Pictures of Paris and vado a casa!

Yay! I'm coming home on Friday! After my 4 exams 1 paper and one presentation....eww....

There isn't really a word for home in Italian. When you say I'm going home, Vado a casa, it translates to 'I am going to my house." There isn't a difference between the word house and home. I feel like there is a big difference though. Forgive me for going sentimental on you, but I've been thinking about the idea of home a lot. When you are young and moving from school to where you grew up to who knows where, you have several homes at once. In a way, home is a transient idea. I think home might mean different things to different people. But to me, home doesn't have to just be a place, though I'd say Virginia, particularly the area of Richmond and New Kent is my home. I think more importantly home is the people that you love and who love you no matter where you are.
One of the other girls and I were talking about our experience here and we decided that we had learned something similar. A lot of people want to travel, which is nice, but why? You may look at that postcard of Tuscany or where ever and feel that a place could release you from whatever you are tired of in your day to day life. "Oh if i could just go there, if I could just be there, live there away from it all. Then everything would be ok." But I have been living "there". And yah, its cool and all. I have been inspired in a way by the beauty of the hills or whatever, but after awhile, maybe after you've had time to yourself to think and reflect, after you've seen the monuments that are so famous and met the locals, you just want to be home. Nothing goes away. Everything isn't perfect, and until you can find the adventure in your own day to day life, getting away to somewhere exotic isn't really going to help all that much.
Some of us have had the opportunity to travel some on our own too, which is good in a way, it helps build confidence in yourself. All that you see and experience is nice, but I think we have learned that no monument or amazing place will mean nearly as much unless you have someone to share it with. It's the people that matter more in a way.
We have this amazing ability as humans to create new "homes" where ever we go. If we have to, we can make that home on our own in a strange place and be satisfied enough for a little while. But once you have a home that's more permanent, whether its a location, or a person or a whole group of people, you don't forget that, and you can't help but miss it when you are far away no matter how many great adventures you have. I can't appreciate the amazing opportunity that I have had enough, its been amazing. I've learned so much and seen so much. But I am ready to come home now. There is a boy here who is going to Australia next semester, but he's traveling around by himself meeting up with some friends here and there rather than ever going home. I think he's pretty brave. I could never go to NZ without at least coming home for a little while.

Anyway, there are pictures from Paris up now~ sorry it took me so long. My friends Leigh has more I can show you too sometime. http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin YAY! I hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas! Mara and I have been listening to Christmas music! I hope every one's exams went well and wish me luck for the next crazy 3 days! Have a great day!

ombrello dodging in the street, friday the 13th and people who are different

Oh my goodness its been raining for days! I think I might float away. Or have seasonal affective disorder. Everyone seems pretty excited about almost being done and coming home though~ Its so funny, when you walk everywhere in a city, even a small one like Siena, it becomes necessary to doge people. Then add umbrellas to the mix and its ridiculous. I find myself weaving and ducking or twirling my umbrella up so as not to hit people. Walking down the street is like a video game...haha.

I forgot about a few interesting things to tell you...Real Da Vinci code stuff....
Friday the 13th!
So everyone has heard about Friday the 13th, supposed to be bad luck or whatever, well I figured out where it came from. There was a group of knights called the Knights Templar who I believe began in France, and were formed to protect religious Pilgrims. You may have heard of them from the DaVinci code, National treasure, Kingdom of Heaven, Indian Jones? Well they are real, and ended up being really powerful because they started some of the first banking systems in Europe. They would loan money, store money etc. They even kind of came up with the first travelers' checks/credit cards for Pilgrims. It was safer to have a piece of paper as a pilgrim that you could redeem places instead of carrying your entire wealth around with you. So they ended up getting too powerful the kings thought, they were actually lending money to the kings for wars. So at one point King Philip of France is in lots of debt to the Templars so he accuses them of heresy. They had secret ceremonies and initiations so that was the basis. Well the Church didn't agree and thought the Templars were innocent, but Philip and the other monarchs in debt to the Templar Knights persuaded the Pope to go along with it, and they were all condemned to death, and their assets seized. They were arrested Friday the 13th of October 1307. The ones who escaped went to Scotland, and alot in Tuscany. In two of the contradas here, there are Templar symbols everywhere and in one there is a meeting room where members still meet today. People think they helped found the first bank of Siena. Later lots of templars, still involved in banking, moved to the US. - I learned this in class, a girl did a research project on it.

Our professor made a great point, because for centuries it was thought that the templers were really condemned for heresy. "You have to read between the lines a little with history, sometimes the ones with the privilege to write the history, only tell you what they want you to know. Of course Philip and the other monarchs condemned the Templars simply because they couldn't pay back the money. But it was widely thought for a very long time that the Templars were rightfully condemned for their corruption." We may never truely know what happened sometimes in history, we can only know some one's version.

Alchemic symbols and Masonry
Alchemy, was as you may know the knowledge supposedly of turning other metals into gold. A study that later became Chemistry. What most people don't see is that the whole purifying metal into gold thing is more metaphoric than anything. The idea is to transform. To transform yourself in order to achieve and obtain enlightenment. It wasn't forbidden to try and perform Alchemy, just illegal to try and sell gold that you "made". Alchemy was banned and became chemistry in 1666, but masonry is connected to it. The free masons are a fraternal secret society, who gained quite a lot of money at one point and were formed on Christan principles. Their main symbols include, a triangle with an eye or light inside of it, and an eagle. Reminiscent of Ancient Egyptian symbols and appearing in other places throughout history. Where have you seen these? In your wallet perhaps? look on a dollar bill~ The eagle is particularly interesting, an eagle flies the highest and represents awareness and the ability to see, often it symbolizes Jesus or John the Baptist. You can find the eagle on various coats of arms, and it was often the symbol of great empires. It was used in Egypt, Persian Empire, Byzantine Empire, by Napoleon, By Rome, and you guessed it.......The United States of America. Interesting.

Etruscans
The ancient people who lived in Tuscany before the Roman empire, were super cool. Very Feminist, women had lots of equal opportunities in society and they had their own names not connected to their husbands or fathers. There were also matriarchal legacies. Its actually a tradition that has stuck in Tuscany some. My Professor Amanda when she was young had like 4 names, b/c she had bother her father and mothers surnames. Another really cool thing, some of their artifacts are really ancient. For example, something interesting. You know how some Catholic paintings and christian paintings in general have halos around some one's head to symbolize that they are holy or a saint or spiritual, well there are Etruscan artifacts with people with the halos, and there are even figures of a woman and child with the halos! This is a culture from like 800 bc. Kind of crazy.

Other great quotes from my professor Amanda, the one that lived all over the world and is now also our new director, she's cool, we all like her a lot.

