This is the same dance company that I saw in Assisi earlier in the semester. I didn't see this exact piece, but you must take the 5 minutes to watch this video. It's absolutely incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpJTgDaaGMU
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Last days in Perugia
This is my last Sunday in Perugia, and I'm a bit torn up about it. This past week we didn't have any classes, so it was really nice to be able to relax and hang out with friends. This past week was what the school called with "Week of Special Events." Each night had a different event where students could show off the things they have been working on all semester. Tuesday night was an art show, Wednesday night was a reading for the creative writing students, and Thursday was a night for presentations from various classes.
The international marketing class that I took had a service learning component. A new travel company called AltraUmbria came to our school in need of revamping their website. Our class was to write a paper and give a presentation giving our recommendations for improvement. The groups within my marketing class were competing to present in front of the staff of AltraUmbria this past Thursday night. My group didn't work on our presentation at all. We didn't even have an introduction! I'm not a very nervous public speaker, but I had nothing prepared, so at one point I wasn't making any sense at all. I even used the phrase "peacock sailing." I'm not even sure what I meant to say, but obviously it didn't come out correctly. For whatever reason, my group won. We still are confused on how it happened. We did a lot better the second time around, but it was still very unprepared. Apparently the lady at AltraUmbria liked it, so I'll have to check back in a few months to see if there are any changes.
The weather in Perugia has been pretty chilly, but this weekend, our last weekend in Perugia, it has been absolutely beautiful! Yesterday a group of us had a picnic. It was so nice to soak up some sun. But of course, in true nature of my pale skin...it soaked up a little too much sun. Now I have a rockin' farmer's tan. It was pretty funny going out last night with a sleeveless shirt on!
Last night, we went to a discoteca. It's about 20 minutes out of Perugia, so you have to take a bus there and back. The bus leaves the city center around 1:00 and buses don't start running back until 4:00. We walk in and you can feel the heat from people dancing. It was really packed, but a big group of us went, so it was a lot of fun. Italian men can be a bit creepy, but thankfully we have great guy friends that kept an eye out for us. I caught the 4:30 bus back home, and I was so sweaty that there was no way I could possibly go to sleep like that. I took a shower, which gave me a second wind. As I get out, I see the sun is rising, so I grab my roommate Jenny and we decided to watch the sun rise.
It was really cool to go into our "backyard" and look out on the Italian landscape as the sun came up. It was then that it really hit me about leaving this place and these people that I have become so close with. Although I am really excited for summer in Austin and to return to my friends, I've really made a home for myself here, and it's going to be really strange leaving it. I am so thankful for this experience, and I'm glad I have a month left in Italy to digest everything that has happened this last semester.
The international marketing class that I took had a service learning component. A new travel company called AltraUmbria came to our school in need of revamping their website. Our class was to write a paper and give a presentation giving our recommendations for improvement. The groups within my marketing class were competing to present in front of the staff of AltraUmbria this past Thursday night. My group didn't work on our presentation at all. We didn't even have an introduction! I'm not a very nervous public speaker, but I had nothing prepared, so at one point I wasn't making any sense at all. I even used the phrase "peacock sailing." I'm not even sure what I meant to say, but obviously it didn't come out correctly. For whatever reason, my group won. We still are confused on how it happened. We did a lot better the second time around, but it was still very unprepared. Apparently the lady at AltraUmbria liked it, so I'll have to check back in a few months to see if there are any changes.
The weather in Perugia has been pretty chilly, but this weekend, our last weekend in Perugia, it has been absolutely beautiful! Yesterday a group of us had a picnic. It was so nice to soak up some sun. But of course, in true nature of my pale skin...it soaked up a little too much sun. Now I have a rockin' farmer's tan. It was pretty funny going out last night with a sleeveless shirt on!
