Vienna and Salzburg

This past weekend we took the overnight train to Vienna. It was an interesting night. At first, we had the train time confused and arrived two hours early. But better early than late. When the train finally came, we found our compartment and were happy that the five of us were together, with only one stranger in the compartment. I took my Tylenol PM and quickly fell asleep to the rock on the train.

We arrived at 8:30 in the morning to Vienna. After a confusing time of figuring out the transportation, we finally arrived in the town center. The Hofburg Palace was closed until 11:30, so we decided to go to the Kunsthistoriches Museum until then. On our way, we ran into some Christmas markets. We decided that we would come back for lunch. The museum was a really neat experience. Inside, there were paintings by Bruegel, Parmigianino, Velazquez, Hans Holbein, Raphael, Giogione, and many more. It was such a neat experience to see these important artworks that we had gone over and memorized so many details about in our Humanities class.

After visiting the museum, we made our way out to the Christmas markets for lunch. Aubrey, Melody, and Matt ate hot dogs while Kayla and I ate crepes filled with a vanilla sauce. Looking at the time, we decided that we should head over to the museum so Melody could see the Lipizzaner Stallions. The museum of the palace was very interesting. It told the story of Queen Elizabeth and how becoming the wife of the emperor changed her life drastically.

We found Melody again and headed over to the Christmas markets. Kayla and I went around to all of them and found good deals on ornaments, chocolates, and more. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit, as Christmas songs were playing and everyone was bustling about looking for the perfect Christmas presents. We headed over towards what we thought was a cathedral, but it ended up being building that was hosting arts and crafts for children (we never found out what the building really was). So instead we went around the Christmas markets there, happy with our new purchases and learning different things about how the Austrians celebrate Christmas.

That night we left by train up to Salzburg. When we arrived at our hostel, we were very confused to see a couple of guys half dressed up in furry costumes (they had taken off the upper parts to cool off). The next day we found out that it was from night of the demons. It is an Austrian tradition where St. Nicholas comes to reward the good children and the demons punish or take away the bad children.

The next morning, we were up early for our tour of the Sound of Music. We had an adorable guide named Peter. We were happy because our tour was only with eight people total, so we had a lot more time at the different locations and were able to get to know our guide. He took us to many different locations, like the lake where the children fell in the water, the famous gazebo, the meadow where the children had their picnic with Maria, and the gardens that they run through when they are learning to sing, and many more. It was a great way to see the city and the Alpine country.

That evening, Kayla, Matt, and I went to a Mozart dinner concert. It was all decorated for Christmas. The four course meal was delicious, and the singers were wonderful. We enjoyed understanding some of the lyrics that we knew from understanding Italian and we had just recently learned about Mozart and the Rococo Age in Humanities.

Switzerland

For my second trip out of the country, I headed to Switzerland. I went with one girl from the Villa, Melody. It was our first night train experience since we had been here, but it all went very smoothly. We were very excited but also very confused when we arrived to Lausanne: neither of us spoke a word of French. We easily found the Pepperdine house and found our friends that live there. Melody and I were very excited to have peanut butter for breakfast, because we cannot find any decent kind in Italy. Our first day was a very relaxing one. We went shopping for a little bit and looked around the city. Lausanne prides itself on being the Olympic Capital. That night we made our own cheese fondue. It was delicious!

Saturday morning, I went on my own adventure to the capital, Bern. The train ride through the countryside of Switzerland was absolutely amazing. It was beautiful. The city of Bern was adorable. Fortunately, I had Rick Steves with me to guide me through the city. It has done a very good job of maintaining its historical appearance, and the large capital almost felt like a small town at times. After a few hours there, I went to Geneva. I was a little confused when I arrived, because Rick decided to not cover this city. While there is a not a whole lot to do for a tourist, I still thought it would be interesting. After some confusion, I finally found the United Nations Headquarters. I wish that I would have been able to go inside, but the front gates were locked. I headed back to the train station so that I could cross the Pont du Mont Blanc to the Old Town. I did not know what to do over there, so I set a goal to go and find the street called John Calvin, then I headed back to Lausanne.

