So yesterday was good--at around 2:00pm, Paula and Gunther (sp?) picked me up and took me to Gabi and Salvatore's. I had a really great time with them. First we had coffee and cake, then we went for a walk in a very old town (nearby) with a couple of very nice churches. And there was a river going through the town, as well as a little falls. It was very pretty. (And I'm afraid my English is getting worse, and that it's starting to sound like the German-version of English--like Tobi's English. It's sort of entertaining, but I have to think twice about how I write.) After we went into town, we went back to the house and Gabi and Paula made dinner--some sort of Tuscan pasta, I think. It was quite nice. Then after dinner we talked for a long time, and I told them about the States and where I've been--and what I think it worth seeing, and what's not worth seeing.
And I talked a lot with Sarah and Valentina, which was fun. I'm so excited for Sarah to come visit with the family, so that I can show her around and we can go to the grocery store and look at the ridiculously large amounts of food that are so very cheap compared to everything here. Oh, and Salvatore is learning English--he's been attending a night course for three months, so he should be prepared by the time they come to visit. I found his English very entertaining--especially when he pronounced "cheese" and "k-heese." But I think he's making good progress. I told him that to talk to my dad, though, he probably doesn't need to know the same language as my dad. I think the both of them are very good at communicating without a common language. And apparently Salvatore also pretends to know how to speak English, just like Mo pretends to speak Spanish. Gabi was telling me that there was an English couple he met at the Oktoberfest, who were convinced that he spoke English because he just kept saying things like "very good," "yes/yeah," "really," etc. Definitely seemed like a Mo in Costa Rica moment, where everyone thinks that he is a Mexican. So I had a very nice time with them.
This morning I was very confused about the time of day. I knew that Daylights Savings time was today, so last night I changed my clock--but I set it ahead on accident. But I wanted to call Soraya and I knew that the time difference would not have happened back at home, so I set my alarm clock an hour earlier than necessary to make sure that I would get up at the right time. So, I think, somehow I first woke up at around 4:00am--which was not very pleasant, so I fell back asleep. And then I eventually figured out to call Soraya. It took me a while to figure out my mistake though.
Then today we went to Tante Anni's for dinner/lunch. It was wonderful! So at Tante Anni's it was Tobi, Gerlinde, Florian, Tante Hilde, Tante Anni, and me. It was good, although I could not understand a sizeable amount of the conversation, since it was in German, but that was okay. I have decided that Germans are much happier people than the Swiss--the Germans laugh and joke a lot more. I think it's healthier. Going back to Lugano rather than staying here or going home sounds terrible right now!
Then this afternoon I went with Melanie and her boyfriend to the market/fair that happens twice a year in Lohhof. The Germans are very practical people--most of the things on sale were all sorts of cleaning brushes and socks. And there were lots of clothes and jewelry and some food vendors. And there was the smallest merry-go-round that I have ever seen; it's the one thing for kids at the market, according to Melanie. They had a lot of chocolate-covered fruits on a stick too. So that was all right.
Oh and Bardia secured a job in Neuchatel, so he is going home to Australia on Tuesday, but he will be returning at the end of November, and his job starts on the first of December. So I am going to visit him sometime before I leave, but not next weekend. This is probably a good thing, as I am probably going to have a lot of homework to get out of the way. And it would be nice to have a weekend just to chill.
Tomorrow I am going into Munich for some sightseeing and maybe some souvenir shopping. I haven't sent any postcards! I should at least buy a few here. More soon. I miss everyone!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Day of the Cousins
So yesterday was my first full day here in Germany. I started the day by going into Munich with Florian around 9:30am. We went to a cafe and had "breakfast"--if you can call a cheeseburger and french fries breakfast. But it was good. We got back to Tobi and Gerlinde's around 1:00pm, I think, and Melanie came to pick me up to go shopping at about 2:00pm. We went to a new shopping mall, and looked around for a number of hours. I bought four long-sleeved t-shirts (two black and two blue, the colors do seem a little emo, no?)--I have mostly short-sleeved t-shirts back in Lugano. For some reason, when I packed I was only thinking of hot summer weather and cold snowy weather--not the in-between weather, where neither of the above clothing types are comfortable. So that was good. Then we went to the bar that she worked at, and we we stayed there until about 6:45pm. I had a bottle of water (no gas) and Melanie had an iced tea. Then Melanie dropped me off back at the house and I changed to get ready for Melanie's best friend's birthday party.
Melanie picked me up at 9:00pm, and then we went over to her friend Tina's house. It was all girls, and there was some Ghoulash (sp?) soup and little cakes and things, and Tina opened presents. Then sometime around 11:00pm, everyone organized themselves into the different cars, and we drove to Munich to go to a club. The club in Munich was much better than in Lugano. It was much cleaner, and it was not so smokey (in Lugano, you couldn't see more than a foot or two in front of you because of all the smoke), and the music was much much better. To my surprise I owned a large number of the albums that they were playing music from--they played everything from the Gorillaz to Ray Charles to Justin Timberlake, the Roots, a sampling from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and lots of hiphop and whatnot that I'm not familiar enough with the titles of (and all of the music was mixed, etc. of course). But it was much better than the House/Techno/Electronica they play all the time in Lugano--it's so redundant it just gives you a headache. So that was good. I think I've decided that after people have a drink (at least the German girls), their English improves. Or maybe it's just that they are less shy. One Russian girl could all of a sudden speak English after a couple of drinks--it was quite a surprise.
We left the club around 3:30am, and I got back to the house around 4:00am. Then I went to sleep, and got up around 9:00am and had breakfast with Tobi and Gerlinde. At 2:00pm today I am going over to see Gabi and Salvatore, I think. That should be good. I wish I knew more German. If only they spoke Spanish. All right, more soon. And I'm going to try and complete a little more of my Sicilian adventures too...!
