Sept. 29

In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to set the record for the most inconsistent blogger. I think I'm succeeding. ;)
For the serious followers of my blog, I'd like to start by correcting something I said in a previous post. In one of the first posts, I wrote that only 25% of the people pay for the bus. I was completely wrong. At the time, I didn't realize you could buy a monthly or annual bus pass that you don't have to validate every time you get on the bus. I just wanted to correct my false accusation.
And now for another adventure in the grocery store. Tomorrow, I am moving into a new apartment (my mailing address will stay the same, don't worry). So as a goodbye present, I am making my roommates pancakes! (I've never made pancakes from scratch, so I hope this works out!) While I was at the grocery store, I was looking for some syrup. I was told that it would be there, but hard to find. I went up and down every aisle but couldn't find it. And it doesn't always help to guess what aisle it will be on because Italians often use ingredients in different ways. For example, the peanut butter is not next to the jelly in the Italian grocery store. ;) The problem was, I had forgotten how to say the word syrup in Italian. So finally I worked up the courage to ask a very nice looking lady. "Sai dov'è il SYRUP?" "What?" I try saying it with an Italian accent. It doesn't work. She asks me to describe it. Uuuhhhh liquid sugar... (how do you say pancakes in Italian??) per pancakes americano. ooohhhh sì pancakes! syrup! So she nicely took me to wear it was. It was on the bottom shelf of the baking aisle. They were selling about 5 bottles in the whole store!
Another interesting thing happened today. I experienced some real Italian driving. To give you an example, we were in the second to left lane. It wasn't a turn lane, but we turned anyway, right in front of the car in the left lane that was going straight! And here are two hilarious youtube clips that pretty much sum up the Italian life. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiR3N-P2ek4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ10QTIXlEA
Monday I start classes! I'm sure that will make an interesting post. But earlier today I knew it was time to start because I had to put on jeans, I smelled the smell of fallen leaves, and I walked home at 7:30 and the street lights were already on. Fall is coming!

London!!

Last post was getting too long, but this blog wouldn't be complete unless I wrote about my trip to London. That's right, I went to London! There are some moments in your life when you just remember how good life can be, and my trip to London was one of those moments.

My dad was there on a business trip, so I went to see him, and London. :) 

The traveling almost took more time than the actual visit. I left my apartment Saturday morning around 6am. Took the bus into the center of Bologna, so that I could take another bus from the center to the airport, so that I could sit in the airport until I could sit in the airplane until I could get off the airplane to sit on another bus and then take the tube (transferring lines) until I could walk to the hotel! I didn't arrive to the hotel until 2:30pm. (I'm pretty sure my dad made it faster from LA...). 

One little problem happened at the airport in London. I had to fill out a little form when I got to London and one of the questions was where I would be staying. I only knew the name of the hotel, so I wrote that down. The lady at the passport desk asked me the address and I told her that I didn't know it. She was a little bit cranky and snottily asked me how I was planning on getting there if I didn't know the address. I told her that I knew what bus to take into London and what line of the tube I needed to take and that my hotel was supposed to be right outside the exit. She clearly did not care about all this information, and only wanted me to put the address of my hotel. I told her again that I really didn't know it. In the end, she told me just to put down London and then the name of the stop I was getting off at. She was not a happy camper, but I was too excited to let it bug me.

When I got to my hotel room, my dad was still working in his office. But on the desk he had left me a map of London with all the places that I should go visit circled and a note on the desk welcoming me to London. It was such a nice surprise! I went around seeing everything including Buckingham Palace (Young Victoria!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WZ8I7xCEkg --although this scene obviously takes place in Westminster Abbey), Churchill War Bunker (if any of you go to England, you have to go here!), Big Ben (I was waiting for Ratigan to come crashing through), Statue of Boadicea (Peter Pan! 1:10 in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnJjnh9lrPY), the rooftops of London (Mary Poppins and Bert! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnJjnh9lrPY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-b_GJ4ltk), ABBEY ROAD,  St. Paul's Cathedral (feed the birds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABc1-6o9cF0), Tower of London (also a MUST-SEE even if you aren't in for A Man for all Seasons or Lion and Winter, there's the crown jewels! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rjGTOA2NA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cVwBjwRGgg), and I saw the outside of the art museum just because I've seen Skyfall! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jAdwsINfpU)

I give all these movie quote references so that some of you can laugh about how I always reference movies. But seriously. :)

The first night my dad and I ate fish and chips at an English Pub. As if that wasn't good enough, we drank British beers! And if that wasn't good enough, Michigan won the game as we were eating dinner! Life doesn't get much better!

