I never update even though I love reading pretty much everything you all post. School obviously has started...and I have gotten more sleep than I think I have ever had the opportunity to in my whole life. Odd? I know. The reason is that I have lots of projects assigned for me to do, but since we have not been placed in our middle schools yet I have not had class everyday...thus not motivated to do school work.

I went home for an entire week right before school started, and since I didn't go home for the entire semester I was in Italy, as well as basically the entire summer, I sorta wish it was easier for me to drive home to visit. I miss my grandparents, the farm, my parents, my cousin(s) AND all three of my older brothers. I miss my brothers...A LOT. It has been a long time since I have seen them, the oldest one especially.

I love my roomie...aka Kaitlin! :D She makes for a very happy day EVERY day!!

Also, my piano lessons are going very well. I can play Jingle Bells and I am working on such songs as The Saints Go Marching In. I LOVE IT!! I really wish I would have had the confidence when I was younger to learn to play music...I have always been fascinated by instruments and "envious" of musicians.

I can't wait for Intramural Flag Football to start back up!!! :D (Although already being terribly out of shape and then being really sick has not helped my stamina.) Sunday night basketball helps though...also tons of fun!

Anyway! I wish everyone a wonderful school year for those in school and/or with children in school, and I wish everyone a year of spiritual growth, understanding, and strength!

Does anyone know of someone who would be willing to teach me to play the piano? I know nothing about music, but have always dreamed about being able to play such a beautiful instrument. I will be graduating in May and want to learn before then. Any ideas?

Ok, so I sat down to do my homework and fell asleep on my arm for 40 minutes in a half sitting position then woke up because my arm went dead and was NOT happy with me. Then I layed down for a QUICK nap and just slept from basically 7 pm until 2:10 am never waking up to a zillion text messages and phone calls from various friends...mind you both of my phones were on vibrate but they were right next to my pillow. Needless to say, my AMAZING boyfriend was stressed out of his mind thinking something terrible had happened to me because I was supposed to have called him about six hours before I actually did (which finally was at 3 am for him)...opps.

Now that I have eaten supper...I'm going back to sleep. :D

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Howdy Everyone!

After Spring Break, we began juggling sight-seeing with end of the year projects, tests, play production, and final exams. This turned into some fun and stressful times for all! A Countess led us on a tour of her ancient castle, Montecchio Vespucci, which I had been able to see out my window in the hazy distance each morning. To describe the castle’s history, the elementary school children performed a short play for us in the gardens.

For those of you who have seen the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun, based on a non-fiction book set in breathtaking Cortona, Italy, the locale is as picturesque as the book portrays. Cortona is only twenty minutes from Castiglion Fiorentino where I was living. Here we were not only mesmerized by the landscape and architectural beauty, but we also participated in a tour guided by our professor’s friend, Count John Carlo, a native Italian Count. He showed us the church where San Marguerita’s body is entombed. Her shriveled 900 year old skin is still on her bones even though she was buried underground for centuries…interesting.

We took our final tour of Florence to see the Uffizi and the Academia. The Uffizi is a large famous art gallery. It is packed full of thousands of sculptures and paintings produced by many famous artists over several centuries. In the Academia, we saw Michelangelo’s “non finito” (unfinished) works and his famous sculpture of David. It was huge! I thought it was interesting how large David’s hands were in comparison to the rest of his body. True to its reputation, the sculpture was striking!

The next Sunday my friend, Stephanie Moreno, accompanied me to Florence to attend an Italian Church of Christ worship service. You would never guess how small a world we truly live in. Before entering the building, I had no idea if anyone there would speak my language, and while very few did, the first person I met was a young woman named Sarah Bailey from MY hometown, Abilene, Texas! She had been living and working in the church there for six years. I knew the melody to most of the songs, the acoustics were amazing, and it was great fun to sing the same well-known songs in a foreign language! The members of the church included Albanians, Asians, Romanians, Italians, Swiss, and Americans; it was fascinating to be surrounded by so few people and yet so much diversity and culture in one place!

