Fuori dalla mia nicchia

E adesso? Chissà.

Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

And now?  Who knows.

I’ve been home since the 19th, just in time for Christmas!  Though not in time to send out my gifts… though I did get that done eventually.

It is so nice to be back in Southern California, where I can line-dry my clothes and lay out in the sun on January 1st.  Though I do hope that everyone with snow/rain/clouds outside their window right now is having a nice winter too!

This past semester was such an incredible experience for me, and I hope this blog did it justice.  I know I will read over it often, and remember just how much of an adventure I went on.  Hey, I’m only 20, there is plenty of time in the (near) future for me to return and do all of the things I didn’t have time to do.  Can you beleive that?  There is still so much more I can, and will, do! Ma quando? Come? Con chi? Dove? Chissà.

Take care, and thanks for following along with me!
Tricia

Photos from Greece!

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I’ve got photos up!  Alas, I have a very busy week and no time to throw in witty captions yet… but soon!

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HOME… but not really

Monday, November 10th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I’m back in Siena, we got in last night.  Greece was… AMAZING!  I wish I had a better adjective… I’ll think of one before I post again.  So yes, all safe and sound in Siena.  And just think, in a little over a month I’ll be back in sunny California

Love, Tricia

What do you mean he don’t eat no meat? Oh, that’s okay, I make lamb.

Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

My Big Fat Greek Wedding… anyone?  Love it.

I was debating between titling this post “It’s all Greek to me!” or that.

Who can guess where my mind is?  Woah, sorry to make this all interactive.

Anyway, I finished my midterms… which means I get to go to Greece now!!  My hand feels like it wrote a novel.  Well, maybe just a couple chapters.  But they were good chapters!  I hope.  It’s been a while between my finishing of midterms and when I last updated this thing!

We went to the chocolate festival in Perugia!  I have since finished all the chocolate I bought for myself.  Twas amazing.  There were so many people there!!  We did go on the first day of the festival, so it was expected, and we still had a really good time.

Then I woke up one Sunday to more than the usual chatter of people walking around the Piazza del Mercato outside our apartment (it is basically a big covered area, where the city used to hold an outdoor market on a regular basis, but now it is just a big covered area where young kids hang out at night, and a little boy practices his contrada drumming some afternoons).  I looked outside the window, and already by 8am an antique market was already set up, complete with groups of men standing around smoking cigars, women with bags ready to fill with trinkets, children crowding around tables full of trading cards and disney figurines, and tourists being first baffled by why there were boxes of people’s old family photos for sale but then more confused as why they felt compelled to buy them all.  We eventually made our way down there, and were amazed every table, and the only thing stopping us from buying everything was some of the prices.  Apparently this takes place every third Sunday of the month, but we must have missed it last month when we were traveling.  I was able to find an adorable old copy of Alice nel paese delle meraviglie (Alice in Wonderland).  She is a big fan, and it was her birthday present!

Last week we went to Pienza, a nearby town, with our program for a field study.  It is the town that Pope Pius II was born in, and had completely renovated into, basically, a monument to himself and his family, the Piccolomini.  Long story short, it is a tiny tiny town, only a couple blocks, and the view is amazing!  I could get into the social and artistical significance of the city during the 1400s, but my brain still hurts a little bit.

Alright, I am off to Milan tomorrow evening by bus, and we fly out early early Saturday morning to Athens!  Then we’ll take a ferry to Paros, yay, where someone from the hotel will meet us, and take us to where we need to be

But now… I sleep.
I’ll be back in a week!! (From Greece… not sleeping)
Ciao ciao!
Tricia

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Back in Siena, once again!

Sunday, October 12th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

We got back from Bologna last night, safe and sound!  It turned out to be a nice trip.  Just walking around the city is beautiful, with such a lingering historical touch.  There are covered archways in front of nearly every building, which must make it a nice place in the rain, but the weather was nice and warm for us.

