Ramil Blog

So yesterday, Julia and I decided that 5 days in Budapest was one day too many, so we took a day trip to Vienna. The second we got off the metro in the center of Vienna at the Hofburg Palace, we were stunned. Out of all the city centers, old towns, and castles that we've been to, Vienna was hands-down the most impressive. There are so many huge, beautiful, old buildings everywhere you turn.

After we walked around the Hofburg for a while, we headed over to the Belvedere museum (which was quite a walk, especially because of the rain). But it was worth it. It was such a sweet museum, and a very refreshing change of pace from the 24/7-Madonna-col-bambino Renaissance art of Florence.

Then, we did some Jewish things because Julia wanted to. That was O.K. Then we saw St. Stephen's cathedral because it's actually a major attraction. That was better. After, we went to Aida, because you're apparently required to visit one of Vienna's coffee shops while there. It was charming, but it wasn't like the coffee shops I had grown accustomed to in Amsterdam. Aside from the obvious difference, we found another difference between Amsterdam and Vienna coffee shops: it is not yet socially acceptable in Vienna to play with dirty cards at the restaurant.

When we finished our coffee and cards, we headed over to the Schonbrun, the summer palace of the Hapsburg family - now a city park. It was this huge park complex with museums, gardens, great views, and even a labyrinth. It's size and grandeur reminded me of Versailles, but it's park atmosphere made me think more of Bobili Gardens. Schonbrun was a cool way to end our day in Vienna, and now we're back in Budapest for 2 more days. I can't believe that I'll be home in only a few more days...

Right now, Julia and I are in Prague. We've been here for 3 days now, and we're getting ready to move on to the next city this afternoon. But we had a pretty good time in Prague. Everything's really cheap, Julie got to speak Russian, and the weather is AWESOME.

Actually, the weather is terrible -- its always raining in Prague. And we had some other problems during our stay here. First, coming into Prague was a 15 hour bus ride. And then on our second day here, we got fined 700Kc (like 30E) for not paying for the metro.

But after our major bumps in the road, things started getting better. We met a lot of cool people, experienced the night life, and did a lot of cultural stuff. We went to a concert for Prague Spring, visited a couple of castles, went to some museums and tours, and got really cool matching sweatshirts. We are also writing and filming a fictional movie.

Ok, next stop on Europoloza: Budapest.

So, today marks the official start of Europoloza 2008! Julia and I arrived at our first stop, Amsterdam, this morning at 8:30, and we just got to our hostel like an hour ago. I really like our hostel: The Lucky Lake House. As the name suggests, it's right on a beautiful lake, and the hostel is full of all these cool, backpacking hippies. There's all of this really cool hippie art everywhere, and it's right by a lake. How cool is that? Wait, I'll show you how cool it is in these pictures:

Right now we're going into town to see the Van Gogh Museum and the Heineken Factory. Updates are soon to come...

Well, the day is finally here: the final day in Florence. NYU kicks me out of my apartment at 12:00, so like a smart person I booked my flight for 20:00 (that's 8:00 PM in this crazy side of the world). My stuff is all packed up, and everything looks so empty now!

I apologize profusely for using this cliche, but it really does feel like yesterday that I just moved in and met all my new roommates and started school. The semester went by so fast, but I'm pretty sure that I don't have any regrets about my stay in Florence. I'm taking the opportunity now to travel, I really did learn a lot despite the obvious distractions, and I picked up some Italian along the way. And I feel like I've grown up a lot over here, too. I've made - and unmade - some very important relationships while I've been abroad, and I think I'll carry them with me for a long time.

I'm going to miss all of Florence's old, stinky art, the ridiculous Italian clothes and hair, all of my Italian teachers, and the relaxed (although very inefficient) Italian atmosphere, but what I will miss most about this experience are the friends I made here. We all got so close so fast; it really did feel like we had known each other for years in only a semester. It even got to the point where we got sick of each other's company. I know we would always complain about how every weekend, we would just sit around, play games, and listen to music in our apartment, but honestly, those are my best memories of Florence.

Looking back, when I remember Florence, I'm not going to think about the trips I took, or the classes I was in, but about the havoc the was wrecked on Mexican night. Or the times we spent hula-hooping under the Duomo. Or our game nights with Hide-and-go-seek, Jenkins, and Charades. Or walking back home together at 4:00 in the morning. Or the countless times we listened to M.I.A.

I know we'll all hang out in New York, but it won't be the same. We'll have to go back to our real lives, and worry about jobs and school. We'll have all of our other real friends to hang out with, and our friends from Wake Forest and UMiami won't be there. But I guess that's all part of the experience, right? You have make friends before you can miss them. I really hope that we can all stay in each other's lives because you all mean so much to me. I had a great time in Florence with all my friends, and I will remember this experience because of you guys.

Bad news: no video this post, just melancholy ramblings. Maybe it's because I've finally gotten around to studying for finals, or maybe it's because our wireless internet works and I have too much access to the internet now, but I'm compelled to express how sad I will be to end my Italian sojourn.

I had a really good weekend, and I'm realizing now that things just won't be the same in America. Let me lay it out for you. Wednesday: night on the town with my friends, bouncing around from place to place. Okay, that will probably happen in New York. Thursday: BBQ party, then a bar with friends, both American and Italian, and then spaghetti party, again with American and Italian company. The American friends can be imitated, but definitely the Italians. Friday: Sports day at school, and then I went to Central Park. No, not the enormous midtown NYC park, but the swanky Florentine club. I won't be going somewhere like that for at least a year, and even then, it probably be won't be as interesting because I'll be able to understand what people are saying to me. Saturday: Viareggio(see previous post), then BBQ at our Italian friend's grandmother's house. Now that's definitely not something that can't happen again. And above all, when will my weekend ever again begin on a Wednesday?

I know that going back to America will be really cool, and I've thought for a long time that it's all I want to do, especially because I'll finally get to see my family again. But now that the light at the end of the tunnel is so close, I'm not so sure that this is actually what I want. I've made so many friends here that I can't take back with me, and I know that I'll be able to deal with not being around them, but I would just rather not have to. I guess that's life though. And I predict that there will probably be another one of these posts when inevitable day is here.

So, this last Monday, I was in a concert over here for school. It was a nice, ecclectic show. First, my chamber group performed, then the two jazz ensembles, and then some the faculty performed. I was impressed at how quickly our director, Antonio Vanni, had assembled everything. I was also impressed at the quality of all the performances. All the groups were great, and it really was a privilege to share the stage with so many talented musicians.

I think my group's performance went well, except my battery ran out midway through, so the only footage I managed to get was the first piece, Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle) by Villa-Lobos. Check it out:

This weekend, I went with all the men I know to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a popular Tuscan tourist and hiking destination because it is both very scenic and quite rugged. As you may have guessed, there are five towns that belong to Cinque Terre, but they're all pretty much the same. I don't even remember any of their names, but they're all very beautiful. You have to hike to get to each one, and the entire path is made of cliffs along the water.

The first two hikes were extremely easy, but the last two were really hard. Most of the way is pretty well paved thanks Cinque Terre's popularity with tourists, but some parts were pretty difficult. The beach at the end was a welcome reward. Along the way, there was some delicious lemonade, singing, lots of Americans, and a nude beach - I am told. Here's "Ramil Goes to Cinque Terre":

This Sunday, a few of my friends and I visited the lovely Tuscan beach town of Viareggio. Viareggio is probably most popular for its celebrations for Carnivale (which is like Italian Mardi Gras), but it's also a quite beautiful beach.

It was cool to be able to go to the beach and just relax on the sand, especially since the weather in Florence has been so crappy. And we picked a pretty good day to go to the beach too, because it was sunny, warm, and not crowded at all.

We played beach games, took a dip in the ocean, got very sandy, and watched a lot of beach football. Italians can never get enough football. Here's a video I made of the day's adventures. I apologize for the crudeness of "Ramil Goes to Viareggio, Sings:"

During this past semester, I have been involved in a bunch of community service with Vivere il Volontariato at NYU in Florence. In addition to teaching English at a school, my roommates and I have been raising money and awareness for Dynamo Camp (pronounced DEE-nah-moh). "Dynamo Camp is the first summer camp in Italy to be structured specifically for children with serious or chronic illnesses who are currently in therapy or in post-hospitalization convalescence." Dynamo Camp, a Hole in the Wall Camp, is a Paul Newman initiative, and he started it here because, while we have organizations like Make-A-Wish in America, Italy offers no camp-like programs for seriously and terminally ill children.

So, to get people donating to and talking about Dynamo Camp, we did two things: 1) We had bake sales and 2) we held a talent show. Both of the things worked really well, and I think we accomplished our goals. We raised quite a bit of money, and everyone on campus now knows about Dynamo Camp.

In the end, everything turned out amazing, but for a time, things weren't so great. Most of us in Vivere il Volontariato had little experience with fund raisers, and even less with event planning. It was really hard to make the bake sales profitable, especially with a couple different factors working against our favor. And we really thought that the Talent Show was going to turn into a flop. The lowest point was definitely the week before the show, and maybe three people had bought tickets to the show. After working for months deciding on logistics, organizing talent, and having meetings, it looked like all of our hard work would be for nothing.

We knew that we had to change something if we wanted to sell more tickets. So, instead of having bake sales, we began to give away free baked goods. Now it sounds ridiculous, and with the sign

"Free Cookies** (**'Free Cookie' offer only eligible for Talent Show ticket holders)"

Well, it wasn't really an orchestra, but the program called it a "piccolo orchestra." It was more like a large string quartet. But at any rate, tonight, I went to the inaugural concert for the Florence International Music Festival. I found out about it through my friends, Morgan and Cassie, whose host father happens to be the director of a music school and is very involved in the classical music scene in the city.

It was a great concert, and they played two Mozart sonatas, one of which was Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and a Mendelssohn sonata. The musicians were excellent, and the hall sounded amazing. The concert was held in the Palazzo Vecchio, and the concert hall was covered with paintings and sculptures - and it also had great acoustics. The Renaissance art and the classical music made me feel like I traveled back in time, especially because I listen to so much modern music these days.

Tonight's concert made me appreciate Florentine culture a little bit more. After living here for three months, and being bombarded left and right by Renaissance art, I had just about had enough of all of this old art. Despite the obvious beauty of Florence's art, you can only look at so many Madonna with Child's before getting a little sick of it. But tonight in the concert hall, surrounded by these historic sculptures and such fine playing of old pieces, I think I can see why this town wants to hold onto this seemingly prehistoric culture so bad. It's obviously outdated and not fresh, but there's something hypnotic about music and art that is so organized, so true to form - especially at a time when contemporary art is so confusing.

Another good thing about the concert was that it was free. The city of Florence actually funds these types of events. Sure, it comes out of tax-payer dollars, but that just goes to show you that these people are willing to support the arts that they love. Maybe if we did the same thing in America, we would have more people involved in music and art. That's just my two cents.