Un buon weekend

“A good weekend.”   Yup, Italians use the word “weekend” too.

Last Thursday morning brought with it an old friend, Becca, and a new friend, Juliet.  I study with Becca in Chicago, but this semester we are both studying abroad and she met Juliet at her host school.  Much to my delight, they both came for a visit this weekend.  We tried to work out the rendezvous point online before they flew out of their country because they wouldn’t have internet access after they left and we would not be able to call each other.  (Even so, I gave them my phone number.  You never know when it’ll come in handy.)  Unfortunately, when I told them where to meet me in the train station, I was not remembering exactly correctly the layout of the station, so the staircase I directed them to did not exist.  Oops.  We looked for each other for rather a long time before they called me from a pay-phone they found and we were able to talk; we found each other soon after.  It was the beginning of a fabulous and memorable weekend.  I introduced them to Italian cappuccinos and marochinos.  We visited the Castello Sforzesca and a few museums inside, one of which houses the "Pieta Rondanini," Michelangelo's last sculpture--unfinished--before he died, and a room painted by Leonardo da Vinci.  I took them to Chocolat, the best gelato place in Milano, and the only place I've found that sells lemon-basil gelato.  Holy smokes--so good.  The Duomo was a given, and we picked up some good luck by spinning three times with our right heels in a hole in the floor of the center of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II--kind of like a fancy-pants Italian shopping mall right next to the duomo.  It has Prada, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, McDonalds... you know, all the major players.

The Pieta Rondanini.  It depicts Mary taking Jesus down from the cross, but when you walk around it, it looks like Jesus is carrying Mary's weight.  Notice Mary has part of a second face.

Leonardo da Vinci's "Sale della Asse."  So intricately detailed.

Us! ...and the duomo.

We had pizza, handmade in front of our very eyes and cooked in a huge wood-burning oven by men who were very happy to be able to speak Arabic with Becca.  The last night and pasta with pesto and traditional Milanese Christmastime bread/cake, panettone.  The pasta was orrecchiette, which means "little ears" because it's shaped kind of like little ears!  It was absolutely lovely to be able to catch up with Becca and just spend time with her.  I really appreciate sharing space with someone.  Even if we're not talking, we're together in the same place at the same time, and that experience cannot be reproduced or simulated, no matter what kind of communication technology is available.  It reminds me in a way of what a famous fiction author described as "kything." (Anyone? Anyone?)  I think sometimes more goes on than meets the eye.

It was hard to say goodbye.

I will leave you with a couple public transportation Funny Moments:

1) One night, Juliet and I went out to get a bottle of good ol' Italian wine, and after a successful pickup, we returned to the sidewalk and looked back to see the bus we wanted to take a block behind us, doors already open.  We knew we couldn't run back a block and catch it before the doors closed and the bus started moving, so we started running forward, hoping to make it to the next stop in time.  Facing the street on the sidewalk ahead of us stood a woman.  She glanced over, saw us running in her direction, froze for a second, and then turned and ran the same direction we were running!  Juliet and I were a little confused but we kept on going.  When we were close to the stop, we stopped running, and the woman stopped at about the same time we did.  We got on the bus, and I don't know if she did or not; I lost her in the group of people at the stop.  Strange.