"History comes from the winners, always be critical. Knowledge makes you free from everything, even yourself. Look, Observe, Connect. Always."

"Yah members of my family were accused of heresy, eh, its a good thing I live now, b/c if I lived then I'd probably been burned at the stake too" -Amanda

something like, "Its hard to be different, but you know, its important that there are people who are different in society. Sometimes there are people who are just ahead of their times. The people who are different help society progress, they push everyone else and shake things up. Its good to be different, because if we were all the same we would never move forward."

So be different, its ok. Really.
Have a great day everyone!- I will try to make myself do work now.

Parigi!

getting ready to come home!
Its a pretty crazy thought actually. Today I went to the laundry mat for the last time, to make my clothes fluffy and dry, and the machine to get the laundry tokens ate my 5 euro bill! But I figured it was just homage to the Italian dryer Gods, the Roman ones that steal money. I can't tell you how ridiculously excited I get about clean, warm, soft, fresh clothes from the dryer. I will never curse a drier ever again I swear, actually I can't remember ever doing that, but now I really never will. I also met some really cool Greek girls there. I helped them figure out the machines and I told them about Siena. At first I thought they were Spanish, because I didn't recognize the Greek. They were so funny, they were videotaping the laundry mat b/c evidently they don't have those on the Greek Island they're from. Very cool. I will miss making random friends from random places, but I guess who says that needs to end.
It really is strange though thinking about coming home, I actually started organizing my things some in order to size up my packing situation. It may not be pretty, but I think I can do it. I am so excited to come home, but at the same time I'm a little rushed and distracted by all the work I'm supposed to be doing. Its also odd that I won't be returning for a very long time. I guess regrets/final thoughts, I still do have a little over a week, so I might be better with this right when I'm actually leaving. I think as of now, this was a great experience, it was tough at times, but all in all I learned a great deal about myself, people in general, the US and Europe especially. I think I said before, I really didn't feel like I clicked super well with anyone in my program, which can't be helped. Maybe I just didn't work as hard as I could have to cultivate relationships? Who knows, I got along fine with everyone, but it would have been nice to have someone here that I was really close to. Its funny how you just don't always find that, and yet you know what I mean I think. There are some people you just immediately connect with in your life. That doesn't always happen when you want it too but maybe it was more about me figuring myself out and gaining confidence in myself on this trip anyway. I certainly feel like I can handle a lot more now. I am not so afraid of the idea of growing up and living on my own anymore, and I know I can go places and do things on my own.
I kind of wish I had explored Tuscany better, but I really just ended up not having nearly as much time as I thought I would what with school and all. This is silly but the only thing that particularly bothers me is that I never got my house to figure out recycling, they kept doing it wrong, I'd put things aside to be recycled and someone would put it in the trash (Maria Francesca). And I couldn't ever find the right colored bags, it was just ahh! And I feel bad every single time I throw something away that could be recycled. So yah I feel a little guilty about that whole thing, I should have tried harder. I mean other than that, I think I should have maybe kept up better with exercising and things for myself. Everything was just so much harder here. I was always so tired from everyday things. So I think I'll cut myself some slack on that one.

Parigi (Paris in Italian)
Paris was awesome! And I had no idea what to expect. I was kind of like eh, and Leigh and I decided to just go and see it. I thought French people would be really rude too. Nope, they are very cool. I mean with any city, you are going to run into at least a few rude people, but for the most part anyone I asked for help was very nice. Even if they didn't speak English they tried to help anyway. I did feel awkward not knowing French. I would like to learn some and go back. It was just such a beautiful and clean city. There is so much culture and I'd even use the word classy. We went to Museums and ate amazing food and and went to cool coffee houses where people sang. We got crepes and crembule, which I'm not spelling correctly. I would suggest it to anyone, but I would say learn some french- they don't really speak English much, its not like Rome or Venice. They do kind of expect you to learn some of their language if you come to visit. They aren't so concerned with tourists. They are kind of like us actually. The stereotype of them being isolationists and having extreme pride in their culture and language. Hello! Americans! We complain like hell when tourists come here who don't speak English and expect us to figure out what they're saying. So I found being polite and trying got me pretty far. I don't say this much about cities, but on first impression, Leigh and I agreed that if we spoke french we'd consider living in that city. I mean french is kind of fun anyway. You just feel silly moving your mouth into the necessary sounds. I walked around mumbling in french, singing flight of the conchords' foux de fa fa, and trying to pronounce things. I was entertained.
Some Crazy examples of how small the world is-So Leigh and I were at the Eiffel tower taking pictures and walking around. It was so cold but very pretty b/c Christmas lights were all over the city. And a girl our age approached us cautiously and asked us to take her picture. Relieved to find out that we spoke English we started chatting. Turns out she is studying abroad too, in Northern Ireland, and she asks us where we're from, we say Richmond. She has a friend in Ireland from Richmond, our only friend that is there is a girl named Britney Johnston. OMG, turns out her best friend in Ireland is our Britney who we've been friends with since freshmen year. She has lost her friend from home so we take her with us because we are going to the Louvre because its students get in free night. So in the Louvre, we see some girls who are in Leigh's art class in Milan, Leigh says hello. They turn out to be cool, so we all stick together and the 1st girl, Courtney, figures out that she happens to go to school back in the states with one of the girls from Leigh's art class! Then! we were walking around and Leigh and I saw a whole group of people from Richmond that we knew kind of, and by that point we weren't really all that surprised. They were going in the opposite direction, but we said Hi. We find the Ireland girl's friend from home as well in the Louvre. So the now six of us who all know each other in very weird ways end up hanging out the rest of the time in Paris. We went to dinner as a big group both nights. I liked all of them a lot and it was just a great weekend. So weird to make instant friends then maybe never see them again?
On the way home I also met some American students in the airport who are studying in Barcelona and they were great, out gates were next to each other's so we hung out for awhile. We swapped stories and ended up talking about Harry Potter. Its just funny how you meet people and quickly get a long like that. In the end, when you have to part, all you can do is ask for their name to facebook them. Its kind of amazing, my generation is so oddly interconnected through school and studying abroad now. People you met and were friends with sort of stay connected all over the country and even the world. I'd love to study the impact of the study abroad combined with tools like facebook phenomena. What it will mean for the future of the world is yet to be seen. So many people my age are not just traveling, but living in other countries around the world for extended periods of time, when even our parents were never offered such an amazing opportunity. Its crazy.

oldie- sorry- dec.3

the platform really exists and my first italian thanksgiving-dec.3
I think after all my traveling this year I'll be ready to take a break, especially from cities. Don't get me wrong I've had some amazing experiences, but I was thinking about it the other day, I will have gone to several major cities within about a two month span of time. Dublin, London, Paris, Rome, then for new years probably New York. Kind of crazy. So tomorrow I am going to Paris and I'm meeting Leigh, so I just wanted to give a quick update about my trip to London. I can't believe its almost time to come home.

