Okkervil River in Milan

So I came back from Amsterdam completely obsessed with Okkervil River again, and decided to look up their current tour. I was SO surprised to see that they were playing in Milan that same week! They were going to open for the Black Keys at the Magazzini Generali (or something like that, I can't quite remember). I contemplated going for the next couple days, the concert was on Wednesday, November 19th. I couldn't find anyone to go with me, and I couldn't convince Charlie to go again even though he had liked it in Amsterdam, so I kind of gave up.

I went to practice on Monday, and randomly asked the American kids (who just pretty much started to show up to practice half way through the season) if they knew Okkervil River. Martin and I were in the middle of our drill, and he said that he didn't know them, but they were playing with the Black Keys this Wednesday! I was pretty psyched! I told him I would call him if I ended up going since no one else I knew was going, and on Wednesday I decided not to go. But Martin called me and told me he had an extra ticket...which of course I couldn't pass up...so I met up with Martin and his friends. We got there a little late, and Okkervil was already playing.

The concert was PACKED, so much more so than Amsterdam, and the people there were of all ages. There were seriously 70 year olds in the crowd. I couldn't see really well since we were in the far back, so Martin and I fought our way to the front amidst angry glares...(it was necessary, I'm really short).

Then the Black Keys played, and they're kind of a classic/rock/jazz band (or so Martin told me). They were pretty good too, the drummer was going crazy. It was a two man band. Everyone started moshing though, and it was crazy. Martin pretty much served as my wall and shoved the sweaty six feet men back so that I wouldn't get crushed. (Thanks Martin.) We also met these two girls from NY that were studying in Florence. One of them was NUTS. She was so drunk, picking fights with everyone, and told me she wanted to eat me up, and she started to call me cupcake. Weird night.

So we're about to leave the venue, and Martin asks the people disassemblying the set if he could have the left over drumsticks. The guy goes over, picks the sticks up, and throws them to another girl as he looks at Martin. Martin was SO pissed, and spent the next 15 minutes trying to convince another disassembly guy to give him the broken drum stick. Martin doesn't know that he should have girls doing that for him...so of course the guy says no, and we're getting kicked out of the venue. But that guy calls me over and hands me the broken drumstick...and I don't know the Black Keys that well, so I handed it over to Martin, who proceeded to jump around like a five year old. It was kind of funny.

We went outside to look for Mike, Martin's friend, and he was by the tour buses. When we reached him, the first thing I said was, "Where's Okkervil River?" And someone else responds, "Well there's their bassist, Patrick." And I FLIPPED OUT. (I had also screamed for Patrick while he was breaking down the set, he said he heard me!) The first thing he said to me was "Weren't you at our Amsterdam show last weekend?" So he remembered me, and we chatted, and I told him that I was at their Boston show about a year ago. He said that we should have came earlier and asked for him at the venue, and he would've let us in to party with them. Something to remember next time they roll into Boston...

So I had Patrick sign my ticket, and I took a picture with him, and was on cloud nine because he remembered me. I immediately called Marge and woke her up to tell her all of this hahaha. So sorry Marge...

Amsterdam...Again?

So Thursday, November 13th, I head to Amsterdam...again. That's right, but this was my original trip. The first week long trip was during midterm week, and I had no midterms and had nothing to do. Charlie was staying with Marge already, he had arrived a day earlier because flights were cheaper since he booked so late.

CK was supposed to meet me at the Malpensa airport in Milan....but he had booked is flight from Rome to Linate (also in Milan but about 90 minutes away from Malpensa), and didn't realize that his next flight was Malpensa to Amsterdam. Sucked. He spent a lot of money on a taxi, and didn't even make it on time. He had to spend the night at the Malpensa airport, and pay for another flight Friday morning.

So I arrive in Amsterdam, and take the bus by myself to Marge's. I know the area so well, that I stop at the supermarket to pick up some Stroopwafels (best deal in Amsterdam. 65cents for 10 waffle snacks with syrup in them), shampoo, and beer. I get to Marge's, and they cooked dinner for me! Or Marge did, Charlie doesn't cook. So sweet of her, then Charlie and I shotgunned a beer immediately, and I surprisingly held it down. We drank quite a bit more before leaving Marge's, and I was pretty drunk when we left. We went to a bar to meet up with some of Marge's friends. Charlie dinked me on the back of his bike, and we met up wit SLOPS! It felt so great to see a fellow FLIX in Europe. I was so happy!

Then to get home, Charlie had to dink Slops, and Kevin had to dink me cuz of his weak chicken legs. We were all supposed to meet up for fries...we were all biking together...but somehow we got lost from the group... and no one showed up so Kevin and I got fries. AMAZING. Falafels and fries are the best things in Amsterdam. I don't know how the Dutch do it...munchies galore.

Charlie proceeded to snore like a train that night, and Marge woke up all night to pinch his nose. I wanted to hit him.

