School and Sun

So we started teaching a few days ago, and we love it. We've helped decorate the classroom inside and out and are planning a thematic unit on "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," but in Spanish, of course. Sixth grade is kind of hard to control sometimes, but with some help from our teacher, we're doing really well. Sometimes it's hard to give the whole class in Spanish, but we're getting better at speaking too.

But the best part is how relaxed things are here. I don't really feel stressed out and we're mostly having fun planning the unit. So after school, we can just go swimming. And I'm not sure I've ever been swimming in January before, but it was so nice. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and we swam around the pool, laid out, then put our feet in a little more. We're looking nice and tan now :).

We've also been watching a lot of Modern Family and other shows on hulu. We don't have a TV in here, like most students would bring, so we watch some stuff on our computers. After watching a few things, we got Mexican for dinner but their Mexican restaurants are a little different. We all know that Mexican food can be made really quickly, but the restaurants we have in the States are always sit down with a waiter and everything. Well, here every Mexican restaurant I've been to is one where you order at a counter and then they call you when the food is ready, which is kind of weird to me, especially since I was a waitress at a Mexican restaurant. Over all, the food is a lot cheaper at these restaurants but it's never spicy, Puerto Ricans don't really like spicy.

On our way to dinner, we ran into one of the teachers from our school and she was with 2 girls from Boston that will be teaching English with here. The teacher is a little intimidating, she actually sent Jenn and I an angry e-mail before we even got there saying to beware, because if we didn't "have full master of Spanish" we were going to be moved to teach English. Rose Marie, our teacher, has stood up for us though and always shares with her how well we are doing in Spanish. So there. Anyways, we are curious about the new arrivals and hoping we can make some new friends, since most of the people that want to hang out with us are creepy guys haha.

Well plans for this weekend are: Sushi with a new friend, beach, Plaza las Americas (which is a mall) and church.


Which reminds me, I didn't write about our church experience last week. But we went to a small Lutheran church where we were the talk of the town. Everyone had something to say to us. Afterwards, they were having a lunch for everyone, so we stayed from some real PR food. We had pork, rice, beans and salad and a sausage. While we were having the sausage, they decided it'd be a good idea to share with us how it's prepared. Oh you know, the meat is just ground up, placed inside the intestines and cooked in the blood from the animal. Blood sausage. If there's one thing I hate to think about while eating, it's that 1. my food was once alive and 2. it was prepared in a weird way. Just don't tell me that, and I can enjoy myself. The people were very nice and wanted to help us, but I think we're going to try a baptist church next. We haven't really found Pentecostal at all.

After church Sunday, we decided to go back to Old San Juan to visit the artisans in the festival of San Sebastian. We thought it'd be relatively calm since it was Sunday, but actually it was crazier than the weekend. We could hardly walk through the streets with all the people around. We had to just shuffle through crowds to get to the artisans. Then we went to a Spanish restaurant where they had flamenco and tapas, some of which I got to try in Spain, so I was excited to eat there.


Well that's the update. The only thing hard about this experience is getting up at 6:30 to teach in the morning, but since it get's dark around 7 anyways, it's not like I want to stay up late all the time.
I'll be looking for you on the beach!

