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Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately- it’s exam week (or rather, exam two weeks) and my life has been varying between two extremes; cram studying and schoolwork on the weekdays, and traveling/partying on the weekends. Last weekend I went to Assisi and Gubbio, two very lovely towns in the Umbrian region- I’ll post pictures later! It was so much fun. I saw the “most beautiful church in Italy” in Assisi, and hiked to the top of a mountain to see the 1,000 year old corpse of a Saint in Gubbio.

One thing happened in Assisi, and I guess to adequately explain how strange it was you’d really have to be there, but I’ll do my best to describe it. In front of the Basilica of Santa Chiara there’s a large, beautiful piazza. As Amy and I walked into the church, we looked around, and the piazza was swarming with teenagers. Literally- teenagers EVERYWHERE, on the steps, playing hacky sack, chilling around the fountain- and not a person older or younger than the ages of 14-18 in sight. It was so funny that Amy and I commented that this piazza must be the local hang out site for youngins, and we walked into the church without a second thought. After spending about maybe half an hour in the church looking around and exploring the crypts, we walk outside to the piazza again. It was still swarming with people- but this time it looked like they were all in their upper 50’s’/low 60’s! There was not a teenager in sight, or anybody of a different age for that matter, and they were hanging out in the exact same places tat the teenagers were only minutes prior. It seriously felt like 50 years had passed while we were in the church- like some strange time warp. We were seriously considering asking someone what year it was.

Gubbio was really amazing- it was this quaint little medieval town, everything made from stone<br />with vaulted doorways and cobbled roads. It was kind of a gray, overcast day, which made it feel like we were actually walking through the town in the midst of the dark ages, hundreds of years in the past (guess it really was a time warp weekend!). We had an amazing lunch there, a fabulous time exploring, and of course our infamous trek up the mountain to the church of Saint Ubaldo.

Right now I’m in the Castelli Romani, exploring the beautiful hill towns and sampling the local delicacies. Italy is like a treasure chest, you never know what you’re going to find but it’s always something wonderful. Every town, every region has its own character, its own way of life, and having the time and ability to explore each is simply amazing to me.

Just got back yesterday from a glorious weekend outing to the “scavi” of Pompei and the bella citta of Napoli. I went with three friends of mine from AUR, and it was a blast! I woke up at 6 am on Friday to hurriedly pack, take a shower and dash out to get to Termini (Rome’s train station) by 7:30, grabbed a croissant and a cappuccino for breakfast and caught the train just in time. It was a pleasant train ride, though most of us were still pretty tired and slept through parts of it. From Napoli Centrale we took the Circumvesuvian to Pompei, and tried to figure out which mountain looking thing was the Vesuvius Volcano! There were so many, it was pretty hard to tell.

The excavations of Pompei were really cool and really interesting to see, but after a while they all started to blend together in a haze of rubble and ruins. It was pretty warm there, and there is very little shade, so we started to get hot. Having gone in February, it’s hard to imagine how sweltering it must be in the summer time. There was some really cool stuff, though, like beautiful paintings and statues preserved from before the volcano erupted in 79 AD! For more pictures, visit: http://umd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2238899&l;=f0386&id;=5739844

We took the train to Napoli in the evening, shopped for a while, checked out our hostel, and had an AMAZING dinner at a restaurant called Brandi. The next day we got up early, had breakfast, and checked out the millions of churches around Naples. For lunch, of course, we had the famous Neapolitan pizza, commonly said to be the best in the entire world, from one of the first pizza places in the world. We also sampled the famous Baba, pictured below, which was buonissimo! It’s essentially a rich, spongy pastry soaked in rum. All in all, it was a great weekend!

This past weekend has been a fun one! One of my suite-mates was proposed to on Valentine’s Day, which was exciting, and it was fun to see all the Valentine’s Day festivities in Italy going on everywhere. On Friday I had a field trip to the Church of the Four Martyrs, which was really cool- the frescoes were painted with the legend of Constantine, the result of one of the most infamous forged documents in history. The picture is of the cloisters at the church, where the Nuns lived- one of the few places we were allowed to take pictures, and also rather beautiful. We were allowed into the crypts below the church, where the four martyrs were buried, and explored them for a little bit. Rome has a lot of catacombs and crypts, but the surreal feeling when you enter them never gets old for me.

