The Poignant Final Blog

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting the Poignant Final Post.  I think I'm supposed to write about how the copious hills and valleys of Italy have changed my life in ambiguously cheesy ways.  Maybe throw in a quote about not crying because it's over, but smiling because it happened.  Going to try and refrain from doing that.  Instead, I will recap the past couple days and my feelings on the following one, with the clear goal of inducing the least amount of vomit possible.  Andiamo.

The last time I left you all I told the story of Kelsey and I's last weekend in Italy/Roma/Ascoli.  Things happened and got moved around and her and I ended up staying in Ascoli last weekend.  We were able to make our final rounds and really cap off the trip with one last Ascoli weekend.  Each meal was planned out days in advanced, down to the food choices (every type of pizza and pasta imaginable was properly represented during our final weekend).  We shut down Murphy's, hung out in the piazza, and got enough bizarre encounters with our bizarre Ascoli characters in to last us until the next time we come back.  

Sunday came and I got to celebrate Easter in San Severo, which is close to Bari.  Roberto and his family were kind enough to have me with them!  It was fantastic.  Still full from all the amazing food I had.  One dish came and went and then another, and another, and another.  I felt very much like a true Italian.  After a day in San Severo we went to San Menaio, which a beach town on the Adriatic.  You can say hi to Croatia from there.  I loved that I got the chance to see the ocean before I left.  Although I I could go to Lake Michigan with a slice of pizza and a vino bianco and pretend it's the Adriatic, it wouldn't be the same.  

Thus began the beginning of the lasts and goodbyes.  It started with goodbye to Roberto, followed by one of my first and lasts Italian train rides.  Equally upsetting. (joke).  I returned to Ascoli Piceno with dread in my heart and an Easter Scarcella in hand.  The school lasts and goodbyes flew by.  A culture final, turning in a food paper, and an Italian final.  The harder parts were saying goodbye to my new friends and home for three months.  However, I did not cry and have yet to.  This is shocking seeing as I am the girl who from the age of 8 onwards would sob while being dragged off of cruise ships that my parents and I were on for two weeks.  I like to think the lack of waterworks are because I know deep down that I'll be in Italy and Ascoli Piceno again.  Next summer I hope to teach English in an Italian city for a couple weeks, and I would do whatever it takes to come back to Ascoli, close down Murphy's, get some pizza at Cavallino, and eat as much Kinder gelato as possible. 

We've been in Venice for two days.  Kelsey already left a couple hours ago and I'm already in plane mode, thinking about my charging i-devices and mentally preparing myself due to my flight anxiety.  If My cliché feelings summed up in a cliché word would be bittersweet.  Leaving Italy is bitter.  Leaving speaking Italian on the daily is bitter.  Leaving the kind of life where eating pizza on a daily basis is acceptable is bitter.  But I know sweet is coming.  My home is sweet.  Chipotle is sweet.  Jury Duty, which I am doing for the first time on Tuesday, is SWEET!!!!!!

I'm not going shopping for a permanent home on Memory Lane.  Studying abroad was a phenomenal time in my life, and I am eternally grateful and happy that I had this opportunity.  I truly think this experience was a door opener for Italy and the Italian culture to be ever more present in my life from now on. 

Ciao, Italia. A dopo. 

NUMBER ONE HOOLIGAN!!

This past weekend was our last weekend in Italy.  Our last weekend in Ascoli, no less.  To get ourselves distracted from this depressing fact, Kelsey and I went to Rome on Saturday to go to a soccer game.  It was AS Roma versus Atalanta.  My mother was apprehensive as I'm sure she had visions of me tipping over cars and looting gelato shops.  Unfortunately none of that occurred, but it was still an eventful and great night.

We got to the area around the stadium very early and decided to do some exploring.  I don't know what we expected, but a carnival was certainly not one of them.  And I need you all not to picture a nice, Six Flags or Kiddieland carnival.  No.  This was a carny carnival.  The first red flag was that we were a good five to seven years older than every other patron of this lawsuit playland.  We stocked up on tickets for three rides and went to the most popular ride first, without really looking at what the ride entailed.

If you look closely at this ride, you will see that it is a gigantic circular bench.  If you look even closer you might be able to notice that there are no seat belts or safety precautions.  The point of this ride is you sit down and hold onto the two bars lest you get thrown off of this swirling, jumping circle of mayhem.  Kelsey was laughing uncontrollably throughout the two minutes of terror, but I couldn't even move my face.  I was 100% focused on holding onto these bars.  I couldn't go like this.  Not surrounded by grungy Italian youths.  

Another note about this ride, our biceps still hurt from holding on so hard, and we went on this ride two days ago now.  Which is a sad commentary on our lives I suppose. 

The next rides were similar in that they were terrifying and completely illegal.  Seriously.  None of these rides would fly in the USA.  Here is a picture of a ride called "Jamaica's King". 

Just some family friendly carnival rides.  This ride was especially horrific because the operator was watching Kelsey and I scream in terror and pain whilst controlling the ride.  He loved it. 

