Pictures

1:03 AM PADOVA. More to come! Click here.

Roma with the fam

Hey all--
It's Danny comin at you from Steve's apartment. We just got off of our train from Roma and we had a great time!!
Our flight was clear, and although it was very, very long, we managed alright. We proceeded to take a nap and meet Steve at our hotel.
Our hotel was perfect--a 5-10 minute walk to St. Peter's Basilica and we got 2 nice rooms. "Hotel Alimandi was a perfect location, and an authentic Italian family-run business--I highly recommend it."
-Jean, Italian Hotel Critic

We didn't do much the first day (Wednesday), but enjoyed a great dinner right across the street from the Pantheon.
Thursday morning brought a tour of the Vatican Museum, and a bypassing of the mile-long line. We met up with one of Steve's best friends from St. Joan, and he joined us for the tour. The Sistine Chapel was sistine, and everything was really just peachy. It is just mind-boggling to see everything, it was all so beautiful!!
The food is amazing and so is the gelato. I could live on magherita pizza and ciocolatto gelato, without ever getting bored at all.
Friday brought a tour of the Necropolis from ancient Rome, which was pretty interesting. We also saw the Stations of the Cross at the beautiful Colosseum. It was long, and not being able to understand any of it didn't contribute to the matter. Bill and I cut out a little early, but the Colosseum was still cool.
Saturday we visited the Spanish Steps and most of the piazzas. We could sit and eat under 70 degree weather, enjoying some nice accordian music (typical Italy, apparently). Then, came Mass with the Pope for the Easter Vigil at the Basilica. After finding some of our friends that we met at the Colosseum, we snuck in line with them, and an hour and a half later, we were in the Basilica. Finally, three hours later, the Pope came down the aisle. We could have touched him with a golf club, we were so close!!
Anyway, we are having a great time and can't wait to tell you all about it in person. Stay warm back in MI, we'll absorb some sunlight for you!!
Talk to you guys later!!

-Danny

(Another) Roman Holiday

12:30 AM - PADOVA- Hey all! Tomorrow (today) I am heading down to Rome to meet my Mom and brothers. I am really stoked. Also, I took my midterm today and scored a 28/30! Life is good. Hope all is well - contact me and let me know what's going on with you!

Uno studente italiano?

12:48 PADOVA - Hey all! After seven months I'm starting to feel like somewhat of an Italian student - even if that means I'm not really doing anything. These last couple of weeks I have had two classes at the University and one at the Study Center and when I try I can understand *almost* all that they are saying (with the help of some context clues). My two classes at the University are: Sociology of Religion I (Isam) and Sociology of the Communication of the Masses while my one at the Study Center is a comparative politics class focusing on the Italian politica. They are rather interesting.
Two weeks ago two friends from High School, Jess Parsh and Megan Irving made their way over here from Spain - they are studying in Sevilla - and in the weekend we did Padova, Verona and Venice and we celebrated Megan's 21st! I am getting to be a rather decent tour guide of the Veneto region so you better come soon before I'm gone (and then forget)! A week from today I will be in Rome waiting for my mother and brothers to arrive! I've done the tourist thing there a few times as well so we can ask them how I am as a tourguide I'm sure they will be my best critics.
Also, I have booked two trips for April (Morocco and Amsterdam) and found out that my sister will be able to come in May! Over all my life is pretty darn good. :-)
Yesterday a couple of us went to an Italian political discussion at a local bookstore as the American diplomats. It was a very intense experience and even though I know some stuff was lost in translation I felt we did a decent job representing the Red, White and Blue. This weekend I need to study a little bit because I have an exam on Tuesday :-O !
Write me an e-mail and let me know what's going on at home!

Spring Break Wolverine Style

12:03 PADOVA - Finally back from a great week of good times with good friends. After Berman came last week Saturday we made it to Rome on Sunday and met up with Lisa and Nadia for a pub crawl that night. Pub crawls are fun, however they are totally Americanized. The people running the show are mostly Americans and barely (if at all) know the language. The hostel we were staying at was putting on a pub crawl/night tour of Rome however they even spelled the main drink they were serving wrong! They spelled it PERSECO instead of Prosecco. It was kind of sad but I got over it. Pub crawl was still fun, and we got up quasi-early the next day and did my standard "Rome in a Day" trip. We hit the Vatican, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Jewish Ghetto, Colleseum in no particular order. Then we met up with Nadia's friend who is studying in Rome at this really nice restaurant where we had a nice dinner and some great wine. Tuesday came and Berm and I were off back to Padova. We made it in time for some spritz in the Piazza and then a dinner in the mensa (Italian cafeteria).
Berm and I took it easy that night and were off the next day to Verona to pick up Kristy and Liz from the airport. After a debacle trying to figure out where the airport was we made it in time to greet the girls and we came back to Padova for a pizza dinner with some of the Americans.
Wednesday night in the piazza was pretty crazy as usual and we ended up at the discoteque for a little bit of dancing. It was really nice to see Kristy :-)
Thursday was spent in Venice... it was beautiful weather and great company. Berman left Thursday night and Liz, Kristy and I were out to Paris Friday afternoon.
Arriviamo in Paris and we went to eat near the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Then we found a great gyro place and then a bar in the Latin quarter of Paris (student district).
Saturday we did Paris in a day. We started off at the Musée d'Orsay, made our way to the Louvre! and down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. We ate some crepes on the way and then made it to the Tour Eiffel where we saw a freestylin' footballer named Iya Traore who was fun to watch. Then we made it back to Notre Dame to see inside and then it started to rain so we grabbed some food, etc. and called it a day. Kristy and I went out to an Italian restaraunt for dinner and then we were off in the morning - she and Liz to Detroit and I to Milan.
Made it to my hotel in Milan after three hours in the Italian airport (they lost the bag I knew I shouldn't have checked) and walked around town with an older couple who showed me around the city. I got some Burger King! which I haven't had in a long time, saw a pretty sweet old castle with a moat and drawbridge and then made my way over to the Teatro dal Verme where I waited with some enthusiastic Dave Matthews fans for the much anticipated Dave and Tim show. Made some Milan friends and then retired around 1 because I had to be up at 7 to try and get to class (which I missed most of:-/ ). Oh well, it was a good time all around I can miss a little bit of class. THis week has been full of class and Megan and Jess are arriving tomorrow from Spain! So here we go again this weekend! Speaking of Norseman, Congrats to Billy-Boy and the boys' basketball team who won their district game the other night vs. Detroit Southeastern! Go Norsemen. Alright it's back to class, Have a good one!

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!