Hello Everyone!
This morning I got up at 8:30 to get on a bus across town to the elementary school that I help out at every Tuesday at 10:30-12. I basically teach my kids (I have 5th grade!) English with the help of the teacher there. It sucks to get out of my warm comfortable bed on my days off, but once I am done with my class, I feel so good afterwards! Those kids are so adorable and so smart too! My first couple "lessons" were so easy for them. They start learning English right away, so they grow up learning to be bilingual which is pretty cool.
I usually make worksheets for them to fill out/draw on with fill in the blanks and pictures. Today, I drew out a picture on a sheet of different people doing different things and they had to make sentences themselves in the present perfect tense about what is going on. I have to say that I am usually not a perfectionist about the mini sketches that I do for these worksheets, but every time I hand one out, the kids always shower me with "Che bello!" and such in admiration at my ability to sketch little things on a scrap of paper or on the chalkboard. It's pretty cool. I really love that part of my week! Photos to come. I never thought I would have to deal with "permission slips" ever again, but I need to make ones to take photos there. lol.
Thanks for reading!
<3
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
SPAIN_ granada.barcelona.valencia
Spain was simply amazing. I was only there for about 5 days during this past break but I know I have to go back sometime in my life. I went to Granada, Barcelona, and Valencia, but I could have easily done a whole month traveling around Spain. I still need to go to Cordoba, (so pissed I didn't get to see the mosque) Madrid, and Seville. While in Granada, I met up with my friends who had gotten there earlier. I flew into Granada from Milan. I grabbed a bite to eat quickly because things were going to close around 4ish for their siesta. We then went out shopping a bit and walking around to see the town. Later that night, we went out with some friends of friends who just got there 2 weeks before to start their study abroad program. They took us out for tapas which quickly became my new way to do dinner! You basically order a drink, and they make you a random appetizer to go with it. We stuck with sangria as drinks for the night (except for vino tinto- similar but just wine and lemonade mixed-- super good!) and had ranging foods from fries and meatballs covered in meat sauce, ham sandwiches and fries, and lemon-hummus on baguette slices. Good stuff. Next morning we visited the Alhambra, which was amazing, but I think a little too hyped up by people who have gone before. The detail in every wall and arch is amazing though. For sure something to check out. We also got really lucky with lines and crowds- booking our tickets day before and walking right up and in.
After Granada, we flew to Barcelona for 2 nights. The first night we were pretty worn our from traveling and everything, so we found an AMAZING place to sit down and eat and drink. It was pretty cool because we had a beer tap in the middle of our table! There is a screen there showing how many liters your table has dispensed. This was an amazing invention- and smart too because you don't have to wait for the waitress to have another drink. The food here was amazing!- Patatas Bravas and assorted Bocadillos. So amazing, in fact, that I found the recipe for the sauce for Patatas Bravas, and I am going to go home and make it tonight. :) The next morning, we did everything Gaudi! Parc Guell, Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, etc. After touring the city, we had dinner at a random little place with tapas and amazing Paella! Ryan and I did the Picasso Museum in the morning which was pretty cool, but I couldn't help but notice no really famous paintings he has done were housed there, but a cool collection nonetheless including some earlier works of his.
Valencia was smaller than Barcelona, and a nice break from the hectic city pace. We got there at night, and Jen and I toured around a bit to see the older part of town. We had Mexican food- a staple of my everyday life that is lacking so much as you can tell from my title. The burritos were really good, but still not the same as usual. Last morning there, we headed to Calatrava's arts center consisting of multiple amazing buildings in one location. We visited the Aquarium which was multiple small buildings that went underground to each exhibit. Of all the places I went, that one was my favorite of the whole trip! His architecture is so amazingly beautiful, but yet still functional. Pretty sweet trip! Had a blast- can't wait for the next one!
After Granada, we flew to Barcelona for 2 nights. The first night we were pretty worn our from traveling and everything, so we found an AMAZING place to sit down and eat and drink. It was pretty cool because we had a beer tap in the middle of our table! There is a screen there showing how many liters your table has dispensed. This was an amazing invention- and smart too because you don't have to wait for the waitress to have another drink. The food here was amazing!- Patatas Bravas and assorted Bocadillos. So amazing, in fact, that I found the recipe for the sauce for Patatas Bravas, and I am going to go home and make it tonight. :) The next morning, we did everything Gaudi! Parc Guell, Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, etc. After touring the city, we had dinner at a random little place with tapas and amazing Paella! Ryan and I did the Picasso Museum in the morning which was pretty cool, but I couldn't help but notice no really famous paintings he has done were housed there, but a cool collection nonetheless including some earlier works of his.