Saturday CK arrived in the morning. He was kinda lost...and Marge went out in search of him. I believe it also might have been drizzling. We did some touristy pictures, like Slops and the sex museum...enough said. We went out for falafels while Marge was in class, and got really really lazy at the Damkring. It was pretty awesome, but we couldn't get ourselves to move. It took us about 90 minutes before we could bike. We then got lost trying to find the Anne Frank house, but it was well worth it. It was really sad, and you couldn't help but think about how tragic WWII was and the Holocaust.

We end up getting dinner at an Indian restaurant, it was delicious! But then we're really late getting back to Marge's.

Marge and CK had a lil fun before we enter into the Okkervil River concert. CK had the infamous spacecake that I had, and wasn't affected the entire concert. That's two hours! But the concert was amazing. Marge and I had seen them in Boston a year ago, and they one of my favorite bands. They came out with a new album, so they were promoting that, but it was still really good. We were right in the front, and we were able to get set lists! We couldn't figure out if the bassist was the same Patrick that had invited us (in Boston) to party with the band at their next gig in North Hampton...we decided he wasn't the same, so we were disappointed (picture on right). We wanted to go to a coffee shop with them! Then CK got his world ROCKED by the spacecake. We were walking along and found a bar to jump into. He wasn't feeling great, so we sent him home in a taxi...but then we couldn't find our bikes! We were so scared. Things all worked out in the end though. :)

Saturday morning, Marge brought us to a brunch place....with PANCAKES. After reading the menu, CK and I were torn between burgers and pancakes...so I suggested that we each get burgers with fries...and would split a pancake (which was pretty big...). Great idea I'd like to say, we got the chocolate pancake...but this is where we came up with the idea "Eat-for-eat." I decided that I would go eat-for-eat with CK for the day...he's twice my weight, and at least 6'4''.

We headed to the Van Gogh Museum, where I purchased an audioguide and was pretty deep in thought and site. Most people are disappointed by it, but I think I was pretty content under the circumstances. I felt like I was in a dream world...pretty cool! Then we hit up another coffeeshop, and then falafels again. Still going eat-for-eat.

We head back to Marge's, and drink some more before going to the Sugar Factory. So pretty tipsy again, and we decide to go to the bathroom at McDonalds. Worst idea EVER. After going to the bathroom, I find CK in line to buy a chicken sandwich meal. I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't, and so I dished about about 7euro for a meal. I was so ridiculously full, it was terrible. But I refused to lose.

The music at the Sugar Factory was really really REALLY good music that night. It was awesome. Too bad Alex and his friends didn't come in, I literally got to see him for 30 seconds. Rather sad, but still a great time. We dance because we really love the music, and it showed. The creepy host guy kept looking at us though...he was definitely on something. We left the next morning, and I was sad to go, but it was necessary. I cannot live that lifestyle, it would be too much of a toll on my little body.

But I sure do love Amsterdam, and Margaret.

Southern Italy

Friday night, November 7th (last weekend of our mid-term break) Charlie, Josh, and I took a night train to Naples. It took about 10 hours, and it was so hard to sleep. We each had one seat in a six-seat compartment, and all the seats were full, so sleeping was highly uncomfortable. Charlie and I watched the Prince of Egypt on his Nintendo DS, and we ended up getting into Naples around 8am.

We took the Circumvisuviana to Pompei, which was where we started off our day. We rented audio guides and spent about three to four hours looking through the ruins. Pompei is a ruined/preserved city that was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. It was really cool to walk through the streets and see the houses that people lived in. Some walls had artwork that was preserved, and there were even cast molds of some people that had been buried alive! There was also a Colosseum. It was so exhilarating to stand in the center rink, knowing that many others had been there before, and fought and died. (Too bad I didn't get to go into the Roman Colosseum). We could see Mt. Vesuvius from everywhere, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, and Pompei. Around 1pm, we decided to head to Hostel 7 in Sorrento. BEST HOSTEL that I've ever stayed at. It was pretty much a hotel. We dropped our things off, and went into Sorrento to have dinner at Pizzeria da Franco. We then bought a bottle of limoncello, which Sorrento is very well-known for. It's 30% alcohol, so a bit less than vodka, and it obviously tastes kind of like lemon. I didn't really like it, but it did its job. We sat by the coast and finished the bottle off before heading back to the hostel where we drank more wine. Charlie fell asleep as we were watching The Office, but Josh and I had a great time.

Sunday morning, we took a ferry to Capri to see the Blue Grotto. It's this cave where the sun reflects off of the rocks in a certain manner, and where the light enters in a certain manner, that the water in it is blue. Not the blue of ocean water, but a beautifully bright blue that I've never seen before. The oarmen also sang while we were in there. We had to pay 11E to take a motor boat to the Grotto, and than anoter 10E to go into row boats that brought us into the cave. The cave opening was so small, I thought that we were going to hit the top. On rough water days the Grotto's actuallly closed because of this fear. Trying to get out of the cave, our rowboat was pushed out four times.

