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