Period: Acclimation

As school started this week, I'm slowing starting to get into a pseudo routine. I have Italian every morning at 9 a.m., but I have a break until the early afternoon when the rest of my classes start. I'm taking three other classes: Italian Cinema: 1945 to Present, Globalization and the World Economy, and International Marketing. I can already tell I'm really going to enjoy the Cinema and Globalization classes (despite a lot of reading for the latter), but I'm not sure about the marketing yet. We didn't talk much about the class, but apparently we get to work with a travel agency and help develop a marketing plan for them. I think that's really cool!

Apart from class, I've been cooking nearly every night. I don't necessarily cook, but I'm around other people who do. Naturally we've been experimenting with various pastas and sauces. Last night I went over to my friend Lauren's apartment, and she made pasta from scratch. I mean, made from eggs and flour only, rolled it out, let it dry, cut it up, Italian-style pasta. It was excellent! Eggplant has also become my new best friend. It's so tasty and filling and ridiculously fresh.

Lindsay (left) and Rachel (right)...weird how that alliteration worked out. Two of my roommates cooking dinner. (This picture was stolen from Jenny, another roommate.)



We are also trying to start a breakfast club since most of us have class at 9 and then not again until the afternoon. I wasn't able to attend today because I had too much reading to do for my class today. Hopefully, I'll get back on it next week.

New friends. From left to right: Kristen, Lauren, Me, Casey (Picture stolen from Casey.)



Food. Wine. Friends. Our typical night here. (Picture stolen from Casey.)

Rain & wine

It's been rainy and cold here since we got here, so that's why I haven't gone around to take pictures of the city. It's absolutely stunning though. I can't wait until the sun shines again.

I'm starting to get close to my roommates. There are 7 of us in total, and last night we had some friends over for dinner. So we made pasta, eggplant and chicken parmesan. It was excellent! It's nice having the time to actually prepare dinner.

Another fact about Perugia: Legend has it that years ago the Perugians were revolting against the Pope when he put a tax on salt, so to defy him further they stopped using salt all together. Ever since then, they don't use it regularly to cook. There is a noticable difference in the flavor of saltless bread. You can buy "pane con sale" bread with salt in stores, but at restaurants they only serve saltless bread.

Tomorrow my roommates and I are going to the open market that they have every day. It's three floors of all fresh produce, so basically a gigantic farmer's market. Another thing that I have to get used to is that most stores are closed from 1-4 for lunch and "la pausa" which is like a siesta. Lunch is the big meal here, so everyone takes hours off for it. I'm also getting used to drinking wine at lunch and dinner. I tell my parents I'm sampling all the wines for when they get over here I'll know which brands are the good ones! (Don't you know they believe that!) In all honesty though, wine is an integral part of life over here.

And quite possibly the best part of Perugia I've discovered so far: There's a cheese store that sells the most fabulous cheeses, and the owner tells you what wine goes best with whatever cheese you buy. Exactly my kind of store!

Baci

Ciao a tutti!

I left the States on the 27th to meet up with my best friend Heather in Greece. We spent New Years there in Athens and then headed on to Rome.

Athens was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. By far, one of the cleanest cities I've ever seen. The acropolis is unbelievable. It is so strange to me how structures that have been around for over 2000 years sit there in ruins while modern life goes on like normal. And the Greeks don't even think it's anything special....but neither did the Romans about driving past the Colosseum. I guess when you don't see it everyday and have only heard about it in textbooks and on TV, you are able to truly appreciate it.

The first ruins we stumbled upon...early in the morning.



The Acropolis. Our hostel was literally 2 minutes away.



Greek people are so friendly! This man saw my camera and insisted I take a picture of him.



It was only a few days after Christmas, so Santa was tired.



Olives!



Remnants of Christmas.



Sunset on daytrip to Aegina.



New Years was great in Athens too. We saw the firework display despite creepy guys trying to follow us for nearly an hour. Talking to the police was a definite way to get them to leave. We then opted for a low-key evening at a wine bar and ended up meeting three Italians who worked in Romania and were just in Athens for vacation. It was a nice evening overall, and a great way to ring in the New Year!