Melanie picked me up at 9:00pm, and then we went over to her friend Tina's house. It was all girls, and there was some Ghoulash (sp?) soup and little cakes and things, and Tina opened presents. Then sometime around 11:00pm, everyone organized themselves into the different cars, and we drove to Munich to go to a club. The club in Munich was much better than in Lugano. It was much cleaner, and it was not so smokey (in Lugano, you couldn't see more than a foot or two in front of you because of all the smoke), and the music was much much better. To my surprise I owned a large number of the albums that they were playing music from--they played everything from the Gorillaz to Ray Charles to Justin Timberlake, the Roots, a sampling from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and lots of hiphop and whatnot that I'm not familiar enough with the titles of (and all of the music was mixed, etc. of course). But it was much better than the House/Techno/Electronica they play all the time in Lugano--it's so redundant it just gives you a headache. So that was good. I think I've decided that after people have a drink (at least the German girls), their English improves. Or maybe it's just that they are less shy. One Russian girl could all of a sudden speak English after a couple of drinks--it was quite a surprise.
We left the club around 3:30am, and I got back to the house around 4:00am. Then I went to sleep, and got up around 9:00am and had breakfast with Tobi and Gerlinde. At 2:00pm today I am going over to see Gabi and Salvatore, I think. That should be good. I wish I knew more German. If only they spoke Spanish. All right, more soon. And I'm going to try and complete a little more of my Sicilian adventures too...!
Friday, October 27, 2006
Out of the European Wilderness... Comes Ari.
Hi there! I know it's been a while since I last wrote--let me say, my, I've been busy! It takes a lot of energy to see everything worth seeing in the birthplace of western civlization (as Sicilia prefers to be known). In any case, I am now in Munich staying with Tobi and Gerlinde. My flight got in yesterday morning to Munich at about 10:30am. I went over to Tobi and Rosie's and tried communicating with my six words of German for quite some time--Oma, you should probably call Tobi and ask him about his conversation. I think he was pretty entertained, especially when I started drawing pictures to explain myself. But I really did get a lot of out of the conversation, to my surprise (especially considering that I pretty much only know the names of furniture pieces). But we talked about Florian and Melanie's apartments and their furniture (ha!), as well as Soraya and her duck (first thing I did was ask after your duck, Soraya; did you know Tobi named it Sorto as in Soraya-Tobi; it was looking to be in excellent condition by the way), my Mom and her kindergarten, how old the kids are now... We had a pretty good conversation. After our chit-chat, Gerlinde came over and took me back to the house for some lovely pumpkin soup. Then Tobi and I went and picked up Tante Anni for afternoon coffee at three and Gerlinde had made an apple cake (I'm not sure what it's proper name is). Present at coffee were Tobi x2, Gerlinde, and Tantes Anni, Rosie, and Hilde. Then there was lots more chatting, and later I walked over to Tante Hilde's (sp?). Then Gerlinde made wienerschnitzel for dinner with potato salad and green salad (I cannot remember being more excited to see fresh vegetables after being in Sicily for so long without them), and Florian came over for dinner, and then Melanie came over after, and I showed them pictures of Soraya, Louisiana, and prom. I need more family pictures--I have mostly pictures of my friends on the computer. And then Florian's girlfriend, Kirsten, came over too, and I tried to help her with her English vocabulary (she had a test on it today). It was immigration reform-themed vocabulary, which I found very entertaining--with such vocabulary as "The American Dream," "to be deported," "to vote for Bush," and so on. I think there were some words in there that the average American doesn't know. But I think she's learning Business English--so that makes sense.
All right, so I was hoping to provide everyone with a full account of my Sicilian travels, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to write before getting burnt out. We spent almost every waking hour touring ruins, cathedrals, palaces, castles, theaters, etc. etc. etc. There was so much to see! I think I've seen almost everything worth seeing or of great historical significance in Sicily now. So I made a few notes the first five days or so, but then I just couldn't remember everything we saw--even the day after it happened. I probably should have written everyday, but alas, I had no time. And every time we got back on the bus we were so exhausted we feel asleep--every time, without fail. You could turn around five minutes into the ride and everyone would be passed out even if it were 8:00am--and no one ever went clubbing, etiher. Okay. So here goes my epic attempt at recalling my trip to Sicily:
Monday, October 15:
I started the day by rolling my enormous blue suitcase up the hill along with Erinn. (Coming down the hill when we got back to Lugano on Wednesday, I was very impressed with us, I must say.) In any case, the two of us were too cheap to get a taxi. That morning the Austria/Germany trip was leaving too, so we saw all of them gathered. Then we hopped on the nicest bus I had ever seen, which took us to the Milan Linate airport. At the Italian border a customs official got onboard and checked out all of our passports--he spent a little extra time on Bahar's Persian passport... That happened a lot during the trip. In any case, then we flew with Alitalia from Milan to Catania, where we took a tourbus to Taormina. There was an enormous group of American boys on the flight. From the sound of it, their parents were with the Army and were stationed in Germany, and they were playing in a soccer game with kids from another base. I was impressed by efficient and on-time Alitalia was--even though it was a tiny flight. I haven't been on an on-time flight in the States in a long darn time. In any case, as were got off the airplane, it promptly began to rain, to our great distress. Later that night, Professor Cappiello showed us how to take the Funi into town and how to navigate the main street, then set us loose for dinner. Marcel, Samantha, and I ended up losing the rest of our group, and continued to search for them in the rain until we became too hungry to continue. We went to a nice little pizzeria, and I had "Diavolo" pizza, which had spicy peppers, spicy salami, mozzarella, and pomodoro. Then later we found a few more people, but Sam and I went back down to the hotel rather early.
Tuesday, October 16:
This was a very busy day, but really it was just the beginning. We first went to Siracusa, where we met our first tour guide, Suzanna, who was a little bit kooky, but nice. We saw Greek theater, and Roman amphitheater, as well as a number of other ruinds. The Greek theater was very cool--and just behind it, right in the middle at the top, there was an enormous fountain of fresh spring water. We also visited a number of churches that have unfortunately blended into one... We visited a small island just next to Siracusa, as well, which I cannot remember the name of. But we saw a Greek temple that had been turned into a church of Santa Lucia, and you could still see the Doric columns, which is quite rare. After Siracusa, we left and had lunch at the AutoGrill. I had rustichella, it was sort of like a pita bread panini. Then we went onto Catania, where we had a guide named Giuseppe. Catania seemed to be pervaded by a sense of death, doom, and destruction. So many disasters have taken down the city so many times, it seems incredible that it still exists. Everything has had to be rebuilt eight times. All of the buildings were made of black lava stone too, which was very striking but also made the city seem that much darker and foreboding. It probably didn't help that it was a cloudy kind of day, threatening to rain (once we got to Catania at least; we had had some sun in Siracusa). After our tour of Catania we went back to Taormina for dinner as a group.
