I know, its been a while….my bad! I’ve been super busy and
stressed out over finals and haven’t really had much time or motivation to do
this. (don’t worry, it wont be super long!) This will also be my last post for
a while because I leave for spring break tomorrow morning. I will be in Dublin,
Ireland for the first half and Venice, Italy for the second half. I am so
excited and stoked to be in Dublin for St. Patty’s day!! It’s gonna be a
blast!! I will be gone from March 17th-March 24th .
Anyways….here’s the update…
Wednesday and Thursday (the 7th and 8th)
I went on field trips. The first was the cheese factory. It was a very short
field trip actually. Once we got there we went inside the store area and they
had a window where you could stand and watch them make the cheese (buffalo mozzarella).
Since we are a class of 11, they said that was too many people for us to
actually go inside the factory part of it. It was very small and only 2-3
people working in there. So we stood there for maybe 20 minutes while our
teacher (we call him Franci…pronounced fron-chee) told us what they were doing
and the process of it and the different types being made. Then we went out back
and got to see the buffalo for all of 10 minutes.
Then the field trip was over!
Just like that! Haha so Franci took us out for some gelato out by the lake,
which was kind of nice I guess.
On the way to and from the cheese factory me,
Jenny, Sara, and Amy all rode in Franci’s car cause I mean, let’s be real,
Franci is a good time. We also wanted to ride with him cause we had a quiz to
take over fish and meat when we got back from the field trip so we wanted to
ask him questions and to help us out with the quiz. So we hounded him with
questions the whole time. That is, when he wasn’t boppin his head to the
strange techno music and combin his hair with his fingers every 10 seconds.
Then we arrived at school and he handed out the quiz. We were all a bit worried
cause, let’s be real, none of us really read the material that we were supposed
to read cause there was just so much of it and we had other classes to worry
about! He told us to ask if we had any questions so we took that to heart. We
asked him the exact questions on the quiz and he basically just told us the
answer to all of them. He said he really wasn’t concerned about us reading the
material he is more interested in our actual cooking which is what our midterm
would be next class. So needless to say, the quiz went well! A+ for me!
Then the next day we went on a field trip to a winery! It
was so cool! But, to start off I must mention that March 8th is
Festa Della Donna (International holiday for women) and it is a bigger deal
here in Italy than Valentine’s day is! One of my roommates, Jenny, surprised us
in the morning with a muffin, flowers (mimosa is the traditional flower given
on this day), and a card! She is the sweetest!
Then when I get to school one of
the guys here, Connor, bought every girl a flower too! He is so nice! This is
the same guy that gave every girl a chocolate on Valentine’s day too! Then our
wine teacher got here and bought each girl in our class a bouquet of flowers!
He is adorable! I just love him! Then we were on our way to the winery. It was
in the same town and area as the cheese factory was. It was a lot smaller (from
the outside) than I expected. Then we get to go inside. It was decorated so
cute! Bottles and corks everywhere with all bright colored walls of yellow and
orange with dark wood furniture and flowers all over. It was beautiful!
Then we
were lead downstairs to the cellar where the wine is kept in barrels. I felt
like I was in the goonies! (fun fact: speaking of the goonies, I just recently
watched that movie after the field trip and the bad guys speak Italian in the
movie and I actually understood them! Yay me!) It looked like a cave with rock
walls and old bottles of wine were sitting at the top near the ceiling and were
covered in a thick layer of dust. It was really cool to see actually. They had
open light fixtures hanging from the ceiling, it was just really cool to be
down there. You felt legit like the goonies and you just found all the
treasure!
After that we were taken to a room for wine tasting. We tasted 3
wines. We had 2 whites and 1 red wine, complete with a plate of food and bowls
of bread. Then since it was Festa Della Donna, the lady at the winery let us
have another sparkling wine and cake. That wine was amazing! It was moscato and
it was very sweet. It was delicious! So, by the time we left, I bought 2
bottles of the moscato to enjoy back at the apartment!
