Is this Art?!

Yesterday I took advantage of all french museums being free on the first sunday of the month and dragged myself across town to the museum of contemporary art in Toulouse - 'Les Abattoirs'. I have never felt I've been able to really 'understand' art as I feel I should however I do appreciate it's importance in culture and will always take time to visit new art galleries and see new exhibitions...maybe in the hope that one day all art will suddenly start to speak to me - who knows.

My interest for contemporary art was sparked when I visited the museum of contemporary art in Bologna on a guided tour and when explained to me, I felt I could understand the works much more. In Toulouse, I also partook in a guided tour of the museum and was taken through the joys of Georges Matthieu* and Sigmar Polke (the german equivalent of Andy Warhol). At the end of the tour we were met with a big, white room containing three pianos and a drum kit. The pianos were connected to a small windmill outside and so would move when it became windy outside (often crashing into each other) while the tap in the ceiling would release water onto the drums when the neurons in the air become particularly active (don't quite me on the scientific part of this). So a very cool idea and fun for a few minutes but is it art...? I wasn't completely convinced.

*I can't help but include a quick side note about Georges Matthieu.

He was an incredibly prolific artist, especially during 1950's and was considered to be the father of lyric abstraction (which broadly refers to modern painting after the war). When painting, he would have someone next to him noting, minute by minute, everything single thing he did - the kind of paint he used, how he threw it on the canvas and how much he used etc. I also questioned his painting really being 'art' however when the tour guide explained how the canvas (produced in exactly1h 53m) represented the Battle of Hastings and proceeded to take us on a ten minute journey of how the different parts of the canvas represented different parts of the battle I was mesmerised and completely convinced.

In other news, during a trip to Bordeaux a few weeks ago I experienced hundreds of french people having oysters and champagne at 10am on a Sunday morning. It's not the first thing I think of having when I wake up on a sunday morning - I'm more of a tea and crumpets kind of girl - however I have vowed to try it in the next week or two. (My friend who visited me in Toulouse refused to embrace the french custom however I have since managed to convince someone else to try it with me - I can't wait).

I realise I haven't done a blog post since I just arrived here so I would like to share a few interesting differences I have picked up on between France and Italy (and England).

The bus drivers are really really really nice here! They always wait if you're running towards the bus or banging on the door as they are about to drive off and even if they're stopped at the traffic lights and you're really desperate. They say 'bonjour' and 'au revoir' to everyone and everyone replies with a 'bonjour' and 'merci'. On a daily basis I also see people ask the driver a quick question and end up chatting with them all the way until their stop.

Recently promised pasta for dinner, my mouth watered as it recalled the tastes of fresh parsley, tomatoes, garlic, onions and maybe some feta which formed the delicate pasta sauces I became accustomed to while in Italy and I hungrily watched the clock until dinner time. Dinner time arrived and I was met with a mush of overcooked pasta, watery tomatoes and soggy onions. Not to be repeated.

Lastly, while Italy is absolutely beautiful and there is history, cultural, music, art and beautiful architecture. During my time there I found that it felt as if was enough for people there or they no longer felt the love and attachment to the country that they once had and so there was little motivation or determination to create even more beautiful yet more modern art, culture, music, and beautiful architecture.Toulouse isn't the most beautiful city I've been to or lived in by any means - there are beautiful churches like any city but nothing like places in Italy (or dare I say it, Bristol) - however, there is constantly something new and interesting going on. There are always to plays to see, new/old films to watch, new culture festivals to go to, new live music to listen to and new exhibitions to see...week in, week out. There are hundreds of student events and the number of different types of really good food establishments is truly impressive.

Living in Italy is like living in a gentle dream from many years ago - it's magical and romantic but it doesn't seem quite real. Living in Toulouse is living a life which is constantly moving forward and I'm struggling to keep up with the pace but I want to try so I'm going to start running.