Wednesday, October 17:
This was an early one. We went up to see Mount Etna. We didn't get to see any lava, but we stopped at Crati Silvestri, which was plenty cool on its own. Everything was black, and it was all huge. Mount Etna is made up of like 35 craters or soemthing huge like that. And the fog even cleared a bit so that we could see around us too--usually the fog sets in pretty early and you don't have a very good view. After Mount Etna we visited the beach at Naxos and had lunch there. It was a very pretty beach and there was a big cruise ship in the harbor. After Naxos, we drive to the highest part of the Taormina area, Castelmola (sp?), which had a spectacular view. Once we got back to Taormina, in the later afternoon (but not evening yet) we had the rest of the day free. I went into town by myself, but eventually met up with Ryan, then Bahar, Gabi, Devon, and Marcel. We shopped around until about 8:00pm, when we scouted out a place for dinner. We found a quaint little place where the chef spoke some Spanish, and he sort of fell in love with Devon and made her a Sicilian specialty of some sort of seafood marinara pasta--that was good. We spent a long, long time there. Then we went and had gelato, and then went to an Irish Pub for coffee, where the waiter was Moroccan. We ended up going to bed around 1:30am, I'd say. It was fun and I sort of found people to hang out with over the trip.
Thursday, October 18:
The day before we went to Palermo, we got to get up a little bit later. We met at 10:30am to go up to town (Taormina) in order to meet some students a private language school. That was good, but it was also difficult because both sides were very shy--most of the language students were taking French too, so for those of us English/Spanish speakers, it got a little awkward. But they had lots of pastries for us to try. Then we had a couple of hours free until our walking tour or Taormina; we met again at 2:30pm in front of the church. We saw the botanical gardens and the Greek-Roman theater, which had a great view of the water. Then we were free until 7:30pm, when we met for pizza. During that in-between time, I got some monstrous mosquito bites that turned into welts. And that was pretty much our night.
Friday, October 19:
We moved to a hotel just outside of Palermo, in a town called Mondello. Palermo is the largest city in Sicily with about one million inhabitants, including illegal immigrants (mostly from North Africa, as the distance is only 120-150 miles across the water). You can actually take a train to Tunisia from Sicily. I was very surprised to find out you can take a train to Sicily too, for that matter; you get on the train and then eventually the train gets loaded up onto a big ferry boat, and the train is floated across to the rest of its tracks. Amazing, huh? In any case, we were all a little disappointed by the hotel in Palermo because we were a bit spoiled by the one in Taormina, but it wasn't so bad. We left Taormina at 8:30am and arrived in Palermo at about 4:00pm, during which time we made two bathroom stops and toured a very well-preserved Roman villa, with some spectacular mosaics covering all its floors. It had some very entertaining rooms--like the Bikini Room, which had all mosaics of women from different countries in bikinis. So they're not such a modern invention.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
In Sicily
Not much time to write, as I am at an internet cafe, but I thought I would let you all know that I am alive and well in Taormina, and it is absolutely beautiful! I cant wait to upload photos for you to see. Wish you all were here! Smile, Ari
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Clean Sheets
I do apologize for the lack of blogging this week--it's probably a good sign, actually, means I've been keeping busy. :-) And it's getting late here and I'm almost done packing for Sicily and getting everything ready (but not quite), so this might turn out to be a short blog.... Not sure.
Okay, so I last wrote on Tuesday. What has happened since then? I don't think there was anything of interest to report on Wednesday. I took all my midterms this week, and I now know that I'm getting an A- in College Algebra. I'm not sure what my other grades are looking like, but they mail them home to the parents, so parents, you'll know soon enough. I wrote a paper for English class on Wednesday defending the respectability of country music. It was an okay paper, but nothing I'm particularly proud of. Wednesday was mostly studying
Thursday I had my Western Civ midterm, which I felt pretty good about. I didn't really feel insecure on any questions, with the exception of a primary source question on Anaximander (sp?) and an identification on Mycenae. But other than that I felt it went pretty well. I also turned in my country music essay in English class, and we discussed lots of random things, I'm sure because that's what English class is. Not much happens in it. After class I went back down the hill, then went back up the hill for the 6:00pm lecture, which I really liked. It was all about Sesame Workshop, which is, essentially, Sesame Street and how they bring it to other countries. It was really interesting--all about how it's pretty much local production companies and educators who build the programming for any given country. So in South Africa, for example, they have the first ever HIV-positive muppet; in Egypt they focus on strong female characters who enjoy reading, etc. because they have problems with female literacy; in Japan they don't need to work on cognitive whatnot, but they need to work on socio-emotional development. And there were video clips too, so that was cool.
After the lecture Christina, the Writing Center Director, took us writing consultants out for dinner. First we went over to Italy (Ponte Tresa to be exact) but the Chinese restaurant we were going to go to was remodeling and therefore not open for business. So we walked back over the border into Switzerland and went to a little grotto. It was a lot of fun. I think I found my people--I'm going to need to continue working in Writing Centers. We spent a good long time laughing about the thesis statement... Just to give one example. I would relay more of the hilarity, but I have the feeling that you had to be there. I didn't get back from that until like 11:30pm. I know, crazy writing consultants. Then I had my German midterm yesterday (Friday morning) and then Marketing. I went to the Writing Center for an hour to "work" and was the only one there for some reason, Christina wasn't even there, so I left after an hour and got lunch and went back down the hill. And I've pretty much been getting ready to leave ever since.
Deniz and I went to the train station to exchange money. The exchange rate sucks, I might add. Before that though I went grocery shopping, got a few things to sustain me until we leave tomorrow morning. We also had a bit of a "food-fest" last night in the Common Room kitchen, and a ton of people showed up. I made Bademjan Kookoo. It turned out all right, nothing special (there were a number of obstacles it faced during production, so it was impressive that it was edible, in my opinion), but everyone loved it and ate it anyway. They were highly delighted by my eggplant. I also made oatmeal raisin cookies, which I finished baking today (I didn't use all the cookie dough yesterday). Alauna made an amazing tiramisu, and Alyssa made potato curry and rice. And lots of other people came downstairs too and started cooking; it seemed like a mad attempt to get rid of any food that might spoil before Academic Travel.
