The beach was great this weekend (not exactly the cliff side beach I was imagining, but a beautiful beach nontheless). Civitanova (where the beach is at) is a much larger city than Macerata. There is a lot of shopping and on Saturdays there is a massive market. I have never been to a warm beach or swam in the ocean. The water was sooo warm and salty! It was also odd bobbing along in the waves. Not to mention the amount of scantily clad Italians frolicking on the beach.

Civitanova

Sunday we went to a harvest festival. It was great fun watching traditional Italian dancing from back in history and then the now traditional Italian dancing. We also had an amazing dinner with fresh food from the farm-and I discoverd what REAL lasanga tastes like.

Harvest Festival

Monday we began our journey towards Venezia. It was much easier traveling with people who speak Italian. Venice is gorgeous!!! But I get motion sickness really easily though so the first few hours upon arrival were not very enjoyable. Actually most of the time there was not as much fun as I thought it would be. To get anywhere you have to go by ferry (for long distance) or foot. I was seasick a lot of the time there. Venice is also full of tourists which is really obnoxious and because of this things are about doubled in price in comparison to that in Macerata. We spent most of our time in the Biennale which consisted of contemporary art work. I was actually a little bit upset that this is the artwork we saw, because the states is full of contemporary art work and I was really looking forwards to seeing famous works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. We brought a sketchbook with us to Venice and were required to fill the entire thing with sketches from the Biennale and things in Venice in general. The weather was also continuously getting warmer but luckily (and this was a rarity) we had air conditioning in our hotel.

Venezia

Me on the balcony of Basilica di San Marco

Typical art from the Biennale

We got back on Thursday and Macerata finally feels like my home. I was so glad to be back in our apartment and in a place where I recognized things, places, and people.

On Saturday we went to Civitanova again. This was our first free weekend!!! Us girls ended up getting a hotel there and stayed the night. Civitanova really is a fun place. Filled with bountamous amounts of gelato flavors, warm sand and water, and shopping as far as the eye can see. I was also able to reach my family and boyfriend using the phone in the hotel (before departing the states I had purchased phone cards but in order to use them you have to use a land line phone. And the phone cards I bought did not work so I had to purchase one there-nontheless I was able to hear all my loved ones voices and this was such a relief).

-Jolene Johnson

The first time I arrived in Germany (where I was catching my connecting flight to Italy from) was when I noticed that I was the foreigner. Everyone around me was speaking in German and it all just sounded like gibberish. But the real culture shock happened when I landed in Bologna, Italy. At least in the German airport there were a lot of things in English. Here mostly everything was in Italian. The airport was super relaxed and security seemed very slim. I didn’t even have to go through customs-unlike when you land in the US. My first encounter with an Italian was when Sarah (my traveling partner) and I caught a bus to the train station. When we went to pay we didn’t have exact change and the bus driver was very confused. He was also a really crazy driver. Driving down the streets was gorgeous and surreal because it was exactly like the photos I had seen of Italy. Tall and narrow old buildings lined the street we were on. They were colorful with plants and laundry hanging outside different windows.

Getting to Macerata was such a struggle. Our flight from Washington DC to Munich, Germany was delayed 2 hrs which threw our entire journey off. Not only was it challenging figuring out the public transportation system but there was the language barrier. This was such a greater deal than I anticipated.

At the deserted train station…just hoping our train comes

We managed to get to our hotel in Macerata at 11:30pm (or should I say 23:30 because they use military time) thanks to the help of many kind people. It thundered in the night and poured rain all the next day…not really what I was anticipating summer in Italy to be. But luckily I packed a few warmer clothes and a rain jacket.

Rainy Italy

Once we met up with the two other girls in the program (Marissa and Kris) and our site director (Filiberto) though, things (including the weather) started to turn up. Although I am very homesick and due to this find it hard to eat. Wish my laptop hadn’t broke on the way over as well…but the internet access here is very slim so not like that would change anything. I am also having issues finding a phone so I can just say hello to my loved ones. At least we are in our apartment, have started classes, and are starting to get settled here.We have also been assigned tandem partners to better learn the language so I now have an instant friend. We have been on many tours of the town, but I am tired, jet lagged, home sick, and due to this have a detachment of interest in all the things we are seeing. This weekend we are going to the beach!

My Italian Family

So far I have learned that I am more independent than I thought, and more dependent than I thought. What I mean by this is that during all of the travelling I was able to figure out a lot of things and not afraid to try talking to people or asking people for help, which is something I have issues with back in the states-perhaps under pressure it forced me to do this? And being more dependent is in reference to how homesick I am feeling-and just within the first day I noticed it! During school in the states there are times when I go months without even talking to my family and yet here I severely miss them. Is it just the greater distance?

-Jolene Johnson