so I could enjoy the rest of my time with less people. The house is huge but rather easy to get through. The gardens are huge and probably much prettier in the summer. Plus the fountains might be going then too. I didn't end up seeing the Grande Trion or the Petite Trion which I regret, but I can always come back. I think if you have the time, take a look and see them. They are very important parts of Versailles and worth the walk or train ride over.
5. I loved seeing the Eiffel tower, but I'm going to tell you know that it is a huge tourist trap. Although I wish I would have climbed up it, its a lot of waiting in line or stairs. Plus when you get a panorama of the city the tower isn't in your picture. Plus it is really expensive!!! I don't think it was worth it to climb up.
6. L'arc de Triomphe is a good idea to climb. It gives you the same panorama of Paris for a better price and the Eiffel tower is in it. Plus the l'arc de Triomphe has more meaning than the Eiffel tower does.
7. Notre Dame was cool, but looked like every other medieval church I've ever seen. Besides being the center of Paris, it is not as big as you think and has much the same art. Unless you want to attend a mass, it's only worth about an hour of your time and a place to say that you've been to. I honestly wasn't that impressed by Notre Dame, but don't regret seeing it.
8. Use the train and metro system while in Paris. It is very organized and convenient. Make sure that you buy the right ticket and have a ticket or you can't get in/out of the stations. Try and buy a pass made for tourists because it will save you a lot of time.
9. Marmont is the highest point in Paris and also where all the artists are. If you have time, wander up that way and you can enjoy a beautiful view and have access to some amazing art. In the summer, there are musicians that play there too. It has a great atmosphere and it is a great place to go.

-Cori