Last days in Asolo

So I am one of the only ones left and I was getting very bored. I can only pack for so long, ya know? I was really getting down that I was wasting my last days here. Then last night and today happen.

Yesterday I got back to my apt after a few hours in the computer lab talking to my parents and what not, feeling miserable from not eating a one too many mojitos for James' last night in town, when my phone rings.

Its Jayme so I meet him and KJ at epoca where I eat and KJ decides to cook that night. We had a delicous salad and chicken parmisan. It was a great night and just what I needed.

THEN it gets better. Today she took me to the Crespano market (where I've wanted to go all year but was busy every Sunday), to Bassano to have the kebabs from the shop where the owner went to OSU in Stillwater (also wanted to go here all year but didn't get the chance), and finally to Canova's Temple (I think you're getting the picture). And tonight I have dinner with my friend Anna and Giampietro! I feel so much better about my last few days!

Tomorrow I could even go to the beach if I wanted, but I don't know how the handing off of the keys to my landlord will be arranged yet. :/

OK, now I'm really getting off of here! Ciao and see you soon!!

Italy, always in my memories

I have been having so many mixed emotions as the end of my experience here is coming to an end. I know the saying is when one door closes, another one opens. That's just hard to grasp right now with me returning with no idea what I want to do with my life after this. I know I'll land on my feet. As my dad told me yesterday, "You're a survivor" and with those words I can look back on how far I've come and be thankful for the opportunities afforded to me. I know that I am incredibly lucky to have been accepted into the program and had the courage to leave my family for an extended period of time. It was so hard at times, and I would love to say that it got easier with time (and some parts did) but there is always something going on where you feel pulled or tested in who you are and where you are. I know my journey is not done but this adventure is - as of Tuesday anyway.

But before its done I will tell you about some things I have done since my last blog. I can't quite remember where I left off, but I'm pretty sure I should start with the prosecco festival in Susegana. Its a town with a breath taking castle that boasts even more breath taking views. IOt hosts one of the largest prosecco festivals. My friend Roby said that if you are any one in the prosecco industry you are in this festival. It was nuts how many stands they had giving away free tastes! It was $15 at the door plus a 5$ deposit for your glass. Being there with so many locals and experiencing that was one of my favorite times in Italy. Direstly after the festival we had to go to the CIMBA BBQ where we met all the newbies (summer students) for the first time. This is like right after we had to move out. There are lots from Oklahoma... WAHOO!

Skipping some time and we land in Malta.... I'm sure there's a million things that went on between the prosecco festival and Malta but I dont have my planner with me to check. Oh well. Gen and I escaped to this beautiful, rocky island country where the movie Popeye was filmed. This place is dirt cheap, covered with people from all over Great Britain, and has ruins the predate Stonehenge. What more could you want?! We both burnt the first day on the tour bus, but we did lay out that day in the Golden Bay. It gets its name because it is one of the only sandy beaches in Malta. If you're there, take the blue lagoon ride from Charlie. They have the most turquoise beautiful water I have even seen. We also stumbled into a drag show that was really funny followed by equally comical karaoke. Our four star hotel left some ot the imagination but for just over $20 USD a night we weren't complaining, that badly. We ate seafood and and snails and all sorts of fun things. The people were so nice! We found a local pub that isn't very touristy and hung out nearly the whole of one night. Overall it was an amazing trip!

The following weekend I went to Florence with Stefano. We rented scooters and drove all through Tuscany. IT was the neatest thing being able to go on all these tiny roads that cars couldn't fit. I was on a scooter for like 15 hours. My poor legs were weak for days! Outside of San Gimignano we stopped at a little cantina where I bought two bottles of wine. One will be coming hone with me, the other didn't make it. I saw much more of Florence this time around so I feel like I can officially say I have visited it! We went to so many little towns and explored that I can't remember their names. Grrr. In Tuscany they don't salt their breads because of a tiff when there was still a salt trade and the tradition holds! OH and I have a rucola pesto gnocchi dish that was absolutely amazing in one little town. It was called Cantina de Nonna... grandpa's cantina. Loved it! Went to Fiesole to end that night with the fiortina steak. Better than the one I had with my dad. Fiesole is a suburb of Florence and it a must see. The little trattoria we ate at was lovely and we missed the sunset over the hills by all of five minutes, but we did get sneaky photos where it look like we made it! :D

Anyway, I've been on here too long and I need to go weigh my suitcases to see what else I need to give away to make weight. :(

Apartment Change

Spring of Adventure

This is a summary of the highlights of my spring in Italy. It starts the week after I get back from Norway and goes through the beginning of May. I will try to post more soon, and maybe include some pics.

