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Published: June 19th 2011
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Music, Glorious Music
It may not be as big as Notre Dame or any other famous European church, but it sure was a lot more awesome! This morning has just about been the same as the past few mornings, so I don't really want to bore you with the repetition. However, for those of you curious...
-Wake up, breakfast, watch House, shower, make some Jell-O (they don't have that here, and we are going to eat it tomorrow after lunch!), eat lunch (and watch Paolo spill water everywhere and blame it on Claudia... reminds me of me when my coffee gets spilt. It's always Shoopie's fault.), read "The Jungle" and do other random things until the day started at night. As usual.
Some random observations about Italian culture that I discovered this morning:
1) When you go to buy the daily paper, there sometimes is an option to pay another half of a Euro and also get a classic novel with it! Like today, the one that came with the paper was an Italian (abridged) version of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". I was shocked that this option was available and I think it would be awesome if we did this in the USA! It's a great way to get people to read classic books again.
2) To figure out
Due Torri
Here's a side-by-side picture of the two standing towers of the Rovigo castle. I know I've posted a picture of one of them before, but I thought it would be cool to see them both together final "voti" (grades) for school, you can't log on to the school's website or anything like we do in the USA. You have to drive to the school where the grades are posted on the glass doors of the front entrance. Not only are they posted, but there are no student ID's at the school, so they go by names. Yes, that would mean that you could see anybody you want's grades--if they got a perfect grade or if they failed the class. Now that, to me, would be motivation in itself to not screw around.
This afternoon we did many other things:
--Went to pick up Paolo's new bass guitar that they just bought. It's pretty sweet looking!
--Talked to my mom for a while online
--Went with Elena to the farmhouse at Nico's orchard (we're preparing for a lunch/party thing there after Claudia's church deal tomorrow. I'll let you know how that goes!). (On this trip and the drive back home from picking up the bass, I recorded on my camera and have made a video called "Italian Driving Time Warp" for you to enjoy!)
--Elena took Paolo and I to the grandparent's house, where we used
Nico and I
Elena took this photo of Nico and I outside of the old farmhouse at Nico's pear orchard. A nice little relaxing set-up he has there! their bikes to ride around to do different things in town. This included:
(a) Riding to the post office, where we sat around and just talked as usual until we had to...
(b) Ride to the Festa dello Sport where Paolo played in a beach volleyball match (they destroyed the other team). There, we decided to...
(c) Eat our dinner of, guess what? Pizza! (3 days in a row, 9 pizzas in the last 11 days. whew). From there we...
(d) Rode back to the post office and hung out briefly until we got bored and remembered there was a concert going on somewhere so we rode there. But compared to the other concerts we went there it was.... different.
This was no rock band. This was a symphony orchestra. It one of the churches in Rovigo. It was one of the most magnificent experiences I've ever had... and it's very hard to convey the experience to you through writing (I'm no Bill Shakespeare).
Just imagine it being twilight, the sun not out but not completely dark. You ride up to an enormous church on a bicycle, dismount it, put it on it's kickstand, and then walk towards
An outdoor church service
At the Festa Dello Sport, right before Paolo's match, this service was going on. I thought it was an awesome photo because of the lighting. It seemed appropriate. the entrance of the church. The doors are open, but there are curtains in their place, waving in the cool breeze. You push these curtains aside, and suddenly, a flood of warm light and magnificent symphonic music greet your eyes and ears. You gaze around at a church you've never seen before.. the ceiling being several stories high, the endless rows of pews flanked by columns which guarded the impressive paintings on the walls--all enhanced by the grandeur of the music that is being played. Your heart starts beating quickly because it is something you have NEVER experienced in your entire life.
Like I said, it's hard to completely convey what it felt like (I tried), but I could have stayed in that church and listened to that music for the rest of the night if I could. However, Paolo would rather go mess around with his buddies at a parking lot. So I had to pull myself away from the music and just kind of sit there tuning out Italian jabber that I don't wish to listen to--because I would rather be listening to that amazing symphony. Eventually we left and rode back to the grandparent's house, dropped off the bikes, and Elena took us home.
I wish I was back in that church even now. Oh well. I can't wait to have another experience as jaw-dropping as that one, and I hope you know the feeling that I'm talking about or that you eventually will experience it too. Notre Dame had nothing on what I felt in this church, that's for sure!
Ok well sorry to go all quasi-emotional on you all there, but you know, that's part of the reason why blogs exist!
Anyways, that's all I've got for the day. I'm going to bed! Buonanotte!
(P.S. The same old spiel with the video- if you get an error about flash player, either download it or ignore it and press the video name "Italian Driving Time Warp" in the top right corner. That should make it work!)
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