And then I watched Gone with the Wind, the first half, last night and then the second half today. I love that movie. And that book for that matter. Then today I've pretty much been cleaning and doing laundry all day. Dishes all day, I swear. Washed all my sheets, all my towels, all my clothes. Everything's clean and organized for the most part, with the exception of my desk, which should be clean by the time I leave tomorrow. I'm really paranoid about forgetting some important part of the puzzle on my way out the door tomorrow morning. I think I'm going to get up around 6:00/6:30am to make sure that I get everything in order. I also made a list, of course. Okay, I should really go to bed, so that I'm not tired tomorrow...
But before I go, here's what my travel schedule looks like for the next month or so:
>October 15-25, Sicily (Taormina & Palermo, if you want specifics my mom has the itinerary)
>October 26-31, Munich (staying with Tobi & Gerlinde)
>November 3-4/5, Neuchatel (Switzerland, staying with Bardia)
>November 23-26, Barcelona
I may or may not have communications available in Sicily... I'm bringing my Swiss cellphone and possibly my US cellphone too. So you can always call my Swiss phone with a phonecard--I think it works the same way? And then I may or may not be able to find an internet cafe or two. They're supposed to be everywhere in Europe, but Lugano has shaken my faith in that belief.
And Happy Birthday Michele! I hope you guys have a great time at the pumpkin patch!! I miss you!
Smile, Ari
Okay, so I last wrote on Tuesday. What has happened since then? I don't think there was anything of interest to report on Wednesday. I took all my midterms this week, and I now know that I'm getting an A- in College Algebra. I'm not sure what my other grades are looking like, but they mail them home to the parents, so parents, you'll know soon enough. I wrote a paper for English class on Wednesday defending the respectability of country music. It was an okay paper, but nothing I'm particularly proud of. Wednesday was mostly studying
Thursday I had my Western Civ midterm, which I felt pretty good about. I didn't really feel insecure on any questions, with the exception of a primary source question on Anaximander (sp?) and an identification on Mycenae. But other than that I felt it went pretty well. I also turned in my country music essay in English class, and we discussed lots of random things, I'm sure because that's what English class is. Not much happens in it. After class I went back down the hill, then went back up the hill for the 6:00pm lecture, which I really liked. It was all about Sesame Workshop, which is, essentially, Sesame Street and how they bring it to other countries. It was really interesting--all about how it's pretty much local production companies and educators who build the programming for any given country. So in South Africa, for example, they have the first ever HIV-positive muppet; in Egypt they focus on strong female characters who enjoy reading, etc. because they have problems with female literacy; in Japan they don't need to work on cognitive whatnot, but they need to work on socio-emotional development. And there were video clips too, so that was cool.
After the lecture Christina, the Writing Center Director, took us writing consultants out for dinner. First we went over to Italy (Ponte Tresa to be exact) but the Chinese restaurant we were going to go to was remodeling and therefore not open for business. So we walked back over the border into Switzerland and went to a little grotto. It was a lot of fun. I think I found my people--I'm going to need to continue working in Writing Centers. We spent a good long time laughing about the thesis statement... Just to give one example. I would relay more of the hilarity, but I have the feeling that you had to be there. I didn't get back from that until like 11:30pm. I know, crazy writing consultants. Then I had my German midterm yesterday (Friday morning) and then Marketing. I went to the Writing Center for an hour to "work" and was the only one there for some reason, Christina wasn't even there, so I left after an hour and got lunch and went back down the hill. And I've pretty much been getting ready to leave ever since.
Deniz and I went to the train station to exchange money. The exchange rate sucks, I might add. Before that though I went grocery shopping, got a few things to sustain me until we leave tomorrow morning. We also had a bit of a "food-fest" last night in the Common Room kitchen, and a ton of people showed up. I made Bademjan Kookoo. It turned out all right, nothing special (there were a number of obstacles it faced during production, so it was impressive that it was edible, in my opinion), but everyone loved it and ate it anyway. They were highly delighted by my eggplant. I also made oatmeal raisin cookies, which I finished baking today (I didn't use all the cookie dough yesterday). Alauna made an amazing tiramisu, and Alyssa made potato curry and rice. And lots of other people came downstairs too and started cooking; it seemed like a mad attempt to get rid of any food that might spoil before Academic Travel.
And then I watched Gone with the Wind, the first half, last night and then the second half today. I love that movie. And that book for that matter. Then today I've pretty much been cleaning and doing laundry all day. Dishes all day, I swear. Washed all my sheets, all my towels, all my clothes. Everything's clean and organized for the most part, with the exception of my desk, which should be clean by the time I leave tomorrow. I'm really paranoid about forgetting some important part of the puzzle on my way out the door tomorrow morning. I think I'm going to get up around 6:00/6:30am to make sure that I get everything in order. I also made a list, of course. Okay, I should really go to bed, so that I'm not tired tomorrow...
But before I go, here's what my travel schedule looks like for the next month or so:
>October 15-25, Sicily (Taormina & Palermo, if you want specifics my mom has the itinerary)
>October 26-31, Munich (staying with Tobi & Gerlinde)
>November 3-4/5, Neuchatel (Switzerland, staying with Bardia)
>November 23-26, Barcelona
I may or may not have communications available in Sicily... I'm bringing my Swiss cellphone and possibly my US cellphone too. So you can always call my Swiss phone with a phonecard--I think it works the same way? And then I may or may not be able to find an internet cafe or two. They're supposed to be everywhere in Europe, but Lugano has shaken my faith in that belief.
And Happy Birthday Michele! I hope you guys have a great time at the pumpkin patch!! I miss you!
Smile, Ari
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
So I Have an Australian Uncle Who Happens to be in Switzerland
I'm about to head to bed, but I thought I'd post before sending myself a'sleeping. Things went pretty well today--lots of class time, a midterm in Algebra. Nothing too exciting to report. I went over to the Grotto and got a sandwich and a salad for lunch today, as North Campus didn't really hold anything promising for me. (They didn't really for dinner, either.) Everything went as normal today, did some studying for Western Civ (midterm on Thursday), and I talked to Erin and Cary! Hooray!
