2 Weeks in Italy.. complete!

Well, my first two weeks in this new city have passed, and everything is finally in order.  Originally, I had only booked 2 weeks here in Bologna - because I wanted to be able to possibly find a cheaper apartment and/or school.  What I wasn’t anticipating was that there would be a bazillion other students trying to do the same thing as me right now.  I don’t to bore anyone with details, but basically I searched non-stop for the two weeks without finding anything and then had to wait on my landlady until yesterday to make sure I would be able to stay here in this apartment.  I also signed up at the school to start afternoon classes starting on Monday, and well basically should now be set for the next 3 months here.

Oh and that’s another thing.  I may be coming back sometime in the middle of April, and finally end this ridiculously long vacation/incredible experience.  So, I’m going to be buckling down and putting everything into learning this language and coming back quad-lingual.

Ok, enough - so how did my first two weeks go?  Well, I would say pretty awesome.  I use internet for usually less than 3 hours a day, which has helped up my ‘life-productivity’ - and has forced my to study even more than I’ve been used to.  Usually, I study this language for maybe 2-3 hours per day, which I feel is starting to show a bit.  As far as last weekend, on Friday I went out with a friend that I met who was from Norway - and on Saturday, I went to the Italian National Baseball Convention which was taking place just outside of Bologna.  Stefano from Minelli Next, picked me up and took me to their booth and let me meet a couple of American teacher/ex-baseball players, which was really cool.

Here’s a picture at their booth, which was burning a name with a laser into a bat that they sold

Here’s one of the Americans, using this program they created to help correct swings, demonstrating on stage (Italian translator on the foreground)

So that was a lot of fun, and after the workshops, the convention put on a typical Italian banquet.  I’ve done a few banquets in the US, but this was such a better experience, basically because food was included the whole time.  Instead of eating and then listening to a speaker for 4 hours - we just ate while listening to a speaker for 4 hours.  There were 5 courses (salad, pasta, lasagna, veal, dessert), and unlimited red wine and water included.  I fully enjoyed this ‘typical Italian banquet’, and came back home at about 2am ready for some nice sleep.

Hmm, so what about the city that I live in?  Well, Bologna is a beautiful city with a big student-feel to it.  The oldest university in the world (c.1088) is here and is home to thousands of students doing an abroad-program and a lot of people doing some kind of language course.  But besides that, the city is wonderful - I need to take some pictures of the city, but all I can say is that it is so different from Hamburg and most German cities that I visited.  Hamburg was enormous and the metro-system was necessary in getting around, it was green with lots of open spaces, lakes and an airy feel to it.  Bologna on the other hand is all cement, and surrounded by hundred/thousand year old buildings.  It is has feeling that you are walking through the same streets that people centuries ago did.  It also has the typical piazza in the center of the city with their enormous church and old statue/fountain for all to see.

Anyways, the city is putting together a self-tour of the city for the next month or so, and it shows off a lot of the city’s most interesting things to see.  I’ll have to go through it and take pictures at all the places they say to.  I went last night to do the tour with my Swedish roommate and an English girl that was in our class this past week.  There are supposedly 16 points and we only made it to 5 before ‘having’ to stop and have a glass of wine.  It was nice seeing these somewhat hidden spots in Bologna and I took only a pair of pictures in spot#5.

This was in an art gallery (no, that is not my flash on the painting)

Here’s Eva, my Swedish roommate checking out the sweet mural on the ground in the art gallery.

After having a glass or two of wine, we went out to a little bar for a while and hung out there for a few hours.  Here is Reena, the girl from England, and me enjoying ourselves in this Bar.

Hm besides that, there is not too much else that I know to explain.  I’m enjoying my time here and I’m ready to make the most of the next 3 months here in Italy.  Once again, I need to say how thankful I am to have a family that can provide me with the opportunity to do something like this - as well as a God that allows me to have this incredible life.  Ok, so I’ll update again hopefully next weekend - and ya, until next time - God Bless!

30 January 2011 · Comments

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• Bologna
• Baseball
• MINE
• Bologna University
• Italian