La Playa

Today we decided we were going to find out how to get to the beach, which is almost always first priority when I study somewhere. We made friends with the guy in the subway station, so we went back to check with him about the route to take.
So we wait at a stop, that is really a small green sign that says you can get a bus there, for the #40. Bonus: during the weekend of el Festival de San Sabastían, the city takes a lot of the normal buses from their routes to transport people to the festival, leaving each route with 1 or 2 buses. So we were on the side of the road for about half an hour before having to wave down the bus to stop. That's right. You have to be standing up waving the bus as if you were telling an airplane where to land. I mean, it makes sense that you shouldn't get a ride unless you look like you really want it. Otherwise, keep your 75 cents for the subway, because that will just come to you without questions.
Anyways, we had a little help finding out where our stop was from the driver and an American man in his swim trunks and a Hawaiian shirt who was evidently going to... the airport. We were there in less than 10 minutes. So we just decided to walk straight down a side street near the stop at which we were left off and finally saw water. It was the beach! and we were so excited to see it. The sand area itself was kind of small, but after walking a little bit closer to the hotels we found a comfy palm tree to put our stuff by and lay under.
The water was kind of chilly but easy to get used to. We laid out and ate our PB&J's and bananas and decided that we would like to try to swim in a pool. If there was a sign that clearly said "RITZ CARLTON hotel guests only," I must have completely missed it. That, or I looked at it and decided that I would play hotel guest. It was so pretty in there with chaise lounges and cabanas and lions spitting water into the pool. But when we tried setting down our colorful towels, which contrasted against everyone else's white ones, we were offered different towels and then told if we weren't hotel guest we had to leave. We were relieved to get back to our luxurious palm tree in the sand where we could be appreciated. After swimming a bit and taking pictures, we had to leave to make sure the bus would still be running since it is a holiday and weekend.
Javier, the guy from the subway station, told us how good Puerto Rican chinese food was, so we decided take-out would be good for dinner. Then we needed to stop at walgreens to get crackers for our Sour sop marmalade, you know, made of the fruit that comes from the sour sop tree. And I'm not kidding, you can look up pictures of this thing and it's very tasty. Ok, Chinese food. We ordered "mofungo" which is something made with corn and plantains that Puerto Ricans love, which was actually pretty tasty but probably not the best mofungo, but we needed to try it. Jenn got sesame chicken which apparently only means sesame chicken and no rice. I got chicken lo mein with all appropriate condiments: soy sauce, duck sauce, and an american favorite, ketchup. I also ordered a taco because, as most of my friends know, I have an unhealthy obsession to a proper Mexican taco complete with cilantro, onions, lime and hot sauce, since I spent the last 6 months working at a Mexican restaurant. I was so excited for my taco until I bit into it and got a mouth full of tortilla, chicken, mashed potatoes and cheese. Good effort on their part though, they got the tortilla and chicken right.
Well, I gotta go sour sop my crackers.

Festival San Sebastían

Que locura!
El Festival de San Sebastían is kind of like a block party for all of Old San Juan. Our teacher was excited to take us there, and we were excited to go! We hopped on the subway from our campus to Sagrada Corazón and then waited in line for a good while to catch the bus. All the buses there were reserved just to take subway passengers from the subway station to the festival. The buses were all lined up and were the only ones allowed on the streets. We packed into a bus and the police escorted a fleet of us into the city. They dropped us off a little far and we had to walk to my teachers house. Along the way we heard music, people singing and dancing and there were people along the sides of the street selling hats and accessories that lit up.

We got to my teacher's house and it was sooo cute! We walked down a hall until we got to a courtyard. On the other side of the courtyard, we entered her house. It's a one bedroom apartment and all the rooms - even the bathroom - open to the courtyard. She made us a dinner of chicken with peppers and onions and potatoes and salad, it was really good! We talked a lot, mostly about the politics of the island and the differences between them and us, and then went out to brave the festival. People were packed in the streets and the plazas converted into discos with a stage playing music and people dancing in front while street vendors sold traditional foods, which are mostly fried. In addition, they had some Mexican food like tacos and Colombian food like arepas. We left the house just in time to catch the festival ending, but we got a good feel for it and returned to her house to sleep on her futon with the courtyard doors open to have a nice comfortable breeze.

For breakfast, we had grapes, toast, cheese and orange juice before leaving to walk around the town. She showed us a lot of different important buildings, stores and we finally made it to El Morro, an old fortress from when the Spanish first got to the island. It was soo awesome and massive. It lies right on the coast so we got some beautiful views. We also had a lot of exploring through it because it has 6 levels. It was castle-like but also defensive and one of the coolest things I've ever seen. After we left there, we went to a different plaza where they were selling a lot of artisan things in honor of the festival. Everything sold there for the festival has to have certification that it was made in Puerto Rico using things only from the island. This stops cheap vendors from selling things made in China. I got some really nice hand crafted things for good prices. Next, she took us to the first governor house, for the "emperor Carlos V" who was the king of Spain during the conquista. It was closed inside, but we walked around the gardens, which were gorgeous, and got some great pictures. On the way to lunch, we wanted to try something authentic so we got "bacalaito" which is fried bacalao, or cod fish. It was really good and thin like a pancake but hard because it was fried, a weird combination. She took us to a restaurant called Vaca Brava and we shared a meal with steak, ribs, chicken and fries as well as tostones and a pitcher of Sangria. Everything was awesome and it was nice to get out of the sun for a little.