And I had quite the surprise today--Bardia e-mailed me, he's in Neuchatel, which is about four hours away from here by train. Who knew? He's going to be hear through the first week of November, so I'm hoping I'll get the chance to see him before he leaves. How often is your Australian uncle just a few hours away? It's a shame that I'm going to be gone to Sicily and Munich for so much of the time he's here--but I do hope to see him!
We have our last Academic Travel meeting tomorrow afternoon--going to finally find out the itinerary for the trip and what to bring, etc. So that's exciting. I wish I could bring something smaller than one of my huge blue suitcases. Ah well, maybe this means I'll have lots of room to bring stuff back? Hmm, I'm going to have to figure that out. I'm so looking forward to traveling--getting out of Lugano and seeing a little bit more! Palermo... Taormina... Munich... Neuchatel?... Barcelona...
More soon! Miss you guys!
Smile :-), Ari
And I had quite the surprise today--Bardia e-mailed me, he's in Neuchatel, which is about four hours away from here by train. Who knew? He's going to be hear through the first week of November, so I'm hoping I'll get the chance to see him before he leaves. How often is your Australian uncle just a few hours away? It's a shame that I'm going to be gone to Sicily and Munich for so much of the time he's here--but I do hope to see him!
We have our last Academic Travel meeting tomorrow afternoon--going to finally find out the itinerary for the trip and what to bring, etc. So that's exciting. I wish I could bring something smaller than one of my huge blue suitcases. Ah well, maybe this means I'll have lots of room to bring stuff back? Hmm, I'm going to have to figure that out. I'm so looking forward to traveling--getting out of Lugano and seeing a little bit more! Palermo... Taormina... Munich... Neuchatel?... Barcelona...
More soon! Miss you guys!
Smile :-), Ari
Monday, October 09, 2006
Clear, 61 degrees, Ticino
Today was a pretty good day--I kept busy! This morning I had German class, and then a Marketing midterm, which went so-so. Not fabulous, but I didn't bomb it (I don't think). I wasn't sure what kind of test it was going to be, so I found it a little bit difficult to study for it. In any case, no excuses. After Marketing, I went and took charge of the Writing Center for two hours. I did some homework for a bit--some studying for math and bit of letter-writing... then, miracle of miralces! Someone came in and she needed help!!! So I had my first experience as a real writing consultant, and I think it went very, very well, if I do say so. I think she was actually looking forward to writing/revising her paper once we were done. It made me feel all warm and happy inside.
After I was done there, I went and grabbed lunch, then went back to the Writing Center to pass off the key to one of the other writing consultants. After that I went over to the Main Villa campus, where the library is, and I discovered a package with my name on it... from Michele! I must admit, it was quite exciting. :-) Then I headed over to the library to finally choose my research topic and find some books on it; I couldn't find enough books for the cult/fanatics topic, so I decided to stick with something safe and go with Flannery O'Connor. My topic will essentially be how her religious background influenced her work. It should be good--like the Junior English project except more low-key. Library didn't take too long, so then I headed back down the hill and finished washing dishes after yesterday's baking/cooking bonanza. Eventually went up for yoga, which was outside on the soccer field today. There were lots of itty bitty Italian bambini on the field attempting to play soccer, who thought we were ballerinas. That was rather entertaining. I don't think we're nearly as graceful as that.
I was planning on staying up there for dinner, but I wasn't hungry and it sounded to heavy, so I came back down the hill to study and work on homework, which has yet to be worked on. But soon, I promise. We had more beautiful weather today; very chilly this morning, but it warmed up to about 70 degrees. It's getting darker earlier too... Ah! Well, Sicily on Sunday! Anything else worth mentioning? I can't think of it now. Deniz has her first basketball game on Wednesday; I'll have to show up at that of course. I've only got one episode of Fresh Prince left... O, woe is me. (That was for you Soraya.)
So that was my day; productive, if not particularly interesting. As long as it's productive, I'm happy. More soon!
Smile, Ari
After I was done there, I went and grabbed lunch, then went back to the Writing Center to pass off the key to one of the other writing consultants. After that I went over to the Main Villa campus, where the library is, and I discovered a package with my name on it... from Michele! I must admit, it was quite exciting. :-) Then I headed over to the library to finally choose my research topic and find some books on it; I couldn't find enough books for the cult/fanatics topic, so I decided to stick with something safe and go with Flannery O'Connor. My topic will essentially be how her religious background influenced her work. It should be good--like the Junior English project except more low-key. Library didn't take too long, so then I headed back down the hill and finished washing dishes after yesterday's baking/cooking bonanza. Eventually went up for yoga, which was outside on the soccer field today. There were lots of itty bitty Italian bambini on the field attempting to play soccer, who thought we were ballerinas. That was rather entertaining. I don't think we're nearly as graceful as that.
I was planning on staying up there for dinner, but I wasn't hungry and it sounded to heavy, so I came back down the hill to study and work on homework, which has yet to be worked on. But soon, I promise. We had more beautiful weather today; very chilly this morning, but it warmed up to about 70 degrees. It's getting darker earlier too... Ah! Well, Sicily on Sunday! Anything else worth mentioning? I can't think of it now. Deniz has her first basketball game on Wednesday; I'll have to show up at that of course. I've only got one episode of Fresh Prince left... O, woe is me. (That was for you Soraya.)
So that was my day; productive, if not particularly interesting. As long as it's productive, I'm happy. More soon!
Smile, Ari
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Stewed Apples
I spent most of the waking hours of today baking for the baking contest that was earlier this evening. I enjoyed all five hours of it, I must say; I love that feeling of creating something, especially something delicious. So I guess a recipe and some pictures will have to do to summarize my day:
Cinnamon Apple Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
(modified from the recipe for Long Winter cupcakes at shimelle.com)
250g unsalted butter
400g sugar
5 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup milk
170g self-raising flour
170g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 3/4 cup stewed apples
Heat the oven to 160C. Place liners in cupcake pan and set aside.
In mixing bowl, beat softened butter until smooth, then add sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well distributed.
Stir in the self-raising flour until consistent.
Add the milk and vanilla and mix again.
Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until even.
Fold in the apple pie filling. If your filling is too solid and the batter seems excessively thick, add milk or apple juice to thin slightly.
Fill cake cases 3/4 full and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a chopstick comes out clean.