A la prochaine,

Bisous,

XX

cute little house on my way to work

student night at the museum...at my favourite museum - musée des  augustins

The Battle of Hastings

The best way to learn a language is to fall in love.

I present to you a more insightful and pensive blog post as opposed to my usual ramblings of the activities which I deem to be worthy enough of recounting to my loyal readers, you have been warned.

My boss told me that the best way to learn a language is to fall in love. I think it's safe to say that my mother's english has certainly improved a great deal since she met my father and my boss is from Columbia but married a french man 20 years ago and her french is now perfect - so those are two good examples of her statement being true. This statement - which I heard at my first day of work - fueled a variety of different thoughts which I refer back to when thinking about my progress in language learning and my greediness to learn as many as possible without worrying about completely mastering one.

Firstly, do I even need to learn other languages? The majority of people that I meet from mainland european countries speak english - not fluently by any means - but enough that they want to benefit from an english person and carry out the whole conversation in that language. The other point is that I could easily decide to stay in England in my comfortable bubble and not worry about needing to learn languages to meet other people or understand foreign films/books (as are the wonders of subtitles and google translate) - there are already lots of interesting people in England, many of which I haven't met and I could bide my time staying there and just enjoying the occasional holidays in non english-speaking countries with citizens who can speak english already anyway. A very dear spanish friend from Italy asked why he needed to learn Italian when he would return back to Spain where everyone spoke spanish and he would live and work there. Fair enough.

Though this is the cynical side of me which appears when I see the hundreds, even thousands, of pounds/euros we spend on language learning and the difficulty of truly mastering a foreign language when you are over the age of about 10 - hmmm, maybe you really do need to fall in love to learn a language. It's cheaper and probably more enjoyable than sitting at home pouring over grammar books and useless lists of vocabulary with building amounts of frustration.

I initially never believed in "Culture Shock" - as my university puts it.

'Culture shock is caused by the stress of being in a new culture...a person with culture shock may experience some of the following symptoms: irritability, headaches or stomach aches, excessive concern with health, easily tired, confusion, anger, anxiety, and lowered work performance.'

I always thought of myself as flexible and easily adaptable but I have since learned that when I'm happy in one place and forced to move to another place full of the unknown and uncertainty, I'm much less so. 

I came across this realisation when I was asking myself why I had left a country full of people so relaxed who focused more on the time of their next coffee and what they would have for dinner that night than paperwork and rules, to a country full of people who seem to actively search for ways to create more paperwork for everyone involved. I had been to three different phone shops a total of 9 times over the space of seven days before I eventually found myself with a working french number and my regular stop-in at the bank every morning on my way to work for the first week or two meant that they stopped even bothering to ask my name and had all my details already up and ready.  This definitely gave me at least two or three of the symptoms listed above.

It also seems that the buses aren't "free" here as they are in Italy... meaning that everyone here always honestly scans their ticket upon boarding (this completely caught me off guard when I arrived) while in Italy you have the fun of keeping a suspicious eye on everyone on the bus to look out for someone who might be hiding a ticket machine under their jacket and waiting to catch you just after the next stop. 

Other than that, french bread is so much better - and in constant supply at the house of the family with whom I'm living. Though my body has had to adjust to the copious amounts of meat which seem to be a given at every meal - I was actually treated to one pasta, meatless dish which made me realise that french people don't know how to cook pasta. It's something that should be left to the Italians...or people who have had the fortune to learn from fellow Italians...I miss the fresh basil and parsley always in the fridge and used in the majority of meals and the simplicity of the dishes which could be whipped up in a matter of minutes.

However, I do have my security blanket which I fall back on in every new country. Playing in an orchestra is something I have always done since I can remember, and it's something that I know how to do relatively well and the basics don't change from country to country. Yes, some of the terminology might be different, however, I never have problems understanding what is being said and it gives me a breath of fresh air away from racking my brains for vocabulary I learned for A-level and which has since escaped me or trying to refer back to the lists of phrases which take or don't take the subjunctive.