We didn't see any more of Capri because we were under the impression that we had to rush back for the Amalfi Coast. Our plan was to do Amalfi and then take the 9pm night train back to Milan. Turns out that there was a 24-hour strike, and we wouldn't be able to leave Naples until Monday. So we decided to save the Amalfi for Monday since all scooter places were closed anyway (Our plan was to scooter down the Amalfi Coast.), and took a walking tour of Naples instead. We had pizza for lunch at a really busy place, Trianon. It was delcious! We walked around and saw two castles and a lot of piazzas.

To head back to Sorrento, we took a crowded bus to get back to the main station. It was ridiculously packed, and there was a lot of commotion. Josh was by the backdoor since we got separated, and there was this one guy trying to cause a lot of problems. At one of the bus stops, four guys throw him off the bus, and one guy starts beating the crap out of him: throwing him against the wall, kicking his face, throwing punches. It was so scary! The guy that got beat up jumped back onto the bus, but continued to cause problems! He shattered a beer bottle on the pole and glass went flying everywhere in the bus. Apparently he was threatening someone....

And then Charlie got pickpocketed! He noticed someone was trying to take his wallet, so he shook that guy off, but then he went to check his other pocket and found out his camera was gone! He looked around him, and the thief was standing right next to him holding it....the bus door was open as well, but I guess he wanted to steal from more people. Charlie just points at the camera, and the guy says sorry and gives it back.... so messed up! And then I saw a guy unzipping Josh's backpack, and I just rip the zipper away from him and say "Scusa!" That guy immediately got off the bus...I think he probably got something from someone else and wanted to get out of there as fast as he could....what a day right?

We end up eating at this really quaint place in Sorrento for dinner, and then head back to Hostel 7 for the night.

Monday morning, we woke up thinking we would be able to visit the Amalfi Coast. Turns out the strikes kept the buses from running there, and all the scooter rental places were either out of scooters, or were closed. We decided we would rent a car, but then that place closed for 3 hours for lunch break! We literally walked all around Sorrento for +2 hours. Needless to say, it was very disappointing. We have lunch where we had dinner the night before, then we did a little shopping. We headed back to Naples for dinner at Da Michele, supposedly the best pizza in Italy. They only serve two types of pizza, so it's very simple, but it was really good. We took the night train back to Milan, getting in around 7am Tuesday morning.

All in all...we didn't quite get to see what we wanted to see. I would really love to go back to see the Amalfi Coast next time I come to Italy. It was a series of unfortunate events that kind of threw our itinerary off.

Roma!

So Marge and I took the early flight out of Amsterdam to Milan Saturday morning, 11/01. Of course we got back and crashed for a while. Marge slept for a good amount of time, and then we went to Siddhartha, an Indian apperativo. We met up with Aneri, and ate about 4 plates. Marge couldn't even drink her White Russian, she said that there was too much alcohol in it. Aneri and I tried it and told her it tasted nothing like alcohol....maybe we're too used to the strong Italian drinks.

Sunday we visited the Castle and the Duomo, both of which are really pretty. We paid to go to the top of the Duomo, where I hadn't even been either. We wrapped up the day with gelato, and prepped for our trip to Rome.

We left for Rome Monday afternoon. Our flight was half an hour late, so we weren't able to enter the Colosseum. It was absolutely gorgeous from the outside, I can only imagine how it would've looked from the inside. My lonely planet guide said that there was "Gladiator School" which I was all about. Marge didn't seem as enthusiastic....they were going to let us keep our tunics!

We then found our way into the Roman Forum, which was a series of ruins. They were pretty cool, but it was getting dark fast, so it was difficult to see. We sat down to figure out our next destination when this English guy pops in to take a picture behind us. His name was Dan, and we ended up hanging out with him all night. He's a Chelsea soccer fan in Rome for the game, and decided to do some touristy things unlike all his friends that stayed back at the hotel. We led him to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. Between those two monuments, we had dinner together, which was rather cute.

The Trevi Fountain was beautiful. Quite frankly, I would've been satisfied staying there all night. There were so many people there sitting on the steps. Dan had convinced Marge and I to buy beers on our way over to the Fountain...so we were the only three people drinking alcohol in front of it.

Right when we had left the ruins, we met "Spanish Rob," that's seriously how he introduced himself. He told us about a pub crawl that was happening that night, and Marge says to me, "Karen....when in Rome." That sealed the deal, and we met at the Spanish Steps. When Marge wants to drink, you drink.

So Dan met us there and we were led to the first pub. Turns out we were about 40 minutes late, and we were allotted 3 vodka redbulls there and as much beer as we wanted. We had our drinks in 20 minutes, with Marge participating in a chugging contest. She was sooo funny. (Obviously she lost....) She only drank it so she could get more beer for Dan, she's too sweet.

