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Published: August 7th 2007
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Nad, me and Kurt
taking home an Italian Pizza God thought with his sense of humor, "and it shall be... that on Thursday morning, Joni shall wake up and make plans to go to an unknown country where she doesnt know the language... HA! this should be funny..."
and reinforced this by making England rainy and cold, making Joni cranky for lack of rock climbing.
and so it was, that on Thursday, I woke up and said, "Hey! I'm going to go to Italy!"
I started in Milan, and couchsurfed with two Bulgarian girls.
They were also hosting an Ozzie, and I was so happy to catch up on my Australian-English.
The Australians shorten all their words - because as legend has it - they dont want to open their mouths for fear of too many flies will enter their mouths. Pictures of Kurt are below, and videos are above.
Kurt and I went to Como on Sunday, and then I jetted off to go rock climbing in Trento on Monday.
Since most people who read this blog aren't rock climbers, I wont go too much into detail about the climbing here, except to say that it is world renown for the Alps, and Dolomites.
On Monday, Riccardo dropped me off in the morning in the city where he said, "go get lost in the city" with a few pointers on what to do, I saw a castle, a museum, got hit on by an Italian, and saw the ancient underground ruins where people lived many MANY years ago. I went to de Parka Della Costo where there is tons of bouldering and I did my first solo. It was at this park that I met a man at a bouldering wall and he gave me the number to his friend,
"Massimo" who is a climber. Little did I know how good of a climber. He has traveled all over the world, and put up 200 new routes in the local area just in the last year. He is good friends with world-famous rock climbers like, Lyn Hill... and did I mention I'm staying with him? Paying for accomodations is way over-rated!
A few things about Italy: First of all, I bet most of the worlds' ice cream is sold here. Every single store sells ice cream whether they are a Gelateria or not. And DAMN, is it unlike any other ice cream in
the world... But seriously, the ice cream practically oozes out of the streets and out of the walls; it is EVERYWHERE.
Secondly, most Italians speak NO english whatsoever. The school system doesnt require them to learn any other language. Unlike most countries that do require several semesters of a foreign language. They are seriously missing out, since there is so much tourism here, and the fact that at least 5 major countries speak english (America, England, Australia, South Africa, Canada, etc). Even for me to graduate high school, I had to take two semesters of Spanish. For me to graduate college, I had to take at least one year of a foreign language, or prove that I speak another language. Well, my Hebrew skills dont help me here, but I do think its a crime that they arent educated in English or SOME other language.
Third, everybody recycles. Actually, if you dont recycle you can get fined. Everybody composts and recycles everything they can. It is not a burden as it would be to most Americans, but it is really second nature. Even in Australia, my new Ozzie friend was telling me that they all use green cotton bags to
carry out their groceries. Here in Italy it is the same. People will either just get a few things and carry it home, bring a backpack, or bring their own bags, hence reusing instead of wasting plastic bags. It is also the same in England. There are signs everywhere about recycling, and the proper way to recycle. Even in the flats of college students. Everyone does it.
Fourth, as you can only imagine if you havent been here, the architechture is amazing. I imagine that this is what my maternal grandfather would consider heaven, as he was a great architect and artist.
Whereas in America, we would build a city, here in Italy, people obviously had way more time to create their cities. Everything is decorated here, and beautiful. I have snaped so many pictures, that they now take up two full pages.
So... Im staying with Massimo in his garage apartment connected to his parents house, except, he is not here! (His parents just came in and brought me fresh figs) He is in Sicily right now. So, I get to learn my Italian with his family, and live with Italians, and eat their food, and enjoy being
an Italian for a while. I really dont understand why anyone would go anywhere and stay at a hotel to see the city. You dont get to see the way people live, and who the people are without couchsurfing! Today, Massimo's brother came over with an English-Italian dictionary, and we are learning fast how to speak the languages. He took me and two of his friends (the friends spoke English) to a beautiful lake (Lago means Lake) and we spent several hours sunbathing and swimming. We would jump off the tall rocks, and climb out of the water, and jump again. How fun. One of the guys is cooking tonight, and invited me and a few others over for dinner.
I just love it when men cook. How can I say no???
I missed Sheffield, England (where I consider it to be my current home), that I booked a flight back for Thursday night right after I got here. Oops, I didnt even give it a chance here! So, I guess I will have to accidently miss my flight home, and book another one for next week. Anyways, I hear that its raining so much in my home town
Duomo
this was built in 1387 of Sheffield that they were considering building an ark. I guess it was a good move to come to beautiful Italy.
by the way... I tried eating rabbit for the first time, and mmmmmmm, was it good!
*** Please note that there are two pages of pictures ***
*** Also note the videos above ***
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Mom
non-member comment
wonderful photos
Thanks for the post, the wonderful photos and letting us know of your exciting times! really interesting, fun to read. Love you, Mom