Friday, March 16, 2012

Cheese, Wine, and Midterms


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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