Afterwards, I went and met up with Amy at the Spanish Steps. It was really cool- I haven’t seen Amy in years! I saw on Facebook that she was studying in Italy, messaged her, and we decided to meet up on Friday. We had a fabulous lunch in Trastevere, walked around the city for a while, then met up with some of her friends at the Roman Forum. It was really fun, I gave them all a grand tour of the area, and I must say I was a pretty good tour guide- I’ve been learning a ton about the art, architecture and history of the area through my classes, and I know how to present things in a cool and interesting manner. They said I should become a tour guide as a side job while I’m here and make a little extra cash, since I’m so good at it! I’m multilingual and everything too, so who knows?

Saturday was relatively uneventful, one of my suite-mates and I ran around the city looking for a Judo place she could join for a few months, though everyone kept telling us the street we were looking for didn’t exist. Afterwards we decided to just go to the supermarket and stock up for the next week, ran some errands, then came back and cooked dinner and watched a movie. Today I’m getting caught up on homework and projects for school- or at least trying to!

I remember reading a few years ago that the only two “fears” that can’t be fully trained out of a person are the fears that come from sudden loud noises, or vertigo. Then I saw Devi’s comment to Winston about the fireworks in Beijing (on facebook) and remembered how Winston, and many other pets for that matter, get extremely frightened and shake or cry during loud noises, like the crackers at Christmas time, or even thunder. Why is this?

The obvious answer is that loud noises alert us to the possibility of danger, but that doesn’t sufficiently explain it to me. Winston hated hearing the crackers even when the sound persisted and he knew nobody was getting hurt. Another possibility is that we are frightened merely out of surprise, but why would surprise scare us so much? And why do we remain scared even after we identify the source of the noise?

There are always many differences when you go abroad, and you tend to notice them more when you’re living somewhere, as you’re able to pick up the subtle changes in every-day life and cultural quirks. Some things I’ve noticed so far:

-You have to take the menu completely literally. My roommate Chelsea has had some bad luck with this: She ordered “grilled cheese with ham,” without the ham…and what came was a huge chunk of- literally- grilled cheese (no bread, nothing else, she thought she was ordering a grilled cheese sandwich). We decided that the ham must have been the main part of the entree, because the waitress had given her a funny look when she asked for no ham.
- The same thing goes for salads. In the United States, a salad typically means a bed of lettuce with toppings and a dressing of sorts. In Europe, a salad just means that it’s a chopped up vegetable. I.E., a tomato salad is simply a chopped up tomato. No dressing, nothing else. So you can order a tomato salad for 2 euro, or buy it for 25 cents, and cut it up yourself.
- Even brands we’re familiar with are different in Europe. Coke tastes different (I think better) and they don’t have Diet Coke- they have “Coca Lite” which tastes infinitely better than Diet Coke. Kellogs Frosted Flakes taste different. Paprika Pringles. Fanta Orange. Orange soda–Aranciata– tastes more like Orangina than it does orange soda, and I like it a lot better.
- While we’re on the topic of food…there’s about a million different types of bread here. And pasta. And cheeses. Like most of Europe, specialty shops are more common than supermarkets (though they do exist), and when you go to a bakery, or a pastry shop, or a formaggeria (cheese shop), or an enoteca (wine shop), you have hundreds of choices in front of you. Needless to say, I’m becoming an expert.
- The portions are smaller (not that anyone could beat the United States in terms of portion size). You go to a pasticceria and the canoli are about an inch and a half long…though, I must say, to DIE for…and the servings of gelato are all smaller, as well as pasta, etc. You get all you need and nothing more.
- Speaking of gelato- it’s AMAZING- but if you don’t know what you’re ordering, you’ll end up more often than not with alcohol in your ice cream (rum, liqueur, irish cream). If this really isn’t your thing, then avoid anything with “nonno” in the name (it means grandfather) or a fancy sounding dessert name, like tartufo.
- The pizza here is the best I’ve tasted anywhere. Hands down. Also, the cookies. Not your typical American cookies, but ridiculously delicious, and addictive. Oh, and they eat eggs benedict on Easter. I know we used to make it for Dad on Father’s Day, but I think we should all have it on Easter this year.
-The thought of “no-fat” or “skim milk” horrifies Italians. They may have reduced fat or lite, but that’s rare too. You will never find no-fat anything…everything is natural, and they like keeping it that way. The milk we drink I think is probably equivalent to 1.5% in the U.S. and is the lowest fat milk we can find. But because everything is natural, you will never find trans-fats or things with ridiculously high sodium content or preservatives.
- The lack of preservatives means that the best foods are the ones “in season.” I’ve always heard the term, but never really payed attention to it when food shopping in the United States, because everything is available all the time. Right now in Italy carrots and oranges are in season, and I must say…they are AMAZING. I’ve never eaten so many carrots in my life. Also, oranges have red “blood” splotches in the middle (a little disconcerting the first time you cut into it) and egg yolks are orange, not yellow.
- American pop-music plays EVERYWHERE, from the fanciest restaurant to the supermarket to the bakery across the street. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “Delilah” or “How to Save a Life.” I guess that’s not much different from the United States, except that we don’t play pop music in the fancy restaurants, as we typically like to set the ambience. I was in the supermarket the other day and Cupid’s Chokehold came on…literally EVERYONE in the supermarket started singing it. I have no idea if they knew what they were singing, but they knew the words, and were singing along. This one little old lady saw me laughing and abruptly stopped singing, but I smiled and started singing it too, so she started singing again and we were just singing along together.
- Fashion is one of the most crucial parts of Italian culture. Everyone dresses up, all the time. You can tell the Italian and the American teachers at the school apart very easily- everyone dresses nicely, but the Italians dress stylishly. Their shoes and purses always match. They have the cutest clothes. Americans really do stick out like sore thumbs here…tennis shoes, Uggs, hoodies, etc. My teacher told us the first thing they look for is if our shoes and purse match. And the shoes- oh the shoes! I wish I had about 100,000 more dollars to spend.
-They never wear sweats out in public. Period. I was getting stares when I ran to the supermarket in sweatpants and a hoodie to buy some medecine while I was sick. A couple of my roommates decided to wear flip-flops on a nice day and they were getting some odd looks, too.
-They don’t exercise, typically. They’ll walk their dogs, play soccer or take a stroll on a nice day, but it’s very rare to see anyone running/exercising like we do in the U.S. My roommate Amanda runs quite a bit, and she says people will cheer her on when she runs by. When we were in Sperlonga, we thought we were missing the last bus out of town, so we all had to sprint after it as it drove away, and everyone on the street cheered us on then, too. It’s quite interesting.

