Feb
3
Hallo from Utrecht! After 11 hours up in the air, I am finally in my new home in central Holland (and yes, everyone here does call it Holland–they look at you so oddly if you say The Netherlands!).
About half an hour from Amsterdam, Utrecht is a gorgeous town with many old churches, canals, and buildings. I realized today that Utrecht University is more than 200 years older than OU–how crazy is that? Almost every building I’ve seen is older than America.
The Utrecht area has about 600,000 inhabitants, but it feels much smaller. Because I don’t have a bike yet, I’ve been walking everywhere, and I’ve been amazed at how quickly I can get from place to place.
Today, I attended orientation at my faculty, the Faculty of Humanities. Faculties here are the same as colleges at OU, but each faculty has its own campus. Most students only attend one faculty with no general education requirements. This is definitely a good thing–can you imagine walking from Sarkeys to the National Weather Center two or three times a day? That’s about how far apart each campus is.
The main campus is called De Uithof (pronounced eyt-off), and it has green spaces like a traditional American campus. Other campuses, such as humanities, look nothing like a traditional campus. They look much more like houses in a neighborhood than campus buildings. However, no campus is very showy. There’s no Seedsower statue or flashing Gaylord dome here!
The Faculty of Humanities is very close to my apartment here, which was great when it started snowing today!
Here’s the view from my back porch when I woke up at 9 a.m. It had just started snowing.
It snowed so much! It was still snowing when we went on a walking tour of the city center. We were absolutely freezing and kept slipping on the cobblestone streets. I couldn’t help thinking that if this was happening at OU, I would have already gotten a phone call from President Boren canceling today and tomorrow’s activities! The Dutch just toughed it out, though. Lots of people still rode their bikes as the snow was falling.
After the tour, my roommates and I walked back to our apartment. Two Koreans, a Turk, and a Texan all agree: this weather is too cold! We stopped by a grocery store on the way home to warm up (and to pick up a few essentials like Oreos!).
This is the view from my back porch around 3:30 p.m. As you can see, it snowed quite a bit! It’s now 6:30 p.m., and the snow is still coming down. Every time someone comes into the apartment, they’re complaining bitterly about the snow. We’re mostly warm-blooded people: from Spain, Korea, Texas, California, Tennessee, Turkey, and Australia, and we are just not used to this!
However cold it might be, I have to say that I am already absolutely loving Utrecht. Many Dutchies have promised the weather is unseasonably cold and that we won’t see very much more snow, though they are very excited at the possibility of the rivers up north freezing so they can have a speed skating competition.
My feet are cold, but I am alright with the sudden winter weather. The city is even more beautiful with a layer of snow–as long as I can look at it from inside and not out!
Oct
13
That Friday we took a day trip to the beach city Viareggio! Some of our friends were going to the Amalfi coast, which is beautiful, but was more expensive and had to be done over a whole weekend. We were glad we could visit Viareggio as a day trip and it was easier to get to.
It was a warm, sunny day and so beautiful with the beach to our left and mountains to our right! Perfection!
Oct
13
Arezzo has a great tradition of a semi-annual joust of the Saracen, “La Giostra del Saracino.” It is held in the Piazza Grande in the center of Arezzo, and the four neighborhoods, “quartieres,” compete against each other. It has a long history in Arezzo, dating back to the 13th century in some accounts. The current form of the joust was started in 1931. The four quartieres include Porta Santo Sprito (blue and yellow, in which Andy and I live), Porto del Foro (fuschia/yellow, which my cousin Luca supports), Porta Crucifera (red/green) and Porta Sant’Andrea (green/white). There is a board that the jousters attempt to hit with the lance, with points ranging from 1 to 5. They can win additional points by breaking the lance, or lose points by falling off the horse or letting the balls in the Saracino’s hand hit their back.
The giostra is not just one afternoon, however. Ceremonies and celebrations spread throughout the month, and particularly the week before the joust. Each quartiere has a headquarters location, where parties are held each night and a community dinner at the end of the week. Nearly everyone in town wears his or her scarf that represents his quartiere. The rivalries between quartieres can be pretty intense, and arguments and fights are not uncommon.
