The boring stuff...

This is our apartment, just outside the city walls. 

This is my school, it used to be a palace. There is a fountain in the gates which is a sign of status. There are two porsche's in there.

I have two addresses. One is for letters and the other for packages. However I do recommend you do not send packages because first of all I have no where to put more stuff and second, Italy is notoriously slow when it comes to their postal services and it probably would never get to me.

So the letter address is…

 

Grace Harcz

c/o AHA Macerata Program

P.O. Box 221

62100 Maceata

Italy

 

Packages, parces post, fed-ex, Ups and such, use this address:

 

Grace Harcz

c/o AHA Macerata Program

Via Crescimbeni, 5

62100 Macerata, Italy

phone 0733 261530

 

I am so happy to finally have a day off. I woke up and did a ton of dishes, cleaned some and now I get to spend the whole day doing homework!

I have been worrying a lot about my visa. I didn’t realize I could still get in trouble at the borders even if I didn’t leave the Schengen countries. I am seriously considering sneaking across borders by foot in camouflage at night. It just isn’t worth risking. I don’t want to be told I cant come back to Europe, and I really do not want to be fined. I don’t see why it is such a big deal. All I want to do is travel and see my friends. I know that it would be a hit or miss with people checking passports. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, sometimes they feel generous, and sometimes they don’t. Kinda like getting pulled over for speeding except its hard to talk your way out of this when you don’t know the language and not everyone is to fond of Americans.

So that is the dilemma. Get some traveling done during my 10 day spring break and stay in Italy once my visa expires, or live with the family 15 minutes from here. There they will take care of me while I spend time in the high school helping students prepare for their English exam in May. I wonder if I do this I will some how be able to get a permission to stay. This is all so confusing it’s making me sick.

I have been meeting people left and right now. I figure if I just smile big and try to speak Italian I can make friends. It works : )

It is hard to get anything done, because we have excursions on the weekends. Yesterday we went to a Civitanova Marche, a city on the Adriatic sea. That was actually quite enjoyable because we had a lot of free time to check out the huge market and throw rocks into the sea.

January 29^th we go to San Ginesio and Abbazia di Chiaravalle di Fiastra. February 12^th we go to Tolentino and Ascoli Piceno. We have our mid semester break from February 19^th to February 28^th. March 5^th we go to Macereto and Castello Pallotta. March 10,11, and 12 we go to Firenze (Florence). March 19^th we go to Loreto and Grotte di Frasassi. March 25,26, and 27 we go visit Rome! April 10^th is our last day of the program in Macerata and I will be on my own to avoid being detained.

So you see we don’t have a lot of free time. The family that said they would host me is 15 minutes outside of Macerata. The mom said she could drive me to the university every morning because she works at the hospital but that would be so complicated with all of our planned events.

So this is my class schedule….

 

Monday

8:30 – 11:00 Italian

13:00 – 15:30 Painting

15:50 – 17:30 Modern Italy

 

Tuesday

8:30 – 11:00 Italian

13:00 – 14:40 Renaissance

14:50 – 16:30 Art History

 

Wednesday

8:30 – 11:00 Painting

13:00 – 14:40 Modern Italy

14:50 – 16:10 Cross Cultural

17:00 till whenever they decide we can be free, General Meeting

 

Thursday

8:30 – 11:00 Italian

13:00 – 14:40 Renaissance

14:50 – 16:30 Art History

 

Friday

Excursions

Two hours or more a week I meet with my Italian Tandem partner

Italians don’t really go out on the weekends, their going out nights are Wednesday and Thursday. That makes Thursday and Fridays at school so much fun for us…..

For every excursion we have to keep a journal for both Renaissance and Art History. I would tell you what they had to be about if I know.

These past excursions were so cold I couldn’t take notes cause my fingers were frozen.

I have three ways of getting internet.

At the AHA building between classes or lunch

Pathos internet café where you have to buy something and you get a little ticket that lets you use it for one hour. When it runs out you can get another ticket.

3)   I can hide out outside the Ostello and steal internet hoping no one sees me. But its always cold and whenever a car comes I have to stand up and let them by because the cobble stone street is so narrow.

I have not quite figured out how to send letters or post cards yet. I guess if you write more than 5 words it is considered a letter and you needs a different kind of stamp.

Sometimes our toilet doesn’t flush.

It is rude not to give exact change when buying something.

Most everything closes between 13:00 and 15:00.

I discovered Nutella and it is AWESOME!

We drink wine every day at meals.