If you want to see the beauty of Italy in just a glance then you need to visit Multipulciano and Pienza! These are neighboring towns set in the hill country surrounded by breathtaking landscape. In Pienza we visited the palace of a family that has had two Popes elected from their ranks. It had hanging gardens, interesting relics, and a room that even today fascinates architects in that the beams in the roof are still supporting it while, by human reasoning, their design indicates they should have collapsed long ago. Here I bought four types of sheep cheese mounds ranging from twenty days old to a year old! So disgusting looking, yet SO YUMMY!

On a second trip to Orvieto, where the double helix well, underground living caves, and tram to the top of the town are located, I learned several memorable lessons. First of all, never leave a jacket on a fortress wall hundreds of yards up a vertical cliff on a windy day to take a picture. You will soon be taking pictures of it resting on a ledge FAR BELOW you fully protected from the gusts of wind that would have hopefully taken it on down the cliff where it would have been retrievable. Secondly, words found in two languages often have completely different meanings. For example, when the store owner responds in Italian that his pizza is topped with corn and “mice,” do not looked disgusted and appalled! He only means his pizza is topped with corn and SOME kind of sausage! As I found out, the “mice” pizza was actually very good. Fortunately, there are people in this world who are bilingual and able to ease my fears.

The Italian children performed a bilingual Pinocchio play developed by the pre-service teachers on April 15th for their parents and the Santa Chiara students. We (the pre-service teachers) sang, danced, and read the chorus with them in both English and Italian. My favorite part was singing the Italian National Anthem at the beginning. We all had so much fun and did a great job for only having had six rehearsals to learn a bilingual play! That same night immediately following the play, we relocated to a farm hotel, La Pievuccia, where we spent our last eight days eating exquisite four and five course meals, relaxing, and writing before leaving for our final adventure in Italy, a Roman holiday. La Pievuccia is a family run vineyard and olive orchard that consistently wins awards for the best wine and olive oil in all of Italy. They gave us a tour of the vineyard which was especially meaningful to me since I grew up on a farm. I lived in a little cottage with three other girls. Our kitchenette looked out over the blooming vineyard with the Montecchio Vespucci castle just beyond. We used this time to complete our writing class, but since there were no computer facilities, it was necessary to hike thirty minutes back to Santa Chiara for the use of printers and the internet. The walk was always very relaxing, peaceful, and lovely.

Our last weekend in Italy, Stephanie and I hiked fifty minutes to the Castiglion Fiorentino train station on our way to Pisa. We could not possibly miss out on taking some of our own original pictures with the famous leaning tower. Throughout the stay in Italy my curly, blonde hair attracted more attention than I would have ever imagined. Italian men are very forward and not afraid to maintain extended conversations, ask questions, and lavish compliments in both Italian and broken English. Normally, the situations were not scary, just sometimes awkward. It was certainly an ego booster for me to travel in Europe.

I spent the last four days of my study abroad trip in Rome, the capitol of Italy. It is astounding to know that humans with very limited technology were able to build such MASSIVE structures as the Coliseum and Pantheon, along with many other structures, so effectively and successfully! I bought a neat overlay book of Rome to use in my future classroom that shows the original ancient structures in relation to the present ruins. Rome was packed with people and vehicles; it is definitely overpopulated and overpriced. At one point a gelato (ice cream) shop employee tried to make one of our girls pay twelve Euros for a small one-scoop ice cream cone…outrageous! Back in Castiglion Fiorentino we were able to get a three scoop small ice cream cone for just 1.70 Euro. One of the best parts was being able to view and take pictures of the Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain at night. We also traveled to the town of Tivoli outside of Rome where we toured some beautiful, ancient gardens. Rome is definitely an architectural wonder with more history, buried beneath “modern” buildings, yet to be excavated. At one point, I tried to take a picture in the Metro of the train whizzing past. While I got the picture, I was also yelled at in Italian and broken English about doing something illegal. As the official ran toward me, I was simply amazed at how angry he was that I was standing on the yellow line (which you are not supposed to cross), so I calmly stepped back thinking I had solved the problem and continued to set up my picture. It took my whole group a minute to figure out that the official was trying to tell me I was not supposed to be taking pictures of the Metro …oops.