We went back to her house to rest for a bit before taking the bus and subway back home. Tomorrow we plan on going to the beach to get some more sun :). I love it here.

We've Met our Teacher!

Oh Em Gee.
That's how I would describe our teacher. And this is OMG in a good way.

Ok, first things first. We e-mailed her last night to see what time to arrive at the school because the guy that picked us up at the airport kind of just dropped us off at our apartment and said "there's the school, there's the campus, down this road is some food, see you tomorrow."
When we got to the school, everyone greeted us and our teacher was so proud to have us there. She was so nice and had so much to say. She has such an awesome philosophy on education, I wish I could share everything she said, but some of her most important points were that conflict and mistakes are good things, because we learn from them. She told me that if I do something well, then that's great, and if I do it bad, then that's great too. She was sad to learn we wouldn't be there the whole semester and she's going to try to plan events for the times we are there so we can have more to experience. Jenn and I will be in charge of her 6th grade classes. We will be collaborating on lesson plans but will split the classes so that we teach the whole time for a period and then switch the next period. But all this school talk is nothing.

Tomorrow we will be attending the San Sebastian street festival in Old San Juan where my teacher lives. It's this crazy thing that millions of people go to and I have no idea what to expect. She invited us to stay in her house overnight, since the festival goes until all hours of the night. I'm so excited!!! Especially after being just dropped off like that yesterday, it was so refreshing to be invited into her home and to the festival with her.

After school, we shopped at Walgreens to get some stuff we needed and some food. After eating PB+J for lunch, we decided to walk around campus and most importantly, find the pool. We took pictures the whole way and found swimmers doing laps in the pool. The lifeguard said we could go swimming, but when I say I want to "swim" I really mean float around the pool soaking up sun, get out to tan, repeat. Hopefully the swim team rests a few days of the week. We found the track and decided we could jog there and we're going tomorrow. Even though it's 80 degrees, it's not too hot, there's a nice breeze to work out.

We found the subway here and the guard inside told us what bus to take to the beach. It's only 75cents so maybe we can donate 25 to any homeless person we see on the way. We got Quizno's after, which was soo good, I don't know why I don't ever go there in the States. I guess daylight saving's time is a curse everywhere because it got dark around 6 so we've just been in the apartment online and looking over student teaching stuff.

I just can't wait for the festival tomorrow! I will surely come back with stories to tell and hopefully only good things.

Why Puerto Rico?

So it's been a long time coming, but I'm finally in my last semester at The University of Akron, and being an education major, that means I get to spend it paying a full time tuition while holding a full time job teaching children. This backwards concept is better known as Student Teaching.

Since I'm more obsessed with the Spanish part of my Spanish Education degree and don't plan on getting a job as soon as I graduate (because I wish to travel more and get my Master's in Spanish), I decided that I wanted an experience that focused more on my Spanish.

My university shared 2 partnerships with Spanish speaking countries: one in Mexico City and one in San Juan, PR. My friend Jenn and I signed right up for Mexico since it was the cheaper option. We e-mailed with excited teachers, talked with our home-stay teacher and even learned about our classroom placements. Our magic carpet was pleasantly ripped out from under our feet when the study abroad office informed us that it would be a liability to send us to Mexico with the increase in crime there. They had shared that this had been the policy for a few semesters, but why should the College of Education keep tabs on that when they can let their students' hearts be crushed in a more personal way?