The next morning we left from Lausanne and really enjoyed the scenic ride back into Italia.

Roma Due/Firenze

This weekend, I decided to stay in Florence and do a day trip to Rome and a cooking class Saturday morning.

Early Friday morning, Jerrid and I set off for Rome. It was his first time there. In the morning, we saw a whirlwind of churches, piazzas, "some stairs" (the Spanish Steps), and the Trevi Fountain. The highlight of the day was going to the Villa Borghese. It was astounding to see Bernini's sculptures. He is an amazing sculptor, and the difference between his works and those of others was very evident. We were very excited because there was also an exhibit there of Caravaggio paintings, which we had also just learned about in Humanities. We went to see the Pantheon, then had the best gelato ever that is in Rome. After spending the first half of the day in the northern part of the city, we decided to head over to the Colosseum and Forum. However, they had just closed fifteen minutes before we got there. I felt so terrible for Jerrid, because he had been so excited to see it. But being a good sport, he knew he was going to be back at Rome and now he had one more thing to see. So to make the most of our time, we headed over to Capitoline Hill to the museum there. The museum was very interesting as it consisted of many ancient sculptures, busts, and tombstones. After a long day and being on our feet for about ten hours, we decided to call it a day and head back to Florence.

The next morning, I was up early again to go to a cooking class. Courtney, Katie, and Kayla also took the class. We had a lot of fun learning how to make homemade pasta. It was not a very easy or quick process, but we enjoyed the time together and learning how to make Italian food. Here is a video I made of our experience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2D9Ru32Fi0

Fall Break

For Fall Break, I went to Kilkenny, Dublin, and Milan. I flew up with Danielle and Grant to Dublin and we ran into three students from the Lausanne program that were also headed to Dublin. When we arrived in Ireland, I took a bus to Kilkenny. The bus ride was absolutely amazing, driving through the countryside where there were sheep pastures and the leaves had changed colors. Unfortunately, my friends had confused the day that I arrived, so I explored some more around the town. The next morning I went to Dublin by train. I was able to meet up with the students from the Lausanne program to take the tour of the Guinness Factory. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. I learned a lot about Guinness and the history of making it and the Guinness Book of World Records. That afternoon, I flew back to Milan. After a frustrating time with Ryanair, it was comforting to be back in Italy. After a little bit of trouble, I found my hostel. The next morning, I met a woman that was in my same room named Nadja, and we decided to do some sightseeing around Milan before I headed out. We went to the main duomo in Milan, which is incredible. Afterwards, we went to the Sforza palace, that has Michelangelo's Last Pieta`. Tired and ready to be "home," I caught the train and headed back to Florence. It was nice to be back in the city, and it was a relaxing time to do nothing before school started up again.

EFT Round Two: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ischia, and Naples

Our wonderful program director, Elizabeth, planned another "educational field trip" for our group, this time to Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ischia, and Naples. We were all very excited to have another weekend planned and paid for us. Once again, it really made me appreciate doing all of these studies in Italy. While school may be extremely stressful and crazy, it's such a blessing to be able to hop on a train or walk down the street to a museum and see the art I just studied in person.

We all woke up really early and were already on our way to the train station at 6:10 AM. We all made it on time and quickly settled in. Most people went back to sleep, since we had a three hour train ride until Naples. But since I had two midterms the next week, I decided to type out all of the Italian tenses we had learned for the exam to get some studying in, knowing that I would not want to the rest of the weekend. After we arrived, we hopped onto a bus and headed for Pompeii. When we arrived and could kind of see some of the ruins, it really hit me. After all that I had learned in my Latin I class at Turpin and Humanities 111 class at Pepperdine, I was finally at Pompeii. As terrible of a tragedy as the eruption was, it is amazing how well preserved everything is. It was so sad to see the plaster molds of the people in the positions they were in when they died.

