Carnival in Venice

Hello people of the internet! I went to Venice!

Yup, it was one of the best experiences I've had over the course of the entire exchange. So here's the story:

We left Saturday morning from Cagliari, and arrived about an hour outside of Venice. We were a group of exchange students from all around Sardinia, 12 in total. We took a bus into the heart of Venice, where we met a second group of exchange students, for a grand total of something like 23-24 people. I was absolutely amazed at how fast we aggregated at became friends. I firmly believe that there truly is something special about exchange students in that regard. As far as I've experienced, they are the easiest and most fun people to have as friends. So after getting lost in the maze that is the city of Venice upwards of four times, we eventually found our way to the grand Piazza di San Marco. The central city square. It was packed with an insane number of people all dressed up in festive carnival gear. After socializing and picture taking there for a few hours, we headed to our hotel. A train, a bus, and 2 hours later, we got there. Dinner was a very welcome pizza feast followed by more socializing with all the students (both groups) and generally staying up 'till about 4:00am. 

The next morning, we went to the beautiful city of Trieste. We never actually went back to Venice, much to the disappointment of several, myself included. In Trieste (technically we were just outside the city limits in a neighbor city) we saw a massive parade with lots of music and crazy costumes. Again, lots of pictures. We were fairly northerly however, so the temperature was much colder than any of us Sardo kids were used to. But there was nothing that Italian coffee couldn't fix. Yum. ^_^

We also had the wonderful opportunity to go and see the greatest WWI memorial in Italy. Right on the border of Austria, it was a gargantuan hill of stone carved all over with the names of the soldiers who had the misfortune to perish there. The sheer magnitude of it all was the most impressive thing. It left quite the lasting impression.

But by far the greatest experience I had the pleasure to enjoy was a 2 hour ski trip that we made on the third and final day of our trip. I have missed skiing more than almost any other activity with the possible exception of playing the piano. And so to have that opportunity was for me, one of the happiest points on the trip so far. I feel that I earned something of a reputation among the other students as something of a zealot, but it was very worth it, and I was very, very happy. The fun was dampened quite a bit however, when one of our exchange students from Mexico, Javier, broke his collarbone whilst snowboarding. We were all somewhat vexed as to how he managed it on the bunny hill. But last I heard, he's doing okay, and we all wish him a speedy recovery.

And that was my trip. I enjoyed every moment of it. We had quite some trouble with the return flight; we were delayed from 9:00 pm until 2:30 am. Bleh. But we got home without too many hard feelings and I can't wait for the next opportunity to go see more of the world, which as it stands now, will be a full Euro-Tour to a dozen or so cities in south-central Europe at the end of the exchange year. We're all looking forward to it with quite some anticipation. 

I apologize for not including any pictures in this blog, but I post again tomorrow with just pictures of the trip. With this and that, they'll complement each other quite nicely I hope.

Lots of love to everyone, I miss you all, more than I think I've let on, and I can't wait to see everyone once I come back near the end of June. Ciao!! DFTBA.

-Caleb

How long has it been since my last post? Well if you know me well, I'm re-directive, rhetorical, and relativistic. Just like time. : )

It's been since before Christmas, and so let's begin there. Christmas was a lot of fun, but very different from the highly commercialized version I grew up with. It was low-key, and there was no 24 hour Christmas music constantly and ubiquitously everywhere. It didn't feel like Christmas as I know it, so there was a significant "Christmas Spirit" that wasn't there. One of my best friends said something really good: "There's something in the air. And it's not here." (that was me by the way.) I'm brilliant. : D

But all said, while I certainly felt a deep pining for the roaring pines, blankets of white snowy bliss, hot chocolate by the fireside with a good book or puppy at the foot, and the background din of 25 relatives reminiscing over a feast of kings for their own pasts, I was content with my life and satisfied to be in this exquisite country. *Giant inhale* I guess I should also mention that I miss the vibrancy and fluidity of expression that comes with fluency in a language. So Christmas came and went, and I don't think I noticed all that much. I don't know if I wasn't looking, or simply looking for the wrong things.

I didn't do much by the way of presents for Christmas, I plan on simply bringing all my gifts back with me, and celebrating with my friends and family at home.

After Christmas, we went on a week's vacation to the beautiful City of Rome. Caput Mundi. The Capital of the World. Wow. There's a civilization as arrogant as I am. Yay, I'm not alone. I think Rome earned the title however. It was incredible. By the time you read this, I should have a fairly good amount of pictures up on my Facebook, you can check those out there. Here's a preview, me at the Colloseum:

That was a bunch of fun. Rome was incredible. We stayed there for a week with some friends of my host-family. We saw all the major historic sites: The Vatican, The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Piazza di San Pietro(St. Peter's Square), the Colosseum, the whole lot. It was incredible. We saw so history and I certainly gained quite a bit of perspective on time. When you think about it, 6 weeks between blog posts is nothing. And when you extrapolate to geologic time, all of humanity's existence is a single frame of film, in a tape of the Earth's life stretching from Seattle to L.A. Really quite something to behold. And just think what we as people have accomplished in that infinitesimally small amount. Just makes one wonder what the Earth will be like and where we'll be a frame from now. Will Rome still stand as a testament to our origins? Will we still remember Caesar? Will we remember anyone? I can only hope that some of us stand our tests of time. And with these thoughts I leave you for now. Think, and ask big questions with me. And irrelevant and relative though it may be, I promise to put up some more new content soon, and regularly. I love you all, you're in my thoughts, and I wish you nothing but the best.

DFTBA - (Don't Forget to be Awesome)

-Caleb