2) In Chicago, if the doors of the L start to close and something blocks them from closing all the way, they bounce back open.  Good system, I think.  Well, I was in a hurry at one point, and ended up running to an underground metro train.  Juliet was going to visit a friend in Florence for a day, and she had forgotten some readings for class that she wanted to read during the train ride.  We were at the train station and I didn't know if we could go back to my apartment and make it back before her train left, so I decided to go back myself.  That way if I couldn't get back in time she would still be able to catch the train she had bought a ticket for.  So I was rushing to the right metro line and saw that the train was there right then.  The doors started to close as I was sprinting towards them and with every thought focused on making in inside that train car, I dramatically leaped forward.  I'm sure it looked so cool that if it was in a movie, I would be an action hero flying forward in slow motion.  Right up until the doors closed on me.  Really hard.  And didn't bounce back open.  I had my head, one shoulder, and one leg inside the train, some squished internal organs, and the rest of me still on the train platform.  There were a few men standing in the train close to the door I was stuck in, and their shocked faces would have been really funny if I had had time to enjoy them.  I saw the man standing closest to me instinctively jerk forward to try to help pull me into the car, then hesitate as if unsure what to do.  I clearly wanted to be on the train, but it most likely would have been easier to extract myself if I just went back onto the train platform.  The doors were really tight, and he could probably see that either direction I went would end up being painful, so he didn't want to touch me.  But there was no way I was not going to make that train.  I weaseled my way forward, and if it was in a movie, I would be a cartoon squeezing my way forward through something so tight my eyes would be bugging out of my head.  But I made it!  I got through and stumbled forward as the doors snapped shut like the jaws of a predator angry that it lost it's prey.  Even though the episode happened very quickly--within a few seconds--literally everyone within line of sight was staring at me, and there were a few mouths agape.  I do love a dramatic entrance.  I popped back up into a normal standing position, flashed everyone a smile to show that I was not hurt, and calmly walked over to a pole to hold onto for the ride.  All the seats were filled and honestly, who wants to lose their balance while standing on public transportation?  That would just be embarrassing.

Non mi legga chi non e matematico.

The above is a quote from one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.  As my well-educated and intelligent readers probably know, Leonardo kept many notebooks throughout the course of his life, in which he made many sketches and wrote many interesting things from right to left.  Why from right to left?  No one knows.  The translation of the quote is roughly "Let no one read me who is not a mathematician.

I don't know how he would feel about me reading him, much less quoting him.

This is unconnected to anything else, but I want to say it.  Star Wars was on TV today.  "The Empire Strikes Back," to be precise, dubbed in Italian.  I did not watch very much, but I did notice that everyone's voice was different except for R2D2 and Chewbacca.  I wonder why they didn't translate those character's lines into Italian.

Last night I attended a concert at another university in Milan.  It was done by two women, an Israeli woman and a Palestinian woman, who each sang a selection of their own songs and then performed together.  It was amazing--my favorite things I've done in Milan thus far.  The experience meant a lot to me before the concert even started, because my friend had given up her ticket so that I could go.  That immediately gave the free concert a ton of value.  It was supposed to start at 9:00, and at about 9:30 the audience broke into applause.  The girl next to me (a friend of the friend who gave up her ticket) explained to me that clapping is a way for the audience to communicate they are tired of waiting and want the show to start.  My first thought was that timetables for showtimes must be quite different in Italy than in the US if there is a ubiquitously known way for the audience to communicate impatience.  Oh, those cultural differences.  My second thought was "Really? 30 minutes?"  I'd estimate an American audience would have clapped in 12 at the latest.  The Palestinian Mira Awad was the first performer, and she was positively entrancing.  She sang acapella mostly in Arabic, and a little bit in English.  She sounded wonderfully Middle Eastern, and at one point the man accompanying her on djembe had a solo, and she did some lovely dance moves.  I have a friend who once spent a summer in Palestine, and when she came back she tried showing me some dance moves she saw there at a wedding.  I had an idea of what they should look like, but had never seen them look so smooth and beautiful as when this woman who had spent her whole life there did them.  After a while the second singer, internationally known Israeli singer Noa came on.  I used to think J.R.R Tolkien was exercising his imagination when he described Saruman captivating people by putting them under the spell of his voice.  When Theoden, king of Rohan, resisted his voice and spoke, everyone around thought his voice sounded horrible--unrefined and foolish.  Now I think Tolkien heard someone like Noa and wrote about his experience, adapting it to fit the story.  Seriously, her opening song was 10 or 15 minutes long, and she thanked the university for hosting the concert, as well as the audience for coming, and then introduced herself and her band members.  With each introduction of course the audience applauded, and I literally felt like one of those poor sucker soldiers riding with King Theoden who just wanted him to shut up so they could continue listening to the enchanting voice of Saruman.  The main difference is that Noa is not a wizard gone bad.