From there things got hazy...we just went to like, three pubs and a club. Being a tourist and all, I had my backpack on the pub crawl. We didn't have time to go back to the hostel, so I guarded my bag while Marge danced her little booty off. We met so many people that night, and I don't remember any of them. Everyone was so friendly, it was pretty awesome.

We end up splitting a taxi with two other kids, and on our way back to our hostel, Marge and I decided that it would be a great idea to try to puke in the street. I can't pull the trigger, so basically I was trying to get myself to feel nauseous. Then some guy came up to us, and tried talking to us. It was super creepy, but it was awesome cuz he could understand my Italian! We scampered back into our hostel, and Marge and I basically took turns throwing up in the bathroom.

Now...you have to understand that we were in a coed dorm, with five other guys, and just us two. The walls were really thin, so they could hear us...or me mainly, throwing up and drive heaving. Marge only threw up about 3 times and was fine, but I think I threw up at least 10 times. It was terrible. I knew I had to get it out of my system before the morning because we were planning to visit the Vatican. How great would that be, "hey Pope, how ya doin?" and then throw up at his feet.

We planned to wake up at 7am, but we didn't leave til 8:15 cuz I was still a mess. We moved super slow because of me, and somehow found St. Peter's Basilica at our feet. It was ENORMOUS! It felt so unreal to be there. We joined a tour (our tour guide was named Angelo!) to enter into the Vatican Museum, so we checked out the Sistine Chapel. It was really inspiring to be there. How could Michelangelo have painted that! Then we went to St. Peter's Basilica, and it's even bigger from the inside than the outside.

We had lunch, and then took the flight home Tuesday night...which was actually an hour late. Rome is definitely my favorite city in Italy, I really wish I could have studied abroad there, or at least spent some more time. It's too bad, but I'll definitely go back some day, or within the year.

The End of Amsterdam

So on the last night of Amstedam (Halloween), Marge and I dressed up as pandas. (Yes, we're both Asian, and there aren't many in the Netherlands.) People thought that we were cats...and sexy devils. Neither of which we were going for. We went to some party in Marge's dorm, where we basically killed three bags of chips.

We ended up biking out to the Sugar Factory, thinking we would want to party...but by then it was 2am, and just not worth 10E to get in. We pretty much biked out for no reason, but we did eat fries! Fries with ketchup and mayonnaise, soooo delicious. We slept around 4am, and got up around 7am for our flight. It was a really tiring and relaxing week at the same time, and it was really nice to be able to see Marge. Funny thing is...I'm going to Amsterdam again in two weeks for my original trip with CK, Charlie, and apparently SLOPS! Yes, needless to say, I'm really excited to hang out with a fellow Flick in Europe.


Compiled stats of an unforgetable (but hazy) week with Margaret:
day 1: 7; 9h
day 2: 2; ice, yi
day 3: 3
day 4: 6, northern lights, k
day 5: 2, space cake
day 6: 4, trash
day 7: 5, k

Halloween!!!

Today is Halloween! And we went to the zoo! I only got as far as the monkeys and flamingos before I started feeling sick. We went to the aquarium there, and I stared at some piranhas. And then I took a taxi home. EPIC ride. I left Marge and her friends at the zoo, and headed back to Marge's room. It was terrible and amazing at the same time, but I do regret leaving the zoo so early. The ticket to get in was 17.70E, and the taxi ride was 12.60E...so financially it was a hit, but mentally I needed to rest. I woke up with a pounding head, but Marge & Co. came back with PIZZA!

And the bathroom of the aquarium was AMAZING. The stall doors were holograms of sea creatures. It looked so real. When we left the bathroom, someone said, "Let's go to the aquarium" and my response was "what...we weren't already there?"

We ended up watching HP3, and have just been loafing around. We're starting to get into our costumes now, and heading to a Halloween party. It's been a long day...and it's nowhere near over yet.

day 1: 7; 9h
day 2: 2; ice, yi
day 3: 3
day 4: 6, northern lights, k
day 5: 2, space cake
day 6: 4, trash
day 7: 3, k

Space Cake is a HUGE No No

We woke up Thursday and I went to class with Marge. I just read my book at her university (of Amsterdam) while she was in class, and then we went shopping. We finished our Halloween shopping, and then went to the Damkring coffee shop. It was really cool; we sat at the third level and looked out the window. That was when Marge decided to skip class, and we bought two pieces of space cake, and went home for a nap.

AND....so the space cake was a terrible idea. Brownies, High Tide Georgia, similar to that, except I was able to keep myself from completely losing control. Same symptoms though. I knew I wasn't feeling well, so I decided not to go to the Halloween Party. Marge went, and started feeling pretty terribly while there. So I just passed out and hoped that I wouldn't get sick.

