Adventures of February
4-6 February 2020
When we got back from Switzerland, we had a very short week ahead of us. On Wednesday, I had to go into an Italian middle school and teach. I woke up very early and headed out. The kids were all very interested as to who I was when I walked in. They asked me a lot of questions to figure out more about me. They were learning about houses in English, so they had to write their dream house. I was walking around the room and a girl wrote, “my dream house is on a bitch.” She did not know how to sound out beach because our vowels sound different. I, obviously, helped her fix it, but I could not help but to laugh. I had another period to teach after. The kids were again very interested. These students were learning the verb “have got” so they were making sentences about what they have and don’t have. One kid raised his hand and said, “I have got friends, but I do not have a girlfriend.” The whole class began to laugh. Even though I was very nervous going into the class, I really enjoyed it. Thursday was another beautiful day in Verona, so I decided to have a picnic inbetween classes. I went and sat by the river and ate my lunch. It was so peaceful and calming to watch the water flow. Before heading back to class, I grabbed some gelato (tirasimu).
6-8 February 2020
We headed out on another weekend trip late Thursday night. We went to Napoli. We arrived in Napoli around 22.00. We went and checked into our hostel, where we found out there was a pub crawl for the night. We decided to go on it. Before leaving, we had met a girl named Ella from Canada, and a guy names Kyle from California. We all walked together to a piazza where we stopped to have a free drink of wine and peach vodka mixed (it was included in our pub crawl price). While drinking our interesting drink, I met a guy names Abel from New Zealand, Alex, and Zayn. We walked to the pub together. The pub we went to was very small and had no room to stand in, so most people stood outside of the bar. I met many many people at the bar, that I will hopefully stay in touch with. On Friday morning, we decided to head to Pompeii. We had to catch a 40 minute train there. The ruins of Pompeii were insane. They were so well reserved. It was hard to believe that there was ashfall and lava once covering that land. The grounds were a lot bigger than we had expected them to be. We were there for about four hours and I do not think we even saw half of what there was to see. There were so many streets and buildings to go into it was impossible to make our way to every section. Around 17.00, we caught a train back to Napoli. We headed to a famous pizza place called Pizzeria Da Michele. There was a scene from Eat, Pray, Love filmed there. The pizza was unbelievable. It was like the crust was melting in your mouth. After our delicious pizza, we rested up for a couple hours. Cyrus and I decided to go get ice cream at McDonald’s and stumbled across a field filled with wolf statues. There was almost 100 of them. It was so weird to walk around, but I strangley loved it. When Cyrus and I returned, we had a new hostel roommate, Elliot from France. He was super nice and interested in getting to know us. We tried to get him to come out with us but he had an early work meeting. We went out into town around midnight with our new friend Abel. It was so strangle, everyone was drinking in the streets. You go inside get a drink and then walk around. The area was just filled with people drinking and socializing. While there we met Justin and Guiseppe, two Napoli locals. They were very into speaking English, so we taught them some slang and vice versa. While hanging out with them, we got a Kebab burrito from Superkebab. I am not sure what was in it, but it was spicy and probably one of my favorite things that I have eaten. We headed home around 2.00 to get some sleep. For our last day in Napoli, we headed out to do some shopping in the morning. I bought a shirt. Since we were all very tired, we sat by the fountain in the sun for a while. Cyrus and I decided to walk around and stumbled upon some rocks. We went down to them and climbed onto them and sat there for about an hour. Julia and Jenna met us there around 17.00, then we went and got our famous Napoli cakes. We went to a shop called Pasticceria Poppella. I got the classic chocolate. Right when I finished eating it, I wanted more. To finish our trip before heading to the airport, we went and had a few spritz at a place called Cammarota Spritz. Each drink was one euro, I felt like I was back at school. While we were sitting there, a very drunk man came over and started singing and dancing, but we couldn’t understand him so we just laughed along with him. Our journey back to Verona was a long one. We arrived back around 2.30. Napoli was a very different city than what I expected. Everyone was telling us that it is bad and there is a lot of crime, but we had a really good time and met some amazing people.
Top middle: the pizza from the famous pizza place
Top right: the amazing Kebab place. It looks very sketchy but it was good.
