Sarah and Debbie's trip out west!

So I may make this several parts because it has been a while since I last posted. I have essentially started a new life here and it is fun, weird, exciting and scary all at once.


The last time I posted I was somewhere on my way to Minnesota with my mom. Since then, we went to Minneapolis to visit my friend Anna. It's really beautiful there. Then we drove through South Dakota, hit up Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills. Then off to Yellowstone, the Tetons and all the way to Corvallis. Where I am now. On the way out here, we also were lucky enough to visit the Corn Palace (a must see!), all of the signs for Wall Drug, and lots of Harley Davidson riders headed to some Harley reunion/conference thing in Wisconsin. It was a great trip that involved a lot of driving but I got plenty of practice on my Honda Fit!!! Although, since I've arrived in Corvallis, I barely have used my car since it is so bike friendly.

Then, we finally arrived in Corvallis and started settling down a little bit. We signed my lease, bought a bed and began enjoying the beautiful September weather. It's amazing how nice it is here in the summer, it is just the other 8 months out of the year that is apparently what gives this area its bad weather reputation. The wet winters were described to me as "a cold that penetrates completely". So that sounds like fun.

So back to my mom's trip. So we spent part of that first week here, me working on administrative stuff while my mom was bored to death. She did relax and enjoy being quaint in Corvallis though. We went to Seattle to visit family and had a great time. Seattle is always a fun place to visit. I also went to my first ever baby shower there, so that was interesting. From there, I dropped my mom off to the airport and then headed back to Corvallis to kind of begin my life in this new and interesting little microcosm of life that some would call a college town. It is very bizarre and I'll post more about findings here soon enough but since this post has been a long time coming, I figured I would put it up now anyways.

Ciao for now,
Sarah

Back from Brazil and in....

Howe, Indiana. In other words, the middle of no where. My mom and I just completed about 9 hours of driving on Day 1 of our road trip out west. We just went to dinner at this Greekish type restaurant with tons of Amish people eating there. We spent the whole day driving and I'm getting really good at this whole manual thing!!

I spent yesterday packing after my great trip to Brazil, which I will now briefly summarize. First, Lauren and I arrived in Rio and safely found ourselves at our hostel on Ipanema Beach. I woke up the next morning to Lindsey waking me up and we had our roomie reunion. We spent a few days in Rio going to soccer games, dancing in Lapa, walking around and running. The weather wasn't so great though so we headed to Minas Gerais (the place where Lindsey was doing research) a day earlier. We took an overnight bus to Ouro Preto, which is a goreous mountain town with amazing portuguese architecture. We toured a gold mine and spent the day just wandering around and shopping for gemstones. It was definitely cool. The next day, we took a bus to Vicosa, where Lindsey went to school and met her friend Louisa and her family. It was our first real experience with being around a lot of very friendly Portuguese speakers. We ended up spending quite a bit of time doing this so it was a good little break-in session. They were so nice to us and fed us really great cake before we took another over night bus to Itatiba, Sao Paolo, where Lindsey is living with her boyfriend, Adalto's family.

It was really great getting to meet Adalto. It was fun staying with his family even though it was a little overwhelming with all of the people speaking a language that Lauren and I didn't really understand. I got to spend my birthday with my best friends and it was a definite up-grade from last year. I also got cake and happy birthday sang to me about 10 times in Portuguese and English. My birthday happened to be a night of Adalto and his brother's show so I'm showing a video of that. We spent most of the week visiting and seeing what Lindsey's life is like. Definitely, different from anything that Lauren and I are used to here. But Adalto is great and Lindsey is happy!! We just hope that Adalto and his brother can become famous singers so that she can spend more time in the US!!



Lauren and I left Itatiba 2 days before leaving Brazil so that we could see the Christo in the Sun and spend a day or 2 at the beach. We took another lovely overnight bus during which we did not sleep. (Lauren and I are way too short for these special seats so we spent a lot of time being thrown forward every few minutes). We spent the first day at the beach and relaxing. We both got pretty burnt, Lauren more than I and I went running all along Copacabana beach. The next day we did this awesome hike up to the Christo in Rio. Everyone kept telling us that we couldn't do it without a guide, but we did. Of course, when we got to the to the top we were disgustingly sweating and then we were told that we had to take a bus back down to buy tickets. it was pretty funny but totally worth it. That day we did a little more beach and then got ready to head home. We slept in the airport and began our journey home.

So that's a nice little summary. Overall the trip was awesome! It was so great to be with Lindsey and Lauren again. It was amazing to see Lindsey's life down there. And everyone we met was so welcoming and warm. Plus, we got the opportunity to practice out Portuguese at dinner and by watching the Olympics!!

Ciao ciao,
Sarah

Bastille Day!