We were taken on a special tour of the Vatican where we got to see all THREE levels of St. Peter’s Basilica. The inside of the basilica is MASSIVE and breathtaking. St. Peter’s is the largest church building in the world. We were able to see the burial spots of numerous Popes and hear the significance of what they did while in office, including Pope John Paul II. We went on a special underground tour of the excavations of the third level that were secretly done during World War II. There they found a wall with bones hidden in it identified to be Peter’s. The wall is located directly beneath the canopy on the first level which is what St. Peter’s was built on top of. As we left the building we saw the Swiss guards who still wear the colorful uniform designed by Michelangelo centuries ago. The HUGE square outside is actually a sun dial that can tell the time of day and the month. Even though I am not Catholic, it was a fascinating, informative experience.

I have made it to the end of my three month adventure, so this is the last update from my life overseas. We left Rome at 4:45 AM on Saturday morning, and I returned safely to the States in the early evening on April 26th after a three hour flight from Rome to London, a three hour lay-over, and a ten hour flight from London to Houston.

During the weeks working in the classroom, many of my teaching fears were resolved, I recognized the numerous positive attributes of adolescent children, and I discovered more about my strengths and weaknesses than I could have ever imagined possible. The hands-on experience from teaching in Dante Middle School has given me a strong understanding of what it means to work with English as a Second Language students. Having experienced the flip-side of the language barrier, I now comprehend how this fact impacts students both inside and outside of the classroom. While I am only twenty years old, I feel that every opportunity which I took advantage of abroad has put me one step further on the long road to becoming a successful teacher and responsible adult. Living, working, and touring alongside the Italians connected to Santa Chiara was more beneficial to me as a future educator than simply touring Europe could ever have been. Italy and my time abroad was more than I could have ever hoped for.

For those who have access to Facebook, I am about two months behind on posting pictures, but I will post more as soon as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read these updates even when all three were very, very long. I hope everyone has a relaxing, fun, and productive summer!

Best Wishes!

Julie Holloway

Monday, March 24, 2008

Ciao Everyone!

It has been over a month since the last update, and much has happened since then! In Italy, we have visited Sienna where the famous, deadly horse races are held two times a year during the summer. During this medieval race nine horses sprint around the mattress padded, dirt-covered Piazza three times. Each year both horse and jockey are in extreme danger, and horses often are so severely injured they are killed on the spot. Actually, the only horse that survives the race is the one that wins. We have also visited Orvieto, a natural fortress city which is built on a hill that is completely made of stone! We rode a special train to get to the top and the town center. It is a beautiful city just like Sienna.

I have just returned from two weeks of traveling. During the first week I traveled to Krakow, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic with my professors and classmates. Students and advisors joined us from Texas A&M University to complete the field trip portion of our Children's Literature class. Poland and Czech Republic were both under Communist rule until about twenty years ago, so they were extremely different from Italy.

In Krakow the thirty-six Texas A&M people toured the city and were actually able to listen and watch the "Trumpeter of Krakow" blow his trumpet at each hour of the day. The trumpeter blows the broken tune on the hour twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There is an authentic children's book titled "The Trumpeter of Krakow" that we had all read, so it was satisfying and exciting to be able to visit the location of the story and hear the broken tune that was explained in the book. I think this was my highlight of Krakow.

The highlight of the entire travel time was when I visited Auschwitz about three hours outside of Krakow. This was the most impacting activity I have ever experienced! Auschwitz was the Death Camp of World War II where approximately three million Jews, political prisoners, Poles, gypsies, and many others were gassed, starved, or worked to death. While it was sad, it was also a time of remembrance and knowledge. I bought pictures and a poster for my future classroom that I hope to have the students use to spur thoughts on writing assignments. I truly believe that anyone who is able to visit Auschwitz should not hesitate to do so; it will change your perspective on life. There are also memorials in the United States in places such as Washington, D.C and Houston that honor the victims of the atrocious Holocaust that apparently are also effective in providing a hands-on experience of the realities of World War II. The horrors of Auschwitz cannot be put into words and I cannot even begin to portray how much it affected me. I feel like I began to understand that it is our responsibility to be aware, remember, and make a difference in this world no matter how small of a task it may seem.