We walked on towards the amphitheater, which had a section of the original seating that was separated for the different classes of people. After a "fight" in the amphitheater, we went over to the main streets of town. One thing that I had always heard about and seen pictures of was the stepping stones that the people had used to cross the streets. The streets were for sewage and carriages to ride through; the people would not have wanted to walk in the streets, but on the sidewalks. So in order to cross the streets, there were large stepping stones every so often. It was very interesting to see the homes, as the large ones of the wealthy were intermixed among the small ones of the poor. The streets were very narrow, and even though the buildings are not as tall as they used to be, it was a little claustrophobic. But we came to the town center, where there was a big open forum. Different governmental buildings surrounded this area. Pompeii seemed to be a very community-oriented town. Everything was very close together, and it was very self-sufficient. In religion class, we talked about what their world view might have been. Most of us thought that they were only concerned with their town, and that they did not travel, or have the need to travel. Another part of their world view that we discussed was seen through their artwork. They had art, in some form, everywhere. There streets had symbols to ward off evil spirits, their homes were not decorated for style and color but their walls were covered with pagan and mystical stories that represented their beliefs, and they had paintings that represented their daily life. On of the buildings we entered was a brothel. Around the ceiling, there were bits of paintings left that told the story of the building and what occurred there. We entered a large villa, called the House of Mysteries. One of the rooms with the most well conserved wall paintings had the depiction of a cult ceremony.

After lunch and fresh squeezed lemonade (the Amalfi Coast lemons are huge!), we went to Herculaneum. This was much smaller than Pompeii, and we were surprised that 5,000 people had inhabited the town. One interesting place that we saw in Herculaneum were the baths. They had separate ones for the males and females, and had specially designed ceilings to aid in the heating and cooling of the rooms. After our visit here, we went to the port of Naples, and took a ferry to the island of Ischia. That night, we all went out to a pizza dinner, but the restaurant was rather rude. For some of us, it took nearly three hours to get our dinner. Exhausted after a long day, we went back to the hotel to rest up for the next day at the thermal gardens.

On our second day, we went to the Poseidon Thermal Gardens, about an hour away from our hotel. We were there on the last day of the season. We arrived early in the morning so that we could have an entire day there. The facilities were beautiful, covered with flowers and trees, right on the beach, and built into the mountainside. Courtney and I started with our first round of the baths, beginning in the 30 degree Celsius one. The water was a little on the cold side, but it was also freezing outside. After twenty-five minutes, we moved over to the 32 degree Celsius bath. This one was a little bit warmer, and it had underwater back massage jets! We were in this bath for 15 minutes. The next bath was 34 degrees Celsius. This is called the Ischia bath, and it is the largest and most popular. It was nice to finally be in a warm and larger pool, so we stayed in that one for longer than the "recommended" time frame. The next

bath was 36 degrees Celsius. It was nice and warm, but it did not have any benches, so we left right after our fifteen minutes were up. The next bath, 38 degrees Celsius, was our favorite. It was the perfect temperature, had nice benches, and looked over the entire Poseidon facilities and the ocean. The view was amazing. After spending time here, we moved over to the 40 - 15 degrees Celsius baths. First, we entered the 40 degree bath for three minutes. We then immediately went to the small fifteen degree Celsius bath to "cool off" for about fifteen seconds. But it was way too cold and I was never able to go any deeper than my waist, and immediately ran out afterwards and hopped back into the hot pool. Next, we did the Japanese foot bath, which is basically walking on rocks, alternating between hot and cold water.

After a nice lunch on the beach, we did the baths again. We tried to do the sauna, but I had to leave immediately because I felt like I could not breathe and was very claustrophobic. We just spent the rest of the day relaxing and laying out and hanging out in the 40 degree baths. We left just after watching a beautiful sunset. Dinner that night was on our own, and the service was much better because it was just a small group of us.

Sunday morning, we headed back to Naples and went to the Archeological Museum. It was very interesting to see after having gone to Pompeii and Herculaneum. Our tour guide kept insisting the nothing in the Renaissance was new and that it had all already but thought of. Overall, it was a very fun weekend. The only problem that was looming in the back of our minds was that we had both a humanities and an Italian exam the next week.