Well, I'm back but I have some catching up to do about my last days/weeks in France. It was pretty crazy but fun too. The weekend before I left was a whirl of cleaning and packing, meals with everyone I know in France and even more drinking then usual.

On Thurdsay and Friday before I left, I went into the field. I had to fight a bunch of plants and take samples in the rain. I saw Carole and her husband Chris and then I headed back to Dijon on Friday night. I spent most of Saturday freaking out about all of my stuff and filtering samples. It was a pretty nice day and I made sure to go on one more run with Katie before I left for the States and she left for internship. On Sunday, Carmela and her family had me over for lunch along with their family friend, Phillipe and his two kids. It was cool because these are people who have been so nice to me since I have arrived and they all speak both English and French so they have been extra amazing when I've really needed help. I also gave Carmela's daughter, who is obsessed with the movie "Sweenie Todd", a t-shirt and hat that Maresa got for free from work. Now, I think I will always be a good memory for her. We spent the rest of the day wandering around their village and relaxing in Carmela's house. That night, we returned to Dijon and I gave away a bunch of my furniture to all of the kids. It felt good to finally get rid of some things. I should have started giving away/selling things sooner but I guess it is just in my nature to do things last minute. I had dinner at my friend Corinne's and then hung out with friends for the rest of the night.

For Bastille Day or the 14th juillet we had a big picnic at the "fontain de jouvence" (I think that is how you spell it). It's a really cool park right outside of Dijon. It was kind of like my going away party/Bastille Day celebration. Most of my friends from the University came and it was a beautiful and really fun day. I spent the rest of that day working and then sorting out my apartment. My friend Aurelie came over and helped me soooo much. It was incredible. She just made me put everything in a box and like that, my apartment was being prepared for actually leaving.



After Bastille Day, I really had only 2 days to move out and head home. It was definitely a whirlwind and I don't even remember half of it. I can say that saying goodbye to everyone was hard and that I hope that I'll be seeing most people pretty soon. I got a really nice Burgundian cookbook with a little message from all of my friends at the University in it! It was a crazy few week following a crazy few months and an amazing year! I can't believe that last year is over; I think I'm still in shock. But I'm sure the years to come will be just as interesting, but never compare to my year in France.

Back in the USA!!!

Yes, I'm back.  And even though the blog address is "sarahindijon" I will continue my blog and not change the address because that is too difficult.  Yesterday afternoon, I arrived safe and sound to the most welcoming place in the US, JFK airport.  After a relatively nice Luthfansa flight and 4 movies, I arrived in the US.  It is still a little bizarre being home.  I think I'm in shock, but it is nice to be here and catch up on my missed TV.   I'm still exhausted from the moving/traveling.  It is very difficult to move from a foreign country and I learned that it is better to try and sell your belongings earlier than a few days before you leave.  I worked until the day before I left Dijon.  Then, I left my apartment and I spent the last night in France in Paris and flew out that morning.  

On Friday, I got home.  We were called like 10 minutes after we walked in the door to be told that this super cute new car that my mom reserved for me was at the dealership and I had to go and organize those things.  I am officially picking up my new car on Tuesday and it is so weird.  I'm like a real adult!!!  Since I returned in Binghamton, I hung out with my friend Lily and went swimming.  Then I finally saw my sister yesterday evening and had a nice dinner with my family and my half-sister Josey.  I've been mostly relaxing and enjoying time here.  

Overall, it is weird and nice to be home at the same time.  I miss everyone in France but have missed people here as well.  There are so many SUVs and American flags in the US, which is weird.  It really is a different world, but it's home so I'm trying to take it in and enjoy while I can.  

Ciao for now!

To Germany and back...

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to post but I've been busy traveling, working and then preparing for out grand 4th of July party that my American friend Katie and I hosted. It was really her to had the idea but because she had exams until 3 pm on the 4th, it was me who was put in charge of a lot of things. Which we all know can be a bad idea. But the party turned out great and I've had a relaxing weekend. Although, trying to pack up all of my belongings is not fun.

I got back from an amazing trip to Deutschland (aka Germany) to visit two friends. I had an amazing time and I really felt like I was on vacation, and those of you who know me know that doesn't happen very often. First, I visited Paris for a day and had a nice little lunch with people from the Franco-American/Fulbright Commission and stayed with Chris that night. The next morning, I flew out to Munich and had a really fun time walking around aimlessly and viewing all of the sites. It was weird being in a country where I didn't speak the language at all (like nothing except for "thank you') but I ended up being helped my some really cool people and I found this really cool biergarten (yes a beer-garden) in this beautiful park in English gardens. And as an extra bonus, they were having a special musical performance that day and I met this Swiss women who lived in Minas Gerais, Brazil (the place where Lindsey is studying) for 18 years. It was really fun. That evening, I took the train to Rosenheim, this German city at the base of the Austrian Alps to stay with my friend Connie. Rosenheim is very Bavarian and she took me to a small village for the evening that was straight out fo the sound of music. It was beautiful.