On Tuesday, we took a overnight sleeper train from Krakow to Prague which was certainly an exciting and new adventure for all of us as we learned a lot about traveling. We were three to a compartment with locks on the doors; however, sometime during the night while we were sleeping someone entered each compartment and stole cameras, money, iPods, and jewelry from ten out of thirty-six people including professors. Fortunately, nothing was stolen from me. We are positive the train stewards had something to do with it, and our little professor Dr. Wiese put up quite a fight. She sat on the steps of the train and refused to budge--holding up the whole train for a LONG time--until finally the police had to do something! The stewards will be brought in for questioning and Dr. Wiese, with the help of the U.S. embassy, is ensuring that the investigation is continuing. We were all simply grateful to have no one injured and to have lost only material things.

Even though that put a damper on the rest of our trip we continued to have a good time in Prague. Our first night in Prague, we went on a dinner-time cruise, and the next night attended a showing of Black Light Theater which is theater where a play is performed without any words so that anyone, no matter the language or culture, is able to understand the play. It combined so many different types of art, and the actors were extremely talented! It was fascinating! If you wish to know more about this just e-mail me back with questions. We spent one night in Cesky Krumlov, an ancient picturesque Czech town listed on the UNESCO World Heritage sites. It was breathtaking! Finally, we also visited the Terezin Ghetto. Terezin was known as the propaganda ghetto where the Germans managed to deceive the world into believing that the Jews were simply being relocated to be cared for. Jews actually paid money to be sent to this ghetto and brought along top-hats and suits. In reality they were being worked to death, starved, and shot. It is unbelievable how well the world can turn their backs on horrific periods in history.

I left the Czech Republic on Saturday night to fly with my professors to Geneva, Switzerland. We spent the night in France and went to the Sunday morning Divonne market. The French were funny and nice. J The train ride from Geneva to Lucerne, Switzerland alongside the French/Swiss Alps and the massive Lake Geneva was astounding to me. Being a West Texas girl, I had not seen much snow much less TRUE mountains and beautiful, clear, blue lakes. In Lucerne I visited the International School where four Texas A&M students are fulfilling their student teacher requirement. It was incredibly interesting and even I could see how much the student teachers had improved and learned during their time there. I will have the chance to take advantage of this same opportunity next spring if I wish.

Since it was now my spring break, I met up with two of my new Santa Chiara friends from Kansas State University in Lucerne, Switzerland. We spent the week taking day trips out of Lucerne. We took a cable car up the mountain to see the top of Mount Pilatus where it was snowing and very cold at such a high elevation! I went back to Geneva to see the United Nations headquarters with the girls and on to Zermatt where the Matterhorn is. We also visited Interlocken where there is a town, Muren, that is inaccessible by car. Only it was storming so we were unable to see much. One of the most exciting moments was when I got to blow my own glass globe in the Hergswil Glass Factory that we toured! Now, I just have to make it safely home with the globe. I will miss being surrounded by such a peaceful country with the green grass fading into the bright snow and blue lakes and the mountains covered in vineyards, cows with bells, and snow disappearing up into the wispy clouds.

Now it is back to the reality of classes. We will be here for five more weeks. Two of those weeks will be spent out in the country at a beautiful farm hotel and the last three days of our travel will be in Rome before returning to the States on April 26, 2008. Please feel free to continue viewing photographs on Facebook if you have that access.

I feel that I have truly learned a lot about myself, my life, and my world by being in Europe away from my family for such an extended period of time. I know I have much more to learn, but I am looking forward to the upcoming challenges and hope that I continue to take advantage of each opportunity given to me to help me later in my professional career and in learning more about myself.

I hope that everyone had a blessed Easter holiday!! I wish everyone the best as we are now on the downhill slope of the semester.

God Bless,

Julie Holloway