un giorno mistico

Today was a pretty cool day -- we met this author from L'Aquila this morning who took us on a tour of one of the city's largest and most important churches. There are pictures on my photo site if you're interested in seeing them. He wrote a novel inspired this fresco he discovered behind the altar of the church. It was pretty Indiana Jones of him, if you ask...him.

We also have taken a couple of really nice walks around the city in the last few days. I took this picture yesterday when we were walking around with Anna Lucia, one of the professors who teach some of the other girls in the level above me. The petals fell from a window box above them, and I thought they looked really beautiful.

Best experience of the trip so far: meeting a class of middle schoolers yesterday. They invited us to their class dinner that night, and we shared tons (and I mean tons) of delicious pizza. One of them had this shaved mushroom stuff on it called "tartuffo" and some kind of prosciutto. I

I got along really well with this one girl who told me she loves Avril Lavigne. She dressed exactly like her back in the "Complicated" days - long blond hair, cargo-y pants, and lots of plastic bracelets. She was super cute and I hope I run into her again sometime.

Some of the girls in her class brought us to Magoo, the most popular dance club in L'Aquila. We were there too early and there weren't too many people around, but they played pretty fantastic techno the whole time, just as I hoped.

Sì, capisco...not.

This is the view from my window in L'Aquila. It couldn't be more beautiful.

As a city, L'Aquila is pretty small -- Professoressa Benedetti took us on a little giro della città yesterday and showed us the main piazzas, some of her favorite bars (where you drink coffee, not alcohol...most of the time), and the internet café from which I post at this very moment.

This morning, we made our first excursion to Conad (strangely close to another word describing a part of the male human anatomy that you probably wouldn't want to name a supermarket, in my humble opinion), the local supermercato.

I made the stupid mistake of hanging out in the store after paying for my groceries (prosciutto, pane, and a nice jar of Nutella were the highlights), and after leaving, was stopped by the manager who thought I stole something. He told me (in Italian) about the fact that they have security cameras and that they could watch me, and I tried to show him my receipt to prove I had paid for the bottle of water I was holding. Sure, I might have seemed suspicious(ly American and touristy), but I can't help but think this might have been the first instance of overt racism I've encountered. 

But maybe I'm also jumping to conclusions. After all, I'm here to adapt to the euro quo...which apparently disapproves of loitering in the supermarket after you've made your purchase. 

Nevertheless, a low point for the day. The high point was having the woman at the cell phone store where I bought my new SIM card compliment me on my italian. At least I'm doing something right!

countdown to liftoff

Behold my first proud purchase for my trip to Europe.




Less than 48 hours from now, I'll be on a plane to Rome, launching my long-awaited, highly anticipated European adventure. I've been planning this trip since my sophomore year of high school, and it has finally arrived -- so I thought I'd go all out on the backpack. Admire it's pink-and-plaidness, ladies and gentlemen.

After much deliberation, I have decided to name my blog THE EURO QUO. If you're interested in finding out how I chose the name (it took me literally four months), read on -- if not, just continue being amazed at my glorious knapsack.

My thought process stemmed from quotidien -- most probably from a recent lunch I had with my father at le pain quotidien, my personal belgian bakery/café chain of choice. The word "quotidian" may have some banal undertones, but I think it pretty well wraps up what I'm going for with this year in Europe. I want to become absorbed in the essence of the everyday, to appreciate the minute, yet essential, details that distinguish them from one another and from Americans. I want to be immersed so deeply that these distinctions become quotidian.

But quotidian is a mouthful, not to mention painfully pretentious sounding, so I went with an abbreviated version that calls to mind the status quo, translation: things as they are. Even though sticking to the status quo may conjure up images of succumbing to the man (or High School Musical, depending on your taste in made-for-TV movies), but I as a stranger in a foreign culture, learning, adapting, and adopting the status quo is part of the learning experience.

And thus the journey begins -- alla prossima, amici.