I apologize for the rather large gap between recent posts, days have been just flying by, full of the adventures of daily life, which consequently are going to be described in this post, since although our big excursions are fantastic, they only make up a small portion of the week.
Hard to believe I hit the one month mark this week. It feels almost like it has been forever (except if had really been that long, I would have a much better command of the language) The month here has flown by, but I can look back and see all the amazing stuff that has happened while I have been here.
Life here is keeping me pretty busy, but I do still have more downtime than at home (but it is very different here, because I don’t watch TV, since our apartment is in kind of a TV dead zone…no bunny ears either) but I also don’t spend most of my life on my computer. So, here is a description of a Macerata week.
Monday, I have Italian at 8:30 Am until 10. And then the rest of the day is mine. I often take a little jaunt out to the super market at the mall on the bus and get a few of the basic grocery items, like pasta, and more pasta…juice, chips, snacks, those sorts of things. We also typically buy a lovely little baguette for less than a euro, which we eat with dinner that night. But… I am working on remembering that after the bus drops me off, I must walk home. There are a couple busses that come pretty close to the house, but on the way home from the mall, I would have to change busses to catch one of these, and that is just not an appealing option some days, so if my load is light enough I walk through town to get home. Anyway, Monday nights, I go to my dance class at the Centro Universita Sportivo… like the Rec Center. I come home, which is a walk entirely up hill followed by a few flights of stairs, then I shower and go to bed.
Tuesdays are long days, as are Thursdays. I have Italian from 8:30-10, Art History from 10:20-12:00 and Music History from 3:00-4:40. Three hours for lunch, really is not all that long I am learning. I am learning lots about the wonders of slow food… and it really is not all that much work to prepare, and I don’t normally notice the additional time involved, unless I am already really hungry, but in that case I usually much on ingredients (like carrots, celery, gouda, tomatoes or mozzarella) while I am prepping. On Tuesday or Thursday nights, I often do some sort of a potluck style dinner with a friend where we can try out new recipes with the help of another brain.
Wednesdays, I don’t have class until 3:00, and there is a market in town that is tons of fun to wander through. It spills out from the piazzas on to many of the streets. I had some culture shock though, when I discovered that street market did not mean that things were cheap… I was afraid I had left fingerprints on the tag of a coat that cost about 800 Euro ($1200) In the afternoon, we have our cross cultural communication class, and our general meeting for announcements and planning the excursions. After that, I have dinner, and head off to my dance class.
Fridays, you know all about already, excursion days. Which are fantastic, but often, by Saturday, I am a bit wiped out. Especially this week… Thursday, I didn’t make it to bed until midnight, and around 3 AM, it became especially windy. I closed my window (I am going to miss the windows here soooo much, big, screenless, almost always open, its great for afresh air addict) But even after I closed my window I could still here the wind, and for some reason, it kept me from sleeping for more than about 20 minutes at a time. I had to wake up around 6 because we were going on an excursion to Ravenna, which is about 3 hours away. So I was pretty tired all day.
Ravenna was a lovely city, but it was raining, and that combined with my exhaustion took a little of the magic out of it. However, we visited the Basillica of San Vittale, which was absolutely gorgeous. The floors in it were just gorgeously tiled, with amazing designs that were not all the same in different sections of the sanctuary. Each little piece of the floor had its own unique flair. But most amazing about all the place we saw in Ravenna were the mosaics. Hundreds of thousand of glittering tiles carefully placed, and stunning.
On the grounds of the basilica, there is a small mausoleum also beautifully decorated with mosaics. In the mausoleum, I was most taken with the mosaics that lined the insides of the arches. Each one had a different flair, and some of them were so vibrant, even in the darkness of the small building. Looking at mosaics is like looking at a 10,000 piece puzzle on every wall, filling every sail in vaulted ceilings. The amazing detail that can be achieved, and the patience that it must have taken to get it there, definitely a patience I lack.
Sunday: the day the hills were alive.
Sunday, I went for one of the coolest walks ever. A small group of us took the train outto Fabriano, and met our Gina and Marc, our professors that keep a second home near there. When we arrived in the train station in Fabriano… it was hailing. But in the time that it took to gather ourselves and wait for a friend of Marc and Gina’s to come pick us up… the hail had let up and it was now just a light rain.
So we donned our water proof gear and embarked on the trail. The first bit was through the woods, so we were provided with a lovely natural umbrella. The village dog, “Bailey” (except an Italianized version of this name) tagged along with us. As we walked along, the sun was working its way out from behind the clouds. There were a few openings in the trees where we could see the mountains around us, but finally, the trail opened out onto this hill that took my heart straight to Maria’s hill in the Sound of Music. The views of the mountains around us took our breath away…and so did climbing to the top of the hill. At the bottom, and on our way up, most of us shed a few layers of clothing, because the sun was out. We reached the top of the hill, and were hit with a stiff, cold wind. But it was worth it. Even with the varying amounts of precipitation in the air, we could see all the way to the Adriatic. There was a faint rainbow in the distance, surrounded by the peaks of the Apennine Mountains, a few of which have already begun to dress their caps with snow.
We wound our way back down, chatting happily. I talked with John, another visiting professor, he’s on sabbatical currently and will be a guest speaker for us later in the week. We talked a lot about ballet, especially Cecchetti, since Enrico was born in this region.
When we got back to Marc and Gina’s, Marc made us a light supper, and while we were finishing up, we saw a rainbow, two in one day. We all went upstairs to get a better vantage point, and you could see almost the full arc. I took a couple of pictures, but couldn’t really capture it. And then I noticed that it had a slight hint of a twin. So that is really like 3 rainbows in one day, and it would make 4 since I have been here. So beautiful, and such an important reminder of a very important promise.
Despite a little bit of windburn, on my cheeks and ears, and some reminders from my legs that they are there and are feeling a bit overworked… it was an AMAZING day. I legitimately lack the words to describe how amazingly beautiful those mountains were, wrapped with clouds, hinting at snow. Being a Michigan girl to the core, I fully expect snow in October…but I do appreciate having some healthy distance between it and myself, so it can stay in the mountains for a while...
More pictures coming!!! I am trying to stay more on top of them, and get them at least ready to upload, if not uploaded by the time I head out for the next excursion.... So the ones from this past weekend should be up by Thursday. That being said, for the most recent additions, here's the link:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150850802525705.739869.703125704&l=c34b564dd9&type=1
Buonagiornata!
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