Before London
Dad and Carolyn came which was a lot of fun, though I feel bed that they didn't have very good weather, when we were leaving it was snowing north of us. But they did bring me lots of nice American things like peanut butter and cranberries. All of us in our program made thanksgiving for each other Wed. night too, which was really nice because it was most of our first thanksgivings away from home. I think we were all proud of our cooking and organizing abilities. It was a good thanksgiving. Then Dad and Carolyn and I went out to dinner for the really Thurs. night and that was nice, I got some pasta that kind of tasted like stuffing.

LONDON!
I had a great time with Mary in London. We had Thanksgiving again, So I kind of had 3 thanksgivings. During the day Mary had some work to do so I mostly did the tourist thing and went site seeing. There were Christmas decorations up and it was beautiful. English people were cool. I think I like Irish people better though, they were just more fun and entertaining. British people were normal. It was a lot like being home in America. But they did have different words and phrases that were entertaining, I couldn't help but do the accent sometimes when people were talking to me, it was tough..haha. Oh and they have a great underground system, which they call the tube, makes sense. And every time you get off the train they're like, "mind the gap please".....because there is a space between the platform and train. Its amusing/annoying haha after awhile you just don't even hear it. But one time I was waiting for the subway and the doors opened and this little, 5 or so year old girl skips out with her mom, and she skips down the side of the platform singing in her adorable little 5 year old British accent, "mind the gap please!" it was the cutest thing ever.
We watched Love Actually and The Holiday and I drank English breakfast tea for breakfast. I saw all the big sites, and I went to platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross, which was fun, and enforces how much of a Harry Potter nerd I am, haha. I have some pictures you can check out. And I will be sure to write again when I get back from Paris, I'm kind of in crunch time with school though so It might be short. I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving, and the end of school is wrapping up well! See you soon!!http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martinits the Thanksgiving and London ones~

Sorry- this one is old nov.21

Come si dice procrastination nov.21

I'm actaully doing pretty good now, I've written several pages of a rough draft. I haven't been too exciting lately, mostly doing work and everyday things, but I hadn't written in awhile so I figured I should. Last week one of the girl who had been sick in our program earlier in the semester went to the doctor and found out that she was getting worse and needed to go home, so we had a going away dinner for her. She has Crohn´s Disease I believe. It was sad that she had to leave so soon. (Linda, this is Sarah who you met in Venice). I think it made us all think about enjoying our time here to the fullest though because I've heard more than one person same that they are about ready to go home. But then we had to think, Sarah actually has to go home. I will be ready for home, but if I had to leave right now I think I'd be pretty disappointed. One more month! 4 finals, 3 research papers, a trip to London and a Trip to Paris away. Evidently the expression cowlick is similar in Italiano something like te leccate la mucca. I thought that was funny.

Off to a good start with Otago
when I was procrastinating, I emailed a professor in NZ about doing research and she wrote back pretty quickly and was really nice to me. She gave me several options and seemed like she was excited to have me come and work in the department. So me and NZ off to a good start I'd say.

Maternity leave's ulterior motives
We talked about vacation and leave policies plus health care in EU class the other day. She was saying that italians get about 28 days paid vacation a year and more like 35 if they are in a high health risk profession. You also get a paid marriage holiday of 2 weeks if you get married. This along with their other million holidays with Saints. They certainly are laid back here. They also have parental leave policies, but she made it sound like mostly mothers take it. Mothers get at the very least 2 months before the baby and three months after but up to 3 months before and 5 months after leave paid at 80% of their salary. You can take more time but you would get like 50% after that time. They are required to give you your job back. Not too bad I feel like. She thinks they make this so appealing because there is such a low birth rate in Italy. Couples now get married very late and a woman doesn't usually have a child until the age of I think she said late 30s. So they are trying to encourage people to have kids.
Health care was interesting too. So when you go into the hospital everyone has insurance so they just pay a co-pay similar to ours with insurance. If you are unemployed and you have a document saying so you don't have to pay. They do actually also have private insurance that employers can get for people. And that just makes it completely free so you don't have to pay a copay at all. You don't have to legally be married to get benefits from someone you live with either. If you live with someone, and it doesn't even have to be a long time, you can get their benefits. Because she lives with her boyfriend and uses his insurance. We're also learning a lot about il palio, but I will talk about that another time. I'm watching Italian equivalent of funniest home videos with Maria..haha

dodgy dublin, glass ponies, and what is an olive garden anyway?

So I am alive! Sorry its been so long since I've written. I had a busy first week back from break so Friday and Yesterday I just kind of took it easy and slept and watched movies. I think we all need that sometimes. I could probably write a book about what I've done in the past two weeks, but I know none of you have time to read that sort of thing, so I'll go ahead and just do random highlights~ it is pretty long so I mean whenever you get a chance.

Dodgy Dublin!
Dublin wasn't really dodgy at all, but there's a story. The first Irish person I met was on the plane and sitting next to me. She was cool, it turns out that her daughter is about my age studying abroad in West Virginia. What a random place to go? Anyway, we landed and it wasn't the smoothest transition to ground, she turns to me and goes, "that landing was a bit dodgy wasn't it! "(its a lot funnier if you picture the Irish accent) and I was like um, yeah it was kind of dodgy. Its a good word.

The fact that they spoke English was a little weird for us. We've gotten so used to having to speak to random people in Italian. Any little interaction is difficult here because you have to think of how to say things. And I'd get that feeling of a little nervousness before speaking to a stranger, then I'd realize I could speak English. We all accidentally spoke in Italian sometimes at first, but Ireland was about 10 times more like the US than Italy. They're culture seemed much more similar, they had American food (which we took advantage of -Starbucks, a diner that played Grease music, and TGI Fridays, and bagels and peanut butter), and spoke English, and they dressed more like us and just had a more similar mentality it seemed. Its funny though, in Italy we try to blend in by speaking Italian with an Italian accent and dressing like them for instance, but in Ireland we had to stand out a little in voice, b/c we didn't feel like we should speak with Irish accents, though by the end especially if we'd been to several pubs, we accidentally would say things with Irish accents. They probably hated us. haha. They didn't think we were American though unless we told them. They thought we were Italian, or I got Brazilian twice..which was kind of weird.

Social cues were more like the US too. In a big city in Italy like Milan or Naples you do not make eye contact with people while walking around, especially men, And you definitely don't smile at them, that's like saying I want to go sleep with you. And people are rude generally to you, they keep to themselves on the street. The Irish people in contrast were ridiculously friendly. They were so cool. I could smile at people! Something which is part of my nature I think. And you'd barely bump into someone and they'd start up a conversation with you. I guess we spent a lot of time with other young people too so maybe that has something to do with it.

