Autumn is in the air, or should we say winter is in the air? because in the last week the daily high has dropped from mid seventies to low fifties, and it's cold! the smell of chestnuts roasting on an open fire (kid you not, in every piazza) and gently decomposing fallen leaves fills the streets and the mornings are sunny bright and crisp. It is a completely different Padova!
Loyal blog-readers i've let you down its been at least a month since my last post and i'm terribly sorry. Life here has been so incredibly full and busy that in my free moments (which are not many) I'm sleeping! but here I am finally, on that brisk tuesday night, ready to fill you in (as best as possible) on the last month that has just flown by.
I've been traveling almost every weekend. the weekend of 19-21 september our Boston University class went to Firenze. It was a little too hectic and touristy for my blood! (is that an expression we say? having written it, it seems wrong--what can i say, my english is falling to pieces...) Anyway, In Firenze we had the privilege to be taken around by BU which means going to museums, getting 'free' admission, and not having to make a long que. We visited La Galleria dell'Accademia and saw Michelangelo's Davide, which I had seen once before with my parents at age 11 and so this time it made much more of an impression ! what a masterpiece, truly. Whilst we were inside admiring Davide, we hear what sounds like millions of hammers on metal. It resembled pouring rain but much stronger... So we finally go outside and it turns out that there had been a brief hail storm! which seemed so out of time and place because mind you it was around 70 degrees! what a kick, to see all the streets covered in white hail-stones on a late summer afternoon.
Our second stop included la Basilica di Santa Croce, which was my favorite stop in Firenze, a church / museum that has the tombs of some of the most famous artists, literary figures, and musicians in history that either worked or lived in Firenze, including Michelangelo and Galileo. the energy inside that basilica was indescribable, we spent at least 2 hours in silence just walking around and taking it all in. It is a must in Firenze and a little less touristy (still touristy).
Lastly we visited La galleria degli Uffizi which i have to say is one of the most beautiful museums of art i've seen in my life. They have breathtaking collections of Renaissance masterpieces, including i capolavori di Giotto, Michelangelo, Raffaello, Caravaggio, e Botticelli (there are so many others but not being an art-history savvy girl those are the only ones i can pull out of my hat). Gli Uffizi were mind-blowing.
We also visited Palazzo Vecchio, Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, and a lot of other interesting things whose names i cant remember. it was an amazing weekend and aside from the hail storm we had wonderful weather. we stayed in a really lovely hostel where we met a lot of travelers from all over the place, it was quite a trip to sit in the little bar at our hostel and talk with guys from like 5 different countries, communicating in 50% english, 25% french, and 25% italian. the ability to communicate cross-culturally is magic. that feeling is what this experience is for and when the opportunity presents itself like it did at that hostel it feels literally like the best thing in the universe.
The next weekend i went back to Trani! Oh la Puglia you have my heart and soul. It was a mix of 'is this real' 'have three years really already passed' 'oh my god its so beautiful and i love all these people so much' 'wait, the food is exponentially better here' and 'i'm finally home again!'. it was bittersweet because i was only there for three days but knowing that my home and my family and friends are there and that I can return whenever the spirit moves me is such a magic feeling.
I was able for the first time to really hear the difference in pronunciation and the dialect differences of Puglia and Trani specifically after having lived in Padova in Veneto for a little over a month. Before, Italian was Italian, but my ear has adjusted to a certain level from which i can now detect regional differences both in colloquial speech and pronunciation in general. i guess i've begun to speak an italian a little more padovano!
The next weekend we did a day-trip to Venezia and did the Bacaro tour. I Bacari are little bars that are relatively inexpensive that offer little drinks (specifically small glasses of wine, prosecco, and spritz) along with little appetizers you can choose. much fun.
Then we had midterms so the following weekend was spent studying... or trying to study because the weather was so wonderful and La Fiera delle Parole was happening at Padova and I wanted to go out and listen to the authors, giornalists, and musicians that were speaking. It was really culturally enriching and quite a unique opportunity to go and see these people share their philosophies and inputs on life and on the literary/ cultural world.
Then we all went to Roma and it was amazing. I love that city! Granted it is touristy as well (like Firenze e Venezia) but it doesn't feel as suffocating. We toured the Colosseo, the Foro Romano, Pantheon, many churches, and i musei vaticani. The art collections that the vatican museums offer are so numerous and so beautiful that one could spend at least ten years exploring, analyzing, and appreciating from an artistic, cultural, and historical point of view. three hours was definitely insufficient.
Finally last weekend, I went to Firenze to visit Leda who now is studying Medicine at the University of Firenze. I hadn't seen her since I went to visit her in Canada in the spring of 2013 and so our sisterly reunion was greatly needed. She took me around Firenze with the perspective of someone who lives there and not as a tourist and I have to say that I liked the city much more. To actually hear italian in florence! It was just last weekend that the weather changed and we experienced quite a chilly night last saturday in the beautiful city of art.
Back in Padova now and academically things are really picking up, there is a lot on the Padova-study-abroad-student's plate at this point. Our courses at the BU academic center are going well and I'm learning phenomenal amounts of things... The literature class i'm following has presented me with works of prose that i probably would never have found to read in my life but am so grateful to have had read them because they have made me think and made me smile and made me ponder deeply what it means to be in the 'Italian Literature' canon and what it means to be an author in a language that is not your mother tongue. Of the authors we have read some of my favorites have been Carmine Abate, Helga Schneider, and Gezim Hajdari (who is a poet).
At the university of Padova i decided to study psychology. this was an undertaking to say the least! it is proving to be very challenging (principally because the course is conducted in italian, its a lecture with about 200 students, the subject matters aren't light easy and breezy, the terminology [vocabulary] is new to me, and the pace is extra-fast) but i'm managing and i'm finding it super interesting and stimulating.
I have become a volunteer for AFS Intercultura Centro Locale Padova! I realized that this would be an amazing opportunity to be a part of the community that was so fundamental to my first experience here in Italy and a way to meet like minded young people who have also studied in foreign places and thus have similar perspectives on the cruciality of becoming global as a generation. They are a lovely group here in Padova.
Currently feeling ridiculously grateful of my decision to remain in Padova for the entire year rather than for just a semester as i watch the semester wean to an end and realize just how short four months really are. A year really is needed for a language, at minimum. My italian is only so-so still, in terms of speaking... reading and understanding is more or less of second nature at this point and i catch myself on a regular basis eavesdropping on a conversation and giggling or thinking something ridiculous or making a harmless judgement on the people i'm overhearing only to realize afterwards that i was listening to a conversation in another language. it doesn't even seem like a foreign language anymore, it just seems like another language that at this point in my life has become a part of me and a part of my synapses.
may there be more to come. our brains ARE capable. language is, in my opinion, the best tool for existence, and it's all over this world and at our fingertips if we just reach out and try to grasp it with a little tug it will be in the palm of our hands and seeping into our essences becoming a part of us that can communicate with members of different cultures, different walks of life, different everything. it is what unites us as people.. just reach!
