Ciao a tutti,
It's May, and in this case that means the real work has begun. I've already started on a few of my final projects... for the others, I'm just waiting anxiously. For a few of my classes, class participation comprises at least 40% of our grades, which is quite helpful, although the final projects weigh about as much. I need to scramble in a way because next weekend I'll be in Sicilia, Palermo and Trapani, on the western coast.
One of my projects involves interviews with actual Venetians about the sestiere of Santa Croce, on the west side of the city. This will be used for my final grades in Italian but also part of my grade in architecture... we're supposed to find out about the houses and buildings in that sestiere. So I need to finish this project soon, as it's due the day after I get back. Oh well.
So that stuff is pretty boring. I feel ambivalent about seeing everyone's Facebook statuses back home at BC... "so-and-so has one exam left!" or "so-and-so is done!" It's really been pretty easy-going here in Italy, and I figure I wouldn't sacrifice that for an early end of my semester. I am getting ready to go back... in a lot of ways I'm really excited. I've gotten all my arrangements for my same off-campus apartment at school, and I just got an email from my boss at Video Services about my hours. Things are coming together, and I really am really excited. Most of all to see the people I've missed so much.
But I do have a few more chapters until I reach the end of this experience in Venice. I'm not really sure how it'll close out, but I like the way it's going. Traveling and day trips, and even final projects, I guess, keep my mind off wanting to go home. Ah... I'm making it sound like I'm bored of Italy and want to go home. I'm not bored of Italy, that's not the issue. I'm really comfortable here, I really am having a lot of fun, and it's been my time getting to know "normal Italy" that's been the most fun, not so much the fantastic art, architecture and nature that are so famous (and justifiably so).
But you all know I went to the Universita' Ca' Foscari with Elena last Wednesday. Well, I went to Treviso, which is not where Elena lives, but one of her friends Laura does. On Sunday, I went to Treviso -- I had heard it's really nice and my 3 hours of agonized waiting at the "Treviso" Airport (which isn't actually in Treviso) didn't really give the city justice. So I wanted to go see it. As I went to the train station on Sunday, I walked quickly - it was kind of annoying because the vaporetto ran 10 minutes late, which is a rarity, and then I had to fight through all the crowds. I ran into Tim (UVA) near the Ponte all'Accademia. I wanted to chat but told him I had to run! As I was passing through Campo Santa Margherita, I heard someone shout out my name in an Italian accent... it was actually Elena, and she introduced me to her friend Maura. Again, I told her I had to run so I wouldn't miss the train. But seeing Tim and Elena in Venice... it's just really cool seeing people you know in the city when you're walking somewhere.
Anyway, I barely made the train, which was probably close to 100 degrees (fahrenheit this time) inside... ahhh it was terrible. But it left immediately. Surprisingly we were on time, and I found Laura outside the station. She showed me around, and I was actually really struck by how beautiful Treviso is for a normal city. There are three rivers that run through the city, all of them really pretty small. But there are buildings constructed so that the river runs under them. I saw the main piazza, Piazza Principale (each ancient Italian city had its own governor's palace with a main piazza). Treviso also had a huge, wide brick wall around it. While walking around the wall, Laura and I asked each other questions about culture stuff, like what kind of movies are popular in Italy or the US, and which beaches people prefer to go to. I left after about an hour because Laura was going home for dinner and then to study (one thing that's interesting is that the Italian students study so much! Sometimes they're in the library on weekends, or during the sunniest days possible. But since it's May, they're crunching it all in since now is the time that counts).
