Martedi Grasso and a trip to the snow

10:40 PM Padova - Hey all! My buddy Berm just got in today we are taking it easy tonight as he is a little jet-lagged and tomorrow we are off to Rome so I thought I'd try to catch up...
A lot has happened over the past two weeks... last Monday I decided I wanted to go skiing in the Alps and that I was going to leave after our meeting the next day to go to Livigno to get some studying and skiing in. The next day before our meeting Carina said she wanted to go too so she went home to pack and I looked up how to get there and we left right after the meeting. Halfway there (after two trains and our first bus) we found out that a bus didn't go from Tirano to Livigno after a certain hour so following some advice we switched plans to Bormio and jumped on a bus from Tirano.
What a great decision.
On the busride there we asked a young guy named Marco where a cheap hotel was and he brought us to the "Piccolo Mondo" (small world) Hotel where we met Alessandro and his family who runs it. We went out and got a quick bite to eat and then hit the hay kind of early because tomorrow we were up and skiing!
Wednesday, skiied all day (Carina snowboarded) and then we went to the public baths afterwards. Those were pretty neat they had a water slide and some hot tubs so we were fine but we didn't stay there long we took off to find a place to eat. We were hungry so we asked the locals where a good place was for meat and the directed us to a little hole in the ground (literally) which looked pretty good from the menu. Not thinking ahead we had just come from the baths, our hair was wet, I was in my Granderson T-shirt with the numbers on the back and some sweatpants and tennies we decided to ask to be sweated when we realized that we were desperately out of place. You see, it was Valentines day and it seemed like everyone there was dressed to the max with their special someone and here we come rollin' in lookin' like a couple of goofballs. Liiiitle embarassing but we got over it and made it back to our hotel in time to catch a Karaoke marathon by this group of 50+ year olds from Rome. They entertained us for the rest of the night with Napolitan music and funny stories. Hilarious.
Thursday came and Carina wasn't feeling the ski-conditions so I took off to the slopes by myself while she took a hike with Alessandro. I met a Czech guy named Milan and skiied with him for a while along with a couple of native Bormio-ians(?). I skiied as long as I could and then hit the old time baths with Carina that evening. They were kind of expensive but were a lot cooler than the others as they had some ancient Roman baths and waterfalls etc. with a pretty good view of the mountains and the stars. Just what the doctor ordered, however my prof ordered me to read a book so I had to get back to that after the baths that night.
Friday came and we made our way back to Padova while standing the entire trip from Milan - Padova (about 2.5 hours) due to a packed train. I think it was a mixture of Carnevale in Venezia, people going home from work, and the major protest planned for the next day in Vicenza against the expansion of the US Military base there. It was nice however we met a bunch of cool people standing including a couple students from Mexico studying in France, a guy from Puglia, and a couple of professors from the University of Colorado who happen to be teaching astronomy at Padova this semester.
All in all the trip was a blast and I was able to meet some amazing people. I was very happy I went until I realized that I had a test to take in a couple days. Study. Study.
Test on Monday - went early and had to come back (I was number 119) took it and got a 28/30!
Pretty happy about that I celebrated for the next few nights compounding on an oncoming illness, and then spent most of Thursday nursing myself back to health and doing laundry and then cleaned on Friday to arrive at today when BERMAN CAME!
My train I was going to take to pick up Berman was 40 minutes late so naturally I was too but we found each other eventually and randomnly saw Grace on the busride home. Piccolo Mondo.
Ate a lot of food today, caught up with Mike and watched a couple movies. Tomorrow we are off to meet up with Lisa and Nadia from UofM in Rome and hope to have a good time. More on that to come...
See ya!

Carnevale!