The next morning I went to the beautiful Westminster Cathedral for mass. There was an all male choir with men and boys. Between the music and the beauty of the Cathedral, it was one of the best masses I have ever been to. (Of course it helps that it was the first English mass I had heard in a month.) 

That night, my dad had made dinner reservations at 7:30 for us and some of his friends that he wanted to introduce me to. I finished sight seeing around 6:30 and was wondering what to do for the next hour. I decided to take the tube half way home and then walk the second half to soak up the city. The problem was that when I got off the tube, it was POURING rain. I thought I'd try to tough it out. But the wind and rain were too strong. So I bought an umbrella. But the umbrella was too cheap and the wind was so strong that the umbrella kept turning inside out. So I gave up on that idea and decided to take the tube back. The problem was that I had walked a little too far to take the underground line that went directly to the restaurant. So I found the closest station and decided just to switch lines to get on the line that went to the restaurant. The thing about switching lines is that although it's in the same underground section, you sometimes have to walk a couple of underground blocks to get there. At this point, it was getting close to 7:30 and I didn't want to be late to meet my dad's friends. So I started sprinting through the underground station. People were staring at me, but I didn't care. I caught the tram right as the doors are closing, took it to my stop, mind the gap, ran out of the station, ran over to the restaurant, got to the restaurant, my phone rang, it was my dad telling me they were going to be a few minutes late. So I wait, with my shoes and hair soaked and the bottom of my white pants muddy from the rain. But the dinner was so fun that it made up for it!

And then there were all the other fun moments I had along the way that aren't stories, but just really happy moments. The last night my dad and I stayed up until 1am (which anyone who knows my dad and I knows that we don't usually stay up past 9:30, so this must have been a special occasion. hehe). It was really wonderful until I had to get up at 4am to take the cab to the station and then the train to the airport. Of course I was running a little late, and of course my terminal was the very farthest one in the whole airport. I got there just as people started boarding and when I got to lady at the desk, she told me that I needed my boarding pass to be stamped (I hate Ryan Air! No where did it say that on my boarding pass. NO WHERE!) and that I better run upstairs and get it stamped before the gate closed. AAAHHHH!! That part of the airport is packed! Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me, pardon me. I get the stamp, run back down, excuse me, pardon me. I'm the last person to check in, but I made it! Got back to Bologna and went straight to class. What a weekend! 

This post has gone on way too long, but how could it be any shorter? I just spent my weekend with my dad in London. I love studying abroad!

Where to Begin??

I apologize for my lack of correspondence, but life has been wonderfully busy! (And a little un-wonderful as I had a final presentation on Wednesday and an ORAL final tomorrow.)

But I would like to start by stating that I haven't received the flood of letters and packages that I was expecting. I don't know if I should complain to the Italian post office that they are losing my letters, or that maybe no one has... no, I'll go complain to the post office tomorrow.

But anyway, the funniest thing happened last night. Someone was asking me how to say something in English. I told her the answer and then turned to my roommate who speaks English and asked her if that was correct. She looked at me, I looked at her, and we just burst out laughing. I, the American, was asking the Italian how to say something in English. Another one of my roommates calls this time of night "l'ultimo fase" which literally means "the last phase", and translates more like the time of night when you just lose it.

Tonight, my class got to climb to the top of one of the Medieval towers in Bologna! In the Medieval times, there were over 100 towers in Bologna because rich families would build them to display their wealth and power (and we think some of the houses in CA can be over-the-top!). However, when a family lost its power and wealth, the tower would be torn down. So now there are only about 20 towers left. (In case anyone was wondering, I can say all of that in Italian because I have to; that is one of the topics of my final is on tomorrow... see, I'm studying...).
The man who owns the tower started by explaining some things about the tower. He kept saying the word "chiocciola" (pronounced key-o-cho-la) which means either snail or the @ symbol. I thought I must be misunderstanding because I couldn't think of how either of these could fit into the context of the history of the tower. It wasn't until the end of the night that someone explained to me that he was referring to the spiral staircase because it twists like the shell of the snail. Well that wasn't obvious...
We began to climb the steps. The tower is 60meters, but it's hard to tell how many meters you have climbed as you are walking up lots and lots of steps. It's like when you are going on a really tall roller-coaster and you have been hearing the click-click of the chains as the roller-coaster goes higher and higher. You fell like you must be almost at the top, but you just keep going and keep going. That's how it felt climbing the steps, they just kept going. But then, all of a sudden, you make it to the top and you take in the full view! Since it's one of the tallest things in Bologna, you can see everything! Right below you are the the red terra cotta roofs of the buildings. You can see all the little piazzas and the winding streets (which don't make any sense even with a bird's eye view). Then there are the church steeples and domes, the suburb surrounding the city center, and the hills in the distance. We arrived while it was still light, saw the sun setting (with lots of clouds that caught all the pink light), and then watched as the city grew dark and the full moon lit up the city. It was one of those moments when you think to yourself, "I am so lucky". But that's not what you really mean. Lucky is rolling doubles in a Monopoly game. It's deeper like the awe and gratitude that only the beautiful, the true, and the good can inspire. And this was really beautiful! (And a shout out to SMA!)
And then, on my bus ride home, I saw the bus driver of another bus wave to the bus driver on my bus. I don't know why that made me happy, but it did. :)

This post is getting too long, but I want to say one last thing. In italian, the way you say that you are ticklish literally translates into something like, "I suffer from the tickles". Shout out to SOFIA, I thought you might relate.