Bottom: me on one of the 100 wolves
9-13 February 2020
The week was filled with many adventures until usual. The weather was almost 60 degrees on Monday so we all went out for gelato after class. I also decided to do some shopping in town on my own and ended up buying a shirt from Zara. After shopping, i headed to a little cafe where I had a glass of wine. They brought me chips, peanuts and a sandwich with the wine. I was nervous what I was going to be charged. But it ended up only being 3 euros. I was so surprised. On Tuesday night, we hungout at a locals apartment and watched a movie. We drank wine and had a very relaxing night in Verona. Wednesday was the busiest day of the week. On Wednesday morning, I had to go to my middle school again and teach. I got there a little early. While I was waiting for my teacher to arrive, I was offered coffee by four different people, When they say Italians love coffee, they are not lying. I did not end up getting any coffee until the end of my day at the school. For the sixth grade classes, I was more of an aid for the teacher. I helped when I could because they learn more British English so they think what I say is funny. For the seventh grade class, the teacher just threw me up there, so I let them ask me questions for an hour. It was awful. I almost cried in the beginning because they were being so rude and the teacher did nothing about it. They were asking me about my personal life for an hour. This is why I could never teach middle school. For class Wednesday afternoon, I visited the Roman Theatre. Honestly, it was very boring but it was cool to see. We also discovered an AMAZING gelato place on our way back. It was called gelateria ponte pietra. I got a kinderr cone and I have never been more satisfied with gelato. When night came around, we decided to go out to Campus pub. Julia, Jenna, and I headed there around 23.00. They were having a shot night; so I took a strawberry 1 euro shot. It was interesting to say the least. We sat down at the table and started to take with some guys from Southern Italy. They ended up being kinda weird so we moved to a different table. Our Italian friends came later in the night. We sat at a table teaching each other Italian and English, while taking a couple of shots together. The night flew by and before we knew it, it was 2.30. It was time to head home. We were all exhausted in our 9.00 class Thursday morning. We had a more relaxing day to recover for the weekend.
14-16 February 2020
For the weekend, we stayed in Italy. On Friday morning (Valentine’s day), we decided to have a picnic for brunch. We all got our own food and met at Castel San Pietro, where we walked up a lot of stairs to get to the top. We set up our food and wine and sat in the sun looking at the city for about two hours. It was such a beautiful day none of us wanted to leave. Around 15.00, we headed down and into a small San Valentino market. On our walk down the stairs, no surprise, I fell a little bit. It was such a graceful fall, but I definitely scared the girls who were walking up towards me. When we got to the market, we realized that it was not worth it at all. It was actually very boring and there was nothing to do. So we went to La Costa in Bra and had a drink outside. I ordered a mojito, it was fantastic. The straw was also a noodle which I thought was very cute. After about an hour of sitting at La Costa, we headed back home. At night, Cyrus convinced me to go with him to Campus, but I should of stayed home. It was so boring. I think we were there for about 5 minutes before going back home. Saturday was our big day of the weekend. Jenna, Julia and I went to Lake Como for the day. It was beautiful. We got there around 10.45, so we headed to the lake and just sat there looking out and talking. Around 12.00, we went to a resturant called Borgo Agostino, which was on the lake. We felt pressure to go there because the waitors basically push you in. But I ordered pasta with clams, calamari, and shrimp. It was the best pasta I have eaten here. I wanted more right when I finished. When we finished eating, the guy was very pushy to get us out. He rest the place in front of me while I was still sitting there. It was very strange and seemed rude, we got the hint and left. We went to the other side of the water and bird watched for about an hour; there were so many swans. We decided we wanted a dessert so we went over to a grocery store and got cake and wine. We sat in a park and again talked for a couple hours. While we were sitting in the park, we saw a lot of couples making out. Europeans love PDA, and we are not fans of it at all. But we had a very relaxing day just looking at the views. Our train back home was at 17.45. The train somehow got messed up and we had to transfer trains three times. It was terrible. Also, on our third train, it was very very empty. Almost every single row was open but this man decided to sit next to me. I was so annoyed. So I played my music very loud and he ended up moving. Finally, we got back home at 21.15. We headed straight to get pizza for the second day in a row. I got a vegetarian pizza. It was so yummy. For the night, we headed out to DiscoLOVE, a club, at midnight. It was very different than expected. They give you a key card and that is your tab for the night. They just charge everything to this card and you pay it before you leave. We all got vodka lemonades and started to dance. They were playing a lot of 2000’s pop US music. So we were having a lot of fun. We had to go to the bathroom and let me tell you this bathroom was awful. There was no toliet, it was just a hole in the ground and you squated over. I have never been so unhappy to see something like that. It was getting late so we headed out around 4.20. We scootered home and Jenna hit the curb and almost fell off her scooter. Scootering home seems to be our favorite part of the night. We finally went to bed at 5.00. We were very tired on Sunday so we relaxed all day. But since Jenna’s birthday is the 16th, we went out to dinner in Piazza Bra at La Costa.