After the carnival we got some food where we made some great friends!  They offered to help us sell our tickets so we could sit in the curve section (read: hooligans and bombs).  We declined.  Which is great because our seats were AMAZING!  There were a lot of Americans around us, and we had a great view of the hooligan debauchery in the curve section.

LOOK AT ALL THE DEBAUCHERY!!!  There were bombs, smoke bombs, chants, songs, it was seriously nuts.  Definitely not for the faint of heart.  Roma had a great game and got three goals and beat Atalanta 3-1.  At the end of the game they play this song over the loud speaker called "Grazie Roma" which I actually already knew!  

From here you can see the rough location of our seats.  We were at midfield a few rows back.  The field was pretty far from the first row though, which was weird.  We hit up the AS Roma store hard so we can represent our favorite soccer club when we're home.

Home.  I think the count is in single digits now which is INSANE.  NOT READY.

The face of multiple three hour bus rides in one weekend.

The Gattini Saga

     Remember when I was young and stupid and thought "Yes!  I am SO excited to have three four day old kittens to take care of!!"..?  Old Mary Rose, you were so impressionable.  I got distracted by microscopic paws and whiskers.  Those kittens were insane.  Yeah, they were cute for the first day when they were wiped out from their long journey, but once they got settled in our homes it was a whole different story.  We had to wake up every two to three hours to feed them from a bottle, after which we had to calm down their meows so the entire Marche region didn't wake up.

      Don't get me wrong, I loved those kittens.  But when the other apartment's landlord said she would take them off our hands, I think we were all relieved.  Yesterday we received the great news that they found the gattini's mother and the gattinis actually have another sibling!!  The mother was moving them and got started and left behind the three (bad parenting of the year), but mother and kittens have been reunited and it all went well.  We're supposed to go visit them next week in their new home which I will surely update you all on.

The kittens in one of their more tranquil states

HIS. TONGUE. WAS. STICKING. OUT. WHILE. HE. WAS. SLEEPING.

      We went to a farm to do hard labor for our Philosophy of Food class.  That's as detailed as I can get about it for a couple reasons.  One, I have already mentally blocked out that entire day.  Two, if I think about it too hard I might cry.  But I think the trip was positive in the aspect that it confirmed I was right when I, at a young age, decided that I never wanted to be a farmer.  Ever.

My crew.

      The bambinos are still great.  Next week is my last week teaching with them and they are already starting to freak out (as am I).  We're going to have a huge photoshoot next week, but decided to get some selfie practice in today.

One of my bambinos presented me with a chocolate bunny.

It's hard to believe that the beginning of the lasts are coming.  Next week is my last week of teaching.  Next week we are going to Nice, France, as our last trip (other than the two days in Venice prior to my flight back to Chicago).  I'll write a more poignant post about these lasts later.  Don't want to think about it at the moment because I'm about to go get some pizza and watch a movie for class.

Ciao tutti!!

Kittens and Wine!

Believe me- during my past two months in Ascoli Piceno, I've done my fair share of wine tasting.  But last week our Philosophy of Food class did it for real.  I think it really helped me step up my vino game.

How I entered wine tasting

The first thing the Australian-Italian (I know.) wine connoisseur (I know.) told us Ugly Americans was that we are not here to DRINK, we are here to EXPERIENCE the wine.  I think it was that moment that I accepted how extremely uppity wine is.  I went for the full experience though.  And by that I mean I repeated the phrase "It's an oaky little wine" over and over again in my best Barefoot Contessa voice.  We tried one white and one red wine.  The white wine was actually pretty good, but I felt like I couldn't kill it lest my professor and our new AussItalian friend think I was turnt up too much.  The red wine was not to my liking but I think that could just be me still being scarred from church wine.

After wine tasting

Today my life was blessed by three little angels.  Three little Italian kitten angels.  Lauren and Katie found them on the street, some guy handed them to them or something and people were grossed out because they thought the kittens were dead.  They are not!  I ran over to the other groups apartment and we got to work on feeding, cleaning, and playing with the kittens.  Playing with is more just petting them and squealing over how cute they are.  The kittens can't be more than a week old.  They still have not opened their eyes and we have to almost force feed them with an eye dropper.  We named them Cappuccino, Espresso, and Macchiato.  

The lovely Cappuccino and me.

THERE IS A KITTEN IN THE PALM OF MY HAND

KITTEN SELFIES EXCEPT WAIT THE KITTEN IS ASLEEP ON MY HAND

Things other than kittens and wine have been good as well.  The bambini refuse to believe that I do not personally know Barack Obama or Beyoncé.  Learned some Polish at Murph's.  Ate gelato every day for the past five days which is acceptable because... I only have three weeks left in Italy!  AGHHH!!

Ciao from Teacher Jail

I recently attained two new classes of bambinis to teach along with the originals about whom I have already blogged.  With these two new classes of eight year olds comes a whole new pile of evidence that is going to land me straight in teacher jail.