Anyway, I have made lists of things I want to do in Toulouse before I leave and have already done the natural history museum (having taken advantage of all museums being free every first sunday of the month) and the cathedral in Toulouse which is one of my favourite cathedrals I have seen, so I promise a more activity, cultural blog post in a couple weeks time.

Lots of love

A xxx

A house in the french countryside weirdly dedicated to an indian guru

Toulouse Cathedral - summer made a brief appearance

Inside the cathedral - the organ looked so randomly place on the wall

Two for the price of one.

I have come to realise that being one of the lucky ones who has two erasmus experiences over the course of one year means I get to learn two languages, about two cultures, experience two different cities/countries and meet completely different types of people. So no matter how tough leaving one experience might be, I get to do it all again.

My last few weeks in Italy were packed with doing as much as possible accompanied by the odd panic attacks about going to France. Living in a city for just a few months, I saw parts of the city that residents of many years had never bothered to seek out because I felt the pressure of a time limit to get to know the city so I tried to do as much as possible. This included the interactive museum of the history of Bologna, the museum of the history of pianos, the music museum, going for sushi one last time, visiting all the little places which I had thought looked nice but never actually tried and saying yes to every invitation, not wanting to miss out on seeing friends that I would soon need to leave or missing out on more time walking around the city. Among all this I was introduced to a new italian word - cicisbeo - is a word from the 18th and 19th century which basically describes a companion for a married woman who would escort her around town and to various social activities when the husband is otherwise engaged. Now I'm definitely not married but when I found myself on my own, I did often call on the same two italian guys to accompany around town. In my last week I also discovered that the best place to visit in one's first week of living in a new city - no matter how much you might want to fit in - is the Tourist Information Office. I wish I had gone there every fortnight or so to find out all the latest information and things going on in the city. 

Taking advantage of discounted erasmus activities, I went skiing for the first time (cross-country skiing at the age of 3 doesn't really count). The first couple hours involved people getting more frustrated with me taking my time to come to terms with the concept and the technique. After a lunch break I found my rhythm and was having an incredible time. Why hadn't I discovered it before? I blame my parents. I got on the bus at the end of the day full of adrenaline and excitement for how well the day had gone and woke up the next day thinking about doing it all again. How many people can say they have gone skiing for a day in the north of Italy and then the next day taken a plane to the south - Palermo, Sicily. (Yes, this is the seamless link onto my next paragraph).

I was lucky enough to be treated to flights to Palermo as a christmas present and so I went there for five days at the end of January with my friend Giuseppe who is Sicilian and was very keen to show me the city. I learnt that Italy is a country with 60% of Europe's churches and an unbelievable amount of very diverse history. I was also repeatedly told that Sicily is the most beautiful island in the world and that the fact is undebatable - I would have to say it's the second most beautiful after Vancouver Island in Canada... I can't be disloyal. I saw 2% of Palermo's 250 churches, I learnt about Serpotta - a renowned italian sculptor from the 17th and 18th centuries whose work is all over Palermo and who worked with stucco* - and I sampled the delights of le arancine and i cannoli and a brioche with ice cream inside. I saw one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen - in Monreale and decorated entirely with mosaics - and I learnt that though I think I understand and speak italian - sicilian is a complete different thing...definitely not italian that's for sure. The city is beautiful but it seems that some of the people don't respect or appreciate their city. It's sad to see and hear about people throwing rubbish out of their windows and stray dogs all over the city. It is difficult to know where to start to help improves thing, maybe the education in schools in order to target the younger generation?

I left Italy feeling sad for having to leave a place in which I'm so happy and a culture with which I have completely fallen in love, but with curiosity for the new city and the people I might meet.

