firenze

im in florence, its a really nice little city. but looootttttsss of tourists it seems like an american city.

so far ive climbed to the top of il duomo- and honestly il duomo here is impressive. ive never been one for architecture other than weird little antiquey decaying things but when you walk into the piazza you start to see the magnificant facade then you see its really big then you wlak closer and it goes back further, then you walk further and there is no ending... it disappears into other streets. its MASSIVE.

ive seen and walked on il ponte vecchio. all the shops are expensive jewelers. its better from the outside.

i went into a basilica, i forgot what its called

today i went to the museo degli uffizi, the botticelli part was really great. i was most looking forward to caravaggio but they only had 2 pieces and they werent his most noted for style so that was a bit disappointing. im exhausted the wait to get in was excrutiating and the place is so big i walked so much my legs are just so tired.

then last night i went into a temporary exhibit here: picasso dali and miro that has aactually been my favorite thing ive done it was a nice exhibit, nice comments nicely laid out interactive at the end not too long not too short not too crowded. so it was just straight up pleasurable!
tomorrow i head out to rome! my old love! i think the rest of today ill take it easy, i know i could see other things but the uffizi took it all out of me today.
love
rox

last fleeting days and a ball

i cant believe its already FRIDAY
ive just finished making plans settled and organizing (although im still missing a bit of things) and then monday i am off to do my trip. its gonna be a hectic trip but itll be full of interesting things im sure. and since im traveling alone its good to keep myself busy. then i will return to trieste only for two nights. It's really all very weird that im coming home so soon. i've never felt such an intense mixture of every emotion!- nervous, excited, sad, happy, etc etc. its starting to grow this strange emotional mixture in my stomach. im sure this trip is a good thing to take my mind off it for a bit, since im not quite sure what im feeling. I still have much to do, much of which is important. (souvenirs, packing, trip, internation education) im sure this weekend and then the next two weeks will go really fast. much faster than the fleeting days of studying for my exams.
speaking of which my last exam semiologia delle arti visive for those who dont know i did really well, and im very glad to have gone out on such a good note! here the top grade you can get is 30, which i recieved!!

i really need to buy a charger for my camera ASAP for this trip. ive already managed to buy a book so i can write down and draw on this trip to help remind myself of what ive done.

not much else to share. just this strange growing emotional ball in my stomach!!! ill try to get computer access to post some things while on my journey

rox

to the points

Last exam coming up on monday- semiology of the arts

There's so many subjects that i've come to realize are really important that most education systems dont touch on. I get the feeling the education needs a revamp.

Its been raining pretty much non stop
I have a little over 10 days left in trieste, then i make my trip to florence, rome, naples, capri, and puglia.

I am coming home soon.

Andrea has been teaching me a little bit of dialect. It would be really cool to come home and know a decent beginners amount of dialect. Dialects are so prominent here and there are so many and its such a foreign concept that seems to be rare in the world. Maybe ill buy a book in dialect when i go down to south italy and then try to learn from that too.

It's still not really hot here. i have a feeling when i get out of the airport at home I'll immediately freak out about the heat. Let's hope in an embraceful way!

I don't really have much to share I'm just studying mostly these days.
I hope to get in a one day trip to Plitvice Lakes in croatia before the 20th with a few friends. It looks magical there! look it up on google images.

I had a dream last night about finding luggage to buy to pack my stuff. I should do that soon probably. There are many things I need to do actually.

That's all for now!

summer in a night

Hey all
it seems trieste has FINALLY over one single night decided to turn into summer! thank god. its still kinda cold at night but not so bad. today is a rainy sunday- perfect for studying for my exam wednesday of history of the US however as you see i am typing on here. i feel pretty ok about this one so im not freaking out about it. between being us history, all the terminology in english, my italian better, and it being a "pre" exam (as they call ir preappello- appello alone is an exam. you can same esame or appello. i dont THINK there is a difference). so with all that i am feeling rather confident. i have read all of the assigned reading minus one book, the first one they assigned was really difficult and heavy. i think its actually easier to see writing styles in italian for me than english. i can tell right off the bat which books are intended for younger students, and others that are written by really advanced knowledge type writers or professors, because in italian you can easily get away with using alot of the same vocabulary, and getting by without usign advanced verb conjugations and italians tend to do this, but in really heavy texts they use wayyyyyy more verbs and adjectives that i dont really know, and use really proper correct verb forms like subjunctive, conjunctive, past remote, etc. mostly forms that don't really exist in english.