Makes about 32 average sized cupcakes.
Six regular-sized apples, peeled & chopped
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
Combine in a saucepan, cover, and let "stew" until tender (depending on the type of apples 25-45 minutes).
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients:
500g cream cheese
175g unsalted butter
150g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling
Soften the cream cheese and butter in a bowl and mix with a spatula or mixer until there are no lumps.
Add remaining ingredients and mix until even in colour and texture.
Chill overnight in the fridge to thicken and improve the texture of the sugar (brown sugar is crunchy until it sets).
Pipe or spread over cupcakes.
Sprinkle with cinnamon to garnish.
All right, I've really got to study for my Marketing midterm tomorrow morning!!
I miss you guys!
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Ari Goes Clubbing... Say What?
Yes, that's right, folks. I went to a club for my first time and most likely last time--at least until I'm 21 and can get into the piano dueling bar in Tacoma. My summary of the event is something like this: a high school dance but with fewer people, worse music, and a lung-murdering amount of smoke. No need to worry parents; we all know that clubbing isn't my scene. I went to fulfill two purposes, 1) so I can now say that I've been to a club and can base my dislike on real events and 2) hopefully, I will no longer be bothered to go out and try it out. Many of the Girasole girls who did go out last night went specifically because they were thrilled by the idea of "Ari going to a club." I think it gave them an excuse to go out that they couldn't find with midterms coming up. Alyssa went too, and she hadn't been to a club before either. I think the silliest part was that the club doesn't open until 1:00am, so I had to stay awake at least until 12:30, when we left. I stayed only as long as the first group to peel off--there were three other girls who wanted to head back, so we split the cost of a taxi back, rather than taking the 30 minute walk back at 3:00am. In any case, been there, done that. Italians dress even stranger there than they do normally--there were a lot of men wearing strings of knotted pearls... The people-watching was interesting, in any case.
Today I haven't done a whole lot... I got up around 11:30 and pretty much haven't accomplished anything since then--not even cleaning my room. I was going to bake for the competition tomorrow but some Florida residents (Florida's right across the street from us) are needing to use our kitchen and its oven for the International Food Night tonight, so baking for the time being is out. Maybe I'll work on it tonight when I get back from International Food Night. I'd like to try those cupcakes today, just in case they don't turn out--then I can try something else. I'm not sure what. I think I might actually need to buy some powdered sugar. I should check on that, since the stores close in about 90 minutes until Monday morning.
Okay, I'm going to clean my room now... And hopefully get some studying done. (Unless I don't have powdered sugar, then I might have to make a shopping trip...) Marketing midterm on Monday...
All right, more soon!
Smile, Ari
Today I haven't done a whole lot... I got up around 11:30 and pretty much haven't accomplished anything since then--not even cleaning my room. I was going to bake for the competition tomorrow but some Florida residents (Florida's right across the street from us) are needing to use our kitchen and its oven for the International Food Night tonight, so baking for the time being is out. Maybe I'll work on it tonight when I get back from International Food Night. I'd like to try those cupcakes today, just in case they don't turn out--then I can try something else. I'm not sure what. I think I might actually need to buy some powdered sugar. I should check on that, since the stores close in about 90 minutes until Monday morning.
Okay, I'm going to clean my room now... And hopefully get some studying done. (Unless I don't have powdered sugar, then I might have to make a shopping trip...) Marketing midterm on Monday...
All right, more soon!
Smile, Ari
Friday, October 06, 2006
Blue Skies
Lugano weather has finally turned to autumn--and it's been beautiful! All week (well, except Monday, but no need to mention that) there's been glorious blue sky, sunshine, crisp air, and falling leaves. Looks like fall is finally coming around. Just in time for me to go to Sicily and back to the summer heat... But that's all right! It's nice not to show up totally drenched in sweat and rain by the time I get to class in the morning.
Sorry to have avoided posting the last few days; not too much of note has happened, so I thought I'd wait until I have more to say and consolidate it and make one super post! Let's see, what happened after I went grocery shopping on Monday, was it? Well, Tuesday wasn't too exciting, I'm rather sure, or else something would probably stick in my memory about it. Wednesday I went to yoga, which was excellent. There was lasagne for dinner that night. There were also a few kids whose parents apparently just got their first credit card bill sent home... Whoops for them.
Yesterday turned out better than expected. I went to the 8:30am yoga class, and I was one of two who showed up for it. Patrick, the Taiwanese yoga instructor visiting Natalie, was there in the place of Natalie. We were outside for it too, since it was so pretty; the cold air was nice too because I avoided getting too gross before Western Civ. It was nice to have only two of us, since he was able to help us a lot with the poses and whatnot. I think I'm actually getting better! Then there were classes, blah, blah, blah. I went back down the hill after English (I received that essay that I procrastinated forever on, and ended up finishing about 10 minutes before I had to go to class... B+... would've been an A with proofreading though. I was rather ashamed of turning it in, I will admit.) Okay, so I went back down the hill, and did some homework and whatnot until about 5:45 when I was heading up to dinner. There was a big group of people from Girasole heading up at the same time, and they were all heading to the auditorium for a lecture, so I decided to join them, and I was glad that I did. The lecture was interesting, although I wouldn't say anything especially awesome; but it was good. It was titled "The Devil Wears a Blue Helmet--Why UN Reform Cannot Wait" with the speaker being Edward Patrick Flaherty--he's an American lawyer who works in Geneva/Zurich. He was very pro-UN, and pro-UN reform. He brought up something really interesting points and ideas, so that was good. After that I had dinner with a few other girls from Girasole who were at the lecture, and we had Chicken Curry & RICE! Yes, I did get seconds of rice as a matter of fact. So that was all good...
Oh, how could I forget?! I hosted a Western Civ Midterm Study Session for the Writing Center on Wednesday. It was rather successful--Christina said she'd never had such a big turnout before (thanks to my promotion; so Student Council did teach me something!). Anyway, kids weren't so much as interested in studying as they were in being told how to study. Christina sort of put me on the spot by asking me to rattle off some random examples of identification questions; but I did it! And successfully too, thanks to an hour of studying prior to. They were impressed that I knew at least the basics about the Battle of Qadesh. Yes, I know, awesome party trick, right? Christina was happy with how it went anyway. So that was good.
