Archives: November 2007
Sun Nov 25, 2007
We Came, We Saw, We Conquered....Europe!!!
Well, this is our last week in this amazing city, and I still feel like I should awake from my dream now. It still hasn’t hit me that I have been living in Italy for the past three months. I don’t think it will hit me until I’m back home facing reality, unfortunately. The group was talking about our experiences and as we were trying to describe our trip, the easiest way was relating it to our freshman year. It’s like having your first college experience all over. It’s been great. I’ve made friends I never would have known and have traveled the world with them, learning things I would never have learned in Auburn.
The past two weeks the group has been traveling. We started in Milan, the fashion capital of the world. Personally, just knowing I was surrounded by all things fashionable was exciting. Milan gave all of us fashion majors a glimpse into our futures—where we’ll be, what we’ll be doing, and how incredibly exciting it will be. We met a freelance stylist who gave us great insight into this work. And, we were guests on a music television show—exciting!
We shot crossbows in Prague Castle!
After Milan we all headed in our own directions. My group headed for Prague and Dublin. Prague was absolutely magical. We all felt like we were walking through a city of dollhouses. Thanksgiving Day came really quickly; we were in Dublin participating in Irish rituals…touring Jameson and Guinness, of course! We all found ourselves away from our families on Thanksgiving for the first time, which was a little strange. Luckily I had my favorite part of Thanksgiving (the cranberry sauce of course) so it all worked out! We headed to the grocery store to see how well we could create a microwavable Thanksgiving dinner. To some dismay, our ready-to-eat chicken legs, instant mashed potatoes, the greenest green peas anyone has ever eaten, and the mighty cranberry sauce came together quite nicely. As we sat down to eat, it hit me that somewhere in the last three months I have found a new family while being so far from everything I’ve ever known. And as we are all excited to see everyone at home, it will be bittersweet leaving everyone here.
Our Thanksgiving Dinner
Three months ago, we came. Now, we’ve seen so much, and we’ve conquered Italy, Prague, Dublin, Austria, Spain, and England. And better yet, we’ve somehow we survived the discount airlines, the hostels, and the language barriers. It’s been amazing!!!!!!!
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Thu Nov 15, 2007
Making a list, and checking it twice…
The “Alabama Girls” on the set of Community with the host, Valeria, after the filming of the show Wednesday afternoon at the All Music studios in Milan.
View a video clip of the students on All Music, a video Dr. Bradbard took on the set.
Website for the show they were on.
Unfortunately our time in Italy is winding down, but fortunately for us our schedules certainly are not. We have already developed quite a long, impressive list of all of the places and things we have seen and learned about. And we have all been eager to add this week’s destination to the list. Although at five a.m. on Tuesday, eager was not the word I would have used. Reluctant is a little more like it. I had to hit my snooze button at least three times, before I finally rolled out of bed to catch the Eurostar train headed for Milan. Now that I am here, I am certainly glad that I did not follow my first instincts to stay under the covers where it was warm back at Hotel Villa Aricia. This is one trip no one would want to miss. The list of activities alone says it all.
After checking into our hotel we hit the ground running-- literally. The first place on our list was “The Last Supper”. After our allotted 15 minutes allowed looking at Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, we went to see the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. This Galleria certainly outdoes the one I frequently shop at in Birmingham.
The next morning we met with Stefano Formentini, a stylist and fashion journalist, at the Portaluppi Foundation. Stefano explained to us a little bit of what he does in his line of work. He recently handled the costumes for a McDonald’s commercial. We always joke about being walking advertisements for McDonalds since we eat it so much. Little did we know we were about to meet with someone who does the real advertisements.
The major highlight of our day was our visit to a television station, All Music. It is similar to MTV in the US. We walked around the sets, peeked into the costume and make-up rooms and were going to watch the filming of one of their live shows, Community. As we were getting comfortable behind the cameras, the crew decided they wanted us in front of the cameras. So we spent the next hour and a half walking around the background of the set “acting normal” while the host introduced the top ten music videos on live television. Occasionally she would ask us questions or get us to introduce the next song. By the end of the show, calls were coming in asking about the “Alabama Girls.” Unfortunately, we did not know what they were saying since we only know how to ask where the bathroom is in Italian.
As a journalism major surrounded by many fashion majors, this was a very interesting and unforgettable day for all of us. It will definitely have to go in bold on our list of amazing things we have seen and done in the past two months.
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Fri Nov 09, 2007
How do you catch a cloud?
My favorite movie of all time is The Sound of Music. I had always thought the closest I would ever be to the mountains of Austria would be through my television at home, and then I came to Italy. Just in case you don’t know Austria is north of Italy… I was so close! We have the opportunity to travel on our own while we are here, and I made sure a trip to Austria was in my plans. So Tess and I came up with the craziest travel plan: fly to Venice for a day, overnight train to Austria, Austria for The Sound of Music Tour, take another overnight train back to Venice, have another day in Venice, and then fly back home... sounds simple right? We had to include Venice in our trip because it is one of the most famous cities in the world, mainly because it is sinking, but it is also the home of some of the most beautiful and expensive glass art in the world.
Some glass light fixtures in a very expensive store.
Our flight to Venice allowed us to experience European airlines, which I had heard about from so many people. It is one of those situations where you wonder, how is this system working, and did a grown man just push a small child out of the way? I could tell a very long story about my flight experience alone, but it can not all fit on this page. Now I think I should make a survival guide for the future classes.