Incident the First:

Yesterday morning I was teaching my original Great Bambinos.  They're around ten years old, know pretty excellent English, and all together stole my heart.  I was teaching them about how to say numbers in a dates and order format - "first (1st), second (2nd)" and so on.  The teacher told me to both write the number and write out the letters.  Easy enough.  I write them all out on the board and as I'm admiring my own goodness for teaching the youth of Italy such important things, a little pipsqueak is in front of me.  "Maria Rosa! Maria Rosa! Why you put two Ls in 'eleventh'??" Oh no.  Nope.  I did not just have a Quayle "Potatoe" moment.  As I'm in the midst of swallowing my pride, another little boy says "Oh! Does it have two L's in American English?"  Now I don't know why I did the following, but it just came out.  "Yes, yes it does," I said like the wise teacher I am obviously not, "In Britain (where their English books are from) they use one but America has two."  I'm not proud of what I did.  But it had to happen.

Incident the Second:

Tuesday morning during my own Italian class I realized that I had my (amazing) Budweiser sweater on and I didn't have time to go home and change before teaching my newer class of younger students.  I figured these kids wouldn't get it, being eight year old Italians and all.  I go to the class of my new students and we have question and answer time.  It starts out with the normal - questions about my cultural love of french fries and my lack of a boyfriend.  Then one kid says "What does Bud-wees-ur mean?", followed by every single child in this class room giving their best but failed attempt to say Budweiser.  A couple kids pull out their Italian-English dictionary.  I don't tell them that the King of Beers probably isn't included in their My First English Dictionary book.  I tell them it's a drink like Coca Cola.  They saw right through me.

Incident the Rest: AKA: The Gallery

These are actually adorable, and if they land me in teacher jail it will be worth it.  I got showered with drawings and homemade landyards.  I have uploaded pictures of the drawings for your viewing pleasure.

I like this one because it combines my name in English, Italian, and Christmas Cheer languages.

Please note the attention to detail on my sweater.  Yes, that would be the Anheuser Busch "A".  

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be me or not, but I will accept the compliment of being a British ginger any day.

Love you too bambini.

"You are very pretty. You are tall and sweet. Your eyes and clothes are pretty".  This is adorable, and shows exactly how gigantic these children think I am.

Teaching the children has become highlights of my week and this semester as a whole.  They are so enthusiastic about learning English, it's just adorable. 

Ciao tutti!

The Return.

First, an explanation as to why this blog post is so late.  Here at our apartment in Ascoli Piceno, we don’t rightfully have Wifi.  But, someone, somewhere in a close vicinity to us does.  They have Netgear.  They have Netgear and don’t even care to put a password on it, so of course we used Netgear day in and day out.  Free Wifi.  It was a beautiful time during our trip.  Then spring break came… and he changed.  Netgear changed.  We returned to a Netgear that wouldn’t connect us to our favorite websites.  It was like we were amish.  I just today broke down and bought the USB Wifi stick, and now have to figure out how many MBs are in a GB and a bunch of fiber optic stuff.  So rest your heads.  I’m still alright.  No one offered me a modeling job and drove me to a ditch.

I’ll start this blog post with the Cappuccino Saga.  When I knew I was coming to Italy for a semester, I knew I had to like coffee if I wanted to be a Euro-chic young lady.  I’d Google “How to make coffee taste good” and prance over to the local Starbucks with high hopes.  I was always let down.  I tried it all - Pumpkin Spice Latte, Macchiato, Mocha, Normal Coffee, all of it.  When I got to Ascoli it was much the same.  Until I got the bright idea to put sugar IN the cappuccino.  This happened about two weeks ago.  I started out with three sugars.  The next morning, two and a half.  Then my mother and grandmother came to Ascoli and Rome to visit me and I got myself to a respectable one sugar in my cappuccino!  I was feeling fun and European.  Then last Thursday happened.  I woke up earlier than usual to take out the garbage and indulged in a Diet Coke.  Afterwards, during our first class, our teacher took us out to discuss the film we watched over cappuccinos.  Brilliant!  Then came the thirty minute break during which Ben and Kelsey and I planned to get cappuccinos.  I told them “Get me two!  I love cappuccinos!!” I always thought the over caffeinated act was a joke.  I’m here to admit that I was wrong.  Very wrong.  After finishing these drinks I had three cappuccinos with three sugars in my system on top of a Diet Coke.  I was OFF THE WALLS.  My face got pale and sweaty, I kept hitting myself with my pen, it was bad.  Pretty sure my professor and Kelsey were legitimately concerned about my well being.  It took an entire day to get over that episode, and I haven’t had a cappuccino since.  Maybe I will tomorrow morning.  Learn from my mistakes.  Drink cappuccinos responsibly.

As I mentioned, my mom and grandma visited me!!  We had a great time.  We went from cafe to cafe, restuarant to restaurant.  On our second day in Rome we got a great tour from our friend Carlo who studied abroad in Chicago seven years ago!  He showed us some great sites that were off the beaten path.  Then we had a great dinner at his house with his family and his amazing dog, Indio.  After our time in Rome, we went to Ascoli Piceno, where my mother met my true Italian mother.  They also saw Italian Cupcake and can verify that the dog is real and not a “vision”.  It was a very relaxing week, exactly what I needed!