Today I didn't do anything....just got back from getting a falafel, and it's 1:30am. We're gunna go to the zoo tomorrow!!!

day 1: 7; 9h
day 2: 2; ice, yi
day 3: 3
day 4: 6, northern lights, k
day 5: 2, space cake
day 6: 4, trash

:(

i hate space cakes.

Amsterdam and the Living's Easy

So Monday Marge and I went shopping! We also figured out what we wanted to be for Halloween! But I won't say that until day of. We shopped until we were tired, and until it started raining. Then we hit up another coffee shop, Abraxas, which was really chill. We met some guys from San Francisco who had tripped on shrooms that day. They had gone to a museum, and bought audio guides to it. On the radio guides, they were talking about the different colors used in the paintings, but one of the guys said, "Why aren't they talking about the most obvious aspect of the paintings, like how the colors are pulsating?!" Sounds like they had a good time.

Tuesday was an epic day. We had egg sandwiches in the morning, and then kicked off our day. Marge wanted to go out and play with all her energy, but I was feeling kind of nauseous. I finally got over it, and then we giggled and walked our way to AlbertHeinz, the supermarket. We got back to the dock and hung out with Feiyang.

We ended up going to a concert at the Paradiso, Fuck Buttons. Lots of noise, literally. It was a lot of noise that sounded awesome. It was intense. We then biked to a coffee shop, Popeye's, and got some hot chocolates. It was freezing outside!

day 1: 7; 9h
day 2: 2; ice, yi
day 3: 3
day 4: 6, k

Rainy Amsterdam

All it does is rain in Amsterdam, it kind of sucks. It gives us an excuse to lounge around, which isn't terrible, but if i do this all week i would hate myself. So Saturday night we went to the Amsterdam Dance Event again, at the same club. Each club has about four or five dj's featured for the night, and Marge's friend Nick wanted to go to the Sugar Factory again. The music was definitely better, but it got to a point that it didn't really matter because we were just so out of it. Marge was definitely the best intense dancer, and Kevin kept on saying how he was all melty. It was pretty hilarious, but I was ridiculously tired by 3:45am, and felt nauseous, so Marge and I left. I pretty much immediately passed out.

Yesterday it as raining all day, so we decided to rest up so that we could go to the last night of the dance event. Marge and I made an omelet and then took naps, and woke up later to shower and watch Family Guy. We made rice and vegetables for dinner...and then I took another nap. Except I didn't wake up from it until 8am today. So none of us actually went to the dance event, but it's all good; personally i believe two nights was enough. I think I'm coming down with a sickness as well...


day 1: 7; 9h
day 2: 2; ice, yi
day 3: 2

Hi Amsterdam!

So I arrived yesterday in Amsterdam at 9:20am. I had slept over the Malpensa airport 11pm the night before my flight. There was actually no sleeping because I was on the floor the entire time. All the benches were already claimed. So I finished my book, The Emperor's Children, which I must say I didn't love...but at least it kept me preoccupied until 3am. I then started on a study guide for my International Business Management class to stay awake, but soon gave up. I was half asleep, half awake the rest of the night until my flight at 7:25am, it was terrible.

I took the train to Amsterdam Central, which was about 20 minutes away from the airport. Marge met me there (YAY!!!), and it was pouring. We went to Big Mike's to rent me a bike, and biked through the downpour to her dorm, 15 minutes away. When we got there, we got out of our wet clothing, and I napped until 5pm.

We end up going to the supermarket, and cooked dinner. And that's where our night began...

There's an electronic festival in Amsterdam right now, so all the big clubs are featuring djs. It's actually a lot of fun. I went out with Marge and her friends, and had some beers there and danced. We got back around 5am, and slept until 1pm.

Today we biked to downtown Amsterdam, and it was incredible. The ride itself was so cool. You feel like the city is so much more alive when you're on a bike rather than in a car. We biked to a "Smartshop," which sold paiote and mushrooms and all types of trippy stuff. Marge's friend Kevin picked some things up...I just gawked like a little child. I love that there are so few restrictions in Amsterdam, it's such a different culture to be able to legally smoke here.

We chained up our bikes and walked through the Red Light District. It was interesting...there were prostitutes in shop windows, and sex shops everywhere. There were also peep shows and sex theaters! (So much more than what we had seen on our drive back from Ohio Natties.) There was also a street that featured only African American women.

We went shopping, and walked along the canals. Apparently, there are more canals in Amsterdam than there are in Venice. In Venice though, there were no cars whatsoever. There are sooooo many bikes in Amsterdam. The streets are made with bikers in mind, with signals and paths for them. It's so cool, I love how supportive they are of bicycling around instead of driving.

We ended up in a coffee shop with an Indian theme. I had some hot chocolate, but they had such a large assortment of tea! It was a lot of fun. Now we're resting up to go out for the electronic festival again tonight.