At the joust event they also have trumpeters and flag-throwers (one of the best teams in the world, apparently). They practice throughout the week, and on Thursday afternoon Andy and I walked over to the Duomo and stumbled upon an event where the they were performing for the Miss Italia group.
The city is so crowded and so rowdy on joust day, but so much fun!
Oct
13
Long story short, on the bus there was no sign or announcement indicating which stop was which, we got off at the stop at 10:36, our expected arrival time, and ended up five stops away. Which also happened to be over five kilometers away.
Oct
1
First, I must preface this by saying I have an amazing set of Italian family here around Arezzo. They are somewhat distant (one group related to my great-grandfather, and the other group we don’t even know exactly how–just know that we are indeed family). I call them my “cousins” because it’s easier than figuring out and explaining the exact details, but I also call them that because it is how they treat me. It doesn’t matter that we are a bit distantly related, they treat me as immediate relatives. And they have taken Andy into la famiglia and told him that he, too, is now a Carnesciali. They are the best hosts, and the sweetest people.
Summers and falls in Italy are full of “sagre” or festivals. Often they focus on a certain food or drink, but offer full meals of great food and a fun sense of community. My cousin Luca and his family live in Ponte Alla Chiassa, a small town about 10 minutes north of Arezzo. This weekend Ponte Alla Chiassa hosted a sagra, and Luca invited us to attend it with his family and his girlfriend Martina. One of the specialties of this sagra was a pig’s nose.
When you attend a sagra, you stand in line, order and pay for your food, and go sit down at a table with your ticket. The tables are long, bench style tables under tents. It is crowded, and the service takes a while, but that is part of the beauty of the sagra. It is about community and talking with those around you, having a great time.
Here is a picture that shows an example the table area. This was later on, so not as crowded as the peak eating time.
Andy and Luca ordered pizza with prosciutto, I ate maccheroni, Martina ate trippa, Chiara and Francesco ate antipasti and steaks… There is a large variety of food, and you can’t* (for the most part) go wrong!
Here is my maccheroni. As you can see, it is not what we think of when we hear macaroni in the US. It consists of long flat noodles topped with meat sauce. (Note: there are other forms of maccheroni in Italy too, but this is the type I have eaten at two sagre.) It is tasty with good flavor, and filling. I made Andy eat about half of mine. (And his pizza was delicious too!)
I was also told I act like a northern Italian because I eat my salad before my pasta. In Tuscany the order usually goes: antipasto, pasta, salad, meat (and then dessert if there is some. or fruit for dessert.) I got used to this during my last trip, but haven’t broken my American eating-salad-first habit yet.
Martina ordered trippa. In Florence, it references the cow’s stomach, often pressed into a sandwich. But in this case trippa is cow intestines. It was a peasant’s meal in the past, while the noblemen got to eat the actual meat/muscle off the cow. Andy and I both ate a bite of trippa. It tasted good, but the texture was a bit chewy for my taste. I am glad I tried it though!
Luca’s parents, Babbo Carlo and Mamma Ambra, bought us four desserts to share and sample. They were all delicious! Clockwise from the top was blackberry, jelled fruit with some cream, chocolate and apple. Andy and I were asked our favorite, but it was an impossible decision. The pastries were all so good!
In addition to food, the sagra also hosted music and little carnival games. We played this and Martina won a little cow toy.
A lot of Italians are intrigued by cowboys, the Wild West, Indians, etc. I already knew this, but it was revealed even more when I saw them dancing after dinner. You know how Americans take classes and learn how to do foreign dances such as the tango and salsa? Well, they were dancing intricate square and line dances to country-ish music and songs from the movie “The Last of the Mohicans.” (Note: when we were at a restaurant/bar last Thursday night we also danced to Cotton Eyed Joe and Oh Susanna, so it doesn’t seem to be a completely rare occurrence.) It’s so funny and cool.