The next day, we went to Munich again with Connie's friend Roxy and spent the day wandering around and visiting the Olympic Village there. It was really fun and nice to see. We saw this really cool standing wave that is a part of the river in the park where there are these crazy surfers and tons of spectators. We ate really great food, I almost had a Burrito!! And had a great day. On Sunday, I left Rosenheim for Mainz. But first, Connie and I did a tour of Rosenheim and saw all of the preparations for the Germany vs. Spain European World Cup Finals. In Mainz, I had a little tour of the city from Bettina and then went to straight to watch the Soccer game. Unfortunately, Germany lost but the Germans had plenty of spirit and were yelling (according to Bettina) things like "it's ok, we played well" in the streets after the game ended.

On Monday, Bettina went to school and I went running and exploring. For the afternoon, we went biking along the Rhine into wine country. ( I was forced to rent since I was too short for her mom's bike). We went swimming in the Rhine on the way back, which was first for both Bettina and I!! It was so fun. That evening, I saw the Sex and the City movie in German which was quite funny and wierd. And on Tuesday, we spent the day in Heidelberg. It has this beautiful old castle that is half in ruins and half still in tact. It is also the site of "The Philosophers' Path" because it is this huge and famous University town that has been made famous by many German academics, especially philosophers. Heidelberg is also located next to some pretty big American military bases and the American presence there was really palpable, which was kind of nice. We spent the whole day wandering around, hiking the philosophers path and then we went paddling on the Neckar which is a tributary of the Rhine. It was an awesome day!!!





The next day, I headed back to Dijon on a quite long and circuitous route due to train problems. I spent more than 13 hours on a trains and was on a total of 7 trains but thanks to a very kind and interesting train companion (who spoke fluent French and German) I made it back to Dijon the same night. I'll try to post more (and include photos) of the rest of my week including the 4th of July celebration.

I hope everyone is doing well and Happy 4th!!!!!

Ciao,
Sarah

European Family Reunion- Part 2

So I'm sorry that it has taken me quite a while to get to part 2 of this post but life has been a little crazy. Plus, it is really hard to write about a family reunion in Italy and all of our daily adventures.

So where did I leave off, slowly everyone started arriving at our pretty cool villa, a.k.a. Podere Macchione. First, the Philadelphia crew arrived, then Heidi, Donald, Rachel and Paulina (their Finnish exchange student from a few years ago, she's the blond in the pictures). It was getting kind of late after all of the hugs and excitement and we had to buy groceries (since the next day was Sunday and then Monday was a holiday and we were in the middle of nowhere Italy). The grocery shopping was an interesting experience in itself since everyone was confused and then we got in line to realize they don't except credit cards and no one had enough cash. I used my "Fritalian" to figure out where bank machines were and we finally got food, but not without a struggle.

When we finally returned, Steph, Grady and baby Phoebe were there and everyone was sitting around drinking wine. It was so exciting to see the new baby and she was really a highlight of the trip. So our group was finally complete and we did a potluck type dinner for the first night and enjoyed our villa. It was really the only full day of sun so it was a good thing we relaxed a little. (The picture up and to the right is a view of the Lago Montepulciano) from our Villa during sunset). All of the people just arriving in Europe were pretty crazy from the jet lag and excitement of finally have our family reunion in Italy and we went to bed pretty early. Which, contrary to the Strano/Ferrraro family tradition, became the norm for this trip. I think it was a result of the constant exhaustion caused by visiting too much of Italy too quickly.

We started slowly by waking up late the next day and going to a local town built on Etruscan ruins and kind of just exploring. We ate a "fabulous", in Heidi's words, dinner and went to bed pretty early. The next day started the craziness....

My immediate family had to go to Roma to drop my grandma off at the airport so most everyone else joined in and Maresa, Paulina, Rachel and I were relegated to taking the train. The day consisted of visiting the train station for about 3 hours while waiting for everyone who drove and seeing the Colosseum. Below is a video from our trip there. It was pretty cool because although I've been to the Colosseum before, I've never gone in because it was too expensive for my budget. But thanks to my lovely mom, I finally got to see it and it really is pretty spectacular. The tourists take something away from it though.


The next day we hung out and went to the town of Montepeluciano which would have been lovely if it weren't for the fact that it rained (a lot) the whole day. However, that night we had an incredible dinner in this little Osteria just a 2 km from our villa. It was all made of fish from the lake and it was pretty incredible. The next 2 days we did Sienna and Florence. So that was kind of a whirlwind. Both were pretty crowded with tourists but it only rained for part of both days, so that was nice. We saw the Duomo in both places and agreed that the Duomo in Sienna is more beautiful but it was cool to climb to the top of the Duomo is Florence. To the right you can see Maresa, Rachel, Paulina and I at the top. It was raining at the time but it was still pretty nice. We also saw the Synagogue and got quite a riveting recount of its history (more interesting then the one I heard 2 years-ago). We didn't end up going into the museums, something for which I was very thankful.