And if you want to know more about Amsterdam, ask me. There are some more significant events, but I'd rather not write them.

day 1: 7; 9h
day 2: 1; ice

Last Week

Thursday, October 16, 2008
I had promised the Milan team that I would bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to practice since most of them had never had them. I was so excited that they'd be willing to try them, so I brought four to practice, and most people tried it. Sylvia thought that it tasted like meat....which is just plain weird. But Alina loved it! She told me at first that she would hate it and refused to try it, but she finally caved in. I'm so glad she of everyone liked it since she was so adamantly against it. It wasn't a hit with everyone (there were about 13 people that tried it), but I tried. At least some of them liked it.

Friday, October 17, 2008
I went clubbing with Oana and her friends at Old Fashion. It was a really fun night and I kind of got groped at the end of the night...but it's all in the past. One guy tried speaking Chinese to me, but thank god Oana saved me. We stayed til about 5am. I got home and immediately made a pb&j, and Oana made me tea! (Sweet girl.) I wasn't hungover at all the next day, which was awesome...but I literally slept from 5am to 12pm, woke up for breakfast and read up on rsd, and than went back to bed until 6pm.... that is definitely the lastest that I have slept while studying in Milan. And then I also fell asleep at 12am that night...

Bologna Tournament

This is my attempt at getting caught up in my posting...hence the double post today...

I met Alina for a ride to Cernusco at the Loreto station at 8pm, Friday October 10th. We had an ultimate tournament for the weekend in Bologna, which was about a two hour drive from Milan. We all met at Cernusco, and from there left on our journey. And of course... I just slept in the car.

We arrived to Bologna pretty late since we left late, and found spots in the gym to sleep in. Apparently, it is common for the host team to rent out a gym to hold the tournament at, so as to provide sleeping accommodations to the traveling teams. We slept on the floor of a gym with sleeping bags, and many people had blow up mattresses, or foam to lay on. One guy had a hammock! Man was I jealous...Chiara so graciously brought sleeping amenities for me since I don't have anything. The Italians call this "camping," and were really surprised when I told them that camping in the United States meant sleeping on the ground out in the woods with only sleeping bags. We went outside to hang out with the other ultimate teams for about half an hour, but we were really tired and slept around 12/1am. We had a big day tomorrow!

We had five 45-minute games on Saturday, with two byes...which is really short compared to the games we play in the States. They thought that 4 90-minute games were way too long... All in all I was still pretty tired, being out of shape and everything...and we only had three subs that day. We were seeded 5th out of 6th, and on the first day we actually beat the 2nd seeded team! It was a lot of fun, and pretty exhilarating. It reminded me of how much I missed ultimate. We went 2-3 the first day.

I'm not sure if I talked about this before, but there's always a post-session after each game. In Europe, it is common for open/women/coed teams that just played against each other, to gather together in a circle alternating team members. Then one person from each team says a little blurb about the game, how fun it was, what the other team did well, and so on. And everyone claps and gives each other high fives. (Hand shakes were given before the formation of the circle...lol) It's interesting how close these teams are. At least for the women's teams, they were all Italian, so everyone knew each other, but they do this all across Europe as well.

And I also learned that the Callahan rule just got introduced here in Europe!

After the games on Saturday, I experienced my first team shower...or shall I say division shower. It was pretty much all of the women's teams showering in a common shower. When I commented on the showers, Vale said : "In Italy, we share everything, even boyfriends." I'm sure she was kidding, but it was a pretty funny comment. I can't say that I'm used to these showers yet, or that I plan to be, but it was necessary...I had to overcome my self-consciousness or sleep dirty...and there was no way in hell I was sleeping dirty.

Saturday night the host team, Bologna, offered us a very fulfilling dinner with pasta and sausages. Of course there was beer, and entertainment as well! 8 teams competed in the "Beer Race" which consisted of four team mates taking turns chugging a beer on an exercise bike, and lots of spinning and running and jumping over things like an obstacle course, and lots more beer. It was hilarious because people would fly into the beers and fall all over the place.

On Sunday we went 1-1. I had an attempted Greatest lol, and in the same game I got this nasty layout scab that won't stop bleeding. It looks horrible... I think I laid out in the one spot where there was no grass...simply dirt.

We got home probably around 10pm, but I really loved it. It was so much fun to hang out with the Milan team, and I felt like I got so much closer to them. While at the tournament, all of Italian women's ultimate had a meeting to discuss the future of ultimate in their country. A lot of the women expressed desires to further the sport; to make it more competitive. I'm really rooting for them; it'll take a lot of time and commitment, but I believe that it's well worth it in the end.

This is the wonderful Milan team that I've been playing with, Extra Yawp!

Florence & Pisa!!!

Alright...I'm still like, 2 weeks behind on my posting....ugh...