And actually one more thing. Here in Bologna, when you leave a party or a dinner, you say to the hostess "complimenti" which means "compliments" or something like, good job with the party/dinner. Is there a single word we use in English to say that?? (I'm sure I'll be receiving a flood of responses like I have with my letters... oh wait. I just have this funny thought that no one actually reads this. haha!)

AM/PM

Too much good stuff.
Where to begin?
Best for last? nah. best now. Last night, I got to ride on the back of a moto!! It was so much fun! So much fun! Driving down the little streets of Bologna on a back of a moto... life doesn't get much better. (My roommate very nicely reassured me that she had only crashed twice.) As you can imagine, I could not find the (Italian) words to express my excitement. For example, it's like a roller coaster!! Don't know how to say that in Italian... the ride in a amusement park... no can't say that either... it was fun... how expressive. The only problem is my arms are still soar from grabbing the handles on the moto so hard.
Today, all my roommates had to take final exams (don't ask, Bologna has the strangest system). So last night for dinner, they were all very tired and so decided to treat themselves to... McDonalds. really? They were so excited. But I found out last night that lemonade doesn't really exist here. :'(
And another thing I learned was that Italians don't eat eggs for breakfast. My roommates thought I was weird when I fried two eggs this morning. "But it's salty. Don't you want something sweet for breakfast?" (and I"m thinking... Dad is great! He gives us chocolate cake!). They did like the idea of pancakes for breakfast. If anyone wants to send me a good pancake recipe (or send me a box of biscuit!! That's less than $20... if you don't get this, see the earlier post! and Ghiradelli brownie mix or a good brownie recipe). But I'm pretty serious about this. :)

My address

I know you have all been holding on to your letters that you've written to me, just waiting to get my address to send them. So here it is:

Molly Boles
c/o University of California
Via Grimaldi, 3
Bologna, Italy
40122

And I'm going to have to ask you to save your packages for when I come home. There is a huge tax for anything over $20 when you send it AND when I receive it. But, if you are insistent on sending your package, you can either send something under $20 or lie about your expensive package and say that it's under $20.

Can't wait for all my mail to be flooding in!! ;)

Humility

As I have written about earlier, I thought I came here to learn Italian. Then I thought that I had come here to learn math (see earlier post). But now I'm sure what I was supposed to learn here- HUMILITY. As one of my dear friends put it- it's so humiliating to be the only one not laughing at a joke because you couldn't translate the punch line fast enough. In my case, it's a minor victory when I can figure out if it was a joke or a tragic story.
When I start telling a story in Italian, I feel like Marlin from Finding Nemo telling a joke. Everyone starts out smiling, but as my story painfully goes on because I can't remember how to say this word and that word, the smiles begin to fade and it ends with everyone staring at me and trying not to make me feel as stupid as I was.
Some of the other California students that I'm studying with have compared this study abroad experience to the first few months of freshman year: it's awkward and you are desperately trying to make friends. Or maybe more like kindergarten when you ask people if they will be your friends and the teacher speaks slowly and enthusiastically so you can understand what she is explaining to you. But I think it's closer to being a 2 year old. My parents can write in their Christmas letter, "Molly is such a big girl- she can now walk all by herself (around the streets of Bologna). And she has quite the big vocabulary with her favorite words being "non ho capito" and "non lo so".
Sometimes, I feel like Elf when he first comes to New York City: totally overwhelmed and absolutely out of place. But recently, Bologna has started to feel like a home!
Although they don't read this blog, I'd like to give a shout out to my wonderful roommates who are so patient when I ask them to repeat, and repeat SLOWLY, and so wonderful in always including me!