We got back and made a pretty big dinner that night. And decided that the next day, our last day we would take it easy and explore the "city" closest to us, Casteglione del lago, right on Lago Tresimeno. It was my favorite day there because it was super relaxing and the lake was so beautiful. And it was a real lake!!! It was a wonderful change from the gross ponds that I've been dealing with all year. It was a beautiful sunny day and my father had magically recovered from the "illness" that kept him from coming to Sienna and Florence with us. The last night, we all made a big dinner and enjoyed our last night dinner with lots of wine and 5 lbs of pasta, which my father wanted to send home with me in a plastic shopping bag. The next day we packed up and parted our separate ways.

All together, the trip was quite comical and definitely a landmark for our family. I hope that we get to do it again soon!!!! This blog entry really doesn't describe it as well as I wish it could but I hope you enjoyed anyways.

A dopo!

European Family Reunion- Part 1

So my parents and sister left yesterday morning. Of course, it happened to be a day when the SNCF employees were striking and their train to the airport was canceled. Needless to say, they are safe and sound in the US and I miss them. But we had a great vacation together and I will see them relatively soon, so I can't complain too much.

I won't be able to recapture the magic of the full 2 weeks but that probably doesn't matter anyway since the majority of people who read my blog were there. For those of you who missed out on the wonderful adventure...

It all began on a crazy Monday morning, when Maresa and I left Dijon, forgetting all of the paperwork we needed and haphazardly met up with my Mom, Dad and Grandma outside the apartment we were renting in the Marais, the Jewish and new hip neighborhood of Paris. We spent the first day allowing the 3 travelers to recover from jet lag and explored Paris a little. That night, Maresa, Mom, Dad and I took a walk to Notre Dame (where my dad was in complete awe over the flying buttresses and the stone work on the streets) and then we ended up walking all the way to the Louvre. For those of you who don't know, nothing compares to seeing the amazing sites of Paris lit up at night without too many tourists around. The next day, we went to Roland Garros (the French Open). It rained the whole day and we only saw one match. But it was pretty cool being there. Maresa, my Dad and I were soaked afterwards because we were lacking raincoats and umbrellas. That night, all 5 of us did another tour of Notre Dame (the outside) at night and it started to pour down buckets of rain again. My parents 2 weeks in Europe were quite wet. You'll notice the trend.

The last day in Paris, my Mom, Mima, Maresa and I saw "Sex and the City" in English, which was silly but highly entertaining. Then I had to head back to Dijon to finish this big final report I was forced to write before we went to Italy. Consequently, Maresa was left to lead the pack to Montmartre and the Latin Quarter. As well as, an apparently difficult journey from Paris to the place where they were staying in Dijon. I worked on my report until we had to dinner together in Dijon that night and then we prepared for our road trip to Italy!

The next morning, my dad and I picked up our rental car and all 5 of us left for our 1100 km journey to Italy. We stopped by Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman as everyone in Europe calls it) on the way, drove through the Alps and then stopped for the night in this amazingly beautiful little town called Santa Marguerita. It is just east of Genoa on the Italian Riviera and it is gorgeous. Apparently, it resembles the town my grandma was born in and we can see why moving to Brooklyn must have been a little disappointing; the beaches just don't compare. It was great to finally be in Italy with my family and really cool to be there with Mima. It was amazing hearing her speak Italian; it was the first time ever. When we were calling hotels from the road, we just kind of thrust my cell phone to her ear when it started ringing and she started speaking, like magic. It was also one of the first times I really heard her talk very concretely about her childhood. And we learned things, such as, when she left Italy, she departed from Genoa!!!

On our way back to the autostrada we got hit by a motorcycle, so that added a little bit of adventure to the already crazy Italian driving scene. The best part was that the motorcyclist was not hurt and seemed completely un-phased by the fact that if my dad hadn't swerved, he probably would have died. I guess that is Italy though. Maresa did not enjoy this part though, as she has her extreme fear of other moving vehicles on the road.

From the beautiful coast, we began the rest of our journey down toward our villa in Umbria (really the boarder of Tuscany and Umbria). We were all a little skeptical of the place since it cost so little and when we finally arrived at the "road with no pavements" that our villa was on we just assumed that the first dilapidated house we saw was the villa. We decided to keep driving and after Maresa and I scouted out the area, we found a 3rd house and our villa. It was so perfect for our family and our price range!! The landlord, Giovanni, was really nice and he gave us two bottles of wine to welcome us to Italian wine country. After he left, we only had a few minutes to wait until the rest of our party arrived....

Keep checking my blog for Part 2 of this long entry!!

Ciao for now!