Anyways, our sights turned towards Puerto Rico, our only other hope of skipping January and February in Ohio and practicing our Spanish. I'm beyond excited for this experience! Jenn and I will be living in on-campus housing at the University of Puerto Rico in their capital, San Juan. We will be teaching 6th grade Spanish literature at the university's lab school. Our teacher sounds very nice and let us know we will be teaching grammar, then the book "The boy in the Striped Pajamas," and "The Color of my Words." (Both of which will be in Spanish, of course).

Being the lazy person I am, I am much more excited to spend hours on the beach and taking millions of pictures. However, this is going to look awesome on my resume and give me a teaching experience that will be much different than here in the States. I will learn more in these next 2 months than any of my college classes could ever teach me, and that makes it worth all of the money I have spent and plan on spending (mostly on cute dresses).

Anyways, if you can bear all this sarcasm that I can't seem to get rid of, stay tuned, and I will let you know if all this work is worth the mini vacations I plan on taking at any spare moment on the island.
Adios Amigos!

Birthday in Cancún

I haven't posted on here in a while, but figured I should start back up again considering I will be spending the next 2 months in Puerto Rico.

Anyways, all the way back in July, my older sister Jessica took me to Cancún to celebrate my birthday. We spent 4 days in the Zona Hotelera at the Flamingo Resort. It was all inclusive and our cheapest option and actually really nice.
When we arrived, our room wasn't ready so the hotel watched our bags while we got a few things to eat in the restaurant, which had a Spain theme that day, and headed to the bathrooms to change into our swim suits. Packed deeper into our suitcases was our sunscreen, which we decided to do without as we headed to the beach. The water was beautiful and the sand was white and floating through the waves seemed surreal because it was sooo nice. We were able to see all the hotels down the strip and other vacationers doing water sports. We then visited the pool where we played bingo and Jessica won a shirt.
The next day, my birthday, I wanted to visit the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, so we signed up for that trip. We took a bus from our hotel and were unaware that this trip would take all day and the site was 3 hours away. On the way, we stopped at a small Mayan village where you could buy all sorts of hand-crafted souvenirs. Then, we went to the pyramids. It was so cool to see all of the old ruins. There was their old ball field, platforms for sacrifice, and of course the pyramid of Kulkulkan. It had a total of 365 stairs and faces in a way that respects the equinox. Once upon a time, tourists were allowed to climb the stairs and go to the top, but this has changed to preserve the pyramid. It started to rain while we were there and there was a huge dark cloud over the pyramid, which is kind of creepy considering it was constructed for sacrifice. There is a hotel built near the property where we had a buffet lunch with traditional Mexican food. My favorite thing were the tacos with hand-made tortillas and pork with good salsas. We also walked around the hotel a bit. When we got on the bus, we were taken to Valladolid, a colonial city nearby. I was particularly excited because I had actually lived in a city called Valladolid in Spain when I studied there. It was very cute, but they just had us look around from the bus and we were on our way to the Senote which is a water source under ground filled with minerals and blind fish. Since we decided not to use sunscreen the first day, I really wanted to go into the water because it is said to have healing properties. The water was really cold but I still went in. There was a group performing on a small platform in the middle, like tribal dancers. There was also a farm-like setting with peacocks, chickens, goats and a horse. We were driven back to the hotel for the night and tried relaxing in the hot tub, but the hot tub wasn't up to our "hot standards" so we just watched Finding Nemo in Spanish and went to bed.
We spent the last day swimming some more and enjoying the beach and decided to go shopping afterwards. We wanted to get some souvenirs and go to the famous flea market so we hopped on the bus to go into the city. We had to get on the right one and pay a dollar and then find our way to the market. This was confusing because there were a few places falsely labeled because tourists usually don't know where they are going. Some people helped us to the market, and everything was so much cheaper than at the shopping center in the tourist area. We were able to get something for everybody. On the way back, we weren't sure where the bus stop was so we had to ask for some more help. It was so packed on the bus and so hot.
Well, that's most of what I remember about the trip. One night we had dinner on the beach as well, but I forget when that was.