center: lake Como
right: my veggie pizza
17-20 February 2020
The week was not very exciting. It was a lot of relaxing and preparing for the weekend. On Wednesday, I had to teach at the middle school again. This time I had to teach my own lesson and the kids were very good. They were all very interested, but you could tell when they did not understand me. I also had to go to the seventh grade classroom. But the teacher did not know I was coming. So I sat there while she taught. She is not the best teacher. She is constantly yelling at the students and the students sit there and flip her off while she is not looking. It is very interesting. On Thursday, we had to go to another school. This time Cyrus, Julia, Jenna and I were all in the same classroom. We talked about the United States and Chicago. I also taught them the I-L-L chant. They were not at all interested in learning it but I made them. At night, we went out to Campus. There were a lot of people there because Carnevale started. We met up with our Italian friends there. The night was very long. We ended up leaving around 3.00. But it was very very fun.
21 February 2020
On Friday, we stayed in Verona for Carnevale. Around 11.00 Jenna and I headed out to get lunch. We ended up getting chicken nuggets from a place called Billy’s Chips. I got nuggets and fries with mayo and ketchup. It was so filling I could not finish it all. Jenna and I, then, headed over to our favorite bakery De Rossi to get fritelle mele, which are only around for Carnevale. After we went back into San Zeno to get a beer. We took our beer and confetti and went by the river to watch the parade. While waiting, we saw a ton of people dressed up in costumes ready for the parade. There were also little kids throwing confetti at each other. And the high schoolers were throwing flour on each other. The parade did not start until almost 15.00. We watched a little and then went back into the center. We got gnocchi. I had Gnocchi Pastisada, which I think is with donkey meat and is very famous for Carnevale. I am not sure how I felt about the taste of it but I ate it all. Then we got hot fritelle with nutella. It was honestly not as good as I wanted it to be. Around 19.00, the larger floats were heading into the square like Queen and the Lion King. The streets were not covered in confetti and there was very loud music playing. We got a few Aperol Spritz to watch the parade finish. Once the parade was cleared out, there was a DJ playing Italian, Spanish and English music. So we stayed for a few hours and danced. We met some local guys that hung out with us for a while.
Middle: Gnocchi Pastisada
Right: our friends
22-23 February 2020
On Saturday morning, Jenna and I headed to Genoa. We took a long train and arrived around 14.00. We went to lunch at a little cafe near the water. We were very confused about the cafe. They said there was no menu but people had such a variety of food. Since we did not know what to order, we ended up just getting ham and cheese sandwiches. Since we were still hungry after that, we stopped at a little focaccia shop on the corner and each got a piece. It was amazing. As we headed to our hostel, we ended up on a very sketchy street that we were not welcomed on so we hurried to get off of it. It was a relief to see our hostel was in a nice little area. The building was very old, but it was very homey. After checking in, we walked around the city and explored the few attractions that were there. We headed back to the water and stopped for a drink at a resturant near the water called Bigo Cafe. We ended up sitting there for a few hours and ate dinner there also. We got pesto pasta and a pizza to share. When dinner was finished, it would not be a weekend trip without gelato. So we went back to the cafe from early to finish off our day. We did not go out at night instead we rested up since we were both exhuasted. The next morning, we went to a little cafe from breakfast. I had a cappuccino and a chocolate crossiant. We walked up to Via Garbaldi after breakfast. But it started to rain shortly after. So we decided to go have lunch around 12.30. We went to a pesto place called Pastifico Artigianale Di Canneto. The pasta was covered in pesto and also had green beans and potatoes. It was so delicious and filling for our 7 euros. Since the resturant was very busy we went to another cafe until the rain passed over. I ordered a cafe shakerato, thinking it was iced coffee. But it was iced espresso in a martini glass. Very good, just not what I expected. Our train was at 15.00, so we headed back to our hostel for about 40 minutes to relax and go to the bathroom before getting back home. It was another relaxing weekend filled with eating and drinking.