Rome was just as spectacular. The Vatican City was great, as was the Sistine Chapel. I think if I had done more research on what I was seeing before throwing myself into those frescoes and tapestries, I would have appreciated them more. I'll make note of that before I go back with the family in May. Heather and I spent practically an entire day in the Ancient City near the Colosseum. It's huge, and we got lost many times just staring at the massive arches.

Heather in front of St. Peter's Basilica.



Apparently, we were surprised at how MASSIVE the Colosseum is.



Yea, it's that huge.



Inside the Colosseum.



Just some stuff laying around the Ancient City from thousands of years ago...



Oddly, these trees are my new obsession.



I sadly had to leave Heather on the 4th to head to Perugia for my program. It was hard leaving her, but I'm so glad we got to spend that week together. It was as if we hadn't spent any time apart (she was in Prague for the fall semester studying abroad).

Perugia is GREAT! It's this tiny old town on the top of a hill in the Umbria region in the center of Italy. It's so hilly here, so hopefully I'll come back with legs of steel! I'm in an apartment with 6 other girls. I've only ever lived with one other girl, so it should be interesting. Everyone is so nice though! We're on the third floor, but we don't have much of a view. We're all trying to adjust to the heating situation. Heating and electricity is limited in Italy. Our apartment is only allowed 6 hours of heat a day, and the times are up to the landlords discretion. Layering has become my lifeline!

The food here is to die for! My parents always told me that eating was an event in Italy, and I just let it go in one ear and out the other.....but now, I know what they mean. The last two meals I've had have lasted a minimum of 3 hours with at least 4 courses. I feel so glutonous, but I feel that it's a good thing it's hilly here because you work off at least a few hundred of those calories just getting to the next destination.

Quick fact: Perugia is known for their chocolate. They have hazelnut covered chocolates called Baci that have little sayings written inside the package. The English translation for baci is "kisses" so they are similar to the idea of the Hershey's Kisses. They taste nothing like them though, and they have actual sayings on the paper, not just the name of the candy, but hopefully you sort of get an idea of what I mean. They even have Baci McFlurries at McDonald's!

I have yet to try gelato here in Perugia, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of it, so I'm in no hurry. The coffee (a.k.a. espresso) here is amazing, especially for my caffeine addiction. I'm fitting into the Italian culture quite nicely I like to believe.

Tomorrow we start a week of intensive Italian classes. We'll have Italian classes for 5 hours this week, and then next week we start our regular class schedule.

I hope everyone is doing well back home!! I'll try to update this as much as possible but take note that I won't be online as much as back home because 1) I'm in Italy, 2) Internet is hard to get here, but 3) don't think I don't love you.

A presto!

Goodbye Thailand, Hello reality

So I'm back in Austin after a few days of relaxation with the parents. The last few days in Thailand were incredible though. The jungle trek up into the mountains was unbelievably beautiful. Before we left, we stopped to visit the shaman in the Lisu village. We had a translator there, so we could ask him questions and vice versa. It was really interesting. Part of tradition with the Lisu people is to drink a cup of tea to welcome and then a shot of corn whiskey for good luck upon departure. Mind you this is 8:30 in the morning, but in respect of their culture, we did it. It's not the most pleasant thing to drink before we set off on our 2-day hike. The last picture is the whole group I traveled with, and in the background is Burma.





The hike itself was pretty challenging, especially with the massive amount of rain we had that made the trails slippery, but we managed. The view from way up there was absolutely breathtaking. Along the way, we found a rolly polly that was about 5x the size of any I've seen here. I wanted everyone to appreciate it, so I carried it in my hand the rest of the way. Everyone couldn't believe how huge it was.



