playing catch-up, sorry kids.

Sorry, blogging is SUCH a chore. Hopefully this helps...

La Pievuccia (the local vineyard, about 2km from school).

After picking grapes, they let us help in the process.

Every Wednesday, the school takes field trips to surrounding cities (like Assisi).

One of the thousand sidewalk cafes we stopped to grab a drink this semester.

Madalyn running through the maze that is Villa Lante.

Fall Break in Venice, grabbing a beer on the Grand Canal.

Riding the ski lift up to Bolzano, in the Dolomites (the Italian Alps).

American students celebrating Halloween in a country that refuses its existence.

GROUP PHOTO!!! Our fall students.

the stuff of legends...

For the last almost two months (GASP!), we’ve been curious as to how we will be leaving our legacy at the Santa Chiara Study Center. We’re here for only a total of nine months, so its important that we make it count.

Revolutionize the place, we say. “Always leave a place better than you found it,” that’s what my Brownies troop leader said.

The next sequence of events happened so quickly and perfectly that Fate’s gracious intervention is undeniable. The kiddos here LOVE ping pong. Santa Chiara is pretty sparse - it used to be a convent so superfluous recreational amenities are not top priority. But we do have a ping pong room. And it is always busy. Last Sunday night, in conversation the idea that a ping pong tournament would be fun. On top of it all, it would be a crazy fundraiser for some new paddles - apparently the ten year old equipment we currently distribute isn’t conducive to strong play.

The two of us partnered with two CalPoly ping pong enthusiasts to form the official Great American Ping Pong Tournament Executive Board. Our first meeting was magical. We only had 36 hours to pull together one of the biggest operations this place has seen...maybe. (RC’s aren’t really given handbooks for social event-planning.) It couldn’t have been better, the ideas were flowing and we were seriously getting pumped up. We knew that there

were a few must-have’s for Tuesday night’s tournament:

1. AN AWE-INSPIRING OPENING CEREMONIES (we researched past Olympic productions for inspiration...and let me tell you it was pretty damn close to the real thing. Complete with the National Anthem sung by a student accompanied by Jimi Hendrix...and a confetti eruption with the last “home of the braaaave.”)
2. A DJ (A competent one, who would be able to maintain the enthusiasm level we expected.)
3. AN EPIC SPORTS ANNOUNCER (We needed someone who could promote the...
4. OFFICIAL SPONSORS (The bar we run, “In Bocca Al Lupo” became the Gold Sponsor.)
5. ADVERTISING STRATEGY (Which is where we were able to use our design degrees to come up with this fancy campaign flyer:

We didn’t have much time to pull off such an extravagant event. So we cleared our schedules immediately.

In 36 hours we rallied enough students to fill a 16-team double elimination bracket. Skill levels ranged from highly advanced to hadn’t touched a paddle in six years. We could not have expected the fanatic results that followed. People got REALLY into it. Team names were extremely creative, favorites being The Blazing Paddles and King Pong. Team uniforms, even, were outrageous - matching outfits, tights, and face paint were all involved. The crowd was passionate - imagine stadium seating in the Santa Chiara dining room using the old wooden tables and benches lying around. Chanting. Cheers. The Wave.

Long story short, The Great American Ping Pong Tournament is currently in Round Two, the next set of games commencing this Tuesday night. We are praying that the hype lasts and that more importantly, this legacy will carry on to the following years. Intercollegiate participation is a vital part of why this place is so successful. And Madalyn and I are so proud that we can help keep the tradition.

the only real italian we know...

SOPHIA

Sophia is going to university in Bologna, a larger city in northern Italy. At 21, she fluently speaks Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and (thank goodness) ENGLISH. As part of her studies, she is required to complete 100 hours of work as an intern at Santa Chiara. She is here everyday from 9 to 5:30, of which most of the time is spent teaching us Italian. We kindly reciprocate by teaching her about America. One of our first exchanges was about how we describe the tingling sensation in a limb as it “falling asleep.” She was stumped, how can a foot sleep?! She just exclaims “Formica!” meaning simply “Ants!!”

