Verona / Venice

I just got back yesterday from my trip to Verona and Venice. I stayed with my friend Erin who is studying with a group of 50 University of Illinois students. They have an awesome program. They take classes in Italian history, art (they draw and paint), and food (they cook). Yes it is official I think they have the easiest curriculum ever. They also have a program director named Claudio and he plans weekend trips for all of them. Everywhere we went people knew him, and his trips are awesome, I was lucky enough to attend his trip to Venice.

The entire group has two motto's that I kept hearing everyone say. First that "this is not real life". All this means is "this is so surreal". The second motto is "my life is a series of miscommunications". I would have to say that I completely lived both these mottos for the 3 days I was there.

I found myself saying "this is not real life" when the following happened...

- Erin's crazy landlord put all my belongings in a cardboard box, remade both our beds differently, and she threw away the ziplock back my tolitries were inside of, leaving its contents on the counter. I also woke up in the middle of the night, at 4am, with her standing in the dark in our room, she was presumably sleepwalking (hopefully).

- At our lunch for the Venice trip we had a 4 course meal, Compliments of Claudio the program director. The first dish was a pasta with three choices, lasagna, pesto, and black squid. Expecting spaghetti with squid I ordered the black squid. 3 bites in I was informed the sauce that makes it black is simply the ink from the squid. After getting over my initial disgust I ate the rest and actually liked it (kindof).

- When we went to catch the bus boat going back to the train station in Venice we were running a bit late. Claudio informed us on the way we'd need to run once we docked. so as soon as the doors opened 54 American Students were running and weaving down the streets of Venice to catch our train. It was hilarious to hear people yelling at us in Italian as we all went flying by. One of the girls took a video of it, I'll try and get it up on here.

- After celebrating one of Erin's roommates 21st birthdays my first night there, I woke up (with a slight headache) to the option of either having a mimosa or Baileys and Coffee for breakfast. This was the beginning of Verona's version of Unofficial St. Patricks day (a mimick of a holiday celebrated at U of I). It was a long day.

- I took a train to Bergamo, the city I flew back out of, where I needed to catch a bus to the airport. I walked out of the station only to see that there was a parade in the city that day and the entire street was closed off. There were 50-60 floats that I could see all setting up right where the bus I needed to take was supposed to come. They included but was not limited to Spiderman, Alladin, Wild West with a cow, and clowns on bicycles. They were all setting up their floats, and grilling out and drinking as they did so, apparently drinking and driving floats is not illegal. They were also all pumping music so I was rocking out to Lady Gaga and Akon as I was trying to read the map to find the next bust stop. This would have been a really cool experience if I wasn't alone and worried about catching my flight.

The next motto, "my life is a series of miscommunications"

-After landing I had to take a train to Verona. I knew the one at 12:05 was going to be 18 euro whereas the one at 12:25 was only 8. So when I ordered and he gave me the 18 euro ticket I tried to explain and get it changed. Eventually I just gave up and gave him a 20.

-At McDonalds I ordered a number "three", asked for it to be supersided or "grandi", and then asked for a coke with it. I then got "3, Large, Cokes" for 7.20 Euro. I tried explaining that wasn't what I wanted but eventually gave up and sat down, drinking 3 cokes for lunch, alone.

- Attempting to talk to Erin's Landlord, who knew I didn't speak Italian, but continued to try to talk to me without slowing down or dumbing her conversation down was just one big failure.

-Eventually I learned my lesson and heavily relied on Erin's friends to order and communicate for me. However, I'm sure there will be plenty more "miscommuncations" when the Rooks hit Italy in 2 weeks.

It was a great weekend, I owe Erin Leahy a big Gratzie