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Thursday, May 08, 2008
Howdy Everyone!
After Spring Break, we began juggling sight-seeing with end of the year projects, tests, play production, and final exams. This turned into some fun and stressful times for all! A Countess led us on a tour of her ancient castle, Montecchio Vespucci, which I had been able to see out my window in the hazy distance each morning. To describe the castle’s history, the elementary school children performed a short play for us in the gardens.
For those of you who have seen the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun, based on a non-fiction book set in breathtaking Cortona, Italy, the locale is as picturesque as the book portrays. Cortona is only twenty minutes from Castiglion Fiorentino where I was living. Here we were not only mesmerized by the landscape and architectural beauty, but we also participated in a tour guided by our professor’s friend, Count John Carlo, a native Italian Count. He showed us the church where San Marguerita’s body is entombed. Her shriveled 900 year old skin is still on her bones even though she was buried underground for centuries…interesting.
We took our final tour of Florence to see the Uffizi and the Academia. The Uffizi is a large famous art gallery. It is packed full of thousands of sculptures and paintings produced by many famous artists over several centuries. In the Academia, we saw Michelangelo’s “non finito” (unfinished) works and his famous sculpture of David. It was huge! I thought it was interesting how large David’s hands were in comparison to the rest of his body. True to its reputation, the sculpture was striking!
The next Sunday my friend, Stephanie Moreno, accompanied me to Florence to attend an Italian Church of Christ worship service. You would never guess how small a world we truly live in. Before entering the building, I had no idea if anyone there would speak my language, and while very few did, the first person I met was a young woman named Sarah Bailey from MY hometown, Abilene, Texas! She had been living and working in the church there for six years. I knew the melody to most of the songs, the acoustics were amazing, and it was great fun to sing the same well-known songs in a foreign language! The members of the church included Albanians, Asians, Romanians, Italians, Swiss, and Americans; it was fascinating to be surrounded by so few people and yet so much diversity and culture in one place!
If you want to see the beauty of Italy in just a glance then you need to visit Multipulciano and Pienza! These are neighboring towns set in the hill country surrounded by breathtaking landscape. In Pienza we visited the palace of a family that has had two Popes elected from their ranks. It had hanging gardens, interesting relics, and a room that even today fascinates architects in that the beams in the roof are still supporting it while, by human reasoning, their design indicates they should have collapsed long ago. Here I bought four types of sheep cheese mounds ranging from twenty days old to a year old! So disgusting looking, yet SO YUMMY!
On a second trip to Orvieto, where the double helix well, underground living caves, and tram to the top of the town are located, I learned several memorable lessons. First of all, never leave a jacket on a fortress wall hundreds of yards up a vertical cliff on a windy day to take a picture. You will soon be taking pictures of it resting on a ledge FAR BELOW you fully protected from the gusts of wind that would have hopefully taken it on down the cliff where it would have been retrievable. Secondly, words found in two languages often have completely different meanings. For example, when the store owner responds in Italian that his pizza is topped with corn and “mice,” do not looked disgusted and appalled! He only means his pizza is topped with corn and SOME kind of sausage! As I found out, the “mice” pizza was actually very good. Fortunately, there are people in this world who are bilingual and able to ease my fears.
The Italian children performed a bilingual Pinocchio play developed by the pre-service teachers on April 15th for their parents and the Santa Chiara students. We (the pre-service teachers) sang, danced, and read the chorus with them in both English and Italian. My favorite part was singing the Italian National Anthem at the beginning. We all had so much fun and did a great job for only having had six rehearsals to learn a bilingual play! That same night immediately following the play, we relocated to a farm hotel, La Pievuccia, where we spent our last eight days eating exquisite four and five course meals, relaxing, and writing before leaving for our final adventure in Italy, a Roman holiday. La Pievuccia is a family run vineyard and olive orchard that consistently wins awards for the best wine and olive oil in all of Italy. They gave us a tour of the vineyard which was especially meaningful to me since I grew up on a farm. I lived in a little cottage with three other girls. Our kitchenette looked out over the blooming vineyard with the Montecchio Vespucci castle just beyond. We used this time to complete our writing class, but since there were no computer facilities, it was necessary to hike thirty minutes back to Santa Chiara for the use of printers and the internet. The walk was always very relaxing, peaceful, and lovely.
