La Bella e La Bestia

I am the absolute worst at remembering to update this thing, so bear with me! Although a lot has happened since then (my family visiting and taking a trip to Florence), I had some time so wanted to update you about this before telling you about my week with the family :) I had an awesome chance to go see La Bella e La Bestia while in Rome, also known as Beauty and the Beast for those of you who couldn't figure it out ;)

Obviously super excited about
 La Bella e La Bestia

Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies; I like to think that I am Belle. Self-assured, always up for speaking my mind, confident, and a bit stubborn haha So obviously, I can relate to Belle a lot more than some of the other Disney princesses...Cinderella (seriously, can she do anything on her own) or Ariel (good thing she could make the prince fall in love with her when she couldn't even talk to him, that's a start to a wonderful relationship...). But, I'm getting away from my point: I LOVED watching La Bella e La Bestia.


Yes, it was in Italian so I didn't understand anything they said but knew the storyline already. You bet I sang along (in English) in my head to the songs. Of course, I still wish I was Belle. And surprisingly, Lumière (the candle) had a French accent, while speaking in Italian. I was impressed!


So maybe I didn't see an opera while in Italy, but I got to see one of my favorite Disney stories performed. Definitely worth the money and very little understanding of what was happening...I did catch ONE joke though, I was pretty impressed with myself :)


Here's a little idea of what I saw! The set was amazing, the costumes were amazing, it was ALL amazing!
La Bella e La Bestia

It's Like Living in an Alfred Hitchcock Movie

        Birds. EVERYWHERE. That's what I experience on my walk home from school on Tuesdays at 5 PM. The first time these birds showed up, which was about 2 weeks ago, I seriously thought Rome was about to experience an attack of birds. No one else seemed to be freaking out as much as I was but instead were calmly walking along with umbrellas; it wasn't raining. Yes, that's right, they have umbrellas to keep from getting hit from the massive amount of bird poop that inevitably gets everywhere...the sidewalk, cars, and some unlucky walkers. I was one of the unlucky ones that first day. Although I quickly got out my rain jacket and put it on as soon as I realized what was happening, I looked down and saw the unfortunate spot on my boot. Luckily they were my very cheap ones, so I was happy that it wasn't worse. 

Starlings Over the Tiber at dusk

        These birds are called Starlings. There are literally millions that follow the Tiber river up to Rome every evening right around 5 PM after feeding in the countryside. Watching these birds from safe inside a bus or building makes me appreciate the congregation of birds flying together in what looks like, as my mother described it, a lava lamp. But, it's a completely different story when I'm walking to and from class trying to dodge the bird poop. Starlings are a major problem for Rome because they threaten the preservation of monuments as well as making roads slippery and dangerous when their droppings mix with the rain. Even more dangerous events are possible, like a plane that was forced into emergency landing when a group of starlings got sucked into the jet engines earlier this month. Romans are trying to combat the prevalence of these birds by imitating a starling distress call to scare away the birds, which is helping but not making a significant impact. It is, however, costing a great deal to the city, 125,000 Euros per year to be exact. While the number seems to be down from the highest possibility of five million, it doesn't seem like the starlings will be going anywhere anytime soon. Our best hope is to avoid walking near the river when possible and always having an umbrella handy. Now, that was something I didn't expect to be dealing with on my study abroad experience! 

Unfortunate results of the Starlings. This is completely
standard to see on a daily basis.

Here is a great video showing the birds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFVAwWUgeCM&feature=player_embedded

Rome: Caput Mundi

There's a little over a month left of my study abroad experience. As I look back upon what I've done from the beginning, I'm blown away by all that I've been able to see and do. I am so blessed to have be given such a great opportunity to experience something that I will just about never have the ability to do again, thanks for financing this Dad :) 

I've realized that up until now, I've just given you a broad idea of all the places I've gone and things I've experienced but never gave much explanation about how I was feeling about all of this. So, I will attempt to sum up all the thoughts I've had on this semester so far. And, for those of you who really know me, I never really do much of this talking about myself in this way so excuse me for any rambling that I will inevitably do! Haha

I experienced culture shock pretty early on and believe me, it was a pretty bad case of it. A lot of my friends here are experiencing it now or just getting over it, but I’ve been there done that and moved on. A lot of things I hated during that time I now love: how different Italy is from home…McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King at the main tourist spots are  just about the only similarity, my apartment…it may be far from school and everything else, but I have a view of the Vatican FROM MY BALCONY, my living situation…still a struggle, really, our apartment is dirty 95% of the time but I’ve started to find alternatives, and missing my family and friends…still miss them but have found good friends here. I guess culture shock isn’t really something that can be explained, the closest thing I can think of is the scary first month of college when you’re getting used to everything new and are away from home for the first time, but exponentially worse because it’s somewhere that no one speaks your language and the culture is so different from your own. It was pretty awful at the time, which you can ask anyone who I talked to then, but I’m so much better now.