This weekend was incredible, but definitely not relaxing.  Kelsey and I went to London and the whole weekend was GO GO GO.  We left on Friday with just enough time to eat some Chipotle (which we did three times during the weekend) and get ready for our evening at the theater.  The next morning we woke up early and did a triple whammy- Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Kensington Palace, home of Queen of my Life Kate Middleton.  I made us stand outside of that gate for a good thirty minutes waiting for a glimpse of luscious brown hair but to no success.  As I was talking to the guards about the best vantage points to see Kate, a man on a bike pressed a button to get out of the heavily guarded gated area.  I turned to the guard and said “WAS THAT WILLIAM”?  Apparently this guard thought it would be funny to toy with my emotions.  “Yes!” he said, “Didn’t you see his face?”… to which I broke down in hysteria.  William did NOT ride by me without me getting a selfie or a hello with him.  I think the guard realized what kind of devastation he just caused in my life and told me it wasn’t William, it was just a nobody.  But a semi-important nobody if he lives in Kensington.  Following our morning of royalty we saw the matinee of the musical Once which was really great.  Then we had exactly enough time for some Chipotle and time to go back to our hotel to get ready for our evening show.  I loved London so much, which is special seeing as the only prior association I had with it was Heathrow Airport, home of long layovers and Hefner meltdowns.  I could definitely see myself living there or spending a longer time there, but I’m pretty sure I would run out of money in one day.  London is EXPENSIVE.  At the airport, I forked over seventy USD and twenty Euro, to which I received forty pound.  Great. That about covered my Chipotle and a piece of gum.  It made me miss the Euro, but more so the dollar.

And that’s been my life!  Straight up.  Now that I have reliable Wifi I’ll be back to blogging on a more regular basis.

Still Alive!!!

Blog tomorrow I PROMISE!!!!!

"I Thought He Was Moses Until He Told Me He Was A Terrorist" - Carnevale.

I don't know who you are.  I don't know what you want.  If you are looking for ransom, I can assure that I don't have money - I spend it all on white wine and pizza.  But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills that I have acquired over a very long career of being passionate about gelato.  Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.  Gelato thieves.  If you bring back the gelato scooper now, that will be the end of it.  I will not look for you, I will not pursue you.  But if you don't, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Gelato means a lot to me.  Dare I say it is my main food group here.  So when some wannabe lumberjack has the chutzpah to STEAL the gelato spoon from my turf (Cafe Lorenz), that ain't going to fly.  Meredith and I witnessed this crime to humanity in the flesh and immediately went on a wild goose chase to catch this punk.  We never did.

This was only one of the many highlights of Carnevale.  For those of you unaware or confused, Carnevale is the Italian equivalent of Mardi Gras.  I'd like to consider myself a seasoned Mardi Gras-er thanks to none other than Daniel Hefner, but I wasn't prepared for this.  It's like Mardi Gras, Halloween, and April Fools all packed into one week.  Some of the costumes were a bit on the iffy side, but "everything is politically correct during Carnevale".  Like the man who inspired to the title of this post.  It was the evening of the gelato thievery, and being typical Jesuit students, we thought this man was dressed up as Moses.  Great choice, lovely Biblical man!  Wrong.  He told us he was dressed as a terrorist, so we put a big old "nope" on that one.  Then there was the man dressed as Zoro who tried to take us and called us Pinnochio.

On the less creepy side of Carnevale, there were fun gatherings during the day.  The piazza was packed and people were performing little skits.  Our professor told us a lot of them talk with a dialect so we probably wouldn't be able to understand.  Accurate.  It all went over our heads, but it was still really fun.  We danced with what I think were Oompa Loompas/Smurfs/Peacocks.  A man put a cone of shame on my for using my phone.  There was even some Chicago representation in the form of a man dressed as Al Capone.

It's not even over yet either!  Tomorrow is the grand finale of Carnevale, and seeing as this weekend has already been so strange, I'm intrigued and scared to see how they could possibly close it out.

Ciao!

Sad News.

I must revoke my claim that I know even one bit of Italian language or culture.

It's "Carnevale", not "Carnivale".  It's in reference to meat, not carnivals.

Sincerest apologies to Dante, Roberto Benigni, and all the other important Italians I have let down in this whoops.

Carnivale!

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but life in Ascoli Piceno has been pretty quaint.  This weekend is Carnivale, though, and if my father ever passed down down anything to me it is a love for the Mardi Gras season.  I'll be sure to update the blog on Monday about all the Carnivale festivities!  I'm going as a cat.

BUT, things stateside have been very exciting.  Today is the first day of Cardinal baseball!!  Also, I was elected to be on the Executive Board of Student Activities Board as VP of PR.  Quite an exciting time.  But with all the good, there has to be some bad.  The Billikens unfortunately ended their nineteen game winning streak, but are still looking good on the two year winning streak over my heart.

Peace and Nutella,

MR

Amsterdamn it Feels Good to be Back in Ascoli Piceno.

The sweet Italian air.  The sweet Italian cobblestone.  I'm back.  After what reality says is four days but I say is one year, I'm back.  Study abroad time is a whole different entity from real life time.  But, I digress.  Let me fill all you in on my time in Amsterdam.