Valencia was smaller than Barcelona, and a nice break from the hectic city pace. We got there at night, and Jen and I toured around a bit to see the older part of town. We had Mexican food- a staple of my everyday life that is lacking so much as you can tell from my title. The burritos were really good, but still not the same as usual. Last morning there, we headed to Calatrava's arts center consisting of multiple amazing buildings in one location. We visited the Aquarium which was multiple small buildings that went underground to each exhibit. Of all the places I went, that one was my favorite of the whole trip! His architecture is so amazingly beautiful, but yet still functional. Pretty sweet trip! Had a blast- can't wait for the next one!
Beginning Halfway Through
Well everyone, I have been in Italy for about 5 months now, and it is only now, when I am sitting in studio waiting for my new computer to charge so I can upload some photos to facebook, that I have ultimately decided to start my own blog- an action only done because my sister, Kelly, has beat me to it a week into her study abroad in Australia. So therefore, I thought it was about time I start mine since I am so terrible at sitting down and writing large mass e-mails out to everyone back home. You can just follow this blog now and not have to be bombarded by all the e-mails that I would have written just to let you know that I have found a decent burrito place on a little street in Valencia, Spain.
So yeah, here goes.
I got to Florence, Italy on August 27th 2009. I have lived here for about 5.5 months, and it has been the most amazing experience that I have ever had, although that's exactly what you expect someone like me to say. In my opinion, it should be mandatory for people to study somewhere else, especially when they are younger... there are more things to do, and cheaper prices to pay. So far in Italy I have visited: Rome, Florence, Padova, Mantova, Vicenza, Verona, Venice, Milan, Genoa, San Gimignano, Volterra, Lucca, Vada, Bologna, and others, but I just can't think of them at the moment. Outside of Itlay, I have visited Bern, Paris, London, Galway, Sligo, Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Granada, and Valencia.
It seems like a lot of traveling, but I don't feel like I have traveled enough over the past months here. I got crazy freaked out at the end of my Christmas Break vacation from bern, paris, london, galway, sligo, and rome because at that point, it was the halfway mark of my entire stay here in Italy. I had barely gone to anywhere in the whole of Europe! There are just so many places to see, I went on a booking frenzy making illustrator calendars color coding all weekends booked, tentative, and free filling it with travel plans.
Today is my first day back from the semester break. I had an 8 week pre-semester load of italian and art classes to get used to the language here. After that, our first semester was all architecture, Florentine Architecture History, and Italian grammer and reading and conversation class. Our studio projects were smaller than I am used to, but we did 2 in one semester, and this semester will be one whole long project that I will find out about tonight. The last 2 projects were a new entrance to the University of Florence's Library, and a new exit for the Uffizi Gallery.
I guess that's it for now about what I have been up to so far. Plenty more to come about recent trips I have made to catch up!
<3 Erin
So yeah, here goes.
I got to Florence, Italy on August 27th 2009. I have lived here for about 5.5 months, and it has been the most amazing experience that I have ever had, although that's exactly what you expect someone like me to say. In my opinion, it should be mandatory for people to study somewhere else, especially when they are younger... there are more things to do, and cheaper prices to pay. So far in Italy I have visited: Rome, Florence, Padova, Mantova, Vicenza, Verona, Venice, Milan, Genoa, San Gimignano, Volterra, Lucca, Vada, Bologna, and others, but I just can't think of them at the moment. Outside of Itlay, I have visited Bern, Paris, London, Galway, Sligo, Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Granada, and Valencia.
It seems like a lot of traveling, but I don't feel like I have traveled enough over the past months here. I got crazy freaked out at the end of my Christmas Break vacation from bern, paris, london, galway, sligo, and rome because at that point, it was the halfway mark of my entire stay here in Italy. I had barely gone to anywhere in the whole of Europe! There are just so many places to see, I went on a booking frenzy making illustrator calendars color coding all weekends booked, tentative, and free filling it with travel plans.
Today is my first day back from the semester break. I had an 8 week pre-semester load of italian and art classes to get used to the language here. After that, our first semester was all architecture, Florentine Architecture History, and Italian grammer and reading and conversation class. Our studio projects were smaller than I am used to, but we did 2 in one semester, and this semester will be one whole long project that I will find out about tonight. The last 2 projects were a new entrance to the University of Florence's Library, and a new exit for the Uffizi Gallery.
I guess that's it for now about what I have been up to so far. Plenty more to come about recent trips I have made to catch up!
<3 Erin
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