The Prosecco Hill, April 7, 2010

We drove to the "Prosecco Hill" to have a cheese picnic. I can't remember the actual name of the vineyard. Drove to San Stefano in the comune of Valdobbiadene (name of vineyard) to a type of Osteria Senza Oste (osteria: mostly drinking place, but serves easy to make food too; Oste is host; senza is without). The vineyard is right next to the one where Obama bought his inaugural bottle of Prosecco. Overlooking the Cartizze vineyards (very high quality prosecco only made in a small area of Valdobbiadede, a DOCG (Denomincazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita)) vineyards. We brought the following cheeses for our picnic: Piave fresco, Talleggio, Pecorino Sardo (fresh), Gorgonzola, and a smelly soft French cheese (of the same consistency as Brie), and a bottle of Chianti. In the little “shop without a host” we bought the sopressa (type of salame local to the Veneto) and we could have bought some home-made cartizze... this was later offered to us by an Italian family that could not finish theirs.

Eating at Frank Baracca, April 23, 2010.

Itlian pizzeria in Nervesa della Battaglia where you’de be silly to order the pizza, not because it was not good, but rather because the pasta-fish food dish was so much better: served for two people and covered with pizza dough (they brought it out still in the pan, they had put the dough over the pan and baked for a few minutes until brown). Where we ate was positioned on top of a large aquarium with glass tiles (we could see the fishes swimming below). They bring you an aperitvo and an calamari filled antipasto for free. Our main dish was a frutti di mare with squid-ink tagliatelle which is black in color.

Frank Baracca's family is who gave Ferrari their family emblem... which just so happened to be a prancing horse...

Etiquette and wine tasting evening, April 27, 2010

The etiquette course was quick and to the point. We took a quiz at the beginning... surprisingly I scored as one of the highest in the class, 2nd highest I think. I know, I know, you guys are all impressed. In the wine tasting that immediately followed we tasted 2 Saove (one a classic which had been rated as the 53^rd best wine in the world) from a town a little to the east of Verona, some Amarone (15° alcohol content) and some Recciotto (sweet wine). Both these wines are made from fortified grapes, just the Amarone is aged in wooden casks for at least a year. I probably had some of the fanciest wine I've ever had at this tasting. I felt so classy with my plastic cup. :)

Trip to Merano, April 30-May 1, 2010

Merano, a town in the South Tyrol Dolomiti. It’s a medium sized city by Italian standards and very German (the locals use german as the first language, but they all know how to speak italian). The region is famous for (besides the mountains, the wines (eg. The gewurtztramminer) and apples) the Sissi castles and the Thermal baths. We didn't do the thermal baths due to a miscommunication... I will try one out before I leave though! We stayed at the Westend: good deal, with a balcony in the room and breakfast in the garden. They even had free use of their bikes: awesome! I hadn't ridden a bike since Denmark and before that it had been YEARS! Interesting: the amount of flowers (which were so bright and absolutely beautiful!!), number of castles (they were nestled all in the hills), cycling and walking trails. Awesome!!! Great having a rest along one the cycling tracks (after hard day’s workout) with a view of the Roman bridge and drink a beer in a biergarten. Food of interest: Knederly in beef broth (they're like dumplings), and some other very good Austrian dish made with boiled beef (probably the one that made the broth), and some pork medallions with cream asparagus; we found this place as almost the last resort, but it had a wonderful internal garden.

Second day we took the bikes for half the day and rode to some castle with a large flower garden (too many oldies to go inside and it was really pricey for a botanical garden) and then we tried to go to another castle on the outskirts. Unfortunately there was no large non-state road to get there, so we went via the side rods: up hill!!!!! I'm not talking any hill... this was a wine hill with gravel, SO we had to push the bikes up a gravel path. I was so tired, but so proud of myself for making it the whole two days without being a big whine bag. After we returned the bikes we had a light lunch of curry wurst (German sausage with ketchup and curry powder) then walked up and down the hills for hours! We decided to leave and have dinner in back in Asolo. I would highly recommend this city to visit and I would/will go back.