It started off on my first EasyJet flight.  I'm already a pretty horrible flyer back in America.  Even my easy up and down 50 minute flight from St. Louis to Chicago can send me into a fit of sweaty palms, gripped armrests, and uncomfortable seat-mates.  The panic started even before the plane took off.  Sitting in my polyester throne of terror, there was a very real part of my that was convinced that a safe landing was not guaranteed in EasyJet's low-budget ticket to Amsterdam.  I've repressed most of the flight but Kelsey deserves a blog shout-out for calming me down and dealing with my crazy.

After miraculously surviving the flight, I was ready to take on Amsterdam.  Kelsey, Meredith, Ben and I got on the train (with free WiFi - a hot commodity, mirage of wonder, akin to heroin to us study-abroaders) and made our way to Hostelle, the all-female hostel where Kelsey, Mere and I were staying.  Describing the hostel is difficult.  I think they were going for groovy-funky-girlicious-chic.  They were successful.  There was a lot of pink, complimented by a lot of posters for Katherine Heigl movies.  It was clean and had unlimited free marshmallows, which is all I could ever want in a hostel.  Thanks, Hostelle.  

The day after the arrival was my big moment.  Jersey Boys in dutch.  As I wrote previously, I'm a somewhat disgusting human being that knows the Jersey Boys script by heart, so I had no qualms about the language barrier.  It was at the Beatrix Theater of Urtecht where I twice got mistaken for being Dutch.  I guess the baby face and freckles blend in more here than in Italy.

The rest of the trip is blur of another Jersey Boys viewing, walking around, seeing the D Team morning prostitutes, and french fries.  Amsterdam really needs to work on their Nutella offerings.  I am so glad to be back in Ascoli Piceno.  And get this.  Who was milling around the piazza as we walked back from our bus this afternoon?  THE GHOST OF AIREDALES PAST.  Seriously.  Alive Italian Cupcake was in the piazza wishing me a warm welcome back to Ascoli.

If you're wondering where the prostitutes, windmills, and Anne Frank reviews are in this post, I already been there and seen all of that a couple of years ago with my family and Grandma.  Prostitute row with Grandma.  I remember it fondly.

CIAO!!

PS Another shout out to my Billiken Basketball team.  All they do is win.  I miss you all but the "Bring Back Mary Rose" temporary tats are a bit much.
PSS Another shout out to SLU Theatre for a great opening weekend of Middletown!  I miss you all and your lack of "Bring Back Mary Rose" temporary tats are a bit insulting. 

Wednesdays: The Best Days.

I did it!!  I interacted with the youth of Italy!  I was understandably nervous seeing as every time I interact with a child in my family, be that cousins or children of cousins, they seem to cower in fear or wail at the top of their lungs.  Thankfully, I found my niche with the 10 year olds of Italy.  The second they walked into the room, they noticed me and immediately attacked me with questions.  Some funny ("Do you like Nutella?" "Do you eat French Fries?" "Do you know Selena Gomez?"), and some unexpectedly personal ("Are you Catholic?" "Do you have a boyfriend?").  They are all so adorable that I of course answered anything and everything they wanted to know.  I got a little frustrated with myself for not being able to understand a lot of what they were saying, but they talked so loud and all at once that it was quite difficult.  However, they seemed impressed with the Italian that I am able to speak.  Next week we are talking about how American school works.  I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to teach these "ragazzi" English!  One girl, Anastasia, wrote "I love Mary Rose" on the board.  I may not have been Queen Bee of 5th grade back in Oak Park, but I certainly am in Ascoli Piceno.  Take that, Lions!  Also, I found out that after Carnivale, I am getting another class to teach!

Tomorrow the group is going to Amsterdam!  On Friday I'm seeing a production of Jersey Boys (my favorite musical/thing on this Earth) that is spoken in Dutch and sang in English.  The sad/disgusting/impressive part is that I'm confident that I'll know exactly what line they are saying despite the language barrier.  We return Monday.  I'll try to get a blog out on Saturday or Sunday!!


Ciao!!!

Alive Italian Cupcake Update

Saw the dog again! And I got to touch it!!!!!

Weekend Recap!

Sorry for the long delay!  After three months in Roma and about two years in Firenze, I couldn't manage to get a blog out last night.

Going out Thursday night before our 6 AM bus to Roma was a bold choice for us.  To make a long story (and morning) short, 75% of us dragged ourselves to the station and boarded our bus to Roma.  Those 4 AM travel wake-up calls from my Dad finally paid off!  After looking for our hostel, finding our hostel, and downing some much needed caffeine, we started our "Tourists in Roma for One Day" tour.  If you couldn't guess, this tour features the highlights of the Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the ruins.  I remembered a lot from when my family and I were in Rome, but mostly I remembered going in a lot of churches and my mother's custom Angels and Demons tour. Rome was touristy.  Like a more cultural Disneyworld.  It was beautiful, no doubt about it, but the amount of English being spoken, the people peddling fake Gucci bags, and the exhausted screaming children (been there), was a huge difference from Ascoli.  Although I did get a Nutella crepe which was amazing and I have no regrets about that.