September 7

I amaze myself with the clever titles I give my posts. :)
This was going to be the coolest post ever because I was going to upload some pictures (because I just learned how to upload them from my camera to my computer!), but I can't figure out how to get them from my desktop to my blog. If anyone knows how, please let me know. Until then, my blogs will continue to go picture-less.
Yesterday I went to a city called Ravenna. It is best known for it's beautiful mosaics! (I wish I could show you pictures, but I think google will do a better job anyway.) It is also the city where Dante is buried. At the site of his tomb, everyone in my class read two stanzas of the first canto of Dante's Inferno. Such a cool experience. And then the views from the train ride were also really beautiful! Rolling hills in the back with vineyards closer to the train tracks and some beautiful villas here and there. It was like the drive up the 5 in California in the sense that there were farms with houses and abandoned houses, with the obvious difference that there were villas and abandoned villas, and everything was green and beautiful!
Then I came home and had a wonderful dinner with my roommates and some of their friends. And what I discovered during that dinner was not that my Italian has gotten better, but that my English has gotten worse. I couldn't remember how to say some words in English, and other words I said with an Italian accent.

September 5

It's now been a little over 2 weeks since I've gotten here! It feels like it's been months.
There are some things that don't change. For example, the loudness of my voice. You would think that since I can't really speak Italian, I would shyly squeak out the few phrases that I know. But instead-- last night I was talking to one of my Italian roommates. One of her friends who was across the lawn and 3 stories below texted her and said she could hear us talking. Well that's embarrassing... In my defense, all the windows were open. :)
And then there are the everything elses that have changed. An early dinner in Bologna would be around 7. That's an EARLY dinner. It's usually more like 8! And when I went to friend's house for a dinner, the food wasn't served until 9:30!
Then there is the fact that everyone here smokes, and everyone is ok with it. (I've got to say, being in Bologna makes me wish I was a smoker because it's so social!)
And then there are the vespas. There might be just as many vespas as cars!
Even American songs are different! A bunch of my roommate's friends got together last night for a little jam session, and they were singing songs from around the world. When they got to America, they sang "You are my Sunshine" and "Pick a Bail of Cotton". And the best part was, I started singing it in their accent. Instead of "sister" we were saying "seester" and instead of "pick" it was "peek".
And then, there is the fact that I take the bus every day. This has been a very new experience for me. Once I got over the fear of dirty, unknown public transportation, I actually kind of liked taking the bus. It's just a little difficult and frustrating getting the timing down. My worst bus fear was realized the other night (I'm sure you all have your worse bus fears...). I was taking the bus back late at night and didn't want to have to sit around waiting for the bus at night by myself. But as I was walking to the stop, I saw my bus pull away. NNNNOOOO!! I was too far to chase after it. So I checked the schedule, and the next bus wouldn't come for another 30min. So I just had to stand at the bus stop waiting for my bus to come. I'm sure that won't be the only time that happens...

Come va?

Va bene! Two of my roommates moved in and now life is so much better! Friends are the greatest invention in the world... even if we don't speak the same language. ;)
But, my Italian is getting better. I have perfected my introduction! (My name is Molly. I'm from LA. I'm here for 4 months to study italian, etc.) The problem is, I've gotten so good at it, the person will say, "Wow, you speak italian very well." and then continue at a rapid pace on some other topic. Let's just say they soon realize how little I know.
And for your peak into Italian culture: It's normal for each person to eat a whole pizza for dinner! How awesome is that?! It's true that their pizzas are smaller and much thinner, but still. Also, they normally eat it by folding each piece in half before putting it in their mouths.

A few things to add

As things start to become a little more normal, there are less funny stories to relate. But there are a few things that I'd like to add.
The first thing is that I do know the numbers from 1-10 in Italian. So when I say I have 8 siblings, I mean 8. I'm not getting my numbers confused. ;)
And for your cultural enhancement, Gio (pronounced "Jo") is a nickname for John (Giovanni) not, Joseph.
I know I should be used to it by now, but it's still surprising to me how the Italian language is so constant over here. Ever time I finish an Italian conversation, I think about how exhausted I am. And then for some reason, I think that we can all just go back to speaking English again-- like Italian class or office hours are over. But it doesn't work like that over here. They just keep speaking in Italian. Still trying to figure that one out.
And as much as we thought I was coming here to learn Italian, I've actually improve more in my math. I'm getting really good at multiplying by 1.3, and subtracting with the numbers 9 and 12.. Why? 1.3 because there are 1.3 dollars in a euro. (Or is it the other way around, I get confused.) All I know is that something that costs me 10 euro, actually costs me $13. It's always a slightly depressing thought. 9 because CA time is 9 hours behind Bologna time. 12 because here in Bologna, they use military time. So 6pm is 18. So I have to sit there like an idiot doing 18-12. The worst part is, I got it wrong the first time and showed up at 5. (ULCA how?)
Speaking of UCLA, for all you Bruins out there, we thought Caffe 1919 was cool. Well here in Bologna they have Caffe 1088. Not even kidding.
Go Bruins! Go Blue! And Happy Birthday Carolina!!