Last night, we went to a discoteca. It's about 20 minutes out of Perugia, so you have to take a bus there and back. The bus leaves the city center around 1:00 and buses don't start running back until 4:00. We walk in and you can feel the heat from people dancing. It was really packed, but a big group of us went, so it was a lot of fun. Italian men can be a bit creepy, but thankfully we have great guy friends that kept an eye out for us. I caught the 4:30 bus back home, and I was so sweaty that there was no way I could possibly go to sleep like that. I took a shower, which gave me a second wind. As I get out, I see the sun is rising, so I grab my roommate Jenny and we decided to watch the sun rise.
It was really cool to go into our "backyard" and look out on the Italian landscape as the sun came up. It was then that it really hit me about leaving this place and these people that I have become so close with. Although I am really excited for summer in Austin and to return to my friends, I've really made a home for myself here, and it's going to be really strange leaving it. I am so thankful for this experience, and I'm glad I have a month left in Italy to digest everything that has happened this last semester.
Monday, April 7, 2008
I AMsterdam.
Kristen, Suzanne, and I teamed up again this weekend to visit The Netherlands...Amsterdam in particular. We had an early flight, so we ended up staying at the Rome airport Thursday night. An Italian musician trying to catch a flight to Milan for some audition befriended us through the night. He was nice and helped keep us awake. As I get to the airport, I also realize that packing in a hurry made me forget two essential items for travel: my camera and iPod. I don't have any pictures, but hopefully I can get some from Kristen and Suzanne.
The day we got into Amsterdam, we went to put our stuff down at the hotel. Turns out, it was about 1 1/2 hours away from the city center. It was a nice hotel though...totally 70's style bachelor pad, which was awesome! Complete with a spiral staircase. After putting our bags down, we headed back into the city. That day we headed to the Van Gogh museum. It's situated in an area with a huge lawn where people were hanging out. The weather was relatively nice that first day. Randomly it would rain a bit, but nothing too serious.
The Van Gogh Museum is arranged with his works chronologically. I've never been a huge fan of Van Gogh's but after looking at his progression of work and learning the influences of the exact time and place was really really interesting. After Van Gogh, we met up with Kristen's friend and roommate from back home who is studying in Ireland this semester. With Emily on board, we grabbed a bite to eat and then went out for a bit. We decided to head home early because the trains & buses stop running around midnight. We picked up a few bottles of wine though to keep the party going back in our hotel room!
We stayed up pretty late Friday night, so naturally we got up late Saturday. A little background info on Amsterdam for those who are unaware...it's the bicycle capital of the world! I kid you not, people ride bikes everywhere! You watch and people ride by with other people sitting on the back, babies ride in seats on top of the handlebars, people chat on cell phones with one hand while dodging traffic. It's insane, but we knew we had to experience the bike riding atmosphere in Amsterdam. We rented them once we got into the train station. I was a bit nervous because I'm not quite sure I remember the last time I rode a bike. To make things even more interesting, I had to go way back in my muscle memory to remember how to ride one with footbrakes! Once on our bikes, we head out for a few hours before having to return them. At first, we're all doing alright...maneuvering around people and trying to stay in our little bike lane so cars don't hit us. It was all really enjoyable until I had a little accident.
Another fact I didn't know until I saw the city, but Amsterdam is a city full of canals. Not like Venice where people utilize the canals for everyday transportation, but in Amsterdam there were plenty of boats and boat houses. Anyway, the roads on either side of the canals are one-ways. I suppose to prevent parking, 2-feet tall posts are placed sporadically along either side of the road. As we're crossing over the canal and turning left to get to the right side of traffic, I see a man walking on the outside of the street. When I saw him, I had it made up in my mind that I was going to hit him. I didn't even try to get around him, and I froze. I could not move, nor did I think to backpedal to put on the brakes. As I'm heading his way I yell, "OH MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!" I manage to miss the poles, and instead run directly into the side of a building. I flew off my bike and tried to get up hastily to restore my pride. The bike wasn't damaged, and I only have a sore wrist and bruised knee. I didn't even tear my jeans!