i also can tell my italian has gotten to a different level (which im feeling really happy about) because one i find it no problem more or less to watch films in italian now (however if the sound quality is bad, or its a comedy its difficult, comedies seem to talk really fast usually) the easiest being horror and scary films because theres less dialogue. secondly, as ive been reading my texts i take notes throughout reading, and i find myself coming across words ive never seen before and although i dont know exactly what they mean i understadn them in the context of the sentence and don't really have the NEED to go look up the word. i'm pretty happy about that!

with summer getting here, everything is much more enjoyable, i can enjoy the sun which automatically puts me in a great mood. when i go into the city center there are many people walking about, (in italian said when there are many people " in giro"). and although i havent been getting it very much, obviously gelato is ten times better when its hot out.

i went to barcola yesterday, its like the sea wall where the water is cleaner and we can lay out and take a swim (although the water is cold). i got a little bit of sun thankfully because i dont really like how white i got this winter !! it was weird as being in florida always im used to being bronzed now. there were really gross little bugs everywhere though and just thinking of them sends me shivers to my head.

i think today ill be getting with andrea to buy plane tickets for south italy and then ill buy train tickets for other places. the plan will be at the end of june (done with all exams) for me to take the train from trieste to florence, to rome, to naples (where closeby i can stay also pompei, and capri where there is the blue grotto- google it!!!) and then the train down to lecce, where andreas lives in puglia. puglia is the province on the heel part of the boot. i really look forward to seeing all these things and south italy in general as i havent yet and from what i can tell... south is much more enjoyable (obviously, south us is better than north anyways :P)

of course its still nice daydreaming about coming home. i look forward to seeing family and friends and then starting school up at eckerd. im also looking forward to summer because this is the first time in awhile (esp summer) in which i really cant get a summer job, but im glad because i can focus on doing things ive been wanting to do. projects and what not.
i also am looking forward to our bbq when i get back to see everyone- i am no longer vegetarian and i want a real american hotdog!!!! with MUSTARD! spicy please! also tabasco obviously.
ok this is really long so ill cut it off now.

i need to buy a charger (since mine was stolen) for my digital camera so i can take some pictures to post and so i can take pictures in south italy. ill try to get to that soon.

love
roxanne

Personal thoughts on language

What I'm about to write/share is my thoughts on language, which since it's the only real experience I have, but get the feeling it reflects into many other languages too, my comparison's are only through English and Italian. Also, these thoughts may only be relateable to romance languages and english as romance languages are so specific. It would be interesting if I knew something about German or Mandarin to see how things may change between those. Also alot of things here I might leave unfinished because they tie into other beliefs and thoughts i've implaced in my stay here in Italy and I'd rather think them out more thoroughly so that I don't end up saying something offensive or ignorant as a result!

As I write about language between italian and english, i feel like a big part of the two cultures play a role that I can see in terms of relationship and how each country Italy and US live. however, that would take more time to type out and might be long and extensive so i'll save it for another time.

As both you parents know i think, i've always had an interest in languages. But i think there are a couple things you also don't know that has frustrated me in the past with things in terms of relationships and just generalistics. As a child, maybe towards the end of elementary school or middle school, I recall a time in school when I was thinking about how tired of english i was, that things are over-explained, and unnecessary words are used. How we could talk like cavemen and still get our ideas across, so why not? A good example in italian that I can easily think of is the word "strano". This directly translated means strange. Seems normal, we use that, not so different. However, in english, i might say someone is, odd, a little off, goofy, funny, strange, weird, crazy. All of these words in italian can be put under the single word "strano". It seems incredible that something so simple can be the main word used while in english, two words like goofy, versus weird in a negative sense are fairly distant in meanings. There is a sort of beauty in simplicity of life, art, language, that i think leaves room for interpretation, meditation, less stress. It is for this in a way that I honestly love italian.