We went over to Chiara and Francesco’s house and hung out with some of their friends, Luca and Martina. We got to drink homemade limoncello produced by Chiara’s parents. It was delicious! We had a wonderful time and are so grateful to call these people our friends and family.
Andy, Devon, Luca, Martina
Francesco, Chiara, Devon, Andy
Sep
24
On Monday, August 22nd, around 11:00 am, we departed Rome. Or at least we were supposed to. We had gotten to Termini (Rome’s main train station) early, all ready to hop on the train and head to Arezzo, but the binaro (the train line) number never came up on the board. We stood there, assuming they would put it up soon (and forgetting there was a departures board that listed which binaro it usually comes in. Not always right, but would have helped us.) Well, 10:58 passed and the train went off the board, as in it had departed, and we were left standing in the station. Some stress, a few tears due to the stress (or was that just sweat? It was so stinkin’ hot it was hard to tell), and a phone call later and we decided to take the next train two hours later to Arezzo. Our tickets were general ones for that route, so we didn’t need to do anything to switch them.
I should have known the ride was going to be an interesting one when we had to walk out to Termini’s new terminal, 1 East. Far, far away. Dragging our heavy suitcases the whole way. Before departure, a man came on board with a bucket of cold water, juice and beer. We already had a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water, and thought there was no need to buy more. We would regret this decision immensely.
Our train lacked air conditioning, and I was surely sweating off all the gelato pounds I had gained in my few days in Rome. Halfway through our journey, with about an hour and a half left until Arezzo, we were making sure to ration our water. We had brought some bread and prosciutto onto the train to make sandwiches for lunch, but knew we could not eat because the saltiness of the prosciutto would only make us more thirsty. I decided that if we made it through this train ride without fainting, we definitely deserved a spot on the television show “I Shouldn’t Be Alive.” There was a reason this trip only cost us 12 euro each. I was sweating, exhausted, and not entirely sure I would make it.
But, alas, we did. We got into Arezzo, walked over to the main part of the station, and met up with Lucio, OUA’s local student coordinator . He recognized us because I had “Oklahoma colored luggage.” These bags have been in my family for years, and even since attending OU I have never made the connection that they were crimson-colored. I was glad they were Crimson though so that he recognized us! We grabbed our stuff, walked over to our apartment and starting moving in. Even after 5 long flights of stairs with heavy luggage, and no air conditioning in our apartment either, I was ecstatic to be off that train.
Tuscany in general is beautiful, but I love Arezzo. I was so happy to be back, and so so glad that this time my husband could join me. Thankfully, he loves it too! I am blessed to have relatives here that love to show us around the area and take us to sagra (festivals, more on that later!). We are living close to Piazza Guido Monaco, which is a nice location because it is inside the city walls and close to the train station, only about a 10 minute walk from the OUA classrooms and not too far from anything. Arezzo is a nice city, but small and walkable. It makes it really easy to manage without a bike or car.
The beautiful Tuscan countryside, viewed from Il Prato
Il Prato, the park in Arezzo
Golden Sky
We were glad that gelato is one of the main food groups in Italy. The three best gelateria around Arezzo are Cremì which is located on the Corso, Il Gelato on Via Madonna del Prato and Gran Caramel which is about a 20 minute walk out of the city from our apartment, but so so worth it!
Another main food group here is caffé, or espresso. The little, mini, really strong coffee. Sometimes I drink it three times a day.. Italians generally have some caffé with breakfast, sometimes in the afternoon, and then after dinner as a digestive. (Other digestives include grappa, amaro and limoncello.) They actually really do help make you feel better after eating a huge pasta meal!
When I was in Arezzo in summer 2010, I made friends with some of the local Aretines, and they have been just as welcoming to the new OU students this semester! They are a fun group to hang out with and practice our Italian, while teaching them American slang like “y’all.” Plus over the past few years, OU students have converted them to being Sooner fans!
Boomer Sooner with Iacopo!
