Charlotte's Visit

Have you ever had a friend that shared a bond with you nobody else could have? An unbreakable bond that seems stronger than time? Ok, I know that this is cheesy, but this is how I feel about my friend Charlotte. Charlotte and I were exchange students together in Norway, she's from Germany.
Earlier this week she visited me for a couple days and it was the first time I had seen her in almost exactly three years. I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous about things were going to go. But when she showed up and I saw her it was like no time had passed. She looked the same, and it felt the same to talk to her, just as easy. It was the most surreal feeling I've had in a VERY long time.
And seeing Charlotte made me realize how much I learned and matured during my semester in Hamar. I wonder if it was specific to that experience at the age of 17, or if it works the same no matter what study abroad someone goes on. Later, maybe a year or two from now will I visit Anne (my roommate and best friend here) and only then truly realized what I learned and how much I changed from my semester in Italy? I am aware of all the things I am learning right now, but am I aware of how they are affecting me? It is a question I don't think is possible to answer right now but it certainly is interesting to think about!
I had a lovely time showing Charlotte around Ferrara, cooking her dinner, chatting, reminiscing, and when it came to saying goodbye I was happy and relieved to know I would be visiting her in Germany in just two months! What a change from 3 years!

Giotto or No Giotto?... The Assisi Question

This past weekend I spent time in Umbria with my program, CIEE. Umbria a gorgeous region of Italy set partly in the mountains, home of amazing olive oil, Saint Francis and the city Perugia. We started out our weekend in a cold, foggy, snowy Perugia. My question... what is the point of going on a walking tour around a wet city that you can't even see!!! If I could at least have seen to the top of the Cathedral when standing outside of it, maybe I would have seen the point. We did see some neat things though, despite this inconvenience. We saw where the Virgin Mary's wedding ring is kept, we saw ruins from a papal fortress and most importantly we had Perugian chocolate! Yes, Perugia is the Italian capital of chocolate! Later in the evening after a long day when everybody was hungry and tired and cold and cranky... we went to a factory where we learned how they make olive oil and got to taste some of the best olive oil ever! It was so good! I thought about buying a bottle, but I can't afford $15 a liter, thats a lot when I can buy it at the grocery store for $3.
Saturday was Assisi, my new favorite place!!! We started by visiting the two basilicas of Saint Francis. It was so exciting because not only was there St. Francis' tomb and relics, but we had studied all of the frescoes and art work in my class. I thought it was so funny, because our guide was so enthusiastic about the frescoes painted by Giotto in the upper basilica and there is actually a great discrepancy as to whether he painted them or not. But of course, when we asked this to our guide he looked shocked and scandaled that we had such doubts! It was so sad and funny... poor man, just doing his job. Assisi is built on a hill the side of a hill, so when it clears up, you can see for miles! Its gorgeous! You walk up the little streets and pop into shops where little Italian women ask you about your life and what brought you to Italy (an Italian boyfriend?) Or you end up chatting with a Canadian Franciscan monk who is staying at the monastery for two years. He gave us a couple fun things to see and wished us well on our way!
It is little conversations like this that really stick out in my mind. I remember one such Canadian man I ran into in Norway and I still remember our entire conversation... I just think it is so nice to meet and have conversations with people that are not awkward.
After two other little towns (Spello and Cortona), an AMAZING dinner, a hike,a museum on the etruscians and a discussion on the proper way of saying 'grazie' I was ready to head back to Ferrara. In a later post you will hear all about seeing my german friend again and learn how the visit from Kjersta and Dustin goes!

Roommate Date

Between Anne and I we have a crazy next couple of weeks. We both have visitors coming and midterms, not to mention a 3 day trip around Umbria with our program and to top of the month, Spring break! So, in preparation for all of these festivities, Anne and I decided to go against the tradition thus far of going on a trip every weekend, and stay in Ferrara. The plan was to study for our first midterm on Monday, read ahead for our classes, maybe take a walk or two, and RELAX.
Friday we went looking for the country side. From our apartment on the seventh floor, we can tell that it is relatively close, and it didn't seem like a big deal to get there! Little did we know! Good grief, somehow we got ourselves lost, and not in the country side. We did however find two very cool places. The first was this wonderful little neighborhood full of old people and their dogs! The whole place just had the nicest atmosphere and I think what I liked about it the most was the smell. It no longer smelled like a city, as Ferrara does... it felt borderline rural! It probably helped by the fact that it sat along our nasty little river. As we walked up the street we found things like restaurants out of people's homes and little old men greeting us from their gardening work.
The second place we found was amazing and disturbing! It was these three buildings that were so beautiful in their own, dilapidated way. We decided it necessary to do a bit of light trust passing. One had a tree growing out of where the roof and wall once had been. The other had all of its windows busted in and there was a thick layer of grim and dust over all the broken chairs, tables and bathtubs. It felt like such a strange juxtaposition to have this piece of property right next to apartment city!!! There were two creepy things about this place. One, even though it was obviously not touched for years, there were still things like a couple of razors perched on the edge of the sink and a wash rag on the edge of the bathtub. The other, there were dead pigeons all over the place!!! And these pigeons did not look like they had been killed by stray cats... creepy.
To celebrate our adventure, Anne took me to Indian food and we laid us down to sleep!
Saturday we went to a lovely antiques market, explored a huge cemetery and walked around our city's wall! There was this lady at the market who was having the best time haggling and speaking in Italianglish with us! She kept saying how this and that was very mod and the big style of the year. But in all honesty, I don't think she believed that we could understand her, because then she would turn to an italian lady and be like, 'these are americans... watch me practice my english!' Plus she enjoyed telling us things like, the Americans only speak english and how during tourist season she liked to swindle money out of them! It was all very funny... especially since she would ask if we understood her and then ignore our answer in italian!!! Oh, the people you meet at market!
Little did I know that when staying in Ferrara for the weekend, it would actually end up being the best ones yet! The weather is getting nicer and there are buds on the trees! Spring is on its way!!!