in love with lucca

to my loyal reader(s)

i apologize for being out of touch for far too long - turns out that internet cafes can get quite expensive in tourist areas (imagine that), and when it comes to a choice between a cone of gelato and a half hour online, my sweet tooth cannot be denied.

right now i am in tuscany, and absolutely beautiful change from the southern coast. while the beaches were lovely, the countryside here is even more so. i'm resting my feet at an internet point before heading out for a full day of shopping, and the continuation of my quest for the perfect invicta backpack.

keep an eye out for a series of entries i'll start upon my return back to the states with the very original title 'what i learned on my trip to europe'.

also, i'll be leaving italy after 6 full weeks here this friday, and i'm sad to see it go -- but i'm sure that some of that delicious dublin guinness will be more than willing to raise my spirits!

a bientot

off the beaten sentiero

Just got back from an incredible weekend at the Cinque Terre. The weekend was filled with soccer-watching, mountain-scaling, and much consumption of delicious gelato. On our first day, we had the most amazing (unexpected) hike all the way up to two tiny villages called Groppo and Volastra which each had only one restaurant. But after scaling the mountain, any meal someone set in front of me would have been absolutely scrumptious. Another highlight was the Hogwarts Express-esque train we took back to Rome yesterday. It wasn't magenta, but we did have one of those compartments all to ourselves, complete with luggage racks up above and seats facing one another. I was very excited, to say the least.

Also, I can't forget about the other magical train ride we took on our last night at the Cinque Terre heading back to our hotel in La Spezia. All of us had had a little to drink, and the train was delayed by at least 15 minutes. While waiting on the platform, 2 cargo trains sped by, recalling the journey to Narnia in Prince Caspian. I don't need to tell you how awesome that was. Then, when we finally got on the train, the smell of marijuana and the sound of bongo drums wafted toward us, and lots of drunken people singing 'Volare' guided us back to the albergo.

I can't believe there are only 2 weeks left of the L'Aquila program -- time seriously does fly.

Thinking about taking a short trip to Rome this weekend with a couple other kids from the program. Don't forget to check out the new photos!

when life gives you lemons

We just got back from the most amazing weekend on the Amalfi Coast. On our last morning, I had a perfect moment on the beach. There were only a few other people there because I had woken up so early. I was listening to "Anyone But You" and looking out on the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my whole life. I was so overwhelmed that I had trouble breathing. I can only wish other people the opportunity to experience something so wonderful.

The title of this post is inspired by the lemon production native to the Coast -- we visited a lemon farm nestled into the side of a mountain and it was absolutely glorious.

Check out my photo site for more pictures!

Un giorno a Pescara

The group of us took a day trip to the seaside town of Pescara on Sunday. Most spent the day baking in the 90 degree heat and talking about the Dolce and Gabbanna speedos that reigned on the beach. While everyone was tanning, I sat under an umbrella that I didn't pay for and did some hard core people watching. I was really enamored with this couple sitting near me, and wrote this while relaxing on my beach chair:

I can't continue writing my homework until I get out what I think about this couple sitting under the umbrella in front of me here on the beach in Pescara. They are picture perfect. They have a small child who is no more than 8-10 months old. The husband looks possibly French with sleek, frameless glasses, a navy blue polo shirt, and a slender body. His wife is beautiful and freckled, wearing a pink flowered bikini with a matching headband. They hold their little daughter so tenderly. At one point, the mother was stretched out on a beach chair looking into her baby's face. She was stroking the child's hair, tucking it behind its ear, cooing. Her father held her later, walking around the tables and umbrellas while his daughter sucked her thumb. They are perfect in a perfectly unpretentious way, beautifully content and sun-splashed, oozing a European attitude I envy.

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.