First off, I was brought to italian because I fell in love with italy. After studying a bit, I fell in love with studying it, learning something so different, beautiful words. Upon studying more and reading translated texts in italian, like "The Moon and the Bonfires" (a neoclassical book about a small place in northern italy, neoclassicalism being that interest of the simplicity of life- if the italian way of this interests you, i reccommend reading on neoclassicalism, then reading a book or watching a movie, one really famous is "Bicycle Thieves". All simple storylines, but beautifully tranquil.), i began to fall in love for the poetry of the language. In general, the language is so simple, and the words they choose to use over and over again are also simple, but also more beautiful. This simplicity leaving interpretation is somewhat like in art, the interpretation is important, of course, but left to the interpreter. For instance, if you want to say something it really nice, or just in generally something positive, one would say "che bello" literally just meaning the simple phrase, how beautiful.

I am intrigued, and like this room for interpretation, because as i mentioned problems of english that I've been frustrated with tying into relationships, is with emotion. Emotion is no where near a concrete concept. However, in english we have done all we can to logically place emotion into words. I've often been frustrated how the words in english are too specific in this, that something so incredibly concrete as defined words can give exact impression of what emotion there is. How can one do so to such an abstract feeling as emotion?
However, at the same time I have felt torn. Growing up in this english where I have been taught so easily how to "express" myself there are definitely times, when i'm trying to think of something to say in italian, and i think "fuck, there's only one word i can use, but it really isn't what I would like to say.."
(i want to make a side note, this self-expression in words of everything in the US, for me has a strong connection with our sense of self-expression in all aspects, as in the US from outsiders view, we dress ridiculous, too expressively with just clothes, we do things about our beliefs instead of letting them at a stand-still which i see this alot more here, not in a negative sense, only in terms of creating less drama. Maybe for this the US is always in the midst of judgement, drama.)
I've had to learn in learning italian, essentially to "dumb-down" my english. However, if in english we didn't embrace so much only this concept of what we have decided is smart, the people who are well-written, well-spoken, well-educated. To me, the person who can express themself in a short phrase of simple words would be smarter than the person who steals advanced vocabulary created by god-knows-who to get a "better", more specific, concrete grab on thoughts and the sort. And so, this dumbing-down seems not so bad, and by learning italian could help me personally better. However, it is in fact a lot harder than one would think, and i think for this its really hard to go from mother-language as english to learn another language. However, considering the whole thing with italian's speaking much more simply in general, maybe this will help me better express myself later in english in easy words, and short thoughts.

BRESCIA and stuff

Hellooo
i have gotten back from a small town between Trieste and Milano called Brescia. its more like a series of little small small towns put together around a huge lake (lago d'iseo).
its an old town, so its really cute, with huge beautiful mountains, greenery, the lake is amazing, and the people are all REALLY nice. its the second time ive been and each time me and anto went out, the younger people were always really inviting and so nice as we were visitors!
while there we took a 10km (i think about 6 mile) walk around a mountain thats an island in the lake. its a beautiful island where cars are prohibited and lots of little towns and cute little houses and just beautiful scenery. it was one of the more beautiful days ive spent here in italy!

second semester is going alot easier, i understand how things work. im taking these classes:
semiologia delle arti visive
storia degli stati uniti
and
storia delle religioni

i really love the arti visive class, its really interesting. its about symbols and signs in art.
history of the US is alright, im more taking it cause i figure itd be a little easier, there are other exchange students in the class, and because this is my only option to get a real honest to god outsider opinion on things we are taught in the us about ourselves. so far nothing too different but its only been a couple weeks!
the last class is history of religions which i think will be really great when i get my textbooks and start reading the stuff there. the teacher is a little old italian lady who spits alot, shes really nice though. she talks a bit of a mess with a subject here and there. most of the time class is kinda boring but sometimes class is REALLY interesting when she hits on a subject i like. she also isnt only about catholicism kinda stuff. she seems interested in alot of primitive religion stuff, shamanism and whatnot and how polytheism vs monotheism has impacts on how we think.