Akron Art Museum

This past weekend, I went to the Akron Art Museum for the first time. It is free on the first sunday of the month, so that's when I went. It is a pretty small museum, but the exhibit that was featured was interesting. It was about different fabrics and their use in art. A few of the pictures were made totally of fabrics, others had fabrics woven or dyed or had rhinestones on them. One really spectacular piece was made of sequined fabrics from a thrift store put patched together. After that exhibit was one that featured local photography from Ohio. It was a little older, and was weird to see popular landmarks from a few decades ago. There were some other really wacky and bright colored sculptures in the museum which made it more interesting than a regular art museum. They even had a few Warhols. Downstairs in the museum, they have less art and it all consisted of realistic paintings and portraits from local artists. Those were really pretty, but not as exciting as the pieces upstairs. The museum also has a cafe in it and a gift shop. It was a nice day so we walked around downtown Akron for a little. It looks like a miniature city and is really cute.

Artist for a Day - Local Fun

For those of you who don't know, I live in Parma, OH which is just south of Cleveland. Since Italy, I haven't gone anywhere new, but I have found some fun things to do locally. My favorite thing to do now is go to a place called "Artist for a Day" in North Olmsted, OH. They have unpainted pottery pieces for you to paint in any color with all kinds of sponges, stamps, and other tools to aid painting your piece of pottery. I have painted mostly kitchen items such as plates and cookie jars, but they also offer figurines, cups, light switch plates, and even hair brushes. It makes for a relaxing day to go and paint something for yourself or a friend. They also have events such as birthday parties and diva nights. My favorite time to go there is on Mondays that are holidays, because they are usually closed on Mondays. On these days, there is a prize wheel to spin after painting, and last time I won free paint time for a year. They also give you a coupon for a free sub at Subway, which is in the same plaza. They glaze and fire the pottery after you leave and then you can pick it up in a week. My first pieces were okay, but since going so much, they've gotten a lot better. If you want more information, you can visit artistforaday.com.
Other places I enjoy visiting include Legacy Village and Beachwood Place. They have really nice shopping centers and really nice restaurants. Tomorrow, we are going to one of our favorite restaurants at Beachwood Place called Maggianos. They have great Italian food.
Next week, I will be going to the Akron Art Museum. I'm sure it will be interesting, and if not, I'm going there on a free admission day, so I'll write about that next week.

Last Day in Italy

Today was our last day in Italy, and we began packing as soon as we woke up. When we were finished, we went upstairs for breakfast and had some tiramisu and orange juice. Valentino’s parents went out to shop for the lunch they were going to make us. While they were out, Valentino took us around Vanzaghello, the city he lives in. He took us to the town square and we went in some stores and then into his favorite bar that he always goes to with his friends. We had a type of orange soda and then left. He took us to see his basketball arena because he plays for the city. He also coaches a children’s team and is a referee. After that, we went back to his house where his mom was preparing spaghetti. First, we had ham sandwich things, and then we got the spaghetti with pieces of ham in it. At first, it was embarrassing to eat the spaghetti in front of Italians because they are so much better at twirling. We got the hang of it, though, and his dad kept saying “bravo!” when we successfully twirled the pasta. When we finished the spaghetti, his mom brought us some meat, bread, and parmesan cheese. Last but not least, they brought us more tiramisu. Finally, we were off to the airport. We had to wait a while until we could check in, so we went to a café in the airport. I got hot chocolate and Tiffany got tea, which is spelled “the” here. Tiffany has been coughing a lot, so Valentino’s dad went to the store to buy here some cough medicine. Valentino’s mother gave us the recipe for tiramisu so we can try to make it at home. They walked us all the way to security and watched until we went through. They’re really nice and I’m going to miss them. If Valentino comes to America I am going to show him around and take him to see Lebron James in a basketball game because that is his favorite player. They said any time we come back to Europe we can stay with them.