Here are a few pictures I snapped of when they were singing together.  I also really liked what the lighting designers did.  Every song had a really different look.

Their first song together.

I think this was during the song "There Must Be Another Way" which was really powerful as a duet between an Israeli and a Palestinian.  Beautiful.  If I wanted to get really symbolic here, I could talk about how the light that look like an eclipse.  An eclipse--temporary and holding the promise of full light in the future.  If you care to give the song a listen, here's one version: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN8B1xvCxI0&feature=related

 

This was their last song.  Here's the two of them performing it in Rome a while ago: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iukOKO-6R0

There have been a few changes to the song since then, making it more equally split between the Hebrew and the Arabic, but this is more or less what they sang.

When we left, the girl I was with (who is a jazz singer and attends at least a couple concerts every week) said that Noa "is a Singer, with-a the big S!"

I must say I agree.

Today Was A Day.

The title is a tribute to my friend Becca.  She is one for calling things what they are.

Today I had a field trip to MediaSet, the major television broadcasting company in Italy.  There are six Italian channels--three public and three private.  MediaSet controls the three public ones, and is owned by Berlusconi, the president of Italy.  Berlusconi... hm.  I will refrain from commenting at this time.

Anyway, my class got a tour of several studios and editing rooms.  It was a blast--so interesting!  In one studio, the cast of one show was practicing.  We couldn't stay very long, but they were all dancing, and it was fun to see a little piece of the process.  Also I want to dance.  I have been craving swing with Joshua, salsa with my Dominican friends, tapping in WA musicals.  Like "Singin' in the Rain."  That tune's been going through my head quite a bit recently.

Tomorrow I am going to a concert with my friend Esmeralda, who studied at my home university, and at whose university I am now currently studying!  What are the odds, huh?  Actually, the performance is by two women who perform duets together--an Israeli Christian and a Palestinian Christian.  I am excited to go experience that with Esmeralda.

That's the update!  And this is the view of MediaSet from the street.

Feeling sunshiny!

Today was gorgeous and sunny and every time I walked outside I started grinning like a fool.  A happy fool--that's me!

P.S. The quote a couple posts ago was from Agatha Christie's "The Man in the Brown Suit."  Good book.

I'm Singin' a lot these days.

Rain, rain, rain.  It's been raining for about three weeks straight.  We did have one day of sun last week but other than that, the weather has been taking after me when I watch a sad movie: slow constant tears with occasional dry patches and somewhat more frequent torrential bursts.

That's the big update.  There's not too much new stuff going on, other than the fact that my Italian final is next week.  My question is this: why, because Italian is the most immediately beneficial class I'm taking right now, is it the only class to end weeks before all the other classes?  I'm also sad to see it go because it's my favorite class! I never knew learning a language could be so fun.

My friend Ben is studying in Austria this semester and came over for a visit last weekend.  I got to play tour guide and show him around Milan, which was fun.  I have another friend who is studying in Northern Ireland this semester who is coming to visit next weekend, and I can't wait to see her!  We'll have to do our best impersonations of the accents of locals in our respective study abroad locations.  My favorite thing to say in an Italian accent is something I heard an Italian say while in Germany.  "Why there are no Starbucks in Italy?  It is because Berlusconi!  He say no Starbucks.  But why?  Why?!  Where is the Starbucks?"

So fun.  Ask me to say it for you when I get back.

Will somebody please feed me grapes?

...I've decided to become a Greek goddesss.

Last Thursday, some friends and I flew off to Athens to experience Greece for a few days.  Wow.  First of all, we were flying out of three days of nonstop rain and into beautiful summer weather.  We negotiated the Greek metro system and made our way to the center of the city, where our hostel was.  Before finding the address, we found it quite necessary to find some genuine Greek food, so we sat in the square and ate the most delicious gyros I've ever tasted.  Apparently Greek food prepared by professionals in Greece is better than cheap American knockoffs.  Go figure.

