Bologna

1/23/15 

Day 7

We woke up after a roommate fiasco and went to a mandatory meeting for our program which turned out to be really cool. Studying abroad is a lot like freshman year (everyone wants to make friends and no one knows where anything is yet) and this was no exception. The meeting was about how to get involved and I wanted to do everything. I really want to sit in on a class at the local university. I think it would be really cool to experience the format of a university class here. Also, there is a program where we can help teach English in a school and again, it would be fun to see what school is like here and observe the culture. I'd probably even learn a lot from listening to the kids speak Italian. Plus I love languages and education. The downside is that it's a once a week commitment and right now I have no class on Fridays so I can travel... If I got placed in a Friday class I'd cry. 

At the end of the meeting, I tried this weirdly delicious chocolate bar with crackers on it out of the vending machine.

I will definitely be getting fatter now that I have discovered its existence. After this, my friend asked me if I wanted to go to Bologna. Within like 2 hours, we were at the train station. 

Today we were actually traveling for the first time this semester! Luckily, our Italian friend came and helped us navigate the complexities of transportation in a foreign language. I learned a lot about trains but I probably couldn't handle the transfer on my own yet. 

When we got there, we were starving. Since Bologna is apparently the birthplace of ragu or something I don't normally eat, we obviously had to get it. And I actually liked it- so I guess that's saying something!

After that, we just wandered around the city and found ourselves in a couple different churches that were ridiculous. I could try to explain but I don't think I can. Instead: 

It sucks that I took all these pictures of amazing places and don't remember their names. Even worse, I turned on airplane mode to conserve my phone battery and I didn't know this, but that disables location services when you take a picture. I can't even look up where I took them. It might be just me, but it's so exciting to look at a map of photos you've taken and the places you've been to to take them. Thank god for Instagram at least because I've been trying to upload one picture from every different location. I can't wait for May, after our world travels, when hopefully my map of Europe is full of pins!

In our wanderings, we caught sight of a gelato shop and gravitated towards the sugar. We learned that all the places that pile up the brightly colored heaps intentionally to attract tourists aren't selling the best gelato. Instead of being enticed by the endless gelato rainbows, you walk away and look for "real" gelato. We tested out this advice and I can personally confirm. The place we went wasn't nearly as showy as the places near the tourism centers of Florence but it was the best gelato I've had yet by far. 

We wandered a little bit more and saw these two huge towers which you can climb if you don't get there 1 minute after the last appointment :( because of this, I might go back to Bologna- just to take pictures from the top of the tower... 

It was different and exciting to see a town that didn't specialize in tourism, but because of this, we didn't really have anything else to do (except get drinks) until our train left at 8:40.

I realized we're really lucky to be in Florence which always has something to do. There's so much to explore in this city- I've been here over a week and still haven't accomplished even a fraction of the things on my to do list. I haven't climbed the duomo, I haven't been to any museums (to see the David), I haven't seen the palaces or gone to the markets. Anyway, in Bologna, my friends wanted to go out for wine and even though i didn't completely train myself to acquire the taste over break- although I tried, I went along with it. The 5€ wine bought us a relaxing environment to hang out in and talk while we stayed warm so it was worth it. We left a little bit before our train so we wouldn't miss it and then relaxed on the way home. It's rare that I get a chance to sit and do nothing so the break was much appreciated.