We saw the new JAMES BOND. Which you should all go see because it has SIENA in it!!! its not really accurate on how they get across the city, but that shouldn't matter to you. I kind of liked Casino Royal a little better, I thought this plot was weaker, but the action scenes were great and again SIENA!!!! We met some cool people and our hostel was great. We mostly explored the city and really liked the Temple bar area with lots of restaurants and pubs. One of the later nights we were there, we were wandering around trying to figure out where we wanted to go. We ended up going back to our favorite pub where they almost always have live Irish music. We wandered in and got drinks. I'm not a big beer person, unlike most Irish, but I like Bulmers, its like hard apple cider kind of. And we go to find a spot and this guy spots my friend Jenna who has her JMU sweatshirt on and he says "oh my gosh you go to JMU! I go to the University of Richmond!" and I was like "WHAT!?", he looked familiar but I didn't really know him. He said there was a group of them, and a girl came around that had been in one of my classes, then I see Ned, one of my friends that pays Frisbee with me! It was crazy. He's studying in Milan and I hadn't seen him. We happened to be in the same pub at the same time in Dublin. It was crazy. So crazy. So I hung out with them the rest of the night. I didn't know anyone but Ned, they were Business school kids. very crazy though. The world really is small.

Tues Night I stayed up till about 5am to watch the election in the common room of the Hostel. It was amazing. I meant to only watch for a little while but I ended up staying up though his speech. I hung out with the old Irish guy working at the hostel and talked about politics. Ireland is a bit scewed up from what I learned. Being there though was just a really cool moment that I think I'll always remember.

We had a Wicklow adventure one night. We had this great idea to go out to the countryside but we got there kind of late and it was getting dark. I did see a fuzzy white German shepherd and we ate this amazing dinner with everything fresh and local, then on our way back to Dublin, we met Lenny. Lenny asked us if the bus was going to Dublin so we said yes, then he just started chatting. Within the first few moments of our meeting we learned that he wanted to write about 10 books, he was very interested in psychology and he has a nylon fetish, haha. He seemed pretty harmless and there were four of us and a bus so not to bad, but it was all pretty funny. He kept talking to us on the bus, and turns out he knows so much about psychology because he's been through the system so long and diagnosed with asbergus, a form of autism usually associated with being high functioning but socially awkward. He was definitely intelligent, he knew a lot about random things, but he was strange and talked to us the whole way back, at the time it was awful especially because I was getting bus sick, but later it was pretty funny. I don't know if its a good or bad thing, but the crazy guy said I'd make a great psychologist. He said he wasn't surprised it was what I wanted to do because he immediately sensed that I was a gentle and kind person. I guess he's seen enough psychologists to know?!

So I had 2 videos I put up on YouTube of Temple bar so you could see, I don't really know any easier way. The already not so awesome quality got worse though when I put it up. Its a lot darker than on mine and you can't see the crowd all around me singing so much. But they are, you can hear them. When i get home you can see al the videos they're great, but this just gives you an idea I guess. This was the night I found Ned and we were really close to the band and the crowd was so loud, and kind of drunk- hey when in Ireland~ the musicians were great~ they did play more Irish music than what I put up, they kind of gave non Irish songs their own twists too though and yes I am singing too and slightly out of tune sometimes, give me a break I was in a pub. Its not always me your hearing really loud though, just letting you know, there were people really close to me that were louder than me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXdYd55qxC0 this one is hey Jude....the audience is great you just can't see it too well This one is ridiculous, there are these two loud drunk women that are hilarious and dancing around, then watch the girl on the outside of the window...hahahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WMtfVz6xKU Anyway...thats Dublin, I want to go back to Ireland one day and spend time in the countryside. It was nice to get to my Irish roots a little this time though.

Venezia
I love Venice, its such a beautiful place. It was very amazing to see Linda too. I got to be tour guide/translator which was fun, and sometimes people in shops were so excited that I spoke Italian that they gave us discounts and things. I didn't realize how much Italian I really have learned. We met some Pigeons and went on a tour of the Islands where they make glass and lace. I ran into my friend from IES there too who was visiting with her family and we went on the tour together which was cool. I run into people randomly alot evidently. The Italians in Venice I think depend so much on tourism they were especially nice. Mostly we wandered around up and down tiny streets which was cool, went shopping for Christmas and all in all had a great time. Here is a video of a guy in Murano making a glass horse. He doesn't even have gloves on!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTiQqdzV_Bglots of other videos of the same thing come up too that might be better quality if you want to look

Friday was pretty cool, we went olive picking then hung out at the groves. Which led us to consider, what is an olive garden anyway, its a grove not a garden isn't it. All in all good fun, we got food afterwards and one of the boys, Philip, plays piano excellently and the guy teaching us brought us out a kitten to pay with. The olive oil we ate was made Wednesday and it was amazing. All we need, olives, music and kittens. That's pretty much all for now, I put up new pictures you can check out, Signs mostly in Dublin, Dublin, Venice, and Olive Picking http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin
Have a great week! Miss you all!
Love,
Melanie

Ultimo!

Exams Exams are this week, ewww... but I'm half way done already and so far so good, today we also presented our papers, which I mean my vocab wasn't the best maybe, but mine was the most entertaining I'd say. I actually had a lot of fun making a PowerPoint which is silly I guess. It was on Italian TV and I showed some clips. Its funny being here I really am sooo much better at Italian. The presentation I did today wasn't amazing but I could never have done that last semester in Richmond for example. One of the shows I looked at is Striscia la Notizia which is a show where they take pieces of other shows and news and puts them together and make it funny. Its good I've been told but they talk too fast and I don't really understand what they say. Its on every night at 8:30 and very popular. That's pretty prime time I feel, even kids are up still. The thing that makes it awful is that there are two girls that don't wear many clothes and dance around in the beginning and in the middle on the stage, that happens to also be the desk for the two old guys that host the show......seriously.... if you want here is the clip I showed class, its not anything special just one random day, actually I think earlier this month. Lots and Lots of young women aspire to be Veline evidently- kind of sad-Warning- its pretty inappropriate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VkakYBaw0&feature=related

I've been in a good mood lately

I feel like even though weird things have happen, I'm doing well. I slept a lot this weekend and did work so school isn't stressing me out too much, b/c I feel like I just have to do the work and it will be fine, compared to Richmond this isn't so bad. And it helps that my grades don't really transfer. I don't know how not to try at school though. So if I just be me, I'll be fine. Oh and I found oreos at the store on the corner and I finished lots of Study Abroad paper work for New Zealand. Did you know NZ is 12 hrs ahead of Siena even. So if its 5 pm on Tues. the East Coast of the US and its 11pm Tues. in Siena, it will be 11am in NZ on Wed. My new trick-time travel! -I will be going to the future I'm starting to recognize people, just on the street. How cool is that. And there's this cute little dog that belongs to the owner of a little bar near where I live and his name is Ultimo. When I walk by I say ciao ultimo! and pet his head, and he wags his tail and comes to me now. So two months, I fit in I guess now.

