That Awkward Moment In Italy.

Im sure this will be a blog about the many awkward moments I will have, along with some cute pictures

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I'm so excited to go to Poland tomorrow! I just have a lot to pack and get ready, not to mention its going to be 40 degrees when get land

[crave-the-creative]

"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies," from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, played using only water glasses.

well done. And quite ethereal.

[that-feminist-soprano-deactivat]

hOLY SHIT

[bookshop]

this is so beautiful and worth listening to even if you think you’ve heard this song a thousand times—ESPECIALLY if you think you’ve heard it a thousand times.

[amuseoffyre]

This gave me goosebumps of the good kind

[thenaebyrd777]

fuCKING HOW????

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I am sooo happy! My service learning went great. The Italian school system is completely different and more relaxed from our school system at home. So I walked into the high school and met my teacher, and she was very nice. Then she was telling me she didn't know who her class was because their school's class schedule changed pretty much every day, even though they have been in session for almost 6 week. 

The students I have all attend a specialized art school, so most of their hobbies are drawing, or sketching. They were all funny and really interested, so we spent most of the class period doing introductions because the teacher was getting to know the students and so was I. 

I mostly told them about myself, a little about Meredith, and my family. They spoke a little English, but I still had to speak slowly to them so they could understand it all. 

I opened up my Facebook so they could see my pictures and so I could tell them of my travels. I got complement on my hair, and one student asked if I knew Jay-Z. Overall it was great. 

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Service Learning

So included in our study abroad program, Meredith requires us to do a service learning project to give back to the community. All of us have been assigned schools and I have high school. So today I will meet the teacher of the class and hopefully meet the class I will be working with. I am not fully sure what today will entail, but I will most likely introduce myself to the class and tell where i'm from and some small things about myself. It should be interesting to see the differences in the school systems. 

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Random Thoughts

So... Since we just took midterms last week I realized I don't have as much time left as i thought :/ therefore, I am going to do a better job at posting more stuff. 

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A few pictures from Fall break

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Fall Break Already!?!?

Even though my fall break isn't over yet, I would just like to say it has been one of the most amazing ones iv'e had so far! We had a week long break to travel wherever our bank accounts would let us, so we decided to spend it down south, south of Italy that is. For the past few days we have spent time in Napoli, Sorrento, Pompeii ( the Italians only spell it with one "I") and Capri. These cities are all so amazing and beautiful in their own unique way. The people are friendly and willing to help you, and i have learned that a little goes a long way. Most of the people here are so used to tourists speaking English to then, so they are automatically excited to learn that we are studying here.  It does have its perks though. We have received so many free gifts and encouraging words from Native Italians since arriving over an month ago. It really is great to know that i not only have and amazing support system at home, but i have one here in Italy too!

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I love it when the older Italian people give us free stuff just for attempting to speak Italian to order!

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KIKI!!!! I miss you!! And Sam does too. Please don't get into too much trouble, ei; marriage, pregnancy, come back an alcoholic, or any other terrible things. ;P

awwww i miss y'all too :) dont get too corny without meeeeeeee!

[adventuresofanmcg-blog]

Hi, hope you're having a great time! From what you've seen of Sansepolcro so far, do you think it's a lively town/a place where you can meet new people? I've been offered to au pair there next summer, but I'm worried that it's quite isolated and that there's not really places to go out and meet people.. Do you think that's an inaccurate impression? I don't really know much about it at all, so any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Hey!

Sansepolcro is definitely full of people on the weekends. The locals are very friendly, even if you don't know Italian. I have made a few friends just from being here a little over a month, so i think it is absolutely doable. This town really does have everything you would ever need, but Arezzo and Anghiari, two towns near by are only a bus ticket away (which are usually 4 euro). I think if you are going to be an au pair the family you will be working for will know some people and you can network from there. Everyone knows everyone in Sansepolcro. Sorry, this was long but i hope it helps some, and i hope you take the job to expeience this wonderful part of Tuscany. I know ive fallen in love with this town already. 

[adventuresofanmcg-blog]

Off to Siena! Hopefully I can do some more shopping and buy some leather and cheese.

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Weekend Tuscan Adventure

This weekend we had the chance to go to the country side of Toscana. The area that we visited was Val d’Orcia, which consists of smaller cities and towns that most people imagine when they think of Tuscany. We first visited Montepulciano which is a beautiful city, on a hill, so yea we climbed that. This town is known for its wines and the main piazza is where they filmed Twilight New Moon! It wasn’t as big as I thought it would be, but we watched the movie just before we came for reference.  Yesterday we went to the most beautiful estate ever. It is named La Foce, which is also in Val d’Orcia and consisted of gardens and a great view overlooking the valley.

Today we went to Pienza and Monteciano. They are both known for their cheese and wines, which I can attest, are both amazing! Although they are both very small towns, the have some great little shops where I bought a leather wallet, and some cute postcards. Tomorrow we are going to the main city Siena, which was considered to be the capital of Tuscany, but Florence won. 

[adventuresofanmcg-blog]

That awkward moment in Italy: when you attempt to order apertivo in Italian, and the waitress tells you to just speak English, and you continue, which broken English....

what language do I even speak now... its a strange Spanish/Italian/English combo.

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That awkward moment in Italy when: You are at an "Italian Chinese" restaurant and this little kid, who speaks no English, starts belting out "On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons.

Yea, for some reason, Italians love singing/listening to American songs, even though i'm sure they don't know what they mean.   

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So... One thing no one ever tells you about traveling outside of America is that Netflix, Pandora, or Hulu doesn't work in Europe.....

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Random pictures of food and nature from Italy.

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August 29th-Day 3

Today was the first day of classes, so as one of our assignments we had to go on a silent walk around the town. It was very nice to hear all of the sounds, from aggressive Italian drivers, to birds chirping and children laughing on their last days of summer. I loved that we had a chance to slow down and really absorb what was going on around us. Today was also the first day of Italian class, which I can already tell it will be a lot of work, but I think it will be fun too. After class a few of us went for another walk ( walks tend to be very popular here) and we saw a street market. It was interesting to see antique items for sale that are often overlooked in America. Later we walked to one of the professors houses which was a 45 min walk and mostly up hill. The walk was worth it because the view of the country side was breath taking. We learned about the history of how Meredith came to Sansepolcro and we had great food. Speaking of food, everything tastes so good here! The pasta is incomparable to any thing we have in America, and Margahrita our chef is so great at her job!