So on October 4th, Binoy and I headed to the Questura (police station) to get our permit of stay papers approved and finalized. We arrived around 8am, and left around 11am if I remember correctly. It was a pretty funny experience, even though the entire process was irritating. They had to get copies of our fingerprints onto the police database, so they would scan your each fingerprint separately onto the computer. If the scanning was of a good quality, there is a computer icon that turns yellow or green. If it is of a bad quality, it remains red. Apparently...my fingers didn't like being scanned because the policeman had to scan each of them ten times. On my left hand, my ring and pinkie wouldn't scan at all...he tried about thirty times with an abundance of swears (thank god Vale taught those to me!), and even threatened to cut my fingers off. I thought that it was so funny that I was crying.

We then left for Florence! There were four of us traveling together: Binoy, Analise, and Anthony. The hostel that we had booked was pretty sweet, we had our own room, where Binoy and Anthony shared the Full and Analise and I each took a twin. We dropped our things off, and headed to the Uffizi Museum to buy tickets for tomorrow. (There are ridiculously long lines to buy tickets to visit museums day of... like 2 hours wait...) And than we headed to the San Marco Plaza, which was breathtaking. We simply sat there and stared into the city of Florence. We probably spent 3 hours sitting around and just taking it in.

We walked around Florence a lot, saw a soccer game, and headed to apperativo (of course). We were just so hungry... I don't think I really tasted the food. But we found some live entertainment at a plaza near our hostel while walking on our way back. There were performers that would take turns performing: singers, guitarists, and flutists took the stage, singing/playing American songs. This one couple sang the Beatles, and the flutist actually played a song from the Little Mermaid!

We headed in early since we were planning to go to the Accademia early in the morning to beat lines. The main attraction there was the David, and it was gorgeous! We marveled at it for a good hour. The rest of the works were not so impressive, but David was worth it.

We then headed to the Uffizi, and saw about 50 rooms full of artwork. It was all really nice, but again, I can't really remember what I did and didn't see at this museum. There were some famous ones I do remember/recognize, like "The Birth of Venus," by Botticelli. It's the famous painting of a naked woman in a shell. There were lots of paintings centered around Chirst and Madonna as well.

At this point Anthony and I were supposed to head home, but we somehow got convinced by Binoy and Analise to go to Pisa with them, which was also well worth it (it's an hour train ride from Florence). It's not worth going to Pisa alone because there's nothing to do there but to see the tower, it's only worth going in passing. So of course we took pictures of ourselves holding up the tower, and pictures of about 40 strangers all doing the same pose. The train ride back was about three hours, and we played various games the entire time. One of which was Contact! (Which of course makes me miss Wildwood, the car ride down, and ultimate in general.) We got back to Milan around 12am. It was a long trip, but all in all I'm glad we ended up going to Pisa as well.

Romantic Venice

So...I'm still behind on my blogging...but I have found out that I did well on my Italian test. (Score, 3 credits!) I really have to start blogging in a more timely fashion...

Nancy, Michelle, and I caught the 10am train to Venice on Sept 27, I think we got in around 1pm, and just walked around. There were absolutely no cars, only boats. There was a ferry that served as public transport, like the tram in Milan, and there were gondolas everywhere! I guess the price is set at about 90 euros for an hour ride, so we didn't end up going on one even though I would have loved to. I caught a picture of a family on a gondola, I'll go back one day and ride one. :)

When we first got there, we ate lunch at a quaint pizza/pasta place. The food there was pretty good, and the decorations were very Venetian. We then walked around all the little souvenir shops and pastry stores. Venice is known for its glass, so we kind of splurged and bought lots of souvenirs....Michelle bought about 15 pairs of earrings, hopefully they aren't all just for her...

We had to take the ferry to get to our hostel. The ferry ride was beautiful, it was like taking a boat tour of Venice. It took us down the Grand Canal and pretty much to the front step of our hostel. Our hostel was right across the canal from San Marco. That red building in the photograph is our hostel. The sun is setting because we got to our hostel about an hour late. We dropped our things off, made our beds, and took the ferry to San Marco to have dinner.

We roamed around and got lost looking for an ATM and a restaurant to eat at. We finally found one, and of course the waiters were asking if we were japonese. I know people don't mean to be racist here, but they sure come off as ignorant. This is us eating! Poor Michelle and Nancy thought that they were ordering scallops....they got pork instead. Moral of the story...never assume.

We wandered around and found a gelato shop (of course) and than settled down to watch some live performances. There were three different stages set up at shops in San Marco. Each had musicians: violinists, celloists, pianists, etc. We probably watched them for over an hour, they were so good. Basically....it was really romantic for us three girls in Venice.

We got back to the hostel Saturday night, and found someone sleeping in my bed. Apparently, the beds are numbered incorrectly inside the dorm, but correctly on the door...so I made my bed for another woman to sleep on. Ironically...Michelle and I had been joking around about this, saying how it would be pretty funny if that did happen...and it did.

The next morning we got up at 8am to start touring San Marco and the rest of Venice. We went to the Museo di Piazza San Marco. Pictures weren't allowed, so I don't really have any, but it was pretty cool. We saw lots of rooms with paintings, and went into rooms where judges used to preside over. Honestly...I don't remember it that well. Having visited so many museums...they all kind of blur together.