Fall Break
I finally made plans for Fall Break! I am officially going Ireland with some other students from my program! I have been doing a lot of last minute plans, but I think its good now. I will fly to Dublin, sat. Then wed. fly to Milan and stay with my friend Leigh, maybe go to Switzerland for a day, then on Fri. morning ish I am taking the train to Venice to see Linda and then back to Siena by train on Sun. evening. Should be fun. I've always wanted to go to Ireland too so we'll see I guess. I'm pretty excited- Have a nice day everyone I think I'm going to get train tickets and go home and see what the roof situation is, maybe take a nap if my bed isn't wet and then Study more!

ho venti anni...wow sei vecchia

Fried Ice Cream
We went to this great Chinese resturant in Siena the other night. We had fried ice cream there, but it was like super frozen and then deep fried. A ball of literally fried ice cream when it came out. I have no idea how they did it and I'm pretty sure its really bad for you but it was awesome!
My day
I may have found info on an environmental group in Florence, so I'm going to try and call them and get some information. Hopefully someone speaks English ok there. We'll see...Our interim director who is German came to Siena today. He's hilarious, we watched youtube videos about comedians doing parodies of American Politicians for awhile, then I read the international news which I like to do. There was a ridiculous article about Berlusconi, here's the link if you care to read it, but the beginning is the best,

ROME: This month, as markets plummeted and investors panicked, Italy's billionaire prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, watched shares in some of his own companies nose-dive 40 percent. Yet he seemed buoyant as ever, reveling until dawn at a disco in Milan after returning from a meeting with European leaders on how to tackle the financial crisis."If I sleep for three hours, I still have enough energy to make love for another three," the newspaper La Repubblica quoted him as telling the younger crowd. "I hope that when you hit 70, you're in as good shape as I am."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/22/europe/italy.php HAA soo ridiculous

Then later today I volunteered today at the Hospital with kids!!
It was a lot of fun to play with the kids in the hospital tonight and they were sooo cute! Its a bit of a challenge for me because I'm not so good with Italian. I generally get along great with kids, that speak English, but I wasn't so sure about this at first. Four of us went tonight though, so that was nice, and one of the girls with us spoke Italian very well. The Doctors that explained things to us were really nice and I mostly understood them, then we got some paper and colored pencils and books and hung out with the kids. I think that they are there long term for some reason, b/c they have school there and when they were playing tonight with us they had pajamas on. It must be a pretty good hospital too because they were from all over. Not too many kids, I mostly hung out with Roberta and Victorea who are both ten. I explained that I didn't speak Italian well and they were cute about it. Especially Roberta, Victorea spoke way too fast sometimes and I had no idea what he was saying. He got frustrated with me every once in awhile but it was mostly fine, haha.
We were drawing pictures of pumpkins (zucca) and witches and ghosts (fantasmi) for Halloween which they know about and kind of celebrate, i don't think its quite the same though. But we got along great, Roberta gave me the picture she drew of the countryside it was cute. And they both were happy to share with us what english words they knew. Evidently they learn a little English, Spanish, and french in school. They were shocked when i said i was 20, b/c when you're 10 that's really old. Roberta said when she's 20 she wants to study in another country too though, which I thought was cool, and on our way out she came to the door to wave to us.
So I guess I do ok with kids that don't speak English too, probably because I'm a 5 year old at heart anyway. I drew Halloween pictures too, and Roberta asked if I studied art at school...HA I told her no, but that was nice of her to say so. I love kids they're great. We're going to work there every Thurs evening for just an hour and a half or so, just playing with the kids, I'm excited about it. Yay!
Ciao Ciao, have a great day!

PB&J tastes like America!

So first, you don't have to write it down or anything, just think about it, and I'll explain at the end.....1- If you were an animal what animal would you be?2-Whats your favorite animal?3-Whats your least favorite animal?4-When you look at the Sea, how do you feel? Maybe think about this one a little.

by the way, I'm watching The Holiday right now dubbed in Italian....haha

Milano
I went to Milan to see Leigh and it was great! We had a lot of fun and I really feel like I got to know Milan some in my short visit. Its a pretty big city with a faster pace. Leigh has to take the subway to class, which I kind of was getting the hang of. It was my first solo travel excursion though and I think that was good for me. There are about 100 people in her program so we had a large group to go out with and on Sat. we went to Lake Como which even in the rain was gorgeous. I didn't find George Clooney though. We ate Chinese one night which was great and I also had several peanut butter and jelly sandwiches b/c Leigh found inexpensive PB in an international food store in Milan. Coming home to Siena was good too, I'm starting to subconsciously call Siena home, which is a good sign I think that I feel comfortable here. Oh and I saw a white German shepherd as I was leaving Milan! A good sign I think.

Pictures- http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin

Other News-
I have midterms next week which I don't think will be too awful, the most difficult will probably be Italian, but our professor is pretty great. We have fun in class just talking, it Italian of course. Two hour classes are still killing me, but oh well- I may be volunteering at a children's hospital Thurs. and I found some dance classes, but I haven't been able to try that out yet either. I have taken to reading the international news a lot which I wonder if I can get that paper at home? Probably-I read the newspaper for like an hour today, I'm probably way more informed than I usually am at home even. I also like BBC -I feel like its just less bias generally on everything. I read about candidates not disclosing medical information, which I am surprised people in the US aren't all that worried about because McCain is old, and evidently hasn't had the best health history, there is a lot of stress involved in being president and thats not so good for your health...I mean he could die, its somthing we should think about, and Biden too even, he doesn't have the best medical record- so I guess Nancy Pelosi is a possibility, if I have my line of office correct. I hope nothing happens to them, I mean its highly unlikely they have the best medical care I'm sure, but its just somthing to think about.

EU class animal game!
Did you answer the questions at the top?
Today before EU class, we were being silly and playing the whole choose what animal people would be and why game, and the professor walks in and is like what are you doing? So we finally succeed in explaining the game to her (she doesn't speak English well) and I guess b/c we had time today b/c we were reviewing for the midterm, she took the game really seriously and thought about it then said what animals each of us would be. She said I would be a soft house cat with long hair...haha, there was a deer (she didn't now the word in English so she described as Bambi), a koala, a Bermese mountain dog(which they call st. Bernard, but its not-it took us awhile to figure out what she meant), a panther, and my favorite, she said one of the boys reminded her of the lemurs that dance on the film Madagascar. We then talked about astrology because she had taken a class about it and she thought that our game was good b/c maybe there was more to it than just being silly. She said she took a psych quiz once and it asked the questions listed above among other things. It was supposed to be, whatever animal you choose for yourself, contains characteristics that you would like other people to see in you. Your favorite animal's characteristics are your favorite characteristics in people and same with the least favorite. What ever it is you feel about the sea, is how you feel about love. I thought it was interesting. Its just a game obviously, but it kind of works.