5:48 PM Padova - Hey all! This weekend marked the beginning of the Carnevale in Venezia (and all around the world really) which culminates in Martedi Grasso (Fat Tuesday) on the 20th. Angela Theis (Above: center) and her friend Mary Ann came and visited from Rome for the weekend. They arrived in Venice on Friday afternoon and Angela (Giga) and I went to meet them for dinner. We had a nice dinner on Friday and came back and drank some tea and talked with Christina that night.
Saturday we woke up rather early and went around to some of the sights that Padova had to offer and then Angela and Mary Ann took off for Verona. They said it was packed full of people (because it is San Valentino's week) and they didn't get a chance to go see Juliet's balcony however they enjoyed the city all the same.
Sunday Dave, Angela, Mary Ann, Christina and I took off in the morning for Venice for the official opening of Carnevale. The trains were packed - not even enough standing room and we talked with a family who had been standing the whole time since Bologna. WHEN we arrived at Venice the whole crowd worked its way to St. Mark's square to see an Angel come down and bless the city. We were not able to get there in time but we were able to see a lot of other festivities while we were there. The costumes were beautiful and the atmosphere was great. I can't wait to go back!!
Today, I have been studying all day. I have a test next Monday and I'd like to be confident enough to take it Friday because Saturday I want to go back to Carnevale with my roommates. Other than that life is good, and I am just trying to decide who won this point in Ping Pong.
I just talked with my mom, as most of you know Danny has been sick and in and out of school for about a month now. They went to see another doctor today who took more bloodwork. They seem to think its a viral infection similar to the mumps or Mono. Get well little bro!
Alright I am off to study and eat. Keep me posted with what's going on back home! Miss you guys!
Stevo

It's about time, I know

3:00 PM Padova -
Hey friends and family, I’m excited to write this next post because there is so much to say there is no way I can get it all in. Well let’s see let’s start where I left off… In Budapest:
The Saturday we arrived in Budapest we made it to our hostel the girls went out for lunch with some people from the hostel and Dave and I went with our new found Australian friend Lachlan to the House of Terror a place previously occupied by the Nazi and Communist parties in which people who disagreed with their beliefs were executed. We saw the gallows and some powerful artifacts and videos in remembrance. After we got back to the hostel it was time for a dinner. We split up into two groups and the one I went to ended up going to a Greek restaurant with fire dancers and they did that Greek dance, I forget what it’s called right now. That was a lot of fun and really good food.
After that we ended up going to a Turkish bath indoors around 10 at night – (It was open till 2). We stayed for most of the night and then went back and chilled at the HomeMade Hostel, drank a little and SLEPT.
Sunday I woke up fairly early (11-ish) with Lachlan and the two of us hit the town to see as much as we could. We walked to St. Stephen’s Basilica, The Parliament Building (biggest on the continent) and the castle area. He was really cool and it was nice to just be two people we could get more places faster. Then we went for a beer and some goulash and waited for the others to return so we could hit up the Hungarian bath which was outdoors this time. That also was a lot of fun. That night we had a party at the hostel.
Monday I went to the Museum to see the Van Gogh exhibit they had which I really enjoyed and then we went caving under a mountain outside of the city. That was a great experience – it would’ve been a blast to be a little kid exploring a cave like that with a friend. The guide told us that people would hide in the caves during the World Wars when the city was being bombed.
That night we went to a typical Hungarian restaurant recommended in one of our friends’ book that was located pretty far outside the city. We told them we were coming and it took us an hour longer then we thought (we were the only people left in the place), but the waiter was very nice, though very sexist. I was proud of Laura for not saying anything and accepting the cultural differences.
Got up early Tuesday to take a walk of the city with a guide – some more castles, the Jewish ghetto, the school. Having a tour guide was awesome and we learned a lot thanks to her. Tuesday night - train home.
Wednesday morning arrive just in time for a 9:30 class. Newbies arrived. Wednesday evening class, went out to the piazza at night. The following two weeks have been spent studying for tests, watching movies, and getting to know some of the new kids. There are now 71 American students in Padova between our program and the Boston program. Last Wednesday the piazza was full of Americans… it was crazy!
This past weekend I had some people over here and that was fun, but we got into a little trouble for being too loud sooo… no more parties here :-( Ok I think that's enough for now, I'll get better when more interesting stuff happens. Later!