Dinner and a Car Crash

We went out to dinner with Valentino's friends. One of his friends works at the restaurant we went to, so we got a few complimentary items. The restaurant is part of a hotel and is really nice. We got so much food though. First, they brought bread, an alfredo pizza, and raw meat balls on top of lemons. We didn't eat the raw meatballs though. They also brought us all a glass of champagne. We ordered our food and I got steak and fries and Tiffany got a pasta with fish and caviar. Both were really good and Valentino asked to waiter to bring us a whole extra plate of fries because we are American. After eating the meal, the waiter brought us a plate full of desserts. There was almond biscotti, strawberries, and apple cake. We ate some of it and then they brought us some chocolates to eat. I'm sort of getting used to being full constantly. After dinner, we met with more of Valentino's friends and they wanted to go to a pub. We found one, but they said it was empty and wanted more people in it. I told them that it's empty now, but if we go inside it will be full because together we had about 8 people in our group. They agreed and we went inside and ordered drinks. We all left after one drink but it took us forever to get in the car because they all talk so much to each other. Finally, we were going out of the parking lot and Valentino's friend was going really fast to look cool. Because of how fast we were going, we almost hit a pole but he dodged it and ended up hitting a stop sign with his front right tire instead. I could not believe he knocked down the stop sign. The tire cover flew across the street, part of the bumper came off, and his tire became flat. Valentino, Tiffany, and I had to get home, so his other friends took us. I hope that his other friend's car is okay though.
Tomorrow we leave Italy, and I'm really sad to go. We've had so much fun here, and Valentino's family has been really nice.

The Mall and Town Center

Yesterday at dinner Tiffany was too full to eat her tiramisu but was upset because she really likes that dessert, so when we woke up this morning Valentino said he had a surprise for her. His mom made Tiffany homemade tiramisu in a huge container. We had that for breakfast. The orange juice we have for breakfast is really good too, but we only saw a container with a pear on it, so we asked what kind of juice we were drinking. Valentino said that we were drinking orange juice that his mom squeezed herself. I was really surprised, and it’s really good orange juice. Today, Valentino told us we were going to an authentic Italian market. We wore warm clothes because we thought it would be outside. When we arrived, we saw that it was a shopping mall. He must not have known the right word for it, so I told him that it’s called a mall. They have a grocery store in the mall, and it’s huge and 2 floors. Because of this, you can take a shopping cart through the whole mall if you want to. And since people push around shopping carts, their escalators are like moving sidewalks that are ramps to go to the second floor. I’ve never seen anything like it. Tiffany and I found this store that had really good sales. We bought jeans for about 10 euro and shirts for about 6 euro. Valentino also took us to what he called “Italy’s first technology store.” The store was like a best buy because it had any electronic you needed. I guess they are just starting to get stores like that. He also showed us a store like Dick’s, but called Decathlon, that had all kinds of sports material. After the mall, we went to lunch at his Aunt and Uncle’s café. It was really cute and all the furniture and napkin holders were covered in snake skin, and Valentino said that his family did that themselves. I had lasagna and Tiffany had a sandwich. Both were really good. Afterwards, we had chocolate croissants. Next, we went to the town center that we went to last night to do some more shopping. Valentino took us to the Euro store, which is kind of like a dollar store. There were some fun things in there. We met some of Valentino’s friends at a café there. We got hot chocolate, but it came with a spoon. I asked how to eat it, and Valentino said to scoop it with my spoon. I told him that in America, we just drink it. When we scooped it, it was more like hot pudding than hot chocolate. It was really good though. One of his friends drove us back to his house and later we are going to his friend’s restaurant for more Italian food.