Once we got back to Chiang Mai, we had a free day to explore the city. I visited the Silk Village and brought back some amazing gifts for the parents and myself. The next afternoon, we boarded an overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. That was really fun. I'd never ridden in one before, but you can surprisingly sleep really well on it. The rock of the train just puts you straight to sleep. Once in Bangkok, we had only a few hours before our departing flight. We went to the Grand Palace where we saw the Emerald Buddha but weren't allowed to take pictures. The picture below is of the Grand Palace from a large long tail boat on a canal. Then we went to the Reclining Buddha. I wish a picture could capture the enormity of this structure. It was truly unforgettable. After that, we went to the airport and said farewell to Thailand.





I had a bit of jet lag once I got back, but I'm really glad I had a few days to recover. It's hard explaining my trip to everyone, even with pictures. It's an experience that I will never forget, and I don't believe anyone can understand what it's like until they have visited Thailand. I would recommend it to anyone. Truly, it was an amazing country. I miss it dearly, but it is nice to see everyone again. I'm not looking forward to starting summer school on Monday, but that's what I have to do.

Love you all.

Elephant bathing & white water rafting

Monday, June 25, 2007

The massage was great. Today we went canyoning. Tomorrow we leave for the Elephant Nature Park where we get to bath elephants and watch them in their natural habitat. Riding elephants is actually really brutal stuff, so this is a way to see the elephants up close and personal but respecting them at the same time.

Wednesday, we leave for a two day jungle trek up into the mountains to stay with a hill tribe for a night. On the way down Thursday we will do some white water rafting, and then we're back in Chiang Mai. So this is my last time on the internet for a few days. We have to bring one day pack for the next three days....I think we'll all be a bit stinky!!

LYB
mg


The Elephant Nature Park was one of my favorite days in Thailand. It was heartbreaking to see some of the injured elephants, but it's great to know that they have a safe home here. The woman who founded the ENP is trying to revolutionize elephant tourism in Thailand, and I really hope she succeeds. After watching videos of the training process and seeing the actual scars from elephants who have had people ride them, I encourage everyone to spread the word that riding elephants is not the way to go.




This is a picture of the white elephant at the park...even though she's actually pink! The white elephant is sacred in Thailand. They have to meet 7 specifications to be truly a "white elephant;" this one only has 5. But this is the animal the Thai people believe to give the king his power.



This is me after bathing the elephants!

Starfish & Bats in Phang Nga Bay

We just arrived in Chiang Mai. The past two days we've been kayaking in the Phang Nga Bay. It was my first time kayaking, but I had a great partner to teach me the ropes. Yesterday we just kayaked around several islands and stopped at a few small beaches to swim. I played with a few starfish in one of the lagoons. Today, we kayaked some more around different islands and went into caves and some lagoons. One cave had calcium rocks so they sparkled. The other was a bat cave with literally thousands of bats hanging out on the ceiling. That was really cool, but it smelled really awful.





I felt bad for our fellow passengers on the plane ride today because we didn't have a chance to change before we left. Tomorrow is a relaxing day. We get a 2-hour Thai massage in the morning and then head to Thai Cooking School where we'll learn to cook a 5 course meal. Hope everyone is doing well. It's hard to believe I only have one more week in this beautiful place!

Love.
MG

Adventures in Thailand

Thursday, 21 June

So we're at our last night at Railay Beach. Yesterday we rock climbed in the morning. I climbed two routes, and now my forearms are pretty sore. Then we hiked around for a bit to rappel from a cave. It was quite the experience just to get up there. We went to the "Hidden Beach" here and just when you think the beach dead ends...oh no, you climb up into the forest. We thought the guides were crazy, but they knew very well where they were going. After some fun times trekking up some slippery slopes, we entered a cave. It was absolutely pitch black so we had to use our flashlights to get us through. That part was my favorite though. The cave was really beautiful. You can see the cave in the picture below. Look at the rightmost mountain and above the tree line there is a black cave. That's it!



Finally we reached our destination and it was an amazing lookout onto Railay West Beach. We all rappelled, and thought our adventure was over. Little did we realize, that we had to hike back down through the jungle. It was fun, but we all are covered in mosquito bites and have some scrapes and bruises. The rest of the day we just swam in the ocean, relaxed, got a Thai massage. It was nice to take a break after such a day.