Let's see... today not too much has happened so far. It's 2:06pm. I'm walking up to yoga with Katie and Margie at 3:45pm. It's with a different instructor, so that makes me a little bit nervous, but it should be good. I had German and Marketing this morning. And then I went to Writing Center and ran it for two hours on my own since Christina's out of town. No one came in for help; people have a tendency not to really bother with unnecessary classes & scholariness on Fridays. But that's all right, I finished my Marketing reading. Then I went and had Pegasius Fish for lunch... And walked back down the hill.
I still need to 1) buy my ticket for Munich and 2) figure out what to bake for the Residence Cup Baking Competition. It would be easy to figure out what to bake except that they don't have all the same ingredients here, as they do at home. Or not in the same forms. You know how it goes... I think I'm going to do some sort of cookie, since I entered myself in the "Dessert of Choice" category (rather than pie or cake). I want to do something both delicious and unusual/interesting, as there are points for creativity. Maybe I should just focus on very delicious? And I sort of want to do something with "Girasole" (our residence name, meaning sunflower); maybe butter cookies decorated? They're simple & good... I don't know! If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to contribute. I think I'm going to go shopping tomorrow morning.
On Munich: I think I'm going to go back to Lugano with everyone else from the Sicily trip, rather than flying out of Milan directly. The flight from Lugano to Munich is actually cheaper than Milan to Munich, and that way I can drop off my enormous suitcase and clean up a bit maybe. So I'm thinking I'll stay in Lugano for one night then fly out early in the morning to Munich? And I'm debating whether I should skip a couple of days of school to visit them, and I think the answer is yes. Family > School. And I don't know when I'll get the opportunity to visit again. So I think I might skip my Monday and Tuesday classes, then fly home on Tuesday. I haven't missed any classes yet, and I'm only planning on skipping classes one other day (for Barcelona). That way I can stay for five nights, and six rather full days. How does that sound?
In other news, to Baba specifically, I finished The Egyptian on Monday. And to Mehran, who I am quite sure never reads this, I started reading White Noise (by Don DeLillo). Sicily in only nine days! I've just four midterms standing between me and my travels... Oh and tomorrow night is International Food Night, which I'm way excited about, although a lot of people don't want to go for some crazy reason. I think I'm going to go with Margie (haven't mentioned her before, but she's from Orange County); she's excited about it too. Plus they're going to have Asian food, and Middle Eastern food, and TexMex food... Why would I want to go? I hope this weather stays just like this until we leave. I actually got to wear a sweater today! And my red hat from Oma... Okay, I've GOT to clean my room and organize myself a bit before yoga!
I miss you guys!
Smile, Ari :-)
Sorry to have avoided posting the last few days; not too much of note has happened, so I thought I'd wait until I have more to say and consolidate it and make one super post! Let's see, what happened after I went grocery shopping on Monday, was it? Well, Tuesday wasn't too exciting, I'm rather sure, or else something would probably stick in my memory about it. Wednesday I went to yoga, which was excellent. There was lasagne for dinner that night. There were also a few kids whose parents apparently just got their first credit card bill sent home... Whoops for them.
Yesterday turned out better than expected. I went to the 8:30am yoga class, and I was one of two who showed up for it. Patrick, the Taiwanese yoga instructor visiting Natalie, was there in the place of Natalie. We were outside for it too, since it was so pretty; the cold air was nice too because I avoided getting too gross before Western Civ. It was nice to have only two of us, since he was able to help us a lot with the poses and whatnot. I think I'm actually getting better! Then there were classes, blah, blah, blah. I went back down the hill after English (I received that essay that I procrastinated forever on, and ended up finishing about 10 minutes before I had to go to class... B+... would've been an A with proofreading though. I was rather ashamed of turning it in, I will admit.) Okay, so I went back down the hill, and did some homework and whatnot until about 5:45 when I was heading up to dinner. There was a big group of people from Girasole heading up at the same time, and they were all heading to the auditorium for a lecture, so I decided to join them, and I was glad that I did. The lecture was interesting, although I wouldn't say anything especially awesome; but it was good. It was titled "The Devil Wears a Blue Helmet--Why UN Reform Cannot Wait" with the speaker being Edward Patrick Flaherty--he's an American lawyer who works in Geneva/Zurich. He was very pro-UN, and pro-UN reform. He brought up something really interesting points and ideas, so that was good. After that I had dinner with a few other girls from Girasole who were at the lecture, and we had Chicken Curry & RICE! Yes, I did get seconds of rice as a matter of fact. So that was all good...
Oh, how could I forget?! I hosted a Western Civ Midterm Study Session for the Writing Center on Wednesday. It was rather successful--Christina said she'd never had such a big turnout before (thanks to my promotion; so Student Council did teach me something!). Anyway, kids weren't so much as interested in studying as they were in being told how to study. Christina sort of put me on the spot by asking me to rattle off some random examples of identification questions; but I did it! And successfully too, thanks to an hour of studying prior to. They were impressed that I knew at least the basics about the Battle of Qadesh. Yes, I know, awesome party trick, right? Christina was happy with how it went anyway. So that was good.
Let's see... today not too much has happened so far. It's 2:06pm. I'm walking up to yoga with Katie and Margie at 3:45pm. It's with a different instructor, so that makes me a little bit nervous, but it should be good. I had German and Marketing this morning. And then I went to Writing Center and ran it for two hours on my own since Christina's out of town. No one came in for help; people have a tendency not to really bother with unnecessary classes & scholariness on Fridays. But that's all right, I finished my Marketing reading. Then I went and had Pegasius Fish for lunch... And walked back down the hill.
I still need to 1) buy my ticket for Munich and 2) figure out what to bake for the Residence Cup Baking Competition. It would be easy to figure out what to bake except that they don't have all the same ingredients here, as they do at home. Or not in the same forms. You know how it goes... I think I'm going to do some sort of cookie, since I entered myself in the "Dessert of Choice" category (rather than pie or cake). I want to do something both delicious and unusual/interesting, as there are points for creativity. Maybe I should just focus on very delicious? And I sort of want to do something with "Girasole" (our residence name, meaning sunflower); maybe butter cookies decorated? They're simple & good... I don't know! If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to contribute. I think I'm going to go shopping tomorrow morning.