Our last weekend in Italy, Stephanie and I hiked fifty minutes to the Castiglion Fiorentino train station on our way to Pisa. We could not possibly miss out on taking some of our own original pictures with the famous leaning tower. Throughout the stay in Italy my curly, blonde hair attracted more attention than I would have ever imagined. Italian men are very forward and not afraid to maintain extended conversations, ask questions, and lavish compliments in both Italian and broken English. Normally, the situations were not scary, just sometimes awkward. It was certainly an ego booster for me to travel in Europe.
I spent the last four days of my study abroad trip in Rome, the capitol of Italy. It is astounding to know that humans with very limited technology were able to build such MASSIVE structures as the Coliseum and Pantheon, along with many other structures, so effectively and successfully! I bought a neat overlay book of Rome to use in my future classroom that shows the original ancient structures in relation to the present ruins. Rome was packed with people and vehicles; it is definitely overpopulated and overpriced. At one point a gelato (ice cream) shop employee tried to make one of our girls pay twelve Euros for a small one-scoop ice cream cone…outrageous! Back in Castiglion Fiorentino we were able to get a three scoop small ice cream cone for just 1.70 Euro. One of the best parts was being able to view and take pictures of the Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain at night. We also traveled to the town of Tivoli outside of Rome where we toured some beautiful, ancient gardens. Rome is definitely an architectural wonder with more history, buried beneath “modern” buildings, yet to be excavated. At one point, I tried to take a picture in the Metro of the train whizzing past. While I got the picture, I was also yelled at in Italian and broken English about doing something illegal. As the official ran toward me, I was simply amazed at how angry he was that I was standing on the yellow line (which you are not supposed to cross), so I calmly stepped back thinking I had solved the problem and continued to set up my picture. It took my whole group a minute to figure out that the official was trying to tell me I was not supposed to be taking pictures of the Metro …oops.
We were taken on a special tour of the Vatican where we got to see all THREE levels of St. Peter’s Basilica. The inside of the basilica is MASSIVE and breathtaking. St. Peter’s is the largest church building in the world. We were able to see the burial spots of numerous Popes and hear the significance of what they did while in office, including Pope John Paul II. We went on a special underground tour of the excavations of the third level that were secretly done during World War II. There they found a wall with bones hidden in it identified to be Peter’s. The wall is located directly beneath the canopy on the first level which is what St. Peter’s was built on top of. As we left the building we saw the Swiss guards who still wear the colorful uniform designed by Michelangelo centuries ago. The HUGE square outside is actually a sun dial that can tell the time of day and the month. Even though I am not Catholic, it was a fascinating, informative experience.
I have made it to the end of my three month adventure, so this is the last update from my life overseas. We left Rome at 4:45 AM on Saturday morning, and I returned safely to the States in the early evening on April 26th after a three hour flight from Rome to London, a three hour lay-over, and a ten hour flight from London to Houston.
During the weeks working in the classroom, many of my teaching fears were resolved, I recognized the numerous positive attributes of adolescent children, and I discovered more about my strengths and weaknesses than I could have ever imagined possible. The hands-on experience from teaching in Dante Middle School has given me a strong understanding of what it means to work with English as a Second Language students. Having experienced the flip-side of the language barrier, I now comprehend how this fact impacts students both inside and outside of the classroom. While I am only twenty years old, I feel that every opportunity which I took advantage of abroad has put me one step further on the long road to becoming a successful teacher and responsible adult. Living, working, and touring alongside the Italians connected to Santa Chiara was more beneficial to me as a future educator than simply touring Europe could ever have been. Italy and my time abroad was more than I could have ever hoped for.
For those who have access to Facebook, I am about two months behind on posting pictures, but I will post more as soon as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read these updates even when all three were very, very long. I hope everyone has a relaxing, fun, and productive summer!
Best Wishes!
Julie Holloway
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