Here's a link to the story they did about us on the local news when we were in Marzi. It's a video of it playing on TV, so the quality isn't that good, but it's still cool to see. Thanks to Rosemary for putting it on the online.http://students.

My magical time overseas has, at last, ended. I got into Seattle last night after roughly one thousand hours of travel, from Madrid to NYC and then from there to Seattle. Travelling with Lucas was great, but exhausting since we never stayed anywhere for more than a couple of days. Here's how it went ( Read more... )

Tomorrow I am leaving Italy. The last week here has been pretty boring. We didn't teach the children at the schools this week, so there was nothing to do in the mornings. We had some things planned for last weekend, including another soccer game and a group trip somewhere, but most of them ended up being cancelled. So we've all been sitting around ( Read more... )

It's way too hot here. For the first few weeks here, the weather was really pleasant, but then it take a dramatic turn for the worse. Yesterday, it reached a high of 33 degrees celcius, which is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100 of our crazy american degrees. Today, it's supposed to reach 40. I don't even want to think about what that converts ( Read more... )

Last Friday, we organized a large soccer game with the students from the program and some of the citizens of Marzi. Omar, my host brother, referred to it as Seattle contro (vs.) Marzi, but the teams were split up evenly, so there were some of each on either side. For me, the phrase "essere una croce" came in handy. Literally, this means "to be a ( Read more... )

I think I am going to explode. There is too much food in this town. It's delicious, but after every meal I feel like I'm going to wind up like the Gluttony guy from the movie Seven. If that doesn't happen, my head will explode from the strain of trying to speak, think, and listen in Italian all day long. It's one thing to ace an Italian quiz in ( Read more... )

It's been a while since my last update. In the last installment, I believe I was in Tuscany as part of our travel week. Last Monday, the 1st of May, we left in a southerly direction towards the town of Marzi in the region of Calabria, near the tip of Italy's boot. We stopped monday night in Paestum, near Naples, and saw some Greek ruins. Then we ( Read more... )

April 2006 was officially the fastest month ever. We're already halfway through with this program, and that makes me sad. Last monday, we left Rome for Umbria, a region to the north and east. We spent Monday through Friday morning in a charming little villa near the small medieval hillside town of Corciano. I'm not entirely sure what the people ( Read more... )

As I wrote yesterday, this is my final weekend here in Roma. I'm staying in town as it is my last chance to do some things. For instance, I am going to the Villa Borghese museum tomorrow, which is supposed to be amazing. I want to a bit of shopping, and experience more fine Roman cuisine ( Read more... )

My time in Roma has almost come to an end. This makes me quite sad, but I'm also excited for what lies ahead. On Monday, we leave for our whirlwind tour of Umbria, a region to the north of here. After travelling around there for a week (with no class!), we head south to Calabria to our sleepy little village and our host families. I'm really going ( Read more... )