After a 20 hour coach journey filled with butterflies and the odd tear, I arrived to Toulouse. I'm very lucky in that I was met at the station by another stagiaire and treated straight away to lunch at my boss's house. The first thing I did in the afternoon, having learnt from Bologna, was to go to the office with all the information of things going on for young people in the city. I picked up a pile of leaflets and booklets about things to do so at least I won't be bored. I had already had a room lined up with a french 

family who are very welcoming and arriving in a new country with home comforts already set up is very reassuring. My second day here my boss invited me to join her and a couple of her friends to visit a lovely medieval town about an outside of Toulouse called Cordes-sur-Ciel which is very charming and was tranquil without the throngs of tourists which come with high season. A pleasant start to life in a new place - which definitely beats staying at home and wondering how I am going to make friends.

Having gotten used to italian culture and habits, it will take time to readjust however, on the plus side, I at least understand everything that is said to me (the same can't be said for my arrival in Italy and I didn't understand anything) even if my attempts to express myself come out more in italian than in french.

A la prochaine fois,

xxx

*stucco - is a special technique used for sculpture in which it is applied wet and so the sculpture must work very quickly to ensure he finishes before it dries. The finish is more refined and smooth and very light in colour.

Typical bolognese food - an outing with a cicisbeo

Stunning trees in Palermo

Beautiful mosaics

Blending in so well - I came prepared

Arab influences on churches in Palermo

The new way to eat ice cream and add to the calorie count

Apologies.

As you can probably see, I have finally found a number of different ways to fill my time to once again be as busy as possible as this has contributed to the sudden absence of blog posts. As a result I have an unusual amount of thoughts and experiences I would like to share with you, however, I will keep them short and brief - I'm hoping to gain readers, not lose them. I must also apologise in advance for grammatical errors or spelling mistakes which might appear - it seems that as my italian gets stronger, my english gets weaker - one would wish to be able to speak at least one language without difficulty!

          I last updated in November after the chocolate festival which came to Bologna. From December 1st I decided to stop communicating verbally in english and watching english programs (after a quick phone call to my brother asking him to sky plus a few programs for me so I could watch them when I got home). The timing, however, wasn't ideal as on the 1st I went up north with a friend from Bologna to watch my dad's concert in a lovely town, of about 6,600 inhabitants, near Venezia called Gradisca d'Isonzo. A charming little place which, with it being winter, was basically deserted and I loved it. Beautiful countryside, nice weather, and nice hotel for the night made it a welcome break from Bologna. I hadn't seen my dad perform in concert for a while and hadn't seen him in three months so it was great to see him and show him how much italian I have learned! We then (with the other musicians) went to spend a day in Venice. I had been there only once before when I was much younger and had ended up being ill for much of the trip so this time I felt like it was my first. The weather was beautiful and the lack of tourists for the winter season meant we were able to go straight into Basilica di San Marco without queuing or fighting with the crowds. We also went to one of the smaller islands to see the graveyard containing the tombs of Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Brodsky - a stunning place with a great view of the sunset over the city.

          Getting into the christmas period I was interested to learn about the differences in holiday tradition between an english and italian christmas. I introduced my group of friends to 'Secret Santa' and tried to convince them how that the only thing you can eat at christmas is a roast - all this business with a pasta course and a fish course doesn't do it for me. We had a christmas dinner at my house and I also ordered some christmas crackers - another foreign thing for them - and they were thoroughly entertained by the english game of guess who which the crackers supplied. Phoebe and I were surprised and also overwhelmed to discover that the italians had bought us small gifts to celebrate our time here which included printed out pictures of all of us during this term - a lovely gesture with some great memories.

          Going home for a mere 8 days was a very surreal experience. I almost felt like I hadn't been away at all - you often forget how life is going on in the same way as it always has when you are having a completely new and different experience abroad. I found that certain phrases seem more natural to say in italian rather than an english (having not spoken english for three weeks) such as secondo me (i think), dai andiamo (come on, let's go) and fammi sapere (let me know) just seemed to flow more naturally in italian - maybe I am finally becoming slightly italian? On the other hand, maybe not.