Me being basic by the Trevi Fountain

After some night time gelato by the Trevi Fountain, we headed back to our hostel to prepare for another early wakeup to meet our bus to go to Florence.  We took a tour geared towards college students.  It was very different from the Hefner Tour de Firenze featuring every church ever built that I had been on eight years ago.  It was good to have someone showing us the way around, though, because it was easy to get lost in Firenze.  We saw all the major sites and got some shopping in.  This time I went for the Nutella Waffle, which was just as good, if not better than the crepe.

Bringing the basic to Firenze (and accidentally blocking the Duomo...)

We walked approximately 500 miles that day in Florence and had the worst returning bus ride ever, so everyone knocked out when we got back to the hostel.  The next morning I used my quirky girl senses to find the hipster shopping part of town.  It was a great success.  Probably because I used Google.  Anyway, we found a store where the woman made all the clothes in store, and I got an adorable dress.  While searching for food we stumbled upon an "Urban Handicraft Market", which was the BEST.  It was all quirky jewelry and clothing, and they have it every weekend.  Definitely heading back there soon.  

1:50 rolled around and we either missed the bus or the bus never existed.  Either way, we camped out in a WiFi-enabled coffee shop until our 4 PM bus.  All of us were pretty homesick for Ascoli.  The difference between our quaint Italian town and the bustling, study-abroad haven of Rome and Florence is monumental.  We eventually got back and had a stressful situation on our hands because we thought there was a Taken situation happening but all ended up well.

Today I went to the school where I will be teaching English.  Diana, one of our program directors, walked me to the school which is right by my apartment.  She knocked on the door and the teacher came to talk to us.  I saw a little boy's face peek out behind her in the door, disappear quickly, then another little face popped up.  Two seconds later there were 15 little Italian kids staring at me, when one piped up and said "ENGLISH?!" to which I said "Si!" and they freaked out.  Even the children can tell I'm American just from looking at me.  Anyway, I'd say I'm pretty popular with the under 10 crowd here.  My first day teaching is Wednesday, I can't wait!!

My fingers hurt now.

Ciao, 

Maria Rosa

P.S. I know the whole Billiken Basketball team reads my blog, so just wanted to say congrats to my boys on the win.

I Have Not Been Taken.

No worries, Dad, no need to unleash your particular set of skills, for I am fine.  (Mom, if you could explain the movie "Taken" and that quote to my father, that would be great).  It's just difficult to live up to a blog post about your deceased dog stalking you.

 Life in Ascoli has been pretty quaint and normal, which is exactly what I wanted.  Today I bought cornetti (think croissants but better) and carried them down the street while saying "Ciao!" and "Buongiorno!" to all the Italian cats, dogs, and little old men I have made friends with.  Magical, right? Later this afternoon my culture went on a walking tour of Ascoli Piceno, where we saw the old remaining Roman monuments.  We saw little churches, old stones where women would wash their clothes, and even got to go under a modern bridge which was built atop of the older one.  In this old bridge we saw a dead rat.  But it was an Italian dead rat, therefore more beautiful and chic that one could ever imagine.

Tonight we're going out, capped out with 6:00 AM bus ride to Rome!  After a day in Rome we are taking a day trip to Florence, then returning back to Ascoli via Rome.  I've been to both those places a long time ago, but I'm very excited to return.  Gotta go get my lock from Ponte Vecchio.

I promise a lengthy and great blog post following our weekend trip!!

Ciao!!!

How Does One Say "Cupcake" in Italian?

Studying abroad doesn't automatically insure that every day you have is full of happiness, wonder, rolling meadows, pizza, Kinder gelato, and white wine.  Though I may have the last three often, the occasional glum moment does arise.  A couple of days ago, my dog Cupcake passed away back in Chicago.  She was 13 in human years, which is pretty great for an Airedale.  She had a great dog life full of killing rodents, terrorizing my cat, going to the beauty parlor more than me, starring in so many unfortunate christmas cards, and eating a lot of good meat.  It was tough to hear she had passed, but then something happened...

She's stalking me.  My dead dog is stalking me.  There she is at Pub Murphy's.

And here she is chilling out in the piazza.  I've seen "Alive Italian Cupcake" at two separate establishments and it still throws me for a loop.  I have yet to approach Alive Italian Cupcake, because I'm not quite sure if she's tangible, if this is a situation where I am both Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg and she's pulling a Swayze, who is really to say.  What I do know, though, is that I love Cupcake and I'm very glad for my time with her and for the appearance of Alive Italian Cupcake.

"The O.G. Cupcake"

(Grandma- OG means Original Gangsta)

Arrivederci, Ascoli. Buongiorno Sochi!!

Ascoli, you've been nice, but it's time for me to head to Sochi.

After my retirement from soccer, I thought I would never touch the sport again.  My golden days in the Classic League were long behind me.  I kicked, I scratched, I pushed, and I probably cried a bit.  So when some of our Italian friends invited us to play soccer, I was understandably apprehensive.  But I toughened up, laced up my gym shoes, and got back in the game.  We all knew the beautiful game would find me again.  