It took a while to restore my breath and dignity enough to hop back on the bike. Once I did, we rode to the Anne Frank house. We locked up our bikes and looked at the line. It was too long for us to want to wait in it, and it was raining pretty heavily by this point, so we just decided to walk around and find a cafe or something. After the rain subsided we headed back to Anne Frank and to our bikes. We only had rented them for three hours, and we didn't want to miss the closing time by staying too long in Anne Frank, so we decided to return the bikes a little early. Again, I had to find the little bit of courage I had left to get back on that bike.
The entire ride back I kept singing songs to myself with the word 'back' in it to remind myself that in order to brake, I must go back. Singing to myself and riding a bike through a now, beautifully sunny day in Amsterdam, really made for a nice experience. Towards the end there I felt I was really getting the hang of it!
We had to take the tram to get back to Anne Frank. The line was much shorter this time around so we hoped on in it. The museum is the actual building of her father's office and their hiding place during the war. Each room you entered had a TV in it with an interview or facts about the room you were standing in. Having read Anne Frank's diary, it was really interesting to see in reality the things of which she spoke. She wasn't kidding about the stairwell either! That thing was really steep! Her room was amazing too. The decorations (mostly magazine cutouts) that she had put up originally were still there. Her original diary resides in her room there. It's a red-pinkish and green plaid with a gold lock. It's in really good shape and has pictures along with her entries. It was a sobering experience, but so completely worthwhile. It still amazes me how I feel the realities of WWII most when I'm in different countries. First this summer in Thailand with Hellfire Pass and now in Amsterdam with Anne Frank. Even with those experiences, it is still hard to fathom the breadth of the destruction that war caused to so many.
To add to the sobering experiences for one day, we decided to go to the Red Light District. I knew about it before coming to Amsterdam, but it's one of those things where I don't think you can really believe it until you see it. It's literally an area where you walk around with girls dancing behind glass doors. I walked around thinking about how these girls ended up there. What went wrong, and what can they possibly be thinking while dancing scantily clad in front of strangers? I know it was their decision to live this life, but what extenuating circumstances drove them to this extreme? I walked past and didn't know how to look at them. I can't give them a disappointed look because I don't know the person behind all the makeup. I don't know their past. I tried to smile and give them a look of hope, for maybe they won't have to endure that for much longer. I felt really naive too because I didn't think that kind of behavior actually went on in the world, but it does. I will never forget the drunken men opening the doors and asking, "How much?"
After seeing that, I have even more respect for my body and my possibilities for the future. I'm thankful for having such great parents and for having a fortunate upbringing. I will never forget that night.
The next day we had some troubles getting back into the city center...bus schedules + Sunday = chaos in Europe apparently. Once in, Emily had to leave us early. Suzanne, Kristen, and I got a bite to eat before heading to the airport to head home. It was a good weekend overall, but it was really long. We had to stay at the airport again Sunday night due to inefficient train schedules in Italy that don't let us get back to Perugia.
This next weekend, the trio will add Casey to the mix as we head to Barcelona. The four of us are looking forward to warm weather, beaches, tapas, Picasso, and sangria! If it rains, I just might cry.
The day we got into Amsterdam, we went to put our stuff down at the hotel. Turns out, it was about 1 1/2 hours away from the city center. It was a nice hotel though...totally 70's style bachelor pad, which was awesome! Complete with a spiral staircase. After putting our bags down, we headed back into the city. That day we headed to the Van Gogh museum. It's situated in an area with a huge lawn where people were hanging out. The weather was relatively nice that first day. Randomly it would rain a bit, but nothing too serious.
The Van Gogh Museum is arranged with his works chronologically. I've never been a huge fan of Van Gogh's but after looking at his progression of work and learning the influences of the exact time and place was really really interesting. After Van Gogh, we met up with Kristen's friend and roommate from back home who is studying in Ireland this semester. With Emily on board, we grabbed a bite to eat and then went out for a bit. We decided to head home early because the trains & buses stop running around midnight. We picked up a few bottles of wine though to keep the party going back in our hotel room!