          Coming back to Italy in time for new year, I had the realisation that I have only just over four weeks left in this wonderful country before I have to move and do it all over again in a language I now feel has almost completely left me! I was lucky enough to be invited to stay with a friend in Puglia, near Gallipoli, to see in the new year so I took a ryanair flight down to the heel of the boot that is Italy early on the 31st of december full of excitement to see a new part of the country. It is very beautiful - contrary to well-known stereotypes about southern italy - and my friend has a charming house in the countryside near a small town called Taviano from which you can see the see and the great numbers of olive trees. I sat down to lunch on the first day with my friend and his mother and was immediately taken aback by the speed with which she spoke - by the time I had processed the first sentence she had started a whole new story! However, I quickly adjusted and she was telling me about how beautiful it is in the summer and how they collect the olives from their twenty or so trees and are be able to make about 100kg of pure olive oil which will last them about 1-2 years! I was taken to see the city of Gallipoli which is a port right on the sea with the old part technically being an island which has since been connected to mainland and the new part of the city. Only in the south of Italy will you encounter a meeting of about ten older gentlemen who call themselves The Society of Fisherman of Gallipoli who are drinking and smoking around a big table and talking about nonsense. I was also lucky enough to encounter the pinnacle of an italian stereotype in the form of an old auntie (la zia) of a friend who we found sweeping the pavement and who then proceeded to start sweeping the street. The actual street, where cars go and she was sweeping it with a small house brush. Unbelievable. She then came over to us and started speaking in a flow of dialect (salentino) and spent about ten minutes trying to figure out the family tree of my friend Giulio - with whom I was staying - to see if she knew a grandparent or auntie or uncle and if she knew of news (or gossip) about them. The smallest woman I have ever met and the perfect way to sum up the feel of this small italian town in the south with everyone knows everyone and most people seem to be related in some way or another. Absolutely brilliant.

          Sorry for going on slightly longer than expected. I now have a busy few weeks left before I go full of researching for my year abroad essay, desperately trying to learn as much italian as I can before I go in the hope I won't forget it all immediately on my arrival in France and visiting the last few places I haven't yet been to in the city.

          I leave you by sharing my excitement that as an avid sleep talker as I have been told my housemates and dorm mates at school, a few weeks ago I was told that I once again was sleep talking, however, this time I was sleeping talking completely in italian - maybe I am indeed on my way to becoming italian after all :-)

Buonanotte ragazzi,

xxx

The view from the house I would like to buy in Gradisca

The house I would like to buy in Gradisca

Father playing a lovely concert

Venice with no tourists and great weather

Island with the cemetary

Pre-christmas dinner

Old castle wall in Gallipoli

The Chocolate Festival comes to Bologna.

Last week the inhabitants of Bologna were treated to five days of a chocolate festival which took over the three main piazze in the centre of the city. I had the best white hot chocolate I have ever tasted and indulged in crystalised fruit covered in chocolate, chocolate coccoretti (which I had never had before but were absolutely DELICIOUS - and on which the sign said 'eat 2 and lose a pound' - I highly doubt it!) and many, many free samples of the different types of chocolate on offer. Chocolate in the shape of tools was a big theme - slightly random I thought - along with shoes and musical instruments.

Two friends who are working in Florence for their Erasmus came to visit for the weekend for the chocolate festival and with one I took a trip outside of the city to Cesena as some of her family live out there in the country. It was a wonderful opportunity to explore a part of a Italy that is just as beautiful but isn't a major tourist attraction. We were treated to a lovely typical italian lunch (at her relative's) with pasta as the first course and meat and salad as the second followed by coffee. Then, we went to explore Cesena and had a walk around the Piazza del Popolo, past the Biblioteca Malatestiana (the first public library in Europe) and the Malatestian Fortress. Having done that we decided to go to Forli - Cesena isn't the most happening place - and I was interested to see what all the fuss was about when people complained about being placed in Forli (for Erasmus) instead of Bologna! The first thing that struck me walking into the centre was that I felt like I was on a film set. I later found out Mussolini was born in the province of Forli and, during his rise to power, fascists went to the province and gathered there and certain architecture was rebuilt to reflect the new regime. The town feels very modern, orderly, square and slightly cold - and honestly like it had just been built for a new film in a big warehouse. Very strange but also fascinating to look around a city which is so close to Bologna yet feels worlds apart.