On Munich: I think I'm going to go back to Lugano with everyone else from the Sicily trip, rather than flying out of Milan directly. The flight from Lugano to Munich is actually cheaper than Milan to Munich, and that way I can drop off my enormous suitcase and clean up a bit maybe. So I'm thinking I'll stay in Lugano for one night then fly out early in the morning to Munich? And I'm debating whether I should skip a couple of days of school to visit them, and I think the answer is yes. Family > School. And I don't know when I'll get the opportunity to visit again. So I think I might skip my Monday and Tuesday classes, then fly home on Tuesday. I haven't missed any classes yet, and I'm only planning on skipping classes one other day (for Barcelona). That way I can stay for five nights, and six rather full days. How does that sound?
In other news, to Baba specifically, I finished The Egyptian on Monday. And to Mehran, who I am quite sure never reads this, I started reading White Noise (by Don DeLillo). Sicily in only nine days! I've just four midterms standing between me and my travels... Oh and tomorrow night is International Food Night, which I'm way excited about, although a lot of people don't want to go for some crazy reason. I think I'm going to go with Margie (haven't mentioned her before, but she's from Orange County); she's excited about it too. Plus they're going to have Asian food, and Middle Eastern food, and TexMex food... Why would I want to go? I hope this weather stays just like this until we leave. I actually got to wear a sweater today! And my red hat from Oma... Okay, I've GOT to clean my room and organize myself a bit before yoga!
I miss you guys!
Smile, Ari :-)
Monday, October 02, 2006
Groceries To-day
1 Liter of milk
1 box chocolate-covered granola bars
1 box milk-centered granola bars
1 bag of "mini-sandwiches" bread
A handful of strawberries
200 grams of rice cakes
1 jar of peanut butter
1 jar of raspberry jam
1.5 Kilos of golden apples
2 lemon yogurts
4 applesauce cups
1 bottle of shampoo
I had German this morning with a vocabulary quiz. I'm not very good at German. Time to go back to Spanish, me thinks. ;-)
Marketing was good; we've started talking about marketing segmentation (!!), which I'm really excited about. And somehow the conversation turned over to the future of marketing laying in the customer's hands, considering new products like websites where you can create your own specific vitamin mix, or websites like Neighborhoodies. And then there are hypoallergenic cats.
I'm putting together a Midterm Study Session for Western Civilizations: Part One through the Writing Center. That's happening on Wednesday from 3:30-5:00pm. It actually sounds like some people might show up. We're going to focus on study skills, organizing, figuring out how to answer ID questions, etc. Should be lovely.
Went to yoga today, it was wonderful. I'm a big fan.
Not much else today, other than the grocery shopping. Tomorrow should be busier. Off to do math homework. Miss you!
1 box chocolate-covered granola bars
1 box milk-centered granola bars
1 bag of "mini-sandwiches" bread
A handful of strawberries
200 grams of rice cakes
1 jar of peanut butter
1 jar of raspberry jam
1.5 Kilos of golden apples
2 lemon yogurts
4 applesauce cups
1 bottle of shampoo
I had German this morning with a vocabulary quiz. I'm not very good at German. Time to go back to Spanish, me thinks. ;-)
Marketing was good; we've started talking about marketing segmentation (!!), which I'm really excited about. And somehow the conversation turned over to the future of marketing laying in the customer's hands, considering new products like websites where you can create your own specific vitamin mix, or websites like Neighborhoodies. And then there are hypoallergenic cats.
I'm putting together a Midterm Study Session for Western Civilizations: Part One through the Writing Center. That's happening on Wednesday from 3:30-5:00pm. It actually sounds like some people might show up. We're going to focus on study skills, organizing, figuring out how to answer ID questions, etc. Should be lovely.
Went to yoga today, it was wonderful. I'm a big fan.
Not much else today, other than the grocery shopping. Tomorrow should be busier. Off to do math homework. Miss you!
Groceries To-day
1 Liter of milk
1 box chocolate-covered granola bars
1 box milk-centered granola bars
1 bag of "mini-sandwiches" bread
A handful of strawberries
200 grams of rice cakes
1 jar of peanut butter
1 jar of raspberry jam
1.5 Kilos of golden apples
2 lemon yogurts
4 applesauce cups
1 bottle of shampoo
I had German this morning with a vocabulary quiz. I'm not very good at German. Time to go back to Spanish, me thinks. ;-)
Marketing was good; we've started talking about marketing segmentation (!!), which I'm really excited about. And somehow the conversation turned over to the future of marketing laying in the customer's hands, considering new products like websites where you can create your own specific vitamin mix, or websites like Neighborhoodies. And then there are hypoallergenic cats.
I'm putting together a Midterm Study Session for Western Civilizations: Part One through the Writing Center. That's happening on Wednesday from 3:30-5:00pm. It actually sounds like some people might show up. We're going to focus on study skills, organizing, figuring out how to answer ID questions, etc. Should be lovely.
Went to yoga today, it was wonderful. I'm a big fan.
Not much else today, other than the grocery shopping. Tomorrow should be busier. Off to do math homework. Miss you!
1 box chocolate-covered granola bars
1 box milk-centered granola bars
1 bag of "mini-sandwiches" bread
A handful of strawberries
200 grams of rice cakes
1 jar of peanut butter
1 jar of raspberry jam
1.5 Kilos of golden apples
2 lemon yogurts
4 applesauce cups
1 bottle of shampoo
I had German this morning with a vocabulary quiz. I'm not very good at German. Time to go back to Spanish, me thinks. ;-)
Marketing was good; we've started talking about marketing segmentation (!!), which I'm really excited about. And somehow the conversation turned over to the future of marketing laying in the customer's hands, considering new products like websites where you can create your own specific vitamin mix, or websites like Neighborhoodies. And then there are hypoallergenic cats.
I'm putting together a Midterm Study Session for Western Civilizations: Part One through the Writing Center. That's happening on Wednesday from 3:30-5:00pm. It actually sounds like some people might show up. We're going to focus on study skills, organizing, figuring out how to answer ID questions, etc. Should be lovely.
Went to yoga today, it was wonderful. I'm a big fan.
Not much else today, other than the grocery shopping. Tomorrow should be busier. Off to do math homework. Miss you!
Sunday, October 01, 2006
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