Sep
23
My multi-cultural experiences have gotten off to a great start! I am living with 3 chinese girls in a very small apartment right in the middle of downtown Bordeaux. Everyone has been very kind and hospitable to me, taking time to show me how to get around the city, what I need to get settled in, and how to get my classes arranged at the university. I am studying at Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III. There are four major universities here, each one focusing on a different field (medicine, art/humanities, science) and Bordeaux 3 seems to be the most liberal. Classes for me started just yesterday and it’s been a whirlwind trying to find all the right classes that replace ones I would normally take at OU.
I’ve found that the best way to achieve confidence is forcing yourself to ask questions. When I first arrived, I was very intimidated. I’ve studied French for many years, but it’s completely different to come to a country where it is spoken. Everyone speaks much faster than you think they will. I’ve heard from a Parisien that speaking quickly is something specific to this city, and the southern region of France, but I think he might’ve been a little biased. My confidence in French went out the window as soon as I tried to communicate with people here. But there’s hope!! You have to be very stubborn because everyone wants to practice his English, especially when he sees you’re nervous, but if you stay calm and continue to practice, you will improve. Even after only a few weeks of being here, I find myself improving and my speech is becoming faster and more fluid. So take heart, all you who are learning a new language.
I think I was most surprised by the fact that there is not nearly as much culture shock as I was told to expect. Of course, there are always going to be subtle differences, but this city is very much like other cities I’ve visited in the States! The transportation system is excellent here. They have trams and buses and of course the TGV train that will all take you wherever your heart desires. And it’s fast! I have noticed, on a side note, that people have very little patience here, so the transportation HAS to be fast. 🙂
I find it a little humorous that by many accounts, Bordeaux is a very typical little French town. It has the narrow, cobblestone streets, the cafes, the beautiful architecture but it is also very westernized, with malls and Carrefour (the European Walmart) and similar styles of dress.
For me, it is easy to fit in. Everyone here, primarily the younger generation, is from another country: China, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Morocco, Algeria, England, Poland to name a few.
I will write again soon as my classes progress, but in the meantime, here are a few key differences I have noticed between the French and Americans:
1) Apparently, one NEVER drinks coffee in the evening. One may drink tea, but coffee is reserved solely for the mornings and early afternoons. As a Portlander, I could not accept this concept and continue to drink coffee all day long.
2) Smaller portions of extremely rich foods and pastries are the way to go in France. Unlike gigantic meals of french fries and hamburgers. Many people drink coke here but the bottles are approximately half the size of those in America.
3) It is extremely fashionable to wear a cardigan or sweater loosely tied around your shoulders, for men and women alike.
4) Never ask how someone is doing or how his day is if he is a professional (aka a cashier, bank teller, service assistant of any type). It is considered too personal.
5) Space is valued here like gold. Personal space does not exist on public transportation. Everyone mashes into the bus or tram feeling the way I picture sardines must feel. Also, everything is very small and well-used. No one wastes here. Every inch of an apartment or building is cleaned and items/furniture are neatly stacked and vertically inclined, rather than spread out horizontally (if you’ve been to Texas, you know exactly what I mean). Also, drivers know how to use space well even to park, squeezing into the smallest space possible on the narrow streets. I still don’t know how they do it.
6) Cars are not considered dangerous on the road. I say this because people walk out in front of a speedily approaching bus or vehicle without a moment’s thought. And the drivers also pull out in front of traffic, inches from colliding with another driver. I can’t imagine driving here, even though they drive on the same side of the road that we do.
Pictures coming soon!
Sep
23
Andy and I arrived to Rome three days early for a little honeymoon before heading to Arezzo to begin classes.
I was disappointed with our taxi ride to Rome. I had told Andy about last year when there was a traffic jam on the highway, and everyone was just ignoring lanes, fitting through whatever small spaces they could find. I saw some of the worst Rome driving. (See what I mean with this video.) Unfortunately, it was a pretty smooth ride. We made it to the hotel around 11. Amazingly, our room was already ready at that time, and they had upgraded us from the annex of the hotel to a room with a view of the Pantheon!