After we settled into our rooms at the hostel, we met in the lobby to ask the desk attendant what a good thing to do would be before dinner.  Since it was already dark, we didn't want to wander willy-nilly or do anything that would take too large a chunk of time.  The woman at the desk and Shea, a traveling Canadian who had been in Athens a couple weeks discussed the best things to do and suggested we go see the Acropolis, which is lovely when it is lit up at night.  There is a high section of rocks which offers a wonderful view of both the Acropolis and the city of Athens.  Shea, who was about our age, had been there before and was willing to show us the way.  We ended up hanging out with him at the Acropolis, during the long search for the perfect restaurant, and during dinner.  It was nice to be with someone who was at least a little more familiar with the streets than we were.  After dinner, we just went back to the hostel and hit the sack.

The girls in front of the Acropolis at night.

The bathroom door at the restaurant where we had dinner.

Friday was Ruins Day.  We started with the Acropolis and saw the theatre of Dionysis, the Pantheon, and an abundance of other glorious ruins.  So fun!  I just couldn't get over the fact that I was in Greece, looking at ancient ruins, and walking where Socrates and his buddies hung out.  I've never felt so connected to Greek mythology.  I do love mythology.  One unfortunate thing was that we got to the place where the original olympics were held and Zeus' temple just a little bit too late, and the entrance was closed.  It wasn't too bad, though; we could see everything through the fence, so we took some pictures and went to watch the sunset on the rock formation we had been to the night before.

The Theatre of Dionysis.

The Pantheon!

"Grecian urn 1..."

Dear Mom, thanks for homeschooling me well.  Thanks to you, I saw these and knew they were Greek Doric columns with fluting.  How many kids who went to other schools would've remembered that after a dozen years?

I think McDonald's is stalking me.  In every country I go to, I look over my shoulder and there it is.

Saturday was Island Day.  We took a ferry to Aegina, which was about an hour away.  We spent some time swimming and taking pictures, and then half the group went to go eat expensive food, and the other half went to wander around the port city.  Guess which group I was in?  I'll give you a clue from a book I like: "I had the firm conviction that, if I went about looking for adventure, adventure would meet me halfway."  (What's the book?  No looking it up on the internet.  I want to hear all your guesses!  I do believe I have already quoted it in an earlier blog.)  We ended up on a peninsula facing west in time for the sunset.  Aah... so beautiful.  One girl really wanted to get some seafood before we caught the ferry back to Athens, so she picked some fried "small fish" to go.  They were indeed small (each was about the size of my pointer finger) and fish.  Whole fish.  Bones, brains, eyeballs, they had it all.  And we ate 'em.  Not my favorite, but I'm glad I tried it.  The whole group met up on the ferry, and I taught them the game "signs" during the voyage back to Athens.  That night we had dinner on a Greek schedule--we got to the restaurant at around 11:00 at night.  One girl turned 22 at midnight so we sang happy birthday, and the waiters came out with free desserts!

Enjoying a Greek sunset.

Eating little fishes.

Sunday morning there is a famous huge flea market in the center of Athens, so we checked that out.  There were beautiful dresses for sale which weren't too expensive, and I really liked one of them.  Imagining myself in it, I totally looked like a Greek goddess.  Then I tried it on over my clothes, and I found I did NOT look like a Greek goddess.  I looked like a tourist wearing a dress that was... clearly not too expensive.  And that was that.  There were some really funny flea market stands, if I can call them that.  They were more blankets on the ground with stuff on them.  I'm pretty sure that some of the stands were selling completely stolen merchandise.  My favorite one was featuring a small selection of jewelry and a worn out pair of shoes to represent fashion, and one scratched keyboard as the sole representative of technology.

The flight back was smooth, except for the brief episode when one girl misplaced her passport.  We made it back just fine, however, and flew from sunny warm Athens to chilly, recently drenched Milan.  Ah, well.  Back to classes and everyday life in my Italian adventure!