Finding Fall

Anyone who has spoken to me over the last few weeks has heard my complaints about fall in southern Italy.  While the sea and palm trees are beautiful,  something doesn't quite feel right about autumn without all the plants changing color.  It's odd coming home without fire colored leaves hiding in the hood of my jacket or stuck to the bottoms of my shoes. So when I stepped out of the car in a tiny town in Basilicata last Sunday I was overcome with joy.  Wreaths decorated with leaves and berries adorned the houses and the air was filled with the warmth of woodsmoke. The occasion was a festival of chestnuts, and the amount of fall spirit all around was unbelievable. Freshly roasted chestnuts were sold in little paper cones and the streets were covered in the discarded shells. Cornstalks were tied to the trees and hay bales stood at the entrance to the main street. Afterward we headed to a nearby lake that transported me back to Oregon.  The beauty and diversity here constantly amazes me.

The main street bustling with people.

Nothing like a woven cornucopia full of dried corn to make it feel like fall.

My chapter mate Elki in a festive alleyway photography showcase.

Me on the shore of the lake where we picnicked. 

Photogenic decorated houses.

Photos!

Just some snapshots of my time here thus far!  You may have seen a few of these on Facebook.

Daily Routine

I thought I would do a run through of my usual schedule to give you an idea of how my time is filled over here.

Generally Marianna (my host sister) and I get up around 6:50 am.  I immediately change and head downstairs for a breakfast composed of coffee and and some sort of sweet,  most commonly cookies. During this time Marianna has control over the upstairs  bathroom. At 7:20 we switch and I head back upstairs to finish getting ready. The aim is to leave the house at 7:40, but we have yet to leave any earlier than 7:45. The result of our delay is some of the craziest driving I have ever experienced in order to make it to school on time.

From 8 am to 1 o'clock I am at school,  though occasionally I go in an hour late or leave early due to a teacher being absent (substitute teachers don't exist here). I have 5 classes a day,  often with the same class back to back.  We stay in the same classroom all day with the teachers rotating. My studies include: History,  Literature,  Dante, English,  Biology,  Chemistry,  Physics,  Math,  Programming,  Art History,  and PE. When I am released from school I am picked up by my host mom and, depending on the schedule of my host sister's school, we pick up Marianna and return home.

As soon as we arrive home we eat lunch,  which is the main meal of the day in Italy.  The first course is pasta,  followed by meat or other foods.  The third course is fruit, often grapes, melon,  or cactus fruit,  and dessert. My host mom is a fantastic cook,  so I have a harder time finding foods I don't like than foods I do.

Following lunch is study and rest time. On a usual day I rest for about an hour and then begin attempting to teach myself the lessons from school that day. I translate notes,  watch YouTube videos, and try my best to complete homework until I feel I have made my best effort. Some days I have 2 hour Italian lessons with a personal tutor,  which leave me quite exhausted for the rest of the night.

This schedule is essentially the same Monday through Saturday, though on Saturdays I go out with Marianna's friends and walk around since we don't have school the next day. Sunday is our one true day of the weekend and we usually go somewhere nearby in the early afternoon and return so Marianna and I can study.

The schedule is a bit demanding, but I know I'll be extremely grateful for two day weekends when I get back the the United States.

Update 1

Hello again! It's been a while since my last blog post,  but I would like to think that is a good thing,  me being busy and not have anything pressing to convey. I've been in Italy for three weeks now and I have to say that it's been amazing,  in both different and better ways than I was expecting. My host city is beautiful and my host family is a wonderful fit.  School is confusing,  but my classmates are very friendly and my teachers seem to be making an attempt to adapt my work to fit what I have already learned and what little of the lessons I can translate. The food is overwhelmingly delicious,  and distinctly less full of dairy than everyone kept insisting it would be. There's so much I want to share about my experience,  but I'll never be able to fit it all into this one post, so for now here is a small glimpse of what I have been up to.

Rome:

Our orientation days were packed full with sessions and socialization, so for the most part everyone emerged in a pretty severe state of exhaustion. Though I don't think the sessions were very beneficial,  I did learn quite a bit about the cultures and mannerisms of other countries. More than anything it brought to light how little I know of a large majority of the world. I wish I could have spent a larger amount of time with the other exchange students so that I could have learned more from them firsthand. From Rome everyone split ways,  my group taking the train to the nearest station to our host city.

Arrival:

After a long and tiring train ride,  on which despite my exhaustion I couldn't sleep,  I was met at the train station by my host family. We dropped my luggage off at the house and then left immediately for lunch by the water.  The meal was extremely delicious and consisted of primarily local seafood.  I was absolutely stuffed after the first course, foreshadowing what was to come at every family meal.

My Host City:

It's so pretty here! Everyone keeps insisting that the city is really small,  but I don't think they fully understand how small Newberg is. There are tons of stores and restaurants and the view from the boardwalk area is amazing. I am absolutely mesmerized by water, since it's a novelty to me living so close to the sea. The beaches are beautiful and the water is incredibly warm,  though my host family would argue otherwise.

The Surrounding Area:

I've visited most of the nearby cities and they are all gorgeous and very diverse.  One huge differences between the US and Italy is that everything is much more condensed.  Where we would have to drive a few days to the next major city,  they only have to drive a few hours.  But the cultural and physical difference of each city is still very drastic. Each city speaks a different dialect of Italian and I can't even slightly understand most of them.

Food:

As I mentioned before the food actually doesn't involve copious amounts of dairy,  in fact many of the foods we think of as Italian aren't even present here. I'll probably do another post just addressing this topic.

School:

I have had a lot of people back in the US ask about school seemingly expecting a dramatic answer,  but in all reality there is no dramatic answer to give. The real and true answer is obvious; it's confusing. Yes,  all my classes (besides English of course)  are in Italian. I didn't come here to study the exact same things as I do in the US, going to Italy and only speaking English would completely defeat the purpose of my study abroad year.  I am here to learn about a new culture first hand,  not for the food or the shoes. But I digress,  I don't understand my classes so usually I copy my classmates' notes and then translate them when I get home.  Google translate,  Khan Academy,  and crash course are my new best friends.

I think this is all I want to address for now,  but in depth posts on most of these topics should be up soon.

Ciao!
Elena