On our way back we got word that one of the girls in our
program was leaving to go back home to New York. We found out it was Francine
(she is the one that went to the park and played her guitar and sang for us
that I mentioned in a past post). I was completely heart broken. She is such an
amazing woman and such a sweetheart. She always puts a smile on your face and
she was the last person I expected to leave us and go back home. I guess she
was not having a good time here. She was very homesick to the point where she
would wake up in the middle of the night and bawl her eyes out and have panic
attacks. It probable didn’t help that she never left Tuscania the whole time
she was here cause she was sick with bronchitis the majority of the time, but
you gotta do what you gotta do. Every single one of us surprised her that night
at her apartment with some pastries to say good-bye to her cause she would be
leaving in the morning. She played us one last song before she left that she
wrote herself and we were all in tears. I used to make fun of people like on
the show Real World when they would cry at the end when they would leave and
say things like “we are like a family” but now I completely understand. I am
not one to cry easily, especially in front of other people but I was bawling.
It is weird how close you get to everyone in such a small amount of time here.
I feel closer to these people than I do with even some of my best friends at
home. I honestly felt like one of my family members was leaving me behind for
good. It was a hard night. Francine, if you read this, I miss you and I hope
you are enjoying home!
Later that night a church around the corner was having a
little party for Festa Della Donna and we got invited by Amy. It was a bunch of
men and women in their 60’s and 70’s. They are my favorite people in Tuscania!
They know how to have a good time, let me tell you! They had 4 tables filled
with food, 2 tables of different drinks (mostly wine), and another table of
just dessert! They were all so nice and made a toast to the women and then a
toast to the Americans! Haha then they turned on some music and they all
started to bust a move! They were doin the waltz and the tango and conga lines.
Then some of the men would come over to us young girls and grab our hands and
dance with us! It was so amazing! I danced with 3 different men, probable 70
years old each and I waltzed all night with them and even joined in a conga
line or two! One of my friends here, Carly, even got dipped by one of the old men! It was hilarious! It was so much fun and I would definitely go back there again!
Not much happened over the weekend really. Friday morning we
got up early so that we could see Francine off and say one last goodbye and
give one last hug. Then we went to the market and I bought red pants (score!!).
Then it was pretty lazy around here. We just kinda laid around. Then we wanted
to go out. Sara, one of my roommates, really wanted to go out and have a good
time to get her mind off of things. She did not have the best week, none of us
really did, especially with Francine leaving. Sara hardly ever goes out too so
we all took like 2 hours getting ready and were all set for a good night.
We
went out and it was such a bust!!! No one came out that night. No Italians, and
no Americans. We were pretty upset with the Americans cause they live right
next to one of the bars, like literally 10 steps and we had to walk for 15
minutes to get there, just like every time we go out and they said that they
were too tired to come out even though they said they would. Whatever, we
stayed out for a while but went home after like an hour and a half or two
hours. It was a major bust! Then Saturday we literally did nothing. She stayed
in our PJs all day and never left the apartment. We didn’t feel like having a
repeat of last night so we just stayed in. It was kind of nice though not doing
anything. Then Sunday we went out for a little just walking around to get out
of the house and the rest of the day was spent studying for midterms this week.
I spent the majority of my time on my cinema class for studying. What a pain in
my butt!!
Monday wasn’t eventful either. Went to school, had my
Italian and sketch class. Sketch was really nice cause we had class in the park
and did water colors. It was really relaxing. My midterm in sketch consisted of
looking at all of the work I have done so far and seeing if I had any
improvements, so another easy A for this chick! Then it was time for cinema!
The midterm was not as hard as I was expecting but I am still unsure of how I
did since she is such a hard grader on me. It was 30 questions and the majority
were multiple choice, but the choices were all very similar to each other so it
was hard sometimes to differentiate the difference between them, but we will
see how I did after spring break!
Then on Tuesday, I had a lazy morning since its my day off,
but then I went on a hike at about 3 in the afternoon. Yes, I said hike. I,
Sydney, Beener, hiked. I have ran a few time here and now I am hiking. I am
moving up in this world, I know! Anyways, we hiked to this place called Abbey
San Giusto. It was so beautiful! When I eventually get married, this is where I
want it to happen.