We stayed up pretty late Friday night, so naturally we got up late Saturday. A little background info on Amsterdam for those who are unaware...it's the bicycle capital of the world! I kid you not, people ride bikes everywhere! You watch and people ride by with other people sitting on the back, babies ride in seats on top of the handlebars, people chat on cell phones with one hand while dodging traffic. It's insane, but we knew we had to experience the bike riding atmosphere in Amsterdam. We rented them once we got into the train station. I was a bit nervous because I'm not quite sure I remember the last time I rode a bike. To make things even more interesting, I had to go way back in my muscle memory to remember how to ride one with footbrakes! Once on our bikes, we head out for a few hours before having to return them. At first, we're all doing alright...maneuvering around people and trying to stay in our little bike lane so cars don't hit us. It was all really enjoyable until I had a little accident.
Another fact I didn't know until I saw the city, but Amsterdam is a city full of canals. Not like Venice where people utilize the canals for everyday transportation, but in Amsterdam there were plenty of boats and boat houses. Anyway, the roads on either side of the canals are one-ways. I suppose to prevent parking, 2-feet tall posts are placed sporadically along either side of the road. As we're crossing over the canal and turning left to get to the right side of traffic, I see a man walking on the outside of the street. When I saw him, I had it made up in my mind that I was going to hit him. I didn't even try to get around him, and I froze. I could not move, nor did I think to backpedal to put on the brakes. As I'm heading his way I yell, "OH MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!" I manage to miss the poles, and instead run directly into the side of a building. I flew off my bike and tried to get up hastily to restore my pride. The bike wasn't damaged, and I only have a sore wrist and bruised knee. I didn't even tear my jeans!
It took a while to restore my breath and dignity enough to hop back on the bike. Once I did, we rode to the Anne Frank house. We locked up our bikes and looked at the line. It was too long for us to want to wait in it, and it was raining pretty heavily by this point, so we just decided to walk around and find a cafe or something. After the rain subsided we headed back to Anne Frank and to our bikes. We only had rented them for three hours, and we didn't want to miss the closing time by staying too long in Anne Frank, so we decided to return the bikes a little early. Again, I had to find the little bit of courage I had left to get back on that bike.
The entire ride back I kept singing songs to myself with the word 'back' in it to remind myself that in order to brake, I must go back. Singing to myself and riding a bike through a now, beautifully sunny day in Amsterdam, really made for a nice experience. Towards the end there I felt I was really getting the hang of it!
We had to take the tram to get back to Anne Frank. The line was much shorter this time around so we hoped on in it. The museum is the actual building of her father's office and their hiding place during the war. Each room you entered had a TV in it with an interview or facts about the room you were standing in. Having read Anne Frank's diary, it was really interesting to see in reality the things of which she spoke. She wasn't kidding about the stairwell either! That thing was really steep! Her room was amazing too. The decorations (mostly magazine cutouts) that she had put up originally were still there. Her original diary resides in her room there. It's a red-pinkish and green plaid with a gold lock. It's in really good shape and has pictures along with her entries. It was a sobering experience, but so completely worthwhile. It still amazes me how I feel the realities of WWII most when I'm in different countries. First this summer in Thailand with Hellfire Pass and now in Amsterdam with Anne Frank. Even with those experiences, it is still hard to fathom the breadth of the destruction that war caused to so many.
To add to the sobering experiences for one day, we decided to go to the Red Light District. I knew about it before coming to Amsterdam, but it's one of those things where I don't think you can really believe it until you see it. It's literally an area where you walk around with girls dancing behind glass doors. I walked around thinking about how these girls ended up there. What went wrong, and what can they possibly be thinking while dancing scantily clad in front of strangers? I know it was their decision to live this life, but what extenuating circumstances drove them to this extreme? I walked past and didn't know how to look at them. I can't give them a disappointed look because I don't know the person behind all the makeup. I don't know their past. I tried to smile and give them a look of hope, for maybe they won't have to endure that for much longer. I felt really naive too because I didn't think that kind of behavior actually went on in the world, but it does. I will never forget the drunken men opening the doors and asking, "How much?"