I took pictures!  (Of course…)

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By far, my favorite part of the trip was making our own pasta!  We made the dough, rolled it, cut it, and stuffed tortelloni, tortellini, tagliatli, and penne.  AMAAAAAZING!  Italy=Amazing food, and Bologna=the most amazing food in Italy… if that gives you an idea of the amazingness.

On Saturday we visited the Ferrari Museum in Maranello!!  We were all pretty exicted about that :-)  Our guided tour of the museum ended witht the NEW California Ferrari, so I was happy!  I also folded it up so I could fit it in my purse and sneak out!  I got some nice shots there too… Grandpa Jerry, you’ll have to expand my knowledge further than “old Ferrari” and “new Ferrari.”  I listened to our guide, but I couldn’t remember everything!!

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Lauren and I bought our tickets to Greece, and we even found an Enlish travel guide to the Greek Isles while we were in Bologna (we searched every book store in Siena, with no such luck).  We are pretty set on Paros, where we plan to go horseback riding on the beach, visit a cave on a nearby island, and eat at a place called Happy Green Cows (a veggie resteraunt!!!).

I seemed to have forgotten to mention my trip to Paris!!!  (That’s right, Paros and Paris).  I’ll be spending our three day weekend at the end of November in Paris!!  A little group of us is going, it ought to be fun.

Alright, I’m off to make some dinner, and do some homework.

Love, Tricia

The Leaning Tower… AND (not of) pizza

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Yes, we went to Pisa for a day, and on a completely separate occasion I made pizza

Somehow, I don’t think I actually took one of the famous “holding up the tower” pictures.  I thought I did…. maybe it ended up on someone else’s camera.  Pisa was nice, perfect for a little day trip.  Beyond that, there isn’t much to do.  The tower is also not as tall as I thought it would be.  So that was last Saturday.  On Sunday I woke up with a craving for pancakes, and since we had already planned to make pizza that evening, and I needed to buy stuff for that, I decided to buy some pancake fixins as well.

It took forever to find baking powder for the pancakes and yeast for the pizza, but I think we got pretty close in the end My roommates and I made pancakes, and it was amazing.  I also was able to find sugar free peanut butter, FINALLY, so I made a leftover pancake peanut butter and jelly sandwich later in the week.

Some friends of ours have an actual oven (not like the toaster oven we have) in their apartment, so we had a pizza party, like legitimately.  I think there were 7-8 of us, and I taught everyone to make pizza!  We ended up with 4 small pizzas like the one in the picture (make sure you go to page 2 of the photos).  They actually turned out really nice!

Okay, I have to get ready for class, but 2 more things:  I leave for a 3 day field trip to Bologna tomorrow, where we will get to make pasta by hand!!!! eek!  and lastly, and most importantly/amazingly, I am finally set on a trip to Greece for fall break.  We’ll leave Oct 31st and get back Nov 9th.  I’ll explain more later… but Paros, get ready for Tricia!!!

Ciao ciao!!!
Tricia

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Naples! Or Napoli, how we say it here in Italy.

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Or even Napeoli, how Tricia says it when she get’s a little confused.

Yes yes, vado a napoli per 4 giorni!  Una vacanza piccola :-)  (4 days in Naples, little vacation!!)

I’ll take plenty of Napeoli pictures and return with fantastic stories.  I will also leave all my valuables at home,and not get mugged while I’m there!  Woo hoo!

Arrivaderci!
Tricia

viva la pa pa pappa, col po po po po po po pomodoro!!

Saturday, September 13th, 2008 | In Siena, Uncategorized | No Comments

That’s my new favorite song… check it out

So, I’m two weeks into this, aren’t I?  We have a three day weekend, since we didn’t have any our language classes on Friday (we start real classes the week after this coming week).  Normally, three-day weekend=traveling, but there was a bike/train strike on Friday, so everyone’s travel plans were semi-foiled.  Then today (Saturday) it started raining, so all of our day-trip plans were foiled as well.  Some friends and I were going to head over to Chianti (yes, where the wine comes from) and do some hiking around the country-side,   but that will have to wait.  It even hailed yesterday afternoon!  It was so hot and humid earlier in the week though!