Random occurances with no date in particular:

Made white Bassano asparagus risotto: 600g of Bassano asparagus, then dry white wine, risotto, vegetable broth and parmiggiano. The asparagus was peeled and the heads were broken off. It was my first time to peel asparagus... made it much easier to eat! They were placed in the pot to cook just before the rice (no need to boil them before that). The broth cooked on the side, but before that the rice was added, toasted slightly and the prosecco was added. Remember to add salt! It was SO good. I've made it twice. Next on my risotto list to make is porcini (mushroom) risotto.

We went to Conegliano one night. We went to the castle... which was walls and a small tower, not as impressive as some of the others I've seen. Nonetheless, we had a spritz and looked at the view up there before heading into town to explore the center. We walked around for a bit, small center, but still very cool. Next was dinner, we went to I Templari to have “spicy” chicken: it has a medieval theme. Good German beer, and the chicken was served without any knives and forks. It was a mess to eat! Italians have no idea about making things spicy. It was yummy still!

More to come and thanks for being patient with this posting. Love you guys!!!

Spring Break

Hey-O!

Well Spring Break is now long gone and I'm back from Norway. It was SO much fun... I want to go back. Everything had art on it even a drainage ditch has swirling lines like water made of cement. The bridges had copper diver statues attached to their suspending lines. It was crazy!

We only had a day and a half there. The first day was clear and decently warm. I wore my coat unbuttoned. We decided on a quick lunch so we could see more of the city. We stopped at a small sandwich place along Johan's Gate (which is the main pedestrian street) and grabbed a bite. Man did we luck out! It was really good! Some kind of curry chicken with a green minced herb and garlic spread plus cucumber sauce! Little did we know, but Norwegians love sauces and gravies on everything! We then went and checked into the hotel. I would recommend it to anyone. They were like apartments and super nice and modern. MyCityHome was the name.

We walked around for hours and turns out we saw most of the sites along the coast... we know this because we looked at a flyer for a mini cruise, which is just a sightseeing ship, and we had seen nearly all of the things! We ended up spending too much time just wandering around and it was like 9 before we even started looking for a place to eat dinner. We decided on an Indian restaurant. Note: Norway is known for other people's food. They have all sorts of International restaurants. The Indian food was amazing. Stefano said it was the best he'd had.... for me as well, although I'm sure he's had it a lot more than me!

The next day the weather was miserable but we braved it anyway. We went to the Viking museum. I went to one when I spent the summer in Denmark, but this one has better preserved ships. That was pretty cool. We then decided to have lunch at a place we found in one of the guide books... it was the only meal was merely okay. Stupid guide books. We then tried to find this park with sculptures of people... well we found a fun bar instead and had some sort of Norwegian liquor that gets shipped down to the equator and back in oak barrels before its served. It was really good. We then found a place for dinner and had reindeer burgers!! Reindeer is a customary food in Norway. It was delicious. We went to the restaurant before the park because the bartender didn't know if they were still serving food, I guess Norwegians also eat early, so we decided to test our luck. THEN we made our way to the creepiest park ever. There was no one around and these sculptures were all naked people! Some were erotic and some were of children. In the center there was a tower of people piled on each other. I got freaked out and wanted to leave so we did. This is like 12 or 1 in the morning and it turns out there are no night buses or subways at night on the weekdays. We hopped a cab and went back to the hotel to sleep for an hour before we had to get up to catch our 4 oclock bus to the airport.

AFTER all of this and napping on the plane we decided to go skiing for a half day so I could say I've been skiing in the Italian alps... which are called the Dolomites or Dolomiti. The weather turned out to be bad... I'm talking like blizzard can't see in front of you bad so we just went down three slopes. The first one I was good. I did way better than Stefano... Then something happened. He got really good and I fell like 6 times! Ugh. Anyway, it was a blast. We tried to go to this nice restaurant he's been telling me about where the snow mobile picks you up from designated parking and pulls you to the restaurant. Then after you eat you sled back down the mountain!! I wanted to go so bad but his car wouldn't make it up the hills required to get there. SO we had this pizza he has been talking about.... yeah a lot of my conversations revolve around food. lol. It was yummy although it wasnt sledding down a mountain yummy. Oh well.