Today, we started out at about 8am and took a 2 hour boat ride out to some remote islands in Phang Nga Bay. Once there, we snorkeled around for about an hour. We saw some beautiful fish and great coral reef. We then went to another location and snorkeled around again for another hour or so. The picture is of the first snorkeling site. Despite my sunscreen efforts, being at 6 degrees North, my whole backside is completely red. The next few days I will be bathing in aloe.



Tomorrow we'll head to Ko Yao Noi on a large boat. Then we can only take a day pack and we'll sea kayak around several islands. We'll head back to Ko Yao Noi to stay with local families for the night. That will take us back to the basic accommodations we were used to before we came to Railay! It's been nice to sleep in a real bed for a few nights. After tomorrow night, we'll sea kayak to Phuket and catch a domestic flight to Chiang Mai. Don't really know what's all going on there. It's still too far in advance.


June 17th

The past two weeks I was at Moo Baan Dek ("The Children's Village" in Thai) along the Kwae Noi River near Burma. The scenery was spectacular, and I will most definitely provide pictures later. While there we visited Erawan Waterfall that has 7 tiers and some amazing swimming. The fish were biting our toes though, so we had to constantly keep swimming! See how ridiculously crystal clear the water is.



We also went to an archeaological dig where the first homo erectus was found in Thailand, and that was really cool. My favorite field trip with the kids though was when we went to Hellfire Pass. It's a part of the railroad the Japanese army made POWs and Asians build during WWII. The purpose was the create a more accessible supply route to India via Burma and Thailand. The entire railroad was supposed to be completed in 5 years, but the Japanese made these men finish in only 20 months. We walked through Hellfire Pass that was named such because the men worked 18 hours a day, so at night they lit fires to continue working. They had to manually chip through rock to create this railroad, and there were still pieces of drills and tools broken inside the rock. It was an extremely emotional experience for me. I don't think it was until that day that I realized the true impact of World War II.




Other than the field trips we took with the kids, our normal days consisted of waking up to teach class in the morning and then crafts in the afternoon. I taught 2nd grade. I have plenty of pictures of our amazing class! We were able to make bracelets. The ladies there make their own clothes, bags, etc that they sell in a gift store on site. They are some truly talented ladies. This village is a place of alternative education. The kids don't have to come to class if they don't want to, and there's a student government that meets every Friday to give out punishments to fellow students who misbehaved that week. All the kids come from truely troubled backgrounds. Most don't have parents, and if they do they are too poor to support them. Leaving yesterday was really hard. Everyone was crying. But they had a closing ceremony for us where they gave us bracelets that were previously blessed by a monk that symbolized good luck in our travels and to let us know we always have a home in Moo Baan Dek.





Now I'm starting on the "Adventure Tour" for two weeks. Yesterday was a full day of travelling, but now we're in Khao Sok National Park. It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! My camera memory card filled up mid-hike, so I'll have to bum pictures off other girls. This morning we tubed down the Khao Sok river and watched monkeys play. Our guide pointed out a few snakes in the trees. Lucky for us, it was raining today so the snakes were out of the water and in the trees sleeping!

We just got finished hiking in the tropical rainforest here. It was truly stunning, but most of the time I was looking at my feet. Two reasons for that: 1) it was really slippery from the rain and 2) there were leeches. I know they're harmless, but it's not very pleasant to walk around while things are sucking blood out of your feet. The guide gave us this plant halfway through to rub on our feet that smelled really bad to repel the leeches. It worked for me, others were not so lucky.

We have one more night here and then we're off the Railay Beach. There we will rock climb and then rappel into the ocean. The next day we'll go out snorkeling around small islands. Then we'll start out on a two day sea canoeing spree to another remote island and spend the night with some locals. Then we're off to Chiang Mai. From there the schedule gets a little hazy. Internet will definitely be more accessible in Chiang Mai.

It's been an amazing time. But I won't lie, I am a bit ready for a hot shower and to be able to really wash my clothes. I'm a bit smelly, but everyone tries to do the best they can. Love you all!