I transcended back to my days in the good old black and gold.  It's almost embarrassing for me to play, because I really don't like making other people cry when I make so many goals.  Part of the reason for my retirement.  The Italians kept saying "Perché non vai a Sochi?!?!?!" But I'm too chill for Sochi.  Not my style.  I have to leave the game behind me now.

After a fun day of soccer, it's time to unwind with some Kinder gelato and vino bianco. 

Ciao,

Maria Rosa

My Les Mis Moment.

For a real minute, I thought I was going to have the chance to build a barricade, run around in a frenzy, and call the International Student SOS number, which apparently gets you a helicopter and brings you back to America.

I was walking to get my hair cut when I saw that there were a lot of people in Piazza Arringo, gathered around a giant black flag.  This is when I started to get excited.  I was picturing canons and people singing while holding rifles.  But hair comes first, so I carried on to the hair place while trying to translate "Red and Black" and "Do You Hear the People Sing" in Italian.  When I was there, all the sudden there were fireworks going off.  And chanting.  And smoke.  But, I learned, IT WAS ALL FOR SOCCER.  Ascoli's soccer team is pretty minor league, but I completely underestimated how passionate these soccer fans are.  I thought there was going to be riots.  I was completely ready to run out of the salon with half of my hair cut to go protect Yoghi from getting tipped over or hurt.  Thankfully no Kinder gelato was harmed.

We don't have school on Fridays, so the five of us still here in town went out last night.  We went to Italian karaoke, which is pretty fun.  I like to try to figure out what the songs all mean.  Everyone here in Ascoli is really patient with me trying to speak Italian, which I am grateful for.


Ciao from your favorite giant,

Mary Rose.

Dear NBC/Fox Searchlight/HBO etc.

If you want the rights to my study abroad blog, please pay me now.  I need more euro to buy Kinder gelato, jars of Nutella, and cute Italian clothes.

Thank you,

Maria Rosa.


PS No great blog today, studying for un molto difficile Italian test.

One Week in Italy - Observations

Have I really only been in Italy for one week?  Are we all sure it hasn't been a year?  My flight adventure seems years ago, and I feel as if I have been eating Kinder gelato my entire life.

Some observations I have conjured up during my week in Ascoli:

1.  I should have brought an umbrella.  But I'd much rather use umbrella euro to buy Kinder gelato, so I might just have to brave the rain.  Hopefully it ends soon, but I'm in Italy so I don't really mind.

2.  I don't know if I need to contact Dateline NBC about this or anything, but there are no grown up dogs here.  They are all puppies, and they all wear fashionable coats.

3.  My goal for getting mistaken for a real Italian just once is out the window.  I don't know wether it is the ghostly pale skin, the freckles, or being relatively Sasquatch-ish, but all of us Americans stick out like sore thumbs here.

Meredith, Kelsey, Jess, Ben and I got a taste of the nightlife on Saturday thanks to our new friends!  It was really fun.  People are making less vomiting sounds at us, which we all appreciate.

On Sunday, our whole group took a one hour bus ride to the city of Ancona, which is on the Adriatic.  It was beautiful despite the downpour going on.  It's where the Italian rapper I like is from! I didn't see him, but I did see an opera!  Similar enough.  It was called L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love).  It was a beautiful modern adaptation.  They had to use the understudy for the main actress.  The chandelier stayed put.  BUT, the curtain call was quite different from anything I had ever seen or participated in in American theatre.  I could feel Gary Barker, Tom Martin, Nancy Bell & co. cringe.  No uniform bowing, not quick, all in all it probably took 5-7 minutes.  Which is apparently the norm for Italian operas, especially because the understudy did such a good job.

Meredith, Ben, and Kelsey are finishing up their homework and then we are braving the rain to get some gelato.

Ciao da Ascoli Pioggia,
Mary Rose

Everything Here Revolves Around Food.

Ciao tutti!

I left you last while talking about my feelings for wine and Nutella gelato.  Rest assured that those have remained constants through my time in Italy (especially the Nutella and Kinder gelato. Ciao, Ben & Jerry's).

My first week of school has ended, and it has been great.  I have a feeling that all these classes will be really fun and educational, and will help my Italian a lot.  But as much as I love the classes, I think my favorite part of the day is the break after our morning Italian classes.  We have become regulars at Il Cavallino, in case there was any doubt about that happening.  Between their pizza margherita and their caprese panino, I could eat there every day.  Saveria and Stefano (my new parents, the lights of my life, my saviors) welcome us with open arms every day.  Saveria is a queen and has really been helping us in our search for Italian friends.  Grazie Saveria!  Our group has a goal to get our picture on their Wall of Fame, and if we can accomplish that, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that is when we will truly have came, seen, and conquered Italy.

After Il Cavallino we made our way to Yoghi for gelato, which I can tell will be a pretty regular occurrence.  Yoghi is the gelato shop with "Kinder" flavor.  Kinder is a chocolate bar here that pretty much makes your Milky Ways and Three Musketeers look like clumps of dirt.  I'd keep a count of how many "Piccolo Kinder in una coppetta" I've had, but I'm almost ashamed.