Another small, slightly disheartening observation is that though my language is definitely improving - it seems that the Italian language is just a very difficult language to learn with many small, fiddly grammar rules in addition to the range of dialects, all of which seem to seep into 'standard Italian.' During lunch in Cesena, I witnessed one of the family correct his younger sister saying 'nella spiaggia' (on the beach) instead of 'in spiaggia.' I felt better to see that even a native makes such grammar mistakes!

I went to see another film this week; another french one, however, this time dubbed in italian called Giovane e Bella (Jeune et Jolie). I loved it and it was another one which had been shown at Cannes this year. I'm also lucky in that there is a cinema twenty seconds away from my flat so I braved the rain (for which the majority of italians normally will cancel their plans) and enjoyed another wonderful french film.

It has been quite a food orientated couple of weeks. Ivana (one of the friends who came from Florence) and I went to a little 'pop-up' type specialist tortellini place - tortellini is a specialist food from Bologna - and we had the tortellini in brodo which was absolutely delicious and so so simple to make I will definitely be copying it at home. It was chilly and rainy and we were sat in Piazza Maggiore with warm pots of the tortellini looking onto the tents of the chocolate festival which would supply us with desert! Last week I also went to the Osteria dell'Orsa which is one of the most well-know typically bolognese osteria's in the city. Bologna has osteria's and trattoria's and traditionally you could only buy drinks in an osteria and you would bring your own food, and the trattoria would sell food and drink. Nowadays, however, there is only one 'original' osteria left where this tradition still stands. The Osteria dell'Orsa is less expensive and so very popular with students. I trusted the six italians I was with to choose my meal for me as I didn't recognise a few of the dishes and they did well as the food was delicious. We had crostini  and beef straccetti which was yummy but very filling - and I had also eaten a big margherita for lunch so I was completely full. When in Italy though....might as well eat like an italian. (Bologna also offers a good range of all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants and I could honestly live on sushi so I may have been twice in the last couple weeks... )

Other than that...the days are getting colder, the christmas market on strada maggiore is now open and people are starting to study for the odd exam in december. I start my 12 hours a week (in two 6 hour sessions) of conservatory classes on friday, I had a concert last week and have spent today learning a very difficult part for a concert next tuesday! Busy as always!

Un grande bacio xxxx

chocolate objects - cool but not practical

Italian countryside just outside Cesena

Piazza del Popolo

Piazza Aurelio Saffi - Forli

Piazza from a different angle

la Basilica di San Mercuriale

Aung San Suu Kyi

Time is going by quicker and quicker. I can't believe it's November already and I've been here for nearly two months! I have set myself a target that from the 1st of December I will speak only italian until I go home for christmas (including text messages) so I have one month to study as hard as I can! Then I will have January to cement my italian before I go off to France (as I'm so worried about losing my italian while I'm there...).

Last Wednesday (30th October) I played in a university ceremony accompanying a horn, clarinetist and a small choir. What I didn't realise when agreeing to play was the importance and scale of the ceremony. Security was tight - including sniffer dogs - and the press was plentiful. I discovered two days before that it was going to be broadcast live and my face would be projected onto a large screen making it about ten times the size. Even more important was the guest, of whom the ceremony was in honour. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She was detained under house arrest for 15 years and was only recently released in 2010. I found her speech very moving and among other things she mentioned how although her father was assassinated by his rival politicians when she was just two years old, she doesn't hold a grudge and understands that they too wanted independence for her country but were just going about it in the wrong way. In Burma, she explained, there is a focus on finding culprits and on condmanation. They seem to think that condamnation is essential for the solution of problems. Aung San Suu Kyi described how it actually just fuels fires of fear which then develop into hatred. What people really need is understanding and compassion. She is an incredible women and actually studied PPE at Oxford, married an englishman and had two kids before going back to Burma.