After seeing that, I have even more respect for my body and my possibilities for the future. I'm thankful for having such great parents and for having a fortunate upbringing. I will never forget that night.
The next day we had some troubles getting back into the city center...bus schedules + Sunday = chaos in Europe apparently. Once in, Emily had to leave us early. Suzanne, Kristen, and I got a bite to eat before heading to the airport to head home. It was a good weekend overall, but it was really long. We had to stay at the airport again Sunday night due to inefficient train schedules in Italy that don't let us get back to Perugia.
This next weekend, the trio will add Casey to the mix as we head to Barcelona. The four of us are looking forward to warm weather, beaches, tapas, Picasso, and sangria! If it rains, I just might cry.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
The City of Love
This past weekend, Kristen and I went to Paris. It was a really great weekend. We were able to stay with Ibraheem in his apartment. He lives in student housing with other international students, so we had a great time meeting them.
When we got into Paris Friday night, we were pretty hungry after not eating all day, so food was the first thing on the agenda. It was unfortunately raining, so we ducked into one of the first restaurants we came across. None of us had ever eaten escargots before, so naturally that was our appetizer. I was amazed too at how much I liked it!
The rain stopped as we were finishing dinner, and we headed out to find the Louvre. It's free on Friday nights for students, so we wanted to take advantage of that! We get there, and it is really packed. It's a HUGE place that one could spend an entire day looking around and still not see everything. We found the Mona Lisa after a while. It really is pretty small, and sadly, I was a bit underwhelmed. Granted, I was ecstatic for seeing the Mona Lisa, but I had higher expectations for it.
That night we went to one of Ibraheem's friend's apartments to hang out for a while. A really cute Italian guy had made dinner, and everyone was sitting around in his apartment hanging out. It was cool to talk to people from so many different countries. I felt so uneducated though because everyone there was speaking English, but it was not their first language. Most people were at least trilingual. Seeing them makes me really want to keep up with Italian when I get back.
We woke up fairly early the next day because we wanted to pack in all the sightseeing we possibly could. It was a beautiful day, so we were in good spirits. As we walk under trees to find a cafe, a pigeon poops on my head! Luckily, I was wearing a hat that day, so I wasn't contaminated. For Italians, it's good luck when a pigeon poops on you, so I tried to take that optimistic attitude despite being slightly grossed out and embarrassed.
The day started with a great BREAKFAST!!! It sounds so silly for me to get so excited about breakfast, but nobody eats "the most important meal of the day" in Italy. Italian "breakfast" consists of quickly hopping in a bar for a caffè (aka espresso) and a croissant. Anyway, it was nice to have a breakfast, and we had some free entertainment. Three obviously intoxicated people sat on the sidewalk in front of us. We couldn't figure out if it was remnants from the night before or if these French people started hitting the booze early, but either way, it was pretty funny. At one point, one of the men stood up, took the legs of another man who remained seated, and started humping him!! I couldn't believe it. We definitely don't see things like that in Perugia.
After breakfast, we went to Notre Dame.
The spirit of Quasi Modo got into Kristen
Esmerelda has aged a bit.
Then we climbed the hill to the Sacre Coeur. A man was singing, so we sat for nearly an hour listening to Youri and looking out over Paris.
We then tried to find the Champs Elysees, but the signs were sending us on a wild goose chase. We finally gave up and decided to head back to Ibraheem's place. Kristen and I wanted to go to a DJ Shadow concert, but it was all sold out. We didn't get our hopes up, but instead bought some champagne and headed for the Eiffel Tower. It's amazingly beautiful at night!! I'll wait to get pictures from Kristen to show us at the Eiffel.