So from the beginning, it has been a constant eye-opening educational exchange. We talk about politics, history, but mostly pop-culture (apparently girl-talk transcends all borders). Our favorite afternoon has been spent enlightening Sophia on the American view of Italians, i.e. MTV’s “JERSEY SHORE” and the indescribable east-coast Guido. “Guido” is not an actual Italian word, as it literally translates to “I drive,” not “I make poor decisions on national television.” We used visual aids to better help her understand what we were saying. Bare chest. Hair gel. Bump-its. The word “gross” was used, which apparently she had never come across in her language studies at school. “What does this mean? Gross?” “Eww! Ick!” we tried. It wasn’t working. We needed something more concrete than onomatopoeias. Okay, gross can mean one of two things, Sophia: a) insects. b) men flaunting chest hair and pinky rings. “Eh! Caspita!” (“Oh! Gosh!”) She finally understood the word gross. Madalyn and I are so glad that we are able to teach her as much as she teaches us.

Sophia is beautiful, inside and out. And most upsetting, she is a HIT with the ladies in the kitchen. It was an instant favoritism. We’ve worked four weeks to get where we are and in one lunch she was talking about her future career and the happiness she’s found with her boyfriend of four years. The deepest conversation we’ve had with the cooks has been “Come imperato a cucinare?” (How did you learn to cook? It was answered with one, terse response: La mia madre. Oh, thanks. Good talk, ladies.)

But, honestly our italian has improved because of her. She’ll be leaving us soon, which kind of scares us. Who will answer the phone in the office for us?! The only people that call Santa Chiara are lightning-fast-speaking Italians with little patience for new learners. She is our resident Italian whom we depend on like a crutch. She spent all day Monday searching for tickets to the concerto di Elton John in Roma for me and our friend Marquesa. She had people on the phone all over the country looking for two more tickets to the sold-out event. No luck, but it wasn’t for lack of perseverance.

I hope she gets a Facebook so we can be friends forever. And so she has a place to use all the new vocabulary we’ve taught her like “JK”, “LOL”, and “Guidos.”

*hugs.

our co-workers

So basically all our pre Italy language studying did not get us very far. I think we have the vocabulary of 4 year olds. We come up with beautiful sentences like "I like work with you." and say "si, si, si" when actually we have no idea what they are asking us to do. We have become very dependent on hand gestures and pointing...I think i've really uped my charades skills. Regardless, we are quickly becoming friends (?) with the staff here.

Christina: She usually only works lunches and we probably spend the least amount of time with her. Even still we have think she is the fastest washer at Santa Chiara. We can also tell she is quite the jokster. I look forward to understanding the jokes someday.

Laura: Pronounced Louda. She tries the hardest to communicate with us. She knows some words in english like "wash, put, stop". These are very helpful. SHe told me last night that she thinks of herself as our Italian mom (I think that's what she was trying to say). Which is very sweet. Adaly (that's Italian for Haley) found out that she has one son and one daughter. The son is available and "very free" (one of her english phrases). Laura also likes to remind us that we are strong women and we don't need men to work here. Although it would be nice to have even one semi strong guy around on delivery days. She's one of our favorites.

Lydia: She is such a complicated woman (we think). The problem was that her reputation preceded her. We were told by Kelsia (Italian for Chelsea), the other RC, that Lydia is the less patient of the two cooks. She will not hesitate to tell you when you're doing something wrong or too slowly. The legend goes that one night a RC was not preforming up to Lydia standards and before her shift was over Lydia told her "Buono notte!" Meaning get out of my kitchen right now because you are the worst! So needless to say we were quite nervous when working with her for the first time. However she hasn't really lived up to that reputation yet. Yes she talks loudly and works quickly, but she still jokes around with us at the dinner table (that one time) and wants to have a good relationship with us. The Italian intern here, who speaks fluent english, told us not to be scared of her, and that Lydia wants to get to know us.

