Alyssa in Italia

From vacation week to the final haul... Coming home from Dublin was a big to-do. 5am bus, 8:30am flight, 2:00pm train, 5:00 arrival at Siena, then had to sleep outside of my host family's apartment in the freezing cold, like a poor beggar, all curled up next to my backpack, and wait for them to get home from Florence at 8:00pm. It was really, really cold. I was really, really grateful at 8pm. (and a little numb, too.) Within a few days, host-mom was being her ridiculous self, repeating sentences over and over and speaking to me condescendingly, and I was very, very angry, and almost hit her, and also almost flat out turned my back on her, and man did I write a whole lot of nasty things about her in my journal that night, ... read more

PISA! DUBLIN! AIRPORTS! RAIN! ADVENTURE! MUSIC! LOIS! Just thought I'd try a slam approach to the blog entry. Not working? Okay fine, back to the boring way... November 1st, Sometime Reasonably Early in the Morning The train has arrived! I'm here! I'm here in Pisa and I'm finally going to see the Tower and--!!!.... Rain. So very, very much rain. That's okay! I'm still excited and happy and barely able to contain my smile because honestly when was I ever able to force a straight face anyways, and hey look I know where I'm going, it should be about a 10 minute walk and then I'm there, and --whoops, I think that guy thought I was smiling at him, haha oh well, anyways just 10 minutes till I get to the piazza and then -- hold ... read more

ah! i don't even know how to start! i have like 50 days of life to try and indulge you on in the course of a single blog entry! freaking overwhelming! i'm gonna try and break some things up for you. first, i'll fill you in on the week(s) before Fall break. then i'm gonna write a whole separate entry for my adventures in Pisa and Dublin, and THEN i'm gonna write ANOTHER entry for all the time since (roughly... 30 days). i'm doing this for a few reasons. One, in order to humor myself, because i am a hopeless perfectionist and need my blog to go in order. Two, it will be easier to remember things as they happened, and not leave out juicy details. and three, because I feel guilty for not writing in ... read more

I have a gigantic headache, and the only part of my body that is warm is my pelvis, and that's only because my computer is sitting on it. Even my big rainbow blanket and my hooded white eskimo sweatshirt aren't helping to solve this stupid Italian problem with interior heating. It is against the law to turn on the heat until November 1st here. Also, not even once in the course of a day does the sun touch the building that my school is in. It's like they designed it purposely to be an ideal place for natural refrigerators. And hey, come to find out, Italy's even colder when you live in the mountains of Tuscany. I know this because I just passed a weekend there. On Friday afternoon, Filippo (art restoration professor, the smoking ... read more

So every time I write one of these things, I have to go back and look at my last one so I don't repeat anything, and it always surprises me. Seems like my 'emotional' definition of Italy is constantly changing. Last time, Italy was about loneliness and interesting experiences (good and bad) with Italian men. I still remember it all, but things are just so completely different now. Life just has a different... vibe, you know? And it'll probably change again tomorrow. Let's see now. I left off with my story about hot prosciutto man... That brings me to my first day of real classes. So I think I'll break this down for you class by class, because otherwise my coherency would be at stake. (JSYK, my morning routine from a month ago still applies. I'm ... read more

I'm a little confused about how I seem to have lost an entire week to the limbo of Italian lifestyle... (Inception reference, anyone?) Regardless, I'll do my best to update you on what I've been up to since the last time I wrote, ie, 12 whole days ago. Well after my nutty weekend of missed trains and bleeding all over floors and whatnot, I spent the ensuing week in a rather emotional state of anxiety. I think my dreams were worse than ever, but the thing is, my conscious mind was so horrified of my subconscious mind that it refused to remember anything in the mornings. All I can tell you is, I have a whole bunch of vague memories of frantically turning the bedside light on, and staring in the mirror as my panic subsided ... read more

Quick update... I just wrote on Friday, but my Sunday story needs to be written. SO there's this beach in Follonica, Italy. And my friends and I decided to go there for a day trip on Sunday. I got up at 7am and headed to the bus stop to buy my ticket, because my friends had all bought theirs on Saturday. "I would like to buy a round-trip ticket from Siena to Follonica, please," I said in decent Italian. "There is no room on the return bus," she says. Cool. So I call host-mom, and she tells me to go, and just take the train home. Okay. So me, Lisa-Ray, Sarah, Zac, and Katy catch the bus and ride to the Villagio Svissero stop in Follonica, where the free public beach was. Just an fyi, the ... read more

Let me provide you with a layout of my daily schedule. 7:45 - 8:00 : Wake up 8:00 - 8:30 : Breakfast (just me at the table, while Mom-Cristina pours my tea and makes sure I get my bagged lunch before I leave) 8:30 - 9:45 : Walk to school 8:45 - 9:00 : Get lost on the way to school and end up discovering an entirely new, spherical way of getting there 9:00 - 9:10 : Arrive at school drenched in sweat, because Siena and my body heat regulation system are NOT friends 9:10 - 9:30 : Realize that I've forgotten an Italian homework assignment and attempt to complete it before class, which usually fails 9:30 - 12:30 : Italian Advanced class with Roberto Fineschi, a Sienese Insegnante, and my classmates, Katy Kirkpatrick, John Dinh, ... read more

I cannot even BELIEVE it's been just four days since I arrived in Italy. So much has happened. I'm in a constant state of being stunned silent, confused, feeling stupid, and trying to find humor in the stunned silence, confusion, and stupidity. And I can't possibly be turning 21 on tuesday because I feel like a 2 month old. My communication skills are that of a tiny baby. When I got on the plane, I had no phone, no internet, and no friends. I made 2 during the flight, which was rather exciting - a 26 yr old Israeli/Russian man named Boris and a 47 yr old Italian woman named Annamaria. We talked pretty much the entire flight. The first of many things that I never expected myself to do. lol I landed at 8am, in ... read more