Italian Government
We also talked at the end of class about government and she asked us about some things she didn't get about the US. We tried to explain electoral college to her, which was kind of a disaster, seeing as how its tough to explain to Americans in English even. We stayed away from politics mostly b/c our class is pretty mixed and I think it was best...but it was interesting to just even hear her questions. Italians evidently think that its strange that we put so much weight on the moral integrity of politicians, she didn't understand why in the world we all cared so much about the whole Monica and Clinton fiasco. Then she went on to tell us about how Berlusconi has all kinds of mistresses and everyone knows about it. His wife also has a lover who is the mayor of Venice or something and everyone knows...haha. She thought it was a good thing though that we cared at all and that you'd be hard pressed to find any moral person at all in Italian government. She also thought it was cool that we knew so much about it and said she didn't think young Italians cared enough about politics, which is interesting b/c currently there is an intense protest going on in Siena and at other schools in Italy b/c they are thinking of making some public schools private because the government doesn't have the money to properly fund schools. University of Siena also particularly has quite a lot of debt right now because of tax fraud, its a big mess. The students are obviousl angry b/c if they make schools private, much fewer students would be able to afford an education, which a smaller population of educated people is not what Italy needs in this tight economic time I don't think. Students are all about protesting here. Most young people I have talked to hate berlusconi at least and know about the US election even. I think I said it before but I can't stress it enough, EVERYONE in the World is watching the US right now on the edge of their seats. We don't realize how much influence we have on the tone of world politics. It still surprises me every time. Its so hard to see that everyone is staring at you when your on the inside going about your business. Just keep that in mind when you vote please....
ciao ciao!

Silly questions-
1- I probably would have choosen cat for myself too- curious, inteligent (unless their names are Tess) independent, but in the end, if I feel like it I like to cuddly up somewhere soft- plus I mean I need a lot of sleep
2- I don't have a favorite, but I love the loyalty of dogs and their simple happiness I think, I appreciate the inteligence of an animal at the same time though
3- Probably some sort of scavenger or violent animal
4- The sea to me is calm and tranquil but at the same time it reminds me how small and insignificant I am and it is exciting and terrifying and relieving at the same time to feel so powerless. The sea is so vast and everchanging, moving and living, yet its so solid and steadfast in its existance. Looking at the Sea makes me feel like I'm one with somthing much bigger than myself.

La Lupa-foundation story of Siena

This comes from my Presence of the Past class, which while I don't care too much about columns and arches, I love our discussions and our professor. She has awesome stories, and so does Siena evidently. So this is a little history lesson of Siena, its cool-and it will help me study to recite it to you.

Most places have origin stories or myths which is really fun.Here is a story of Siena that arose in the Renaissance you may recognize parts of it, a little back ground summary to refresh your memory-(at the time of the Roman Empire the Italian society flourished pretty much-culturally/politically ect. and then with the fall of the Empire came the middle ages where there was a decline in wealth. Knowledge was essentially lost that had been formed in the Roman Empire, bad things like the black death and plagues of that sort also didn't help people out. People moved to more rural areas, then with the Renaissance they wanted to go back to that golden time of knowledge (rebirth) and they did this in art ect. They also wanted to be reconnected to the Romans, so that is where this story is coming from we think)

La Lupa (she wolf)
1st part of the story-Roman
When Troy is destroyed (you remember the movie-I mean Brad Pitt hello!) Aeneas the son of the King of Troy escapes with others and arrives in Latium (the region of Italy where Rome is). He founds a city there called Alba Longa and has two nephews, one is king and called Numitore. The other gets jealous of his brother and sends him into exile claiming the throne for himself-Amulio. Amulio then forces his niece-Rhea Silvio (Numitore's daughter) to become a vestal (kind of like a nun) and she is forced to guard the temple of Apollo and be a virgin. He pretty much disinherits her because she looses all her inheritance rights by becoming a vestal. There are records of these facts up until now in the story but it starts getting a little trickier. Next Rhea Silvio has an affair with Apollo (the god) and becomes pregnant. She gives birth to twin boys Romulous and Remus. Right after the twins are born she is found out and put in jail for her sin. Servants however, steal the infants and put them in a basket and into the river (sound familiar to anyone?). The basket stops only when it gets caught in a ficus plant and the boys slow down on the side of the river. A she wolf hearing their cry comes to them and feeds them her milk to keep them alive. Later after she has gone, a shepherd finds the twins and raises them. When the two boys grow up they want revenge on their Great uncle. So they go back and kill him and restore Numitore to the thrown. Eventually Romulous kills Remus and then goes on to found Rome.

Here's where the Siena part picks up- Somewhere before Remus dies he fathers two children. Twin boys, Senius and Ascanius (I see a possible theme-haha). Afraid of their uncle Romulous's wrath they flea Rome but before leaving they steal the she wolf statue from Apollo's temple. They ride to what is now Siena on one black horse and one white horse. When they arrive they make an offering to Apollo and their offering miraculously doesn't melt. Instead, there is only black and white smoke. I think Senius kills Ascanius and founds Siena in the end of the story. That would make sense. Now two very important symbols for Siena are the She wolf and the balsana (I don't think I'm spelling it correctly) which is a black and white shield. Siena's colors even for the soccer team are black and white( they look kind of like refs).

The weird thing about the story though is that there are older she wolf statues in the city, usually without the twins. The she wolf statues were there before the story and the Renaissance time. The real story of the formation of Siena comes from the Etruscans. They are the native people living in the region, before the Romans. The wolf is a sacred animal in many cultures evidently, somthing that our professor said she would teach us about another time. The wolf was a sacred symbol of the Etruscans for example. During the time of the Roman empire there was a road that went through three hill settlements that lead from Paris to Rome. Siena built up around this road with commerce for the travelers. Several Banks were founded in Siena and trade markets, also all kinds of shops for things that the travelers might need. There is more to the story, I just can't remember it right now. Siena is a pretty cool place though, and the road is still a main road here.

Another symbol of the city is the Popolo (spelling again not trustworthy). Its a lion and it represents the people. Siena was always ruled by the people. They even had a law strictly enforced that only middle and lower class people could be involved in the government. So Noble families who already owned banks and industry couldn't govern the people with their power. I think its a great idea. Maybe we should try it in the US. If you or your family have too much money or own too much stock in corporations, you can't be part of government.- I feel like that wouldn't go over too well with those in charge.

