Amalfi Coast weekend trip.

So it's been a while since my last post and you would probably figure that I could start it off by saying how I've settled into somewhat of a daily routine and in many ways, I have. Tues and Thurs, classes from 10:30 till 1-ish, break, then class at 5:15, Mon and Wed, just class at 5:15, but studying/doing hw rest of the day. So I guess in a very basic sense of the phrase, I do have somewhat of a routine down, but it still seems as if each day is so incredibly different from the previous and I'm absolutely learning/experiencing new things daily. I mentioned that I have class till "1-ish" the "ish" requires as much emphasis as possible. There seems to be a very loose sense of time/urgency here, class may start at the assigned time, then again it may start 20 minutes later. Same deal with ending class. Classes do seem to be going well- Italian 101/102 is really making me bust my but to keep up, but I love it. There's a huge focus on speaking instead of writing which is so much more useful living here. The other two, Intl'l organizations and Public Int'l Law are both very similar, which helps a great deal. We'll be discussing a certain section in the UN Charter in my first class, then tackle the same text in the second class, but focusing on a different aspect which in turn helps me to understand the first aspect all the more. So far, besides an incredible amount of sometimes pretty tough reading, classes have been going well. We were told this past week about a field trip our Int'l Organizations class is making in October- to France. We're heading out for two nights to Strasbourg so we can visit departments of the UN and EU (I believe). Sure beats the pants off visiting the Flume in the 4th grade!

So two of the guys in my apartment and I left with four girls from another apartment for the Amalfi Coast this weekend- what an amazing trip. (Pictures are online at http://www3.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1407330010/a=1873689010_1873689010/)
We left bright and early (left to get a bus at 5am) Friday morning and arrived in Amalfi (about 2 hours south of Napoli) around 1pm. You can google map the drive and see that it's mostly on these hairpin turn, narrow roads along cliffs, for at least 2 hours. I was reminded just how much I am a fan of Dramamine. I forgot to take it on the way there (what a miserable ride that was), but remembered to on the way back and absolutely loved it. So without seeing the pictures, of Amalfi and still get a decent mental image, think Jurassic Park style islands (cliffs rising out of the sea) with everything from castle remnants, to magnificent villas, to lofty hotels dotting the edges, interspersed with churches all over. Including one church, dedicated to the disciple Andrew, where his remains are kept. We were able to stand in on part of a mass that was taking place there one evening- couldn't understand much of it, but still a fun experience. We stayed in a hostel right on the water, it was our first experience in a hostel, so we had no idea what to expect, but all in all we would do it again no problem. There were just the three of us in a room just large enough to fit three beds (two bunked), the bathrooms were down the hall which had a toilet, sink, and shower all in the same sq. meter room. Always making memories. We spent our days walking around Amalfi and Atrani, then half of one day we took the ferry out to Capri, a gorgeous island off the coast. When we were tired from walking, we'd stop at the nearest beach (all pebble beaches), and lie out/swim. The water was... unbelievable. It was warm as bath water and with goggles, you could see for easy 50 feet, no problem. And the fish! All different colors, all different sizes and shapes, and utterly fearless. a school would just swim with you underwater, sometimes completely encircling you. We were kicking ourselves for not having an underwater camera! Sunday before out bus ride home, we spent the day on a close beach, then started swimming along the coast finding various rocks/cliffs to jump off, definite adrenaline, but so much fun. The strangest part was that we would swim before we jumped of course, so we knew that where we were going to jump into was well over 30 feet deep, but from a 20 ft. cliff looking down: A) It feels like 50 feet. B) You can see perfectly all the way to the rocks at the bottom, so it looks like it's only 6 feet deep. But we're all still alive, just got our feet pretty cut up from climbing on rocks/barnacles. I haven't yet gone through and put in captions, but I will soon- as well as doing the same on the pictures already up on facebook.

On a small side note, a week or so ago, while heading to the grocery store we saw an American get pick-pocketed by one of the locals, the American took off running after the guy, hollering all the while. One of the guys was with me and we were very close to helping out the guy by joining the chase (which is somewhat common around town), but we didn't actually see the guy steal his wallet, all we heard was the American hollering accusations and the local looking very guilty indeed- so we figured it was safer to hang back and let them sort it out in case he either just misplaced his wallet and was falsely accusing, or in case he was leading the American back to his alley where we would all have been jumped and stabbed. Safer just to go to the grocery stores. But we all promised each other that had it been one of our wallets, the rest would pursue as long/far as necessary.

Time too make lunch and head off to a housing work-shop, loads of fun that will be! Then working on apps. I really sometimes would rather be in class than have most of the day off and actually have to be productive on my own... oh well.

Ciao