Well, that’s all for now!

This week has been a virtual time warp…from the trials of Odysseus to the trials of Italian class, the conquests of Hadrian to the nightly conquests of room 18. We started out with a trip to ancient Rome. It was absolutely amazing, we could see everything…the Colosseum, the Roman forum, Vittorio Emmanuel, even the outline of St. Peters in the distance. It was a surreal feeling…that structures, even lifestyles, of things from thousands of years ago were standing right in front of us. Here was the place where violent and bloody battles were held, to the entertainment of thousands of people. This is the place where Julius Caesar was murdered on the Senate steps. This is the place where Augustus Caesar stood and declared his defeat of Antony and Cleopatra and his victory over the entire Roman empire. And this is the place where I live. Unreal!

Then, school started. It was a difficult transition at first- I think most people had the initial impression that we were on a 15-week vacation- but I’m starting to fall back into my good study habits. I love all my classes, which are pretty Rome centric and involve a lot of field trips. I especially love the class “Art of Rome,” which takes us around to all the different major sites in the city and has us study them in depth, learn all about the history, the context and the architecture. I’m learning so much already, and I feel like the city is coming alive in a whole new way. We’re studying Machiavelli first in my political theory class, which is interesting, considering that on Max and I’s trip to Florence we’re having lunch at the place where Machiavelli wrote The Prince. Dante’s house is also actually really close by to my apartment. All the history in this place…it’s amazing! (Despite the fact that, when my teacher pointed out Dante’s house to all of us on the bus, there was a resounding chorus from my class of…”Who’s Dante?” and I had to hit my head against the side of the bus)

On Friday, we made our way to the beautiful hill-town and beaches of Sperlonga. It was about an hour trip by train, but an absolutely gorgeous one. From the windows in the train we could see the ancient aqueducts, historical ruins, and the Castelli Romani, or the hilltop castles that appear along the beautiful mountains on the route from Rome to Naples. When we arrived at the Fondi-Sperlonga train-station it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere, so we were a little nervous. However, the Sperlonga bus took us straight to the beach- and look how beautiful it is! While it was too cold to swim, we had fun walking along the beach, looking at the beautiful scenery, and eating gelato while we played in a small amusement park. All in all it was a fantastic time and a great day- trip. Right now I’m a little sick (I’ve had a bad cough for a while) so I’m staying inside and taking it easy. Ciao tutti, e buona giornata!