weather is getting a little better and with that my mood better of course because i hate winter!! im spending almost all the time talking in italian now that manu and other exchange students are gone (although i do miss them alot! especially manu since we were a little family him me and anto) but im glad to be talking in only italian. i find more and more things interesting about language and what i like about english and what i dont, and vice versa with italian. in terms of that im not exactly sure which i prefer. perhaps italian but maybe thats just cause i like speaking a foreign language.
i kinda feel like my language is in a stand still with italian, i think i need to spend time with my textbook reviewing some grammatical structures but im just so busy always. i don't spend nearly as much time as im used to just being alone doing my own thing.
however thats soon to change cause ive learned how to knit and i just bought yummy incense and things to knit with so ill probably just lock myself up in my room when i have time now... :P

love
roxanne

ciao tutti

ciao
volevo scrivere qualcosa in italiano mostrarvi. forse non e' molto interessante perche' non capite voi, ma comunque. adesso anche devo studiare oggi. ce l'ho i miei appunti avanti a me, e poi il mio libro e sotto il computer sulle gambe adesso... allora si vede come troppo sto studiando. :P
oggi devo fare tante cose.. devo studiare fino alle 4.30, poi vado alla biblioteca perche oggi e' la scadenza del libro. dopo questo, andro' al supermercato. stasera acquistero' il libro nuovo per la biblioteca.. credo che arrivero' al fine di aprile.. un po male questo ma dai. dopo cena, devo fare la lavatrice... perche non ce l'ho piu' calzini.

la settimana prossima comincero' lezioni. non voglio cominciare lezioni perche quando li frequento, vado in centro. devo prendere il bus cui significa che devo alzarmi piu presto. credo che tutti sanno quello e' difficile per me.
ok mi metto a studiare adesso. a dopo!

Portugal and Valencia

It's been quite some time but after having one of the best and worst vacations ever, i think its time to share again.
After the first semester, almost all the erasmus (exchange students) go home. they are usually here for only one semester. Almost all of the friends we always hang out with (i think i have previously posted a picture about them) are from Portugal, all living in Lisbon. So for a cheap 9 euro flight to valencia, then 9 euro flight to porto, and 30 euro train to lisbon we went.

First off i would like to say if anyone has the chance to go, GO. it is an incredible city that i absolutely adored. there is great architecture, its fairly diverse, parts reminded me much of atlanta. Its also very close to the beach, and the beach there, is spectacular, possibly the most beautiful beach i've seen in person.
now for the days we spent there in order:
We arrive, to be picked up by our friend Joao at the train station around 11, and go immediately to a bar because it is our friend Margarida's birthday and everyone is already there. In this time, we go for a bit, then go to the house of Sofia where we wil stay. We get there, open the trunk, and all luggage is entirely gone. really unfortunate. ok we move on try to forget about things and go have fun.
My roommates birthday also comes soon, so after some days of seeing things around the city for anto's birthday we go to a palace on a mountain. it was a microclimate and so really foggy and green adn seemed like a magic fairy land. the palace was from 1850s-1910s i believe. after this, we went to the most beutiful beach. here there where huge beaches, rocky cliffs, sand dunes, rather big waves, adn one part called the devils mouth (of course in portughese) where the water splashes up to so big it seems like a volcano. it was incredible. I was knocked over by the wave and fell entirely in the water in my few clothes i owned at that point, and then others followed my lead. leaving me, joao, anto, manu, all soaking wet. later that night we celebrated anto's birthday by having a party at sofia's house and later going to a club that was apparently at one pointed noted to be the best in europe. we then left lisbon, and spent one night in a hostel in porto. here the hostel was really clean , new, and like a family. we all ate dinner together, and afterwards all us strangers went out for a beer in an irish bar. unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs and we didnt really see too much of the city in the small time we had.

then it was off to valencia, spain. here we went to the beach, which in comparison to lisbon was nothing but still a beach. we saw the place where the river was diverted and we visited the science museum. valencia was an interesting city with really nice grafiti, and many different districts that seem like different cities. we stayed here in a hostel that wasn't so great, however we met another italian staying in our room who was 22 named Nicola, he was from just outside of milano so we all played BS and hung out some.

the second night me and anto where forced to do two things- part from Manu (our third of my family here) as he is here for one semester, and also to sleep in the airport. this was because our flight was so early we wouldnt be able to catch the metro, and we didnt wanna pay for a taxi. after a short night ther ein the airport, we took our hour and a half plane to trieste, the one hour bus fmor the airport to trieste, and then the bus to la casa dello studente where i live and am now here again to refresh and start again. here are some pictures: