Hi, I'm Jodie, and I'm a recovering Nutella addict.

Welp, 1 week down, 14 to go on this... what's it called?... semester? Semester system.

the Mediterranean Sea

This weekend was our adventures in Cinque Terre. It was originally a day trip with my program, so we got there for free, and then me and 7 of my friends decided to stay an extra two nights. Cinque Terre is five cliffside towns on the northern coast of Italy, only 9 km from the northernmost to the southernmost village. I'm glad we stayed, because there is no way you can appreciate Cinque Terre as a whole in one day trip. So the first day we had enough time to relax on the beach without feeling pressured to do too much because we knew we had all of Saturday to do that. It felt really nice to be back at the beach. Monterosso is the northernmost and biggest town with the most traditional beach, but it is a very small beach so you're only one towel away from the shameless 65-year-old man in a speedo and his shameless overweight bikini-sporting wife next to you. Even so, the beach day was great. The water was so clear and the perfect temperature to swim in. I swam out to the buoy with a friend where I could just effortlessly float on my back due to all the salt in the water, but I quickly swam back to shore when I started thinking about sharks. I know, I know. Typical.

We stayed in a quiet town north of Monterosso called Levanto. Somehow we lucked out and found a great place to stay right at the last minute. 8 of us rented a small apartment for a totally reasonable price and it was perfect that we were all able to stay together. We had dinner that night in Levanto at a pizza place and I had the best ham and mozzarella calzone I've ever had. Afterwards we headed to a pub, which turned out to be the place to be if you're in high school. It was pretty funny being the only ones not too awkward to dance. So there we were, a bunch of 21 year old Americans being the only ones dancing and a bunch of 15/16 year old Italians standing along the wall staring at us. Not surprisingly, we left that pub quickly after we made the best of their empty dance floor and went home.

Dang you, 382 stairs.

Saturday. We hiked. We took the train from Levanto to Riomaggiore (the southernmost town) and hiked north from there. Hiking was simple enough. The first two towns are close to each other so that was a nice short paved trail along the side of the cliff. It should have taken us 20 minutes to hike, but between the picture taking and some of us climbing down the cliff to jump in the perfectly blue Mediterranean Sea, it took us nearly an hour to make it to Manarola, my favorite of the five towns. That's the one that illustrates Cinque Terre in any brochure. The one with all the colorful buildings cliffside. And it's everything as spectacular as you might think it'd be. If you know me you know that I LOVE color, so I loved it. From there we hiked to Corniglia, and on that trail I saw a girl hiking in heels. More power to her. All along the way were people who had climbed down in little coves to sunbathe and I ached to join them but kept moving with my friends. At one place we could look down into the water and see an army of jellyfish which was pretty cool. When we reached Corniglia, we were greeted by the Lombard street of steps. You have to climb 382 steps back and forth to reach the town. I stole this picture off google to show the torture. The town itself is quite beautiful and surrounded by vineyards, but we didn't stay long there at all before we took the train to Vernazza, the fourth town. Also quite beautiful and there we sat and watched the sunset. Trained it back to Monterosso to have dinner, and I found myself a cheeseburger and a Guinness. That's right. A cheeseburger. Delicious. Walking around Monterosso at night made me think of living in Indonesia as a kid and traveling to similar exotic places. There is something about the dinner hour and seeing all the adults dressed nicely that is nostalgic to me. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom and dad used to get cleaned up and dressed nicely and we'd go have dinner on the sand with the Kimber family. It's a good feeling. I miss it.

Our expensive tickets to Rome =[

Sunday was an adventure, to say the least. We spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing at the beach and swimming among the jellyfish (seriously) before we got on the train to head back to Florence at 1:30. We had to go from Monterosso to La Spezia (a big train station right outside Cinque Terre) to Florence. Or so we thought. After getting to La Spezia and being kicked off what we thought would be our next train, standing in the terminal trying to figure out what it means when the display says "SOP" under the status bar next to your scheduled train mean (it means you're screwed, basically), learning that the trains in Tuscany have decided to go on strike today, spending too much money on a ticket to Rome just to get off in Pisa (it's just west of Florence), and running to get on the only good train to Florence without a ticket (might I add, had this train not had a 10 min delay, we would have just missed it), we managed to make it home before dark. I have no idea why they were on strike, I have no idea why there was only one good train to Florence from Pisa, and I still have no idea what "SOP" actually means. But I do know I was sitting in class in Florence at 9 am this morning. Too good, too good.

Anywhosiewhatsies, I had my second photography class today where I learned about apertures and shutter speeds and what ISO is. Not to be a know-it-all, but I really miss being in class with people at my level who challenge me. It's hard to be missing a whole quarter with my photography friends because I know they're going to be struggling for hours night after night in Dexter until 1:00 am trying to figure out how to photograph a laser without flour or trying to get the printer to just print the right freaking color until they run out of money, and I am not going to be there with them. I will always tell you that I hate those nights but I secretly love them because they make for good memories. And I won't step foot into a studio until January.

After photo I had my first on-site class inside and around the Duomo today. That was my first time being inside the Duomo and it is absolutely spectacular. The interior of the cathedral itself is not so exciting but when I looked up into the dome it was probably the first time I've ever experienced the "took my breath away" sensation. The fresco painting on the ceiling is just amazing. If I would have known I'd love art history this much, I would have majored in it. This stuff is fascinating and absolutely mind-boggling. And learning how to decipher and "read" paintings is an amazing skill. It's like learning how to read the words of a masterpiece novel and then knowing the same words from book to book. Every painting or sculpture or relief or whatever all have the same symbolic colors, animals, insects, or numbers and the same attributes from person to person, and once you know it from one painting it's applicable to almost every piece of Renaissance art in existence. It is this way because church ceremonies were performed in Latin until the 1960's (!!), but only the elite people knew Latin. Regular citizens like you and me had to rely on the illustrations around the church to understand the stories of the Bible and the Gospel, so everyone just knew what all these signs and symbols meant because it was their spiritual lifeline. Amazing!

I got to video chat with my parents last night which was so great. I think my homesickness phase is starting to kick in. I expected it though, so I'm trying to not let it get to me. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I think of things every day that I miss from home. I'm mostly getting exhausted being around alcohol all the time. It has been 18 days since I've seen my friends. I think a lot of people say that going abroad alone is the best way to do it so that you meet a lot of people, which I have, but I am the type of person who needs to be around my friends all the time. I know Erica can relate to this, her and I made each other do everything together this summer because neither of us like being home alone for even 10 minutes. Three of my friends here are all best friends from SLO, and I think that makes me really miss my own friends and wish that I would have come here with my friends too. I have still had a really good time meeting all these new people and I love them, I just think the type of person I am is not the type who easily goes anywhere not knowing anyone. I said before I came here that I wanted it that way but I am quickly learning I was wrong. It just would have been fun to experience such exotic places and other cultures with a good friend. So I'm homesick. But I expected it and also expect it to subside soon. It's all goooood.

PS. I am not going to gain my Italian weight from carbs or even gelato, but NUTELLA.

...see more pictures of my Italian adventures on facebook. =]