It was beautiful. The grass seemed greener, the flowers more
in bloom, and the sun was brighter. There was this old building that was just
like a small castle and they host events there, such as weddings!! There were
arches of all sizes, everything was concrete, but it didn’t feel like concrete.
You know how when you are around concrete you get this cold feeling? Well you
didn’t get that from this. They had beautiful white table settings and parts of
the floor were glass so that you could see below where tombs used to be. It was
gorgeous! It took my breathe away. It reminded me of a fairytale!
It was about
2 miles to get there and another 2 to get back so I definitely got my exercise
in for the day! It makes up for the many lazy days I’ve been having lately!
Afterwards the rest of the day was spent studying for more midterms for the
next day.
Wednesday I had 2 midterms. I had Italian and my cooking
midterm. I felt really good before going into my Italian midterm. I studied. I
made a study guide for myself (well, Jenny made them actually, but I still had
one!). Sara quizzed us. I was ready. Then we got the exam and now I don’t feel
so great about it. I didn’t fail, but I definitely didn’t ace it either. We
will see I suppose.
Then in between my finals I had about an 8 hour break so I
sat with Caroline to figure out plans to go to Paris at the end of March. It is
so stressful planning trips!! I can’t even handle it! We are getting it slowly
but surely though, so that is good! Speaking of planning trips, I talked with
my parents and we got the plans for my brother to come visit me all
straightened out!! I am so excited for him to come!! He will be here from April
19th-26th, so it is gonna be awesome!! I gotta work out
some smaller details for when he is here, but that will all work out perfectly
fine! Okay, now back on track….
My cooking midterm was next. I LOVE my cooking class. I LOVE
Franci! Our midterm consisted of 4 multiple choice and 8 open answer questions
and we had to cook something with a partner. He treated our midterm just like
our quiz. When we didn’t understand or didn’t know the answer we asked him and
he would say “Well a good answer to write for this question would be…” It was
great! Haha Then I was partners with Sara and we made chicken cacciatore for
our recipe! It was really delicious and I am going to make it for everyone when
I get home! Delicious!
Other recipes made from other groups were cannelloni,
risotto, and ravioli. I only liked the chicken but they all looked pretty! We
all did a great job on the food he says so that’s good. I am not worried about
this class at all!
Later that night was stressful trying to book things for
Paris, but it all worked out eventually so it’s okay! It has been a stressful
week and everything is piling up and I am just so ready for spring break it is
ridiculous!
Thursday I had my last midterm. It was for my wine class. I
was a little worried going into this midterm. There is just so much information
for only 30 multiple choice questions and he doesn’t tell you what to focus on
for the test. Once I got in the room he asked us how we were feeling and I told
him I was nervous and he comes over and pinches my cheek and tells me “oh
sweetie, no need. No need.” So then he tells all of us to skip the questions we
are not sure of and come back to them later. So, okay, just like every other
test Ive ever taken. No biggie. Welp! He went over all the questions and gave
us all the answers! It was kind of perfect! Another A+ for me!! We also had to
taste a wine on the exam but he said we all got it right cause it is mostly
opinion anyway! It went so well! I loved it!
Also on thurday (this is random) one of the advisors, Mei
told me that I looked sexy haha!!! She said I was dressed very feminine and
that I should “flaunt what I got more often”….did you hear that Dad?! All I was
wearing was a pair of jeans with a camie and a long sleeved sweater over it. I don’t
get why that is sexy, but hey, I will take the compliment! Haha it was
hilarious!
Friday we got up and went to Viterbo to do some last minute
shopping. Some girls didn’t have anything green for St. Patrick’s day so that
is mainly why we went. Then it was all about frantic packing. It is really hard
to pack really tiny for a whole week. Some how I managed to do it though!
So I head off in the morning (Saturday March 17th….St.
Patrick’s Day!!) for Dublin, Ireland! Then on the 21st I am off to
Venice and come back to Tuscania on the 25th. I am so excited for
this spring break! Dublin is gonna be so crazy on St. Patty’s day and it has
always been a dream of mine to go there! I won’t be doing any updates while I
am there so expect a really long post next time to catch you up on it!
Until next time….ciao!
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