The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Light at the End of the Tunnel
My first weekend in Sansepolcro turned out to be better than the week had been. Friday was an exciting day for me, because I had a lighter class load. I only had morning classes and then lunch. Lunch was delicious, as always. We had more pasta and vegetables. I love the pasta here, and can never get tired of it. Margarita and Alessandra are amazing cooks and I am very grateful to have them as our cooks here at the Palazzo. After lunch the girls and I had the rest of the day to ourselves. Most of the girls just relaxed until later that evening. We planned to explore the streets later that night and shop. We headed out around 6 p.m. and looked in almost all of the small shops along the main street. Our first stop was into a shoe store, since everyone was looking for boots of some sort for the surprise trip on Sunday. Luckily, I had brought rain boots in the States so I did not have to buy new ones. All the girls ended up buying the exact same boots, in black and white. I really did not find anything I liked in the stores and I quickly noticed that my style was so different from all the girls here. I like things with more color and elaborate, while the other girls are classy and simple. Due to our opposing styles, it was hard to go in stores that included both styles, but we managed.
All the girls, except for me, brought boots for our surprise trip on Sunday. Everyone was excited to guess what we would actually be doing for this surprise. We learned about the Italian tradition of carnevale in Italy Today. Carnevale is a celebration that happens 40 days before Lent, in which people of all ages dress up and anything goes. Carnevale is celebrated all over Italy, but the biggest one is in Venice. Carne means meat and levare means to stop. At carnevale people usually were masks to hide their identity and represent everyone as equals. I thought this was interesting and that it was similar to the holiday of Halloween in the United States. I was hoping that this would be our surprise for Sunday, because this is a special celebration that does not happen often. It would be a once in a lifetime experience that everyone could share. The weekend was more of a reenergizing one than partying one for me. Much of my Saturday was spent doing homework and eating. I was very tired from the first week of transition and wanted to rest up for the big surprise.
On Sunday morning, we had to wake up extra early to catch a bus to our surprise location. On the way there, Shannon was the first to notice a road sign telling where we were heading, so at the halfway stop Dr. Webb decided to reveal the surprise. She told us that we were going to Venice for carnevale. After finding this out, I grew impatient of what awaited us in Venice. It was a coincidence that we were going to Venice, because the night before my brother and I were talking of how much water surrounds Venice. Generally speaking, the trip took about four hours and another thirty minutes by boat to reach Venice. I was amazed by all the people and by how many people were actually dressed to celebrate carnevale. I assumed that it would be mostly children and teenagers, but I was proven wrong. There were adults and parents dressed in customs ranging from wasp to kings and queens. I took countless pictures of all the various customs and beautiful buildings that made up the city of Venice. I saw gondola boats, masks, and graffiti. All aspects of the Venice was breathe taking, it seemed as if I was inside a book. I felt privileged to be able to see all the wonderful views and components of the carnevale. The whole experience seemed so surreal and I was wondering how I would explain everything to my family (they probably would not believe it). For lunch in Venice, Bekah, my roommates and I went to a small restaurant on a back street. I ordered lasagna and had gelato for dessert. This was my first time eating gelato and I must say it was yummy; just thinking of it now is makes my mouth water. I tried a cookie flavor and chocolate chip. Since it was so cold outside, we looked for a nice warm place to enjoy our sweet treat. We ended up finding a place right along the water. As we sat, we judged whose flavors were better. Of course, I thought mine was the best. The funniest thing happened to me while I was trying to find a seat along the banister was when a strange man kicked me up. I thought it was very nice of him, but in the back of my head I thought he may have been trying to pick-pocket me. At first I was scared and panicked but when I realized what he doing I calmed down. Dr. Webb warned us about situations as that, so I quickly checked my pockets and found they were safe. Afterwards, he took my pictures and I scurried off into the jumbled crowd. Overall, my day in Venice was great until I got seasick on the ride back home. I felt awful, until we arrived at a restaurant and had dinner. I ate cheese pizza and had a sprite to settle my stomach. To my surprise it helped and I felt recovered the next morning.
The second week was a long one for me. I was given a lot work in such little time, but my theory was just taking it one day at a time. This week all the girls came up with nicknames for each other, and mine was hilarious. The girls came up with the name KFC; Kim the Funny Comedian. All the girls decided that I am the funniest, which is the same response I get back home. In some ways the girls here remind me of my friends at home, but truly they could never compare. On Friday, it snowed continuously all day. It was cold, but my roomies and I stilled went to play in the snow. We threw snowballs at one another on the way to the Pam. I was overjoyed to find fingernail polish remover at the Pam and buy earrings at one of the shops. After all the snow cleared on Saturday, the group took a trip to Arezzo. Arezzo was not too far from Sansepolcro, but I found the trip refreshing. Once we arrived in Arezzo, Bekah showed us around the train and bus station. Our mission was to be able to get ourselves back to the Palazzo alone. Afterwards, we broke into two groups and strolled around the city. My roommates and I made up one group, and the remaining girls were the second group. My roommates and I ended up getting lost on our way back to the bus station, but we found our way back home. We felt very accomplished after making it back to the Palazzo on our own safely. As soon as we got to the Palazzo we took a long nap until later that evening. We planned to go out to the club later on so we wanted to be well-rested. After our rejuvenating nap, we worked on homework and prepared for the club.
I was actually nervous to go out to the club. I would rather have stayed in the Palazzo doing homework or talking with my family but I did not want to miss anything; so I went. All the girls went out to a place called the K Café and had a couple of drinks with intentions of meeting cute Italian boys. Walking in was very intimidating because everyone was staring at us. It seemed that right away that all the Italians could sense that we were American. After about fifteen minutes the mood began to lighten up. A group of Italian boys made their way over to us and began to chat about our stay here. It was very thrilling to talk with them; the only problem was that we could hardly understand them. There was only one guy that spoke English very well and he served as our personal translator for the night. He followed us all night from the K Café into a local bar. At the bar, the girls had more drinks and talked to the Italian boys. I felt sort of out of place since it was my first time in a bar and because I was not getting as much attention as the other girls. Time seemed to be moving very slow but after about thirty minutes I decided to leave. I was extremely tired and wreaked of smoke. I was escorted back to the Palazzo by Lilly because it was dark and random men on the streets. I made it back safely, showered, and went to bed. The night had been an unforgettable one and the first of many.