Middle: focaccia
Right: pesto with green beans and potatoes
24-26 February 2020
The week started like nothing we had imagined. Our classes were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday due to the outbreak in coronavirus in Milano and Venezia. Jenna and I did a lot of lounging around the house and eating. It was nice to have a few relaxing days after a weekend of running around. On Wednesday, we had to go to class again because our school is so small and there was no risk for the virus there. Again, nothing exciting happened. But Jenna and I went to 100 Montaditos, which was a small sandwich shop. We ordered sandwiches, nacheos, water, and two orders of fries for only 14 euros. It was so good too.
27 February- 1 March 2020
Today my parents flew into Verona! After much worry about them getting into Italy, they arrived late afternoon. I greeted them with a bottle of wine with meats and cheese at their hotel. We grabbed a drink on the rooftop of their hotel and then headed to l’orologio for dinner. I tried to give them an authentic dinner for their first night in Italy, and that was the first place that my director had brought me when I arrived in Italy. After lots of wine and eating, I dropped them back off at their hotel and headed home. We woke up early to catch our train to Rome. After a very long 3 hours, we arrived. We walked to the hotel, and we definitely encouraged some interesting and more scary streets as we walked. But we were very pleased with our hotel once we arrived. We had gotten the only room with a balcony. Once settled in at the hotel, we grabbed a taxi and headed towards Vatican City. It was 13.00 when we got to out destination so we grabbed lunch at a little resturant called Ristorante Da Paolo. My mom and I got pizza; my dad got pasta. Neither of them finished; I have to teach them the Italian way to eat all their food, Once lunch was over we went into the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. As it was the first time, it was absolutely breathtaking. The art is so incredible. We finished within an hour and a half so we went to look at St Peters Basilica. This was definitely my dads favorite part, even if he won’t admit it. We admired the Basilica for quite some time. Then headed on our way to other attractions. We first went to Piazza Navona, where we grabbed a bottle of wine to rest for a little. Then we made our way to the Pantheon, and got gelato after. But it was not my favorite. Then the Spanish Steps. Wendy was getting very mad at the people selling roses and selfie sticks at the steps; she wanted to break their stuff. Our last stop before dinner was the Trevi Fountain. Mom and dad were both shocked at how large the fountain actually was. We started our long, and very hilly journey back to the hotel around 19.00. We grabbed dinner at a cute resturant called Casa Maria. I got risotto. Amazing. And at the end of our meal, I had Wendy take an expresso shot and then we got free lemoncello shots. Before heading to the hotel, we stopped at the little market to grab a bottle of wine to drink on our balcony. We sat out there for about an hour before getting ready for bed. On Saturday, we woke up early again to catch a train to Firenze. We met up with our family friend Brandi. She got us to our hotel and made sure we were settled in. She was kind enough to take us to the David musem and have a tour set up so we could learn all about Michaelangelo’s art work. Around 14.30, we headed to lunch at a place called Ristorante Accademia. I got crispy lasgna. It was very good and something totally different. We had a lot of wine and prosecco as we went through lunch. After lunch we chilled for a little bit before going to watch the sun set at an over look. We grabbed a bottle of wine and sat at the over look for about an hour before heading down for dinner. We had reservations at 17.30. I do not know the name of the resturant but I ate one of the best pastas. After dinner we walked around Firenze and rode a carousel before going back to the hotel. Sunday morning rolled around and we enjoyed the city, some food and some shopping before heading back to Verona.
right: my mom and I at the Spanish steps
Right: us at the David
1 March 2020
Unfortuntely, due to the coronavirus outbreak, my school is requiring that we are sent home as soon as possible. And my flight back to the states is on Wednesday. Being abroad has been one of the best experiences of my life. And it is so upsetting to see it get cut short like this. There are no words to describe how upset I am by this decision. And there are absolutely no words to describe how happy I am to have experiences as much as I have. Luckily my journey is not quite finished yet, I have a few more days in Verona and I will be coming back at the end of March to go to Paris with Lex and visit my best friend in Amsterdam for a few days.
Thank you if you followed along with my journey. Stay tuned for the last of my adventures.
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Jessica's Journey Across Europe 