To see her speech, have a look at this link (google translate if you want to read more info there as well):

http://www.magazine.unibo.it/Magazine/Attualita/2013/10/16/Laurea_d_Aung_San_Suu_Kyi.htm

One point of the ceremony which I found a bit ridiculous was a young burmese pianist who played after the speech as a tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi. She played an awful arrangement of Pachebel's canon...I don't need to say anymore.

On Friday 25th October, I went to milan for a quick trip with ESN (erasmus student network). My first visit back to the city where I was born! It was hideously embarrassing going around with ESN leaders who are so keen to have big group photos and carry massive flags around everywhere we go but I loved the city. It doesn't feel like a typical italian city as it feels much more metropolitan but it still carries an essence of italian culture. I have felt that other italian cities I have visited have are beautiful and full of culture and history, however, they feel like they are stuck in the past whereas as Milan was very much in the present. We went for aperitivo and then went to a club called Alcatraz - which apparently is very famous - and was absolutely huge and exactly what I expected from a big european club which cheesy music but it was great.

I wanted to comment on how often I hear english words with an italian accent used as part of the italian language as a translation simply doesn't exist. 'Flash back/forward,' 'in versione low cost,' 'babysitter,' 'sexy,' 'slot machine,' all are common examples and I find more and more all the time!

I went to giardini margherita which is a lovely park quite close to my house and I love it. It's not absolutely massive but has a really nice feel and a couple friends brought their guitars so we had a nice play and sing-along. I then made them sunday roast. They had never had it before but they absolutely LOVED it - even the vegetarian who couldn't get over how good gravy is!

On the weekend I went to watch La vita di Adele (La vie d'Adele) which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year and it's a long film but absolutely amazing. I don't want to give anything away however the main actress is younger than me (which is a bit depressing) and she is incredible and unbelievably convincing. I highly recommend watching it - though a couple scenes may feel a bit uncomfortable...

In other news, I am now officially a student at the Conservatory of Bologna and my course starts this week. My piano was tuned (finally!) and I started my italian language course so I have lots to do...

Duomo in Milan

Sunday Roast with Italians...

Empty ceremony hall - sound check

Full ceremony hall...

Bombocrepe - YUMMY.

Giardini Margherita

Giardini Margherita at night..

Ci sentiamo dopo,

xxx

SHAMELESS

Phoebe (another friend from Bristol who is also studying in Bologna) and I have decided that our key word in Bologna is shameless. This stemmed from our constant underlying fear to speak to italians in our lessons and our worries about not being able to produce a proper sentence when we actually did. We decided we had to be shameless to just start talking to people we sat next to in lessons and to ask for phone numbers/facebook profiles in the hope that it could develop into a friendship. It has worked and continues to work, and if at anytime one of us feels slightly apprehensive or would rather sit something out we remind each other of our word and we just go for it.

As a result, it's in this past week or so that I have suddenly felt a great improvement in my language. I speak english to only two people here (one of them being phoebe) and even when other friends are around we speak italian to each other and it seems to be helping. I'm starting to be able to convey more or less what I'm trying to say and there is a lot less stuttering and blubbering as I search for words and correct grammar! I'm also no longer terrified of going into a shop/post office/bank and not understanding what the person at the counter might ask me... So all in all, these are good signs! I had dinner last night with phoebe and a group of italians and I understand 99% of what was said - so happy!

Another plus to having a good group of italian friends, aside from improvements in my language is the amazing food which they enjoy cooking for me (they have promised that they do). The first meal together was an authentic southern italian lasagne which was honestly better than any I've ever tasted in the UK. Since then risottos and pastas have all been amazing including last night where I was treated to orecchiete e minchiareddit (types of pugliese pasta - more specifically from Salento) which my friend's mother had brought all the way from Salento for her as you can't get them in Bologna.