After that I spent a night in Asolo before heading to Padova to meet a friend. Padova is known for being a university town, but it seemed pretty dead when we got there. We walked around forever and found some measly restaurant for lunch. Well a few hours later the streets were packed! I guess everyone was off having a better lunch then us outside of the center. haha.

Easter morning we went to San Antonio's Basilica. There was supposed to be a cantata service, but I guess we got our times wrong, so we listened to the entire service in Italian. It was nice to go to church on Easter though, even if it was with someone else's mom. Family is family. We had a good lunch then headed back to Asolo. The rest of the time was spent doing schoolwork. Happy day. Well that was my break!

It was awesome! but now I must go prepare for a presentation. Ciao!

Bologna.. the Fat

After much debate and anticipation about whether or not I was going to get to see my cousin's, Jennifer and Dustin, it was decided that it was just not feasible. We both had conflicting time constraints so it wouldn't work. I was bummed because its always cool to be able to see people you know on a different continent... especially family. BUT......

I had a back up plan... you see we had three days off during this time, so I was dead set on going somewhere besides Asolo. Gen and I loaded up and set off to Bologna.

Bologna is known for a few things, but the one thing we were most interested in was the FOOD! The city is nicknamed Bologna the fat. It is the home to tortellini and other delicious foods.

When we got there we walked around the center for a bit... it is also supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in Italy, but I would have to disagree. The church with the meridian line was neat and the Neptune fountain was interesting, but as for second most beautiful?... Maybe it deserves another visit.

The first night we were planning on a nice meal, too bad there was some sort of trade fair in town and every place we tried was booked. We basically got laughed at! Maybe it was because we had met up with some other CIMBA people so we were looking for a table of 7.... I don't know. We ended up at some awful pizzeria.

Anyway, so the first night wasn't so great.... BUT let me tell you about the second day. Gen and I were up early so we laid around a bit. We then went shopping where I got some new summer undershirts... mine are gross after months of use - TMI, I know! We then caught a taxi to the restaurant that a faculty member had suggested... it was closed the night before because we actually tried to book that one in advance.

Trattoria della Melancello. It was amazing! We got tortellini and gramigna (sp?) pasta... They elt us order two then split. They also did not have menus. We then had a second course of stuffed zucchini and meatballs. OMG, everything was delicious. Just that meal made up for the night before.

We then decided to find the university since its the oldest in Italy... maybe one of the oldest in the world? I forget. Little did we know that the university is scattered all over the city! We did find our way to the center building. As we were walking there, we found an Irish pub and this is St. Patty's day. So we ended up stopping on the way to leave for one beer.... well after meeting an Italian who was into Gen, speaking broken Italian for 4 hours, eating another pizza only this one was better.... we caught the last train home, barely. Good times!

Roadtrip!

What to do with a few days off and a friend's cousin in the counrty?.... Rent a car and go see her!! Gen's cousin was in Turino at an international fencing tournament.. she is the #1 fencer in Canada.. so we decided to go visit her. Mind you, this is a four hour drive and we don't have a car. Plus, we had already decided that a train just would not do.

So we rent a car under the assumption that I would drive, since I know how to drive a manual, although I hadn't done so in years...

Getting to Turino was crazy! I drove the entire time... only had a few mishaps. No wrecks... did have a leaky gas tank that we didn't know about until the drive home. The mechanics freaked us out but then I called Stefano and had him talk to them... everything worked out. We stopped off at Lake Como on the way to Turino - George Clooney has a house there. Its really pretty, but I can guarantee it'll be better in a few months. It was SO cold.

Turino is like a large colony of Sicilians, they are the forward Italians you hear about. I have never been whistled out/ talked to in a way that I'm sure they were (thank goodness I couldn't understand a lot if it) We took cabs at night bc it was so bad.

On the way back we hit massive traffic on the outskirts of Milan. What normally is a 4 hour drive took us 9 but we did eat in a town, Brescia. We found some enoteca (which is a wine bar) and they made us some food, they didn't even have a menu. It was the best pasta I've had. Artichokes and fish, but it all blended so well. YUMMY!

That's all for now folks! Love you guys!!