Now, I walk down the streets amazed that I am living here in this city, in this foreign country. I love that things are so different and always new. I can wander around Rome and get lost in the backstreets and cobblestone alleys. I don’t want to leave Rome with any regrets; I want to experience all that I can in this city. I’m trying to take in everything and actually learn something about myself and will definitely give you that summary once I finish this experience :) As a finish up the next month, I never want to forget how blessed I am to be in this place experiencing all kinds of new things. I love everything about Rome and will be so sad when I leave it.

Dublin

            When I think of Ireland, I imagine green grass, lots of open fields, and leprechauns. I might not have seen any leprechauns, but my first two thoughts were pretty spot on. I spent the weekend in Dublin but was able to go outside of the city to Northern Ireland to see the Malahide Castle and coastline. Ireland is breathtaking, and Dublin is a very cute little city. While weather in Ireland may be harsh and rainy, our weekend had almost perfect weather, and it only rained for a few hours the entire weekend! So, we were happy about that :)

          Ellyn and I left Rome late Friday morning and arrived in Dublin in the afternoon. Our flight was a little later than expected so we rushed to the hostel to get in as much as possible for that day. We arrived around what we thought was 3:45 but were told we couldn’t check in until 3 so were obviously very confused. After looking at my watch then looking at the clock, I realized that they were an hour behind Rome time, which was very exciting to feel like I had gained an extra hour in the day, even if it was a little dumb of me not to realize this before getting there. The hostel room was a six female room with it’s own bathroom, which I didn’t even realize was possible in a hostel.

          We headed straight to the Jameson distillery once we were put all of our things away. Instead of selling tickets for tours throughout the day, they sell tickets about 30 minutes before the each tour, so we bought our tickets then ventured around to get food. Ellyn and I had both been missing bagels, and they had bagels in Ireland so we were on the search. Luckily, right across from the Jameson distillery was a place where they sold bagel sandwiches (they don’t just sell bagels with cream cheese) so I was very happy. We finished and headed back inside in time for our tour. The tour was very informative about their whiskey, and I even got to taste test Jameson in comparison with Scotch and Jack Daniels. Didn’t really enjoy any of them, though! I am not a whiskey girl in the least. After the Jameson tour, we headed to O’Connell Street, which is a main street near the center of the city. We passed a movie theater with student tickets that only cost 6.50, so we knew what we would be doing that night (I know, I know very lame in terms of being in Dublin on a Friday night but who cares).

"Qualified Irish Whiskey Taster" Certificate
 at the Jameson distillery

          The next day we had planned to go to the western side of Ireland for a bus tour of the Cliffs of Moher, but there was a mix-up and we weren’t able to go. It ended up working out pretty well because it gave us more time in Dublin. After eating our free breakfast provided by the hostel (free food is key when you’re a broke college kid), we went to the Guinness Storehouse. The Guinness tour was self-guided, and I definitely lost interest pretty early. But, I did love seeing the ads and realized for the first time that the Guinness Book of World Records is Guinness as in the beer (never made that connection before and probably never would have otherwise). After the tour, I enjoyed a free beer (“free” as in I had to pay admission so not really free but whatever) in the Gravity Bar. It’s actually really awesome; the bar has windows all around it so you get a 360 degree view of Dublin. Since we were unable to go to the bus tour of the Cliffs of Moher, we instead decided to go to the northern coast of Ireland to see the Malahide Castle.

Ellyn and I enjoying our Guinness at the Gravity Bar.

          The Malahide Castle is breathtaking and surrounded by a beautiful, green park. Our bus tour included a tour of the castle but soon realized the inside was a lot less spectacular than the outside, so we left the tour and went exploring on our own. I could have spent all day in that park and was upset when we had to leave. That night we enjoyed a very Irish tradition, a pub-crawl. I was happy that I was able celebrate Halloween, which I didn’t realize before is not a big deal in other countries.

In front of the Malahide Castle

          On Sunday, we woke up early and checked out of our hostel then left to go on a search for more bagels! Since we had some time before our flight left we decided to do something which I guess is becoming a tradition on these trips outside of Italy, we went to Starbucks. The Starbucks was near the Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and Christchurch Cathedral so we hit up all those spots before heading back to catch a bus to the airport. On our way back we passed the Abbey Theatre, which was not impressive in the least. So unimpressive actually that I refused to take a picture of it. After getting Starbucks one last time in the airport, we headed back to Rome.

Today was a national holiday, All Saints Day, so there were no classes, which is always good because traveling takes a lot out of me!