Settling In

Now that I've been here over a week (I say that because I don't have a good guess how long it's been) I'm starting to get settled in and get comfortable.

Classes have been going well, not much work yet just some readings which have been pretty interesting.

I've been spending a lot of time planning trips, so far the progress is:
Friend studying in Ireland coming to visit the last weekend of Oct.
Going to Barcelona for 5 nights (Thurs-Tues) the week before that.
Still working on finding my way to Dresden to stay with relatives, Dublin, and the Napoli area.

This past Saturday me and a couple people went on a spontaneous day trip to Parma which was great.  Really nice city with great food (originators of prosciutto and, of course, Parmesan cheese).  After eating we were hanging out in a bar trying out grappa, talking to the bartender who mentioned the Parma soccer team had a game that night against Fiorentina (Florence).  We decided to go, which turned out to be a great decision.  15 euro for tickets, good seats, and turned out to be a great game (Parma scored to get the tie in the 90th minute, place went nuts). 

I don't think I have anything else to talk about so I'm just going to throw some random pictures down below (mostly from Bosnia/Croatia that people hadn't uploaded yet but are cool).

Cruise in Croatia

Parma Game

Makarska Beach

Streets of Parma

Diocletian's Palace

The Balkans

So yesterday we got back from our trip through the Balkans and I'll try to give a brief overview of how that went:

Note:  I tried to imbed the pictures where they applied but that was proving impossible so I threw them all at the bottom with captions so just look down there.

We left Bologna 10 days ago and took a train to the port city Ancona where we took an overnight ferry to Split, Croatia.  We spent a couple hours in Split which is a beautiful city right on the beach and got a tour of Roman Emperor Diocletian's palace which is one of the most complete and unaltered Roman palaces.

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After spending the day in Split and having lunch we took a train to Makarska, Croatia which was my favorite stop on the trip.  Makarska is a beach town and the place we stayed was sandwiched between huge mountains about a quarter mile to our right, and really nice beaches about a quarter mile to our left.  We spent two days here and the weather was about 90 and sunny both days.  For the entire trip breakfast and dinner was provided at really good restaurants and the seafood in Makarska was great (director also bought as much wine and beer as we wanted).  We also went on a little full-day cruise in Makarska which cost about 30 euro for all you can eat fresh fish, pasta, beer, and wine and stopped at some beautiful Croatian Islands.  The best was Brac where we went to the beach in Zlatni Rat in Bol which was the nicest beach I've ever seen.

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After Makarska we took the bus up to Imotski, Croatia where the director has a close friend who let us stay in his huge beautiful house on the mountain top overlooking blue lake (a swimming lake at the pit of a huge mountain) and about a half mile from Red Lake which was impressive.  The guy we stayed with was nice and had some very radical politcal views which were fun talking to him about (libertarian who hates the government after working for the CIA in Iraq and a number of Croatian government agencies).  Also got to see the grave site for the God of the Sun from Illyrian times which was cool because of the impressive architectural and astrological knowledge it took to build and coordinate with the summer solstice/tombs of other Gods.

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From Imotski we went to Mostar, Bosnia.  On the way we stopped in Medjugorje which was interesting but not nearly as cool stopping at these amazing waterfalls we swam in after.  The old part of Mostar the city was really nice, the rest not so much.  Got to see Stari Most which was really nice.  The next day we met with the director of La Strada which was great to hear about there work and the huge problem that human trafficking remains in the area and how all the ring-leaders are in the politicians pockets.


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Our final stop was Sarajevo which was a really vibrant city and we met with survivors and activists for remembrance of the Srebrenica massacre which was emotional and really informative.  We also met with the International Commission on Missing Persons who do amazing work and showed us how they work from the ground up (from the science and forensics to public relations etc.). 

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Now back in Bologna classes start tomorrow (for most people).  I lucked out and got Mondays AND Fridays off.  I have a little reading to do for Art History that I'll do tomorrow.  Besides art History I am in a Humanities/Social Justice class, Italian, and an Italian Literature class.  Yesterday we went to a pub and watched some soccer and are about to do the same seeing as Bologna v. Roma is about to start.  Today I had time to explore the dorm and got a chance to go the gym and do laundry both of which are about 10 steps away from my room. Will give more updates on the trip as interesting stuff happens.


 Pictures:

Waterfalls in Bosnia

Waterfalls in Bosnia

 

Red Lake

View off bridge in Mostar

Diocletian's Palace

Beach in Makarska

Croatian Islands off Cruise

Blue Lake

More from Cruise

View of Croatia from tomb in Imotski

Part of Diocletian's Palace

Bridge in Mostar

More from Makarska

Zlatini Rat

More from Cruise

Island of Jesla during Cruise

Our group after swimming

Not Spain

As you know I'm in Italy not Spain, but I'm sticking with this because who needs 2 blogs or even 1 for that matter.

It's currently 8:30 A.M. the morning after I got here.  We have to go to the post office in in like 15 minutes to get our "permission to stay" (because the visa is only good for a couple weeks) so I thought I'd check in.

Yesterday I got here at about 3 and right after getting to the room went on a walking tour of the city with one of the professors (an Italian native) and a student on the trip who also came last year.  It seems like a really cool city with a lot to do.  We then had a brief orientation where we talked about the classes and trips but we really just brushed over everything because the director realized how tired we all were.

After that they took us out and bought as food at a pizzeria where we sat for a couple hours drinking wine and eating pizza (covered in Prosciutto) which was great.  After dinner I was exhausted so I was asleep by 11.
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Now it's 12:30:
The room is a triple but its very big and the roommates are cool.

I just found out my classes which are Art History, Literature, and Italian 101/102 but I think I'm going to drop Art history for this documentary-making class where we'll be following around this Moroccan Hip-Hop group.

Just got back from the post office to fill out a bunch of forms to allow us to stay longer than a normal visa allows (cost me another 150 euro).  Before and after we stopped for cappuchino.

Tomorrow we leave for the Balkans around 12:30 and since I didn't go out last night after dinner that's the plan tonight.  You probably won't hear much from me until after the Balkans but I'll check in then.