The Bruschetta Fraud, Valentino's Dad, and Strange Toilets

We ended up going out to dinner tonight with Valentino and his parents in the town where he goes to school. We drove there in his dad’s Mercedes. His dad always goes really fast in that car and it’s a lot of fun. In Italy, you also get points deducted you’re your license for traffic violations, only here you start with 20 points. Valentino said his mom only has 4 points left so she hardly drives now, but his dad has all 20 points even though he always speeds through red lights, makes U-turns, and drives too fast. The town we went to for dinner had a lot of stores in it, just like the ones in Milan. His parents had some errands to run, so they told us to go to the restaurant and get a table. The people at the restaurant told Valentino he needed a reservation, so we went back outside to call his dad. In Italy, it’s rude to be on the phone inside of places. Valentino always steps outside to take calls or he walks away from where we are. So his dad came to meet us, and Valentino explained the situation. Even though his dad is short, he’s really tough. He said “no, no” and winked at Tiffany and I and then went into the restaurant to yell at the workers. In about 2 minutes, he came out and said “viente minutos,” which means 20 minutes, and then we went to a café to wait. Tiffany and I just had to laugh at that. Valentino says that his dad is the boss of Italy because he always tells other people what to do. The café we went to was really cute, and we got bruschetta and cute little fruity drinks. So all this time, America has misled us when it comes to bruschetta. Bruschetta doesn’t always have to be hard bread with tomatoes and onions and olive oil and cheese. Bruschetta just means “little bread” and can have almost anything on it. We got about 6 different types of bruschetta at the café. One had salami with another vegetable on it, one had shrimp and a sauce on it, another had ham and a vegetable, one looked like a sandwich, and another had something like a salad with dressing on it, and the last one looked like it had salmon on it. They were really cute. I wish that they had different bruschettas in America. We went to the restaurant, and Tiffany and I spotted gnocchi on the menu, so we had to get that. We got 4 cheese gnocchi, which was really tender and good. We were so full from the bruschetta that we hardly ate anything, but Valentino said not to worry about it. He and his family ate everything on their plates, though. Valentino and his dad got spaghetti, which they twirled like pros, but his mom got just vegetables. Valentino said that she had a lot of food from the holiday so she is trying to eat light now. During the meal, Tiffany had to go to the bathroom. When she came back, though, she told me she didn’t go because the toilet was in the floor. Literally, the floor was flat and had a porcelain dip in it which was the toilet. They also had 2 places for your feet to go so you don’t slip and fall in. Valentino explained that it was cheaper to have that kind of toilet. I didn’t get to see it, but it sounds really strange to me. Even though Tiffany and I were stuffed, they insisted we get tiramisu. Tiffany didn’t eat any, so I ate the whole thing because it was so good. Valentino said that Tiffany can have tiramisu tomorrow since she was too full today. We watched some Italian TV when we got home, which were American shows with Italian voice over.

Milano

Today, we went to Milan to see some sites and shop. You have to be 18 to drive here, so Valentino, Tiffany, and I went by train and subway into the city. First, we stopped at an old castle, where the King and Queen of Milan used to live. It was old and looked very medieval. It was a huge building though, and when we exited the back, we saw people skiing. The funny thing about it, though, was that there was no snow in Milan, it was all fake. And the hill was fake too, it was set up kind of like those tall slides in the IX center that you use a potato sack to ride down, only they put fake snow on it and people skied down, I've never seen anything like it. Next, we started to shop. All down the streets to the town center (which is kind of like a Plaza Mayor from Spain) there are shops. Some of them were the same as American stores, others the same as Spain, and others were totally different. All the stores are having sales now for the holiday, so it was nice. The only problem was that since Milan is one of the fashion capitals, a lot of the stores sold designer things so they were even expensive on sale. We got to the town center and there was a huge white church in it. The building was really intricate and so was the inside. There were a lot of sculptures both in and outside the church. There was also a Christmas tree in the town center that was really tall, and it was surrounded by Tiffany blue boxes, but we did not see the Tiffany's store. To the right of the church were a bunch of giant pink plastic snails in front of an art museum. Valentino said that the snails were supposed to be a work of art. We found a European store that I really like, Zara, and spent most of our shopping time there. We went in their department store too which is called La Recinante. It had seven floors and all types of designers. We saw stores like Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. They also had a perfume called Aqua di Parma, and I explained to Valentino that Parma is my home town. He thinks that I am just from Akron because that was where my whole group went to school when we met in Spain. Valentino told us that eating can be expensive in Milan, so we went to a Burger King in the town center so it was packed. We waited in line for about 30 minutes to get our food. We also had to pay 10 cents for each ketchup packet! The cashier asked me how many packets I wanted, and I didn't know what to say. He kept repeating himself because he thought I didn't understand, but really I am just used to grabbing a handful and getting more if I needed it. We ended up getting 5 packets and it worked out well too. Luckily, we found a place to sit quickly. We went home by train again, and when we arrived at his house, a bunch of his grandparents and aunts and uncles were there, so we had to greet each one of them with kisses on their cheeks and awkwardly stand there because we don't speak Italian. We took a nap and now we are waiting for dinner in about 2 hours. After dinner, we are going out with Valentino and some of his friends. Tomorrow, he said he will show us around his town.