Sunday was rainy, but we found the Champs and walked around for a bit. We weren't there long when we had to pack up to leave. We took a late flight into Rome and there weren't any trains that night that left Rome and got to Perugia that night. Because of this, we were expecting to stay in the Rome Termini train station all night. We didn't know that it closes at 1 a.m., so we were stuck in the McDonald's across the street until 4:30 when Termini opened again. We took the 6 a.m. train back to Perugia and got in just in time to go straight to our 9 a.m. Italian classes.
We were exhausted after a sleepless night, but it was totally worth it. Paris is stunningly beautiful, and everyone was really nice to us. I'm excited that I get to go back with my mom and Kristin to end my European vacation.
When we got into Paris Friday night, we were pretty hungry after not eating all day, so food was the first thing on the agenda. It was unfortunately raining, so we ducked into one of the first restaurants we came across. None of us had ever eaten escargots before, so naturally that was our appetizer. I was amazed too at how much I liked it!
The rain stopped as we were finishing dinner, and we headed out to find the Louvre. It's free on Friday nights for students, so we wanted to take advantage of that! We get there, and it is really packed. It's a HUGE place that one could spend an entire day looking around and still not see everything. We found the Mona Lisa after a while. It really is pretty small, and sadly, I was a bit underwhelmed. Granted, I was ecstatic for seeing the Mona Lisa, but I had higher expectations for it.
That night we went to one of Ibraheem's friend's apartments to hang out for a while. A really cute Italian guy had made dinner, and everyone was sitting around in his apartment hanging out. It was cool to talk to people from so many different countries. I felt so uneducated though because everyone there was speaking English, but it was not their first language. Most people were at least trilingual. Seeing them makes me really want to keep up with Italian when I get back.
We woke up fairly early the next day because we wanted to pack in all the sightseeing we possibly could. It was a beautiful day, so we were in good spirits. As we walk under trees to find a cafe, a pigeon poops on my head! Luckily, I was wearing a hat that day, so I wasn't contaminated. For Italians, it's good luck when a pigeon poops on you, so I tried to take that optimistic attitude despite being slightly grossed out and embarrassed.
The day started with a great BREAKFAST!!! It sounds so silly for me to get so excited about breakfast, but nobody eats "the most important meal of the day" in Italy. Italian "breakfast" consists of quickly hopping in a bar for a caffè (aka espresso) and a croissant. Anyway, it was nice to have a breakfast, and we had some free entertainment. Three obviously intoxicated people sat on the sidewalk in front of us. We couldn't figure out if it was remnants from the night before or if these French people started hitting the booze early, but either way, it was pretty funny. At one point, one of the men stood up, took the legs of another man who remained seated, and started humping him!! I couldn't believe it. We definitely don't see things like that in Perugia.
After breakfast, we went to Notre Dame.
The spirit of Quasi Modo got into Kristen
Esmerelda has aged a bit.
Then we climbed the hill to the Sacre Coeur. A man was singing, so we sat for nearly an hour listening to Youri and looking out over Paris.
We then tried to find the Champs Elysees, but the signs were sending us on a wild goose chase. We finally gave up and decided to head back to Ibraheem's place. Kristen and I wanted to go to a DJ Shadow concert, but it was all sold out. We didn't get our hopes up, but instead bought some champagne and headed for the Eiffel Tower. It's amazingly beautiful at night!! I'll wait to get pictures from Kristen to show us at the Eiffel.
Sunday was rainy, but we found the Champs and walked around for a bit. We weren't there long when we had to pack up to leave. We took a late flight into Rome and there weren't any trains that night that left Rome and got to Perugia that night. Because of this, we were expecting to stay in the Rome Termini train station all night. We didn't know that it closes at 1 a.m., so we were stuck in the McDonald's across the street until 4:30 when Termini opened again. We took the 6 a.m. train back to Perugia and got in just in time to go straight to our 9 a.m. Italian classes.
We were exhausted after a sleepless night, but it was totally worth it. Paris is stunningly beautiful, and everyone was really nice to us. I'm excited that I get to go back with my mom and Kristin to end my European vacation.
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