This week has been full of ups and downs– well, mainly one down, but we’ll get to that later! All in all it’s been a wonderful trip and a grand introduction to Rome, though we’ve gotten lost several times, and have had minor incidents. The day before yesterday was a big tourist day; we woke up late, went to the supermarket to buy stuff for lunch and dinner, then made our way over to the Spanish Steps (pictured on left), which were beautiful, though the statue on top was covered with construction material for restoring which took away from it a little. However, we are going to be in Rome during the Spring, which is when the Spanish steps are covered in flowers- it should be awesome! Anyway, Rocky-style, we ran to the top of the Steps (pictured to the right), bought some gelato, and ate some while watching the tourists and the beautiful scenery down below. After, we walked down the shopping district, where we admired and window-shopped the likes of Prada, Gucci, Versace, Cartier, Dolce and Gabbana, and everything else we love to look at but couldn’t possibly afford. We also went to Cafe Greco, a famous coffee hotspot for many writers, and got our espressos and cappuccinos, Italian style. We then made our way over to the Trevi fountain, which was absolutely breathtaking. It’s definitely something I’ll be going back to- though I’ll certainly be a lot more cautious this time, as an unfortunate incident on the bus left me wallet-less and moneyless. Anyway, the Trevi fountain was amazing, and in the photo to the left I’m sitting at the base of it. It’s actually a lot huger than that but we couldn’t possibly fit it all into one picture- so you’ll have to come visit me if you want to see it! I did not throw my coins into the fountain, hoping to do it the next time I returned, possibly with Max, or Ben and Jaci! Anyway, after the Trevi fountain, we hopped on the bus to go back, which was where my wallet was abruptly stolen. I then had to file a police report, call and make sure my credit cards were cancelled, report the incident to the school, and attempt to calm myself down enough to speak Italian to the police officers. All that taken care of, one of my roommates prepared dinner and we had a lovely evening at home. Yesterday, we went to a barbecue for AUR students, where I signed up for the International Relations, Italian Studies and Community Service Clubs. Then we walked more around the shops in Trastevere, chilled on the steps of a fountain and people-watched. Later that night we went to a HUGE semester kick-off party at a really hard to find club (got lost again!), which was fun, but we had to leave early (1:45 am) in order to get back to the apartment by tram, which closed at 2. And that leads us to this morning, where we’re getting ready to head over to the Roman Forum and Colosseum, so expect a blog on that!

Well family, I have arrived safely in Italy, and am happy to say that things are going really well so far. After an incredible steak dinner at Morton’s the night before I left, I was whisked off to the airport, checked in successfully, and ran through security to be off on my flight. The flight went pretty well, I was seated next to two girls on the same program (one who ended up being one of my roommates) and we had a fun time talking, until someone complained about us being too loud to the flight attendant and we were told off. Unfortunately, I did not get any sleep on either flight, which meant I would be going a total of 36 hours without sleep, however, it was definitely worth it! At the airport we waited a while for stragglers to show up, then were grouped off into our living areas and dropped off at our apartment. My roommates are all really awesome and we’ve been getting along really well! From left to right (and then down) is me, Chelsea, Amanda (my room buddy), Hannah, Lauren, and Deb. From there we set out to explore the neighborhood, stopped into a cafe for lunch, and looked to see what was around our apartment. We tried to go to the neighborhood tour later that evening, but got lost, and when we finally made it (after I stopped and asked a couple of people for directions) we were fifteen minutes late and had missed the entire tour! Because I’m really the only one in my apartment who speaks any Italian, I’ve been getting a lot of practice, and am getting infinitely better by the day. For dinner that night we got some pizza and wine from a pizza place directly across from our apartment. An elderly couple runs it, and they are so cute and nice! We will probably be going there a lot in the next few months. Speaking of our apartment, it’s incredible! More than anything I could have hoped for. It’s huge, and nice, with lots of storage space, a living and dining room, a kitchen, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a huge balcony with an awesome view. The following is a picture
of Amanda and I’s bedroom and balcony, but if you want to see the rest of the apartment and Rome photos I’ve put them up on facebook. For those of you without a facebook account who would like to see the photos, let me know and I’ll send you a link to the photos you can access without having a facebook account. The next day, we woke up early and headed over to the University to fill out our permit to stay, get our ID’s, schedules, and other documentation. We then headed out to explore more of Rome, buy some adaptors, and test out the tram/bus system. After a lovely (though overpriced, we were in the touristy area) lunch, we headed over to the Pantheon. One of my roommates, Lauren, is an art history major so she was able to tell us a lot about the architecture and style, which was awesome. We walked soooo much, and up so many steps…my quads were killing me! Here I am at the Pantheon- it was pretty cool, but it seems kind of strange to me that these huge historical masterpieces are located right next to regular or even run down neighborhoods. The inside was amazing, too, with a big skylight at the top and some fabulous artwork. Again, to see the rest of the pictures, follow the link to my facebook account. Needless to say, after all the adventures and a late night, I was exhausted, and slept to 1:30 in the afternoon!