First Day in Italia

Today, Tiffany and I arrived in Italy. It was not an easy trip, though. Chris’ friend was supposed to drive us to the airport, but he was out of town so Tiff and I had to walk all the way to the train station in the snow with 5 bags! We also had to switch to 3 different trains. People helped us along the way, but it was no picnic. When we finally got to the airport, we were relieved and got a suit case cart. We checked in, had a nice lunch in the terminal, and waited for our flight. We had a lay over in Zurich, Switzerland and then had a delayed flight to Milan because of the weather. I was worried because I told Valentino that we’d arrive at 9:20, but we didn’t get in until 9:50. He and his parents were waiting, though, and we greeted each other traditionally, with a kiss on each cheek. His parents dress really fashionably, I think it’s because they live near a fashion capital. His mom has red hair and was wearing all black and super high heels. She is really short though, and so is his dad who wore ripped jeans. They told us they were taking us out to eat a traditional Italian dinner. The city we drove through reminded me a lot of how Spain looked. At the restaurant, Valentino’s parents ordered us 4 big pizzas because they wanted us to be able to try the different types. They were all thin crust and really good. His dad got some pasta. Afterwards, they insisted we have dessert. They didn’t have tiramisu for Tiff, but we got chocolate gelato instead. They also made us eat a warm apple cake with chocolate dipping sauce. It was different and also really good. At his house, Tiff and I have almost our own apartment. We’re downstairs with a bed, TV, table and chairs, our own kitchen, and our own bathroom. It’s really nice! Tomorrow, we are all going to Milan to shop, I can’t wait!

Happy German New Year!

Today, we woke up early for Chris’ “big surprise,” when we find out that we were going to go to a castle but it is closed for New Years Eve. That was kind of a set back, but we took out the map of Landsberg and planned to go to a castle-like building that we could walk to. We went into town to recycle some bottles; you get a quarter for like each bottle you return here, and eat and go to the bank. Then, we climbed some stairs until we were at this tall castle tower. We took a lot of pictures at the top of the hill and went around to little shops. Tiff was getting cold so we stopped at a bakery for hot tea. It was hard to find a place to go into because a lot of shops were closing early for the holiday. We went home to wait to go out to a restaurant to eat, but the Bavarian ones were closed too. I guess a lot of places are closed for New Years Eve. Instead of going out, Chris invited 4 of his friends over and made us all dinner. We had cheese tortellinis with tomato sauce and pizza. I really like their pizza here, the sauce is sweet, not salty. Then, we went over another one of Chris’ friend’s house. At the house, the kid covered all the walls and ceiling with metallic wrapping paper and then put on a strobe light so it would bounce off all the walls. They played music called “electro,” which to me sounded the same as techno, but they insisted it was different. A few minutes before midnight, everyone goes outside and brings fireworks with them. Then, at midnight, everyone begins to set them off. They don’t just set off little fireworks that you would buy at Walmart, they set off real professional fireworks right in the middle of the streets. It’s kind of scary to be really close to them and it’s really loud. While we were walking, a firework set off and something flew into Tiffany’s eye. She rubbed it a little bit and she was fine but it was kind of scary. After all the fireworks were done, we went home. On the way, a lot of fire trucks and ambulances were going through the streets. People must have gotten hurt. The fireworks are really close to everyone and to houses. It was crazy over here, but I couldn’t imagine if people in the US were aloud to set off professional fireworks in the streets. It would probably be a mess!