Update-Patience,Ultimate,Nice cashiers,man purses

Sorry if a little long-

So yesterday I was feeling pretty awful. I was sick, and I took a 3 hour nap plus I went to bed at 9:30 or so and I have lots of crazy Italian work and I had computer issues. I am forgoing night time activities for the time being so that I can just go to bed really early and hopefully recover faster. I'm doing pretty well, my head just hurts some and I'm a little snuffly. Anyway today was a good day I'd say. Its not ridiculously interesting, but here is why....

Leigh and Milano!
I bought my bus tickets to go see my friend Leigh this weekend and the woman with the tickets was down right rude and nasty I'd say so I'm glad that's over. I am very excited about Milan, Lake Como and especially my friend Leigh! Meeting new people and building friendships is great and all, but its also exhausting, and after a month and a half I'm ready for a familiar face.

Learning
I realized today that I was learning something very important here among other lessons. Today in our EU economics class we were listening to our professor that doesn't speak very good English and it was exhausting because I had to pay such close attention and we had to help her with words concerning European union courts and law (which is kind of boring to me anyway) and I found my mind wandering, but then I thought about how I sound to Italians. Its the same if not worse. And its very hard to be patient with people especially when it concerns communication. But people are generally patient with me, and I need to be patient with others. I also need to be patient with myself. While this is an amazing experience and all of you are right to say I should appreciate it thoroughly (because I do), studying in a foreign country with people you don't know and don't understand is really really hard. Its hard to adjust mentally and emotionally. I am constantly pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Not just daily but probably hourly. This for me is probably one of the more difficult situations I've had to deal with ever. I love Italy, but I can say now that I will be so ready to come home in Dec. I need to remember to give myself some slack, its ok to not feel awesome all the time every day. So patience, its an obvious thing to say that you need to have, but seriously how many of us are actually that patient with ourselves, others, or machines even? Sometimes you just need to slow down. We live in a fast paced world that hardly fosters patience. So I'll mark that up on my credentials of skills learned and practiced while abroad...

Ultimate Players in Siena!
Today I also found some Frisbee players! I was so excited to come upon some other American students playing Frisbee so I stopped to talk to them and I ended up throwing around with them for awhile. It was really exciting. I realized this summer even, going on my little adventures, that Frisbee is really important to me because it helps me connect to people. I kind of like the identity I am given when I say I play ultimate. People know oh, she must be pretty cool and laid back and fun. Well maybe I am those things, at least I like to be. ( :

Grocery Store
My other funny event this afternoon that made me happy occurred with a simple visit to Conad, the largest "grocery store" here. So I may have mentioned before, you have to pay for grocery bags here and you have to bag your own groceries, not an easy thing when you're trying to pay and there is a line and the check out lady is really short with you and kind of rude. So its best to just bring cloth bags and put the stuff back in the basket then walk away and bag it in peace. So tonight I went to the side to go bag my groceries and the usually rude checkout lady came up a moment later and handed me my pesto which I had evidently forgotten with a smile. She had left her counter to find me and was really nice to me! it was amazing. It was just one of those times that someone did something simple but so nice surprisingly. I love being surprised by the goodness of people. And I will try to think a little more fondly of the check out lady.

International Paper
We got the international news paper today, which I like reading. Its interesting to read about what they say about the US. They have mostly been talking about the election and financial stuff. It was kind of sad though today I read something about how in Ohio a guy was quoted as saying he and his friends weren't voting for Obama because he was black and they didn't trust him. They also said they didn't like him because he was Muslim. What?! I mean seriously. Its so sad that we are still in that place. And these people were vocal about it, imagine how many people think or feel uneasiness about his race and don't express it. And Muslim? One, that shouldn't technically matter even if he was, but I understand the underlying tension toward the Islamic culture in the US. Anyway though I'm pretty sure Obama is baptist and was raised by his white mother and grandparents. I'd say baptist is pretty far from Muslim. I hope you all knew this whether you like him or not. Any way I was just kind of appalled that these interviews were in the international newspaper.

Man Purse
Last thing, I bought this cool little leather strap purse that I had my eye on at a antique/thrift store. It was really inexpensive, but I'm pretty sure its leather, its pretty old and smells like leather and perfume. The perfume smell reminds me slightly of Aunt Margie I think. Just kind of a fun thing. I tried to look up the brand- Scandiano but all I found out was that it was a town/city in Italy. Its convenient though, everyone has little bags like these. Even men. A friend of mine and I have a hypothesis that because men's pants here are so much tighter here than in the US, they don't have the pocket space for their wallet and phone and whatnot, so the man purse had to become socially acceptable out of necessity. Just a thought...haha. I said, "I like it, if I were a guy I'd get one", and my friend (who is a boy) said, "that's because you are a girl not a guy, of course you think that's cool" it was all in all a good conversation. I still think its cool-perhaps you disagree. Maybe it will catch on in the US if men's pants become tighter.

Have a lovely day everyone! Do something fun and relax a little!
Bacio!
Melanie

So I officially am sick, it was only a matter of time seeing as how half the people in our program including my roommate have colds....but I think I'll be alight, I rested all day today.

I went to Bologna this past weekend, it was a very nice city. Its a student city I'd say. There is a lot going on, but it feels safe and is clean. We all had a good time, and I feel like we had group bonding. Bologna is pretty cool too, they are very liberal and are known for student protests and being a big part of the resistance in WW2. They also were a leading city in Italy for gay rights and the headquarters of many gay rights organizations are located there. My two favorite trips were to the pasta school, where we made pasta by hand and then ate it, and the Ferrari museum in Maranello. Sorry to everyone who I was supposed to bring a Ferrari back to. We really did try to take one, but the security was just too tight. No amount of bribery or trickery could persuade them to let us. And as our tour guide told us, it takes more than money evidently to own a Ferrari. you have to know the right people to be on their list of clients....damn it.

Here is the link to the pictures, I have commentated, so you know what they are of. http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin/Bologna


On a total other note, I am sick so I stayed in all day and watched documentaries on line because I'm a dork. I strongly suggest checking out the ones I watched some time if you haven't seen them-bowling for ColumbineandSuper size mealso though I didn't watch them tonight I suggest an inconvenient truth and Jesus Camp they are great and all on YouTube so you don't even have to go and rent them.

Have a lovely day everyone!Melanie

Internet YAY!

Yay! I finally got the Internet in my apartment! WooHoo!
Not too much to report, many of the others are getting sick, so I'm trying to avoid the same fate. I'm just trying to make sure I sleep a lot, I think I get tired here much quicker, probably because Its just exhausting to concentrate so much.