I do appreciate this was a while ago, however, the 4th of October was a holiday in Bologna to celebrate the day of San Petronio - the protector of Bologna. San Petronio was the bishop of Bologna during the 5th century and the Basilica of San Petronio was then built in 1390 in his owner and can be found on Piazza Maggiore in the centre of the city. On the day, the streets around my house felt strangely quiet, however, when I walked into the centre it was a completely different story and with the centre closed to cars there was music and dancing taking over the streets, not to mention the many cameras set up in the Basilica itself in order to televise the main service of the day.

I must mention how incredibly beautiful the classrooms are here. In the DAMS (Art, Music and Drama) department I am taken slightly a back when I enter the room - though of course I try to act normal as I do want to make friends - and each one has beautiful frescoes on the walls and ceiling. When the lecture becomes to much I sometimes find myself just looking around at all the beautiful artwork. It makes a welcome change to the dull, concrete, standardised classrooms you often find yourself in... and helps with the creativity of the students as well of course!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to spend three days in Florence visiting two friends from Bristol who are working there and another who came from Genoa. I've never been there before and it is an absolutely stunning city and very different to Verona (where I visited a couple weeks before) which was also absolutely beautiful but in a completely different way. The Duomo (or 'the dome thing' as a couple english boys which my friend has met the week before called it) really takes your breath away - the size and intricacy of the decoration more than anything. We also visited Giardino Bobeli and we decided we all wanted to get married there - the view of the city is stunning and yet the garden feels like you are in a world of your own! The Uffizi was a highlight for me. I was so excited to go and somehow my friend spoke to a man who worked there about how the ticket system worked and maybe because he appreciated an english girl's effort to speak italian, he let us straight in past a long ticket queue to buy our tickets. We then flashed our Bristol Uni student cards which conveniently say 'Faculty of Arts' on them which got us in for free. Incredible. One of my friends is even keener then I am and it felt like we had our own personal tour guide through the museum. The weekend was also great because it felt so refreshing to be able to speak english for a couple days and to be able to speak so freely! However, once again (like Verona) the city was far far too touristy for me and I was so happy to come back to Bologna...

Yesterday I had a little adventure slightly outside the city as I went to see San Luca (formally the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca) which is a small basilica church situated about 300m high just south west of the historical centre of the city. What should have been about an hour a half walk, including 666 arches spanning 3.5km forming the portico of San Luca, became an over three hour walk as it turns out one of my friends is completely useless with directions. It was also another friend's 'name day' as his name is Luca and yesterday was the day of San Luca so we felt it absolutely necessary to make it up there and to not give up! It was beautiful at the top, although it was a bit misty so the view wasn't crystal clear. It's such a calming, tranquil place and nicely removed from the main city so I will definitely will be visiting again (but doing the directions myself, of course).

A last (slightly embarrassing) story which occurred two days ago in my class of laboratorio di teatro yesterday. One exercise involved us shaking people's hand in certain ways and really thinking about how your mannerisms would change whether you are angry, happy, or meeting someone for the first time etc. The teacher then tells us to do it alla mafioso (so as if it was between two people working together in the mafia) and after doing mine the teacher commented about how I obviously had no idea as I'm a foreigner because my example wasn't even close and the whole class laughed at me - probably not the best start in my second practical class of only twenty people!

Anyway, a piano arrived in my room yesterday and I haven't played properly for a month and a half so I'm going to spend this afternoon playing lots of music (even though it hasn't been tuned and some notes actually sound like two and so it sounds like I'm making lots of mistakes!).

A presto ragazzi,

xxx

"The dome thing" - Duomo in Florence

Gates of Paradise - Florence

A card from one of the cute paper shops dotted around Florence

Michelangelo's tomb

The ceiling of one of my classrooms

Dress rehearsal of Nabucco at the Teatro Comunale of Bologna

New addition to my room