We had all day in Venice and at first tried to walk to St. Marks Square because it looks so easy on the expensive map we bought...all we had to do was follow the main canal. Soon the water started veering off in three and four directions, the street signs started disappearing, and the large crowd we were following was now only us. So, we decided to play it safe and take the water taxi straight to the square. It was just like all the pictures. Pigeons everywhere and elaborate glass art in all the store windows. We walked around looking and admiring all the glass art (some of it was even worth more than this trip) and all of the local artists selling their paintings on the main waterfront. We ate lunch and people-watched. One of the most interesting things to watch was men selling fake purses. They laid out all their purses on a sheet and would try to force one on every woman who walked by. My favorite part about the whole thing was watching them run when a police officer came into sight. Someone who was the "look out" would whistle, and then they would grab all four corners of their sheet and run like a wild bear was after them.
The main "street" in Venice
Tess and me with snow covered Austria in the background.
Later that evening we left the water streets of Venice and took an overnight train to Salzburg, Austria. It was not like the trains that we ride in to Rome where you just get on and sit. Not only do you have to find your right seat, but also the right train car, because different cars get taken off at different stops and go to different places. When we woke up at 4am, it was a completely different atmosphere: one thing was the snow and the other was the language, everyone was speaking German. We started our Sound of Music Tour at 9:30 and it didn’t end until 1. Our tour guide, Roman, wins the award for being the most enthusiastic about The Sound of Music . The entire time we were on the bus he serenaded us with every song from the movie and knew the most random facts about the family. We saw all the major sites and scenes: the gazebo… which we could not go into because of a very long story that involves an 80 year old lady breaking into it and then breaking her hip; two different houses that were used in the movie (one house is used for all the front scenes and the other was used for the back); the abbey where the real Maria was practicing to become a nun; the church where the wedding scene was filmed; the gardens that were used to film the “do-re-me” song; and to top it off, we ate apple strudel on a boat on Moon lake and we got to play in the snow because there was a random cold front that came through. We walked around the town the rest of the day and even got to see where Mozart was born.
The house that was used to film the back scenes.
The gazebo.
I walked down the same aisle as Julie Andrews!
We walked to the train station to take the train back to Venice, which did not come until 1:35am. That is another weblog in itself because it involves Tess and me minding our own business while homeless people scared the living daylight out of us, if you want the full story email me… you will be entertained! We slept the entire way back, except when one of the train ticket checker men came by, opened our door, turn on our light, and ask for our ticket in a loud German voice. I hopped up, scared and stunned, handed the man our tickets while Tess was still sleeping. The next time I wokee up we were 10 minutes away from Venice, Tess was already awake, and the first thing she said was, “I can’t believe no one came by to check our tickets last night.”
We were back to Venice for round two, and went straight to Murano to see the glass blowers and buy all the things we saw the day before. We also went back to St. Marks Square to feed the pigeons… the pictures speak for themselves! I think the pigeons knew I didn’t want them perching on me so they invited all of their other pigeons friends in Italy to come scare the American girl named Molly. Although it was a whirlwind trip, it was so much fun and I have so many memories to add to the ones I have already made. I do not think I will ever have an opportunity to do this again, and I feel so blessed and thankful to be here right now. Just as impossible as it is to catch a cloud, it will be impossible for me to forget not only this experience but my entire time in Italy.
Me fighting off the pigeons.
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Thu Nov 01, 2007
Buon Appetito!
When thinking about Italy, one of the first things that comes to my mind is the food. Food here holds a high culinary standard, any many famous chefs and cooks have grown up and learned in this country--Giada De Larentiis, Mario Batali and Rachel Ray, to name a few. Before leaving for Italy, one thing that I was looking most forward to was getting to taste pure Italian cuisine.
After being here for two months now, I have seen how for Italians eating isn’t just about meeting your hunger needs. Italians are very conscious about the quality of ingredients and style of cooking. They use ingredients that are only in season, what is fresh and of the best quality. Unlike in the United States, there is hardly any processed food and almost everything is cooked to order. Markets here also specialize in one or two things, selling specific items such as meats, bread, sweets, and fruits and vegetables. These are just a few examples of how important quality and freshness are in Italian food.
Additionally, I’ve noticed how Italians take the time to enjoy each dish, and also the company they are surrounded by. For example, there are several courses to a meal. You first start with an antipasto, or what we call the hors-d’oeuvre. Then the first course is a carbohydrate, such as pasta, gnocchi, or a rice dish. The second plate is a meat or fish, and the third dish usually consists of something sweet, fruit and cheese, followed by an after dinner drink like grappa or limoncello. This is quite different from the life style we are accustomed to in the United States. Americans are very time sensitive and less likely to enjoy a leisurely meal. We have grown up around fast-food and take out, and even restaurants present your meal all on one plate. Additionally, families in the United States who sit down for meals together have become the minority. It seems like the value of eating as a family to enjoy a meal and each other’s company no longer exists because the busy life style of the United States has taken over. Italians hold family in high importance, and I can’t help but think that being together during meals, and spending quality time has played an important part in this value. Maybe this is one of the reasons I am interested in a career in the culinary field. To me, there is nothing better then enjoying great food with great company.
Getting ready to enjoy a meal after our cooking lesson
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