Here are a couple more pictures of Venince, it's beautiful, but awfully touristy at the same time. There were SO many people there, it was so crowded. It was somewhat what I had imagined, but at the same time not really. The Canal's polluted, which hurts the image of a romantic Venice, but overall it was a pretty city. :)

We returned to Milan around 8:30, it took about three hours to get back.

Viareggio - Beach Ultimate

Saturday, 09/20/08, I had my two hour Italian test. It wraps up my 60 hours of Italian class, and if I pass I get a certificate, and more importantly 3 credits! I rushed through it so that I could catch the 12:45 train to Torre di Lago Puccini/Viareggio.

Mo and I met after our test at 12, and upon arriving to the train station, we realized that the train was leaving in 5 minutes: the train was leaving 20 minutes early. We ran around and somehow managed to get on the train, it was about six hours in total of travel time, with the train and walking to the beach. (Viareggio is near Cinque Terra, just a little bit further.) When we got to the beach, we were so disheartened because we didn't see any frisbee players! After 15 minutes of picking a direction and walking, we finally saw frisbees in the air. Mo went and stayed the night with her team, and I headed back to the camping grounds with the Milan women's team, who I was going to play with the next morning. We had arrived too late for any of the games on Saturday.

Our Milanese Women's team (in red) met up with the Lago Como (Lake Como) Men's and Women's teams for dinner Saturday night. It was pretty cool, there were about 5 long tables put together, and 40 people eating spaghetti and drinking sambuca. For the most part they spoke Italian all night and I tried to listen, but I gave up soon after. They just spoke English to me.

The tournament is called the Burla Beach Cup, and every year there is a theme. This year's was zombies. The party Saturday night was kind of lame...but the costumes were really cool and scary. Everyone walking down this one strip by the beach looked like they had been murdered horrendously. I was also told that the street we were walking down was notorious for its gay clubs. Viareggio houses a large community of gays, and it was very obvious after they told me. I didn't think that the Italians were so open at first, but after three weeks, my views had been changed.

Sunday morning we only had two games, but it was beautiful. We played lodged between a set of mountains, and the Ligurian Sea. In Italy, there aren't that many women's teams, so our team had played most games against lower open teams thursday and friday. They only won one game those two days. Sunday we won the first game against a Denmark Women's team, 11 - 4, but lost the second to the Bologna Women's team that we had beat yesterday when I wasn't there. But we ended up getting the spirit award! :) This is a picture of me and Vale (Valentina); she's really friendly, chain smokes like everyone else in Italy, and she teaches me swears.

The Denmark team was really nice, they had brought pins and candy to share from their country. I like how ultimate tournaments in Europe are so worldly, I mean it makes sense since all the countries are so close. I just wish that there were a bigger ultimate scene in Italy.

I was able to catch a ride back with Ale Sunday after the finals (Bologna won against seXXXpensive, but seXXXpensive wins when it comes to better jerseys). It took over three hours, and I slept most of the way.

Below, Mauricio from the Milan team is playing with the Bologna (red and blue) team for the tournament. One of the few ultimate people I remember the name of.... then there's the jersey of seXXXpensive, and some sick grabs.

Cinque Terre

So we caught the 9:10am train to Cinque Terre Sunday September 14th. (Sorry, I know that I'm a bit behind, but I've been really busy...and sick!) We got there around 1:30pm, ate, and were on our way on the trails by 2:00pm.

Cinque Terre is a series of five (Cinque is five in Italian) coastal towns that are all connected by mountain hiking paths. The paths are all along the coast, so going was pretty slow at first. We were all shutterbugs and took a bajillion pictures. I went with Nancy, Michelle, Rene, Binoy, and Lauren; it was a pretty fun group to travel with. The first two towns (Riomaggiore and Manarola) took about 20 to 30 minutes to hike, but on our way to the third town (Corniglia), it started to downpour. We were still pretty far away from the third town, so we just kept on trekking through it. We were completely soaked, but it was still a good time. After 30 minutes, it was bright and sunny again, and actually got unbearably hot. We experienced a lot of mother nature, but it was worth it. I can't even explain Cinque Terre, it's beautiful.

We got through the first four towns in less than three hours, but we still didn't have time to hike the longest and hardest hike to Monterosso. Nancy and I seriously pounded out the trails, we were running and we each fell :(. We had to catch the 6:55pm train back to Milan, so that was pretty much impossible. We settled on taking the train to Monterosso from the fourth town (Vernazza), and ate seafood for dinner. It was a long day, and no explanation will do Cinque Terre justice. Here are some pictures. Above is a picture of some random hikers that really wanted to take a picture with Nancy and I, they were the nicest old men ever! Below is a group shot of us finally arriving in Vernazza.


Our final destination, Monterosso!