It’s four days to my departure, and I’m still rushing around trying to finish up last minute packing and details, of course! My laundry’s all done, my money is taken care of, and my suitcase prepared…but yet I still have a million other things to do. Ah well, c’est la vie! Or should I say, C’e la vita.

We had kind of an impromptu party the other night- the original plan was for Max to cook dinner for Mom, Dad and I on Tuesday, but then my friend James called and said he was going to come down to visit me from Philadelphia on Tuesday, so we added him to the dinner plans. Then Monika called and asked if I could hang out with the girls on Tuesday, so I invited them to the dinner. Blair and Laura came too, and Blair invited her friend Jason. So, we had a rather larger party than expected, and had to run back to the grocery store several times. Max has never cooked for that many people before, so he was a little nervous, but it turned out great. We had spicy shrimp with mango, ginger and peppers (including habañero and jalapeño peppers) over saffron rice, with an avocado, tomato, cucumber and lemon dip to cool it off a little. It was delicious!

After dinner we had wild berry gelato with raspberries for dessert, and played catch phrase
…which of course ensued in hilarity. In fact, we played for so long that most of the categories starting repeating words, which has never happened in electronic catch phrase before! Monika kept making references to Blair’s brother Travis, which was funny because all the people who knew Travis- Blair, Laura and I- were on the other team. We then all watched Juno and caroused into the night.

Which, of course, means I’m a little sleep-deprived, and need a good nap before I can continue working!

It’s been an exciting winter break! After a successful and much welcome finish to the semester, I jetted off to England (literally hours after my last final) to meet the fam and spend the holidays in lovely Oxford. I must say the highlight of the vacation was meeting Winston, the excitable and friendly puppy I’ve read all about but never met. He is certainly worthy of his celebrity-dog status. The trip to Amsterdam was also an awesome time, though the majority of our party were still recovering from the dreaded norovirus (re: Jaci’s blog), which struck me a day or two after my return home.

Despite recovering from the virus attack, my new year’s was spectacular- Max and I attended a fabulous four course dinner/ New Year’s party at the Rusty Scupper, and watched the fireworks over the harbor at the stroke of midnight. It was a beautiful and memorable evening! I’ve had an amazing last two weeks as well, no school, no work and no worries. Of course, I’ve been putting off packing and finalizing details for my upcoming study abroad experience, but it’ll get done in time, for sure.

I also heard today that I’ve been accepted into the masters’ program I applied for, which is a big relief as well as exciting news! Now, if all goes well, I’ll have a masters in international development by the time I’m legally allowed to drink. Cheers to that!

We Bengforts have a lot to celebrate and be thankful for this 2008, so here are my resolutions:

1) Blog more- if only to keep Mom and Dad’s minds at ease while I’m gone.
2) Make the most out of my time abroad…and my free time.
3) Get a fabulous, ridiculously awesome pair of shoes.
4) Walk/hike/bike and generally explore more. Also, spend more time outdoors.
5) Take care of my skin. And hair.
6) Go to the beach. Seriously! I’m beach-deprived.
7) Master Italian, and review French and Spanish.
Read more.
9) Live!

Happy New Year, everyone!