Playing Catch-Up

So as I've said before, I've been pretty slack on my updating... but I do plan on catching you up to speed. This post will be all about the first week in Verona (post Venice), and go up to Paris, which will have an entirely separate post. But enough prefacing.

The Sunday before classes started (aka the 24th of May, for those of you who don't always have a mental calendar handy... dumb dumbs), there was a big soccer game in the soccer arena in Verona. Twas the final match of the season, and one of the teams playing was a local team from a neighborhood called Chievo. They're one of three teams in Verona, and they surprised everyone this season by moving up into a higher ranked group of teams, and the outcome of this game decided whether they stayed at that level or were dropped back down to a lower level. To do this, they either had to win or tie... and great success! They ended up tying with the Barcelona team, and it was pretty cool - all of the Barcelona fans were excited for the Chievo team and fans, and vice-versa. It was a much better outcome than the ridiculous riots that you see at a lot of soccer matches... just good ol' fashioned sportsmanship. Also, not to keep talking about food, but I bought a hamburger from a stand outside of the arena, and believe you me, BEST BURGER EVER. It even put Clocked to shame. All of the ingredients were so fresh... the lettuce, the tomatoes, the meat, the condiments, even the bun! Plus, it was relatively cheap... a surprising thing to find anywhere outside of Turkey. Oh Lira, how I miss treating you like Monopoly money because of your excellent exchange rate. Alas.


Food Porn


Football, or soccer if you are an uncultured American.


Pretending to fit in...

So then, dun dun dun... classes. After spending over a week just doing cool stuff and hanging out, it was a harsh reality to hear Jeremy's alarm going off at 7 AM on Monday morning. Which, remember that time I talked about my ears getting raped? Similar situation. I mean, I guess I'm not complaining because I needed to wake up, but still... there has got to be a more soothing sound than what can be described as a siren brutally beating a screeching cat while a banshee and a harpy cheer them on. I joke, but seriously. Terrible sound.

My two classes are actually pretty good, though. I wish I could update you on all of the classes (because I have found out how many parents of people on this trip are reading this... creepers. I kid! I'm glad you enjoy it!), but all I really know is that one of them is taught by a prince. Like, an actual one. I don't think the title means much, but still... neat. My first class is all about the Renaissance and Reformation, which is really cool because I know literally nothing about it. It's great finding out about all of the artworks and things that I have seen/ will be seeing, because it makes me appreciate it so much more than when I didn't know anything. Duh. The teacher is super old and really kooky, but really nice... we all like Tony. He jumps around a lot, and our first midterm is tomorrow, but I feel like we've learned everything pretty well.

My other class is all about strategic intelligence in the CIA, and while difficult, is one of the most interesting classes I've ever taken. The teacher is intense, but I'm pretty sure that he is also Jack Bauer so it makes sense. I'm pretty sure that he was never a CIA covert operative, but he was definitely very, very high up - and possibly one of the most knowledgeable men on US intelligence in the country. He likes to talk about things like "When Clinton would call me into his office" or "This one time when I was hanging out with Dean Rusk, my biffle and former Secretary of State under JOHN F. KENNEDY..." And then we all sit in silence and awe at the ridiculous man standing before us. Loch Johnson: American hero. The only real problem is that the class has a lot of reading that can be kind of hard to keep up with, and we have our midterm on Thursday, which everyone is kind of freaking out about a little bit. I'm sure it will be fine, but we're all kind of ready for it to pass. Yuck.

Other than that, the rest of the week went pretty smoothly... it's all a learning process about the city at that point. I think I've finally got the bus route down, I know how to get to and from the grocery store (a feat, considering the fact that my internal compass was set by a blindfolded and handicapped baboon), and all of the basics. The biggest hassle in the city is that a lot of stores take a siesta that starts right before we get out of class and goes until about 3:30... which if you are out of something important like lunch meat or lunch food or water or everything, you have to wait until the stores reopen. I'm not really sure why the people here need siestas, because we've concluded that 80% of the townspeople do not have jobs, they just mill around the main square shopping and eating until bedtime. Hard life.


HA! Someone should tell them the English meaning of that, but then it wouldn't be nearly as funny. Oh, Boner store.

The last thing we did before everyone went on vacation for the weekend was go on a wine tasting about 45 minutes away from our apartment. It was a pretty cool place... I wish I could remember more of the specific details at this point, but it's one of the biggest wineries in Europe and is home to hundreds of different grows. We got to see all of the barrels and the aging process and how each kind of wine/ champagne is made, and it was all just really cool. It was kind of similar to the bourbon distillery we went to in Kentucky, but smelled different and didn't have my dad shoving his hand into giant fluid filled vats. Although that would have made it more fun, I think. But after the tour of the place, we got to have some food and taste a couple of their better wines - one red, one white, and a desert wine. The red and the white were really good... the red was pretty dry, which some people didn't like, so I helped them out. The desert wine, though, I could barely stomach. They gave us all full, large glasses and it was just so sweet and almost syrupy.... bleh. All the food was so good, I didn't need to fill my stomach with syrup on top of that. But anyways, all in all it was a pretty cool excursion and a nice break from studying.


Wine! So much wine!


My corny friends posing with a carriage that was inside the winery.


Some of the food that went with the wine... so grood. Great and good. Grood.

Then the next morning... to France! But again, that post is coming (hopefully today, but maybe in the next couple of days. I miss everyone a lot, and thanks for reading!