View from our room at Hotel Abruzzi
It was perfect! W were right there in the middle of everything. It was about a 5 minute walk to Piazza Navona, a little more to Campo Di Fiori, 15-20 to Colosseum, etc. Lovely, except for the fact that it was deathly hot. I think I was sweating more in Rome than I had been in Oklahoma. The nice thing with Rome is that they have public water fountains all over! You buy a bottle of water once, and just keep refilling it whenever you need. Saved us so much money to be able to drink out of those.
Our first stop after dropping our bags off and cooling down for a bit was Tazza D’Oro for coffee granita! It is so delicious. Shaved ice and coffee with some whipped cream (this one had too much but I scraped it off haha). Perfect way to cool down a little.
Granita from Tazza d'Oro
Pizza lunch at Mercato in Campo di Fiori
We walked around and explored all day, and went to Piazza Navona that night to eat some tartufa, a delicious dessert from Tre Scalini.
Tartufa from Tre Scalini
Piazza Navona at night
In Rome, you feel like a true gladiator. Your life is a constant battle. A battle against foreign vendors trying to sell you random toys, knock-off purses, roses, singing cat dolls, toy rabbits, bubble guns, laser pointers and more. Most spoke English to me, but a few chose Spanish thinking I was a Spaniard. Interesting. I would say, “No grazie” or “No thank you,” but if they were pushy, I would start saying random things in Russian because I knew that was a language they would not speak, and they would leave me alone. At one point, a guy near the Colosseum started following me trying to push roses in my hands so I had to loudly say “Lasciami sta!” or “Leave me alone!” That did the trick.
Rome has its vendor problems, but the monuments and scenery outshine anything else. The big government building Il Vittoriano, the Colosseum, Trajan’s Column, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, La Fontana di Trevi… the list goes on and on! The eternal city has some pretty amazing history.
Trajan's Column
Il Vittoriano
Il Colosseo
In Rome there is an ancient ruins kitty park. That is not the official name, but sounds good enough to me. Basically, in the middle of Rome there is an area of a bunch of old ruins, and 50-100 (in my estimate, but probably even more hiding) cats live there. The city pays for them to be vaccinated, etc, and they are available for adoption. There was one that looked just like our kitty back home in St. Louis. We miss him a lot, it was fun to see his Roman twin.
The Roman kitties
What a life, lounging around on ancient ruins!
At night we did a tour of the Colosseum. Incredible! It is so beautiful at night. We also got to go down to the bottom level of the Colosseum and explore around a bit. We didn’t get to walk out in the middle, but it was amazing to think we were standing where lots of animals and gladiators used to stand, to consider the history of the ground upon which we were walking.
Underground tour of the Colosseum
On Sunday, we woke up and explored some more. We walked out to the Villa Borghese and visited the Galleria Borghese (full of paintings and sculptures, particularly some of my favorite Bernini scuptures). Rome is a fun city and we will definitely be back during the semester!
Sep
7
I spent the last week visiting the village of Wahtling, Germany, just outside of Hannover. It was great. I stayed with the same family that I lived with 3 years ago as an exchange student in high school. The trip didnt start off great, as my train broke down within an hour of my 6 hour journey and we were stuck on the rails for about an hour and a half. A few hours later we pulled into Frankfurt and I missed my connector so I had to spend an extra hour there hanging out. When I finally made it to Hannover, the Departure screen was out of order, so I didnt really know which gate to go to. I asked a Deutsche Bahn worker, and of course, he put me on the wrong train and I ended up in Bremen, not Celle.
Luckily Martina (the mom) and Johann came to pick me up in Bremen and bring me to their house, but I had to wait in the station for 2 hours. It was worth it, because the family was great again. Martina and Jens just got married this past summer and they have their own catering service. Luzii is now 18, and the two little boys, Samuel and Neil, are now 6 and 9. Samuel had his first day of school on Tuesday and Jens took me with them and gave me a tour of their Grundschule. On Wednesday night Johann brought me to his soccer practice which was fun since I had met all of his friends a few years ago, and we talked about a few of them coming to visit in Basel.