Oh, did I mention that after this break for food, on we then make our way to a class about food? Yes. The Philosophy of Food.

In other Italian life events not revolving around food, we're going to the opera in Ancona on Sunday!! And we have begun booking trips, and right now we have confirmed a little weekend getaway to Florence and Rome and a great trip to CROATIA! A country in the Mediterranean I have never been to, which is pretty hard to come by.  

Ciao!

Il Primo Vino

Caffé Ferretti. "Twerk School" night.  The club/bar/caffé is not yet packed but the potential is evident.  There are flashing lights and my favorite Fabri Fibra song, "Vip in Trip" is playing.  By the power vested to me by the foul-mouthed Italian rapper, I approached the bar.  Palms sweaty, I kept repeating "This is okay. You are in Italy. Don't be weird. Don't. Be. WEii-" only to be cut off by my quivering mouth spurting out "Vorrei un vino bianco per favore".  And I got one!  And it didn't taste like Church wine!

So there you go, family and friends.  A whole blog post about piccola Maria Rosa ordering herself some vino.


CIAO!

P.S. To make this post less inappropriately wine-oriented, I will add that I had Nutella gelato and that is the biggest threat to my life right now.

Feel free to listen to Vip in Trip and feel as if you were in Caffé Ferretti with me.

My New Parents!

Goodbye, Dan and Kathy.  You're too American for me now.  Thank you, though, for sending me to Italy where I met my true parents, Stefano and Saveria.  You may have seen them before in a Benigni film or any kind of pasta commercial.  They own this adorable little restaurant called "Cavallino" (Little Horse), which is where I had my first, second, and eventually will have my thousandth piece of Ascoli pizza.  Is it possible to adore two people so much that I barely know?  Yes, it is, especially when they have the keys to my heart: pizza and feisty Italian humor.  Saveria took out a bat to beat Stefano with after he told us for his love for a soccer player.  It was perfect, and the tears that came out of my eyes only could not even corrupt the perfect food that these two make.

After our lunchtime adventures, our little apartment group went on the hunt for gelato, but it was unfortunately siesta time, so our usual spot was closed.  Thankfully the Big Italian in the Sky graced us with the presence of Fabio and Matteo, who lead us to the most amazing gelato shop (His name was really Fabio and it was really perfect).  The Kinder gelato was so choice.

I'll leave you with this cliff hanger: tonight, we are going to Twerk School.

Ciao,

Mary Rose.

PS: Roommate Deremith (code name for discretion obviously) said my blog is going to get me famous which was very nice considering she said that while bowing down to me and fetching me wild Italian flowers.  She also complimented my passion for the ethical way in which I quote and portray my sources.

What's New Ascoli Piceno?

I know, I know.  Basic SLU girl goes abroad and starts a blog.  But I have a Grandma, damn it, and she deserves to know what I am up to!  (Sorry for saying "damn it", Grandma).

For the Italian-challenged, "sono Maria Rosa" means "I am Mary Rose".  I'm pretty excited to be able to introduce myself as Maria Rosa.  Props to my parents for giving me an easily translated name.  It's pretty cute that the flowing river of beauty that is "Maria Rosa" gets to be abruptly stopped by the guttural Berlin wall that is "Hefner".  "Maria Rosa...Hefner."  That's a wannabe Italian for you.

 Two days of travel and I finally arrived in Italia!  An 8:00 AM flight to DC, then a layover in DC until 5:00.  That flight brought me to Italy at 7:35 AM… and the bus to Ascoli left at 7:30, with the next bus not until 2:10 PM.  It was quite disheartening.  Eventually 6 out of the 8 of us got together in the airport, ate some food (Mozerella è Pomodoro per io) and we boarded our quick 3 hour bus ride to Ascoli… or so we thought.  Long story short, the bus ride took probably 6 hours due to traffic and a snow storm, but we chatted with a bizarre Italian man, I ate some pizza, and there was a dog on board.  Oh, and we eventually got to Ascoli!! So it was all worth it.

The three of us SLUdents (Meredith, Jessica, and I) and our lone UConn-er (Kelsey) have the cutest apartment ever.  Like, House Hunters International cute.  Complete with a ton of Ikea furniture, a terrace, and three bedrooms with beautiful views.  Missing a bickering yuppie couple.  Our apartment is only a minute away from the Piazza and about 5 from the school, which would be a great plus if I didn’t have the directional skills of a blind fish out of water. 

I’m still sort of tired, but I’m excited to get into a schedule.  The two days of travel were insane, but I already love Ascoli.  I’m trying to make Simone e Alida, my two Italian professors, proud by speaking to Italians in Italian (Edit: I put English here before. I'm tired and losing my mind a bit. My bad.) !  It’s worked out pretty well so far.  Big thanks to Fabri Fibra, the Italian Rapper on that front too. 

Ciao for now, tonight we are going out to dinner with our teacher and I will continue my lifestyle choice to eat pizza for every meal possible.