I feel like I've kind of been on a roller coaster. When you prepare to go abroad they tell you that you will have ups and downs. Its totally true. Sometimes I just can't believe I'm here and I have an amazing time, sometimes I can't believe I'm going to be here so long and I miss home a lot. So I mean again I think I just need to be patient with myself. All in all I'm doing pretty good. If you never push yourself a little, you will never grow I figure.

So I have some new pictures, a little bit of everything, mostly Pisa though where we had way too much fun being tourists.

http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin/31008TheMensaParkCalcioChessFirenzeEPisa#


I am going to Bologna Thurs. with school and the next weekend I'm going to Milan to visit my friend Leigh from UR. She's from Charlottesville and plays Frisbee with me. I'm really excited to visit her. We are planing to take a day trip to lake Como too, which I've heard is gorgeous so that should be fun. After that I probably won't go anywhere for the next few weekends because midterms will be coming up.

I'm still trying to figure out fall break too, lots of people are going different places here, but mostly people are visiting friends that they have who are also abroad. I am thinking of maybe visiting my friend Noelle in Lyon, in the south of France. I'm also considering trying to go to Paris and maybe Spain, there is a friend of mine in Barcelona. We'll see, I'll let you know.

Ciao Ciao!
Melanie

Its a good thing Italians talk with their hands

Sorry I haven't written so much lately. I guess I'm just starting to get into more of a routine so I'm not so interesting. I almost have the Internet yay! I can't believe that I've been here a month, I feel like i just got here, yet at the same time home seems like a long way away. I think I like myself here. I feel so much more independent that I ever have before, and I like to think that I'm decently brave. Its hard sometimes to just throw yourself into situations and hope that everything goes well. We are all part of a program for European students called erasmus here and they host parties and trips, we also get discounts, and the other night we were at a party and none of my friends wanted to dance, so I just made new friends who did want to have fun and I was pretty proud of myself. The students I met were from Holland, England, and Germany and they seemed pretty cool. Don't worry anyone, I am friendly, not stupid. Cautious is one thing, but if you are afraid of everyone that you don't know in a new country, you're never going to create friendships.

Oh I saw a movie called Paris, at this little Westhamptonesk student theater that had Juliette Binoche in it (the woman in Chocolat). Its a French film and I thought it was very good. Kind of artsy, check it out if you get a chance.

Hot pudding
Last night I went to this great place with Maria and her friends, its called the Tea Room and I had probably the most amazing white hot chocolate ever. Its not like our hot chocolate, they bring you a spoon to eat it with because its like pudding. YUm! I'm not going to lie, it might have even been a bit too much for me. Italians sure know how to do desert. Her friends were very very nice to me. They didn't all speak English but we seemed to get along ok. I can generally understand Italians because they use their hands so much when they talk. I've been told by some of my fellow classmates that I do this as well. Probably, I don't notice, maybe it helps Italians understand me. I am learning in class that Italians are very visual people in many many ways.

Language
To understand someone without knowing exactly what they are saying though is incredibly interesting to me. Language is important, but its something we take for granted, we generally don't even think about it. But when you get to know another language you start to realize that language is just a tool we have created and its flexible and changeable. Think about how much we communicate without words. Sometimes the words are only secondary to tone and gestures. Maybe try to notice nonverbal communication within your interactions with others. Its more prevalent than you think-

Italian TV
So I never thought it was possible, but the reality TV in Italia can give the US a real run for its money. Maria totally watches them too, its kind of funny. Her favorite is L'Isola dei Famosi which isn't actually too horrible, its basically like survivor but there are two teams, one of famous people and one without famous people. The majority of other reality shows and game shows have near naked women on them and they air prime time when children are watching too. And yah you may think we have scantly clad women too, but the US doesn't compare to this at all. There's this dance show where the girls basically do stripper dances and they compare the girls pictures with and without makeup, its like so you think you can dance/miss America. Then the other night there was a show where all these women in bikinis came out and the contestants have to guess who is the fattest and the skinniest and how many implants the women have and guessing correctly is the objective obviously. I expressed to Maria how awful I thought that was and she was surprised. She was like oh this is nothing, this is prime time, you should see what comes on later at night. We are pretty awful when it comes to TV, but WOW that is all I have to say.


I hope everything is going well. Its interesting to be on the outside looking in on all of Americas craziness right now. Its important, I think now more than ever to have a more global perspective. Most people at least know something about our financial crisis because its not just us, its the whole world that is affected by it. And when I meet people here a lot of times they want to know, actually let me correct that, they want to I think make sure that I am for Obama. I had no idea of the true extent to which Bush has offended the world. When I say I'm American here to Italians or other international people I meet, I almost automatically feel the need to follow it with, oh but I don't like Bush. Somehow this makes the negative stereotypes of America seem lessened in their opinion of me I think. I think in this day it is extremely important for us to take foreign policy into account, and being on good terms with the rest of the world. I don't care if we have boasted for many years that we are the biggest and strongest. It might not be like that forever and if nothing else its just arrogant of us to not care about our relationships with other countries.

All the Italians can't believe that we elected Bush twice, then again they can't really talk because they elected Berlusconi twice and a lot of people don't like him. The man's assets include the company Mediaset which comprises of three national television channels, which hold approximately half the national viewing audience, and Publitalia, the leading Italian advertising and publicity agency. He also owns the largest Italian publishing house, whose publications include one of the most popular news magazine in Italy. He has interests in cinema and home video distribution firms, insurance and banking and a variety of other activities. His brother, Paolo Berlusconi, owns and operates a centre-right newspaper which provides a strong pro-Berlusconi slant on Italy and its politics. Talk about Free speech, and the Italians don't seem to have a problem with this. Maria said that he helped get rid of trash in Napoli (it still seemed pretty dirty to me), and lowered taxes, but that's controversial, because he is in turn taking away funding from institutions like education especially. He is also on trial still for possible conspiracy with the Mafia. The truth in this is debatable, but most Italians I've talked to, including professors, are pretty sure he is working with them on some level/taking bribes and he even pardoned some group on trial the moment he became leader. Its just fishy. Oh yah and evidently Berlusconi likes Bush a lot. Interesting.

This weekend I think I will be going to Pisa for a day and then next weekend we are going to Bologna to visit one of the oldest Universities in the world. It was founded in about 1088ad. So for a little perspective, Columbus found the Americas in I believe 1492, and settlers landed in Jamestown in 1607. So yah, I think we can say old. And we will be making pasta which i already know a little about! and we will be visiting the Ferrari museum! Should be a good time.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Melanie

I have a new blog!

I decided to try out the whole blog thing. I felt bad about clogging inboxes and whatnot, so I'll still try to send emails somtimes, but for those of you who are super busy, maybe this would be a little better for you. Still feel free to contact me via email at either my google mail, or the one you all still have (melanie.martin@richmond.edu)