So what have I been up to…  we went to a wine tasting in an Enoteca (eno meaning wine, and teca meaning shelf… like a wine library.  I finally drew the connection to biblioteca, a library).  The guide taught us how you are supposed to taste wine: First you look, then smell, then taste.  And you always go white, pink, red.  We had one white wine, and two reds.  I was a big fan of the cheese they gave us though…

We also went to an archeological dig site, I posted some pictures.  I bought a pair of tennis shoes for that.  I found some nice non-leather ones in a real Italian department store, called Upim.  It was an adventure.  It was amazing how many years of history they dug up at the same site, and how they differentiated between the centuries and such.  One of our program directors was an archeology major at the university, so she had some friends there.

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Now back to Siena, let me explain to you the Palio.  Siena is divided into 17 contrade (plural of contrada), which is basically something along the line of districts, but it is much much more than that.  Each contrada has a symbol and flag, and is a real community (Italians are well known for having much tighter regional ties than national ties, and the Contrade di Siena are an example of the degree to which this is upheld).  Our professor said that the people of Siena belong first to a contrada, then to Siena, and then to Italy.  It used to be that your contrada was determined by where you lived, but since not many people live in the city anymore, as rent became more expensive, and most of the streets are very commercial now, one’s contrada is determined by their family.  Nd once you are in a contrada, you are in it for life!  Twice a year, in the summer, a horse race is held in the Piazza del Campo, this is il Palio.  I would explain the logistics of the race, but I still don’t understand everything.  It has been going on for centuries, and apparently in the exact same way.  It is supposed to be like a recreation of a medieval war, which is why you see all the flag holders and drummers dressed up so traditionally (aka: wearing tights).  Sopratutto (above all), Siena lives and breathes le contrade and il Palio. When a horse wins the race, the jokey and horse are praised for a moment or two, but it is really the contrada that won.  I wish I could explain more, but there is really way to much!  Here are some interesting/informative websites:
http://www.ilpalio.org/palioenglish.htm
http://www.comune.siena.it/contenuti/palio/inglese/17contrade/17contrade.html
http://www.aboutsiena.com/palio-of-Siena.html
So now that you have a bit of a foundation, I can continue on with how the week went!  We were sitting in the Piazza one afternoon, when all of a sudden the we begin to see person after person and family after family find their way into the piazza wearing scarves from the contrada of La Lupa (the She Wolf, from the story of Romulus and Remus).  We don’t thing much of it, as there are often small contrada parties or dinners.  After grabbing some gelato (yay!) we sit back down in the Piazza, and are greeted by a full on contrada parade by La Lupa.  There are drummers and flag twirlers coming out from the main street of La Lupa, and they proceed to encircle the entire Piazza.  It was so amazing to watch, and feel surrounded by such a level of history and community. I took as many pictures as I could, without looking like an annoying tourist

And even more Contrada business, we took a field trip to the contrada I live in (La Onda, or the Wave).  Each contrada has its own church and museum, and the church of La Onda is aparently one of the most beauitufl.  I didn’t get a picture of the fountain outside, which is where every baby born into the contrada is baptized, but I did take many other pictures!  Enjoy!

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Now, It has stopped raining for a while, so I might head outside and see if any of the Bars sell hot chocolate!  If not, I will snuggle up with the copy of Harry Potter e La Pietra Filosofale that I found for 15% off at the post office this morning (I bought stamps!).  It was way cheaper there than at the book stores… which I also visited, of course.

Love for all,
Tricia

Tags: archeology, Church, Contrade, Harry Potter, La Lupa, La Onda, Palio, parade, Rain, wine

I’m HERE!!!

Thursday, September 4th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Sorry everyone, I have limited internet access before they set it up in my apartment.  I have arrived, and I am having an AMAZING time.  The students are amazing, and the professors are amazing, all is well here in Siena!

I have a big blog written on my computer, so I will post that when I can.

Love love love you!
Tricia