I figured out Germany has their regional elections coming up in Septemeber, so the whole town was covered in political signs from the CDU to die Linke to the FDP. It was really interesting to read about considering they have around 20 parties unlike our 2. They still have a socialist party, and a decently large far left party. One of the most unique cultural shifts I experienced this week was the amount of alcohol consumption. The beer was wonderful but after every meal we would take a shot of Schnapps to help was the meal down. Never had Schnapps before and I must say, it was a great add on to the meal. The food was wonderful all week and breakfast consisted of salami, cheese, great bread, butter, etc. My favorite.
The train ride back to Basel only took 5 hours and immediatly upon arrival it started pouring rain and the weather dropped and is finally cold out. I will finally be able to sleep well at night! This weekend is BaselBikeFest, and there are races and festivals all weekend right across the street from my house. http://www.bikefestival-basel.ch/
Sep
7
So, where to begin…
The first moment I knew things were going to be different was in the airport, when I was already hearing many different accents. Mostly they were English, as my flight was to London. Immediately, I also observed how many people looked “European” or perhaps “British” is a better way to put it. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but suffice to say that it is fairly easy to pick out Americans. The flight was relatively uneventful. I took half a sleeping pill and fell asleep as soon as I finished the meal. I think it freaked out the guy next to me a bit, how solidly I fell asleep. Anyways, I didn’t use the bathroom the entire flight… that’s right I can hold it for 9 hours. No problem.
When I reached the gate for the connection to Glasgow, I was listening to two men talking behind me. I thought it might be English with an incredibly strong Scottish accent, but now I think perhaps it was Scots? Scots is an old English dialect of sorts, from what I understand. Regardless, I enjoyed trying to discover what they were saying, but I pretty much understood none of it, which means it can’t count as eavesdropping. 🙂
The flight was relatively uneventful, although it was a struggle to find the University shuttle that was supposed to take me to my flat. After a bit of a ride, we arrived at “Murano Street Student Village”. Almost as soon as I got to my room, I heard my flatmate leaving his room. I immediately poked my head out, and met Carlos, who is from Madrid. Carlos wanted to shopping so we headed to the main office and asked where we should go. Conveniently, there is a big supermarket just around the corner. After buying some food, we walked the 15 or so minutes back to our flat. It was later that I realized I forgot to buy other important things… such as toilet paper. Anyways, I was fairly exhausted from the plane flight and went to bed at 9 pm, only to wake up at 5 am and be unable to fall back asleep. I guess I had to experience at least some jet lag!
The next day was the first day of orientation and most of the people from my flat, including a guy from Boston, and a girl from Japan, headed to the international orientation meeting. The Erasmus students, aka Europeans, had their own orientation meeting.
We learned plenty of school-type things, like how to enroll, and what to expect as far as the classes go. That night, my flatmates and I went in search of a pub and ended up on Ashton Lane. The pubs were nice, but noticeably it was an older crowd. Nevertheless, we ordered a couple pints. The people in the pub were quite friendly. One guy was telling us that we were in the nice part of town so drinks were perhaps the most expensive there than in all of Glasgow. Fantastic. Apparently the city center is most inexpensive, and more of a student hang out…
The few girls my age that I did see were dressed to the nines. They had on high heels, which I have no idea how they wear them on cobblestone, short skirts, tights and no jacket. The girls must have blood made of ice because I don’t think I would be able to do it. I have come to be comfortable with the idea that I will most likely stand out when I go out… That doesn’t bother me too much. A few German girls I have met are in agreement with me, so I believe it’s more a British thing than a European one.
Anyhoo, today I have a tour of Stirling Castle and Glengoyne Distillery, and I have to run to get ready!
I haven’t taken any pictures yet, but I will on this trip for sure, and try to post them. I must say, I love the international atmosphere and find myself slightly avoiding other people from the US because there are so many interesting people from other places to talk to… Already I feel like I will not be here as long as I desire, and the semester will go too fast. Maybe I should have signed up for a year!
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