Guiliana: She is a typical Italian cook. She's very silly and jokes around alot in the kitchen. She makes us feel welcome and not like we are completely useless. To give you an example of her antics, on our first night working a dinner shift she locked Haley, Laura, and myself in the kitchen when she left. She was just on the other side of the door laughing at her joke. Me and Haley didn't quite understand what had happened because we were feverishly washing dishes, and all Laura told us was "Guiliana closed!" Every night in the kitchen with her is light-hearted, and the dinner conversation is always amusing. She has an infectiously little smile, her favorite thing to do is listen patiently as we try to spit out our next question, like "How many years you work here?" or "How many you have children?" We'd like nothing more than to pack her in our suitcase when we go home.

I'm looking forward to learning more about all these ladies, and I think we have many interesting dinner conversations to look forward to.

The entire kitchen staff with Lydia (far left).

And with Giuliana (third from the left).

going on a walkabout

Quick tour of town with our new friend and experienced RC, Chelsea. Have to be ready to give it to new students on Tuesday.

l'arivo (the arrival)

We knew we were in Italy when everything became difficult.

Surprise, the plane was late. Our freshly dispensed bancomat money quickly transferred into the hands of various transportation companies: a last-minute bag check that incurred an unexpected fee, an overpriced shuttle that only took us as far as the Termini train station, where we had to pay for two additional trains (one from Rome to Arezzo, and one from Arezzo to Castiglion Fiorentino). That’s THREE trains we had to, with superhuman strength, shot-put bags up onto the trains’ platforms. Madalyn wants everyone to know that her sternum is fine, but that the same cannot be said about her aging knees.

But then, we set eyes on the blue “Cast. Fno.” insignale (sign) and an angel, Sharon (a.k.a. “Boss”), welcomed us back home with open arms and empty trunk. Such a blessing not to have to haul all of our possessions up the hill to our new house at Santa Chiara. For those of you new to this blog or uninformed about what it is that Madalyn and I are doing this next semester, here’s the quick run-down:

We have been hired as Resident Coordinators at the Santa Chiara Student Center in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. It is a charming medieval hilltown in Tuscany, about an hour southeast of Florence. As an intern at the Center, we’re here as part of a team that hosts college students from across America who have chosen to study abroad in Italy. Most students who come here are Architecture majors, like us. Everyone starts trickling in on Tuesday, so for now it’s been a lot of training.

This is the view from our room...no, I am not joking.

Key to the map:

1: CASTIGLION'S SOCCER FIELD, close enough to hear the chants.

2: THE VALLEY

3: CASTELLO DI MONTECCHIO, castle on the horizon.

4: CHURCH OF THE CONSOLATION, built during the Renaissance.

First picture of Santa Chiara. We spend most of our days sitting in this courtyard.

how european do we look now?

To sum up our plane ride, it was cold and the blankets were too short. And the stewardess judged us right off the bat, deeming us too young/incapable of sitting in the exit row. She just didn't understand that we simply wanted the extra leg room. Oh, and we almost missed the flight. The entire plane had boarded before we looked up and realized that maybe that HAD called our section.

We started our second day in Amsterdam today. After 2 SleepyTimes and a solid 18 hours of sleep we were ready to go! Here are some observations:

1. We don't know how to say even the simplest phrases in dutch, like "hello" or "thank you".

2. The people here are so classy!

a. They don't eat sandwiches with their hands (like me).

b. They ride bikes in dresses and heels and don't even sweat.

c. They are healthy. For example while Haley and I were sitting at a cafe drinking beer and eating cheesy croissants we saw a girl ride by on her bike eating an apple.

3. The Dutch are tall.

4. While they value natural ventilation and light in their living spaces, NOT so much can be said about their bathrooms. We've nicknamed our 4 sq. foot bathroom "The Linoleum Cave," covered floor to ceiling in tan speckled linoleum. But it's clean, it being possible to literally Windex the entire space and all.

Today we plan to visit the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank's House. Since those are the only attractions we are aware of. We also plan on googleing more things to do.

I bought some lovely wooden tulips to remember our trip to the

flower market!

Our favorite flowers were the Dahlias!