So Treviso was pretty cool. The week itself was pretty uneventful. I actually didn't go into Venice all week, except for an hour on Monday to do two interviews with an old Venetian guy and a Carabiniere. That was for my Italian class-- actually, my professor told us to ask these questions (about acqua alta, the high water) in the dialetto Veneto (Venetian) - and so I know how to say "Cossa ze', l'acqua alta," meaning "What's acqua alta?" Anyway, we didn't actually do this. I told this to Alberto, one of the few Italian guys at VIU. I usually chat with him before my architecture class... but anyway, he thought it was pretty funny that we're learning the local dialect. I do know a few words, just a handful though, it's kind of confusing in reality. But I like chatting and hanging out with Alberto, even though I don't see him that often. That's one thing that I don't really like as much about VIU... there aren't enough guys in the program, so we don't have "guy time" that frequently. There are just four or five Japanese guys, one German, maybe six or seven Americans, and just a handful of Italians. Basically, less than twenty compared to the 60 or so girls. Whatever, it's not a huge problem but I'm realizing that the concept of a "guy's night" is rare.
On Thursday we went to the apartment of Sally, the Irish girl, which is in Campo San Maurizio. It's actually a kind of tight place, especially with 12 Americans crowded inside. Jenn and Tim cooked us some pasta with a sauce that was kind of spicy and some really good chicken. Lauren made some caprese with some amazing mozzarella, and afterwards some crepes. It was a really nice evening. Unfortunately we got back later than I wanted to, since I wanted to go on the trip to the Porto di Venezia and the Mose (this was the weekly VIU trip. I just can't get enough of them because they're always... ok maybe most of the time interesting, and often I just speak Italian the whole time instead of English.
So we met up at Piazzale Roma, where we usually do, and got on a decent-sized vaporetto for a tour of the Porto di Venezia. There we saw a bunch of the cruise ships which go down the canal between the Giudecca and Venice. Actually there was this Port guy talking to us, giving us information, but we were mostly talking amongst ourselves because the boat was so loud. One thing that was kind of funny was that the Port people gave us an information packet, and there were little boxes of "Porto di Venezia" candy. Weird huh?
Anyway, we continued on toward Porto Marghera, which is where ships and cruises are actually assembled in a lot of cases. The boat ride was nice but it was really industrial and not the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, to say the very least. A lot of towers and smokestacks... "un sacco di metallo," we'd say. Interesting nonetheless. But we crossed to the other side of Venice where we changed guides -- this woman explained to us what the Mose is. I assume not many of you know, so I'll tell you. The Mose is a water-management system that operates at every inlet from the Adriatico into the Lago di Venezia. When high water is a threat. These little gates open (it's all underwater" and raise up so that the water is blocked, and can't enter the lagoon. Yeah, pretty cool idea. But we don't know if it'll actually work, or what it'll do to the environment of the lagoon. So there may be some problems. This part of the tour was kind of weird because we couldn't actually see anything -- that is, the Mose is underwater.
The tour ended at Lido. We were going to meet up with my architecture professor Paola at 3, so we had time for lunch. I went with Anthony and some of the Italian students to the beach, but not before stopping at the supermarket to buy some things for a picnic. The sun was pretty hot (actually I got kind of sunburned) but it was really nice, just hanging out and speaking Italian. I think I may have mentioned this before, but the Italians think it's really "cute" when Anthony and I practice Italian between the two of us. 3:00 rolled around and so I went with a few of my classmates (and the other BC students who had arrived a little later) to rent bikes for our biking tour of Lido.
Now as some of you may know, the Giro d'Italia is taking place actually today on Lido. I'm not sure if I'm going to go... a lot of me wants to go since it's the 100th anniversary of the race. We'll see. Unfortunately I have a ton of work to do for my classes. But anyway, we had our own little Giro d'Italia yesterday; 25 students on rented bikes, and all the signs and barriers for the race were set up. Really we were looking at examples of particular 20th century architecture on Lido, like the Grand Hotel des Bains (famous in the movie Death in Venice) and the Excelsior (probably the most famous for its view on the sea and its interesting architecture). The bike ride was maybe 4 hours long. It was a really fun day though.
Not sure what I'm doing today. Obviously, I have some work to do. So that's a bit of a problem. Also I have to mention that there's a concert today in Vicenza tonight... it's a long shot but Anthony wanted to go, so I may go if he does. So yeah, that's about it for now.
A dopo,
Andrew
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment